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If you want to do something fun with your money..... Be a big brother or a big sister to someone less fortunate. Carry a basket of groceries to an elderly woman... or knock on her door and offer your time... Help a single mother who is desperately trying to make ends meet... Buy toys for needy kids in your neighborhood! Gather a box of goodies, letters, cards, sunblock and hugs for our boys and girls in the military...... These things will give you a high longer than any scratch off or lottery ticket.. ever could!. And, with a bonus of eternal rewards in heaven!
If you want to do something fun with your money..... Be a big brother or a big sister to someone less fortunate. Carry a basket of groceries to an elderly woman... or knock on her door and offer your time... Help a single mother who is desperately trying to make ends meet... Buy toys for needy kids in your neighborhood! Gather a box of goodies, letters, cards, sunblock and hugs for our boys and girls in the military...... These things will give you a high longer than any scratch off or lottery ticket.. ever could!. And, with a bonus of eternal rewards in heaven!
Ok but I already do all that AND buy lottery tickets, and occaisionally go to casinos....BECAUSE IT'S FUN! Geez, if all the fun stuff is gonna be a sin I may have to convert or something.
Not that I gamble much at all, but I have a more modernist attitude about gambling and lotteries. People need to approach gambling with an attitude of moderation. Society is a lot more economically complicated than it was in Biblical times. Gaming profits benefit the state and programs which help the poor and disabled for instance, which are divine functions that the churches can't perform on the massive scale necessary to fight starvation, and provide needed medical services and medicine for the elderly.
Gaming facilities provide jobs that people need to feed their families and provide heat & shelter. It would be sinful to deny people jobs that are necessary for their very survival, but that is the true nature of modern society.
Modern economics demands that the money in our economy recirculates over and over so that the flow of money can support as many people and businesses as possible. The gaming industry supports a huge network of related industries: mechanical, building, food, transportation, service workers, banking, hotel etc... the list goes on and on.
As the money gets recycled, it strengthens our economy which has become much less based on manufacturing over recent decades.
And yes, even the winners may be considered to be blessed by God. How else would God be able to provide the benefits that some of the winners do receive? Maybe they use the money to receive life saving medical operations, a new house to provide shelter, or a new car to make it to work. Maybe they donate some of their winnings to their church or favorite charity. Certainly a large portion goes to taxes to perform the necessary work of Gov't.; building roads, education, medical research as well as helping the poor. These are not sins, these are good works. And the winners and losers are good people because they voluntarily donate to these causes.
Many churches have a bingo night as a form of entertainment and as a way for members of a congregation to socialize. Many non-profit organizations benefit from small stakes gambling i.e.- raffles and related drawings.
If the Make-A-Wish foundation raffles off a car, is buying a ticket a sin? My God, I certainly hope not! Some poor soul is terminally ill and is being granted a last wish. And the lucky winner just might be someone who has lost a lot of money in the stock market. So if gambling is so sinful, maybe no one should buy stocks, and our very capitalist economic system is sinful too.
Does God want us to cease to be Americans and capitalists?
Life itself is a gamble in many ways. People have economic pitfalls and windfalls all of the time. Gambling can be seen as one way that allows God to reward those who win, and to collect alms from those who don't, in the most modern of ways.
Of course the Bible should serve as a warning about the pitfalls of excessive gambling and using it a reliable source of income. And also as a reminder about the inherant immorality of every society. But there are many vices much worse than buying a lottery ticket or participating in small stakes gambling.
(4) Gambling encourages reckless investment of God-given resources. See Matthew 25:14-30. If gambling is "fun" and "pleasure" to you, you already have your reward. If you are denying yourself, serving the Eternal 100% with your time and resources, you will not make the pitifully weak (and false) excuse: "But I have a right to throw away my money at gambling!" You know that your life, your wealth are not yours. If you follow the Bible, you are a slave to the Messiah. You, your money, everything you have are His. Would Jesus gamble? Definitely not!
Sabbath keepers who spend second tithe on gambling are no different than infidels who spend their allotted vacation money on gambling. Gambling, prostitution, drunkenness and ribald night clubs are no atmosphere for the Bible believer. One year we kept the Feast of Tabernacles at Squaw Valley, California, across the border from Reno, Nevada’s other gambling Mecca. One evening of the Feast we went over to Nevada to a dinner show where we heard male vocalist Ed Ames. Mr. Ames' music is generally very wholesome and uplifting. However I have often felt since that time that a gambling casino was no atmosphere for us to be in. Jesus was invited to dinners given by Pharisees as well as tax collectors. He preached the truth wherever He went, but He did not support corrupt practices.
Oh yeah, that's right all our extra money should go the churches so they can spread their message of corruption even further. Once again it boils down to a puritanical method of thinking. If it is fun, feels good, or brings pleasure but doesn't include God than it must be evil, right? We should all be miserable human beings because God loves us so much he wouldn't like it if we had fun.
Here where I live, we have 10 casinos. We border NV/AZ/CA. My family works in the casinos. We have been here almost 20 years and your skin would CRAWL from the stories each of us could tell about someone addicted to gambling . While gambling in and of itself is really not a sin (NOTHING in the Bible to approve or disprove it, they even gambled on Jesus' garments at the crucifixion, but nothing was mentioned that gambling was a sin), it's the addiction and the other things that go along with gambling that make it bad!
Believe me, you will never see more drinking, methamphetamine, robbery and suicide as you will right here! The only thing is, you will never read half of the things that go on here, it's a tourist trap and this stuff will NEVER get into the media (although some of you may have heard about the bikers' brawl that took place here a few years ago...but they couldn't help that leaking out). reviewjournal.com -- News: River Run Riot
I really do not see anything wrong with bringing a certain set amount of money (leave credit/debit cards at home and make sure you have a round trip ticket) and have a good time. However, I think it becomes a sin when overdone and takes away from the rent/mortgage, dinner table, or God's House. Even the most rational, down to earth person is capable of falling victim to gambling addiction.
As for the OP and the lottery. I think the same thing applies as stated above. It's all about knowing when to quit! They lottery can be just as addictive as any other form of gambling.
BTW, even I am guilty of going to the casinos and dropping $20 on the black jack tables. This happens maybe twice a year Big gambler huh? But I love black jack, and I refuse to fall victim
Good post Kaw, addiction is a terrible thing..Moderation in everything
Did you know that NO ONE ever dies in a casino? It's true, especially here where I live. They treat the "dead" body as being alive and pronounce it dead at the hospital or??? This is because they would have to wait for the county coroner to make his way to the casino and such...not good business to have a dead body lying around too long. Especially here! Here they would have to wait for a minimum of 2 hours (usually more like 4-6) for a coroner to make his way from Las Vegas (90 miles away) to Laughlin. So whether someone jumps out of their hotel room window or if they fall over at the slot machine...they do not "die" until later .
A lot of times you will see someone on the side of the road trying to sell their cds, sunglasses, clothes or whatever they may have of any value, just to get enough gas to get back home, because they lost it all!
Kawg, you're right about some of the people who get obsessed with gambling. One day my coworker got a call from her cousin at work. She and her husband had just come back from a trip to Vegas. They won $10,000 on a slot machine. Instead of taking the money and enjoying it they started gambling even more and eventually spent every penny of it. Then they maxed out every credit card and actually had to have people back home wire money to them so they could afford the trip back home. My coworker had a crazy sense of humour and thought the whole thing was hysterical but I thought it was about the stupidest thing anyone could have done. I've also been to Laughlin which seems like a mini Vegas and it is kind of a fun place but I agree that you see people who've lost control of their impulses and now they're flat broke. I don't see it as a sin, I see it as complete stupidity.
Last edited by MontanaGuy; 07-08-2007 at 06:56 PM..
Reason: spelling
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and hugs for our boys and girls in the military...... These things will give you a high longer than any scratch off or lottery ticket.. ever could!. And, with a bonus of eternal rewards in heaven!
. While gambling in and of itself is really not a sin (NOTHING in the Bible to approve or disprove it, they even gambled on Jesus' garments at the crucifixion, but nothing was mentioned that gambling was a sin), it's the addiction and the other things that go along with gambling that make it bad! 
