Daily Devotional for Monday June 17, 2013

A Biblical Answer to the Recent NSA Spying Revelations

***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, even though I am a Christian, I don't have the love for others (thy neighbor) that Jesus commands us to have. I have been praying for the Holy Spirit to supernaturally fill me with this love, but it hasn't happened. All I know to do is keep praying about it. Any suggestions?

ANSWER: This is a common question Believers have. Loving others is NOT something nobody does naturally. It require the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit that resides with all Believers. Pray, and seek the Lord for that supernatural ability to "love others as you love yourself." The old adage practice makes perfect is true. The more you practice loving others, the more you will find the ability to love your neighbor no matter who that neighbor is!

A Biblical answer to the recent NSA spying revelations. First, let me say up front Edward Snowden, the low level contract employee who had ZERO authority to leak the information he did, is a traitor and deserves to be tried, and if convicted, face the firing squad. Since when did anyone with a security clearance to do their job, determine what secrets the American people need to know about? According to that logic, the entire intelligence community would become totally worthless and ineffective in protecting our nation from those who seek to destroy it!

Snowden is no different than WiliLeaks founder Julian Assange and the openly gay soldier Bradley Manning. Manning is currently on trial for stealing and giving to WikiLeaks 750,000 top secret documents. He has stated in the past that part of his motivation was that the military didn't properly treat enlisted men and women who CHOOSE to engage in perverted sex with someone of the same sex.

As I stated when Manning came to the light of day, Manning was not a hero as some portrayed him to be, but a traitor who deserves to be put to death for compromising our nation's secrets! Snowden is NO DIFFERENT and if found guilty should receive the death penalty, not just for his crimes, but to deter others who think they are somehow "righteous" by disclosing our most critical top secret documents for the world (including our enemies) to see!

Having said that, let me deal with this issue from a perspective you won't hear in the media. Anyone with common sense should have automatically assumed the government knows every phone call we make and everything we do online. Liveprayer has been online for 14 years, and has helped to pioneer much of the interactivity on the Internet that thousands of others are now using. I told people when we first launched in 1999 that anyone who thinks they have ANY privacy online needs to wake up. If you talk on a cell phone, if you have any activity on the computer, just assume the government is watching.

Does that give our government a pass to spy on its citizens? Absolutely not! There are many Constitutional violations that legal experts have been pointing out. However, I want to deal with how this hotly debated issue should be looked at by people of faith from a Biblical worldview.

Never forget, the Bible commands us to be subject to the government that rules us. We are to pray for our leaders daily. Liveprayer as a ministry has prayed for President Obama and his family from his first day in office to get saved and become true followers of Jesus Christ. While I disagree with most of what our government does, I have a Biblical duty to be a good citizen and pray for our leaders.

That does NOT mean I can't and won't speak out when the government is violating what God's Word teaches. Anyone who has read my Daily Devotional for any length of time knows that I call out this government often for their support of killing innocent babies, promoting the homosexual agenda, and coddling the enemies of Israel.

Never forget that the government in place when the New Testament was written was Rome that persecuted Christians and sought to wipe Christianity off the face of the globe! Listen carefully!!! That did NOT stop Paul and the early church from preaching the Gospel and taking it to the world of their day. Paul took advantage of his freedoms to go on his various missionary journeys to plant churches and preach the Gospel without compromise!

At the end of the day, we can't get distracted and must focus on and work on the things we have some control over. We have ZERO control of what the government does and does not do. ZERO. We never had nor ever will. I choose to focus my time, attention, and energy on those things I CAN control. That is why I choose to use whatever freedoms and liberties I have to preach the Gospel to the world, pray for people in their time of need, and take God's Truth into the marketplace that is virtually void of Biblical Truth!

I love you and care about you so much. My word to you today is this. Unless you have a significant position in the US Government, working with the NSA or CIA, there is NOTHING you can do about whether the government is or is not spying on its' citizens. What you DO have control over is your choice each day to be a bold witness for the Lord or go about your life in silence.

Personally, I refuse to take my eye off of the prize. This nation is in spiritual freefall. It is not political problems that plague us. It is not the revelation that our government is most likely spying on its citizens that plagues us. Our problems in this nation are SPIRITUAL, and only turning back to God and Biblical Truth can save our land.

As I tell you often, satan is the great perverter. He is also the great distracter! Don't let this flurry of scandals regarding our government distract you. Stay focused on those things you can do each day to share the Gospel and take a stand for God's Truth in the Bible. God will eventually work out all of these political challenges, but it is up to us to work out the very real spiritual problems that will eventually bring this nation to its' knees and possibly end our existence as so many great, powerful, and wealthy nations have been wiped out in the course of human history!

The bottom line to the current NSA spying scandal for Christians is to keep sharing the Gospel and the hope we have in Christ, like Paul and those in the early church did despite living under an oppressive government that sought to destroy them!!!

In His love and service,

Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller