Life Among the Beasts

Play poker often enough, and certain combinations of numbers and/or letters become familiar. Some of them can be downright Biblical. One recent example online came when someone took a pot with three 6's:

MadInfluence: 666
Dealer: MadInfluence wins Side Pot 1 ($1280) with Three of a kind, sixes
Dealer: MadInfluence wins Main Pot ($2850) with Three of a kind, sixes
Me: He had a beast
MadInfluence: that was the devils hand
Me: Indeed.
Me: Just keep it off your forehead. :-)
MadInfluence: and when you are hot the devil isnt far
Me: Better to be hot than lukewarm.
Me: So Revelation says.
MadInfluence: lol
MadInfluence: right on

What are we talking about? The answer is in the Biblical book of Revelation, which refers to a prophetic beast....

He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.... it is man's number. His number is 666 -- Revelation 13:16-18

Many have speculated (or even made outright claims) about what this "mark of the beast" might be. We won't list any of them here, so no one accuses us of promoting a pet theory. But from what we can tell, it is not present worldwide yet.

How can you avoid that mark? One key might lie in what we wrote in response to the winning hand. It comes from another section of Revelation....

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm -- neither hot not cold -- I am about to spit you out of my mouth. -- Revelation 3:15-16

Verse 14 shows these words are written to a church, so the "deeds" seem to be spiritual in nature. If those deeds are filled with the Holy Spirit's fire (see Acts 2), they'll be hot in God's behalf.

To borrow from a religious magazine article we read the other day, are you a "lip service" Christian? Or are you truly committed to the cause of Jesus Christ, living the way He lived?

If you're asking God for the Holy Spirit each day to help you live that life, then you might able to have what we mentioned in another online hand recently -- when someone made a $666 bet, and we called it:

Me: Beast of a bet
Dealer: flopblogger wins Main Pot ($7080) with Straight, seven to jack
Me: Power to overcome the beast. :-)