March 24, 2012 | Leave a comment Today, Saturday March 24, 2012, is the twenty-ninth day of preparing our hearts, souls and minds for the most high of all Christian holy days, Easter Sunday. Today I need to “put off” gambling and “put on” good stewardship. I know more about this subject than I should. Many who read this devotion will automatically discount my opinion because I am a minister, but I ask you to please continue to read and consider my point of view. I spent some time in my late teens and early twenties playing poker, and betting on college and NFL football games. As a child I had a nickel slot machine in my bedroom. I know something about gambling. The appeal for gambling is to gain wealth quickly and with minimum effort. You may be surprised to discover that this desire to gain wealth quickly, is contrary to a proper biblical worldview. 20 A faithful man will abound with blessings, But he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished. Proverbs 28:20 (NASB) A practical reason that you and I need to “put off” gambling and “put on” good stewardship is that the game is rigged! How do I know this, firsthand experience. Were you to bet on ball games and win too often, an unlikely prospect, your bookie will quit taking you bets. If you go to the casino the house will win, much more often than will you, by design, it is their business model. Consider this news story taken from Rebecca Kelley of The People in the News Examiner: A Florida woman’s gambling addiction has landed her in jail for allegedly stealing $500,000 of her in-laws’ life savings to play slot machines. Jennifer Dennison, 42, has been arrested by the Hernando County Sheriff’s detectives, for allegedly stealing from her in-laws to fuel her gambling habit. Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said Dennison is being charged with 16 counts including exploitation of the elderly, forgery of checks, and organized scheme to defraud. Police said it was the thrill of “buzzing slot machines” that led her to steal her in-laws retirement money, drain their bank accounts and cash in their insurance policies. It was when Jennifer’s husbands parents bounced a check when they noticed something wasn’t right which led to the police investigation. “Ms. Dennison was the one who had basically wiped out their accounts to the tune of over $500, 000,” Nienhuis said Dennison was known for hitting the slots at Tampa’s Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, winning a total of nearly $13 million. However police said “she pumped every penny of that back in, plus at least $700,000 more.” Dennison’s husband, Scott, who holds a power of attorney for his parents said he was shocked by the revelation. “I mean I never thought…she’d do that…She just had this one bad habit,” Laverne Dennison said. Dennison who is the mother of four says that just one big win of $27,000 was like a drug. “We were the typical family, the Beaver Cleaver family…then all of the sudden I was going to the casino more and more. You just chase after the losses,” she said. The biblical reason that you and I need to “put off” gambling and “put on” good stewardship is because of the teaching of Jesus about faithfulness which was the subject of yesterday’s devotion. 10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Luke 16:10–13 (ESV) All the money we will ever earn in our lifetimes is the gift of God. Therefore, on judgement day, we will all have to give an account for how we used it. Whenever we gamble we are not being good stewards of the money which God has given us to use. Each dollar wagered would be better spent by giving to the poor, or funding our favorite mission agency. Whenever you or I gamble with what the Lord has given to us we are saying that there is no better use for those dollars than gambling with them. Do you think that God will be easily convinced that you and I have money to burn, and that gambling with those dollars was a better choice of expenditure than giving to ministries who are trying to win the world to Christ or assist the poor? Gambling is not only a selfish use of our money but an unwise use. Below are some other reasons that you and I need to “put off” gambling and “put on” good stewardship: Gambling is irresponsible stewardship. When you gamble you throw God’s resources away at the altar of a god called chance or luck. It’s idolatry. Nothing we have really belongs to us; it belongs to God, and we should use all of it for His glory (Matt. 6:19-20). Gambling violates the biblical work ethic. We are to earn our bread by the sweat of our brows (Gen. 3:19) not from games of chance. Gambling promises to short circuit God’s curse on mankind and promises us that we can gain something for nothing. The desire to gamble proceeds from the sin of covetousness. Gambling – and its accompanying greediness – violates the 10th commandment (Ex. 20:17). It assumes that God has not given us what we ought to have and that wealth will finally make us happy. Gambling exploits others. Gambling exploits people who can least afford to be victims and violates both the “golden rule” and the eighth commandment, You shall not steal (Ex. 20:15). For every winner, there are many more losers – people who have been tricked by marketing and prompted to throw away large sums of money they cannot afford to loose. This exploitation has now become legal, between 1964-94 37 states have legalized lotteries, although it is the most regressive of all possible tax systems. [This point is best illustrated by one of our nations largest state lotteries. The Illinois state lottery spent some of its proceeds to advertise by placing billboards in the poorest sections of Chicago with the motto “Your Ticket Out”until criticism forced them to remove the billboards]. You and I need to “put off” gambling and “put on” good stewardship so we can be better stewards but also better witnesses. While the Bible nowhere says “Thou shalt not gamble” to do so is to violate the principle of biblical stewardship, which you and I, our culture, and our churches desperately need to recover.