But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6: 33
It has been well documented that people who hit the Lottery generally have bad things happen to them, Yet so many people (Sources say) continue to play the Lottery and gamble with their discretionary income and too often their bill monies. I can understand it when stubborn people do it, but I don’t understand when faith people do it. I really don’t.
IS THIS LOTTERY CURSE REAL?
Well let’s talk about some former Lottery winners and what happened to them. According to official reports Kenneth and Connie Parker hit the Big Jackpot. They won Twenty five million. For most people that’s much more than they could ever hope for. But for the Parkers; it affected their life in a horrible unplanned way. Their marriage of sixteen years fell apart within months.
Sources say that about five years ago, Jack Whittaker won the Jackpot. His was different. It was the largest to ever be claimed in the history of this country. Three hundred million. He was extremely optimistic when he won. However, things didn’t go too well. He experienced great hardship. His granddaughter Brandi died of a drug overdose. It was reported that he was especially close to her. His marriage broke up too. In fact, when sources interviewed his former wife; she lamented that if she had known of the calamity that lay ahead, she’d have torn the ticket up. He was quoted as saying the very same thing.
I’m sure that you’ve heard the story of 20 million dollar winner Jeffrey Dampier who was murdered and kidnapped by his sister-in-law. Whoa!
In December, 2006; Wayne A. Schenk, according to reports was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. The treatment that he needed to save his life would cost 400,000. One month later, he won a million dollar jackpot off of a scratch off ticket. He thought that his problems were over. He contacted the New York State Lottery Commission to request his monies to be paid in a lump sum. Unfortunately, they couldn’t do that. They could only pay him $50,000 a year according to sources. With a force of friends, family, financial institutions and a state assemblyman behind him to change the law; nothing happened before he married his girlfriend and died.
Lottery winner Bud Post of Pennsylvania was nearly murdered for his money when his brother reportedly hired a hit-man to kill him in an attempt to get his cash.
Victoria Zell won the lottery in Minnesota but soon landed in jail after being found guilty on multiple counts of vehicular homicide.
And Texan lottery winner Billie Bob Harrell sadly ended his own life after out-of-control spending sprees and an affair left him deeply in debt and divorced.
* Daryl LePage, certified financial planner, on challenges that lottery winners face — “When you win a large sum of money, you would think that your problems go away. In reality, a new set of problems come in.”
* Michael Carroll on losing his family after winning the lottery — “In some ways I think to myself if I had never won, I might still have my wife and daughter.”
* Kelly Muncaster, Michael Carroll’s aunt — “Living life in a goldfish bowl, people are watching your every move and all the time making things up. I mean its destroyed our family completely.”
* Robyn Newton, winner of the Superlotto in California — “I still have a constant fear that it’s going to change us, but I think an awful lot of people would slap us down if we started to wander around big headed about it.”
* Wesley Newtown, husband of Robyn Newton — “A lot of people get into drugs and everything but you got to think about the long haul. We want to be healthy. We want to be able to enjoy our lives. Now when I see the fanciest car every driving by I think I could buy that. But I don’t want to.”
* Susan Bradley, certified financial planner and sudden money expert, on winning the lottery — “Everyone thinks it’s a problem they’d love to have. Most people don’t realize the complexity and the challenges. And if you don’t respect the complexities, you can run into some pretty big, big problems.”
* Susan Bradley on the best way to claim a winning lottery ticket — “One of the first things a lottery winner should do in a perfect world is not claim the ticket in their name. You can form a blind trust, and you can have the lottery winnings put into the trust.”
* Michael Begin, certified financial planner — “If you’re miserable with 10 dollars, you’ll be miserable with a million dollars.”
Despite all of these mounting facts; people will still want to win the Lottery, not know what to do with it when they get it and allow the money to ruin their lives. They’ll continue to do with the money the same thing that they see “a majority” of celebrities do; spend it unwisely with no great regard for those around them and many times even themselves. These people who win seem to have no clear plan in place; they just sort of “plan” to play it by ear. We’re praying for them to get some wisdom and the curse to end. The best plan is to avoid it all together.
I truly believe that Wayne A. Schenk was a victim of a system that’s out of control. I don’t expect this writing to be popular. But think carefully before you “wish” or even “pray” to win the Lottery. It’s not only a curse but run by bureaucracies who have decided that it’s a great revenue builder. It’s a gift if you win with no strings attached. They don’t require that you take financial counseling or offer you protection or advice based on prior cases.
There are loads of names and cases and the bad outweigh the good. My only purpose for presenting it is not to offend you. I realize that this is the world’s way of doing things. Some are overt with their gambling and some are covert. I don’t know which is worse. Losing is losing and it seems like even the winners lose.
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THE POINT HERE IS A WARNING; TO BE CAREFUL NOT TO CHASE AFTER RICHES. JUST REMEMBER WHAT GOD SAID:
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6: 33
ARTICLE OF INTEREST: IN THE VALLEY OF JOEL 3: 14
Outpouring! Faith Center 