September 8th, 2003, I just went to the store to buy some lottery tickets at a convenience store in Moose Lake named "The Little Store". There are 2 of these stores named "The Little Store" in our town. One sells "Conoco" gas, the other sells Phillips 66 gas. Which one do you suppose I went to today? I have been buying lottery tickets regularly since about 3 months ago. I usually never buy them except for on special drawings where the jackpot gets enormously large. It's a waste of money I thought, but you never know. You can't win if you don't buy a ticket. I would usually buy 5 dollars worth, and I would never even hit 1 number, let alone the 6 it takes to get the Big Prize. So far in all of my time buying tickets, I have won twice. I have hit just the power ball number only which pays 3 dollars. After a few weeks of buying the tickets, I thought all you really need to win is 1 ticket. So I started buying only 1 ticket. If you have faith, that is all it would take. Then I thought, well since the 2's have been coming, I might as well stick with the program and so I started buying 2 and not only 2 for the Power Ball but 2 for the Hot Lotto as well. I thought 2 tickets for 2 drawings that happen on the same day sounds about right. And I have been buying them this way for the last 2 months never giving up hope. I never get discouraged when I lose.

(I know this may sound like a bad message about gambling, but God blesses people, he wants you to be exceedingly fruitful; especially those who tithe correctly in giving God the first 10 percent of their fruits. That would mean 10 percent off the top of all your increase, not off the net, but off of the gross. I know this and He knows that I know this. One lottery winner I heard about who was also very faithful in giving tithes, hit like 143 million. After taxes he took home about half of that. What do you think he tithed to the church; 14.3 million, not the 7 million which would be 10 percent of what was left over after taxes. God doesn't want your money nor does He need it. Everything is His already. He wants to test you in your faith in Him that He will provide for you what you need. He says this only once in the entire bible where you can actually test Him, otherwise you should never test God. �For you do not want to test God except for in this one scripture.)Winning the lottery is a very interesting idea. It could cause many hardships. The Love of money is the root of all evil and one who gets riches would and could rely on those riches instead of God. So I do with warning, say to you all, seek not to be rich, for riches will fail. The reason I was trying to win money from the lottery was to use this money for the CrossFest gatherings and concerts at the 7 points along the cross God showed to me. Now I do not know if the Lord would pay for that in this fashion or in another fashion. But when I was a brand new Christian I read a story in a book about testimonies and on page 153 of that book I read about a story of a man who won the lottery twice! Now that is odd, and when he was asked a question about how blessed he was to have won it twice he said, "I was already blessed". Well after reading that story, I thought maybe, just maybe, that God wanted to use that to finance the CrossFest. It hasn't happened, and I guess I am grateful that it hasn't. It is easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than for him to get into heaven. Meaning that the money will cause you to trust not in God, and that would be a very bad thing.

Malachi 3:10 Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, said the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.�

How big is God's store house? Do you think there is enough room for your tithe? Do you think he really needs your money? It is a test. Do you think you have enough room for God's blessing? When he says he is going to pour you out a blessing, you had better get ready for something big. And here is the good part, "PROVE ME NOW HEREWITH" - This literally means that it is ok to test him in this. POUR YOU OUT A BLESSING - hmmmmm?� Have you thought about this, God pouring out his blessing? Imagine if you will, God holding a pitcher of lemonade, and you're thirsty. You're very thirsty. And you hold out a cup and it is about to be filled by God with some of the best tasting lemonade that you have ever drank. Do you think God is going to pour you out a half cup? No! God is not only going to fill that cup, but it will run over, for His pitcher is as big as the universe itself. And that lemonade will taste even better than you could possibly imagine.� I just had a mental image of some thirsty old man in the desert holding a cup. As he stands there yearning for just one glass of lemonade as his lips are cracked and dry from the sun's heat in the middle of a desert, this "tsunami tidal wave" of lemonade just knocks him over and he is now sitting in a pool of it. That is how I interpret God's blessing being poured down from Heaven.

(Malachi 3:10 - 3/10 by the way happens to be the date that I started working for the prison system.) The blessings of God come in many ways. Not just monetarily. So if you understand the concept of tithes and you put God first with the first 10 percent, not if you happen to have 10 percent left over after you have paid all your bills and are financially ok, you can expect blessings; a "pouring out" of blessings. And God will give you a perfect blessing that you may not have even thought of. It may not be money, but for some it could be. There are far better things He could give you than money. I would rather God have a blessed 10 percent of my money and me a blessed 90 percent, than an unblessed 100 percent.) �Are you ready to be knocked over by a tsunami tidal wave of a blessing? Go ahead, make His day. He tells you that you can do this. Test Him, be happy to give and hold on to your cup really tight!

So I go to the store and I am going to buy my usual 2 and 2. But during the last drawing, of which I hit like "zero numbers", I noticed that the Gopher 5 drawing was to be called on 9/9/03. That will be 2 days before the anniversary of 9/11/01. That date is significant for many Americans and especially me; because it was one of the main reasons I started looking toward God for answers. Hmmmm I thought. Gopher 5 for one and the Vikings just won their first game by 5 points. There's 2 instances of 5's. So my original intention was to buy 5 dollars worth of tickets; 2 Power Ball, 2 Hot Lotto like I have been doing and 1 Gopher 5 ticket. But when I was at the store I saw a new sign that said, "Buy a $10 dollar Power Ball ticket - you could win a $30,000 trip for 2 to the ultimate football game on February 1st!"

Now mind you, I was just writing about the Minnesota Vikings game that I had just watched yesterday. So all of this was fresh in my head, and I know what I prayed for as far as the Vikings having a successful season, so what do you think I did? I bought 10 Power Ball tickets this time, 2 Hot Lotto tickets, and 1 Gopher 5 ticket. 1 loaf of bread and a bought a "buy 1 get 1 free" pack of cigarettes; yuck and yes I still smoke - Ugh! Soon Lord, Soon! The total came to $17.76. That is a pretty significant number for all Americans. Oh and get this, the lady behind the counter looked at the drawings for the prize, there were 5 drawing dates. She said, "I should buy one and submit it for the 2nd drawing, it is on my birthday!" I told that same lady a few months ago that when I win the big prize, not if I win, that I would tip her very well. On the back of the flyer it says that the Lottery will select a minimum of 2 winners in each of the 5 drawings. You will spend the day with former football great Lynn Swann and win a lot of other nice stuff. He has 2 N's next to each other in both of his names. That would be a fun day especially if the Vikings were to be there playing in it. The game will be held in Houston, Texas this year. That is where the preacher Joel Osteen preaches. I have listened to many of his CD's and I have learned through him how to thank God the Father for His favor in Jesus name and all other things in my life. His website is also how God revealed to me to get the domain name for this book to be shown online in the World Wide Web because his web site also uses the .cc extension. I filled out the coupon just now and said a prayer in Jesus name and I asked the Father for favor over that ticket entry. We shall see! Isn't this fun! Thank you Father!
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
There are many ways that one could be rewarded. If I thought that God was going to make me rich with money, then I think I would need to go back to the drawing board. I am pretty sure that God wants me to know of His blessings without using money and for me to not care about money in ways that I used to. For money has a way of controlling you in ways that are not of God's ways. Money won't buy me or you happiness and peace. Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's. God will provide for His children as He sees fit.

September 9th, 2003 I didn't hit any numbers on the Gopher 5 drawing. However, I would like to note that the first 2 numbers listed were 09, 11; which happens to be just 2 days away.

September 10th, 2003 The other 2 drawings that I had bought lottery tickets for took place today; The Power Ball and The Hot Lotto. I won on both of them! And in exactly the same way. In the Power Ball, I won 4 dollars by hitting 1 number - 17 and also getting the Power Ball number of 34. In the Hot Lotto I won 3 dollars by hitting 1 number - 30 and the Hot Ball number of 1. So now I have doubled the amount of times that I have won anything in the lottery.