Poker …

My friend Randy Bradshaw recently used the term “all in” and it immediately sparked a visual of the highly popular televised poker games you see on late night television. Both playing and watching poker has become increasingly popular across the country. And nothing is more captivating about the game as when a player goes “all in” … bets everything on a single hand. The drama is palpable as everyone waits to see: has the gamble paid off, or has the player lost everything?

Living life as a Christian isn’t a game or a gamble. The final outcome is guaranteed by God. But to participate, each person has to go “all in,” we have to give back to God the entirety of the lives He has given us. Jesus stated this “all in” commitment this way in Matthew 22:37-38, “Jesus replied, ‘”You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”’ This is the first and greatest commandment,” and Paul put it in these terms in Philippians 3:8-11, “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”

So how about you: when it comes to your Christian walk, are you hedging your bets, or have you gone “all in”?

Scotty