Thursday, April 30, 2015

The Everyday Gambler

How often do you play poker?  Once a week?  Twice a week?  Every time the casino doors are open? (As if they ever close?)

We're admittedly so busy these days that poker playing has to wait for weekends - and weekends when we don't have major errands to run.  That's true even with online sites.  The positive side to that, we suppose, is that we save money on buy-ins.

So even if you play poker part-time, you're probably playing more than we do.  But perhaps you're "gambling" in another way, which has nothing to do with casino games.

We heard a radio preacher say the other night if you're resisting a call to become a disciple of Jesus Christ (some would say "giving your life to Christ"), you're a gambler -- and gambling daily.  There's a simple reason for that....
What man can live and not see death, or save himself from the power of the grave? Selah. - Psalm 89:48
The odds of making a royal flush in poker are steep. But the odds of people dying someday are very strong.  Unless Jesus comes back first, they're 100%. Eventually death will "get the checkmark," as they say on TV.  What will happen to you then?

We die only once, and then we are judged. - Hebrews 9:27 (CEV)


That translation is a little misleading - because the Bible talks about a future judgment which could lead to a second death.
Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them.... - Revelation 20:6


Read the rest of chapter 20 to see details of the "white throne judgment" -- and how to avoid it. The key is to have your name written in God's "book of life."
Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. - Malachi 3:16


Some church-goers debate whether or not this scroll and the "book of life" are the same thing. But the key point is to fear God, honoring Him in all you do. Resisting that can be gambling on something bigger than a "belly-buster" royal flush draw. You're gambling with your eternity.

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