Game of Chess ca. 1990s
All of us love when we have time for leisure activities. We need a form of leisure in our lives because it provides us a break away from our jobs and other daily tasks. There are many things that we do to occupy ourselves during our times of leisure such as read books, meditate, pray, rest or play various types of games.
Today, the playing of arcade, gaming systems and or regular computer games are dominating what this generation is doing during their leisure time. It’s not a bad thing because their minds are still being stimulated while playing these types of games. Even during leisure, the mind is still learning to which we must take advantage by teaching our children and others how to play a few games that will help them understand more about the Word of God. Checkers and Chess are two games that are excellent learning and teaching tools to utilize in helping others understand the Word of God, their relationship with Christ Jesus and helping others. These two games can also be utilized to teach more about salvation, life and spiritual warfare. First, let’s look at the effectiveness of Checkers.
The objective of Checkers is to make calculated moves so that you can get to the other side of the board and keep doing it to attain as many crowns as possible. The more crowns you have the more effective you will be in defeating your opponent. Now let me highlight how Checkers helps in making moves in our spiritual life.
The red chips represent the Believers in Christ Jesus and the black chips represent Satan, his demons and hurdles in life. This is similar to when the Spirit came upon Christ Jesus then Satan tried to stop Him from completing His Father’s business.
“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.” – Matthew 3:16
“ Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.” – Matthew 4:10-11
The red chips and their purpose also represent Believers keeping God first in their lives so that they can receive their crowns.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” – Mark 12:30
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33
Our next moves are important too because we have to help others receive their crowns too.
“The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:31
The more crowns that we have on earth the more powerful we can be as one Body of Christ on earth.
“I can do all things through Him that strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:13
Next, let’s look at the effectiveness of Chess.
The objective of Chess is to checkmate your opponent’s king. When a king cannot avoid capture then it is checkmated and the game is immediately over.
Your king is the most important piece in Chess as God is most important to us because He is our King, our Creator and our Father.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.” – Exodus 20:3
“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.” – Isaiah 12:2
The Queen is the most powerful piece in Chess because she can move to any square in any direction as long as her path is not blocked. Her range and the ability to attack many pieces simultaneously are the source of her power.
The Queen represents the Bride of Christ! The unity of Believers in Christ is most powerful on earth!
“Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.” – Revelations 21:9-10
“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” – 1 John 4:4
Believers in Christ make up the Bride of Christ. We can be effective if we remain clean and keep praying for one another. We impeded our own progress thus blocking our own blessings if we do not stand strong in His Word.
In Chess , a queen sacrifice is a move giving up a queen in return for tactical or positional compensation. This is popular but not needed to be successful.
This is similar to people sacrificing their salvation for what they believe will make them successful in the eyes of others. I’m so glad that Christ Jesus didn’t succumb to the wiles of Satan and He is coming back for His Bride!
“ Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – Romans 12:2
There are other important pieces in Chess such as the Bishop, Rook, Knight and Pawns.
“S o in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” – Romans 12:5
Of these other key pieces in Chess, the Pawn is the least powerful piece because of its poor mobility. The lowly Pawn usually does not last long, but if it is able to reach the 8th row or rank, then it can promote itself to any other piece except the King.
Many Chess players don’t know about this or have forgotten because they are focused on the pieces in higher positions. This is also similar to people of today praising those in position in churches.
“My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” – Hosea 4:6
In Chess, you will be most effective if you continue to plan your next moves in advance. Satan is significantly older than all of us and he has tricked so many people because he is always many steps ahead. This is why we must remain clean and ask God to order our steps which will keep us ahead of Satan.
“Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” – Psalms 119:133
As you can see, the games of Checkers and Chess are very effective in providing assistance in spreading the Word of God! They help everyone to remember that the next move in life is important to more than just us. We have to be effective in our next move in life as it affects generation after generation which affects crown after crown. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that we can share with people to assist them with knowledge of the real life. Christ Jesus utilized simple things to help others understand the Word of God so let’s imitate Christ Jesus by utilizing Checkers, Chess and other things to help everyone be more effective when they make their next move.
No matter how you look at life, please understand that it is not a game but it is always about your next move!
