by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n
Satan is never content with trapping a person in a single sin. There is always a possibility of escaping, so he drags a person deeper into sin to make escape look impossible.<\/p>\n
You can see this in your own life. You’ve told me several times that alcohol has never been a problem for you because you just don’t like the taste, yet as you became firmly addicted to marijuana, you turned to drink frequently. There is a simple reason for this: because marijuana is illegal and costly you don’t always have access to it, yet the withdrawal symptoms begin within eight hours of your last use. Thus people turn to “legal” drugs — cigarettes and alcohol — to help handle the withdrawal symptoms until they can get their next hit of marijuana. But these drugs are addicting in their own right, so repeated use makes you addicted to them as well.<\/p>\n
Then there is the problem of how marijuana changes your ability to make judgments.<\/p>\n
“The short term effects of marijuana use include: memory loss, distorted perception, trouble with thinking and problem solving, loss of motor skills, decrease in muscle strength, increased heart rate, and anxiety.” [National Institue of Drug Abuse, Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of Clinical Phamacology, International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Pharmacology Review.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A marijuana user tends to become compliant when stoned. His inhibitions against doing things he knows are wrong or harmful are weakened. Thus, when offered harder drugs, a marijuana user doesn’t think clearly and is willing to take greater risks without considering the consequences. There is also the fact that a sinner, once caught up in sin, is easily persuaded that one more sin isn’t so bad.<\/p>\n
“According to\u00a0CASA<\/a>\u00a0(National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse), a 12-17 year old who drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes even once in the past month is 30 times more likely to use marijuana than one who did not; a child the same age who has used all three drugs in the past months is 17 times more likely to use another harder drug (such as cocaine or heroin). These statistics apply to children who do not already display problem behaviors.” [Lura Seavey,\u00a0Gateway Drugs<\/a>].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived<\/em>” (II Timothy 3:13). Sin, by its very nature is progressive. At the same time, those caught in its trap deny they are trapped and that they are sinking into a worse state. Don’t let Satan fool you, my friend.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSearching for My Friend\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Growing Pains by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Satan is never content with trapping a person in a single sin. There is always a possibility of escaping, so he drags a person deeper into sin to make escape look impossible. You can see this in your own life. You’ve told me several times that alcohol has never…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25976,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65806","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":65781,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/addicted\/","url_meta":{"origin":65806,"position":0},"title":"Addicted","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Addicted I suspect that you don't consider yourself really addicted to marijuana. Most users don't think they are addicted. After all, you are certain you can stop any time you want to. The fact that you never get around to wanting to stop never enters your mind. When you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27266,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/round-in-a-circle\/","url_meta":{"origin":65806,"position":1},"title":"Round in a Circle","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Round in a Circle by Jeffrey W. Hamilton It fascinates me how many of Satan's traps are circles that spiral out of control. People smoke tobacco to calm themselves. But the withdrawal of nicotine is jitteriness and anxiety, so the person rushes back to smoke again to remove the very\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65786,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/avoiding-stress\/","url_meta":{"origin":65806,"position":2},"title":"Avoiding Stress","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Avoiding Stress by Jeffrey W. Hamilton There are simple reasons most people aren't able to leave marijuana alone even when they know it isn't what they want in their life. The discomfort of withdrawal is more than they want to handle. \"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65796,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/anger\/","url_meta":{"origin":65806,"position":3},"title":"Anger (Searching)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Anger by Jeffrey W. Hamilton \"This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25976,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/","url_meta":{"origin":65806,"position":4},"title":"Searching for My Friend","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Searching for My Friend by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Once again I lost a dear young friend to the seductive snare of drugs. It grieves me to the depth of my heart to see a life full of potential and capable of great joy being twisted toward ruin, sadness, and loneliness.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Searching.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":65756,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/with-friends-like-these\/","url_meta":{"origin":65806,"position":5},"title":"With “Friends” Like These …","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"With \"Friends\" Like These ... by Jeffrey W. Hamilton One of the sadder things I keep hearing is about the people you choose to be around. I know why you choose them: they don't remind you that you are destroying yourself with drugs because they are in the process of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65806\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}