Topic(s): Moral Issues

An Agape Press story by Mark Creech details a new challenge for some churches: members who win lotteries and then want to donate a portion of their winnings, despite the church’s outspoken opposition to gambling. Creech relates: “Scott Thomas understands this principle well. According to Family News In Focus, he faced a very difficult situation several years ago when a deacon in his church offered a portion of lottery winnings for a building fund. Thomas refused the gift and stood on the principle of Christian separation. ‘I’ve just always believed that God doesn’t need to use chance to build his Church,’ said Thomas. Furthermore, he added that impoverished people largely play lotteries and the church shouldn’t profit on the backs of the poor.

“Despite Thomas’ opposition, however, the church wanted the money and fired him. They accepted the gift and built the building. As a result, attendance has dropped from 165 to fewer than 50 people a week. Thomas says: ‘Several of the members have called me and said, ‘The albatross around our necks is that we are now known as the lottery church.’”

John Piper wrote, “Don’t play the lottery for me. We are followers of Jesus. He had no place to lay His head and did not accept the demonic temptation to jump off the temple for the jackpot of instant recognition. The Calvary road is not paved with Powerball tickets, but with blood. . . . We will not, I pray, salve your conscience by taking one dime of your plunder, or supporting even the thought of your spiritual suicide. Let the widow give her penny and the laborer his wage. And keep your life free from the love of money.”

“And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. “ —Romans 3:8

And a Smile . . .

Topic(s): Humor

Because so many people have heart attacks, the big, high-class casinos are now equipped with sophisticated defibrillators. They are computer-controlled to deliver the precise level of electric shock needed to revive a heart attack victim. That is, if you’re at a high-class casino. At the cheaper casinos downtown, they just drag you across the carpet and touch your finger to the doorknob. (A merry heart doeth good!)

Fighting in the Pews

Topic(s): Children, Father, Mother

I want to see more fighting in the pews.

Have you ever thought about the battles being fought in our pews? If we sleep through the sermon or just let our minds wander, if we pass the time planning lunch or the events of next week, then there are not many battles where we sit. But if we examine ourselves as we listen to a sermon (2 Corinthians 13:5), and measure our conduct by God’s Word (James 1:22–25), there is a battle within us. When we honestly compare our lives to that Word to see if we measure up to what God would have us be, most would honestly admit to falling short (Romans 3:23) and therefore struggling to improve in our efforts to be more like Jesus.

Another kind of fight going on in the pew is the individual with a secret/private sin, who doesn’t want to give up that part of their life and fully obey God’s law. They hope others do not know, and battle their own conscience (Psalm 19:14; 90:8). Although we may not be aware of them, I am sure that there are many such silent fights occurring every week.

There is a more open fight that we can see and hear—the training of our young children. Parents have a tremendous responsibility when those wonderful and beautiful babies began to develop their own personalities (Proverbs 22:6). This is a fight we dare not lose. Busy little hands, minds, and feet. They can now do the things we have spent hours teaching them to do. They talk; they can walk! Now it becomes a power struggle. This is the first step in learning submission. It’s a slow yet powerful process, and it is a fight that sometimes determines the course of their lives, and to some extent, ours.

There was once a young mother with several small children, who sometimes left one son home because of such a struggle. He later died without obeying the gospel. Upon learning of her son’s death, that mother’s cry was, “Oh, what about his soul?”

If children don’t learn to obey their parents, how or when will they learn obedience to God? Will they respect any authority later? Can we afford to let this slide by until they are older? Little ones are cute; they have short attention spans, and they often have to “go potty.” However, we must succeed in teaching them if we want them to develop self-control, respect for authority, and reverent obedience to God. What beautiful people these children become when these qualities are instilled at an age where they become part of the very character of an individual.

Young mothers, don’t grow weary, don’t lose sight of your goal, and don’t give up (Galatians 6:9). It’s well worth the fight. If you don’t do it now while that wonderful bundle of energy is young, when will you do it? When he is six and encounters worldly ways in school? When she is twelve and her acquaintances are smoking or drinking? When they turn sixteen and are tempted to enter into an intimate relationship? Subduing and bringing into obedient subjection is not breaking a child’s spirit but directing it into a path that will serve them well all his/her life.

From outer space to the depths of the ocean floor, and all the wonders between, if we are small-town locals or a world-wide adventurer, regardless of our achievements, simple or great, in the end when all these things are stripped away we will eventually stand “naked” before God to be judged (2 Corinthians5:10). At that time, will it not be for our hearts, our patience, our self-control, our willing submission to His will, and our obedience to His Word—the same things that began being taught in this fight in the pew—that will determine our eternal destiny?

Keep fighting in the pews.

—Jean Ammon

T. S. Eliot: “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”