The Deadly Hand

It was the nearly dark as James entered the room , over in the corner a poker game was getting ready to start. James joined in the poker game looking to beat the other players out of their hard-earned money. In this worldly realm it was just another poker game, with only money at stake, but in the spiritual realm the stakes was very much higher. In the worldly realm the opponents were only a couple of miners, a rancher, and a card shark from St. Louis; but in the spiritual realm sitting across from James was the most cunning trickster known to man. James was dealt his first card, it was an ace, and the next two cards were eights. The forth card was another ace. James was pleased with his hand ,two pair ,aces and eights. As James, better known as Wild Bill Hickok, looked over his hand ,he knew he had his opponents beat; But that diabolic trickster in the spiritual realm had the winning card. As Wild Bill was ready to play his hand ,Satan played the card of death on another unprepared sinner. Wild Bill Hickok died from a gun shot wound to the back of the head, still clutching aces and eights, the dead man’s hand in his cold numb fingers.

If you are playing a game of sin with the devil, putting off serving God until it’s convenient for you; you had better watch out: you are holding aces and eights and Satan has the card of death.