I have kids ask me if its wrong and when I give the its illegal response, I always get the "well other than that" line from them. And i understand that cause although legality is a big thing they aren't coming to church to be lectured or taught about legality. They are asking a deeper question. "Does the Bible/God say that smoking is wrong?" After some study and some thought and prayer,
These are MY CONCLUSIONS:
God lays down two rules for us. Love him and Love others. Our lives can be spelled out in these two laws. Everything we do as Christians should be tested by these two.
First off like most things the actual action is not wrong (again outside of the legality problem). There are several things that he does say are wrong though. Most important of those, anything that is put as more important than God is wrong. This is where the first law comes into play. God wants everything from us; he wants nothing to be in between us and him. Marijuana use usually causes a person to begin to use more. It may not be in the form of addiction but lets face it the number one use of Marijuana is escape. This then means that we are not running to God but instead to a drug. It becomes what we put our trust in. While this may not happen to all can we really risk our relationship with God over a high? I would hope not but luckily this is not the only reason.
God says that getting drunk is wrong and it is pretty easy to assume that it is because of the loss of control and what can happen. I mean even the Bible shows this. (check out Genesis 19:30-35). Getting high definitely has some of the same effects as being drunk. How often do we here stories of people doing stupid things because they were high. (Granted people do stupid things without being high but that's just people being people). It is easy to see why God would not want this for us. He is all for us having fun but not at the risk of ourselves.
These are my main thoughts on the subject. If you are interested in a more in depth look at this then check out
http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/marijuana.html
Now I know someone is gonna ask "Well what about medical marijuana?" So here is a video of a guy talking about that subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKpjpxmvgO8
*Both of the links listed above are the only things that I am backing. Any other ideas of these sites or people are their own and I do not claim to back those.*
I love your blog. It's real talk :)
ReplyDeleteJeremy; in the old testament the temple was always to be ket pure and clean-in the New Testament Jesus said your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and it should be kept clean as to tobacco, drugs, language,and thoughts. I am along ways from perfect myself. Our temples get dirty sometimes! When we come to know we are doing something God said don't we need to quit. I understand marijuana is very additive! Tobago is as is alcohol. Vince
ReplyDeleteThanks Ryan. I appreciate it a lot.
ReplyDeleteVince I agree 100%. I hope that my post above didn't come across another way. Thanks for the comment though. I love getting feedback
I definately agree with everything that has been said here. I agree that God doesn't want us to put anything before Him, I agree that God doesn't want us to lose control of our mind, and I agree that our bodies are temple to God that should not be kept in filth but kept spic-n-span as if the in-laws were coming. I have had this kind of an argument with other people about it's addictive properties but I do believe that if you truely love and trust God that you can get past that. It does not have to comtrol your life. That is why God wants to be first because He wants to guide your life. He knows exactly where you are and exactly where you need to go. Another idea that came to mind about this was Jeremy's comment about loving God and loving others. The loving God is obvious but loving others is also a very important part. I have friends that drink and do drugs and I hate it. I hate how it changes them and how they seem to be completely oblivious to that fact. I hurts me to see them like that and that is not what loving others is. Even if it is indirectly it still hurts and it is so hard to get them to understand this feeling. I really struggle with this because it is so hard to convey this to someone in denial. Any help would be good :) Love you, Your Sis.
ReplyDeleteSis,
ReplyDeleteBest thing you can do is be there for them and just keep reminding them how much it hurts you (if they are a close friend) and how much you want them to change. Look for ways to bring it up and talk about how if changes them and why they do it. Some truely do it cause they want to and find it fun but often there is a deeper cause. But as always and as you said, Love (and add to that prayer) is the best way to help.