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Today’s Scripture Reading [June 13, 2010]
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods. [1 Corinthians 6:18-20. KJV]
It’s football season! Over the next 30 days, news of World Cup tournament is going to fill up the newspapers and mass media. Just yesterday alone, a day after the kickoff, there were more than 25 pages of World Cup news in the New Paper and more than 8 pages in the Straits Times. For many football fans especially those who bet frequently on the game, it is the ‘day of reckoning’. Not surprisingly, soon we can expect to read sad some stories because as soon as the game is over, the woes of gambling debts will begin for some of these football fans. Hoping that the situation can be contained and social damage be brought to a manageable level, several social organizations have set-up call-center hotlines to give advice and to distribute printed materials on ‘How to gamble responsibly’ and ‘Know your betting limit’. However well-intended their efforts are, we can be quite sure that such advice and publicity are going to fall on deaf ears for some of them.
In spite of the odd is against us, still many people prefer to take gambling risk. Locally here, we have seen exploding gaming industry is now further aggravated by the two new casinos and globally the gambling industry is aggressively promoted through the Internet. There are now many gaming websites that anyone could bet on, from roulette to football. Gaming industry rakes in huge profit from people looking for the worst kind of risk, where you are pretty much guaranteed to lose. This industry is never faced with any shortage of willing and loyal ‘customers’ and some die-hard gambling addicts will go to beg, borrow or steal just to feed their habit.
The article below “Defying the odds’ gives an account of the risky behaviour and activities that most of us partook at one time or another such as gambling, smoking, drinking, sexual promiscuity, etc. The question is: Is it worth the risk? Are we all really so foolish that in spite of the odds that are against us, we still continue indulging such activities? Looking at the financial news of gaming, tobacco and sports and the revenue and the profit generated by them, we can come to a conclusion that there are far too many people out there foolishly taking risk and ignoring the cost that they will eventually have to pay, in some extreme cases with their lives. A preacher has once said that all of us have a ‘king’ and a ‘queen’ in our heart whether we are aware of it or not: we all have sports as our ‘king’ and entertainment as our ‘queen’. Nothing can depart from this truth when we look at the frenzy that is going on in the World Cup tournament and the number of entertainment cable TV channels that are available.
Risk-taking is a very complex subject because it requires the use of advanced mathematics and statistics. Ask anyone who is in the insurance industry or in a risk-management job and he will tell you how complex it is to predict an accurate outcome even with just few variables. For example, we will need a demography specialist who is well-trained in advanced mathematics of probability to just predict the average life-span of people who smoke, say, 10 cigarettes or 20 cigarettes a day. This prediction of life-span involved just one one variable, cigarette-smoking. So, have you ever wondered a much more complex probability question like whether our solar system, our earth, the human body, the stars, the plants, the marine animals and all the aspects of nature are created by pure chance, by random selection, by sheer chaos? Or, are they created by a Super-Intelligent Being? Many well-known past and present scientists and mathematicians have indeed pondered this question which seeks to address the most important question that everyone of us should be asking “Does God Exist?” By the grace of God, there are many of these well-known scientists truly convinced that God exists, and I am quite sure that they have gone through the ‘calculation’ and have finally reached the conclusion that the chance for our solar system, our earth, the human body, the stars, the plants, the animals that evolved slowly by pure chance, by random selection, by sheer chaos is virtually zero; they are 100% convinced that a Super-Intelligent Being or God created them as told in the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). These scientists and mathematicians include famous names like Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Robert Boyle (1791-1867), Michael Faraday (1791-1867), Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), William Thomson Kelvin (1824-1907), Max Planck (1858-1947) and Albert Einstein (1879-1955) who was one of most highly revered scientists of the twentieth century. If these scientists and mathematicians can come to the conclusion that God exits, isn’t it very foolish for us to acknowledge otherwise (Psalm 53:1).
Let us not gamble our eternal life! We must come to acknowledge that God exists and He is not just watching from us from His heavenly throne. He wants us to share His glory. He wants to restore our relationship with Him. He wants us to be part of His Kingdom. He wants to save us from eternal damnation and for this reason, He came from His heavenly throne and became man and dwelt among human race two thousand years ago (John 1:14). He took all the sufferings, all our sins and all our afflictions when He was hung on the cross to die but rose again three days later. His death and resurrection have brought us absolute victory – victory over Satan, victory over sin and victory over death! By not putting our trust in Him and refusing to accept His blood as the price He has paid for our sin, we are effectively taking on our own risk. This is a risk we can ill effort to underwriter because the debt of this risk will be carried into eternity! It is the debt that is far too big for us to pay and no matter how much we do to recompense our wrongs, our sins, or how much we have, we will not be able to pay this debt – the debt of our sin. It is this debt of our sin that separates us from God as told in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Just like in every game, there is always a time limit. Our ‘spiritual game’ is going to be over soon and when the final whistle or rather the last trumpet sound is blown, the result will be declared and whether you like it or not, there will be no replay! Be ready and get on to the team that our Team Leader is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He has already led us into victory and we are just waiting for the last trumpet sound. Upon this last trumpet sound, all His team members who believe in Him, who have repented of their sin, will all be changed from mortality into immortality (1 Corinthians 15:52-53). There will then be no more death nor suffering for us!
-----------------------------Defying the odds-----------------------------
By Davy Crockett
Are you a gambler? “No!” most people would say: “I don’t go to casinos or play the lottery, or bet the horses.” This is a good thing, since common sense tells you that the house always wins.
But, do you play the odds in other ways? This thought came to mind as I observed three young adults smoking cigarettes as they enjoyed an animated conversation outside a convenience store. They were young, apparently healthy people, not concerned about the consequences of their actions.
What mentality does it take to place dried leaves wrapped in paper between your lips and set them on fire? Does it make any sense to drag smoke into the mouth, throat and lungs, which were obviously designed for clean, fresh air? The warning on the package in which the cigarettes are sold goes unheeded and the obsequious public-service warnings from the medical profession and government agencies are often ignored.
Cigarettes are not the only harmful form of tobacco addiction. Cigar smoking has resurged in popularity in recent years, particularly by young men. Pipes, chewing tobacco and snuff (now called “smokeless tobacco”) continue to be used, especially by young people and the lower economic strata of our society.
Millions of people mindlessly use products made of a substance known to cause cancer of the lungs, mouth, throat, etc. These people play the odds with a deck that is stacked against them, defying the odds, thinking: “It won’t happen to me.”
Visit a hospital where emphysema patients are treated. Visit an oncology ward and see the misery and suffering caused by cancer of the lungs, mouth and throat. The facts don’t lie. The evidence gathered over several decades is conclusive. Smoking or the use of tobacco in any form can be deadly in the long haul.
Why do people do it? It’s cool. It’s “hip.” There is peer pressure to do what others are doing, even if it is dangerous and shows reckless disregard for the consequences. After all, “It won’t happen to me!” But, it can and does happen to people who attempt to defy the odds.
This attitude and its consequences are not limited to using tobacco. Consider those who drive a vehicle while drinking or after having consumed a few drinks with friends. Think of those who don’t wear seat belts while driving or riding in a vehicle. How about those who are driving on worn-out tires? And, some drivers seem to think speed limits on our highways are for others, not them.
There are many other high risk behaviors that can cause hardship and suffering, such as the myriad problems resulting from promiscuous sexual activity in all levels of society.
As you go about your daily routine, do you attempt to defy the odds and ignore basic principles for maintaining good mental and physical health? Anciently, King Solomon of Israel, a man imbued with wisdom as a gift from God, wrote about the importance of making sound decisions if one is to have a good life and length of days. “It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom.” (Proverbs 10:23). He also said, ‘A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.’ (Proverbs 14:16).
It seems very clear that the foolish aren’t interested in hearing instruction for their own good. They are too busy defying the odds.
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