Daily Devotional for Tuesday January 6, 2015
The Headlines are Screaming for a Nation to Turn Back to God
(Deuteronomy 8:19, 20)
***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, I heard the book "50 Shades of Gray" is coming out soon as a movie. Why is this book, and I assume movie, that glorifies sexual perversion so popular with some Christians?
ANSWER: Simple. Instead of the church driving the culture, the culture drives the church..no matter how sinful it is! Here is the Devotional I did a while back on this book: http://www.liveprayer.com/ddarchive3.cfm?id=4836
The headlines of the past few days are SCREAMING for a nation to turn back to God and signs here and around the world that the judgment of God is falling and our ONLY hope is to turn back to God and His Truth! As you read through these news headlines and the comments I made to help you see these individual issues in the context of the overall spiritual state of our nation, remember God's hand of protection and blessings is OFF this nation! These are simply a few of the current daily signs to a lost and hurting nation in spiritual freefall to turn back to our Creator and His Truth or face His ultimate wrath and judgment as the children of Israel did many times for their sin and rebellion!!!
-Sadly, death is part of the human condition. It is a time each of us will one day face. Please pray for Andre Crouch, gospel singer, songwriter, arranger, recording artist, record producer, and pastor. He suffered a massive heart attack and is on life support. Pray for the Lord's peace and healing over this blessed servant, and His strenght and comfort for his family during this difficult time.
-Extortionist Al Sharpton. Calling yourself a "reverend" doesn't make you a pastor any more than if I call myself a giraffe makes me a giraffe! Reports are circulating that this "faux rev" who supports the slaughter of innocent babies, perverting God's Holy Institution of Marriage and the Family, in addition to being a proven liar, race-baiter, and government "snitch," is at his core a consummate extortionist. It appears Sharpton, like the "faux reverend" Jackson, shakes down corporations for millions of dollars to organizations he controls or benefits from, in order to NOT protest their business for being racist. It seems for these corporations it is cheaper to pay off Sharpton than deal with the grief he can cause, especially as a confidant of President Obama and New York City Mayor DeBlasio and having the national platform Comcast gives him for an hour 5 nights a week on MSNBC.
-Organized black mobs crashed various dining establishments in New York City and Oakland that are primarily frequented by white patrons during Sunday brunch, declaring that there is a war on black lives. It is too bad none of these patrons had the guts to stand up and ask these trespassing protestors why they weren't outside of the Planned Parenthood clinics where apx 1400 black babies are slaughtered every 24 hours. I guess those black lives don't merit any outrage.
-The National Enquirer had an article from an attorney claiming that Cotton-candy Joel Osteen and his wife Vickie are running a $50 million scam that enables them to live in a $11 million mansion in Houston, fly around in private jets and chauffeured cars, live like royalty, and have a personal net worth of over $100 million dollars! The lawyer making the claim honed in on what I have told people for over 15 years, that one of the biggest financial scams in the church are pastors who take the royalties from their books instead of those royalties going to the church! Osteen, has also followed the lead of Rick Warren and others by making what appears to be an incredibly generous gesture in not taking a salary from his church/ministry. That hollow act only insults the intelligence of everyone who clearly understands that without the infrastructure of their church/ministry that the DONORS created, they would not have the platform and ability to sell even one book! The book scam is even worse when you consider virtually NONE of these books are written by those selling them, but by ghost writers! Sadly, this book scam Osteen, Warren, and most others engage in is not illegal, but highly unethical and immoral!
*Personal Note: The personal "wealth" of these church/ministry leaders comes from the gifts of people who are led to believe they are supporting the work of God, when in fact a large portion pays for the assets owned and controlled by the head of the church/minsitry creating for them tens of millions of dollars of personal net worth! That is why Liveprayer owns NO buildings, NO real estate of any kind, NO brokerage accounts, NO bank accounts other than our checking account, or any other assets! Due to the difficult financial conditions in the nation over the previous 6 years I haven't even taken a salary! The funds I ask you to give to help me goes to reaching the lost masses with the Truth of God's Word and the hope of Christ through the Gospel other than what I need to be able to eat, have something to wear each day, and a place to sleep. I not benefited financially in any way after 22 years of ministry, which is fine since my rewards are being stored up in Heaven!
-Khazouk is a term you should know. ISIS feels beheadings and crucifixions is not barbaric enough, so they are bringing back an absolutely disgusting form of torture/execution from the days of the Ottoman Empire known as "Khazouk." In this form of torture/execution, Muslims take a metal stake and place it in fire until the metal is red hot. They than drive the stake through the anus of their victim. This form of torture will not immediately kill the person since the stake never goes far enough into a person to puncture their heart and the heat from the metal actually cauterizes the wound. It usually takes 2-3 days of excruciating pain before the victim dies.
-A leading cancer researcher says that cancer is purely genetic, is actually a good way for a person to die since they have time to say good-bye, and that no more money should be spent on cancer research. Sadly, this poor misguided individual is making such a case for the wrong disease. Over the years, thanks to cancer research, MANY cancers that once were certain death sentences are now treatable and give the person many more years of high quality life. The one disease that could be wiped out in one generation without ever spending another dime on research is AIDS. If men would simply stop engaging in unnatural sex acts with other men, within one generation AIDS would cease to exist.
I love and care about you so much. God is showing us DAILY that we must stop, turn back to Him and His Truth or be destroyed as He promised to do in today's anchor verse. However, 2015 will be a year of victory as our verse for the year states, "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!"
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller