Daily Devotional for Tuesday December 10, 2024

How many will be going to church this Christmas? and, Is your church closing the Sunday before Christmas?

DAILY DEVOTIONAL TUESDAY DECEMBER 10, 2024

(Psalms 122:1; Hebrews 10:25; Luke 2:15)

***Liveprayer Christmas Card 2024: https://liveprayer.com/mc24/

***CHRISTMAS FOR SINGLE MOTHERS! After much prayer and despite still needing $130,000 to end this year with all of our financial needs current, I have taken a huge step of faith and am announcing that as we have done most years since Liveprayer began over 25 years ago, we will be helping out single mothers this Christmas. We will be helping 30 single mothers with a gift of $200 so they can insure their children have something under the tree and a nice Christmas meal. As in past years, all I ask is that these single mothers we help go to church with their children on Christmas! I never ask people to do something I don’t do myself, and am giving into my personal need by taking care of 10 of the 30. If God is leading you to help me take care of any of the other 20, just make sure you mark on your $200 credit card or check gift that it is for the Single Mothers Christmas. What I need is for those who want to be considered, send me a short email with your name, address, and phone number. I need to know how many children you have and their ages. Lastly, a brief description of why you need this help. PLEASE, AS IN YEARS PAST WE WILL GET INUNDATED WITH REQUESTS. IT WILL BE FIRST COME. PLEASE DON’T BE UPSET IF WE AREN’T ABLE TO HELP YOU, SINCE WE CAN ONLY HELP 30 SINGLE MOTHERS. KNOW IF WE CAN’T HELP YOU, WE WILL BE HERE PRAYING FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN! Email request to: bkeller@liveprayer.com and put SINGLE MOTHER in the subject line. God bless you and enjoy this blessed celebration of the birth of Jesus!!!

***PERSONAL MESSAGE FOR YOU FROM BILL KELLER: Make plans for you and your family to attend church this Christmas!

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Lord, even though we have no right to ask, please continue to watch over this nation. Thank You for showing us the clear signs of destruction our sin and rebellion have heaped upon our land. I pray today that as a nation we will turn back to You and Your Truth. Give me strength as days of persecution are upon us, and let me stand proud and strong for You and Your Kingdom.

***THE DAILY LIVEPRAYER TV NUGGET: Will you and your family be going to church this Christmas? Even though Christmas this year is on a Wednesday, the preceding Sunday December 22nd is the day most churches will celebrate Christmas. With the better percentage of the last 3 generations having never gone to church, those numbers are showing up in the number of people who are attending church on Christmas. Several generations ago even people who were not regular churchgoers, or even identified as a born-again Christian, would go to a church service on Christmas. That is no longer true! A survey of Americans showed 47% would attend church this Christmas, 48% would not, and 5% weren’t sure. A survey of Protestants showed 57% would attend church on Christmas, 58% of Catholics would attend, while only 21% of non-religious affiliated would go to church this Christmas. When the survey was taken of those who considered themselves to be Evangelicals, 72% stated they would be in church this Christmas. Christmas even more than Easter, is the one time of the year that Believers have the greatest opportunity to bring a non-saved family member or friend to Christmas. I know many who tell their unsaved family member that instead of a gift, just come to church with me for our Christmas service. There is no doubt that the great Christmas carols even non-Believers grow up being aware of is a big factor in getting people into the pews for a Christmas service. My challenge to you this Christmas is to get as many of your unsaved family members and friends to go with you to your churches Christmas service. Of course this is with the understanding YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WILL BE GOING! Make this the most blessed Christmas ever for you and your family and that begins with church for Christmas!

*Don't miss the Liveprayer TV program, airing “LIVE” every Monday thru Friday from 11pm EDT to Midnight! For details on viewing options for the Liveprayer TV program, “LIVE” or “On Demand,” go to: https://liveprayer.com/liveprayer-show-about.cfm

***DECEMBER FINANCIAL UPDATE: AMEN! Thanks to the help of many in the Liveprayer family, we cleared up the balance of our September shortfall and the first $25,000 of our October ministry operations. So as we head into December we still require the final $30,000 to clear up October, the $55,000 from November’s ministry operations, and the $55,000 for December’s operations.

That is a total of $140,000 to end 2024 with all of our ministry operations current. OUR GOD IS ABLE!!!

*******As we are now 22 days left until the end of 2024, please be praying about a special year-end gift to Livprayer! For many, a gift to God's work here will help on your taxes since you are either going to give the money to the government to waste, or to Liveprayer to get HIS Truth out to the masses and save souls!!!

The Bible teaches us to “give according to our ability to give.” For some that may be $10 or $20. For others it may be $50 or $100. Still others it may be $200, $500, $1,000, $10,000 or more. GOD WILL BLESS YOUR GIFT NO MATTER WHAT THE AMOUNT!!!

ALSO, DON'T FORGET A GIFT OF $1,800 COVERS ONE DAY OF MINISTRY AT LIVEPRAYER!!! I received this email recently, “Pastor Bill, My wife and I have just sold our last rental and God told us to tithe $1,800.00 to pay for a day of your ministry. Not looking for accolades, just that you know when you receive the check. Rest assured that we will still be making our regular weekly tithes."

TO GIVE A GIFT TO LIVEPRAYER, you can use your major credit card at: http://liveprayer.com/donate.cfm or you can mail your gift to: Liveprayer, 6660 46th Ave. North, St. Petersburg, FL 33709. All gifts to Liveprayer are 100% tax deductible!

*STOCKS! A great way to help Liveprayer is by donating stock. The transfer can be made in a way you get the full credit for your donation without having to pay any of the taxes you normally would on gains your stocks may have enjoyed. Contact me for information about this incredible way to help God's work here at Liveprayer: bkeller@liveprayer.com

*LIVE ON AFTER YOU ARE IN HEAVEN!!! By remembering God's work here at Liveprayer in your will/estate planning, you can still help me share His Truth with the masses, be here for people in their time of greatest need, and help lead the lost to faith in Jesus even after God has called you home!!! God has led many of our friends in the Liveprayer family to remember His work here in their will. Please pray about this opportunity to continue and partner with me in the Lord's work at Liveprayer, even after you are enjoying your rewards and the eternal peace of Heaven! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me at: bkeller@liveprayer.com

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***Please watch and share the exciting new Bill Keller Docudrama at: https://www.liveprayer.com/bill.cfm

***How you can help Liveprayer! 1) Pray for Bill and the ministry team each day. 2) Encourage people you know to sign-up for the Daily Devotional at: https://www.liveprayer.com/signup.cfm 3) Share the TV program with people you know: https://liveprayer.com/liveprayer-show-about.cfm Here are the social media sites where you can find Liveprayer TV ‘live”, Liveprayer Facebook, Liveprayer Twitter, and the Liveprayer Church ROKU channel. For ON-DEMAND viewing, Liveprayer GAB, Liveprayer Rumble, Liveprayer TPN, Liveprayer Gettr, Liveprayer Telegram, Liveprayer Sovren Media, and Liveprayer on Mr. Pillow Mike Lindell's Frankspeech and Frank Social and Liveprayer on Trump's Truth Social. 4) Pray about helping Liveprayer with a gift at: http://liveprayer.com/donate.cfm

***REVIVAL TOOL!!! Do your part in helping to bring revival to our nation each day in less than 15 minutes and without costing you one penny! Join others by making this part of your daily routine! Visit the Liveprayer Revival Tool and share it with others at: www.liveprayer.com/revival.cfm *ALSO, THE DAILY REVIVAL TOOL IS MY WAY OF DISCIPLING YOU TO HELP YOU GROW IN YOUR FAITH. SO IT SERVES A DUAL PURPOSE! HERE IS A SPECIAL LINK THAT GIVES YOU THE PAST 30 DAYS OF THE REVIVAL TOOL VERSE FOR THE DAY, DAILY TASK, AND PRAYER: https://liveprayer.com/bill/revivalcheck.cfm

I thought I heard it all. I really thought that after everything I see and hear each day, made it impossible for me to be shocked any longer. Boy was I wrong! Last week, I started getting emails from people asking me what I thought about the fact their church was going to be closed on Christmas. I assumed that these were isolated cases of some very misguided pastors. Now, each day I am getting more and more of these emails about churches being closed on the Sunday before Christmas and it is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed. Please understand me, we are not talking about businesses closing on Christmas, we are talking about CHURCHES!

This only makes my point when I addressed the "controversy" surrounding secular department stores that won't say "Merry Christmas." We, as Believers, are outraged at a lost world who won't celebrate and promote the birth of the Jesus they reject, yet, the very churches that are God's instruments on this earth for that purpose choose to close on the Sunday before Christmas! As I have stated often, rather than influencing our world, we have allowed this world to influence us!

I have been on the phone the past few days speaking to a few pastors who have decided NOT to hold services on the Sunday before Christmas. In fairness to them, I really wanted to hear their heart and reasoning for making this decision. I had to assume that there was something I was missing. In each case, I heard the same basic reasons for not holding services on the Sunday before Christmas. "It is a time for families to be together." "We need so many people to logistically be able to hold services, and wanted those people to be able to have the day off with their families." "Not enough people come out to our Christmas service."

These pastors I spoke to are right about one thing. Christmas IS a day for families and there is NO BETTER PLACE for a family to start their Christmas celebration than at church! As for the people who serve their churches in so many different capacities, what better way to spend a few hours on the Sunday we celebrate the birth of Jesus than by serving Him!

Lastly, since when was opening the doors of the church about how may showed up? The reality is, Christmas and Easter are the two time of the year a HUGE portion of people who call themselves Christmas ever darken the doorstep of a church. It is also the time of year many who are not Believers have a desire to be in church. Other than Easter Sunday, Christmas is the greatest evangelistic opportunity of the year!!!

I would like to encourage any pastors out there who have planned to close your church down on the Sunday before Christmas, PRAY ABOUT THIS AGAIN! Christmas Sunday is a gift from God and rather than closing, you should be having EXTRA services!!! This should not only be a time of great celebration for your church family, but for your community. Don't you realize that in EVERY family there are people who are lost and without the hope we have in Jesus? If there was EVER a day to get that family member in church it is on the Sunday we celebrate Christmas!

In addition to holding services for your church family, you are holding those services for your community. Again, there are more people than you realize who profess to being a Christian who will only go to church on Easter and Christmas. In addition, there are those who are not saved, who spent their childhood in church and Christmas Sunday is the one day of the year that are open to coming to church.

Every church should be advertising and promoting in their community their Christmas services, knowing that you will have people come just because it is Christmas. This is the day you bring out your best salvation message and give those who come an opportunity to accept Christ as their Savior!

Let me encourage you today that if your church is closed on the Sunday before Christmas, don't let that stop you from going to a service and celebrate the birth of our Lord this Christmas. Get your family, get your neighbors, load up the car and find a church that is open and holding services on the Sunday before Christmas. If there was EVER a day to be in church it is Christmas. There is NO BETTER WAY for you to celebrate this blessed event than by being in God's house.

I love you and care about you so much. I am praying today for those pastors who have made the decision to close their churches on Christmas to reconsider this horrible decision. You are missing one of the greatest opportunities ever to do what God has called you to do. I am praying today for those pastors who will be holding services this Christmas, to do all you can to encourage your church family and the community to come out and attend this wonderful celebration of our Lord's birth.

I am also praying for each person who is reading this today to make the time on the Sunday before Christmas to go to church, take as many of your family and friends as you can, and experience the great joy in celebrating that wonderful event that took place over 200 years ago in Bethlehem when God sent the greatest gift ever to this world--Jesus! There is no greater time to be in church than on Christmas celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!!

In His love and service,

Your friend and co-laborer in His work,

Bill Keller