Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD...Psalms 150

The Deck of Cards

It was quiet that day, on the trail. The cattle and the other Cowboys relaxing after a long, dusty day, and even the coyotes for some reason hadn't been heard. The young ranch hand knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week.

As he was sitting there, leg thrown up around his saddle horn, he laid out an old bandana and began to shuffle through an old worn out deck of cards.

Just about then, the Trail Boss rode up and said, "Why aren't you with the others gettin' ready to ride Night Hawk on the herd?

The Cowboy replied, "Since it isn't dusk yet, I thought I would sit here for a few minutes and spend some time with the Lord."

The Trail Boss said, "Looks to me like you're plannin' to play you some cards."

The Cowboy said, "No, sir. You see, since I don't have a sure 'nuff Bible or other spiritual book, I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this here deck of cards."

The Trail Boss asked in disbelief, "Now, how you gonna do that, with a deck of playin' cards?"

"You see that Ace, Boss Man? It reminds me that there is only one God.

The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.

The Three represents the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Four stands for the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Five is for the five virgins that were ten, but only five of them were glorified.

The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.

The Seven is for the day God rested after making His Creation.

The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives - the eight people God spared from the flood that destroyed the earth.

The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed ten, but nine never came back and thanked Him.

The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.

The Jack is a reminder of ol' slewfoot, Satan, one of God's angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his lyin', wicked ways, and is now the Joker of eternal hell, destined for The Lake of Fire.

Now, the Queen stands for the Virgin Mary, Jesus' Maw.

And the King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.

Now this is really something. When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year.

There are a total of 52 cards in a deck; each is a week - 52 weeks in a year.

The four suits represent the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Each suit has thirteen cards - there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter.

So, when I want to talk to God and Thank Him for all He's doin' and done for me, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for"

The Trail Boss just stood there for a moment and listened as The Holy Spirit spoke to his heart. After a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, "Hand, can I borrow that deck of cards?"