If you’ve ever seen pictures of the lungs of people who smoke, an image should come to mind of a shriveled and unhealthy looking organ. Blackened by tar, the lung’s ability to expand and take in life sustaining oxygen is crippled. If a person with these lungs tried to run a mile, they would quickly become short of breath and struggle to complete their goal.
If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life, your spirit is in the same sad shape as a smoker’s diseased lungs. Our spirits were created by God to be in perfect union and fellowship with Him. The spirit does not take in oxygen like the lungs, but it does take in God’s life-giving power. The spirit, that all believers have inside us, is sustained by the perfect love of our Heavenly Father and by the freedom and peace that only a relationship with Jesus Christ can provide.
So what is this new life that God offers?
Born Again
"Unless one is born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5, ESV)
This verse in the Gospel of John describes an exchange between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus belonged to the most prominent religious group in Israel and was a highly respected teacher. He observed all of the laws of cleanliness and piety, yet Jesus told Nicodemus that being physically clean was not sufficient to enter the kingdom of God. Rather, a person 's nature also needs to be cleansed or sanctified by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The
I totally miss the point that when I truly die to self and sin in order to follow Christ, when I make a conscious decision about sin in my life, the Holy Spirit is 'in me.' He is resident in my life and the purpose is so I will have boldness and power to be a witness to Jesus. That JESUS is alive. That JESUS changes lives. That JESUS redeems. That JESUS gives real, full, abundant life here and now, not just in eternity. That JESUS loves so He gives. The Holy Spirit doesn't just 'blow by' every now and then, He lives in every true believer. If I want to 'feel Him', go 'be a witness' of Jesus to someone else! Stop looking for him. He's in you
Irritants work to slow done and irritate the mucus membranes, causing coughs, infections, and chronic bronchitis. The chemicals in tar are behind cilia blockage; the tars in cigarette smoke are deposited and collect on the walls of the respiratory tract and the lungs, causing them to become black as well. The carcinogenic action of tars is responsible for 95% of lung cancers. It takes a minimum of two days after cessation of smoking for the cilia to start functioning properly again, albeit only gradually (Tobacco and Your Health, Composition of
“That kind of spirit comes out only if you use prayer and fasting” Matthew 17:21
“Most assuredly, I say to you,” said Jesus “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”
“With greater intelligence came imagination and the ability to create images in both painting and sculpture”, Carol Strickland discussed in her book “The Annotated Mona Lisa” (2). Over time, people break out and discover additional information and ways to create objects. Objects that is created may become an artifact over time. An artifact is an item created by humans, that usually has cultural and/or historical interest attached to the item. Some artifacts have been discovered, were created decades ago. Throughout the centuries, there have been very meaningful artifacts discovered, that could have helped inform society of the past. Two artifacts, I found interesting were the Lascaux and the Stonehenge. The Lascaux was painting on walls of caves, while the Stonehenge was an astronomical calendar. Since someone has
Later he declared about Jesus, “I baptize with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (1:8)
The effects of cigarette smoking in Pulmonary Edema. First, this discussion will inform readers of cigarette smoking on normal lungs, then how cigarette smoking affects lungs impaired with pulmonary edema. Initially, the smoke inhaled from a cigarette will enter the lungs and travel deep to the alveoli as a person inhales. Alveoli is where gas exchange takes place to oxygenate the blood that is carried throughout the body. Gasses from the inhaled smoke are absorbed into the respiratory tract and toxins and carcinogens are deposited into the alveoli (NCBI, 2010). Since public health officials have informed the public of the negative health effects of prolonged smoking, it is common knowledge that smoking causes cancer, heart disease, and
Gun regulation has been a controversial topic since they were first established as a weapon. People for and against gun regulation provide strong arguments for their side. Gun regulation has fluctuated over time due to changes in office. Being a democracy prevents us from having consistency. As a nation we continue to change regulations on guns because of the different views our democracy allows us to have. The main aspects pose the most problems in gun control are violence, illegal sale of guns, and mental health checks.
The damaged tissues- cilia, mucous membranes, alveoli, and capillaries-are all affected by smoking, but in different ways. The cilia’s purpose is to filter out dust and other particles that flow through the nose. However, the Cilia gets clogged with cigarette toxins -methane, carbon dioxide, and arsenic- and this causes their functions to slow down for hours at a time, making their system much less efficient, as well as the mucous membranes to secrete excessive amounts of mucous, causing symptoms of a cold. The toxins build up a layer of mucus and tar which the cilia are unable to breakdown. Tissues within the mucous membranes increase, so more clogging occurs from smoking. This excess mucous can fester an infection and this overwhelms the
He begins by comparing John the Baptist’s baptism in Luke 3:1 -22 to Jesus baptism of the spirit in Acts 2. He proposes that the baptism of John was symbolic while Christ 's baptism ushered in a new era that would redeem humanity from their living damnation. In other words, John’s baptism was an outward representation of a coming future reality while Jesus’s baptism was the manifestation of that
In John 3 a Pharisee named Nicodemus is talking to Jesus, and is told that all must be born again to see the Kingdom of God. This passage comes only a few verses before Jesus affirms the love of the Father in the well know passage of John 3:16, and after the temple cleansing. In verse 8 Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound,
Not only is the Spirit the outpouring of God's love and the assurance of future glory, but it is also the giver of new life...
nature” of such a person has changed, because they have been “born again” (Jn. 3:3, 16). But
One of common themes in Col, Eph, and Phil is the unity of Christian believers. Paul encourages his audience and preaches that, as Christians, the people are bound in a form of unity that nothing can separate. In Col 3:13-15, Paul states that the believers are bound in love and how this keeps and draws them together. In Eph 2:4-6 Paul declare over the audience their unity through peace and Christ and how this makes them a body of one with the trinity. Paul repeats himself yet again in Phil 2:2 where he further encourages the believers to work together as one for the cause. This was important at the time as many Christians were being persecuted, disagreeing, and had no solid source of encouragement. Another common theme is the emphasis
The large particles in cigarette smoke, commonly known as “tar”, collect in the branching points of the lungs. The tar contains carcinogenic compounds that increase the risk of lung cancer. The small particles in cigarette smoke, including carcinogens, irritants, and corrosive chemicals, collect in the small air sacs in the lungs and damage them. These air sacs are where the blood absorbs oxygen from the air. When the small particles from the cigarette smoke are absorbed into the blood