A Gamble

I've noticed something lately. I'm seeing more shows and advertisements about gambling. If it's not "Deal or No Deal" where the contestant chooses a suitcase hoping it contains a million dollars, then it's billboards on the freeway announcing 1,300 new slots at an Indian casino in the desert.

Another billboard boasts about the next lotto jackpot. Television commercials show a happy couple winning big at the black jack tables. Getting what seems to be easy money is the big push nowadays.

I tried my hand at gambling many, many years ago when I took a quick trip to Las Vegas, Nevada with my cousin. We played a variety of slot machines and the Keno game. I was daring at one point and played the dollar slots. For awhile I was doing pretty well, winning a tidy sum, but then I started to lose. Eventually all my winnings were used up and I had to decide whether to invest any more of my vacation money or just stop playing. I chose to stop.

Gambling establishments use lights, sounds, and colors to make their casinos enticing and attractive. They give you the impression that it's easy to win, but if that were really true, they'd all be out of business. I have long decided that the thrill of the play is not worth losing my hard earned money. The odds are definitely not in my favor.

It's too bad people don't realize that they are gambling with eternity when they don't accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. They think the odds are with them that they'll go to heaven on their own merit. Others think they will have that last chance to accept Christ at the moment of death.

The Bible tells us that the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus. No amount of betting or manipulating the odds will change that. Jesus is a sure thing. Why gamble on your eternal life? Jesus is the only way to win big.