Lotteries are Bad for the Poor. Please Don't Celebrate or Participate

Lotteries are Bad for the Poor. Please Don't Celebrate or Participate.

by Ed Stetzer

There is not really a verse that says, "Thou shalt not gamble," but Christians and their love for the poor should keep Christians away from lotteries and, I think, lead them to oppose efforts to expand the lottery.
Many studies have been done, but let me point out one study and then share one quote from a well-known community organizer and activist.
This 2008 study from Carnegie Melon explains "poverty's central role in people's decisions to buy lottery tickets." The article goes on to say:

Although state lotteries, on average, return just 53 cents for every dollar spent on a ticket, people continue to pour money into them -- especially low-income people, who spend a larger percentage of their incomes on lottery tickets than do the wealthier segments of society. A new Carnegie Mellon University study sheds light on the reasons why low-income lottery players eagerly invest in a product that provides poor returns...
"Some poor people see playing the lottery as their best opportunity for improving their financial situations, albeit wrongly so," said the study's lead author Emily Haisley, a doctoral student in the Department of Organizational Behavior and Theory at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business. "The hope of getting out of poverty encourages people to continue to buy tickets, even though their chances of stumbling upon a life-changing windfall are nearly impossibly slim and buying lottery tickets in fact exacerbates the very poverty that purchasers are hoping to escape."...

In the study, the researchers note that lotteries set off a vicious cycle that not only exploits low-income individuals' desires to escape poverty but also directly prevents them from improving upon their financial situations. 

A few years ago, then State Senator Barack Obama explained that the lottery is a "form of regressive taxation" and harmful to the poor.

"One of the concerns that I have, obviously, is that a disproportionate number of people who consistently buy lottery tickets tend to be lower-income and working-class people who can least afford it," he said. "Even if they're not compulsive gamblers, they are probably spending money that they don't necessarily have."
Obama also suggested that state lotteries' marketing practices made them complicit in fleecing the low-income crowd.
"Now, we might say that this is their entertainment dollar the same way that somebody else has entertainment dollar and spends it on a movie," he said. "But I think the fact that the state systematically targets what we know to be lower income persons as a way of raising revenue is troublesome.
"I would argue that if you look at it as a whole, in most states across the board, this tends to be a form of regressive taxation, and I don't think it's necessarily the fairest way for us to raise revenue for us in the state," he said.

I agree... so, while someone is going to get rich this week, a whole lot of people are going to get a little poorer. We don't need another "tax on the poor" and we don't need the government supporting and promoting such efforts.

Sermon November 25, 2012

I began a new series of messages yesterday for this Christmas season "Unwrapping the Gift You've Always Wanted" using Isaiah 9:6 as our text for the entire series.

Yesterday, "The Gift You've Always Wanted:  Guidance".  Here are the  notes of that message.

Here is the audio:

Blessed is The Man

Blessed Is The Man

Bubba Stahl Nov 19, 2012

Psalm 1 and 2 are both the introduction to the book of Psalms as well as the conclusion. They combine to reveal the outcome of a person who allows God’s Word to shape their prayers and life.

Psalm 1 begins with the phrase, “Blessed is the man who…”  The first thing about the blessed man is seen what he has said “no” to. He has seen that a person cannot serve God and the world; the two are opposites. The ways of God are not the ways of man.

The ways of man are seen in the downward progression of first listening, “…does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly,” then in keeping company with, “…nor stands in the way of sinners,” then in sharing the influence that has been received and reinforced by that company, “nor sits in the seat of the scoffers.” That way has been rejected by the blessed man because God’s way has been chosen.

God’s way begins with His Word. “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.”  The delight he has developed in God’s Word is the result of meditating on it. At first God’s Word seems hard to understand. Understanding does not come from more and more study, it comes from the Holy Spirit. He and He alone reveals the truth and delight of His Word. Meditation on the Word means asking the Holy Spirit over and over, as the Word is mulled on over and over, for light and meaning.

The Hebrew word for “delight” is hapes (pronounced hop-is) and means to feel great favor and pleasure in something because of its intrinsic qualities. It is mostly used in the Old Testament of God and the “delight” He has for various things. For example in 1 Samuel 15:22 when Samuel told Saul that God has greater delight in obedience than in sacrifice. This means that the delight you develop for God’s Word actually comes from His Holy Spirit in you. He delights in His own Word and shares that delight with you!

The blessed man is described “…like a tree, planted by the steams of water,” A tree that is planted by the steams of water speaks of intentional planting. God plants us in His Word. His will is that we stay in His Word with the Holy Spirit teaching us all the days of our lives.

When you stay in the Word, the Word grows in you and, like a tree, produces leaves and fruit. Leaves and fruit are the only two things a tree produces. Without leaves and fruit a tree is just firewood.

The first one is “…that yields fruit in its season,” The fruit that the Word produces is the glory of God. God designed our lives to glorify Him and Him alone. The way that He designed this to take place is by being planted in His Word. His will and ways have not changed since the beginning. Every occasion and situation in life is another opportunity for the glorious light of God’s characteristics to shine forth from your life, if you are planted in His Word. Whether it is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness…it all reveals God’s glory.

The other thing is tree produces is leaves. The promise of God for the blessed man is “…and its leaf does not wither,” So, what are the leaves of our lives in Christ? There are two references to the leaves of the Tree of Life, Ezekiel 47:12 and Revelation 22:1-2. The Ezekiel reference describes the Tree of Life during the Millennium (the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth following the battle of Armageddon in Revelation 20:1-6), while the Revelation reference describes the Tree of Life in the New Heaven and Earth following the Great While Throne judgment.

In both passages it describes the purpose of the leaves as healing for the nations. One thing we all know about the shade of a tree; it is refreshing. To sit under the shade of a great tree is restful whether there is a hammock involved or not!

The promise of God for the blessed man is that his life will always be an invitation to others for them to enjoy the rest and refreshment of God in his life. There is something about just being around someone who is planted in the Word. It is refreshing just to be near and to listen to someone like that.

Psalm 1 sums up the blessed man by saying “…in all that he does, he prospers.”The Hebrew word “prospers” is tsalock (pronounced tsa-lock), which means to complete, to triumph, to be strong, to overcome. It does not mean that you will have an abundance of things; this is the “American” definition of prosperity. Prosperity in the Bible is more related to being faithful than the accumulation of things or having it easy. Being prosperous, according to God’s definition, means that you will rise above every circumstance in your life with God-honoring and Christ-exalting glory!

Be sure that you stay in God’s Word, meditating in it, growing by it, and being fully aware of God’s beautiful purposes being carried through to fullness by it. You will be blessed just like God designed from the very beginning.

©2012 Bubba Stahl. Originally posted on Nov 14, on Bubba Stahl's Blog.

Happy Thanksgiving

The Every-Day-Ness of Praise

The Every-Day-Ness of Praise

Bill Elliff Nov 19, 2012

There are some things I do every single day: get up, take a shower, brush my teeth, comb my hair. I’m glad these are routine to me (and I imagine others are too!) But the Psalmist had another daily regimen.

“I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. (Psalm 145:1-3

When things go the way I think they should or not... “Every day I will bless you.”

When governments rise and fall... “Every day I will bless you.”

When conflict arises within and without.... “Every day I will bless you.”

When I can see the way clearly and when I am confused... “Every day I will bless you.”

When people like me or hate me... “Every day I will bless you.”

When I am applauded or persecuted... “Every day I will bless you.”

When my heart is grieving or rejoicing... “Every day I will bless you.”

When the church is weak or strong... “Every day I will bless you.”

When we are in a day of judgment or of revival... “Every day I will bless you.”

The key to David's rightness was the consistency of His praise and his simple faith in the sovereignty of God. It did not mean that he did not know sadness and grief and a realm of emotions (just look though the Psalms!) and that he did not cry out for help and mercy. But in everything he gave thanks and praise to the One who is above all and sovereignly moving in the affairs of men.

The greatest leader other than Christ in the New Testament observed the same thing. "In everything give thanks," Paul said. Even when his heart was "burdened beyond meausure" and when he "despaired even of my life" he continued to "rejoice in the Lord always." He knew God was in control and his life and human history was in God's sovereign hands.

God is marching toward the final consummation of this age and He is right in His judgments and on time in His movements. He is worthy of our praise every day!

©2012 Bill Elliff. Originally posted Nov. 7, 2012 on Bill Elliff's Blog.

Sunday Sermon, November 11, 2012 "Man of Sorrows"

This past Sunday, November 11, 2012, I preached "Man of Sorrows" from Isaiah 53:3-4.  Here are the notes from the sermon.  Below is the audio of the sermon.

Ideas of Being More Missional

Eight Ways to Easily Be Missional

by Tony Merida

I really enjoyed Everyday Church: Gospel and Communities on Mission by two of my favorite authors on the church: Steve Timmis and Tim Chester. As I was reading, the authors included a list from my friend Jonathan Dodson, “Eight Ways to Easily Be Missional.” This was an older blog post that I missed and was challenged by it:

Missional is not an event we tack onto our already busy lives. It is our life. Mission should be the way we live, not something we add onto life: “As you go, make disciples.”; “Walk wisely towards outsiders”; “Let your speech always be seasoned with salt”; “be prepared to give a defense for your hope” . We can be missional in everyday ways without overloading our schedules. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Eat with Non-Christians. We all eat three meals a day. Why not make a habit of sharing one of those meals with a non-Christian or with a family of non-Christians? Go to lunch with a co-worker, not by yourself. Invite the neighbors over for family dinner. If it’s too much work to cook a big dinner, just order pizza and put the focus on conversation. When you go out for a meal invite others. Or take your family to family-style restaurants where you can sit at the table with strangers and strike up conversation. Cookout and invite Christians and non-Christians. Flee the Christian subculture.

2. Walk, Don’t Drive. If you live in a walkable area, make a practice of getting out and walking around your neighborhood, apartment complex, or campus. Instead of driving to the mailbox, convenience store, or apartment office, walk to get mail, groceries, and stuff. Be deliberate in your walk. Say hello to people you don’t know. Strike up conversations. Attract attention by walking the dog, taking a 6-pack (and share), bringing the kids. Make friends. Get out of your house! Take interest in your neighbors. Ask questions. Pray as you go. Save some gas, the planet, and some people.

3. Be a Regular. Instead of hopping all over the city for gas, groceries, haircuts, eating out, and coffee, go to the same places. Get to know the staff. Go to the same places at the same times. Smile. Ask questions. Be a regular. I have friends at coffee shops all over the city. My friends at Starbucks donate a ton of left over pastries to our church 2-3 times a week. We use them for church gatherings and occasionally give to the homeless. Build relationships. Be a Regular.

4. Hobby with Non-Christians. Pick a hobby that you can share. Get out and do something you enjoy with others. Try City League sports. Local rowing and cycling teams. Share your hobby by teaching lessons. Teach sewing lessons, piano lessons, violin, guitar, knitting, tennis lessons. Be prayerful. Be intentional. Be winsome. Have fun. Be yourself.

5. Talk to Your Co-workers. How hard is that? Take your breaks with intentionality. Go out with your team or task force after work. Show interest in your co-workers. Pick four and pray for them. Form mom groups in your neighborhood and don’t make them exclusively Christian. Schedule play dates with the neighbors’ kids. Work on mission.

6. Volunteer with Non-Profits. Find a non-profit in your part of the city and take Saturday a month to serve your city. Bring your neighbors, your friends, or your small group. Spend time with your church serving your city. Once a month. You can do it!

7. Participate in City Events. Instead of playing X-Box, watching TV, or surfing the net, participate in city events. Go to fundraisers, festivals, clean-ups, summer shows, and concerts. Participate missionally. Strike up conversation. Study the culture. Reflect on what you see and hear. Pray for the city. Love the city. Participate with the city.

8. Serve your Neighbors. Help a neighbor by weeding, mowing, building a cabinet, fixing a car. Stop by the neighborhood association or apartment office and ask if there is anything you can do to help improve things. Ask your local Police and Fire Stations if there is anything you can do to help them. Get creative. Just serve!

Don’t make the mistake of making “missional” another thing to add to your schedule. Instead, make your existing schedule missional.

We Christians in the West Are Soft

We Christians in the West Are Soft

by Wade Burleson

We who name Christ as our King and are immersed in western civilization and culture have little concept of what it means to suffer for "Christ's name's sake." Our church buildings are beautiful and comfortable, our worship services are moving and meaningful, and our lives run like clockwork. Think back to how you felt the last time the lights went out during a storm. Were you irritated? Lost? Or do you remember your reaction the last time your 4G phone service went off-line? Were you frustrated? Perplexed? When our greatest discomforts in life revolve around electricity and electronics instead of challenges to our faith and discipleship of others, we American Christians have become too soft. Don't misundersand: This softness isn't a moral dilemma for us; it is simply a meaningful description of us. We didn't ask to become soft, our culture has made us soft.

This is why a knowledge of history, geography, and current events is so important. When Christian kids in the west feel the greatest disappointment for them during the holidays is in not getting just the right number or kind of gifts, then we are doing a disservice to them by not helping them become interested in the world at large and the world of the past. For many centuries, Christians have been persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Christ. Sadly, Voice of the Martyrs tells us that more Christians have been killed or martyred in the last century than in all of the previous centuries combined. We don't know about this because it doesn't happen in the west. That's why it is important for us to open the eyes of our kids to the world outside of modern western civilization. When the Burleson kids were growing mom and dad read to them Fox's Book of Martyrs during our morning devotional. It made their cereal and oatmeal more difficult to eat as we read, but is sure helped them understand that many Christians have not lived as cushy of lives as we.

Today, I was moved by reading a letter from Pliny the Younger to Roman Emperor Marcus Trajan. Pliny was the governor of Bythinia in northwest Turkey in the early second century, and he considered Emperor Trajan his best friend. The letter, written about AD 111, vividly describes to Trajan how Pliny deals with the Christians in Bythinia, people Pliny considered enemies of the Roman Empire for their refusal to ascribe deity to the Roman Emperor and say, "Caesar is Lord."

Pliny writes,

"I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and a third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist in avowing themselves followers of the one they call Christ, I order them to be led away for execution; for, whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubbornness and unshakable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished...

The sum total of their guilt amounts to no more than this: they meet regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and they also bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery and adultery...

This has made me to decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they call deaconnesses. I find them to be nothing but a degenerative sort of cult carried to extravagamt lengths."

Next time you complain about the carpet in your auditorium, or the comfort and style of the chairs that you sit in at church, or the lack of funding for your special church programs, remember those two Christian deaconnesses from Bythiania and the torture they endured so that Pliny could get to the truth about this cult called Christianity. Those two women endured something you may never face in your lifetime, but we can sure learn from them. Christianity to them was life, not convenience. The only thing that will harden us up in the west without facing persecution ourselves is a vocal acknowledgement that much of what we get attached to in church are those things that are comfortable and make us feel wonderful instead of those things that are missional and make us very purposeful.

Sermon Notes on Sunday, November 4, 2012 "God's Alarm Clock Is Ringing"

This past Sunday (November 4, 2012) was the last sermon in this portion of Romans 12-16 until summer when I will pick up again with Romans 14.  The message this Sunday "God's Alarm Clock is Ringing" from Romans 13: 11-14 is available only with my notes.  There is no audio, sorry. Click here for the notes.

Josh Willingham

Ordinary Life for an Extraordinary Athlete

via Desiring God Blog by David Mathis on 10/29/12

We can be so quick to put them on a pedestal. So quick to assume professional athletes live a fantasy-camp life, away from the everyday pressures and pains facing the rest of us.

We subtly treat them as almost a different order of being, somehow immune not only to our daily grind, but our need for a Savior.

Unashamed for Jesus

Enter Twins slugger Josh Willingham — by all accounts an extraordinary athlete, and manifestly a normal human, and Christian, unashamed about his need for Jesus.

Willingham is a regular guy, even if his baseball stats aren’t. This year he batted in 110 runs (third in the American League) and became the first Minnesota Twin to hit 35 homeruns in a season since Hall-of-Famer Harmon Killebrew in 1970. He also once hit two grand slams in one big-league game — no ordinary feat.

But as he sits down in the Desiring God studio — for a moment forget the bright lights and multiple cameras — he sounds so ordinary, and isn’t afraid to look the part in jeans, sandals, and a long-sleeve thermal tee. Mention hunting and he’s ready to talk. Fishing will do just as well. When I try to relate as a fellow deer-hunter, I quickly learn he’s a bowman, and I’m kindly put in my place as he informs me with a smile, “My five-year-old could kill a deer with a rifle.” That must be why they call him Josh.

It’s a Wild Life — Sorta

Without the major-league uniform, and 40,000 on-looking fans, Willingham seems so ordinary off the field — like one of the guys I played high school baseball with. So when I ask what the life of a professional athlete is like in the everyday, out of the public eye, I’m not too surprised to hear a litany of disclaimers following his initial claim, “It’s a wild life.”

Turns out it’s not so wild in the ways we amateurs might expect. The life of a pro athlete definitely has its wildness, according to Willingham. Wild inconvenience. Wild irregularity. Wild frustration. Wild temptation. Wild stress.

But press deeper, and you’ll discover a surprising sense of normalcy in the things that really matter. Deep down it’s very ordinary and very human. This life is a vapor’s breath, “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14), and a view from the brink of eternity has a way of adjusting one’s perspective.

Willingham may be an extraordinary athlete — at least for a short season — but he’s a very ordinary person in the ways that really matter.

Catching a Glimpse of the Normal Side

Josh Willingham grew up in Florence, Alabama — about 15 miles from Tennessee and 15 miles from Mississippi — and still makes his home there in the off-season. He attended all 12 grades at Mars Hill Bible School, founded by his great grandfather, before playing college ball in town at the University of North Alabama. He married his high-school sweetheart Ginger in 2001, and they have three young sons (Rhett, 5, Ryder, 2, and Rogan, born just this year).

Through Willingham’s refreshing frankness and down-to-earth attitude, I was able to get a glimpse of the typical life behind an atypical athlete.

“Even when I go back home and talk with my friends, nobody really understands what we go through as professional athletes.” The way non-dentists don’t get dentistry, or non-plumbers misunderstand plumbing.

“But we’re really no different than anybody else,” Willingham concedes. “We all have our problems. People see us on the baseball field, playing baseball, making a lot of money. And that’s all they see. But we have problems to deal with in our families. We have difficulties going on all the time in everyday life.” Chief among those difficulties was the turning point of his life: the tragic death of his brother Jon in June 2009 that taught him all the more to lean on God.

“It’s very much a normal life, but we just happen to play a professional sport where everybody can see us playing. We have to deal with the normal stuff everyday, with normal trials and problems everyone else has to deal with.” And Willingham has had his share.

The Daily Grind

Willingham is not afraid to disavow us of the idealistic notions we have about professional athletics. As much as he enjoys baseball, it’s plain that the field is now his office, not his playland. Baseball has become vocation, not recreation. Most days he spends nine hours or more at the office (1:30pm to roughly 10:30pm) — and that’s for home games (not to mention the 81 games big-leaguers play on the road each year).

“You find out early in your career that you have to be very flexible. You have to pick up your things and move a lot.” Spring training begins in late February and goes six weeks through March. April to September is the regular season, and the playoffs happen throughout October. That leaves about four winter months for the Willinghams to be back at home in Alabama.

Ordinary Christianity

As an evangelical Christian and ordinary guy, Willingham needs the normal things to keep his spiritual life strong. There’s no major-league version of the gospel or Christian community. No professional-athlete avenue for prayer or Bible intake. It’s the ordinary means of grace that shape his life and keep fuel in the tank of his faith.

“It all comes back to priorities,” he says. It takes relentless prioritizing to make daily time to relate not only to his wife, but also to God through prayer and “time in the Word.”

Sharing What We Believe

Willingham’s aware that many devout religious folks criticize professing Christians who also are professional athletes. They might bemoan how out-of-proportion sports have become in our society, with fans shelling out so much for tickets, apparel, and memorabilia. And yes, there’s something to be said there. But then what?

Where some see worldliness to avoid, Willingham sees an opportunity for gospel advance.

“Jesus associated himself not only with believers,” he reminds us, “but he went out into the world and shared himself.” Which doesn’t mean there’s any room for spiritual coasting.

“We’re all sinners. We’re tempted everyday,” whether professional athlete or professional accountant. But as Christians, Willingham contends, “we’re not supposed to be sheltered, but get out and share what we believe.”

Still in Need of Prayer

For now, Willingham’s calling involves big-league curveballs, pop flies, and homeruns, as well as 9-hour days at the office and frequent business travel. He glorifies God by playing his best, providing for his family, and helping orphaned and abused children through a foundation he started, even while sharing his faith with teammates and others through interviews like these.

At age 33, Willingham knows his time in pro baseball is short, and eternity’s just a breath away. As a man unashamed of his daily need for Jesus, he and other professing Christians who happen to be professional athletes would love to have more than your applause or disillusionment. They also would appreciate your prayers.