Tag: Faith

Lessons From Las Vegas

This is third in a three-part series on risk-taking in the kingdom of God. I started with When Safe Sucks, followed that yesterday with Cautious Christianity v. Kingdom Christianity. I end here with some lessons I’ve learned in Las Vegas.

I love Las Vegas for a lot of reasons (but not for the prostitution and girly shows).  One of those reasons is Blackjack.

I stay away from the other games because I am smart enough to know you don’t build an $800 million hotel by just cooking a good steak.

Blackjack is different though.  If you learn to play according to basic strategy, you play at only about a 1% disadvantage to the house.  If you learn to count cards, you can play at anywhere from .05 to 1% advantage over the house.

I began playing years ago and over the years have learned to count cards.  Don’t get too excited though because to make money, real money, counting cards you need to play on teams, and that’s the sort of thing that gets you a date in the back room with Nunzio. I just love to play, and by playing well and counting cards hopefully win a little money in the process.

One of the most important skills in basic Blackjack strategy is doubling down, which means doubling your bet after the dealer deals you two cards but before you’ve seen both of the dealer’s cards. To pull up to the nearly even odds Blackjack can offer, you have to know when to double down and be willing to do so, otherwise you might as well be over at the slot machines throwing your money away and helping them build the next billion dollar hotel.

Here is where all this is going.  The Bible provides principles by which to live our lives, basic strategy if you will, and we can plod along making reasonable, cautious decisions about our careers, callings, finances and futures, but there will come times when the Lord calls us to double down, to take a risk.

The Bible says, “My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in Him.” (Heb. 10:38).  That means if the Lord calls you to take a risk and you chicken out, He’ll not be happy with you, and you may miss your destiny.

So, know when to double down, and when the time comes, do it. GS

Cautious Christianity v. Kingdom Christianity

I blogged about risk-taking in my last post, When Safe Sucks.  I’ve decided to camp out around this subject of risk-taking for a three-part series because I think it an important subject for Christians.

I think it important  for Christians because Christians, are, on the whole, one of the most conservative and cautious groups of people I know.  Maybe you can think of  a more cautious group.  Perhaps the financial consultants for AARP are more cautious. I don’t know.

It puzzles me though that the Church doesn’t produce more risk-takers. Think about it. You can only enter the kingdom of God as a citizen if you are willing to lose your life (i.e. to save it). (Matthew 10:39).  Kingdom citizenship is an all or nothing proposition. Jesus said, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62).

And yet, after risking it all to enter the Kingdom, once inside Christians are subjected to the culture of cautiousness that permeates the Church, and they begin to play it safe.  They opt for cautious Christianity over Kingdom Christianity.

I understand why it happens.  So much of morality is premised on restraint and moderation that it’s easy to see caution as a common denominator and virtue and therefore, its opposite, risk, as a vice.

But risk, like money, is amoral. It can be used for good or bad, to save or destroy. And to disavow it, like taking a vow of poverty, can be to place a roadblock on the path of one’s destiny. Sometimes the only way forward is across a dangerous stretch of road, or through a raging river. Unfortunately, too many Christians have stopped on the bank, having forgotten how to risk it all to go forward.

Christians should be known as the greatest risk-takers. They have the promise of a Divine Enabler (Philippians 4:13), a Divine Indweller (Romans 8:11) and a cosmic safety net (Romans 8:28).

When’s the last time you risked something for the kingdom of God? GS

When Safe Sucks

Safety is usually a good thing.  We like safe cars, safe airlines and safety locks on guns.  We seek safe investments, safe places to live and safe schools for our kids.  We seek more income because we believe it will make us more safe and secure.  We buy insurance in case the unexpected occurs.  We are constantly looking for ways to reduce risk, and that is usually a good thing.

There are times, however, when being safe is not a good thing, like when God is calling you to take a risk.  The Bible records that one Spring “at the time when kings go out to battle” King David stayed home in Jerusalem.  (2 Sam. 11:1).

Staying in Jerusalem was certainly the safe thing to do.  It was a lot less likely David would be run through with a spear or have his melon lopped off  in Jerusalem than on the battlefield, but it was “the time when kings go out to battle.”  It was a time for King David to take a risk and lead his people into battle.  It was his calling.  Instead  David played it safe by staying in Jerusalem, ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which led to horrible moral failings.

Hebrews 11 contains a list of heroes from the Bible, people who out of obedience to God did things like leaving the security of a home to go to a foreign land without knowing where they were going or what awaited them; or others who left a life of luxury in the Pharaoh’s court to be a deliverer to an oppressed people; or others still who shut the mouths of lions, willingly endured torture and suffered death.

The Bible celebrates these men and women as having achieved greatness in the eyes of God and men, but they would not have, and they would not have been remembered, had they not been risk-takers.  Had they not been willing to take a risk they would not have fulfilled their destiny.

Being safe is usually a good thing, except when God calls you to take a risk.  Then safe sucks. GS

On Faith

Pliny the Elder, a first century writer who was not a Christian, wrote in his book, Natural History, “So, here indeed is a phenomenon unique among the sciences; anyone claiming to be a doctor is immediately trusted, although in no other profession is an untruth more dangerous.”  Pliny makes a good point, not just an ironic one. 

Everyone lives by faith.  People entrust their health, their finances, their love and, at one time or another just about everything else to others.  The question is never whether people have faith but, “Faith in what or whom?”

A long time ago, I put my faith in Jesus–not just that He existed.  That’s a no-brainer.  No real historian doubts that Jesus existed.  What I mean is I put my faith in Jesus, the Person, that He was who He said He was, therefore I can trust what He said (i.e., that He died for my sins), and is the Savior of those who trust in Him.  He has never betrayed my trust.

As Pliny says, people immediately trust doctors, not based on any evidence, but blind faith.  Jesus never asked for people to trust in Him based on anything so superficial as a title.  Jesus didn’t criticize Thomas for asking for evidence and instead said to him, “Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27).  To religious leaders who doubted Jesus’ deity, Jesus said, “But that you may know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…,” then He healed a paralyzed man right before their eyes. (Luke 5:24-25).  Pretty good evidence.  Jesus also offered people the evidence of experience, inviting them to drink of the water He would give them.  (John 4:13-14).

So, next time somebody accuses you of having blind faith, ask them if they’ve ever been to the doctor.  GS