Sunday, February 2, 2014

Five-Dollar Come-Along

To many people, the invitation probably seemed strange -- a promotion to visit a casino in the heart of America to mark Chinese (or Asian or Lunar) New Year.

Yet that's what Kansas Star Casino sent us a few weeks ago.  A mailing had two coupons.  One was for a Friday late-night Chinese buffet; the other offered a five-dollar lottery ticket.

From our previous trips to Kansas Star, we know there's a corner of the casino which has an Asian-American following.  Table games with an Asian theme such as Pai Gow poker are played there.

But we rejected the buffet out of hand.  It was on God's Sabbath day (which we've explained in recent posts).  And besides, who said the "Lunar New Year" falls at the end of January?
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.  Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household." - Exodus 12:1-3

Read the rest of chapter 12 and you'll find God is describing a Passover event, followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread (verses 17, 27).  Most Jews will tell you this "first month" traditionally does not occur during Winter, but during Spring.

But what about that other coupon?  It was valid from 10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. on Saturday -- but you had to present it at a gaming table.  So we drove to the casino Saturday night, sat down for some Ultimate Texas Hold 'em and did that.

"But wait," you may be saying; "you just quoted from the Bible - yet you went to a casino and played games?!"

Yes, we did -- but we did it carefully.  We didn't take a lot of money.  And we did not take an ATM card to pull out more.  We think this follows Biblical guidance....
Let your moderation be known to all men.  The Lord is at hand. - Philippians 4:5 (KJV)

This verse does not say "abstinence."  It says "moderation."  Just as the Bible shows a little wine is acceptable to drink (I Timothy 5:23) and Jesus turned water into wine (John 2:7-10), we've concluded a little "action" with our money is OK.... as long as it's a little.

So what happened from there?  Stay tuned for our next post.

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