Daily Devotional for Saturday June 21, 2014

The Lesson of a Selfless Little Boy

(Matthew 14:13-21)

***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, I would like to know why Moses was punished and not allowed to enter the promise land?

ANSWER: One word, DISOBEDIENCE! As I share often, our acts have consequences. Moses struck the rock twice, instead of speaking to the rock as God had told him. While God used his life in a mighty way, there is a price to pay for rebellion, and for Moses, it was not being allowed to enter into the promised land.

The lesson of a selfless little boy. Most people know the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with the a few loaves and fishes. What I never hear when this powerful miracle is recounted, is the fact that many of the people present had food to give, but it was only that one lone boy who was willing to give Jesus all he had in order for EVERYONE to be fed.

When I think about this powerful truth, it reminds me of today. How many people are blessed with 24 hours a day, talents and gifts, financial resources, yet refuse to share them with others? It is amazing that the few who do share their time, their talent, their treasure to further the work of the Lord, how God multiplies what is given to feed the multitudes, just like he multiplied the loaves and fishes to feed the multitudes on that day!

At the end of August, Liveprayer will be 15 yrs old. In that time, we have raised a bit under $8 million dollars. Many ministries raise that in a month to pay for their buildings, staff, private jets, and lavish living expenses, and in the end are only preaching to the choir! The funds we have raised has been done due to the sacrifce from less than 10,000 faithful friends over these years. That is right, less than 10,000 of the TENS OF MILLIONS we have reached and impacted have ever given a dime to God's work here at Liveprayer. That is a fraction of 1%!

There are many reasons for that. First, all we have done here at Liveprayer has been done for FREE. However, there is a cost involved in getting the Gospel and God's Truth out to the masses. We have never charged anyone for anything, I don't bribe people to give with "love gifts," and we don't sell books, tapes resources. All we have done has been without charge since the Gospel and God's Truth is freely received and is to be freely given. Also, over 20% of those we reach are outside the US, another 20% are under 25, both groups who struggle to get by and rarely can send a gift.

Second, I don't "tickle ears." I am not a motivational speaker like the gutless Joel Osteen, nor am I trying to build my own kingdom like the seeker/purpose driven/emerging church/prosperity marketeers have done. I have had more people RUN from Liveprayer than anyone can imagine because I would not back down from the difficult issues, and told people the bare Truth of what the Bible says even though many didn't want to hear it.

Lastly, well over half of the people we have reached through the Internet, on TV, radio, in print, are not Christians. We are one of the few ministries that has dared to walk into satan's living room and share the hope and love of Jesus with the lost and hurting right where they live!

What has been accomplished? Tens of millions of lives have been impacted, we have sent personal responses to over 100 million emails for prayer, broadcast over 2,000 TV programs that have been viewed by millions, sent out over 5400 Daily Devotionals each morning since Liveprayer went online that is read by millions around the world, and most important of all, seen over 800,000 souls we know of come to faith in Jesus Christ!

For 15 years, Liveprayer has been one of the few places people could find the unadulterated Truth of the Bible preached daily without compromise on the issues of the day from a Biblical worldview. Despite the opportunity to generated tens of millions annually by "playing along," going on Christian TV, charging people to come to conferences or buy products, backing off the difficult issues that offend people, make decisions based on money instead of souls, joining forces with major ministry organizations which require setting aside the Absolutes of the Bible and compromise God's Truth!

I have listened to the voice of God and done my best to be faithful to deliver His Truth to the lost and hurting masses each day regardless the personal and financial cost! A Devotional reader sent me an email the other day, "Pastor Keller, I have said this before that I feel one of the biggest and most important opportunities Liveprayer provides is the opportunity to set the Biblical record straight. So many people have either misinterpreted the Bible, or have in MANY cases, have been given mis-information!"

Compromising the Truth of the Bible, looking the other way when it is financially expedient, not talking about difficult issues so people won't get upset with me, are things I have and will continue to REFUSE to do, since like every person, I will die and stand before God one day. At that moment, I don't want to have to explain why I didn't obey Him. I want to hear the words all followers of Christ desire to hear, "well done thou good and faithful servant!'

I love and care about you so much. Just like in that crowd of 5,000, it was only one little boy who was willing to give up all he had to the Lord, while everyone else refused. My challenge to you today is simply this. Will you be like the little boy with your time, talent, and treasure, or the like the rest in the crowd that day and hold on to all the Lord has given you?

***MAY FINANCIAL UPDATE: As we are 3 weeks into June, I need you to be praying what you can do to help me over these final 19 days of June to insure the $40,000 we require for our June budget is taken care of. So far, the first $2,000 is in leaving us requiring $38,000 to end the month with all of our basic Internet operations current. However, we are required to immediately pay $10,000 of that balance Monday for expenses from the first week of June that have to be taken care of for our bandwidth and various server farm expenses.

Also, we are still $18,000 behind in our TV payments from May that is putting the continuation of the program in Chicago in peril, not to mention the $30,000 we require for our June program. We have until Friday June 27th to get those payments ($48,000) to the Chicago station! That is $86,000 we need to bring in over these final 9 days of June. WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! I am asking everyone to pray, and everyone who is able to send the most generous gift you can to help me!!!

TO GIVE A GIFT TO LIVEPRAYER, you can use your major credit card on our secure server at: www.liveprayer.com under the "Donation" link, you can give using your PayPal account using my email address: bkeller@liveprayer.com , or you can mail your gift to: Liveprayer, 6660 46th Ave. North, St.Petersburg, FL 33709. All gifts to Liveprayer are 100% tax deductible.

Thank you for your love, for your prayers, and for your sacrifce. It is friends like you who stand with me that enable Liveprayer to do all it does every 24 hours for so many lost and hurting souls around the world, while bringing HIS Truth into the marketplace!

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

Bill Keller