I have made no qualms about my objections against the Integrated Resort (IR) project in Singapore, and it's no secret that I have been praying against it since the idea was first mooted in parliament and subsequently approved by our Government.
I therefore celebrate and thank God when this news came in last evening, hot from the oven. I believe in time to come, the IRs will fail, even before they have a chance to take root, because that's what I have committed to the Lord.
Many may rebuke me for taking such a negative and deep-rooted stance against the IR, and indirectly our esteemed Government. Think of the jobs that will be created and the economic growth that the IRs will bring about. Shouldn't such archaic reasoning be put aside for the overall good of our nation, especially since the Government of Singapore has taken meticulous steps to mitigate the negative effects of gambling, for example, through the establishment of the National Council on Problem Gambling?
In some matters, we just don't compromise. Matthew 21:12-13 says:
Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"
Our Lord Jesus Christ did not go on a crusade to drive profiteers from temple grounds all over the world, but when He came across one such scene, He did not dispense with political correctness. He drove those hawkers away. Period. I think it's case of obeying God rather than men, and Jesus made it a point to stand firm on that.
Likewise, I am no anti-casino crusader, if that means to campaign globally against casinos and gambling. Don't get me wrong. I am through and through against gambling, wherever that may take place. I am just as against casinos breeding in the backyard of a country tens of thousands of miles away, as I am against one in Singapore. But I don't pretend that I can drive out gambling all over the world, just as I can't drive out pornography and sexual immorality all over the world. But where I live, I can and will make a choice to campaign against it. I didn't choose to live in Sodom like Lot did. I didn't choose to be born here in Singapore either. But since my houseshold and I live here, I can choose to take a stand about what's acceptable, and what's not, according to Word of God, and make that stand known. And quite frankly, the day we pledged our allegiance to God, to take up His offer of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, we undertook to stand firmly on His laws for life, because we appreciate what He's gone through to redeem us from the penalty of sin, and we don't want to trivialize or negate that by flowing along with the world.
Economists and pro-Government elements may stone me for all I care, but this still needs to be said. At the end of the day, it comes down to the measure we use to define what is good. Is economic growth (read: money) a good measure of what's good? I personally don't think so. Money doesn't tell the full picture. A million dollars gained at the expense of a few families and lives destroyed. What good is that? How good is that? If lives are just a statistic, then they are hopelessly insignificant against the trillions of money and debt floating in the world. But all the world, with its wealth and resources, cannot bring a dead person back to life. So tell me, which ought to be more significant, mammon or life?
Thousands of years ago, Moses told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30:19-20
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
With life comes blessings, and with death, curses. If we seek the blessings but not life, if we seek prosperity without God, the "blessings" that cometh are no more a foretaste of the death that awaits us. So, choose life today, that we may live and be truly blessed by God.
In His Love,
Thomas
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