Penteparanoia Part 10

Back in July, 2005, I had to go on a customer / field service trip to Las Vegas for ‘the work’.

It was a very interesting experience seeing the desert for the first time ever and seeing the bright lights of the big city. In the evenings on my time off, I would go get dinner and then go walk around and see some of the casino life that took place that Las Vegas is well known for. As I walked around in the casinos observing all the action that was taking place, I noticed something very interesting about human behavior as people were gambling whether it was the slots, dice, poker, roulette, etc. I saw the people who were ready to walk away from their tables / slot machines, etc. and then notice that they would go back and play one more time believing that the next quarter or the next hand of cards would be ‘the big payoff’.

Flying back home from Las Vegas, I immediately thought about the parallel that takes place in many lives of believers today. Instead of standing on the promises of God as pointed out in the Scriptures, we act like the gambler. Instead of laying hold to the promise of God supplying our needs according to his riches in glory, we pray to God and put a little more money in the plate, vote for a particular candidate, pray a little harder, read the bible a little longer, etc. in a belief that one day, God (viewed as Jehovah Jackpot) will bring us the big money.

We treat Jesus like the slot machines I saw at the Stardust, New York New York, Tropicana, Frontier, etc. We insert and give money and tug on the arm thinking that we will get rich. We do Jesus the same way, we give money and give some more money and tug on the arm of God thinking that we will persuade him to send us alot of dough and go through a disappointment if we do not receive and start to leave.

Then we become like the gambler and start second and third guessing. We then think that maybe if I would just go back and just put one more quarter in the spiritual slot machine, place one more bet on the pentecostal poker table, one more bet at the revival roulette wheel, that we will hit it big and get the mega blessing because we tarried, God was in the mood to give, etc.

Then eventually, the majority of the gamblers end up financially broke and many of God’s people end up feeling spiritually broke instead of becoming a broken vessel. Then we look for ways to get money even if we have to beg thinking that if we just give a little more (because we must have underestimated God’s cashflow criteria) that the sixes and nines will become lucky sevens, the three bars would appear, the marble will land in the numbered slot we have money on.

We as the church deplore Las Vegas as the city of sin, wonder why anyone would want to live there, create so many taboos of even the thought of visiting, etc. However, I began to really wonder now if many of the churches and televangelist programs are more like Las Vegas than we actually want to admit.

We tell people to never go to Vegas but what if the spiritualized form of Vegas exists beyond the doors of the vestibule into the sanctuary? Have we turned the sanctuary of God into the Charismatic Casino where the sanctified slot machine is awaiting our money for Jehovah Jackpot to provide?

Vegas is full of imitation objects. An real-life imitation pyramid, imitation Roman coliseum, imitation New York City, imitation Eiffel Tower, imitation Space Needle, etc. Are we settling for the counterfeit instead of the real God?

Prostitution is legalized in Las Vegas. We preach against the temple prostitutes but are we really prostituting the temple building and also the temple of the holy spirit when we sell out for the nearest dollar in order to repeat the cycle to put more money on the Charismatic crap table hoping to win Jehovah Jackpot?

However, we forget something serious here. We forget that outside of Vegas (and the Vegas beyond the Vestibule) that the desert is all around us. The lonely, dry, and barren place full of coyotes, snakes, and spiders that is blazing hot at noon and cool at night.

In fact, we turn from God’s Giants into God’s Gamblers and end up like the majority of the lyrics in the Bruce Springsteen song “Roll of The Dice” where:

Well I’ve been a losin’ gambler
Just throwin’ snake eyes
Love ain’t got me downhearted
I know up around the corner lies
My fool’s paradise
In just another roll of the dice

All my elevens and sevens been comin’ up
Sixes and nines
But since I fell for you baby
Been comin’ on changin’ times
They’re just waitin’ over the rise
Just another roll of the dice

I’ve stumbled and I know I made my mistakes
But tonight I’m gonna be playin’ for all of the stakes
Well it’s never too late so come on girl
The tables are waiting
You and me and lady luck well tonight
We’ll be celebrating
Drinkin’ champagne on ice
In just another roll of the dice

High-rollers lay down your bets and I’ll raise ‘em
Well I know the odds ain’t in my favor

Maybe I’m just a clown throwin’ down
Looking’ to come up busted
I’m a thief in the house of love
And I can’t be trusted
Well I’ll be making my heist
In just another roll of the dice
Move on up
Come on seven
Roll me baby
In this fool’s heaven

Except that we do not have to be this way. We can be God’s Giants instead of God’s Gamblers. In fact, if we look at Luke 23:39-43 we see these words:

Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

The gambler of God who lives by the rules of the Vegas beyond the vestibule lives alot like the life of the first criminal mentioned in the scriptures above. Through all of the criminal activity done ‘in God’s name’, he expects God to free him for the sole fact that God is God even though he gambled by committing crime and lost the bet when he got caught. Then he or she blames God when things do not go their way. In fact, their words, like the words of the first criminal tells alot about him. The first word mentioned by the first criminal was the word “if”. It shows doubt. It shows a character trait of placing faith in the pragmatic instead of God and choosing to follow the thing that will provide the quickest resolution to the conflict or need no matter what it costs them.

The giant of God who lives by the scripture is like the second thief. He admits his sin, accepts his punishment, and confesses that Jesus is perfect and without sin and asks to join Him in Paradise and accepts the promise.

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