Daily Devotional for Friday October 1, 2010
The World has Higher Standards than the Christian TV Networks Have
(Mark 16:15)
The world has higher standards than the Christian TV networks have! Here is the rule of thumb for Christian TV. As long as your check is good, you can air your program. It doesn't matter how you conduct your personal life, what scandals your are involved in, as long as you can pay the TV network for your time slot, and don't forget to come help them raise money during their telethons, you are fine in their book.
"Bishop" Eddie Long is just the latest in the long line of Christian TV "stars" whose secret life has been exposed. Long has been able to generate $50-$60 million year after year because he followed the tried and true business model of going on Christian TV, preaching how you can have all the material things in the world, as long as you send him your money.
You don't even need sound doctrine. One of the biggest Christian TV "stars" is TD Jakes. Jakes doesn't even believe in the trinity! That makes him no different from other cults who deny the deity of Christ like the JWs and Mormons to name a few.
You can't argue with the results. Those ministries on Christian TV all take in tens of millions annually, have their private jets, multiple mansions, drive the most expensive luxury cars in the world, operate out of beautiful glass buildings and state-of-the-art campuses with large staffs, all by quoting Scripture out of context to make people believe that God wants them to have all of the opulence the world can offer. All you have to do is have faith, oh, and send the TV preacher all the money you have and pledge whatever you don't have!
The saddest part of this story is that in most secular professions and industries, people who misbehave, compromise their morals and ethics, are usually terminated. However, I have yet to see a major Christian TV network take any of their "stars" off the air, no matter how much sin they have been involved in, for any reason other than they couldn't pay for their air time.
It is no wonder why the lost in the world wants little to do with the church, or the Christian media, and MOCK, not listen to those men and women of God who may actually have a legitimate message for them. Sadly, Christian TV is about one thing...MONEY. As long as the money keeps rolling in, the "stars" can do whatever they want in their personal life.
But hey, why hold the ministers that air on Christian TV to any kind of standard, when the founder of the largest Christian TV network in the world recently paid a man hundreds of thousands of dollars to silence his accusations they had gay sex together. I heard the tortured explanation that it was cheaper to just give him apx. $300,000 to make it all go away. I am sorry, but for this man who takes in hundreds of millions annually in donations from people, if the accusations were false, he should have spent every dime he had to clear his name!
I love you and care about you so much. No, the viewers on secular TV aren't going to buy you a new Bentley, as a matter of fact, they aren't going to send you a dime. Why should they? The twisting of Bible verses used on Christian TV isn't going to get a secular audience excited enough to write you a check for $1,000 so their debts will be wiped out, or whatever the fantasy story of the day to sucker people into sending in their money.
So rather than reach out to the truly lost and hurting, the "stars" of Christian TV stay in the comfort and profitability of their incestuous little sub-culture of Christendom, with the freedom to live any way they want....as long as they keep paying their TV bills. And we wonder why despite having more churches, more Christian media, more Christian everything than at any time in history, we have virtually ZERO impact on our culture that is in spiritual freefall, with hundreds of thousands of people dying daily and needlessly ending up in the flames of hell for all eternity because nobody reached them with the simple truth of the Gospel.
I realized many years ago I could move all we do out of the marketplace and into the "Christian trough." I would find love and adulation, my only financial worries would be how to spend all of the "love gifts" that would pour in. Why go out into the world and fight the cults, false religions, new age gurus, atheists, tools of satan like Oprah, Dwyer, Beck, CAIR, and countless others helping to lead souls to hell.
I will fight satan and his minions with my last breath for souls. I can't save anyone, but I can certainly make sure they have heard the Truth, and not just the lies of those who serve satan. I have struggled every month since we started Liveprayer over 11 years ago, but if that is what I have to do to stay in the marketplace, to keep God's Truth heard amongst the din and lies of satan, so be it.
I won't stop doing what God has called me to do, and I won't be ashamed to ask you to help me bring the only hope and Truth there is to the lost and hurting masses. I will never ask you to give what you don't have, or lie to you that by sending a gift to Liveprayer all of your financial problems will disappear. I respect you enough to simply share our needs and let our body of work over a decade speak for itself!
Also, most churches and ministries spend up to and often over 50 cents of every dollar on overhead and administration. Who do you think buys the land, builds the buildings, pays for the huge staffs, etc. At Liveprayer, we have always had over 93 cents of every dollar going to the work we do. What that means is the money you give is actually going to the work of God, and not to man!
Everyone else has no problem asking you to give them money for their buildings, staff, private jets, luxurious lifestyle, I will not hesitate to ask you to help me to SAVE SOULS !!!
***SEPTEMBER FINANCIAL UPDATE: A big THANK YOU to everyone who made the sacrifce to pray and send a gift help me last month. We ended September $20,000 short of covering our September operations budget. We were blessed to have one family send a gift of $7,000 to meet our second week of expenses at the new "9-11 Christian Center at Ground Zero," but I still need 2 more people to make a sacrifce of $7,000 to cover the last 2 weeks of September. Lastly, we need just 4 more to make a special one-time sacrifce of $5,000 to finish covering the rest of our shortfall from 2009. That is a total of $54,000 we need right away to get even with all of our basic operational costs.
I know there are enough people with the ability to help us today reading these words, and will be in prayer for the Lord to move on hearts to help me get this amount covered, even by the end of today! Please pray today about what God is calling you to do to help me reach the lost and hurting, as we take this bold, visible stand for Christ in the marketplace to bring HIS Truth to the blind masses, and the love and hope of Christ to the lost!
--->I really need several people who have the ability to help me today. If you can overnight or wire to our bank $5,000 or more, please contact me for the instructions at: bkeller@liveprayer.com
--->You can make a gift to Liveprayer on your major credit card at our website www.liveprayer.com under the "Donation" button, or you can give from your PayPal account by using my email address, bkeller@liveprayer.com , or you can mail a gift to: Liveprayer 6660 46th Avenue North St. Petersburg, Florida 33709 *For a gift to the 9-11 Christian Center, please mark 9-11 on your check, or put (9-11) next to your name on the credit card or PayPal form. All gifts to Liveprayer are 100% tax deductible.
In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller