NICOTINE -- MOST DEADLY POISON

Here's a sore point for some people. They need that smoke. And all non-smokers do is complain about it. The tar builds up and prevents the smoker from being able to smell the smoke. It also inhibits taste, which is largely again connected with smell; often forcing the smoker to rely on spicer food for flavoring.

Well we're going to put the uncomfortable smell of smoke aside. We're going to ignore the facts of second hand smoke. We're going to look over the accidental starting of fires in bed, at home, in a forest. Smokey the bear is just going to have to wait. Putting aside the sparks as people toss their cigeratte butss out the windows, and putting aside the tons of garbage generated from these things... we are going to focus on the nicotine. What is it really doing?

Nicotine is possibly the most deadly poison known to man. Millions have died as a result of its malignat influence. By constricting the arteries of the body, nicotine forces the heart to over-exert. Lungs have been fatally affected. Hardly an organ of the body escapes the insidious effect of the fatal nicotine poison.

First is gives a good sensation, and secretly and slowly it poisons your body. Then when you start suffering from the poisonous effects, you can't quit because it has made you addicted to it. And the effects of NOT having it feel horrible. Everything looks like a cigeratte. It is your body's way of reminding you "I WANT IT NOW!" However, it is possible to quit, and regain the senses (taste and smell) that have been slowly robbed from you and dulled overtime that you hardly know they are almost gone.

Is it a sin to use tobacco? There is no sense in denying the patent truth. Anything that defiles the holy body sanctuary is a sin. And no Christian should presumptuously shorten his life by introducing it into his body. Recognizing this and literally asking the Lord to help you deal with it, as strange as that may sound, talking outloud and all, shows your commitment and need to God; and as we've seen God will answer.

Few church members would consider taking even a small, microscopic doses of arsenic or strychnine into their body, yet they take something that is equivalent and just as lethal. Slowly the cigarette tars coat the delicate membranes of the lungs until death results; the not so lucky get cancer. It is exactly the same when men and woman deliberately inhale the toxic fumes of tobacco unil the accumulative side effect causes death. It is suicide on the installment plan.

Most smokers spend $50 or more every month on their indulgence. By retirement time this would amount to $25,000. Enough to guarantee a late-life nest egg, even if Social Security fails. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." [ HOS 4:6 ] Sometimes logic, and even scientific evidence, has a tremendous conflict with appetite, social custom and addiction.

Caffeine is a dramatic example. there is a growing catalog of research which points to caffeine as a pernicious enemy of good health. It is a powerful, habit-forming drug which has fastened millions in a vise of addiction. Many find it just as hard to give up caffeinated drinks as to stop smoking or drinnking. It has been indicted for its adverse effect upon the heart, stomach, nerves and even the fetuses of expectant mothers.

As someone who gave up caffeine (4 or more cokes a day), I can appreciate the struggle those convicted to release themselves from face; however as less and less is introduced to the system, the dependancy fades.