Daily Devotional for Tuesday August 25, 2009

Muslim Girl from Ohio Converts to Christianity then Flees to Florida in Fear of her Life

(Leviticus 18:22, 20:13; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Fathima Rifqa Bary is a 17-year-old Muslim girl from Ohio who converted to Christianity and fled to Florida in fear of her life. I praise God the courts in Florida have allowed her to stay, since we have already seen a rash of "honor killings" on US soil in recent years. Remember the Muslim man in Buffalo who decapitated the his wife for wanting a divorce? Or the Houston cab driver who shot to death his two daughters in the back of his cab for simply becoming "too western." I have tried to tell you for years that Islam is a relgion of hate and death, and according to Islamic Law, Fathima would be put to death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity.

This is an important story because Muslims who have come to this country have not sought to assimilate themselves into the American lifestyle, but they have sought to force people here to follow their laws and beliefs. Many US banks have entire departments set up to follow Shariah Law for Muslim account holders. Some airports have been pressured into providing footbaths for Muslims. As most people go about their daily lives, Muslims in this nation are working tirelessly to turn the United States into a Muslim country!!!

Will Islam be the United States Babylon? All throughout the Bible and human history, God has used human instruments to do His work and fulfill His plan and purpose. We read all throughout the Old Testament how the children of Israel would turn away from God, follow the false gods and idols of the world, live in open rebellion to God's commandments, and eventually He would have enough and pour out His wrath upon them. This was usually done in the form of allowing the enemies of Israel to take them captive and enslave them. As you can imagine, that got their attention real quick. Eventually, after a period of time and due to His never ending love, grace, and mercy, God would free the children of Israel, give them their land back, and begin blessing them again. Of course it was in this time of captivity that the children of Israel would repent and ask God to forgive them. They would be in a place where God was their only source of hope and strength. They began to worship Him again, trust Him again, obey Him again. The amazing thing is once He set them free, it was like they got amnesia. Almost immediately they would be back worshipping the false gods and idols of the world. They would be getting involved in every kind of sin you could name. Worshiping God, trusting Him, living in obedience to His commandments were all forgotten.

It was like when you were a child and you disobeyed your mother. She would make you go stand in the corner for a period of time. After the time was up, you were allowed to go back to playing and doing what you wanted. During the time you were standing in the corner, you were sorry for what you did. You promised your mother that you would obey her from now on. As you stood in that corner you appreciated the freedom you had to play and do what you wanted. But what happened when the punishment was over? It wasn't long before you were not listening to your mother any more. You began to do things you knew you weren't supposed to. What your mom had to say and her rules didn't matter any more.

Like I tell you often, man has never really changed since the Garden of Eden! Go read the Book of Judges. What a classic illustration of this cycle of sin-> punishment-> repentance-> restoration-> and sin again, you will ever find. You read the Book of Judges and you start screaming at your Bible every time God frees them from their enemies and they immediately fall right back into the same pattern of sin that forced God to punish them in the first place. Over and over and over this cycle is repeated and you think to yourself how stupid these people are! At that moment, most of us have one of those sobering moments when the Holy Spirit says loud and clear, YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT!

Before I deal with our nation, let me deal first with each of us as individuals. We are all susceptible and at different times in our life fall into this pattern of sin. This is why I implore you each day to stay in the Word, pray, keep close to the Lord, be in church on Sunday or some day during the week, and find ways to serve the Lord. You see, all of these things working together insure that you are never far from Christ. It keeps you constantly focused on the Lord and your faith. It makes it very difficult to fall into the many traps satan lays for you each day to tempt you and lead you into sin and away from God.

You know and I know that the first thing you do when you allow sin into your life is that you stop reading the Bible as much, usually stop reading it period. You stop praying as much, again, you often stop talking to God at all. You quit going to church regularly, if you even go at all. You are like Adam who after he sinned, ran and hid from God and we see that great scene of God in the Garden asking, "Adam, where are you?"

Of course, as I tell you often sin always has a very high price tag. You NEVER sin and get away with it. There is always a high price to pay when we choose to sin against God. Eventually the time to pay, to suffer the consequences of our rebellion is upon us. We then go through that season of chastisement, of punishment, and it is during this time that most turn back to the Lord. We ask Him to forgive us, repent of our sins, and in the season of punishment find our relationship with Christ again. Eventually the season of punishment ends and we are back to living our lives again. Hopefully we learned our lesson and have strengthened our walk with the Lord and will do all we have to do each day to stay close to Him, live in obedience to His Word, and enjoy the blessings of that relationship with Jesus.

*Hear my word for you today! The United States is no different than the children of Israel. We are a wicked and rebellious people who have forsaken our God. We have squandered His many blessings and have turned this blessed land into one that is cursed. We have turned to every false god, idol, and philosophy the world has dreamed up in opposition to the God of the Bible and His Truth. We proudly and legally practice infanticide in this nation, slaughtering 4,000 babies every 24 hours. We have embraced, celebrated, and accepted as normal deviant sexual choices that God never intended man to engage in. We have opened the floodgates to allow pornography and every kind of sexual sin man can imagine to exist without any restraint.

As Paul told his young disciple Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, men have become " lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God- having a form of godliness but denying its power. "

Just as God spared not His wrath on his own chosen people, punishing them for their rebellion, so will the wrath of God be felt on this nation for our rebellion. In the past God has poured out His judgment on nations by allowing their enemies to take them captive. I believe today as I type these words that unless this nation immediately repents, turns back to God and to His Truth, ISLAM WILL BE OUR BABYLON!!! Amen.

I love you and care about you so much. For those who have been reading the Daily Devotional for any length of time, you know that I am probably about the most positive person you will ever meet. However, I am also one of the most realistic. I can't read the Bible and read about God's judgment on the children of Israel for their cycle of sin and not understand that we are facing His judgment for our rebellion. The Bible is also very clear that even amongst God's choice servants, when they sinned there was always a price to pay. Why would we think for a second we can sin and get away with it?

My prayer for you today is that you will realize that there is a huge price to pay when we sin. Our rebellion to God always brings consequences. Likewise, God blesses us for our obedience. So it really boils down to a choice between consequences and blessings. I have to tell you as someone who has experienced both, blessings are MUCH better! It really makes sinning not only an act against God, but really stupid since we know we aren't going to get away with it. I pray today that the Lord will speak to your heart and each time you are confronted with the choice to sin, you will remember that you pay a huge price for that sin at some point. It is just as easy to OBEY God, and instead of dealing with the pain of whatever consequences arise, you can enjoy the blessings that flow from your obedience!!!

As for this nation, I sense our time is very short. I sense in my spiritual gut that at any moment God could unleash His wrath on this land. We are not only due His judgment, we are long OVERDUE! As I see the events of this world unfolding, I clearly see that Islam could very easily be God's instrument of judgment on this nation for our rebellion, just like Babylon was His instrument of judgment on the children of Israel for their rebellion. I only know the glimpses we get from the Word what being taken captive and enslaved by a hostile people would be like. None of us can even begin to fathom it. I do know that it will be horrible. I also know that it can be avoided IF we act now.

In His love and service,

Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller