The Tar Jar
In my new job I work for Nationwide Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Our primary work is with teens in a smoking cessation program. In our office we have something in the lobby called the Tar Jar.
The Tar Jar is actually a jar of molasses, but the molasses (which is about 1/3 filled) represents the amount of tar that builds up in the lungs of a pack-a-day smoker in a year.
It’s looks pretty nasty when you think (especially when kids really think it’s tar) how much of that chemical (that you drive your car on) you are putting in your body.
I have never smoked and never will – but I know that people do not become smokers until the smoke the first one. They have the thought process that one won’t kill me or one won’t hurt. This also applies to drugs and alcohol.
Sin is much the same way, we dabble in this and dabble in that with the thinking that one little sin is not that bad – but before you know it – you look like the Tar Jar – your spiritual life is filled with a nasty mess of gunk (sin) that quietly took hold in you life and you didn’t even realize it.
We have a program in place that can help a young person stop, or at the very least, cut down, on smoking cigarettes and be healthier in the process. We have been successful with some and not so successful with others.
There is a plan to take care of our sin problem as well and it also has varying degrees of success. Jesus has made it possible for us to have our sins forgiven. He can make our Tar Jar empty.
It’s hard to quit smoking – it’s hard to quit a life of sin, but both are possible and both have great rewards.
To reach heaven, a person needs to hear the gospel of Christ – Romans 10:17, Ephesians 3:4. After hearing, a person needs to believe the gospel – John 8:24, Hebrews 11:1,6, Mark 16:16, Acts 16:31. After hearing and believing, a person must repent from their sins – Luke 13:3,5, Acts 2:38, Acts 17:30, Acts 3:19. Next in the process is confessing Jesus Christ – Romans 10:9-10, Acts 8:37, Matthew 10:32-33, Luke 12:8. Following the good confession is being immersed (baptized) into Christ – Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38; 22:16, Galatians 3:26-27, Romans 6:3-4. One final thing must take place to complete the journey to heaven and that is to remain faithful unto death – Revelation 2:10, Matthew 10:22, I Corinthians 15:58 and Galatians 6:9.
