Daily Devotional for Monday July 16, 2012
Bibles are Being Replaced with the Erotic Best Seller The Fifty Shades of Grey
(Joshua 1:8; Job 22:22)
***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, once saved always saved, or can one lose their salvation?
ANSWER: http://liveprayer.com/ddarchive3.cfm?id=4817
Bibles are being replaced with the erotic best seller I spoke of a few weeks ago, "The Fifty Shades of Grey." The next time you take your family on vacation and check in to a hotel, ANY HOTEL, make your children stay in the lobby while you inspect the room. When you get to the room, start with the television. Virtually every hotel now carries hardcore, triple x movies that can be accessed in a few seconds with the remote control. Take 2-3 minutes and block those channels so your children can't access them. Next, go through all the drawers in the room. Sadly, in many casess you won't find a Bible, but could find a sex kit, the damnable Book of Mormon, or even the x-rated book, "The Fifty Shades of Grey!"
More and more hotels are no longer supplying Bibles in their guest rooms. Many hotels are removing the Bibles because some guests complain other religion books are not also available. One trendy Manhattan hotel doesn't put Bibles in their rooms because "society evolves," said a hotel spokeswoman. She said that providing Bibles would mean the hotel "would have to take care of every guest's belief." According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the number of luxury hotels with religious materials in the rooms has dropped by 18 percent.
However, what is replacing the Bible in one hotel in England is "Fifty Shades of Grey" (please don't think this will be the only one), and in many hotels in the US and around the world are "intimacy kits" with items like condoms. The Indigo hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz., a "branded boutique" launched by InterContinental, has no Bibles, but it does offer a "One Night Stand" package for guests seeking VIP treatment at local nightclubs and late checkout for the hazy morning after.
Sofitel's brand, for example, is taking "a new direction," says Daniel Entenberg, the "romance concierge" at the chain's flagship Los Angeles location. He was brought in two years ago in an effort to reposition the entire company's image. With business travel down and leisure travel up, the hotel industry is now catering to a "less religious" younger clientele who are out for a good time, and certainly don't want to open up a drawer on the nightstand have be confronted with God's Word!
I know many people will think that this is no big deal, if people are really into God's Word they should bring their own Bible, and that this is much ado about nothing. I disagree. I think this is a VERY big deal from this perspective. It is simply more empirical proof of what I have been telling you for 13 years now that this is no longer a Christian nation, in fact, we are a nation in complete rebellion to God and His Word.
Since 1908, the Gideon's have done a great job providing Bibles for hotel rooms, and still do today. It was a given even 10 years ago that virtually any hotel you went to, whether it be a $20 a night or a $2,000 a night room, there would be a Bible in the room. From the east coast to the west, from the north to the south, you could always count on finding a Bible in your hotel room.
The fact that Bibles are now being purposely excluded from most new hotels and removed by many hotels where they had been part of the standard room amenity, is simply further evidence that we are not only a nation in spiritual freefall, but a people who are living in complete rebellion to God and His Word. Look at what IS now being offered in hotel rooms. Gone is the Bible, but you can now get hardcore triple x adult movies. Gone is the Bible, but now available are condoms. As business travel has decreased over the years, the hotels are clearly marketing their facilities to people looking to meet for sex.
Listen, people using hotel rooms for illicit sexual rendezvous is certainly nothing new. That has existed since hotels have been around. However, never before was it so openly marketed for that purpose. In Asia, the infamous "love hotels" have been around for thousands of years. They have always unashamedly promoted themselves as a place for people looking to engage in sex. It is common for some Asian businessmen and businesswomen to take off a few hours during the day and visit their lover at one of these "love hotels." The new "boutique hotels" now popping up around this country are not much different, they just aren't quite as bold about declaring that is what they are.
No doubt husbands and wives will occasionally spend a night at a hotel, but most people using hotels as a place to have sex are either cheating on their spouse or engaging in sex outside of marriage. So from a marketing standpoint, I guess porn movies on the TV, sex kits in the rooms, and no Bibles makes sense. After all, who wants to open up the drawer and see a BIBLE as they get ready to commit adultery or an act of fornication? It isn't likely that afterwards, either will be reading the Psalms together or the 10 Commandments!!!
I love you and care about you so much. This is simply another visible cultural sign of how far we are from God and His Truth. It is not getting any better. We are either going to turn back to God and His Truth, or we will be seeing His wrath unleashed. It has only been His mercy and grace that has kept it from happening so far. But after killing 50 million innocent babies since our nation legally protected the practice of infanticide, with God's definition of marriage and family now redefined, with homosexuality and every other kind of sexual sin now accepted in our culture, with the vast majority of people who live their lives in open rebellion to God and His Word, we should not be surprised or shocked when God finally says enough is enough.
Putting Bibles back in hotel rooms is NOT going to lead this nation to repentance. That is only going to happen as hearts and lives are changed by the power of God. Just like the rich, fat priests of the Old Testament, most of God's priests today are focused on the temporal things of this world and not the eternal things of God. They are more interested in a person's bank account than their soul. They water down the Gospel and comprise the Truth of the Bible like any other motivational speaker, giving people the false hope of this world instead of the life changing hope found in the Scriptures. So why would we expect the people to live a holy and righteous life when it is not a standard many of God's leaders even try to live up to?
The good news is that there is a remnant. There is a group who will not bow their knee to Baal and follow the lies of this world, but have chosen to follow the Lord. It is that group and "many more who are lost today but will soon be saved" who will lead this nation back to God and to HIS Truth. The message of "repent and surrender your life to Jesus" won't sell many books or get you on TV, but it is the message that is going to save this nation from experiencing God's wrath and unleash a spiritual revival that has never been seen before. The hotels may be removing the Word of God from their rooms, but they can't remove God's Word from the hearts of His people!!!
In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller