Daily Devotional for Wednesday April 24, 2019

Recent major events and news stories in the United States and around the world shaping the culture we live in! Part One 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 One 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 starts a 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. DO NOT MISS PART TWO TOMORROW AND PART THREE ON FRIDAY!

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!!!

*Suicide tips for children on YouTube! YouTube and other social media giants are bending over backwards to eliminate “hate speech” from their platforms. They have adopted the prevailing liberal view of what constitutes hate speech, meaning speech their liberal orthodoxy disagrees with. Subsequently, much conservative political speech has been banned, as has much standard Christian speech since the Christian faith is seen as hateful for following the Bible on issues like life, marriage, and sexual perversion.

However, YouTube’s policing often aren’t as aggressive in deleting pornography and other harmful content. Recently there was a barrage of messages inserted into children’s cartoons teaching kids how to commit suicide! I fully realize the difficulty in policing non-stop worldwide content, but YouTube and other social media sites are much more focused on banning speech they disagree with from an ideological viewpoint, than content that is clearly harmful to children, young adults, and people of all ages!

*As friends of Liveprayer probably know, I was born, raised, and saved in the United Methodist Church. Even though I have not been part of that church for over 40 years, it is my earliest spiritual roots and I will always have a special place in my heart for this once great church built on the faith and labor of men like the Wesley brothers. Sadly, for a long time now much of the UMC has not been the church I grew up in. Like many old mainline denominations it has allowed the culture to influence the church instead of allowing the church to influence the culture.

For a decade now the UMC has engaged in a battle that should never have been given a second thought. Sadly, it is now only a matter of time before the church splits over the LGBTQ issue. The Bible is clear that marriage is one man, one woman, for one lifetime, PERIOD! Sex is to be enjoyed by a man and a woman in the bonds of marriage, PERIOD! It is so sickening to see a work of God that has impacted millions and millions of lives worldwide for so many years being ripped apart by an issue that there is literally nothing to debate! This is the sad result when a Christian church, a Christian person, compromises the Truth of the Bible and gives satan a foothold. Works of God leading souls to everlasting life through faith in Jesus one day, can be a tool of satan helping lead souls to hell for all eternity!

*Joshua Holmes is the latest Christian TV prosperity pimp. The self-described “Jesus prophet,” is a smooth talking young man following in the steps of people like Mike Murdoch, Robert Tilton, Peter Popoff, Todd Coontz to name a few, appearing on Christian TV to hustle money with unbiblical promises. Holmes claims to be a “prophet,” being able to tell people the future. Prior to the Bible, God often spoke to the prophets about the future. With the completion of the 66 books we know of as the Bible in apx. 90 ad, modern day prophets are not “foretellers,” but “forthtellers.” Their messages are in complete alignment with the Scritpures. The penalty for the Old Testament prophet who was wrong was death by stoning. Sadly, many modern day self-described prophets have turned a legitimate spiritual gift into Christian fortune-telling for money with no price to pay when they are wrong.

*Transsexuals in the military. Thankfully, common sense looks like it has prevailed and there will be no new people joining the United States military by people who claim to be the opposite gender God created them as. As I have shared in past Daily Devotionals, there is NO SUCH THING as a “trans person,” only a person who has legitimate mental health issues and doesn’t even know what gender they are. That person does not belong in the military, but in mental health treatment!

*A further sign of our culture spinning out of control is “sologomy.” If you aren’t familiar with this term, it means “to marry yourself.” Sologamy literally means a person who affirms one's own value and leads to a happier life through marrying themselves.

*UNPLANNED is a recent movie that tells the story of a young woman who was the director of a Planned Parenthood facility. After many years, one day she was required to assist in an abortion. That experience pierced her heart and she soon quit and has become an incredible warrior for the pro-life movement. The actual making of the movie was a nightmare due to the fact many in the crew refused to work on the project when they found out what the movie was about. The producers had to hide the name of the movie and what it was about since many filming locations wouldn’t rent to them because of the subject.

Once made, other than FOX News and conservative talk radio, they couldn’t even buy advertising on most TV channels. Most interesting of all, despite not having one curse word, zero sex of any kind, the motion picture ratings board gave them an R rating. The reason? They claimed out of the entire movie, the 32 seconds of an abortion being performed was extreme violence. YOU THINK? The irony, with an R rating young women under 17 have to be accompanied by an adult, yet those same young women could get an abortion in most states without any parental notification! Great testimonies are pouring in from people who have seen the movie and decided that they could not kill their baby as they had already planned.

*Sign at an Arkansas church: “Heaven has strict immigration laws, hell, open borders!”

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