Life, or Something Like It

"We're playing an online cash game with pretend money," a player named Supersonic wrote at a Yahoo poker table this morning. "God, we have no lives."

I commented in reply that I was practicing for a real tournament tonight. We plan to be back at Lil Kim's Cove on Fourth Street (you're invited to join us; game time is 8:30 p.m. ET). But Supersonic was not impressed.

"Go practice at a no-limit game, for real," he wrote.

"Such as?" I replied, looking for recommendations. But he folded his hand and left as I wrote that. Too Supersonic for me.

But let's go back to the comment which started this. Do you have a life? Is poker your life? Or are you looking for a better life?

If poker is the only life you have, I'd like to recommend a better one. It's a new life which comes from accepting Jesus as your Savior.

"As Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father," Romans 6:4 says, "we too may live a new life."

You might be surprised to learn you DON'T have to give up poker to have that new life. There's no verse in the Bible that says card-playing is sin -- poker or otherwise. But God wants you to make Him the primary focus of your life. The reward is eternal life in His Kingdom.

How do you do that? "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins," Peter explained in Acts 2:38. Repent of sin. Then be baptized into the Church of God, symbolizing death to self.

"For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God," Paul wrote in Colossians 3:3. You'll still have a life, but somewhat in disguise.

Play poker in that disguised holy life, and you'll probably get noticed at your table. Not smoking, not overdrinking, not swearing -- that makes a Christian poker player tends to stand out from the crowd. Any comments about God and Jesus simply come at no extra charge.