Daily Devotional for Thursday October 24, 2013

Shysters

(2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, someone mentioned a verse in the Bible about pearls and swine. What does it mean and where in the Bible is it mentioned?

ANSWER: Matthew 7:6. These words of Jesus are allegorical and not literal. The "swine" here stand for the unappreciative and worldly; those who belittle the value of what is being offered to them. The swine have no appreciation for either the beauty nor the value of the pearls under their feet. Your life, time, energy, opportunities and abilities are God's "pearls," and we are to be good stewards of His "pearls."

Shysters. Conservative author Ann Coulter is out with her latest book. The ONLY reason I mention it is because in the first chapter, she calls out many of those who share her political ideology "shysters," stating that what they do is simply for money. LOL! Seriously, if there was ever a case of the pot calling the kettle black this is it! Nothing Coulter does changes anything or anyone's life, other than her what is in her bank account.

For the record, I interviewed Ann Coulter on my TV program back in January of 2009. I never have guests, NEVER bring people on to sell their books, but gave her a few minutes at first to talk about her latest book so that could than question her on a few topics. She claims to be a Christian and I was interested in hearing her conversion experience which based on her responses seems to have never had. I also wanted to know why if she was a Christian as she claimed, she would have endorsed and backed Mitt Romney, a 5th generation high priest of a satan worshipping cult leading souls to hell with a false gospel, to be the 2008 Presidential nominee of the Republican Party.

Apparently Ann had no desire to talk about her faith that she loves to toss around, since a bulk of her book sales are to Christians, and she certainly had NO DESIRE to engage in a conversation about what those in the satanic Mormon cult believe. All of a sudden she said her mother was hungry and she needed to take her to dinner and hung up. This seems to be a MO she has used many times in the past when interviewers actually asked her legitimate questions rather than just letting her pimp her book. Below is a link to the Devotional I did regarding that interview, complete with a link to the audio file of the interview so you can hear it for yourself.

Ann Coulter Devotional with audio link: http://www.liveprayer.com/ddarchive3.cfm?id=3586

The only reason I even mention Coulter and her latest book is because of her contention that those people she disagrees with, even though they share her political ideology, are "shysters." I have warned you time and time again NOT to get so distracted by politics that you forget the problems in this nation have nothing to do with politics but are spiritual. That means the answers we seek regarding the state of this nation are not political answers but are spiritual answers.

In past Devotionals, I tried to help you see that at the end of the day, Rush, Hannity, Levin, cult member Beck, Savage, Ingrham, and the rest of the conservative talk radio world, FOX News, authors like Coulter, money raisers like Rove, groups like Freedom Works and Heritage, and the conservative websites like Drudge, Breitbart, WND, Malkin's various blog sites, ALL TOGETHER form an incestuous world of their own that is little more than political entertainment where the top names rake in tens of millions annually preaching to the choir. Those on the other end of the political spectrum do the exact same thing.

>From the day Barack Hussein Obama was elected, the conservative entertainment world spent the next 4 years with one goal, defeating Obama in 2012. If their total failure, despite using all of their vast resources, was not a shining example of how little power and influence they really have, I don't what is. At the end of the day, they still got paid thanks to those who follow them. They sell hundreds of millions of advertising, millions of books, get their followers to attend special events, but in the end they are doing nothing but preaching to the choir. The same people buy all of the books these entertainers write, the same people support their advertisers, the same people come to their events, giving them their hard earned money so they can become personally wealthy without accomplishing anything!

*People come to me all the time asking what good book I recommend they read. I give the same answer every time..THE BIBLE, since less than 10% of confessing Believers have ever read the Bible cover to cover like any other book!

Don't be confused, this message is NOT about politics, it is about "shysters." I have always advocated our involvement in every aspect of our lives during this journey through life, including our involvement in the political process. Having said that, the amount of distraction and amount of money God's people invest in politics, regardless of what your political beliefs are, does nothing but make the key players in the political entertainment world on both sides of the political spectrum multi-millionaires despite the fact they change nothing, accomplish little, and worse of all, rarely get those outside of their world of thought to change their minds and hearts.

Wheeew! The reason I have taken this long to get to the punch line should be obvious to many of you by now. What I have just described in the political world perfectly dovetails the world of Christianity! I have warned you for over 14 years about the "shysters" in the Christian world. Those who do nothing but preach to the choir not only don't change the culture in any way, but it is getting worse each day, they accomplish little, AND WORSE OF ALL RARELY GET THOSE OUTSIDE OF THEIR WORLD TO CHANGE THEIR MINDS AND HEARTS!!!

Just like those top figures in the political entertainment world rake in millions for their efforts preaching to their choir of political thought, so do those in the Christian entertainment world. Gutless cotton candy motivational speaker Osteen just moved into his new $10.5 MILLION mansion in Houston. How does someone do that and still ask people to give him money? I have an idea. Why not get a modest $2 million home and take the other $8.5 million so you don't have to sell out the faith just to sell books or send an endless stream of fundraising letters begging people to give you their hard earned money???

Osteen, Hinn, Copeland, Jakes, and the rest of the top "prosperity pimps" on Christian TV have private jets that run $30-$40 million dollars. Some have multiple jets! The sad reality is, Liveprayer could do what we do each day, impacting millions of lives worldwide through the Daily Devotional, the Liveprayer.com website, and the TV program for an entire year for what these people pay for a few tanks of gas for their private jets!!! The Crouches have an estimated $1 BILLON sitting offshore on top of hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate around the world that they have acquired over the years.

Yet all of these "shysters" have no shame in asking hard working people, often using outright perversions of Scripture, to send them money so they can live like the rulers of a small nation! The lost of this world look at this and laugh as they correctly see it as little more than a money hustle! Is it any wonder why the lost want nothing to do with Christianity??

I love you and care about you so much. The bottom line to this Devotional is that just like their are "shysters" in the political world, there are also "shysters" in the church. At the end of the day, they are really only interested in their own kingdom and not God's. This is exactly why the culture around us rots more each day and millions of lost and hurting souls never find true hope in their hour of need or hear the Gospel, meaning they die and needlessly end up in hell for all eternity because they are not the "target audience" (i.e.: those who will give them money to fund their empires).

God's wrath is already being poured out on this nation for our sins and wickedness. Unless this nation has a "Nineveh moment" and turns back to the Almighty and His Truth it is doomed. That day is closer than anyone thinks! Sadly, while people continue to give their hard earned money to these Christian "shysters" so they can buy their $10.5 million homes, private jets, drive a fleet of luxury cars, build buildings, and have large staffs of people doing all of the work, the nation around us is sinking fast into the spiritual abyss. I can only pray that just like people can no longer afford to be distracted by the "shysters" in the political entertainment world, they can no longer afford be distracted by the Christian "shysters" who do nothing to change lives or the spiritual course of this nation!!!

***I have three critical payments from the first of the month that need to be taken care of by the end of business tomorrow. Because of being late in these payments each month over the past few years, despite over a decade of business, our creditors are getting very strict with us. $5,100 is needed for a bandwidth payment, $3,000 is a server rental fee for extra servers we need to help get the Devotional out each day, and $2,800 is for special security software we have to use to stop 90% of the hacking attempts that we have to deal with on a daily basis.

I am praying for 3 people to pray about sending a special one-time gift by credit card, PayPal, overnight a check to our office, or direct deposit funds into our Wells Fargo account to cover each one of these critical needs ( Contact me for the info at: bkeller@liveprayer.com ). It is imperative we have the funds in, or at least committed today so I can juggle a few things knowing I will be able to get these payments made. Thank you and God bless!!!

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

Bill Keller