Daily Devotional for Saturday December 21, 2013

Will We Be Like the Children of Israel or the People of Nineveh

(Jonah 3:5-10)

***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, what is your opinion of the young man who has sparked quite a controversy on YouYube with his statement "I hate religion but love Jesus?"

ANSWER: Nice phrase with zero substance. I have no doubt this young man is serious about loving the Lord, but what he was really trying to say wasn't that he hated relgion, but he hated the contentious nature and debates over religion. He is the perfect byproduct of what I have been warning people about for years. Weak, watered down preaching, not speaking about the real issues like abortion and gay marriage, refusing to warn people of satanic cults like Mormonism because they are 'such nice people,' soft selling what a false religion like Islam is really about, and the promotion of the universalistic lie from hell that everyone will make it if they just do their best. It all sounds nice, but this is why people must read and study the Bible, since there IS Absolute Truth and it is found on the pages of God's Word, there is SIN, there is only ONE Gospel, and mindsets like his are leading lots of people to hell who think they are OK.

Will we be like the children of Israel or the people of Nineveh? The United States is at a fork in the road. We will either experience the full wrath and judgment of God like the children of Israel, or we will see God stay His hand of punishment for a season and millions get saved like the people of Nineveh!

In the Old Testament, while the priests of the day sat in their beautiful homes, dressed in the best clothes, eating the most sumptuous food, living like royalty by compromising with the politicians of their day and telling the people things to make them feel good for a few minutes in order to keep the money rolling in (sound familiar?), the prophets lived in caves, dressed in meager clothes, ate cow dung, and were scorned, ridiculed, hated, and dismissed by the masses as fools.

Why? Because the prophet couldn't be bought by the politicians of the day. The prophets called out the priests for their compromise and using God for their own commerce. The prophets had the guts to not care about people being upset with their message, since their only loyalty was to God and the message He gave them to preach. No matter how unpopular their message was, no matter how may times they were beaten, thrown in prison, spat upon, they never wavered.

Sadly, many times in the early history of Israel, they turned their back on God. They engaged in every kind of sin you can name. They forsook God for the false gods and idols of the world. The prophet saw the judgment of God coming. The prophet warned the people of his coming wrath if they didn't repent. There was a remnant, those who refused to bow their knee to baal. However, this remnant was mostly silent.

The masses of the day rejected the warnings of the prophet. As the prophet warned, God's wrath and judgment was poured out on the children of Israel. I have no doubt they were oblivious to what was about to happen. I also have no doubt that as they suffered the judgment of God they remembered the warnings of the prophet that they tuned out and ignored!

The hope for this nation lies in the account of what happened in Nineveh. God sent a very reluctant and rebellious prophet to Nineveh. God had to deal with Jonah in a harsh way before he was willing to deliver God's Word to the people. However, once he was obedient, the people not only heard his warning of God's pending judgment, but they responded!

The Bible tells how they repented of their sins, they turned to the God of Israel, and millions were saved as God stayed His judgment for a season. AMEN! My Bible says God is no respecter of person. If God stayed His hand of judgment on the people of Nineveh, God will stay His hand of judgment on the people of the United States! The key is, will we respond to the warnings from the prophet as the people of Nineveh, or will we respond to the warnings from the prophet as the children of Israel?

I love you and care about you so much! Just like in Israel, there is a remnant, those who are faithful to the Lord and won't bow their knee to baal! Today, the remnant here in the United States must not be silent but rise up! As I have faithfully delivered God's Truth for 20 yrs, every day here at Liveprayer for 13 yrs, I can't do this alone. I need you, the remnant, to rise up and help me!

Several years ago, right before God began to unleash His judgment on this nation thru the economy, the Lord led me to launch the Jonah Project. Most dismissed it at the time, but in hindsight, it was God trying to prepare His people for what was to come.

Take a few minutes and go to the Jonah Project webpage at, www.liveprayer.com/jonah . There is a 7-8 min. video that will play when you get there which lays out the vision of the Jonah Project. Again, as you will see, it was God preparing His people for action as He began to unleash His judgment on our nation. Pray, SEE the vision, get signed up, and be part of this last days remnant who is going to call this nation to repentance and to turn back to God and His Truth.

I made the decision 20 yrs ago that my only allegiance was to the Lord and His Truth, to see souls saved. I have had numerous opportunities over the years to compromise as so many do in order to raise money. I have had the opportunity over the years to soften the message, not deal with the real issues, so people will feel good instead of being challenged.

Because I have refused to play the games most in large ministries do just to raise money, because I don't play church politics, like the OT prophets, I am scorned, ridiculed, hated, both by the Christian establishment and those who deny God and His Word. But that is OK. In the end, when I take my last breath, like each one of us the only one I have to answer to is God.

When my work is over, I want to proudly bow before our Lord knowing I had run the race, I hadn't compromised, I hadn't sold out, I had been faithful to the Gospel, and the furit of my labor are the tens of millions of lives impacted for the Lord and the 600,000 souls we know of who came to know Jesus by faith!

All of that has only been made possible by friends like you, the remnant, who has stood with me in prayer and making the sacrifce to give to enable this ministry to do the work we have been called to. I ask again, "will we respond to the warnings from the prophet as the people of Nineveh, or will we respond to the warnings from the prophet as the children of Israel?"

In His love and service,

Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller

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

Bill Keller