Daily Devotional for Friday July 13, 2012
Will You Pray for Me
(John 3:16)
***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, in the Bible there is a verse that states to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I have always been taught to interpret that as the exact moment you die, you are immediately with God. Not a day, week nor month, but the exact moment of your death you are in God's presence. Some other churches say that the exact moment of your death, you go to "sleep" in your body and linger there oblivious to anything until Jesus' return. That idea terrifies me. Could you please shed some light on which is correct?
ANSWER: 2 Corinthians 5:8 clearly states the verse you quoted. It is also our Biblical evidence that the moment we take our last breath, we will stand before God and at that moment you either know Christ as your Savior and will be in Heaven for eternity, or you have rejected faith in Christ and will be cast into hell for eternity. No limbo, no such place as "purgatory," nobody is going to pray you out of hell after the fact.
In early 2007, I wrote a Devotional stating that 2008 would be a monumental year, a year of great change. It was. We saw the financial crisis that has impacted tens of millions of people in this nation, hundreds of millions more around the world explode. We saw the election of a new President who has spent his first three years in office taking a stand for everything God opposes and helping to lead this nation deeper into the spiritual abyss.
However, starting September 1st, Liveprayer will be leading a very high profile and public stand to turn this nation back to God and His Truth! By September 1st, all the pieces will be in place to literally change the spiritual course of this nation with your help! My biggest issue today is getting through these next 48 some days.
While over 12,000 churches have shut down, 120,000 non-profit organizations closed their doors, and with the property of nearly 40,000 churches in foreclosure, Liveprayer has continued to press forward despite seeing a 67% drop in donations from 2008 and losing 29 of our core group of 30 people who had the ability in times of financial difficulty to be able to overnight or wire $10,000-$30,000 to help us over a rough edge.
That is why over the past several years I have had to come to you more often than I would like to ask you to pray about supporting His work here. During the first 9 years of Liveprayer, we only had to share our needs 3-4 times a month. With the economic downturn in the nation, we now have to share our needs 10-11 times each month, though it is still less than 3% of the content we produce each month.
Due to our extreme financial crisis at Liveprayer, I have cut my personal salary from $36,000 to just $12,000 for the past 2 years, and that is only in order to pay the most basic needs to survive each month. I have poured my heart, soul, life, and even blood at times into God's work here the past 12 years to reach the lost and see HIS Truth declared in the marketplace, something few are willing to do, to be a rare bold, umcompromised voice for Biblical Truth in this lost age.
As I type these words tonight, I am at the end. Simply sustaining our daily operations is now a daily task. Simply paying for basic personal needs is becoming more difficult. For nearly 20 years, I have literally sacrifice my life, my time, my talent, and my treasure to bring the lost to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and HIS Truth boldly and without compromise into the marketplace, as very few are doing, virtually none at a national level in the secular media
Don't think for a second I am not of flesh and blood and think about how I could have simply fallen into line like the rest. Gone on Christian TV, brought false hope into people's lives, never talked about sin or the hell that awaits those who reject Jesus, compromise and take the money from cult members, and totally sold out the faith in order to be politically correct and generate tens of millions annually to live like a rock star.
However, at the end of this life, I will stand before God our Creator like each person will. I will give an account for my life. The one thing I can honestly say when I die is that I never wavered, I never backed down from telling people the raw Truth of His Word, and that I never hesitated to boldly declare the only hope for each man is faith in Jesus Christ. That my friend, will be my lasting testimony!!!
I come today asking you to help me. Over 13 years, Liveprayer has sent personal responses to over 70 MILLION emails. We still get over 40,000 a day. Tens of millions of live worldwide have been impacted. Over 600,000 we know of have come to faith in Jesus. THIS IS MY ETERNAL LEGACY AND MY TRACK RECORD OF SERVICE THESE PAST 12 YEARS!!! MY JOB IS NOT FINISHED!!!
Whatever has been accomplished here at Liveprayer has been because of YOU! Your love, your prayers, and your sacrifce, have made all of this possible for tens of millions around the world!!! For those who have been part of the Liveprayer family for these many years, you know that I have never sent a Devotional like this unless it was an emergency. I don't play games when it comes to the finances. I simply share our needs, get on my knees, and trust God to move on the hearts of people to provide for our needs.
My friend, I am counting on you today. I need to hear from you today. This is critical, and I desperately need your help. We are so close to seeing the fulfillment of all Liveprayer has been raised up to be. I can't see everything stop now over a few thousand dollars, even if it was a million dollars. Somebody will lose that tonight in Vegas. Will you reach down, make the sacrifce, and help me today??? I desperately need you and will be in prayer for the Lord to move on your heart to help me!
The fact is, I need to bring in $10,000 to simply cover the balance of our June shortfall! I am praying for one or two people who can help me with a special one-time gift to help me clear up that amount. If you have the liquid cash to wire to our bank, please email me at: bkeller@liveprayer.com and I will get you the info. If you are able to send a gift of $2,000 or more, FedEx it to our office in St. Petersburg, feel free to mark "bill recipient" and they will be our special account. After 13 years of pouring out my sweat and blood, literally 24/7, I will not see God's work here slowed down or thwarted, and definitely not shut down. There are enough people with resources who can help me.
After we get that amount taken care of, I need everyone to pray about what you can send, $5, $10, $20, $100, $1,000, whatever you are able and led to give, so we can begin working on the $40,000 we need for our basic July operations. Of course, we will need that amount in August as well. So over the next 48 days, we need to bring in $90,000 to meet all of our basic operational costs as we head into September 1st! God is able!!!
WE HAVE THE ABILITY, BASED ON 13 YEARS OF PIONEERING THE INTERNET AND BRINGING CHRIST TO THE MASSES ON SECULAR TV, OF BEING GOD'S AGENT TO TURN THIS NATION BACK TO OUR CREATOR AND HIS TRUTH. THE TIME IS NOW, OUR OPPORTUNITY IS UPON US, AND NOW MORE THAN EVER I NEED YOU TO HELP ME!
Please don't think that just because there are 2.4 million subscribers, someone else will take care of this. It has been friends like YOU over the years who God has spoken to, who have responded, who has made Liveprayer available to bring hope and salvation to so many. It will take someone like YOU today.
Also, I know there is someone reading these words who God has richly blessed, you have been praying about a place to use your resources where God can multiply them exponentially in the lives and eternal souls of men. THIS IS IT! CONTACT ME AND LET'S CHAT HOW YOU CAN HELP ME!!!
To 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 it to: Liveprayer, 6660 46th Avenue North, St. Petersburg, Florida 33709. All gifts to Liveprayer are 100% tax deductible.
I love you and care about you so much. Do you want to do something great for God with your life??? STAND WITH ME!!! I CAN'T DO THIS ALONE!!! I am asking you today to simply pray about what God may be calling you to do to help me with this effort. I am also asking you to please forward this to every person you know, personally reach out to those who God has blessed with financial resources and encourage them to support this work of God, and share this email with your pastor and ask him to pray about having your church make a special missions gift towards this effort. I will keep you posted how we are doing with our financial goals over the coming weeks and months.
When this brief journey through life is over, what do we have to show for it? The only lasting legacy we have are those things we did for the Lord. I have taken my stand and will proclaim His truth with my dying breath. Today, I am asking you to pray about joining me and let's turn this nation back to God and His Truth!!!
Will you stand and fight with me???????
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller