Daily Devotional for Monday July 20, 2009
Hate Crimes Bill
(Ephesians 6:11-12)
While you were in bed last Thursday night, well in the wee hours of the morning the Senate craftily attached the Hate Crimes Bill adding homosexuals and transgendered people to the list of protected groups under this legislation, to a Bill on military spending. This is the very Bill that I told you over 7 years ago would one day be law and used by pro-homosexual activists to silence those who preach against their sinful choice of perverted and unnatural sex.
The way they will use this new law is to say that people like myself who speak out against this sin, even from the Bible, are subject to criminal prosecution under the Hate Crimes Bill. They will claim that we are preaching hate which is inspiring people to commit acts of violence against homosexuals, even though nothing is ever said to encourage people to commit acts of violence, and there will be zero incidents they can point to to substantiate this allegation.
In recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on this issue, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder admitted a homosexual activist who is attacked following a Christian minister's sermon about homosexuality would be protected by the proposed federal law, but a minister attacked by a homosexual wouldn't be. I hate to keep doing this, but I tried to tell you years ago this day would come, and last year told you this would be law before the end of 2009.
Over these past 10 years, I have shared with you the pressing spiritual issues of our day. I can remember over these years ago talking about those who were out to redefine marriage, receiving many emails telling me how paranoid I was and that same-sex marriages would never be legal in the United States.
In commenting over the years on many of the spiritual battles our nation has been fighting, one of the points I have always brought to your attention is that we MUST start dealing with these issues in advance, not waiting until it is too late. We are like a football team that shows up for practice when we feel like it, is not disciplined enough to work out like we should, doesn't listen to the head coach, and then can't figure out why we get beat 77-0!
The most frightening thing is, nothing seems to wake us up. Instead of the church waking up, it continues to follow the world into spiritual decay. Today we have churches that not only condone but promote the sin of homosexuality. We have churches today that support a woman's decision to kill her baby. We have churches today that treat the Bible as a book of fables, Christ as "just a man," and promote the lie from the pits of hell that "everyone will make it Heaven if they try."
Sadly, the quickening spiritual decay of our nation has failed to wake up a church more preoccupied with building buildings than building men and women of God. More churches measure their success by the amount of money they collect for their accounts than the amount of souls they collect for the Kingdom of God.
I am afraid the only thing that will wake up the sleeping church is real persecution. The Bible clearly tells us that in the last days sin and evil will run rampant. There is no doubt in my mind that the church as we know it will one day soon no longer exist. Like in other parts of the world today, the church will come under great persecution and be forced underground.
It will be at this time when all of the ways we have figured out to divide ourselves will finally come to an end and the Body of Christ will finally be one. We won't have "denominations." Whether you speak in tongues, sprinkle or dunk are not going to be important issues any longer. Your color or nationality will cease to be an issue. Those who want to lead won't be getting paid, but paying for the privilege with their very life.
Back in 2005 I wrote a Devotional talking about the next major battle for Christians to fight. There has been a move to make speaking out against homosexuality, even from the Bible, hate speech and a crime. It has been on the books in Sweden and Canada for years now. I stated that once they made it a law to preach against homosexuality, even from the Bible, anti-God groups would be able to make it a law that you can't preach from the Bible against ANY sin, and eventually the entire Bible will be called hate speech!
I stated, "NOW IS THE TIME TO BE FIGHTING THIS BATTLE! Today, not 2 or 3 years from now when they are ready to pass these laws. NOW is the time to be calling your elected officials, now is the time for petitions, now is the time for the President to take a bold stand on this issue. This is why I constantly tell you that we MUST be part of our culture. As we speak, those who oppose God are already hard at work on passing this law and my guess is 98% of Christians haven't got a clue this is even an issue."
Sadly, people didn't listen and in a few days when King Obama signs this new Bill, the pro-homosexual groups will have the tool they have been looking for to silence those who speak out against their sinful choice of deviant and unnatural sex.
I love you and care about you so much. I will be praying for you today to start seeing the big picture. Back in the mid-'80s, I traded commodities, futures, and options. I was day trading before there was such a term. While I watched the business news and read the Wall Street Journal each day to stay in touch with everything going in the financial markets, for a trader, by the time it was on the news or in print it was too late. People buying off of stories in the WSJ were usually buying at the top from sellers who had already made a nice profit.
This is the same thing. Once you start seeing these spiritual issues on the news, in the papers, the work by those who serve satan has already been completed. That is why we cannot afford to sleep or lose sight of the fact that this is a spiritual battle we must be fighting each and every day. The eternal souls of people are at stake.
Let me leave you today with this word of encouragement. Again, we should not be surprised with all that is going on in the world. Not only is God allowing some of this as a portion of His judgment on this nation for our sins, but the Bible tells us that the last days will be full of sin and evil. However, Christ told us to be of good cheer, because He has overcome this world and we know that in the end God wins.
These are actually exciting times for those who serve the Lord since God is allowing us to be part of bringing in that last great harvest before His Son returns. May He find us faithfully serving Him at that glorious moment! I may end up in jail for preaching against the sin of homosexuality, but I refuse to be silent and will keep declaring God's Truth and the hope we have in Jesus!!!
In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller