MORNING DEW: 22-10-2018
TOPIC: LOTTO IS AN ACT OF COVETOUSNESS, AVOID IT (PART TWO)
TEXT: COLOSSIANS 3:5-6
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.”
A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers for a prize. Lotteries are outlawed by some governments, while others, like Ghana, endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. Lotteries come in many formats.
HISTORY OF LOTTO
The first recorded signs of a lottery are keno slips from the Chinese Han Dynasty between 205 and 187 BC.
The first known European lotteries were held during the Roman Empire, mainly as an amusement at dinner parties.
Lotteries were first tied directly to the United States in 1612, when King James I (1566-1625) of England created a lottery to provide funds to Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent British settlement in North America.
TYPES OF LOTTERY
There are four types of lottery events which are permitted at a bazaar:
- WHEELS OF FORTUNE
A gambling or lottery device consisting of a wheel which is spun horizontally in order to determine, by its stopping position, whether the gambler will receive one of the prizes marked around its circumference.
In Ghana, our banking sector and some cooperate entities practice this lottery.
- BINGO
Bingo is a game of chance for two or more players, who mark off numbers on a grid as they are announced by the caller; the game is won by the first person to call out “bingo!” or “house!” after crossing off all numbers on the grid or in one line of the grid.
We can talk of bet in the game of football, where most of the youth are engaged in.
- RAFFLE
Raffle is a game of dice in which the player who throws three of the same number wins all the stakes.
This is what in Ghana we call “two sure”. People spend their time working this lottery, using their resources. Most of them become more poor due to their constant stakes.
- PENNY SALE
A penny sale is a giant raffle. Raffle tickets are a penny each, sold in sheets of 25 or in bags of 500. You choose to play these tickets on any of the approximately 200 to 300 prizes displayed.
Special raffles for higher priced items have included electronics, such as iPads, Nooks and TVs; a Half Cord of Firewood; Gas Cards; a collection of Gift Cards valued from $200 to $400; a Handmade Quilt; Baskets of Cheer; and many more.
In Ghana, the Service Providers; MTN, Vodafone, Zain, Airtel-Tigo, Glo, practice this lottery. They give people chance to answer questions and in the process or end of the sales, prizes are given to winners.
Banks also do this in Ghana, the highest deposits get various prizes. This boost their business.
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.” (Colossians 3:5-6).
Beloved, lottery is a form of covetousness and covetousness is idolatry per our text, which is an abomination before God, which means lottery is also an abomination before God.
Avoid it before God avoids you.
Prayer: Forgive me Lord, for I was acting out of ignorance, henceforth, no more covetousness, in Jesus’ Name!
Amen!
Rev. John Wundengba
0209422159
