Good morning, Happy Souls!

Bill Keller wrote a wonderful devotional today
that I highly recommend to you.  He has given
me permission to copy his e-mails, and I'm sure
he would be happy if you would share this with
people you know as well.

In his November 18, 2005 devotional, Bill Keller
asked his readers to consider if they would die
for their faith.  This devotional is a follow
on to that devotional.

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL      SATURDAY NOVEMBER 19, 2005
(Romans 12:1, Philippians 1:21, Galatians 2:20)



If you will die for Jesus.....will you LIVE for
Jesus?  Yesterday, I proposed a hypothetical
situation that less than 1 percent of Believers
will ever have to face in this life.  That is
having to literally give your life for your faith
in Christ.  My heart was encourage by thousands of
people who responded and said that they would
gladly die for Christ.

Knowing those who get this Devotional, I am not
surprised.  This tends to be a spiritually mature
group of people, some are pastors, some are in
full-time service to the Lord as missionaries,
some are part of Christian organizations, but the
overwhelming majority who get this Devotional
each day are just faithful Believers who live their
lives daily for the Lord.  Today, the deeper
question to you is this.  If you are willing to DIE
for your faith, are you willing to LIVE for your
faith?

You see, THAT is the question that each one who
claims to know Christ as their Savior must answer
every morning.  It is actually much easier to die
for Him, then it is to LIVE for Him.  But that is
what the Bible calls for us to do when Paul says in
1 Corinthians 15:31 when he said "I die every day"
and in his letter to the church at Galatia when he
says in Galatians 2:20 that "...I no longer live,
but Christ lives in me."  Every one of us who knows
Christ as our Savior, must die to self each day so
that the Lord can live through us.

I love you and care about you SO MUCH!!!!!  The
entire point of this Devotional today is boiled
down to one simple question.  If you will die for
Him, will you LIVE for Him?  To answer yes means
that you will open your heart to the Lord, you will
surrender your life to Him today, and you will "die
to self" each day so that Christ can live through you.

The Bible tells us that when we accept Christ into
our hearts it is no longer our life any longer. 
Our life now belongs to Him.  I pray that you will
take some time today to spend that time alone with
the Lord.  Use that time to re-commit your life to
Him.  Tell God that your life is His.  No matter
what He asks you to do, no matter where He asks you
to go, YOUR life belongs to God!

My friend, today is the day that I am bringing you
face to face with the only real question that
matters in your Christian journey.  In reality,
there is only one thing that God has ever asked of
you and that is for you to give Him your life,
wholly and unconditionally surrendered to Him. 
Very few will ever be asked to die for your faith
in Jesus.  However, EVERYONE who professes their
faith in the Lord is asked to LIVE for Him.  My
question for you today is simple.  If you claim that
you will die for Jesus, will YOU live for Jesus?


In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller


***If I can help you in any way you can contact me
through my personal email at bkeller@liveprayer.com

***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND
ETERNITY?  The fact is you will die one day.  At
that moment, you will either spend eternity with
the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness
forever separated from God your creator.  To know
for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to:
http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.html

***GET YOUR FREE LPeMAIL ACCOUNT!  Never miss
receiving your Daily Devotional again.  LPeMail is
an effective email SPAM filtering application
that most ISP's charge $10/mo, for FREE!  Get
your LPeMail account now at: www.lpemail.com.

***I am excited to let you know that the Liveprayer
Daily Devotional is now available via AUDIO each
day.  Simply go to
http://www.liveprayer.com/DailyDevotionalAudio.html
Also, you can now listen to the Daily Devotional by
phone by calling toll-free,1-888-382-4662, or
access it on your wireless device by going to:
http://wapdd.com

(C) Copyright 2005, Bill Keller Ministries.
All rights reserved

************************************************

May God bless you as you learn from this message!

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell

Listening to and Obeying God

Good morning, Happy Souls!

Bill Keller wrote a wonderful devotional today
that I highly recommend to you.  He has given
me permission to copy his e-mails, and I'm sure
he would be happy if you would share this with
people you know as well.

*********************************************

DAILY DEVOTIONAL    THURSDAY NOVEMBER 17, 2005
(Psalms 143:10)

The goal is not to conform God to our will, but
for us to conform to His will.  This Devotional
today is a deep one.  One of the most frequent
questions people always ask, is how do I know
what the will of God is for my life?  Much of
the difficulty in determining what God's will
is for our life is trying to separate our
wants and desires from God's wants and desires. 
This is probably one of the most difficult 
issues you will ever deal with in your walk with
the Lord and I just want to give you some basics
to help you in not trying to conform God to your
will, but for you to conform to His will.

The only way you can begin to understand what
God's will is for your life is to be in a daily, 
intimate, surrendered relationship with Him.  It
is critical that you are spending time with the
Lord every day through His Word, through prayer,
and that quiet time where it is just you and the
Lord in fellowship.  That is the only way we can
learn to hear His voice so that over time we are
able to discern whether it is God speaking or
simply ourselves.  I can't begin to emphasize
enough how important it is to take the time each
day to get alone with God and have that time of
fellowship.  You only begin to know God's will
for your life when you really know God.

The key is you have to be at a place in your
life where you are fully surrendered to the Lord. 
You need to be able to say,  "Lord, wherever you
want me to go, whatever you want me to do, I am
completely yours".   The biggest hurdle to
overcome in following God's will for our life is
the fear of the unknown.  What is my life going
to be like if I follow God?  How will my life be
different if I really let God have His way? 
Trust me, He loves you, cares about you, and only
wants the best for you.  God wants to bless you
and those blessings are found as we faithfully and
obediently follow Him.

The more we listen to God's voice, the more we
obey and follow His voice, the less time we spend
trying to force God to follow what we want to do,
and the more time we spend trying to follow what
God wants us to do.  As we grow and mature in our
relationship with the Lord, we find ourselves more
concerned with what God is asking us to do and we
slowly begin to make His desires our desires.  My
friend, THAT is the time when you find that special
place almost impossible to put into words.  That
place where your desires have become God's desires. 
It is clearly no longer your will that you seek,
but it is His will.

I love you and care about you so much.  I will be
praying for you that you will get serious about
finding and living in God's perfect will each
day.  It is the only way we truly know the peace,
joy, and abundance of this life.  In His will, we
can do all things because it is not us, it is Him. 
Out of His will, we can do nothing.  Nothing works
or makes sense.  Take some time alone with the Lord
today and begin to pray in earnest for God to help
you begin to quit trying to conform Him to your
will, but for you to conform to His will!

In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller

***If I can help you in any way you can contact me
through my personal email at bkeller@liveprayer.com

***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND
ETERNITY?  The fact is you will die one day.  At
that moment, you will either spend eternity with
the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness
forever separated from God your creator.  To know
for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to:
http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.html

***GET YOUR FREE LPeMAIL ACCOUNT!  Never miss
receiving your Daily Devotional again.  LPeMail is
an effective email SPAM filtering application
that most ISP's charge $10/mo, for FREE!  Get your
LPeMail account now at: www.lpemail.com.

***I am excited to let you know that the Liveprayer
Daily Devotional is now available via AUDIO each
day.  Simply go to
http://www.liveprayer.com/DailyDevotionalAudio.html
Also, you can now listen to the Daily Devotional by
phone by calling  toll-free,1-888-382-4662, or
access it on your wireless device by going to:
http://wapdd.com

(C) Copyright 2005, Bill Keller Ministries. All rights reserved

************************************************

May God bless you as you learn from this message!

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell

Announcing Create Your Own 2,000 Percent Solutions

Good morning, Happy Souls!

Are you feeling motivated this morning? I certainly hope so! I know that I certainly am.

Long before I conceived of the subject of this blog and began developing the book upon which it is based, I worked in the area of helping people find their own ways of becoming more productive. One of the first public fruits of that work was a book called The 2,000 Percent Solution which was published by the American Management Association in 1999. My co-authors were Carol Coles and Robert Metz.

Since then, I've given more talks than I can count to CEO and senior management groups in companies of all sizes and conducted classes and workshops all around the world to help people apply the lessons of that book.

What's the premise? You can accomplish 20 times as much with the same time and effort and resources in virtually everything you do.

Why is that the case? First, because experience has shown that such improvements routinely available. Second, because there's a simple process you can learn to follow that will get you there. Third, because we operate so far below the potential of what we do because of bad habits we've fallen into (something my co-authors and I call "stalls").

Since 2003, I've been teaching on-line students ways to revolutionize their lives for the better. One of the fruits of that work has been to create a workbook with my esteemed colleague, Carol Coles, based on The 2,000 Percent Solution to make it easier to make such wonderful improvements.

The workbook will be published in December, and I know that you will want to buy a copy. As soon as the book is available for purchase on-line, I'll let you know.

To give you a head start over the rest of the world, I've decided to post a few of the early chapters of The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook on a new blog, Create Your Own 2,000 Percent Solutions. There's a link on this blog's page, but you can also go to http://2000percentsolutions.blogspot.com/ directly.

May God bless you and your efforts to create many more 2,000 percent solutions!

Donald Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell

The Pleasures of Bible Study Groups

Good morning, Happy Souls!

Are you feeling motivated this morning? I certainly hope so. I know that I am!

I was inspired to write this post by observing my wife's experience with Bible study courses over the last several years. She has occasionally invited me to join in for social sessions of the groups, and I have become acquainted with several of her fellow students.

Trained educators, some of whom know the original languages of the Bible and can make additional comments based on that knowledge, lead some of her classes. One of her classes has no leader. It's just a small group of friends who like to translate and consider the Bible together.

Our marriage has been strengthened by these studies. Because of her studies and my Bible reading, my wife and I have some Scripture in common that we can discuss. We are each fascinated by the different perspectives that our respective readings and studies take. I feel rounded out by what she has to offer, and she often looks at me in amazement because the questions I ask her . . . none of which have ever occurred to her. I don't know if you have Scriptural discussions in your home, but if you don't, you've missed an interesting way to become more spiritually intimate with your family.

One of the sessions I attended of her largest Bible study class was very interesting because the leader encouraged the participants to relate the material to their own lives, opinions and perspectives. At first it seemed like just a lot of rambling. But as time went on, it was clear that these adults felt validated that a person educated in the Bible was interested in their views. From that experience, I realized that many people are intimidated by the gap between their knowledge of the Bible and the knowledge that ministers and pastors have. Because of that intimidation, they rely on the "professionals" to lead them to the Bible rather than doing their own Bible readings. I think that's a shame.

As someone who has read the Bible from cover to cover more than once, I am always struck by how different the perspective is of being familiar with the whole text rather than just hearing about a few verses as part of a sermon. Like everyone, I have my favorite verses and like to return to them when they provide special guidance or comfort to me. When I do, they sparkle like chests full of diamonds. They seem even more remarkable because I can find them, know when I need them and draw special comfort from having been there before. Each memory and experience deepens my relationship with God.

Here are a few suggestions that may help you employ Bible study groups to make your faith stronger and more effective in your life:

1. Have a daily Bible reading habit. This will keep you connected with God's word. By starting at the beginning and continuing to the end, you will gain a better sense of our relationship with God.

2. If you like languages, consider learning the Biblical versions so that you can begin to appreciate the Bible in the original texts rather than in translation. This is a lot of work, and you will soon know if you are called to have this level of understanding or not.

3. As you find that certain books of the Bible speak more strongly to you, consider taking a Bible study class on one of those books. Many women, for instance, take special pleasure in Ruth and Esther.

4. If you cannot find a Bible study class that appeals to you, consider starting your own with friends. What better way could there be to deepen your friendship and to provide more time to be together? If you would like to have some guidance during some of the discussions, many spiritual leaders will agree to lead such classes for nominal fees.

5. Consider taking more than one class at a time. You will gain from the variety of experiences and perspectives.

6. See if you would like to graduate to leading and teaching Bible studies. Many large churches offer programs to help you become qualified to do this work. If not, a regional church organization probably does. My wife and older son are both involved in this kind of work, and both find it to be very rewarding. My experience has been that you learn something much better by teaching it than you do by studying it. Even if your goal is just to study, such teaching can be very valuable.

7. Engage your children in Bible studies. Ask most children about their Sunday School experiences, and they don't describe those experiences as being the best. If you can make Bible study more relevant and interesting to your children, you can help avoid having a number of years when they aren't well attached to their faith. You know your children better than their Sunday School teacher does. Spend some time on Sunday exploring the Bible with them personally. It will do everyone a lot of good.

8. Extend beyond Bible studies to apply what you learn to the secular world. I don't remember a time when the gap between the Bible and what is displayed in public has been so wide. If I watch television or walk down the wrong street, I get the impression that I live in Sodom rather than in the United States. As we apply our faith, we can be a force for God and for our own Godly living.

9. Let your Bible studies help you to know what Jesus would have done in your shoes. Whenever I find myself in an ethically challenging situation, I try to project from the Bible what Jesus would have done. When I'm not sure, I do the best I can and then go on to do more reading to find out. A Bible study class that focuses on dealing with sinful temptations, sin, sinners and those in need can be especially valuable here.

10. Use your Biblical knowledge to witness for Jesus. I am always happy when I can remember a parable, a historical story or a quote from the Bible that fits a situation I run into. As I muse about the situation, I am glad when I remember to share the Biblical material with whomever is with me. When I do that, I feel like the Holy Spirit is leading me by the hand into the paths of righteousness and my heart is glad.

Can a billionaire do better? Yes, but I doubt that many are.

Billionaires find themselves surrounded by an excess of things, money and people wanting something from them. Although there are clearly some very religious billionaires, such as Sir John Templeton, you tend to find them in fields where they don't have to be in the public eye very much. I suspect that even the most religious don't do very much with Bible study classes out of concern that their privacy will not be respected. If you know any billionaires who do attend Bible study classes, please drop a comment onto this blog for others to read.

A retired billionaire could certainly do a lot in this area for themselves by employing scholars to help her or him. I hope that some are.

************************************

N.B. As you can tell, I'm experimenting with color. Let me know what you like and what I should change about my use of color. Many thanks to Linda Grace for her suggestions which I am following!

Please let me know what else you would like to learn, and I'll do my best to help in future blog entries.

Thanks so much for your support of this blog. I'm delighted that so many tens of thousands of people have made this blog part of their regular reading habit!

If you like this blog, please let others know who might also enjoy it. E-mailing your favorite post to them is a great idea.

Thank you to my many friends, students, clients and blog readers who are spreading the good word about this blog.

If you are visiting today because someone invited you, I'm delighted to meet you! Let's stay in touch.

Remember to also visit

Be More Successful than a Billionaire at http://bemoresuccessfulthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Create Your Own 2,000 Percent Solutions at
http://2000percentsolutions.blogspot.com/,

Enjoy Mansions Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoymansionsbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Enjoy Football Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoyfootballbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/ and

Be a World Hero Better than a Billionaire at http://beaworldherobetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/.

I am available to you as a speaker on these subjects. You can find my background at http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005_08_30_livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars_archive.html/ and contact me at ultimatecompetitiveadvantage@yahoo.com.

May God bless you.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell