Not Sure What To Do!

[bender]

Once upon a time I was, well still am a LDS member. I have not been to sacrament meeting in ages. Before I was a member I was a pot head but hadn't smoked in about a year. I am smoking again and something has been telling me to go back. But I like to smoke pot, and really don't want to quit.



This is not a joke, if needed I can give you my member number



Thanks

Bender

[Palerider]

Once upon a time I was, well still am a LDS member. I have not been to sacrament meeting in ages. Before I was a member I was a pot head but hadn't smoked in about a year. I am smoking again and something has been telling me to go back. But I like to smoke pot, and really don't want to quit.



This is not a joke, if needed I can give you my member number



Thanks

Bender
[/b]

why don't you attend anyway.....and while there look around the Chapel and you will see a room full of people that have problems different than the ones you have. We are encouraged to attend church....it doesn't say anywhere that we have to be perfect to attend. Who knows, after attending for awhile you might then have the strength to one day quit. Good Luck to you

[Maedoc]

it doesn't say anywhere that we have to be perfect to attend
[/b]

if fact, it says the less perfect we are te more we need to attend.
"When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

If any one looks down on you for being at church while not doing everything perfectly, they do not understand the teachings of our Savior.

Once upon a time I was, well still am a LDS member. I have not been to sacrament meeting in ages. Before I was a member I was a pot head but hadn't smoked in about a year. I am smoking again and something has been telling me to go back. But I like to smoke pot, and really don't want to quit.



This is not a joke, if needed I can give you my member number



Thanks

Bender
[/b]

Bender,

The thing about those kind of things is that they get in the way of whats really important. For some its pot, for others its different things. Some do it to feel better about life, about a situation or just the comeraderie. One things for sure, that voice to come back is persistant isnt it? Im not mocking you. I was inactive for many years. There I was, my own business, all the money I needed, and awesome condo near a creek and everything else I ever imagined I had. Yet, that voice was there, reminding me how much I didnt actually have. I was missing that connection and purpose with something greater than me. I remember praying about it one evening, going to bed and waking up the next morning to sound of my name being called. I suppose it took something like that for me to finnaly act. You simply have to start - you have to decide to take a step. Me, I went to sacrement, then eventually I stayed longer. I improved one piece at a time. Im still not perfect, and I dont have a wonderful mormon family. But I believe someday I will because someone once promised me that I would. Those tiny steps we take, never really end for any of us. We all strive to change day by day.

Trust me, when I say that you can quit, I truely mean you can.

[prisonchaplain]

I agree that perfection is not required for church attendance. BUT, to engage in something one knows does not please God without repentence or regret...wow...

[a-train]

Just resolve yourself to being the most righteous pothead ever. Imagine yourself at the judgement bar and the LORD says: 'He did so well, he got everything straightened out, he just couldn't kick that weed.' Imagine He then holds out His hand and says: 'Be thou clean.' You would then be healed, your desire no more. You would be cured of your temptations for smoke.

Move forward with faith in prayer, scripture study, tithes and offerings, church attendance, repentance, everything you know you are to be doing. Be honest with yourself and everyone else. The Hand of Healing will be extended before you know it.

I personally went through just that myself. It wasn't pot, but I resolved to change all I could and the LORD changed the rest. Heck, He is still working on me.

-a-train

[prisonchaplain]

A-train's advice is great, with one proviso: There must be an effort towards deliverance from pot. It's one thing to say "Nobody is perfect," and quite another to say it's okay to sin so that grace may abound. Even if you stumble for the rest of your life, the desire to please God should always bring conviction to sin. If one says, "I don't care if it's wrong. I like doing it, and won't give it up." That kind of sin is spiritually deadly, imho.

[a-train]

A-train's advice is great, with one proviso: There must be an effort towards deliverance from pot. It's one thing to say "Nobody is perfect," and quite another to say it's okay to sin so that grace may abound. Even if you stumble for the rest of your life, the desire to please God should always bring conviction to sin. If one says, "I don't care if it's wrong. I like doing it, and won't give it up." That kind of sin is spiritually deadly, imho.[/b]

Your right. In my position, which was similar to our OP giver, I knew what I did was wrong and I think our good man in the OP knows that also. What I have found is that the LORD doesn't want us to just change one thing or a few things. He wants a new creature, we must be reborn. The transformation isn't just putting away some bad habits. The transformation is a total one. There is much to do. Let the work commence in every area in which the LORD is working with you and do not cease working in one area because progress is slow in another. As Paul would say: 'Put on the WHOLE armour of God.'

-a-train

[prisonchaplain]

Atrain, I can say amen to that, then. I took the OP to perhaps be asking if he should go back to church even though he didn't want to (i.e. would not try to) quit smoking pot. He seems to know the question is untoward, because he includes "I'm not joking." It's almost as if he's asking (and I could be totally off in my interpretation) "Can I have it both ways?"

FWIW: I hope your reading is accurate.

[a-train]

You know, Satan has this lie he likes to use all the time. It goes like this: 'You're not worthy...' People say: 'I'm not worthy...'

I recently was asked to call the members of my ward (all of them) and schedule interviews with the Bishop. Upon calling one individual he said: 'Now you know I haven't been to Church in a while, what makes you think you can just call me up and ask me to go to an interview like that?' I replied: 'Because the LORD isn't discriminating in this offer, these interviews are NOT allocated only to certain priviledged individuals, we are all being called upon and neither you nor I can escape the LORD.' He laughed, but wouldn't meet with the Bishop.

Satan gets people to not say prayers because they feel unworthy. People pass on Church, on scripture study, on fasting, on all sorts of blessings the LORD is offering because they feel unworthy. And what does it mean to deny that you are clean? It means you are either unrepentant or the blood of Christ is ineffective. Satan is ever ready to deny the power of the Atonement. 'Give up, you are passed saving, you are too bad.' he says.

The truth is, if he has to say something like that, he is saying it because he wants you to avoid his greatest nightmare, repentance and oneness with God. Satan will ALWAYS tell you that you are unworthy. In his view, you are only worthy to be burned. But the LORD has power to heal and forgive and this power is NOT reserved for a special selected few, but for all who will take it.

No matter how wicked and nasty you've been, don't let Satan convince you that you've lost the game when it is clearly not even half-time yet.

-a-train