Josiah Concept Ministries

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

There was a time in my life when I would have looked at this page and laughed so hard that I fell right out of my chair. Then I would have sent the link to all of my friends so that they could have a laugh too, and then we would continue on our merry way.

Knowing the reality of spiritual warfare and seeing the delusions that folks cling to working on the apologetic front lines the way I do, however, makes a page like that (even one with a ridiculous claim like that one) very difficult to ignore.

I sneer at the claim that ordinary playing cards could bring fatal illness to someone. I scoff at the notion that financial and spiritual discourse could be caused by an ordinary, $1.50 pack of cards. At least I did at first. Now, I’m beginning to rethink that reaction in light of Romans 14:1-4.

For me personally, a deck of cards causes no ill feelings, no discomfort, no spiritual strain. In the context of Romans 14, I’m the guy who believes I can eat anything. But, in the case of the person who is caused angst and torture by the presence of those very same cards, they are the person who eats only vegetables. Or, in that case, who should eat only vegetables. For that guy, the cards cause spiritual trauma and thus should be removed quickly from his life.

I have been there, though. I’ve clung to harmful things (such as the Buddy Christ icon or bitterness to a good friend), choosing rebellion against God over life in Christ. Letting go of that bitterness and deleting all of the Buddy Christ pictures, however, have boosted this ministry in ways that I hadn’t imagined that they could. I may be on my way to doing this full time within a few years, maybe less.

As verse 4 states, I have no room to pass judgment on the servant of another. If that particular servant is vexed by the presence of playing cards, then that person should get rid of them for good. And not only that, as his brother in Christ, I should be respectful enough to not laugh at him for doing so, and I should make sure that no one plays cards around him.

So, is the claim of the devil using playing cards as a point of contact in someone’s life ridiculous? Personally, I think that whole page is a little bit on the extreme side. I’m not going to give up playing cards; not that I play much, anyway–I really don’t like card games. The fact that most human beings with an ounce of reason in their being would read that particular page and completely dismiss it as a joke, or use it as evidence that Christians have lost their minds, however, is more of a reason for concern.

It is precisely the utterly ridiculous notion of playing cards being used as a demonic point of contact that makes them such an inconspicuous weapon for the enemy to use! I’ve said elsewhere that the two mistakes people commonly make regarding demons is to ascribe them too much power, and to not ascribe them enough power (demons are equally pleased with both errors). Trivializing their ability to creep into our lives in unexpected ways would be a grave error, and my initial reaction to this article as silly would be part of that error. In spiritual warfare, no stone can be left unturned when searching for demonic influence.

Is that insight relevant to just playing cards? I don’t think so!! The enemy could use any object in our houses to which we ascribe any sort of devotion.

Therefore, I will be reading more of Jocelyn’s content regarding cleaning our houses of points of contact. I’ll post some more thoughts on that front, as I also work on some new articles.