Scripture
People who want to be rich fall into all sorts of temptations and traps. They are caught by foolish and harmful desires that drag them down and destroy them. The love of money causes all kinds of trouble. Some people want money so much that they have given up their faith and caused themselves a lot of pain.
~I Timothy 6:9-10, CEV
Quote
Gambling is the child of Avarice, the brother of Iniquity [perversion], and the father of Mischief.
~George Washington
Gambling is always motivated by greed. Pure greed drives all forms of gambling. The desire to get something for nothing is really another name for covetousness. It doesn’t matter what the cause, the end never justifies the means. The argument that it is not wrong to lay a small amount on the table in hopes of winning a large amount if the overhead is donated to a good cause does not hold water. Would be OK for me to open a brothel to raise money for missions? If the ends justify the means, there could be nothing wrong with it but of course the end does not justify the means. What makes a draw down work is greed, not the good cause. It is not rocket science; a little common sense would solve the problem. By the way, God has nothing good to say about greed. If greed were not a factor everyone would simple donate money to the cause and the winner would certainly donate the winnings back, if he or she is in it for the cause. Get real folks, they are in it to win and they are motivated by greed. Some one will will because many others will lose. They will win because their neighbors will lose. So much for loving your neighbor as much as you love your greedy self. Don’t give me this liberal and progressive hog wash about perception being reality and the evolution of morality. Folks, God determines reality and morality and it doesn’t change. It doesn’t matter how intelligence you are or think you are: Wrong is wrong and it has always been wrong. You lack the power to convert a bad thing into a good thing. Now you can take the evil and twist so that it appears good but it still wrong. You cannot make greed a good guy. He has always been a bad guy.I’m not sorry about telling the truth, I am sorry that the truth is not understood. By the way, I’m not trying to win friends or influence people either. I’m not making excuses for anyone, not even my own flesh and blood. If my mother took part in one of these things, I would rebuke her. I know how your rationalize: “There is no verse in the bible that says, ‘THOU SHALT NOT GAMBLE.” It would matter if there was: the bible does say very clearly, “HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER.” If you aren’t going to keep that one, you wouldn’t keep a prohibition to gamble. You do it because you give in to that greedy little person inside you. He is inside us all but the way to defeat him is to give not gamble.
One other thing: MONEY is not your problem and it will not fix your problems. Have all the lotterys helped public education? NO! The problem in education is not money, it is leadership and we don’t have any at the top. It is not the teachers at fault, it is the folks in Washington who have taken God out of the class room and salt out of the lunch room. Money will not fix this problem. It is not the solution to any problem. We keep throwing billion at it and it is worse instead of better.
Yesterday did not start well with me. I was devastated to hear the news about Olivia Alred. My heart and deepest sympathy go out to Jonathan and Emily, Teresa and Tony, Tammy and Danny. It stayed on my mind throughout the day. I am praying for this family but I want to do more. This truly puts me at a loss for words.