Hope

The Gamble

On a recent trip to Las Vegas to visit some friends, we walked through the casinos. It amazes me every time I’m there to see the commitment that people maintain to their game. I think its more amazing because its my understanding that some of these individuals can remain committed to little else. After all, Las Vegas isn’t exactly known for its reputation of promoting long-term relationships.

Every individual who is sitting at a table (or at a machine as the case may be) is making a wager that through the random distribution of cards (and in poker, their own strategic intelligence) they will be able to win more money than that which they bet. It’s a wager that few win. After all, there’s a reason the buildings in Las Vegas are so big and bright and its not because the house has a tendency to lose. Its a gamble that has caused much destruction as people have wagered their lives to vie for its fulfillment.

There is another wager that’s happening on a regular basis. It’s the gamble that people take when they choose to acknowledge that they know about God and yet they are not sure whether they want to follow Him. Along with countless hours at the table, its a proposition that I don’t completely understand. I believe wholeheartedly that God reveals Himself who those who seek Him, but there are those who, while acknowledging His presence refuse to obey His precepts. The admitted Creator of the world is pursuing a relationship with them, and they are rebuffing His attempts.

The gambling industry in Las Vegas causes the lost of money, of time, of marriages, and at the extreme, of life. With God, the wager is your soul. Is the ability to feel like you’re living life you’re own way really worth that bet?

Continue Reading

Growth

The Lessons of the Cross

One of the great things about being a teacher is that you are not required to come up with any new ideas. Unlike an inventor who must break the mold of conventional thought, a teacher appropriates wisdom for where it can be found and shares it with their audience in a way that hopefully speaks to them where they live. Most of what I write here is not original to me. It’s lessons I’ve learned from others, reformatted to hopefully share the same truth in a different light.

I write all this as a disclaimer because what I’m about to share is the result of listening to someone else. In a recent sermon the pastor of our young adults ministry shared that if you want to learn about Christ, look to the Cross. The Cross is a practical example of every aspect of Christ’s character; His love, His justice, His mercy, and His grace are all on display at the Cross. The pureness of His holiness and its complete incompatibility with our sin is conclusively related on the Cross. Our equality before God as sinners is shown in the fact that one payment was made for all. God’s receptivity to prayer, His completeness forgiveness for those that call Him Lord and Savior, and His abolition of the legal requirements for salvation are all shown through His sacrificial death on the Cross.

And so when we say that our job as Christians is to “take up the Cross” maybe we shouldn’t think of it as just an obligation to bear the burdens of persecution and the perceived inconvenience of living to God’s standards and not our own. Maybe we should see it as a call to display all these attributes of Christ, wherever we go.

Continue Reading