Daily Devotional for Monday September 23, 2013

Pope Francis and the Damage He has Done to the Cause of Christ

(Deuteronomy 8:19, 20)

***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, I've just read your Devotional this morning on how in the last 50 years, God's Holy Institution of Marriage has been under serious attack. In one section of the Devotional, you wrote; "With women being brainwashed that they had to work, that staying home, and being a wife to her husband and a mom to her kids was no longer acceptable, women began to fall into the same traps men fall into. Their career became their first priority. They began chasing the almighty dollar, putting their job ahead of everything else in their life including their marriage and children."

As you've stated previously and so often, "satan is a liar and does not fight fair!" He has used every tactic available to him to destroy traditional marriages and families, which brings me to my question. How do you feel the increase in women in active military duty and, in the last 15 years, combat roles, has/is affecting marriage and family? It has always been difficult on military families to have husbands and fathers deployed abroad and in war zones but in the last 15 years, we have seen both husbands and wives (or sometimes just wives) deployed for periods of time, regardless of whether they have children at home or not. This has to have an even greater negative impact on both marriage and family, especially on the children.

ANSWER: Sadly, as society has caved in to the politically correct mindset that prevails today, this is just another sad example of that. It is not whether women can effectively be great soldiers in combat, it is the fact God never created women for such a role! Like in everything, when we follow God's plan it works, and when we don't there are negative consequences. War is a sad reality our Lord shared would be with us until the end of this world as we know it. It was never, or ever will be, a place for women. However, in this world we currently live in that has abandoned God's Truth, women are now being thrust into roles they were never created to fulfill and society's basic foundation of marriage and the family is paying the high price for such perversion of our God-ordained roles!

"The church had grown obsessed with abortion, gay marriage and contraception," says Pope Francis, who added, "he has chosen not to talk about those issues."

Pope Francis and the damage he has done to the cause of Christ. For the few like myself who go into the public square to bring God's Truth, Pope Francis once again has made that job more difficult than it already is. It has been sickening to watch the secular media who violently opposes God's Truth, embrace the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics. That has happened after the Pope claimed that we have got to stop talking about homosexuality and abortion since it prevents people from being part of the church.

Don't forget, this is the same Pope who less than a month ago stated that atheists, those who claim to not believe there is a God, can get to Heaven. That you don't need to believe in God to make it to Heaven!

His rationale was that he wanted the church to be more inclusive. I agree 100% with his desire to reach out to all types of people, but you don't do that by soft-selling and condoning what the Bible clearly calls SIN! You don't reach people by not telling them the Truth, and if the Truth of God's Word keeps a person from coming to church, that is their choice! The Truth of the Bible is IMMUTABLE, never changing, and those lost in sin more than anyone need and deserve to hear the Truth!!!

I am sick and tired of people like the Pope and anyone else giving credibility to the LIE FROM SATAN that anyone is "gay." There is NO SUCH THING as the "LGBT community!" Nobody is a lesbian! Nobody is gay! Nobody is bi-sexual! Nobody is transgendered! A person may CHOOSE to engage in unhealthy, unnatural, perverted sexual acts with someone of the same sex, or people of both sexes, or become the opposite sex that God created them, but that does NOT make them anything than a person who has CHOSEN to engage in such perversion!

Back to the Pope's comments. If he and those of us God has called to his work, along with ALL of those who have accepted the Lord as their Savior, aren't to speak up against a sin like homosexuality or the slaughter of innocent babies...WHO WILL? If we don't tell the world the Truth of God's Word..WHO WILL? I have said it over and over that the only way satan's lies can stand is when the Truth of God is absent!

The reason the sin of homosexuality is now mainstream, nearly a quarter of states now legalize the perversion of God's Holy Institution of Marriage and the family, is because the church failed to speak up. THE SILENCE OF CHRISTIANS IS WHY THIS NATION IS IN SPIRITUAL FREEFALL!!! While the media and society cry every time a person with mental illness kills innocent people, they are silent over the 4,000 innocent babies who are slaughtered every 24 hours in this nation!!!

Sadly, this Pope has taken a page from gutless wonders like Osteen, Warren, and most pastors today. Don't speak about the things destroying this nation since it may upset people and hurt book sales and attendance, meaning donations! I have great empathy for Rick Warren and his wife for the tragic loss of their son due to suicide, but he had a NATIONAL AUDIENCE on CNN the other night, an entire hour, and never one time looked into the cameras and shared the FACT that everyone will die one day in some way, and without faith in Jesus they will spend eternity in hell!

Of course that is why these programs put on people like Warren and Osteen since they know they are "safe" and they won't tell people the Truth of God's Word which will offend non-Believers. Having officiated hundreds of funerals over the years, there is never a better setting for the Gospel. I tell families up front out of respect that I will be giving an invitation to those who come to accept Jesus and if they don't want that to happen, please have someone else do the funeral.

I love you and care about you so much. When someone like the Pope tells people we need to stop talking about the sins of homosexuality and abortion, it only makes the few like myself who will not be silent look like extremists and haters which is how we are labeled in order to marginalize the Truth we share. The Pope did say he wanted to focus more on salvation. Now that is great news. Please, let me know when he looks into a camera and shares the simple Gospel message that we are all sinners, we will all die one day, and that faith in Jesus is the ONLY way to be saved.

I WON'T BE HOLDING MY BREATH, JUST LIKE I WON'T BE HOLDING MY BREATH FOR GUTLESS WONDERS LIKE OSTEEN, WARREN, AND SADLY THE VAST MAJORITY OF PASTORS TO SHARE THE ONLY MESSAGE ANY MAN OF GOD HAS..THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!

I will not be silent, I will not stop talking about the sins that are not just destroying this nation but individual lives like all sin does. Now more than ever this nation needs to turn back to God's Truth and to our Creator before we feel His full wrath and judgment and cease to exist as God promised in Deuteronomy 8:19, 20. GO LOOK THOSE VERSES UP!!!

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller