Daily Devotional for Monday October 21, 2013
Leading A Nation Back to God and His Truth
(2 Corinthians 8:3,4)
***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, having pondered man made weddings, where did all this extra paraphernalia come from? The excessive everything, even going into debt, the vows people say which are not in the Word of God, the wedding dresses, the gifts? Understand viewed this is a wonderful God given commitment and beautiful day but having seen so much that is not of him involved in this day I feel God has shown me it is not of him. Can you help me?
ANSWER: Marriage is both a legal and holy union of a man and woman for life. Just like the world has perverted and commercialized Christmas, which is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, so the world has perverted and commercialized this wonderful moment when a man and woman vow before each other, witnesses, and God, their lives to each other. Having officiated dozens of weddings, I use Biblical passages for the vows, and meet with the couple several times prior to the wedding to insure they both fully understand the commitment they are making to each other and God. I also challenge them to stay focused on the spiritual aspects of their day, and not allow themselves to get so caught up in the way the world celebrates weddings.
Leading a nation back to God and His Truth! My only goal left after 20+ yrs of ministry is to allow God to use me and His work here at Liveprayer to change the spiritual course of this nation before we suffer His wrath and judgment. You can look at the goals of every major church, ministry, and "Christian superstar" in this nation, and you will not find ONE who has as their goal, leading our nation back to God and His Truth which is the ONLY hope to stave off God's judgment that has already begun raining down on our nation in a very tangible way since 2008. Sadly, like the priests in the OT they are more focused and concerned on their kingdom and not God's!
Now is the time to do great things for God! I have always loved to read about the man called Saul, who became Paul. A man who was a leader in persecuting the first church, had that incredible transformation on the Damascus Road, and then proceeded to live one of the greatest lives of service ever recorded. Hours upon hours I have studied Paul's life, and in the end I came to the conclusion that his success in serving the Lord was due to the fact he had no fear of what God could do and lived out his belief that all things were possible with God. Listen to me closely. Paul did not just say it . . . HE LIVED IT!!!
Paul was one of the most effective fund-raisers in the history of the church. He understood that to spread the Good News it took the financial support of those who were committed to the Lord! I appreciate his approach in that he always made it clear it was not the size of the gift, but the attitude of the heart that gave. It was not the amount, but the sacrifice involved. Paul was realistic because he understood that to take the Gospel to all the world, it required hard work, sacrifice, and finances.
I hear many people condemn the church, condemn ministries for always talking about money. I agree since it takes lots of effort to raise the tens of millions needed if you are trying to buy private jets, build new buildings, have a staff of hundreds, live in mansions, and drive Bentley's. However, Liveprayer doesn't need tens of millions since we don't use your money to build our own kingdom.
For right at $500k a year, we can impact over 2.4 million worldwide daily, respond to over 40,000 emails for prayer each day, see apx. 2,000 souls a week come to Jesus, and not just minister to tens of thousands 5 nights a week via TV, but have that media presence to bring God's Truth into the marketplace boldly and without compromise!
If politicians, animal rights advocates, people with any cause you want to name have no problem asking people to support them, I certainly am not going to be ashamed to ask you to help me to get God's Truth into the marketplace, to be here for people in their hour of need, to save souls, and to spark a national revival leading this nation back to God and HIS Truth!!!
Over nearly 14+ years, Liveprayer has sent personal responses to over 100 MILLION emails for prayer. Over 6 million praise reports are now archived as a testimony of God's grace in people's lives. We get over 40,000 a day.Tens of millions of live worldwide have been impacted. Over 700,000 we know of have come to faith in Jesus. Liveprayer has been on the front lines for the past 14+ years, but our work is not finished just yet. Our final work for the Lord is underway, and that is to bring together as ONE those who know the Lord and help lead this nation back to God, His Truth, while leading the lost and hurting to faith in Jesus!
With your sacrifce and prayers, this past May 6th the Liveprayer TV program was re-launched to lead a very high profile and public stand to turn this nation back to God and His Truth! During this coming January, all the pieces will be in place to literally change the spiritual course of this nation with your help! The TV program is already on in 45 markets plus available worldwide digitally "live" Monday-Friday from Midnight-2am. We will be adding another 55 over the next few months giving us a huge and visible national presence that the media and world won't be able to be ignored!
My biggest issue today is getting through these last 71 days or 10 weeks of the year. During January of next year, we have several new funding sources helping us with our efforts on television that will take much of the day to day pressure off of just raising our basic monthly operations. We still need to cover the last $38,000 of October's operations plus $80,000 for November and December. That is $118,000 over the final 71 days so we can end the year with all of our basic operations paid in full as we engage our nation starting in January to turn back to God and HIS Truth!
***OCTOBER FINANCIAL UPDATE: Thank You to everyone who was led and able to help Liveprayer with a gift over the past few days during a critical time. God is great, and we were finally able to cover the balance of our September shortfall. Over these last 10 days of the month, we now have to work on bringing in the $40,000 we need for our basic October operations. So far, $2,000 of that is in, leaving the final $38,000. $10,000 of that was due the first week of the month, so I am praying that 1 or 2 of our friends will help with a special one-time gift to insure that critical amount is taken care of today. If everyone else will pray and give as God guides you, it will insure all of our basic operational obligations are taken care of by the end of the month. All we have done has only been possible by dear friends like you who have prayed for me, and sacrificed to support me financially. Please don't think that just because there are 2.4 million subscribers, someone else will take care of these needs. 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 has been friends like YOU who God has richly blessed for your faithfulness and obedience!
To send 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. I want this message to be an encouragement and a challenge for you to get out there and see how big God really is. Don't be afraid of failure because there is NO failure in the things of God. I am encouraged by the great men of vision alive at this point in time, men who have challenged God and done great things for God, men who were not satisfied sitting back waiting for someone else to do something. NOW IS THE TIME TO DO GREAT THINGS FOR GOD!!!
We only get one life. This is our one and only opportunity to do great things for God our Creator! I am coming to you today and asking you to help me for Jesus! Many of you have limited resources, but everyone has gifts and talents from God who can use those gifts and talents to help me fulfill God's work here at Liveprayer. In the process, we can see millions of souls re-routed from the flames of hell to the glory of Heaven while helping to lead our nation back to God and His Truth!
As we live in these critical days, now more than ever the lost masses who will die and end up in hell without faith in Jesus need to hear His Truth! Now more than ever, the lost and hurting masses who have never even been to church, need to hear the Truth of God's Word. That is what the mission of Liveprayer has been for over 14 yrs now. To utilized the Internet, secular TV, the secular media, to bring the truth of the Bible to the hurting masses and the hope and love of Jesus Christ to the lost.
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!!! God is speaking to you today. This is not a coincidence that you are reading these words. Will you help me? Will you allow God to use your life, your gifts and talents to help me fulfill His mission for Liveprayer?
WILL YOU DO GREAT THINGS FOR GOD AND HELP ME SPARK A TRUE NATIONAL REVIVAL, BRINGING GOD'S TRUTH TO THE LOST AND HURTING MASSES AND TURNING THIS NATION BACK TO THE ALMIGHTY AND HIS TRUTH???
In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller