Evangelize in the United States!

Good morning, Happy Souls!

Bill Keller wrote a devotional today that I
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.

Where can you save souls?  Start in your family,
move out to your neighborhood and then across town.
You don't have to leave your own country to find lost
souls.

Please read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL   WEDNESDAY MAY 10, 2006
( Mark 16:15, 2 Timothy 4:2, Isaiah 43:10 )

The greatest mission field in the world in 2006 is
.......THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!  I am grateful
daily for the dedicated and faithful men and women of
God, the tremendous organizations God has raised up, to
take the Gospel into the far corners of the world. 
Never before in human history have we had such a
tremendous effort to reach every human soul in the
world with the hope of Christ, not just with traditional
missionary efforts of sending people into each town and
village on the planet, but also through the use of modern
communications like satellite television, radio, and
the Internet.

I am grateful for the small part Liveprayer plays each
day with over 20%, or approx. 400,000 of our subscribers
being outside the United States without ever having had
any real strategy to reach people in foreign lands. 
That is one of our agenda items by the end of the year to
have a more strategic plan to reach people in other
nations by having the Daily Devotional available each day
on the Liveprayer.com website in many foreign languages.

Last year, my wife and I spent a day and a half in Atlanta,
Georgia.  Metropolitan Atlanta currently has over 4
million people living there and is the home of nearly
10,000 Christian churches and many great ministries
touching lives for Christ worldwide.  As I was taking a
quiet walk late on Saturday night, just chatting with
the Lord and enjoying a time of fellowship, God was
speaking to my heart how the greatest mission field in
2006 is not in some far off country but right here in
the United States.  The reality is, despite all the
churches, all of the Christian ministries in Greater
Atlanta, if the world ceases to exist today the vast
majority of the 4 million souls living in and around
that great city will be eternally lost.

I am certain many people reading this are going to be
puzzled how the United States of all places could be the
greatest mission field in the world today.  It doesn't
make sense.  After all, so much of the history of this
nation is tied directly to God and His Word.  The message
of Christ and His love has been declared here for nearly
400 years like no other place ever before.  This nation
has produced more missionaries and missionary efforts to
the world than any other in the history of Christendom. 
There are more Christian churches, more para-church
ministries of every kind, as well as Christian
television, radio, music and publishing entities than
ever.  So how could the United States be the greatest
missionary field in the world in 2006?

Despite all of the churches and all of the Christian
organizations, the vast majority of the 300 million
people living in the United States in 2006 do NOT know
Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.  The largest
percentage of the last 2 generations have never even
been to church.  There is obviously a major paradox here
that must be understood since the eternal souls of
people are at stake.  The church used to set the tone for
the culture we lived in.  That is no longer the case. 
The church has very little influence on our culture today. 
A great battle for the hearts and souls of men took place
in earnest in the '60s.  Instead of standing firm and
fighting, the church gave up.  The church retreated to a
corner and simply became a piece of our culture instead of
being the dominant influence of our culture.

It was due to the church's lack of effectiveness that gave
rise over these past 40 years to what never existed before,
para church ministries and entire industries created
solely for Christians.  All of the various specialized
ministries that exist today were once ministries of the
local church.  Most churches quit visiting those who were
in prison which gave rise to prison ministries like Prison
Fellowship.  Most churches quit ministering to their men
which gave rise to men's ministries like Promise Keepers. 
Most churches quit praying for the needs of their people
which gave rise to ministries like Liveprayer!

There have been Christians on television since the
beginning of TV, just like there have been Christians on
radio since radio started, just like there have always
been Christian books, magazines, and music.  It has only
been in the past 40 years or so that we have set up our
own TV stations and networks, our own radio stations and
networks, our own music labels, our own book and
publishing companies, literally abandoning the mainstream
secular vehicles that reach the masses daily to market
directly to people who are already Christians.

Why?  There is only one reason,  MONEY.  It became
financially profitable to abandon the masses of lost and
hurting people who needed the message of Christ the most
and focus instead on marketing directly to those who
already were Christians.  If you are a business man who
sells tires, you aren't going to spend your time and money
trying to sell them to people who don't have a car. 
Rather than competing with the message the world was
sending out to the masses each day, Christians abandoned
the lost and hurting in the marketplace and set up their
own industries to reach people who already were Christians
because it was good "business."

For the church to take back its rightful place as the
dominant influence on our culture instead of simply being
part of our culture, it has to do two things.  First is
evangelism.  The church has got to get out of the
maintenance mode it is in and start reaching the lost and
hurting with the Gospel.  Practically speaking, the old
saints are dying and for the church to survive it has got
to start reaching out to the lost and getting them saved. 
The other thing the church must do is get back to the
BIBLE.  The Bible is God's inspired, inerrant Word,
representing absolute truth and our final authority in
all matters.  The reason you have churches that embrace
sins like homosexuality and killing babies and many others
is that they have abandoned the authority of God's Word. 
Pastors don't need to come up with clever sermons on
Sunday morning to tickle the ears of the people, they
simply need to preach the uncompromised truth of God's
Word!

I love you and care about you so much.  The fact is, God
has called each of His children to share Christ with the
lost.  Each person reading this today has people in your
life that God has placed there for you to speak to about
the Lord.  They are not there by accident.  I want to
encourage you today to step up to the plate and fulfill
that responsibility God has given you to share His love
with others.  The greatest way to witness to a person is
simply to tell them what Jesus has done in your life. 
People may argue with you about the Bible and about who
God is and many other things, but they can't argue with
you about what the Lord has done in your life.

You don't need to be a theologian to witness to someone. 
Two facts nobody will dispute is that one day we will all
die and that each of us sins.  Through Christ their sins
can be forgiven and they can have the assurance that when
they die they will be forever with Him.  All of the rest
will fall into place over time as they grow in their faith
and in the knowledge of God and His Word.  It is a growth
process but you can't start that process until you are
"born again."  That is the starting point.  I will be
praying for you as God gives you the boldness and words to
share Christ with others in your life.

As I walked with the Lord in the quiet of the Atlanta
night that Saturday, God spoke to me about the 4-million
souls in that metropolitan area, the vast majority that
did not know Christ as their Savior.  He then spoke to me
about the over 300 million who live in the United States,
again, the vast majority living their lives without Christ. 
The Bible is clear that the person who dies without Jesus
will be lost for all eternity.  Without a doubt, to get to
the greatest mission field in the world today you don't
need to pack your suitcase and get on a plane to go to some
far away land, simply walk out your front door.

"Then He said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful
but the workers are few.' " (Matthew 9:37 NIV)

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 2006, Bill Keller Ministries.
All rights reserved

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

May God bless you as you learn from this message!

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2006 Donald W. Mitchell