Deck Of Cards

[Rev. Gregory Kensbock]

Deck of Cards

It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn't been heard.

The young Marine knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week.

As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk.

Just then his sergeant came in and said, 'Why aren't you with the rest of the platoon?'

The Marine replied, 'I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord'

The sergeant said, 'Looks to me like you 're going to play cards.'

The Marine said, 'No, sir. You see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country, I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards.'

The sergeant asked in disbelief, 'How will you do that?'

'You see the Ace, Sergeant? It reminds me that there is only one God.

The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.

The Three represents the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Four stands for the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Five is for the five virgins there were ten but only five of them were glorified.

The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.

The Seven is for the day God rested after making His Creation.

The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives -- the eight people God spared from the flood that destroyed the Earth.

The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy.. He cleansed ten, but nine never thanked Him.

The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.

The Jack is a reminder of Satan, one of God's first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the Joker of eternal hell.

The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.

The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.

When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year.

There are a total of 52 cards in a deck; each is a week - 52 weeks in a year.

The four suits represent the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Each suit has thirteen cards -- there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter.

So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for.'

The sergeant just stood there. After a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, 'Marine, can I borrow that deck of cards?'

Please let this be a reminder and take time to pray for all of our Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Coast Guard men who are being sent away, putting their lives on the line fighting for Freedom.

Prayer for the Military.

Lord,

Hold our troops in your loving hands.

Protect them.

Bless them and their families.

I ask this in the name of Jesus,

our Lord and Savior.

Amen.

My Son sent this to me he is in the Tenth Mountain Div.

[Eaglebishopat]

Needless to say the Lord does work in wonder. For the last month the words to this prayer and song have been wandering around in my head. Of course I couldn’t remember all the words as at my age “senile” comes to mind but thanks for the words Now if I can find who sang it and the music I can practice it and maybe someday sing it at one of the events I promote or with other teams.

Thank you

Pastor Pat

[RevRainbow]

The song was written by T. Tyler in 1948. There are three renditions, Tex Ritter (1948), Wink Martindale (1959) and Bill Anderson (1991). You can get more info on Snopes.com and the melody is out there for downloading. Google Deck of Cards. Peace.

[Rev. Gregory Kensbock]

Thanks for the info, I wondered were my son found that!

[Reverend Daniel]

That was wonderful and they're in my prayers every night.

[RevElkins]

A pretty amazing thought; especially when one considers the fact that at one time decks of cards were considered "sinful" and in fact, "products of the Devil" since they led into the temptations of gambling; which led to other "un-Godly acts"....hey, I'm just paraphrasing here - but I can recall a catechism teacher telling us that gambling was bad; a deck of cards contained Satin himself; and all sorts of bad things would happen. I remember asking how could playing "slap-jack" or old maid be bad; but then again, I was only 8 at the time...another time I got sent out into the hallway. No wonder my views became so skewed...I spent most of my time out in the hallway.

Anyway - great thinking...I love it.