Daily Devotional for Saturday August 9, 2025

Two major US cities in financial problems due to horrible mayors! and, Is your pastor a John 10 pastor?

CELEBRATING 26 YEARS OF LIVEPRAYER!

DAILY DEVOTIONAL SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2025

(Ezekiel 34:1-6)

***Personal Message For You From Bill Keller***

Take some time today to pray for God's protection over Israel.

***Daily Personal Prayer For You***

Father, give me a passion for Your Word. Give me a desire each day to read and consume Your precious Word that really is a lamp unto my feet and a guide for my life. I pray each day that I cannot just be a consumer of Your Word, but a DOER of Your Word. In the name of Jesus I pray...AMEN!

***The Daily Liveprayer TV Nugget***

The city of NY is constantly whining about their pathetic financial condition. The “School board Mayor” of Chicago Brandon Johnson recently lamented that the finances of the city have reached a point of no return without a massive tax hike. Excuse me for first not have any sympathy for either Mayor, or second for the people of NYC and Chicago. It is not because I have no empathy. As long as the people of NYC and Chicago keep electing these radical progressive mayors they will continue to suffer from the sheer incompetence of those they put in that office, from their misplaced priorities, and their failed policies.

The city of Chicago has spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting illegals rather than spend that money on their citizens, those who are actually paying ridiculously high taxes. It is not that they didn’t have the money, they just chose to spend it on illegals who have no right to be in our country to begin with! The same is true with NYC! Literally billions of dollars have been spent on illegals rather than on the citizens of NYC who pay some of the highest taxes in the world. They just spent $65 million dollars for a transgender only homeless shelter! Seriously, you can’t make this up! It would have least been a productive use of that money to get these mentally ill people professional psychiatric help since they suffer from the mental disorder gender dysphoria. As long as the people of NYC and Chicago keep electing these incompetent progressive mayors, the finances of those 2 great cities will always be seriously in the red!

THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2025 LIVEPRAYER TV PROGRAM: https://www.facebook.com/liveprayer/videos/749256677826613/

LIVEPRAYER TV PROGRAM airs “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

***THE AUDIO OF THE TV PROGRAM IS NOW AVAILABLE ON MAJOR PODCASTING PLATFORMS!!! APPLE/I-TUNES: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/liveprayer-with-bill-keller/id1696186297 SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/75xloMRrL3azW89aKpR3h0

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! Visit the Liveprayer Revival Tool and share it with others at: www.liveprayer.com/revival.cfm The database that gives you the past 30 days of the Revival Tool verse for the day, daily task, and prayer is at: https://liveprayer.com/bill/revivalcheck.cfm

***August Financial Update***

Thank you to all who have been praying and those able to help me with a gift during July. We ended July still carrying the final $35,000 from our June shortfall and of course the $55,000 we required for our July ministry operations. That is a total of $90,000 to clear up our shortfalls heading into our anniversary month of August. God is able!

26TH ANNIVERSARY MONTH! As we head into August, our 26th anniversary month, please pray about helping me with a special one-time gift of $26, $1 for every year, or $260, $10 for every year, or $2,600, $100 for every year, or $26,000, $1,000 for every year.

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 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, 6662 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

"The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them." Ezekiel 34:1-6

A sad commentary on so many pastors and Christian leaders right from God's Word. Last week I was doing some study in the Book of Ezekiel. In reading through some passages, I came across these first 6 verses in Ezekiel 34. As I read these words, I could only think that this was the sad description of so many pastors and Christian leaders today.

55 years ago, you could sit in the pew of most any church of any denomination and hear the Truth of God's Word. Those pastors and the men and women God raised up on the national scene were men and women who would never compromise the Truth of the Bible and understood their only mission was to bring the lost to Christ.

Fast forward to the year 2025 and you have entire denominations of pastors who don't even preach, teach or believe the Bible. It is questionable if many pastors were ever "called" and are even saved. Those who have risen up into national prominence are more worried about selling books, having the newest private jet, building bigger buildings, and living like the rulers of small nations rather than preaching the unadulterated Truth of the Bible and leading the lost to faith in Jesus Christ.

When these are the men and women leading the people, why are we surprised that many who sit in the pews of the nation’s churches on Sunday aren't even saved, don't accept the Bible as Absolute Truth and our only authority, and the majority of the ones who do lead weak and ineffective lives. That is why I encourage people all the time to seek out a pastor who is a true shepherd.

That is increasingly difficult today, but there are still many men of God who have not bowed their knee to Baal and are not the shepherds described in Ezekiel 34. Sunday is the day most Christians go to church. It is the only time most of you ever see your pastor, and that is usually from your seat in the sanctuary as he leads the worship service and preaches the message.

Having preached in over 500 churches of every denomination nationwide, I can honestly tell you that for most pastors, Sunday morning is their favorite day of the week and the one day they usually feel their work for God really has some meaning. You can never know the pressure most pastors are under. If it was only getting up on Sunday morning and being the "man of God" it would be wonderful, but that is not reality.

It is a 7-day a week, 24-hour a day calling. Many have outside jobs. There is the constant pressures of raising the budget, dealing with the interpersonal problems that always exist when you have a group of people, overseeing the political infighting that often occurs, on top of the spiritual requirements of shepherding the flock, having an anointed word each week for the various services, and other requirements the office of pastor carries with it.

My prayer for you today is to support your pastor. Pray for your pastor each day. John 10 gives us the picture of the ideal pastor. Pray that your pastor will be able to tear away from the distractions of this world to be the shepherd described in John 10. God has placed that pastor in your life to guide you, spiritually nurture you, and have spiritual leadership over your life.

Do all you can to show your love and appreciation for all your pastor does for you, most of which you may not even recognize. Also, God has placed your pastor in your life for spiritual leadership. When you come into times of crisis, don't hesitate to go to your pastor. That is ultimately why they are there, to help you and guide you through those difficult times in your life.

I love you and care about you so much. I pray for you daily. Sadly, today there are too many pastors and Christian leaders who fall into the description found in Ezekiel 34. It makes the work that much more difficult when you have people running around calling themselves Christians, but supporting sins like abortion, homosexuality, the destruction of God's plan for the family. You have others who think there is nothing wrong with belonging to a cult or false religions and they have bought the universalistic lie from hell that everyone will get to Heaven.

Let this message today be a remember to lift up your pastor in prayer and recognize him for all he does for your life. God has called His sheep to be obedient and obey those in spiritual authority. Take inventory and see if you are fulfilling this admonition, and ask God to help you. He loves you so much, that he has placed your pastor in your life to shepherd you and guide you in your spiritual journey. Show your love for Him today by praying for and supporting your pastor.

In His love and service,

Your friend and co-laborer in His work,

Bill Keller