[Darris McNeely] Jesus told His audience on one occasion to discern this time. I think what He was saying was to be able to cut through the distractions and to understand the real threats that are taking place. I recently did a BT Daily where I talked about the NSA's spying, alleged spying on American citizens by tapping into all of these billions of telephone calls that are made each day and the controversy that's erupted over that, which is interesting given that we are all on the grid.

Our lives are open. We willingly even divulge personal information on Facebook, Twitter, and every time we use a cell phone and go on the internet today and shop around. Nonetheless this is an issue that has erupted, and I was reading an article that drew a distinction between that and certain threats that come from China in China's ongoing efforts to hack into western companies and even our own security systems and military systems in the United States.

An article in today's Financial Times says, "Keep the Focus on the China Cyber Threat." And the statement that it makes here is that the great danger of the furor over the NSA, the National Security Agency's spying is that it will distract attention from the immense threat from China that US companies face. China trying to hack into companies' databases and even military installations is a major threat. There are other threats that loom before the United States as well. And that's the point. This can be a distraction. Yes, it is important that American's have their liberties guaranteed and protected, but the reality is that we have bigger threats.

And when Jesus said in Luke 12:56, He said that to the hypocrites and to his audience he called them hypocrites and He said, "You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth. How is it though you do not discern this time?" It's important to make the distinction and understand what sometimes might be a distraction from larger threat that pose a more imminent danger. Understanding the times, weighing it all out, that's a critical point I think Jesus makes in this one warning.

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