Cards, Church, Casino

"The Deck of Cards" is a 60 year old song about a young American soldier arrested and charged with playing cards during a church service. The song became a hit in 1948 by T. Texas Tyler.

It has also been recorded by Phil Harris, Tex Ritter, Wink Martindale, Max Bygraves, Bill Anderson, Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart, Merle Travis, The Persuasions, Hank Williams and Dick Curless.



"You see, sir, when I look at the Ace, it reminds me that there is but one God.

And the deuce reminds me that the bible is divided into two parts: the Old and the New Testaments.

When I see the trey, I think of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And when I see the four, I think of the four evangelists who preached the Gospel: there was Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

And when I see the five, it reminds me of the five wise virgins who trimmed their lamps; there were ten of them: five were wise and were saved, five were foolish and were shut out.

When I see the six, it reminds me that in six days God made this heaven and earth.

And when I see the seven, it reminds me that on the seventh day, God rested from his great work.

And when I see the eight, I think of the eight righteous persons that God saved when he destroyed the earth: there was Noah, his wife, their sons and their wives.

And when I see the nine, I think of the lepers our saviour cleansed, and that nine of the ten didn't even thank him.

When I see the ten, I think of the ten commandments that God handed down to Moses on a tablet of stone.



When I see the King, it reminds me that there is but one King of Heaven, God Almighty.

And when I see the Queen, I think of the blessed Virgin Mary who is the Queen of Heaven.

And the Jack or Knave is the Devil.

When I count the number of spots in a deck of cards, I find 365, the number of days in a year.
There are 52 cards, the number of weeks in a year.
There are four suits, the number of weeks in a month.
There are twelve picture cards, the number of months in a year.
There are thirteen tricks, the number of weeks in a quarter.

Lynching

After his debut as director in 2002, Denzel Washington goes on to direct his second movie, The Great Debaters in 2007. The movie uses the power of words.

The faulty assumption, classic fallacy. "The unemployed are starving" Mr Burgess is unemployed, but he is not starving.

The irony in the name Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
Bethlehem is the birthplace of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Bethlehem Steel Corp makes weapon of war.

Who is the judge?
The judge is God.
Why is he God?
Because he decides who wins or loses, not my opponent.
Who is your OPPONENT?
He does not exist.
Why doesn't he EXIST?
Because he is just a dissenting voice to the truth I speak.

When a hungry Negro steals a chicken, he goes to jail.
When a rich business man steal bonds, he goes to Congress.

The movie also mentioned "lynching" originated from Willie Lynch, a white slave owner and a mysterious 18th century businessman. He developed the process of breaking a slave, a technique for taming and subduing a man to behave like a slave similar to the process of taming a wild horse.

Human Fallacy

A bus full of passengers was traveling on a hilly road in China.
Midway through the journey, 3 armed thugs who were eyeing the pretty woman bus driver forced the bus to stop.

The woman driver shouted for help, but all the passengers just kept quiet in fear.

Then a weakly looking middle-aged man came forth to ask the 3 men to stop; but he was instead beaten up. The man was very angry and appealed loudly to the other passengers to stop this uncivilized act but nobody responded.

And the driver was dragged by the 3 men to the bushes nearby.

An hour later, the 3 thugs and the ruffled driver came back to the bus and the driver is ready to drive off again.

But before doing so, the woman driver shouted to the man who tried to assist her earlier to get off the bus. The man was bewildered and said: 'What's wrong with you? I was trying to help you just now and was I wrong in doing so?"

The man was really angry. Even though he did not have the ability to save her, he should not be given this treatment at all. He refused to get down the bus and said; 'I paid for the trip and I have the right to remain.'

What was unexpected was that the passengers, who were oblivious to the barbaric act of the thugs just now, suddenly woke up and in a concerted effort asked the man to get down the bus saying:
'You might as well get off the bus, we have things to attend to and cannot afford anymore delays!'

A few stronger passengers then dragged the man down the bus and his luggage thrown out the bus window.

The bus started on its journey again. The driver tidied up her hair and turned the radio to full volume. The bus was reaching the hill top and will go downhill after a turn.

The bus gathered speed gradually and the driver's face was very calm with both hands on the steering wheel. Tears started to swell in her eyes.

One of the thug realised something was amiss and said to the driver:
'Drive slowly, what are you trying to do ?'

The driver said nothing, but the bus travelled faster and faster.
The thug tried to grab hold of the steering wheel, but the bus shoot off the cliff like an arrow leaving the bow.

The next day, the local paper reported a tragic accident about the bus plunging off the cliff and the driver and the 13 passengers were all killed. The man who was chased down the bus saw the paper and cried.

The Tablecloth, Chain Mail

A church was very run down and needed much work. The pastor set a goal to have everything done in time to have their service on Christmas Eve.

On December 19 a heavy rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall, about head high.

The pastor cleaned up the mess not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, and headed home.

On the way he noticed a flea market for charity so he stopped to take a look. He saw a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.

Near the church he saw an older woman running from the opposite direction, trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later.

She sat on the bench and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder to hang up the tablecloth to cover the broken wall.

The woman walked down the aisle her face was pale as a sheet and asked, "Pastor, where did you get that tablecloth?"
The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were embroidered there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.

The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria.
When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was captured, sent to prison never to be seen again.

The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home as she lived on the other side of Brooklyn.

On Christmas Eve, the church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they had a good time.

But an older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood continued to sit and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, and knocked on the door.

What the pastor saw was the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.

A touching story which has been around for a long time and the details have changed over time. It is now made into a chain letter. The story originated in the December 1954 issue of Reader's Digest.

And more recently, the tale was published as "The Gold and Ivory Tablecloth" in Christmas in My Heart: A timeless Treasury of Heartwarming Stories, the first in a best-selling series of inspirational books by Dr. Joe Wheeler.