Daily Devotional for Monday May 13, 2019

A person who chose to be an enemy of God!

(James 4:4)

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, please help me today to be an active member of Your body. I pray each day that I will be yielded to You and Your will for my life. Let me remove all that is in my life keeping me from being the best servant I can possibly for You and Your Kingdom. I love You Lord, and let my love be expressed in my daily life as I serve You. In the name of Jesus I pray…AMEN!!!

“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4

Satan is boldly and brazenly infiltrating the church!!! From the birth of the church in the Book of Acts, satan has found ways to try and destroy the bride of Christ, His church, from the within!!! Nobody who has been a member of a church for more than a minute, hasn’t seen satan at work. He works by bringing strife, sins like gossiping, dividing God’s people every way possible though primarily through race and money, as well as enticing pastors and church leaders to fall. As long as there is a church, there we will find the enemy of our soul hard at work to destroy it!

Sadly, over the past 40 years a growing number of churches have sprung up that are literally “fake churches!” I wrote about this growing phenomenon just last month.

Unbeknownst to most Biblical Christians, a 37-year-old woman named Rachel Held Evans passed away a couple of weekends ago from an infection that lead to several brain seizures. Evans leaves behind a husband and 2 small children. Rachel grew up in a Christian home and Bible-believing church in Tennessee. In her early 20s, Rachel left the church and began to publicly challenge what she considered the harmful role “conservative Christianity” plays in our culture.

Rachel Held Evans CHOSE to become an enemy of God!!!

In our world today as satan causes great confusion within the church, we MUST be more definitive in the words we use. Words we never had to think about years ago, mean different things to different people today. We’ve discussed often using the name God, who now has to be more clearly defined as the God of the Bible. Church is no longer sufficient, it has to be a Biblical church. Most critical to define is the word Christian. We have to identify a true follower of Christ and His Word as a Biblical Christian!!!

Many false beliefs talk about God, but there is only ONE true God of the Bible. As the recent Daily Devotional on the “fake church” I referenced earlier, we have to identify a church that adheres to God’s Word as a Biblical church. Most dangerous is someone who identifies as a Christian. A Mormon is part of a cult and is no more a Christian than a Muslim is. Someone who lives their life in rebellion to the teachings of God’s Word is no more a Christian than I am a giraffe.

Calling yourself a Christian doesn’t make you a Christian! Only having asked the Lord for the forgiveness of your sins, repented (turned from) of your sins, surrender your life to Jesus by faith, and accept as TRUTH and do your best to obey the Bible...makes you a Biblical Christian!!!

Evans was part of what is being called “progressive Christianity.” This is a group I began writing about and warning you about over 15 yrs ago when they first began to appear on the scene. Over those 15 yrs they have become an ever growing and dynamic group who identify as Christians but are NOT Biblical Christians!!!

Evans went to churches around the nation holding what she called, “Evolving Faith Conferences.” Primarily these conferences lambasted Biblical churches and Biblical Christians as being hate-filled, intolerant, and bigoted towards the LGBTQ community, thus harmful to our culture.

This follows the Daily Devotionals I have recently done on “Mayor Pete,” the mayor of South Bend, Indiana who calls himself a man of faith and a Christian, despite the fact he CHOOSES to engage in unnatural, unhealthy, and perverted sex with other men and is in a perverse “marriage” with a man.

My friend, Evans was clearly blinded and misguided as she bought into the lies of this world over the Truth of God’s Word. Setting aside the Absolute Truth of the Bible to embrace sin is NOT evolving, it is de-volving! God’s Word is immutable, it is NEVER CHANGING!!!

I have been hammered and lambasted the entire 20 yrs of Liveprayer for calling out church marketers like Hybels and Warren, the prosperity pimps on Chrisitan TV, and gutless cotton-candy motivational wimps like Osteen. THIS IS WHY!!! THIS IS WHAT COMPROMISE, WATERING DOWN THE WORD, AND USING THE GOSPEL TO MAKE MONEY LEADS TO!!! FAKE CHURCHES....FAKE CHRISTIANS!!!

I want to ask yourself a very simple and straightforward question, are you God's friend or God's enemy? There are only two possible answers to this question. You are either God's friend or His enemy, you can't be both. One of the most sobering passages in God's Word is today's anchor verse found in the 4th chapter of James, the 4th verse. You don't need to be a Bible scholar or have any advanced theological degrees to understand this verse of Scripture. This very simple yet powerful truth clearly states that if you are a friend of the world, you are an enemy of God!

I realize that this will upset many, make some uncomfortable, but it is time you decide if you are God's friend or not. You make that decision with every choice. All throughout the day we have to make choices. Each time we make a choice, we are choosing to be God's friend or God's enemy. When you make a choice in rebellion to God, you have become His enemy. My friend, I don't know if there is anything as horrible than to be an enemy of God. What person in their right mind would honestly want to be an enemy of God? Yet, every time we choose to rebel against Him, that is exactly what we become.

Let me tell you another way you become a friend of the world and an enemy of God. Listen carefully, since this is how most people become an enemy of God and they don't even realize it. The Bible tells us in James 4:17, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." This is known as the sin of omission. This is the sin most followers of Christ are guilty of.

The reason so many fall into this sin is simply because they don't have the courage to take a stand for the Lord. They refuse to take a stand for the Lord in their personal life, they refuse to take a stand for the Lord with their family and friends, and they refuse to take a stand for the Lord where they work, go to school, recreate, and out in the marketplace. When you refuse to take a stand for Christ you have become a friend of the world and an enemy of God!

Do you think that is kind of harsh? Well, answer this question for me then. How come those who love the world and live in rebellion to God, His Truth, and Jesus Christ never seem to have a difficult time taking a stand for what they believe? Those who promote the sin of homosexuality certainly have no problem taking their stand. Those who promote the slaughtering of innocent babies certainly have no problem in taking their stand.

Those who produce and distribute pornography certainly have no problem in taking their stand. Those who destroy people's lives with gambling certainly have no problem taking their stand. Those who promote the different cults and false religions and are leading people's souls to eternal damnation certainly have no problem in taking their stand.

WHY IS IT THAT THOSE WHO OPPOSE GOD AND LIVE IN REBELLION TO GOD HAVE NO PROBLEM TAKING A STAND FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVE, YET CHRISTIANS, THOSE WHO CLAIM TO BE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST, HAVE SUCH A DIFFICULT TIME TAKING A STAND FOR THE LORD???

Listen, I know that taking a stand for Christ in the year 2019 is not popular. The reality is it has NEVER been popular since we live in a world that has rejected our Lord! You are subjected to ridicule, scorn, hatred, you are called every horrible name in the book, and will be attacked, even physically. Who wants that? I sure don't, I know you don't, and I am certain even Jesus in His humanity didn't.

However, Jesus was ridiculed, scorned, hated, called every name, attacked, even tortured and then crucified for taking His stand for God! You see, our Lord knew that you were either a friend of this world or a friend of God. You can't be both. He chose to be a friend of God in the choices He made each and every day, and He chose to be a friend of God when it came time for Him to take his stand for God. He is our example and the one we are to emulate.

The reason a sin like homosexuality is now accepted in our culture is because those who support this sin refuse to back down, while the followers of Christ have chosen to be a friend of the world. The reason cults like Mormonism and Scientology are growing is because those who support these cults refuse to back down, while the followers of Christ have chosen to be a friend of the world.

The reason a false religion like Islam has over 1 billion followers around the world is because those who support this false religion refuse to back down, while the followers of Christ have chosen to be a friend of the world. The reason you have the blasphemous, anti-God trash on TV 24/7 is because those who run the TV networks refuse to back down, while the followers of Christ have chosen to be a friend of the world.

GOD SAID THAT A FRIEND OF THE WORLD IS HIS ENEMY!!!

I love you and care about you so much. Pray for the family of Rachel Held Evans, and that through this difficult time her husband and children will come to know the love and comfort of the Lord and turn back to His Word!

I leave you with this question. Are you a friend of this world or a friend of God? You can't be both. You have got to decide where your allegiance lies, and you don't have the luxury of sitting back and doing nothing since that makes you a friend of the world and an enemy of God by default. Those who love this world are bold, fearless, and hold nothing back in promoting their Godless beliefs to the masses. The fact they receive little opposition or resistance only emboldens them in promoting their rebellion to God and His Truth.

I will be praying for you today. Praying that God will speak to your heart that if you are a friend of this world you are His enemy. You can become a friend of this world and God's enemy by simply sitting back and doing nothing. While those around you who hate God are boldly taking their stand, if you are God's friend you will take your stand for Him. If those who hate God are willing to lay everything they have on the line for sin, why can't those who love God lay everything they have on the line for righteousness?

I say to you today child of God, RISE UP! Today is the appointed day for you to once and for all decide whose friend you are. I say take your stand now for Christ. I pray today for God to give you a spirit of boldness, of fearlessness, of strength, of might, as you take your stand for Christ. May God watch over you and protect you as you go forth in your daily life proclaiming the Truth of God's Word and that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Let the world never doubt you are not its friend, you are a friend of God's!!!

In His love and service,

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

Bill Keller