Month: April 2019

EVERYBODY WINS! EVERYBODY WINS

That’s what former Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer shouts at the beginning of a commercial for a casino in Joplin Missouri. Did we hear that right Barry Switzer and John Daly are around a gaming table and Barry Switzer shouts out Everybody Wins! Everybody Wins! Really? You mean if I drive up to Joplin and go to that casino I’ll win a bunch of money because EVERYBODY WINS! I don’t know why but I never thought that’s how it works in casinos. I thought it was like today’s song The Winner Takes it All the loser is standing small. And I thought if I took a bunch of friends up to Joplin instead of winning couldn’t we get arrested for “working” together? I could be wrong because according to Barry that’s right EVERYBODY WINS!

OK I know who the black guy with the funny hair is. It’s Billy Sims, if you don’t know who he is I copied and pasted this from the internet:

Billy Sims

Football PlayerBilly Ray Sims is a former American college and professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League for five seasons during the 1980s. Sims played college football for the University of Oklahoma, where he was a two-time consensus All-American, and won the Heisman Trophy in 1978. He was the first overall pick in the 1980 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the NFL’s Detroit Lions. Sims was the last Oklahoma player taken Number 1 overall in the NFL Draft until quarterback Sam Bradford was taken first in the 2010 NFL Draft. He was given the nickname “Kung Fu Billy Sims” by ESPN’s Chris Berman, after a game where the Detroit Lions played the Houston Oilers. In the NFL Films highlight, rather than be tackled during a rushing attempt, Sims ran at, jumped, and, while fully airborne, kicked Oilers Cornerback Steve Brown in the head.

I’m sorry I made fun of his hair but I’m proud he’s working in casinos commercials after all his playing career is long over and it’s good to see he has his gambling habit to fall back on.

And speaking of a gambling habit the King of gambling habits, John Daly is the true star of these commercials. This is a video of John Daly telling how he lost $55 million or maybe it’s $57 million he doesn’t really know.

Should someone who has lost that much money be a spokesman for a casino? I think every time John Daly appears on the commercial in huge letters across the screen it should say this guy has lost millions gambling! I must be the only one that feels that way because Big John has been doing these commercials for years. And the video was from May of 2014 so how much more money has he lost since then?

This is the first time that the song of the day is so far down in the post because in took this long of an introduction to make my point that the winner takes it all. And as far as I know there aren’t any casinos that gives refunds! The song The Winner Takes it All is an old ABBA song but it has found new popularity since the two Mama Mia movies. Cher stars in those movies and today’s song comes from her movie soundtrack. This is the second time I have featured Cher in the Song of the Day. The first was Cher’s song Half-bred where I compared the hatred in the song to the hatred the Jews had for the Samaritans because the Samaritans intermarried with the Gentiles which made them “half-breds” and not true Jews. Please go back and read my post on this, you might find it interesting.

The reason I made this post is that today is Good Friday and it’s because of what happened on Good Friday that Southern Baptist believe that it’s a sin to gamble. As a Southern Baptist I have never been in a casino and do not plan to ever going to one. I have never bought a lottery ticket and never will. This doesn’t make me better than those who do but I know why I believe it’s a sin to gamble.

John 19 23-24: 23.Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam. woven from the top throughout. 24. They said, therefore, among themselves, Let us not tear it but cast lots for it, whose it shall be; that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things, therefore, the soldiers did.

There are also passages of scripture from the Old Testament that Southern Baptist use to believe gambling is a sin, but today I’ll focus on the cross. For this above all other scripture is why Southern Baptist believe that gambling is a sin. Let’s get the picture what is happening in these two verses, Jesus is hanging on the cross but the soldiers eyes are not on Jesus they are looking down, at the foot of the cross, trying to win something for them selves. Taking their eyes off of Jesus reminds us of when Jesus walked on water and Peter getting out of boat and also was walking on water. That is until Peter took his eyes off of Jesus, then he began to sink. To make it clear it the 23rd verse that says, when they had crucified Jesus, this doesn’t mean after Jesus died it meant after they did their job of hanging him, Jesus could look down from the cross and watch them gamble for his coat. Is that how you want Jesus to see you with your eyes off of him and gambling just like the Roman soldiers below the cross. Then what’s the difference between you and those soldiers?

Should you pray to Jesus that he should help you win the lottery or at a casino, that is another casino not the one in Joplin where everybody wins. It turns out I can answer that. While the Roman soldiers were gambling at the foot of the cross, Mary, the mother of Jesus was also there at the cross. Jesus could had called her over there and helped her win his stuff back. That’s right Jesus didn’t even help his own mother to win at gambling so why do think he would help you win the lottery? I’ll bet your pastor never asked you that! I don’t even know the odds of that.

Another reason why Southern Baptist believe it’s a sin to gamble and followers of Jesus should not be involved in any type of gambling is we should strive to be Christlike not like the rest of the world that doesn’t know our savior. This is also one of the main reasons why Southern Baptist believe we shouldn’t drink alcohol or go to bars. The Bible says that when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior that you become a new “creature” that the old is taken away and everything becomes new. Part of your new life in Christ is to free yourself from your old life, the Bible teaches you can become a “slave” to sin and Jesus will free you. Do you think John Daly is enslaved by his gambling addiction? As you know the same will happen with alcohol. Jesus is our example and we are to be an example to the lost world (those who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior) where when they look at us they will see something different in us that they don’t have. Then, hopefully, they will Accept Jesus into their hearts.

So here on Good Friday (OK I know today’s Saturday I tried to get this done yesterday but life got in my way) when we think of what Jesus did on the cross, I thought that there may even be Southern Baptist who don’t understand why we don’t believe in gambling and I tried to do my best to explain our believes. I hope to get better at it the more I write my blog.

Today’s song is another song inspired by one of my Face Book friends, Pastor Timmy. As I said on my earlier posts I’m proud that Pastor Timmy has not unfriended me yet because with him as a friend I get to keep up with what the Trump base is being taught. A couple days ago Pastor Timmy posted a pro-gun story about how foolish people who oppose guns are. There were several comments praising the post. As one of those fools I’ll will explain how I see guns, in particular pistols because that’s what the post focus was on, it was justifying Christians carrying pistols. I thought of this song where the boy’s mother calls a pistol the Devil’s right hand. How should a Christian arm their shelves? Does the Bible say anything a follower of Christ should be armed with?

Way back in the 1900s, when I was a young boy on Wednesday’s night our church had a program called The Royal Ambassador’s . We played darts in the youth house but our lessons were about memorizing scriptures. I still have the patch I earned for saying the verses I call still say those same verses today. On Sunday nights during Church Training we would have Bible drills, we would stand with our Bibles in both hands then the teacher would call out a Bible verse the first kid to find it would take one step forward and read whatever scripture it was. One may say that this was just adults “tricking” kids into learning about the Bible. But I’m grateful that they did. We were taught that our Bibles were our swords that we would use in the battle of life. The Bible being viewed as a sword is something you might think was just made up but that’s comes straight from the Bible. In Ephesians 6 11-20 the Apostle Paul tells us to:

¹¹ Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

¹² For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

¹³ Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

¹⁴ Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

¹⁵ And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

¹⁶ Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

¹⁸ Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

¹⁹ And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

²⁰ For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

I didn’t see anywhere in this scripture where The full armour of God includes a pistol. Some would come back with a cocky answer they didn’t have pistols in the Bible! Then what does verse 16 means when the Apostol Paul says:
¹⁶ Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

So what would a “fiery dart” be in today’s terms? What about a bullet fired out of a gun. You might could say that God isn’t smart enough to inspire Paul to write a passage that applies today’s world, but I think so. You see the wicked do not have their loins girt about with truth, the wicked do not have the breastplate of righteous, the wicked do not have their feet shrouded with the gospel of peace, the wicked do not have the shield of faith, the wicked do not have the helmet of salvation, the wicked do not have the sword of the Spirit, the Bible, their you have it, the Bible is your sword. All the wicked have are their “fiery darts”.

Have you ever seen a sigh that reads “My property is protected by Smith & Wesson” it’s meant to be funny but when you think about it this is rather sad where people place their faith. Winston Churchill once said; ” It takes courage to stand and speak and also takes courage to seat down and be quit.”. In today’s Trump world it takes more courage to say no I’m not carrying a pistol the full armour of God is all I need. Sad to say but if you say that at church today instead of Amen you will be laughed at.

Then there are people that the Apostol Paul refers to as the “feeble minded”. I once heard a “feeble minded” man say “I bought the sawed off shotgun because it looked like the gun Arnold Schwarzenegger had in Terminator Two”. He said that when he was on the stand for murdering his friend. In the jury room someone said the gun did look like the one from the movie. Looking back on it now the man could had said “Nothing touched the trigger but the Devil’s right hand.”

Where did I get an idea about having a blog about a song and making comments or to tell stories that has something to do with the song. Well today’s song is one of my inspirations for my blog.

A very long time ago, I don’t remember when, I went home after going to church. I turned on the TV and begun to flip through the channels, I don’t remember how many channels we had back then but it was a lot fewer than we have today. I stopped at a channel that was playing this Eagles song with the lyrics.

After the Thrill Is Gone

Eagles

Same dances in the same old shoes
Some habits that you just can’t lose
There’s no telling what a man might lose
After the thrill is gone

The flame rises but it soon descends
Empty pages and a frozen pen
You’re not quite lovers and you’re not quite friends
After the thrill is gone oh
After the thrill is gone

What can you do when your dreams come true
And it’s not quite like you planned?
What have you done to be losing the one
You held it so tight in your hand well

Time passes and you must move on,
Half the distance takes you twice as long
So you keep on singing for the sake of the song
After the thrill is gone

You’re afraid you might fall out of fashion
And you’re feeling cold and small
Any kind of love without passion
That ain’t no kind of lovin’ at all, well

Same dances in the same old shoes
You get too careful with the steps you choose
You don’t care about winning but you don’t want to lose
After the thrill is gone
After the thrill is gone
After the thrill is gone, oh
After the thrill is goneSongwriters: GLENN FREY,DON HENLEY

After the song was over a man came on and started to preach. That’s right this was a TV preacher and he was preaching on an Eagles song. Well when you look at the words,
Same dances in the same old shoes
Some habits that you just can’t lose
There’s no telling what a man might lose
After the thrill is gone

Ok when you start to think about you could compare to sin, how sin could be very fun at first, but after a while the thrill of that sin would leave and what would you have afterwards. I bet when Glenn and Don were writing this they had no idea of how really the words could be so profound. I now know for sure what the lyrics-
Time passes and you must move on,
Half the distance takes you twice as long

Turns out I could preach a sermon on those lines. I know remember if I watched till the end, but I always remember the preacher who was inspired by a song he heard on the radio and thought to himself that would make a good sermon. It might not be good to use a song for a sermon in church, but on TV I think that was a great idea. I always remembered what that preacher did with a song and as I was looking for a theme for my blog I remember what that now nameless preacher did with a simple song. I try to do as good a job when I attempt to make a sermon out of a simple song.

I have great news the homeless problem in America is almost over. It turns out that the Christian Trump supporters now have a great love for the poor and homeless of America. Yes it seems that the Republicans now have a deep love of the poor and homeless and are now with the Democrats to help all the poor and homeless here in our country. They love the poor and homeless so much, so when you listen to this song remember, its not going to be like that much longer in American because of all these Christian Trump supporters!

You may ask, Jeff where did you get this idea from? Well I got it from Face Book! That’s right Face Book it seems about all my Trump friends have something similar to what my former Sunday School posted yesterday, he had a picture of a homeless family sleeping in the streets and the caption read in big capital letters: THIS IS AN AMERICAN FAMILY LIVING ON AN AMERICAN STREET AND THE DEMOCRATS ARE OUTRAGED OVER THE TREATMENT OF THE ILLEGALS ! You see what mean these people love the homeless! I’m so proud that my former Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher loves the homeless so much I have an idea. Down the street on the corner is a large Assembly of God church and every Saturday a group from this church goes downtown and feed the homeless a meal. Maybe I should call him up and see if he wants to join them in feeding the homeless, since it turns out he now loves the homeless so much.

Is there anywhere in the Bible that could describe the love that Cristian Trump supporters have for the poor? Well it turns out there is a passage of scripture that describes these Trump people’s love to a tee. In the book of John chapter 12 being in verse 3 3.Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment, 4 Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who should betray him, 5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred denarii, and given to the poor? 6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bore what was put in it. 7 Then said Jesus,

Let her alone; for the day of my burial hath she kept this. 8 For the poor always ye have with you, but me ye have not always.

All the Trump supporters have the exact same love the poor and homeless as Judas Iscariot had. If your looking for a conservative Republican in the Bible, there is no better example than Judas Iscariot. He was good with money, and the disciples trusted him to be the treasure of the group. That’s what the verse that said he had the bag and bore what was put in it was referring to. Judas wasn’t a liberal with the groups money and like today he was conservative with his love. One would have to be deserving of his love. Just like today Conservative Christians don’t love just anyone, they only love those who are like them. Posts like the one above prove not their love for the poor and homeless all it does is show the whole world their hatred of Illegals, as they call them. From their posts it appears to me and most of the rest of the world that they believe God doesn’t love those nasty Illegals. God is so proud of them supporting Trump putting the Army on the border. Yes somewhere in there Bible, I can’t find this in mine Bible, Jesus commands Christians to send a army to stop other Christians. Of coarse they don’t believe that Catholics, which are the majority of the people they say are invaded our country, are not really Christians and these illegals are not praying to the same God they are. I’ll will have a post entirely on this subject soon. There’s one thing for sure they have noting but hate for these people. I have an idea for a new slogan for the Southern Baptist Board of Missions:

GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR COUNTRY WE’LL SEND YOU A MISSIONARY

We can vote on that slogan during the Southern Baptist Convention this summer I bet it would be approved. I know all my Trump Face Book friends will like it they may even post it on Face Book. Of coarse it will take them awhile to post it because their all out helping homeless people now.

But we do have one problem you know all those Trump worshippers who now love the poor and homeless so much? Well if you look at their other posts it seems on other posts not about the “illegals” they talk really bad about poor people in fact it almost seems from these other posts they hate poor people as much as they do “illegals”. It turns out they blame poor people for almost everything! Would they laugh at the poor? Find out on my next post where a audience full of good Christian people laugh at the poor.

Kindness, it seems, is something there’s not much of anymore. It shouldn’t be especially for Christians. The Apostol Paul instructs us in Ephesians chapter 4;
²⁹Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. ³⁰And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. ³¹Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: ³²And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Let’s look at this scripture verse by verse because their is a lot of important thoughts to study on. Starting with verse 29:
²⁹Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. What would be an example of corrupt communication? Well look at yesterday’s song. I discussed Donald Trump calling Congressman Adam Schiff, Adam Schitt. Would calling someone Schitt qualify as corrupt communication? I think so. Was this term used to edify (build up) Adam Schiff or was it to tear him down? Did the hearers believe Donald Trump was ministering grace unto them?
³⁰And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Grieving the holy Spirit is not a good thing to do and whereby ye are sealed, let’s just say your suppose to do good not evil. OK that’s greatly simplifying this verse but there are whole sermons on this verse so let’s just call that good for now.
³¹Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: There’s nothing complicated about this verse. These past two verses reminds me of a statement Mark Twain made once: ” It ain’t the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that brother’s me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” The hard part of this verse is not understanding it, the hard part is following this verse.
³²And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. When your trying to memorize Bible verses verse 32 is always a verse that’s close to the top of the list.

Since I went verse by verse on the scripture, the lyrics of todays song are written almost like scripture so I’m going to look at the lyrics the same way.

If you see your brother standing by the road
With a heavy load from the seeds he’s sowed
And if you see your sister falling by the way
Just stop and say, you’re going the wrong way

There’s a problem right from the start who’s calling these people my brother or sister. Calling someone your brother or sister is making them equal with you. The man standing by the road with a heavy load because of his own actions he is reaping what he sowed I shouldn’t help him. Maybe that’s what the Priest, in the story of the Good Samaritan, thought that the man lying beside the road was getting what he deserved so he passed him on the other side, leaving him to die. Was the Priest showing kindness, tenderheartness, or forgiveness? Besides being tenderhearted is like one of those bleeding heart liberals. That’s why this Priest is so proud to call himself a conservative, he doesn’t show kindness to someone who doesn’t deserve it. And if you see a woman, not your sister, falling by the way it’s none of your business to tell her she is going the wrong way. If you know the bridge is out, she will find that out for herself.

You got to try a little kindness
Yes show a little kindness
Just shine your light for everyone to see
And if you try a little kindness
Then you’ll overlook the blindness
Of narrow-minded people on the narrow-minded streets

Should you try a little kindness then everyone will see you and you don’t want that! Shine your light why would you want to shine your light, what and show the world that your a bleeding heart liberal? Why should you do that? Because Jesus said in Matthew 5:16

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

And if you try a little kindness then you’ll overlook the blindness of narrow-minded people on the narrow-minded streets. The leading cause of blindness among conservatives is hate. What about people south of the border they won’t show them an once of kindness. And what about being “tenderhearted” how hard of a heart does one have that would not show kindness to these people? Narrow-minded people only show kindness to people who look like them, talk like them, believe like them, and most important people who vote like them. Their kindness must be earned.

Don’t walk around the down and out
Lend a helping hand instead of doubt
And the kindness that you show every day
Will help someone along their way

Don’t walk around the down and out. You don’t have to show kindness if your not around anyone who needs kindness. I’ll say a lot more in a couple days when the song of the day will be Phil Collins Another Day in Paradise. And the kindness that you show EVEREY DAY will help someone along their way. Did you noticed that Glen on today’s video changed the words along their way to along life’s way? I like that change of words after all isn’t that’s what Jesus wants us to do help others along life’s way? And remember:

³²And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you