God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Does the Bible explicitly condemn or forbid gambling? No. However, I do believe there are certain principles that militate against it.
1. Gambling is poor stewardship. The believer’s responsibility is to use wealth to promote the kingdom of God. The emphasis in Scripture is never on the use of money with a view to increasing one’s personal fortune but on putting our money to use in the service of those who are in need. It simply is not wise and responsible behavior to take what God has graciously bestowed and entrust it to circumstances over which we have no control (Pr. 12:11).
2. The biblical command is that the believer should obtain money by faithful and diligent exercise of God-given talents in work. Gambling is an attempt to obtain money that promotes sloth and is often an excuse for not working.
3. Gambling promotes covetousness and greed, whereas the Word of God encourages contentment (Phil. 4:11-12; Heb. 13:5). If one is seven times more likely to be struck by lightning than to win a million dollars in a state lottery, why do people continue to buy tickets? Greed!
4. Gambling appears to create a condition in which one person's gain is necessarily another person's loss. In other words, in gambling, someone always loses. If so, it would seem to violate brotherly love and justice.
5. There is a fundamental flaw in the character of any government that seeks to capitalize financially on the moral weakness of its members.
6. Gambling appears to violate our belief in the sovereignty of God.
7. Gambling has such a powerful potential for enslaving those who participate that it may well violate the admonition of Scripture that we not be mastered by anything or anyone other than the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:12).
God's holiness and righteous glory have been desecrated, defamed, and blasphemed by our sin. It is with a holy God that we have to do in our guilt! And there can be no justification, no reconciliation, no cleansing of our conscience, unless the holiness of God is honored and the defamation of His righteousness is repaired. The urgency of our problem with guilt is not that we feel miserable, but that God's name has been blasphemed. We live in a day with such a horrendously inflated view of human potential and such a miserably tiny view of God's holiness that we can scarcely understand what the real problem of guilt is. The real problem is not, 'How can God be loving and yet condemn people with such little sins?' The real problem is, 'How can God be righteous if He acquits such miserable sinners as we?' There can be no lasting remedy for guilt which does not deal with God's righteous indignation against sin. That's why there had to be a sacrifice. And not just any sacrifice, but the sacrifice of the Son of God! No one else, and no other act, could repair the defamation done to the glory of God by our sins. But when Jesus died for the glory of the Father, satisfaction was made. The glory was restored. Righteousness was demonstrated. Henceforth it is clear that when God, by grace, freely justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5), He is not indifferent to the demands of justice. It is all based on the grand transaction between the Father and the Son on the morning of Good Friday at Calvary. No other gospel can take away our guilt because no other gospel corresponds to the cosmic proportions of our sin in relation to God.
>From "The Neighborhood Bakeshop" by Jill Van Cleave
1. Combine the raisins and rum in a small dish and set aside to soak for at
least 20 minutes.
2. Combine the apples and butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the
granulated sugar and cinnamon. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the
apples are soft, but not mushy, 12 to 15 minutes. Drain the raisins well
and add to the cooked apples along with the lemon zest. Set aside to cool
completely. (If making in advance, cover and refrigerate the filling until
ready to use.)
3. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into an 18 x
12-inch rectangle and cut into six 6-inch squares. Fill each square with
1/3 cup of the apple filling and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of the nuts.
Brush the edges of each pastry square with the egg and water wash. Grasp
one corner of each square and fold it over the filling to the opposite
corner, making a triangle. Press the edges together with a fork to seal and
transfer the triangles to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush
exposed dough with the wash and set aside for 30 minutes. (plm: I
refrigerated during this time.)
4. Preheat the oven to 400F.
5. Brush the turnovers again with the wash. Sprinkle evenly with superfine
sugar, if desired. Poke 3 holes in the top of each with a fork. Bake for
about 25 minutes, until golden and crisp.
6. Remove the turnovers to wire racks to cool. Serve warm or at room
temperature.
Posted to TNT Recipes Digest by "Peggy L. Makolondra"
<pmakolon@mail.wiscnet.net> on Apr 03, 1998
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