LivePrayerDaily Devotional for Tuesday May 5, 2020
IT IS TIME TO START LIVING LIFE AGAIN...WITHOUT FEAR!
(Colossians 3:23)
***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” Colossians 3:23
***THE DAILY LIVEPRAYER TV NUGGET: Obesity kills! Over the 21 years of Liveprayer, I have spoken often of keeping our “temples” in the best shape possible in order to be the best servants of the Lord we possibly can be. One of the factoids coming out of the Wuhan Flu pandemic is that on top of being elderly and/or having pre-existing medical issues like diabetes, auto-immune system problems, asthma, and cancer to name a few, a common denominator in many who are dying is that they are obese. We have known for decades now the many medical issues obesity causes and exacerbates. If there was ever another warning sign for people who have ignored their weight, this is one! I get it! At 62, I understand the war that exists with your weight as you get older. It seems like a lifetime ago when I could eat a pizza, a liter of Coke, a box of Hostess cupcakes, go to sleep, wake up and start the day with a huge breakfast...and never gain an ounce! As my workload at Liveprayer and nagging injuries stopped me from playing sports competitively at 41, I soon started hitting the gym 3-4 days a week and for the first time in my life eating a very disciplined diet. That lasted 15 years and was incredibly profitable physically. The past 6 years I have dropped the gym, yet still eat a disciplined diet. The past year I have had to force myself to take 30-40 minutes a day and walk, do some light weights at home, and work up a good sweat. YOU NEED TO BOTH EAT PROPERLY AND WORKOUT REGULARLY IN ORDER TO FIGHT WEIGHT GAIN AS YOU AGE, THE TIME WHEN THOSE EXTRA POUNDS CAN HURT YOU THE MOST! As always, I never ask people to do anything I don’t do first. I loved playing sports, loved the competition, those days are gone. I have to force myself most days to put in those 30-40 minutes a day working out, but I do it because I HAVE TO! I still eat pretty much what I want to, but am disciplined in doing it. I have no idea when God will say my work is over and He calls me home, but I have a RESPONSIBILITY to be in the best shape possible so I can be at my best for HIM each day! So I challenge you today to do the same. This is a personal choice each person has to make for themselves based on their individual situation as far as their current physical and health condition. However, no matter what those conditions may be, EVERYONE can do some form of exercise and EVERYONE can eat a disciplined diet. I CAN GUARANTEE YOU THAT EVERY DOCTOR YOU HAVE EVER SPOKEN TO HAS ENCOURAGED YOU TO DO BOTH! I will be praying for you as you seek the Lord regarding His strength and discipline each day to do some form of exercise and watch what you eat EACH AND EVERY DAY!!!
*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
IT IS TIME TO START LIVING LIFE AGAIN...WITHOUT FEAR! Faith over fear were words I shared many times on the TV program in the Daily Devotional in the early days of dealing with the Chinese Flu pandemic. I first dealt with the issue in the Daily Devotional on January 8th of this year, LONG before most of the media was paying attention. I started talking about it on the TV program January 20th and it became a nightly topic of discussion on almost every program after that.
During those early days, most of the media was focused on their latest attempt to take down President Trump via the totally ginned up failed impeachment action. That effort started with a fake whistleblower, a rogue inspector general, Democratic politicians who literally re-wrote the rules, and a complicit media blinded because they had failed to take down the President with what has been proven to be a completely bogus Russian collusion scheme.
Now four months later, here is where we are at! This global nightmare was visited upon the world by China, either on purpose or by accident. Either way, China is 100% responsible and worse, spent 3 precious weeks once discovered covering up what had been unleashed on the world.
Knowing all we do after dealing with this horrible scourge by the greatest scientific minds in the world, losing nearly 70,000 lives and counting here in the United States, it is time to get back to our daily lives, back to work, and stop living in fear!
Going forward, we don’t need any more government money, we just need to let people go back to work and back to their lives! We know that 95% of the dead are over 65 and 98% of the deceased had pre-existing medical issues like diabetes, respiratory problems, heart issues, auto-immune deficiency, and obesity. It has hit the African-American community hard due to a propensity of issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity being more prevalent in blacks.
Going forward, it is imperative that we do everything possible protect the elderly as well as blacks and others with the pre-existing medical issues that are most vulnerable to the Chinese Flu. We know who is most likely to die from COVID-19 and must do everything possible to protect that small demographic of our population.
As this pandemic swept across the world in mid-February and became an issue in a nursing home in Washington State the first days of March, the administration had no choice but to shut down the country. Many lives were being lost in Italy, Spain, and other countries around the world. Doing something we have never done in this nation, even in times of war, shutting down the country and thus the economy became the only real option until the medical professionals could get a handle on the best plan to deal with the Chinese Flu.
As the people of the nation made HUGE SACRIFICES, schools closed down, most businesses shuttered, all public gatherings of any kind cancelled INCLUDING CHURCH SERVICES, and orders to literally stay inside your home away from other people, a few weeks turned into a month and then into 2 months.
There was a breaking point coming point coming since with every passing day more people were losing their jobs and ability to take care of their daily financial needs to the extent the damage was even surpassing the days of the Great Depression!
It became clear to me as we saw our daily emails surge from apx. 40,000 to 50,000, that unless people were able to get back to work, the lives lost due to the economic damage would end up being exponentially higher than those who actually lost their life to the Chinese Flu itself. We were dealing with suicides, depression, addiction problems, domestic violence, and a host of other real life issues due to the shut-down of the economy.
Sadly, as people have been dealing with the nightmare of this pandemic, you have had a media literally rooting for every outbreak, every death, and every job lost. Why you ask? Simple. Virtually all of the media in this country has become so blinded and focused on getting rid of President Trump, they have abandoned all pretense of objectivity. They have trafficked in fear and hysteria in order to damage the President’s re-election chances in November.
Example. One every news channel you see NUMBER OF CASES. That number is absolutely meaningless! It is only there to scare people. The fact is, 90% of the people who get the Chinese Flu will never know it. Unless you know every person infected, that case number means NOTHING! As a matter of fact, the reality is the number of deaths versus the number of cases is like the annual flu, a fraction of 1%.
As many states who have not been affected much at all by the Chinese Flu have been opening up their economies, they are being demonized and lambasted by the media as wanting grandma and grandpa to die. They are being blamed for caring more about money than lives. That of course is totally nonsense. It is politics!
The reality is the states hit the hardest by the Chinese Flu and those who will be the last to open back up are almost exclusively states with Democratic Governors. The states who have had the least problems and the first ones opening back up are almost exclusively states with Republican Governors.
So once again, to insure the most damage to our economy, despite the fact it will harm and destroy tens of millions of lives, the media is rooting for states to keep their economy shuttered while criticizing the states who are opening back up. They will zero in on every death in a state that is opening up their economy with an “I told you so” in an attempt to shame them into shutting down again.
ONLY DUE TO THE INCREDIBLE STRENGTH OF THEY US ECONOMY WHEN THIS HIT, DO WE HAVE A CHANCE TO GET OUR PEOPLE BACK TO WORK AND RECOVER FROM THIS HORRIBLE HISTORICAL EVENT. HAVING SAID THAT, IT WILL NOT HAPPEN OVERNIGHT BUT OVER THE NEXT 12-18 MONTHS!
SADLY, MANY BUSINESSES WILL NEVER COME BACK. SADLY, MANY PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO FIND NEW JOBS. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERESTIMATE THE REAL DAMAGE DONE TO OUR ECONOMY, PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE GLOBAL ASPECTS AND THE FACT MANY NATIONS WHO HAD WEAK ECONOMIES BEFORE THE CHINESE FLU HIT WILL TAKE MANY YEARS IF EVER TO RECOVER!
Thankfully, despite the damage done to our healthcare system over the past decade by Obamacare, we still had a large part of the system that was private. That enabled us to have enough of a healthcare infrastructure to withstand this horrible scourge the past few months and is intact to handle whatever new outbreaks there may be as we open up the economy. Countries like Italy lost lots of people due to their nationalized healthcare system as did many other countries with national healthcare. This pandemic should hopefully put an end to those who want government run healthcare!
I love and care about you so much. When man sinned in the Garden, God declared he would die. Death is part of this human experience. Thankfully, God loved us so much He sent Jesus as that one-time perfect sacrifice for our sins so that we could make the choice to repent, turn back to God, have our sins forgiven, and be reconciled back into an eternal relationship with our Creator as God originally planned.
So the key to this life isn’t to live forever, but to come to that place of surrender, accept Christ by faith, and allow God to use our life for His glory and purpose for however long He decides. We will all die of something at some point unless we are alive when Christ returns. Some will die in war. Some will be killed in a violent act. Some will die in an accident. Many will have some sort of illness that will take their life. Some will simply go to sleep and God will call them home.
THE FACT IS, WE WILL ALL TAKE OUR LAST BREATH AT SOME POINT AND THIS BRIEF JOURNEY WILL BE OVER. FOR THOSE WHO KNOW THE LORD BY FAITH WILL ENTER INTO HIS ETERNAL PRESENCE.
So as we continue to move past this horrible Chinese Flu that has become a scourge on the world, as the greatest scientific minds in the world seek to find the answers necessary for man to deal with this coronavirus, it is time for the 99+% of the country to get back to work. We know the people most vulnerable and must protect them. The rest of us need to use our common sense and act responsibly as we get back to work and get our nation opened back up.
It is also time to get back to church. As churches open up, I am fearful that with the better percentage of the last two generations having never been to church, even less will show up in the future. I will soon address the church and what I see as Chinese-style persecution coming upon God’s people sooner than many think.
NAME ME ONE PERSON WHO EVER THOUGHT 3 MONTHS AGO THAT YOU WOULD BE TOLD YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO GO TO CHURCH??? WORSE YET, THEY GOT AWAY WITH IT!!!!
So pray for our nation was people start getting back to work. Many will need new jobs. Many will need to lean on the Lord during some difficult days ahead. I have said from day one this is a warning from God and wondered if the people would see it as such. I pray that in the difficult days ahead many will look to the Lord for their strength, their daily sustenance, and for HIS plan for their lives.
We can still be like the people of Nineveh and enjoy God’s mercy and blessings if we as a nation turn back to Him and HIS Truth!!!
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller