LivePrayerDaily Devotional for Monday March 9, 2020
“Because I could” or “because I needed to?”
(Deuteronomy 26:16; Joshua 1:8; Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 5:29; Revelation 22:14)
***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, I pray today that You help me be a truthful person in my life each day. I know that YOU are truth and lies are from satan. Please give me the strength and the courage each day to be truthful in all of my dealings with everyone I interact with so that You are glorified. You are worthy of all praise, honor, and glory! In the name of Jesus...AMEN!!!
***THE DAILY LIVEPRAYER TV NUGGET: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7 In a post-God, post-Christian nation where the majority of the people have never been to church and when trouble comes upon them have nothing bigger than themselves to put their faith in, fear, often irrational fear, finds a fertile breeding ground. WE ARE SEEING THAT UNFOLD IN THIS CURRENT CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK! The hysteria of the coronavirus is being fueled by an irresponsible media largely for political purposes, and it is being based on the false importance being place on the number of people who are contracting the coronavirus! In a slow flu season 9m get the flu, 45m in a busy season, Of that, anywhere from 140k-180k are hospitalized. Ultimately, between 12k-61k die, a fraction of a fraction of 1% of those who ever contract the flu! LIKE THE FLU, THE KEY AT-RISK DEMOGRAPHIC ARE OLDER PEOPLE, PRIMARILY THOSE WITH EXISTING MEDICAL ISSUES SUCH AS CANCER, DIABETES, ASTHMA AND OTHER RESPIRATORY AND IMMUNE SYSTEM ILLNESSES! So as people without any faith are giving in to fear, that fear is being further fueled by companies making them work from home, schools being closed, major events being cancelled, travel plans being called off, sports and other entertainment events being played without their fans, and other major changes in normal daily life. WE NEVER DO THESE THINGS BECAUSE OF THE FLU EVERY YEAR!!! Be praying since God is still on His throne and can wipe out this coronavirus, and I believe in the coming weeks we will see this health challenge dissipate, further highlighting the role fear is playing in the daily lives of a huge percentage of people without God!!!
*Don’t miss the Liveprayer TV program, airing “LIVE” every Monday thru Friday from 11pm EDT to Midnight! For details on viewing options for the Liveprayer TV program, “LIVE” or “On Demand,” go to: https://liveprayer.com/liveprayer-show-about.cfm
“Because I could” or “because I needed to?” Well, just when you thought you heard the end of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, heeeeeeeeeee’s back! I have been on the record for over 2 years that I believe Hillary will figure out a way to run for President in November. For what it is worth, nothing that has happened recently has made me change that opinion.
The Democratic Party didn’t hide it in 2016 and clearly isn’t hiding it now, Senator Bernie “Fidel” Sanders will NEVER be the nominee of that party. NEVER! Watching former VP Joe Biden since he announced his candidacy has been painful. Gaffes, mis-speaks, making incorrect statements, are all part of politics. Sadly, that is not what is happening with the former VP as anyone who has been around people we love in the older age battling with the onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Next Sunday, former VP Biden will be all alone on the debate stage for 2-hours with Senator Sanders. It will be as decimating for the VP as that first debate was for former NY City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. He will not be able to “hide” as he has done in past debates. I’m curious after that debate that I expect will be embarrassing for the former VP, what does the Democratic Party do? Time will tell.
I believe in preparing for potentially running, Hillary has released her new Hulu documentary to lay the foundation and get in front of all of the issue that will once again be raised from her past. A huge issue of course is the fact former President Clinton is a documented and adjudicated sexual predator. That is NOT a political statement, it is a fact and nobody who is honest can dispute it.
The endless list of names of the women who made these allegations over several decades, many proved in a court of law, some actually admitted to, others never challenged, are known by those who follow politics. Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Gennifer Flowers, Monica of course, to name a few. No matter what you think about his politics, former President Bill Clinton has been a sexual predator in every definition of the word most of his adult life, and his wife was his enabler.
So now we get Bill Clinton’s latest “reason” for his predatory behavior with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In his latest iteration, he claims it was a way for him to relieve the anxieties of being President. Think for just a second how narcissistic and utterly selfish this claim is. Monica was not a person, but simply a “drug,” an object for him to relieve “stress!”
Sexual predators dehumanize their victims. They only become their victims because they are available, in their daily sphere most of the time, accessible. It actually has NOTHING to do with them as a person, they are simply “there.” Wrong place wrong time, like the deer who sadly comes across a hungry lion at the wrong moment.
I have always stated that the two most selfish acts a person can commit, both are tied for number one, are suicide and adultery. After nearly 21 years of Liveprayer, I have heard EVERY EXCUSE men and women have made for committing adultery and they all end up being nothing but pathetic justifications for their selfish and sinful behavior.
*For full disclosure, as I have shared many times over the years in my first marriage when I was running from the Lord, I committed adultery on several occasions. I understand this issue from a very personal place. For anyone reading this today, it is NO ACCIDENT. While every situation is different, the act is the same. So are the results. I WILL PROMISE YOU THAT THERE IS NOT ONLY A HUGE PRICE TO PAY FOR ADULTERY LIKE THERE IS FOR ANY SIN, THERE ARE NO WINNERS. IN THE END, EVERYONE LOSES. EVERYONE!!! YOU ARE NOT THE EXCEPTION!!!
16 years ago, in an interview with Dan Rather on "60 Minutes" prior to the release of his book, former President Bill Clinton made a very profound statement in regard to his affair with Monica Lewinsky. President Clinton said, "I think I did something for the worst possible reason -- just because I could. I think that's the most, just about the most morally indefensible reason that anybody could have for doing anything. When you do something just because you could. I've thought about it a lot. And there are lots of more sophisticated explanations, more complicated psychological explanations. But none of them are an excuse." (He states as he makes his excuse!)
Every day I am dealing with the very real lives of very real people who have made the conscious choice to sin against God. Men and women. Those who are rich and those who are poor. People of all ages. Regardless of what the sin is or the circumstances involved, the bottom line is that it was a choice that person made to disobey God....because they could! You see, God gave man free will to make choices, otherwise we would be nothing more than robots. Every day, many times throughout the day, we make the choice to obey God or disobey Him.
I will never forget when I was 10, the first time I was allowed to stay home all by myself. It might have been 20 minutes after my mother was gone that I realized she was not around to see what I was doing. We had certain rules on what time we could have snacks and what we were allowed to have. As I was watching television, I remembered thinking that since mom wasn't home, she wouldn't know if I had an extra snack. So I went to the kitchen, to the pantry where the cookies were, went to the refrigerator and poured myself a big glass of milk, and sat down at the table and for the next 15 minutes ate cookies.
I will never forget to this day knowing deep down inside as I was getting the cookies out of the pantry that what I was doing was wrong. I am not even sure if I was really that hungry or wanted the cookies. It really boiled down to the fact I was all alone, nobody was there, and I COULD. Oh, something else about sin, it ALWAYS leaves a mess. Of course I did my best to put the cookies back exactly where I got them (not thinking that there were now about a dozen fewer), did my normal poor job of washing the glass I used for the milk and put it back in the cabinet (still dripping), and cleaned the area of the table I used (but not the floor underneath).
A few hours later at dinner, I remember that I was not very hungry. Normally I would clean my plate in minutes and be begging for more. But this night, I had a hard time eating all of my food and had to force down the last few bites. I remember the guilt as my mother asked me several times why I was not hungry and giving her some lame excuse about not feeling well. It was later that evening as I was getting in bed that my mother and father came into my room. As a child, you always know when mom and dad come to see you right before you go to bed, something is wrong.
My mother asked me how things went being in the house all alone. I told her everything went fine. She asked me what I did. I told her I watched television. She asked if I did anything else, and deep down I knew that somehow she knew I had eaten the cookies. The guilt was already more than I could bear so I told her that I was hungry and decided to eat some cookies. My father then got involved and asked me if I realized that when I was eating the cookies, I knew that I was breaking one of the house rules since it was not snack time.
I told him that I did and I was sorry. He went on to explain to me that one reason they had such a rule was so that me and my brothers would be hungry for dinner and have a good balanced diet. The rule was not to keep us from enjoying cookies, but to keep us healthy.
They told me how disappointed they were and asked me if I was sorry for what I had done. I assured them that I was. My father then told me that I would not be allowed to watch any football that weekend and would have some extra chores to do around the house. Before they left, they prayed for me. I remember laying in my bed that night, thinking how those few cookies weren't worth having my parents disappointed in me, and it sure wasn't worth having to miss football that weekend. I was mad at myself for doing something I knew that I shouldn't, just because I could.
I love you and care about you so much. No matter what former President Clinton’s current excuse is for his adultery with Monice, it doesn’t matter. I have always told you that satan is the great justifier. The enemy will ALWAYS give you the reason, the justification for your sinful behavior. The anxiety of being President, because “he could,” are simply justifications for his CHOICE to commit adultery!
I realize a 10-year-old boy eating some cookies he was not supposed to while being home alone is not what most would consider a horrible thing to do. The fact was we had rules in our home about when we were allowed to eat snacks, I consciously chose to break that rule, did a poor job of trying to cover it up, was caught, and had to pay a price for my choice to disobey. In looking back, I wasn't starving to death, I really didn't even want to eat the cookies that bad. As much as anything it was an opportunity for me to rebel and do something I knew I wasn't supposed to, if for no other reason than BECAUSE I COULD!
The fact is, my parents rule on snacks was there to make my life better, not worse. So often we look at God's "rules" in the Bible as being there to keep us from having fun in life when in fact, they are there to insure we have fun in life. When we choose to disobey God, there are always consequences, always a price to pay. After we sin, the first thing we do is try to cover it up. Adam literally did that after his sin by making some crude clothes to cover up his body. We are foolish to even try to cover up our sin, since God sees everything that we do.
Sin always involves others, we don't sin in a vacuum. Sin is like throwing a pebble into a still lake, watching the ripples of that initial pebble expand out further and further. When you choose to sin, others will always be affected in some way. Sadly, sin always carries a price tag greater than we ever wanted to pay. Sin costs my friend, and costs much more than you ever imagined.
I will be praying for you today. The reality is, every day, many times throughout the day, you have the choice to obey God or disobey Him. I pray that in the coming hours of this day, these words will ring in your heart and mind as you are faced with the opportunity to obey God. I pray that you will understand that sin simply isn't worth it. Sin carries consequences, obedience carries blessings. What do you want today in your life, consequences, or blessings?
Instead of having to say I sinned because I could, let your testimony be I obeyed God, BECAUSE I COULD!!!
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller