Can A Person Be A Smoker & Still Be Saved

[Rico]

Originally Posted by Pastor Poster

Are we now saying it is perfectly acceptable for Christians to smoke marijuana?

And, before you laugh, most people smoke it for *ahem* medicinal purposes.

Sure, if it's being used for its intended purpose, as a natural pain reliever. I don't think anyone would condone its use as a recreational drug, PP.

[LUKE2447]

Originally Posted by Pastor Poster

Again, people have to eat or they will die.

Some people have trouble curbing their lust for food. That is sinful.

Other people simply have genetic predispositions that make them heavier.

Cigarettes, marijuana and crack are not substances necessary to live.

They are developed as mood or mnind-altering drugs. They have led to the destruction of many individuals and their families.

It amazes me that some of you will promote these behaviors as healthy and perfectly normal Christian behaviors.

hmm "lust" nature of the flesh! Sin! Lust after food and the wrong types of food. Nobody HAS to eat pork. It is a choice!

Also I am not agreeing with anything you listed as normal behaviors. My point is defiling the health of the body is bigger than a cigarette! You don't have to eat the vast majority of things you do. Yet most do and get fat lose the ability to move around and poison there bodies. This also goes for the thin person who eats everything yet disregards his health as well.

[COOPER]

Originally Posted by Rico

Ketchup. There's another abomination. It has sugar in it, so it can't be good for the human body. Ban its use entirely!!! I think we should start a list.

I say insulation should be banned.

That stuff makes me sick.

[Rico]

Originally Posted by DividedThigh

you guys better not mess with my steak now, them worth fightin for, lol

Sorry. Them rib eyes are bad for your arteries and have a lot of fat in them, regardless of how good they may be. Conform or risk the fires of HELL!!! lol

[Rico]

Originally Posted by LUKE2447

NO I was just using your phrase as a point but not to you personaly! Sorry if you thought that!

I didn't. That's why I used the laughing smiley.

[COOPER]

Originally Posted by Rico

Sure, if it's being used for its intended purpose, as a natural pain reliever. I don't think anyone would condone its use as a recreational drug, PP.

It sure will not be good for suppressing ones appetite!

[Nahum]

www.kingdomplantae.net/poisonIvy.php - 22k

Medicinally, poison ivy has been used to treat paralysis, arthritis, and certain persistent skin disorders, and also as a sedative. It is still used in homeopathic medicine for arthritis and skin disorders.

Poison ivy fruits are an important food source for a wide variety of birds (who also spread the seeds), and also for other wildlife, including deer. Goats quite like poison ivy and can be an effective means of controlling it. I've heard that drinking the milk from such a goat might desensitize a person, though I haven't seen any evidence to back that up. Studies have been done showing that urushiol is not transferred to the milk, but whether its metabolites are present seems to be unknown.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by BrotherEastman

Wow! Looks like Elder E got under some skin. Well, anyway smoking is a sin as well as gluttony, but the plain truth of it is............................smoking is still a sin. Trying to justify smoking by bringing in gluttony is just a smokescreen that many of us shouldn't fall for. I understand that there are quite a few of you who have had issues with smoking and I thank God that you were delivered. Those of you that were delivered know that smoking is wrong, otherwise, you wouldn't have sought for deliverance and tried to quit because your conscience was eating at you.

Amen. Smoking is still a sin. But just as God doesn't abandon a person struggling with over eating or other addictions...God doesn't abandon the saint of God struggling with smoking.

The issue for me isn't so much that smoking isn't a sin...the issue in my opinion is the belief that somehow smoking is a worse sin than others in that God instantly abandons the addicted believer.

[Nahum]

Originally Posted by Pastor Poster

News and Views


Nature Medicine 7, 155 (2001)
doi:10.1038/84588
Spider venom helps hearts keep their rhythm
Kristine Novak






Although the sight of a large hairy spider is enough to give some people a heart attack, spider venom may eventually be used to treat some heart conditions. In the 4 January issue of Nature, Bodeet al. (Nature, 409, 35−36) report that a peptide isolated from the venom of the spider Grammostola spatulata (picture) inhibits atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation, characterized by disorganized atrial activity, occurs in patients suffering from valve disease, hypertension, and chronic lung disease. It is the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia, and can lead to further complications such as hypotension, pulmonary congestion, strokes and angina pectoris.

The anti-arrhythmic effects of this peptide were discovered serendipitously in a research project that initially had nothing to do with hearts or spiders. Frederick Sachs, senior author on the study, began investigating mechanosensitive ion channels over 15 years ago. In a search for agents that block or activate mechanical sensitivity, his group began screening insect venoms, which are known to contain a variety of neuroactive compounds. "We tried a variety of spider and scorpion venoms in patch clamp experiments, and finally found two that inhibited mechanosensitive ion channel activity," said Sachs. Fractionation of the venom led to the isolation of a peptide from tarantula venom, GxMtx-4, that the authors observed to block the activity of cationic stretch-activated ion channels (SACs) in adult astrocytes and cardiocytes.

SACs convert gradients of stress into gradients of electrical activity, and sustained mechanical gradients can develop when systolic pressure and wall tension are high, conditions that are present in the diseased heart. "It was well-known that cardiac wall stretch increases heart rate, and we knew that these receptors were expressed in heart cells," said Sachs. He teamed up with Frank Bode and Mike Franz at Georgetown University to show that the peptide suppressed both the incidence and duration of atrial fibrillation in rabbit hearts. They also showed that GxMtx-4 acts only during stretch activation, as it has no effect on the action potential of resting atrial cells. "It also seems to have no acute effects on normal hearts in the absence of distension," added Sachs, although further toxicity analysis is required.

This finding of Bode et al. constitutes the first demonstration that SAC activation can generate atrial fibrillation. The authors therefore suggest that GsMtx-4 initiates a new class of anti-arrhythmic agents that could act on the cause, rather than the effects of cardiac arrhythmias.

For Rico

[COOPER]

Originally Posted by Pastor Poster

www.kingdomplantae.net/poisonIvy.php - 22k

Medicinally, poison ivy .

That made my eyes hurt!