He comes through again!

As we've mentioned in so many posts, both here and at my Convenient Truth blog, the story of The Lord's Rain has been one of God's provision. He has intended for this project to happen from the get-go, and even at times when the world might say it couldn't happen, He's done something to prove the world wrong.

Some years ago, the Lord told me I was not to have anything to do with gambling -- and that included receiving money from gaming revenue. I'll go into the minutiae of that in another post, but for now, let's just say that gambling is an all-you-can-eat buffet of Things That Offend God -- lust, greed, laziness and the absence of faith represented by putting more trust in the turn of a card than in God to provide our needs. As for the revenue, because gambling is an addiction, the proceeds can hardly be said to have been given willingly to a church or other organization. It's been taken, and in many ways, the whole system profits from human misery.

Kenneth Copeland put it quite finely when he said that gambling cannot be ordained by God, because gambling involves losing, and God would never ordain something where somebody loses.

A couple of years ago, a particular church supported the work I was doing on the Downtown East Side. One day, I looked at the cheque and did a double-take. It was written on the church's "gaming revenue account". I told the church as politely as I could that I was not allowed to accept that money and I laid out my reasons. They piously declared they would respect my wishes.

Then one of my helpers -- who's still associated with that same church -- started receiving money to purchase food for Gospel Mission and our Saturday night services in particular. I had my suspicions about the source of the money but I have to confess, I did nothing out of fear of a variety of things. Finally -- a couple of months ago -- the Lord got in my face about it, so I swallowed hard and told my helper that if the money was, indeed, from gaming revenue, he would have to tell the church, thanks-but-no-thanks.

Why did I swallow hard? Because the enemy -- the world -- was nattering at me that I was putting the Mission in jeopardy ... that we were already having financial struggles, so I shouldn't blow off a source of income like that ... but I declared -- and did so in an email to our supporters -- that God would provide.

Immediately, someone else stepped forward and said she'd re-direct her tithe to pay for the groceries. There was a period when things looked a bit bleak -- darkest before the dawn, as they say -- and then donations started coming in: big ones and small ones, as God tapped people on the shoulder to help.

And this happens as we get an object lesson in how dangerous it is to rely on gaming money. The BC government is 'reviewing' its gaming grant programs. This morning's Vancouver Sun reports that a total of $77 million will be shed from the pot, meaning organizations -- groups that do some big things for their communities -- will have to make do with less.

I thank God that He warned us not to accept that money and that we heeded the warning; but I say that not out of smugness or self-righteousness: we could very easily have fallen out of faith and continued receiving the gaming revenue and even applied for a grant of our own. I pray that the Lord will help meet the needs of those organizations that are struggling and even that they, too, will turn to Him to be their Provider. He did it for us - He can do it for them, and the thing I've learned from The Lord's Rain is that you only have to ask.

One further note: the amount the province has set aside for grants out of gaming revenue is $139 million. The BC Lottery Corporation website states the government received almost $1.1 billion last year. You do the math.