[CS-FSLUG] Four Christians were arrested in Philadelphia

Thu Jan 6 23:47:29 CST 2005

DAILY DEVOTIONAL    FRIDAY JANUARY 7, 2005
(Ephesians 6:11,12)

"Four Christians are facing up to 47-years in prison and $90,000 in fines
for preaching the Gospel on a public sidewalk, a right fully protected by
the First Amendment.  On October 10, 2004, the four Christians were arrested
in Philadelphia. They are part of Repent America. Along with founder Michael
Marcavage, members of Repent America-with police approval--were preaching
near Outfest, a homosexual event, handing out Gospel literature and carrying
banners with Biblical messages.

When they tried to speak, they were surrounded by a group of radical
homosexual activists dubbed the Pink Angels.  A videotape of the incident
shows the Pink Angels interfering with the Christians' movement on the
street, holding up large pink symbols of angels to cover up the Christians'
messages and blowing high pitched whistles to drown out their preaching.
Rather than arrest the homosexual activists and allow the Christians to
exercise their First Amendment rights, the Philadelphia police arrested and
jailed the Christians!  They were charged with eight crimes, including three
felonies: possession of instruments of crime (a bullhorn), ethnic
intimidation (saying that homosexuality is a sin), and inciting a riot
(reading from the Bible some passages relating to homosexuality) despite the
fact that no riot occurred. "  (excerpt from American Family Assoc.)

The next battle that we need to be fighting today!  Over these past 64+
months, I have often shared with you the pressing spiritual issues of our
day.  I can remember several years ago after 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.  We know nothing
happens apart from God allowing it to happen.  I firmly believe one reason
God allowed President Clinton to have 8 years in office was to wake up the
church.  Instead of the church waking up, it continued 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, even the events of 9/11 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 May, I already told you what will be the next major battle for
Christians to fight. There is a move to make speaking out against
homosexuality, even from the Bible, hate speech and a crime.  It is already
on the books in Sweden and Canada.  Once they make it a law to preach
against homosexuality, even from the Bible, they will 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!

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.

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-80's, 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!!!

In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller

I can help you in any way you can contact me through my personal email
at bkeller at liveprayer.com

***GET YOUR FREE LPeMAIL ACCOUNT!  Never miss receiving your Daily
Devotional again.  LPeMail is an effective email SPAM filtering application
that most ISP's charge $10/mo, for FREE! Get your LPeMail account now at:
www.lpemail.com .

***I am excited to let you know that the Liveprayer Daily Devotional is
now available via AUDIO each day. Simply go to
http://www.liveprayer.com/DailyDevotionalAudio.html

-- 
The only bug free software from MickySoft is still shrink-wrapped
in their warehouse..."