Daily Devotional for Thursday March 21, 2019

Recent major events and news stories in the United States and around the world shaping the culture we live in! Part Three of Three

(John 15:19)

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, help me to never forget how each life is from You and precious. In this culture that puts little value on a human life, let ME stand for You and the fact ALL LIFE IS FROM GOD! May I find courage and strength to never waiver or fail to speak up for this most precious of all gifts! In the name of Jesus I pray. AMEN!

Part Three of Three

“...but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world...” John 15:19

The world we are living in for this season. Today is the final part of our very special 3-PART Daily Devotional series on recent major events and news stories in the United States and around the world that are shaping the culture we live in today.

It is critical for Christians to clearly understand the culture around us so that we can be the Lord’s agents of change as He has commanded us to be. May the Lord guide us each day by His Spirit as we faithfully serve Him!!!

*50% of millennials believe it is wrong to evangelize! That has to be primarily due to the fact whatever their church experience has been, there are no invitations given at the end of the service and evangelism is something only embarrassing “hellfire and brimstone” preachers practice. 32% of Protestants believe in evolution! Of course this requires a person to ignore the teaching of the Bible which is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, representing Absolute Truth, and our final authority in ALL matters.

*There is a debate in the church world if it is Biblical to give an invitation. We wonder why the culture around us is so Godless. Start with churches actually having a discussion if it is Biblical to invite people to come to faith in Jesus!!! Listen, coming forward at a church service, raising your hand at a church service doesn’t save anybody. You are saved by God’s grace and your faith...period (Ephesians 2:8,9)! Just like the words in the “sinners prayer” won’t save you since there are no magical words to be saved. Those words are simply a verbal guide to what you are actually doing in your heart by faith. Raising you hand to acknowledge you want to be saved, coming to the altar to accept Jesus, these are simply public physical actions a person is doing in confirmation of their accepting Jesus into their heart and life by faith. The Bible does say however, that those who are ashamed of Jesus He will be ashamed of them!

There are no acts that save a person. The one act in that process was already accomplished when Jesus died for your sins, my sins, and the sins of all mankind on the cross. Acknowledging that act and professing by faith that Jesus is your Savior is what saves a person. As for this ridiculous debate, how is a person supposed to make the confession of faith unless they are given the Gospel and an invitation to make the commitment of their life by faith. When you go to buy a car and the salesman gives you that opportunity to make the purchase, YOU and nobody else has to respond either yes or no. An invitation saves NOBODY, but how is a person supposed to make that profession of faith in Jesus unless they are given the opportunity?

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” Romans 10:13,14

To watch an incredible teaching on the most critical issue there is for any person anywhere in the world, salvation, go to the Liveprayer TV program from February 13, 2019 at:

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=khKXpBhJDGw

*Japan is a very strange country from a religious standpoint. Even with decades of global evangelism, over 75% of the population is still Buddhist and less than 1% are Christians. However, they are one of the few developed democracies in the world that still refuses to acknowledge same-sex marriage. I find it interesting that not from a Biblical standpoint, but simply a societal one, the Japanese understand that traditional marriage and the traditional family are the foundation of society. When marriage and family breakdown, society breaks down. Just look at the United States in the past 40 years as traditional marriage and family has slowly broken down!

*Sex predators in the pews. It is a sad commentary on the world when you have to be careful of being stalked by sex predators...in church! Like in any organization, in any profession, there is a small percentage of sex predators. While this type of evil is normally seen from a pastor, choir director, deacon, youth director, or any other official position in the church, the greatest danger from sex predators in the church are men...and women...in the pews! With so many mega-churches, multi-campus churches, there are often lots of people every week that you may have never seen before, or only once in a while.

Sadly, women and men need to use their common sense and keep your guard up when it comes to people you don’t recognize or know anything about. Large churches are fertile ground for sex predators. Men looking for single, divorced, even married women to prey upon. Women, looking for single, divorced, even married men to prey upon. It is simply part of living in these current days. Of course we want to be welcoming to new people, very possibly people seeking to find their faith, but use the common sense God gave you. Predators are called predators because that is what they are! I am certainly not trying to scare people, especially when you go to church, but this is a very real threat in the church today and one everyone, men and women, young and old, married and single, need to be aware of.

*China is involved in major persecution of Christians. We pray often for our brothers and sisters in Christ in China. I spoke about this in Part Two of this 3-Part Daily Devotional series yesterday. Listen to how God always has a way. China has been making a huge push into Africa over the past 4-5 yrs. It is a major priority for the Chinese to use their economic power to gain control of the great resources on the African continent. However, there is LOTS of evangelism going on in Africa. There is a real move of God’s Holy Spirit across Africa. In the process of doing business in Africa, there are many Chinese who are being exposed to Jesus, the Bible, and the Gospel! Don’t you love how God works. GOD ALWAYS HAS A WAY!!!

*A Christian school girl in Nigeria was kidnapped along with over a hundred others. Their Muslim captors told the girls to renounce Christ, accept Islam, and they could go home. All but ONE GIRL did that. She has now been in captivity for ONE YEAR! What would you do? That is a fair question, but one sadly NONE of us, NONE OF US, could truthfully answer unless we were in that position. I know what we HOPE we would do. But hope and doing are two different things. That girl is a HERO to Jesus and the angels in Heaven who are cheering her on each day. Could we have such faith?

*On January 4th of this year, I shared a Daily Devotional on Artificial Intelligence and robots. At the end, I know from emails we received many were stunned and in disbelief that there would one day sooner than we think, be a church with a robot, powered by AI, pastor! https://liveprayer.com/devotional.cfm?id=53890

Well, in good old Japan there is now a Buddhist temple with...wait...a ROBOT GOD! Early in my ministry I would hear older saints often say, “come quickly Lord Jesus!” Every time I heard it I bristled a bit since I know Jesus is coming at any moment, but let’s not rush it. Well, after 25 yrs of ministry and dealing with the insanity of this fallen world every day, I have found myself actually saying quite often, “come quickly Lord Jesus!” The great comfort we all can have each day is that God is still on His throne, still in control, and in the end He and His children will reign for all eternity!!! AMEN!!!

I love you and care about you so much! This is a challenge to stay educated about the world we live in but are not part of, in order to the best ambassadors of Christ we can be as we share His love and hope with this lost and hurting world!

In His love and service,

Your friend, brother, and co-laborer in Christ,

Bill Keller