Just Do Your Best in Following Him

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.

This devotional reminds me of all those times I
worked long and hard, made lots of mistakes, but
also made some progress nevertheless.  I fell into
bed exhausted . . . but feeling pretty good.  I
had done my best.  At that moment, the day became
even better when I thanked God for giving me such
a wonderful day.

May every day be like that for you!

Read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL     SATURDAY JANUARY 28, 2006
(1 Thessalonians 2:4, 4:1, Hebrews 13:16 )

Do your best each day!  There is one simple message
that I want you to hear loud and clear today.  GOD
LOVES YOU and all He expects is that you do your
best each day.  None of us are perfect. The Bible
says that we all have sinned and come short of God's
glory.  In the course of our day-to-day lives, we
all fail God, we all make choices that we wish we
could change. But God knows our heart, and all He
has ever asked you to do, is your best.

Each day I deal with the real life issues that we
all face, in the context of God's Word.  I deal with
all of the sins that are out there to hurt our lives.
I deal with the tricks that satan uses to try and
destroy us.  It is out of my love for you that I
share the Absolute Truth of God's Word and how He
has called us to live.  I do my best to break down
for you why God's way works.

The fact is, there is right and wrong in our world. 
Those who oppose God have always done their best to
get people to believe that right and wrong doesn't
exist.  Their goal is to get each person to decide
for themselves what is right and wrong.  That way,
you can never tell a person that they are wrong no
matter what they choose to believe.  That sounds
wonderful in theory, but in reality it leads to
utter chaos.  More important, it is a lie, since
God has clearly told us in His Word what is right
and what is wrong.

In the course of applying the truth of God's Word
to our personal lives each day, it can get
frustrating when we sin, when we don't follow God's
plan.  Again, the word that I want to share with you
today is to DO YOUR BEST. Am I saying it is OK to
sin?  Of course not.

But 1 John 1:8 tells us that if we say we don't sin,
then we are deceiving ourselves.  What I am saying
is that God knows your heart.  He knows how grieved
you are when you sin.  That is why He has promised
to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness
when you confess your sins to Him (1 John 1:9).  What
I am saying is that all God expects us to do, is our
best each day.  HE LOVES YOU.

I love you too, and care about you so much.  I
realize that what I write each day is usually very
serious, very heavy, real life issues.  It can
become overwhelming trying to live the way God
calls us to live, to do it His way.  It is out of
His infinite love for you that He teaches you His
way, to help you to avoid the pain and heartache
associated with living life your way.

It is out of my love for you that I try to do the
best I can each day to very simply share what God's
way is for your life, again, to help you avoid
having to experience the pain and heartache that
living life outside of God's plan can bring.  But
never forget, all any of us can do each day is our
very best, and God understands that.

I will be praying for you today.  As we wind down
this month and look forward to February, I pray
that you will know the peace, the joy, and the
abundance that this life can offer.  That is the
beauty of our relationship with the Lord. Even in
the midst of the storms, even in the midst of the
trials and tribulations of daily life, we can
still experience His peace, His joy, and the
abundance of this life.  God loves you more than
you will ever know.  He cares about you.  All He
is asking you to do today, is your very best.

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

Live in the Spirit Every Day!

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.

This devotional reminds me of an experience I
had when I was 10 years old.  We were doing an
art project involving paper doilies.  I was
running late so I hadn't started yet.  Our
teacher, Mr. Hendricks, sternly told us not to
take the doilies ourselves.  He explained why.
The doilies stuck together and we would take
more than one. Then there wouldn't be enough
for everyone.

That made sense to me . . . until I found my-
self staying in at recess to get started and
Mr. Hendricks was nowhere in sight.  Other
students told me not to take the doilies. But
I thought I could tell the difference between
one and many. I peeled off one and got started.

Mr. Hendricks returned and asked me where I
had gotten the doily.  I fessed up and explained
that I hadn't made a mistake.  He checked me and
pulled off 7 extra doilies that I had taken and
now partially cut into.  Oops!

I realized then that I wasn't as good at this as
I thought.

That idea was later reinforced when my friend
Francine showed me the project she made from one
of the doilies that I had started cutting into.
Her's was 100 times better than mine . . . and
she had followed my lead because it already had
a cut in it.  Without my cut, she probably
would have made one that would have been 1000
times better.  Oops!

Anytime Jesus can show me where to go and what
to do, I'm going to be a lot better off.  I
don't do so well when I'm in charge.

Read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL   FRIDAY JANUARY 27, 2006
( 1 Corinthians 15:31, Romans 8:4-13,
Galatians 5:16, Galatians 2:20)

This is the most important message you will ever hear
on living a victorious life in Christ.  I realized as
I prayed and prepared to write this message, that
this is going to be a very difficult one for most
people to hear.  In this day of motivational speakers,
positive mental attitude seminars where people are
whipped into an emotional frenzy by the glib-tongued
hope merchants of our day, left out has been the hard
truth that any success comes with a price.  Even many
of the preachers of our day have fallen into the trap
of the world by telling people how they can be
successful through Christ without also telling them
about the sacrifice that is required for that success.

The bottom line is success sells, sacrifice doesn't. 
People want to hear how to be successful, they don't
want to hear what it costs.  Today, I am going to
share with you the most important message you will
ever hear on living a victorious life in Christ.  It
is a message of success, but the key to this message
is sacrifice.  It is not a one-time sacrifice, it is
a DAILY sacrifice.  It is the ultimate sacrifice that
you can ever make, your very life.  Paul wrote to the
church at Galatia, "I have been crucified with Christ
and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."
(Galatians 2:20 NIV) The key to living a victorious
life in Christ is dying to self daily.

You see my friend, the motivational gurus like Tony
Robbins are selling you a message of false hope
since the core of their message is that YOU can do
it.  That flies in the face of what God's Word says
in John 15:5, "without me, you can do NOTHING!" 
The lie of the world is that you can do it.  The
Truth of God is that you can do it, THROUGH CHRIST! 
So the entire foundation of the message these people
are selling, and make no mistake about it, that is
what they are doing, selling,  is a lie.

The fact is, the greatest motivational book ever
written is the Bible.  If you want to be successful
in your business, read the Bible.  If you want to
be successful in your finances, read the Bible.  If
you want to be successful in your relationships
with others, read the Bible.  If you want to be
successful in your marriage, read the Bible.  If
you want to be successful in raising your
children, read the Bible.  If you want to have
peace, and joy, and an abundant life, read the
Bible.  If you want to know the purpose for your
life, read the Bible.  I could never figure out
why people spend hundreds, even thousands of
dollars on books, and tapes, and seminars, and
workshops, when all they are seeking is right in
God's Word!

Today, there are many preachers and Christian
speakers that have become Christian motivational
gurus.  They do what Tony Robbins and the
motivational speakers of the world do, only they
are at least using the Bible as their foundation. 
Where this new breed of Christian motivational
speakers are failing, is in telling people the
WHOLE story.  You see, everyone wants to hear how
to have lots of money, how to be successful in
their business or career, how to have a great
marriage, how to be a wonderful parent, how to
live each day with the peace, joy, and abundance
God's Word speaks of.  All of these things are
possible through Christ.  But what they choose to
leave out is the most important detail there is. 
All things are possible through Christ, IF YOU
DIE TO SELF DAILY SO JESUS IS IN CONTROL OF YOUR
LIFE!

Dying to self daily is what Paul spoke of so often. 
It is how we walk in the "spirit" and not in the
"flesh" as we are instructed in Romans Chapter 8
and Galatians Chapter 5.  The whole issue of dying
to self daily is the absolute key to living a
victorious life in Christ.  It literally means
that you have to die to self DAILY!  This is why
so many people who are saved, love the Lord, live
beneath their blessings and in constant turmoil. 
This is how people who know Christ as their Savior
end up committing adultery, cheat people, lie, get
in bondage to drugs, alcohol, food, sex, gambling,
shopping, greed, and anything else people become
enslaved to.  They don't die to self each day and
end up walking in the "flesh" and NOT the "spirit."

People wonder all the time how a pastor, a deacon,
an elder, someone in the leadership of God's church
could leave their wife  and run off with another
woman.  People wonder all the time how a Sunday
School teacher who loves the Lord could neglect her
children and family because of alcohol.  People
wonder how a businessman who is a pillar in his
local church, leads a men's Bible study, gives
generously to support the work of God in his community,
could be facing 10 years in prison for financial
crimes.  The answer is these people failed to die to
self each day and instead of walking in the "spirit"
they were walking in the "flesh."

There is probably no more critical a message I will
ever share with you in living a victorious life in
Christ than the one today.  All of the benefits in
God's Word exist and are available to those who
believe, but there is a price to pay and that price
is our very life surrendered, yielded to the Lord. 
It is a choice, an act, that nobody can force you
to commit.  Only you can do it.  The important thing
for you to hear today is that it is not something
you do just once and forget about.  It is something
that you must do DAILY!  EVERY DAY!  WITHOUT FAIL! 
Each morning when you wake up, you have to make the
conscious choice to die to self, to surrender your
life to Christ, and walk in the "spirit" instead of
the "flesh."

I love you and care about you so much.  The difference
between a person who knows the Lord as their Savior
living a defeated life and a victorious life, lies
in what I am sharing with you today.  Please, save
your money.  You don't need to waste it listening to
Robbins or the motivational speakers of the world lie
to you that you can do it on your own, and you don't
need spend it on books and tapes from preachers who
preach a feel good Gospel but forget to tell you
about the sacrifice involved.  The key to living a
victorious life in Christ lies in you waking up each
morning and making the conscious choice to die to
self and allow Christ to control your life.

The fact is, the Bible says that if you have asked
Christ into you heart and life by faith, it is no
longer your life, that it belongs to Him.  The
Word says we have been "bought with a price."  So
in essence, each day you are only giving the Lord
what already belongs to Him anyway.  Remember my
message last week on what really happens when we
get saved?  We are literally giving our life to
Christ.  It is no longer ours, but is now His.
The reality is, each morning when we wake up, we
have to make the choice to die to self so that
Christ can live within us during that day.  If we
don't do this each and every day when we wake up,
we will soon find ourselves walking in the "flesh"
and not the "spirit."

I will be praying for you today.    Praying that
you will sit down and read this message over and
over.  This is the meat and potatoes of the Word.
This is where the rubber meets the road in regard
to our Christian walk. This is the part that nobody
really wants to talk about since we love the
benefits of being saved, but we really don't want
to think about the price that Jesus paid or the
sacrifice we have to make each day.  You MUST think
about it since it is the difference between you
living a defeated life and living a victorious life. 
To live that victorious life in Christ, to walk in
His victory, you have to die to self each day so
that you are walking in the "sprit" and not the
"flesh" so that it is Christ, not you that lives.

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

God Will Forgive Your Sins, No Matter What! Just Ask.

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.

Read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL    THURSDAY JANUARY 26, 2006
( Isaiah 59:2, Matthew 26:28, Ephesians 1:7,
1 John 1:9 )

A message for those who feel they have sinned too
much for God to ever forgive them.  One of the
emails I get every day is from people who tell me
they have simply sinned too much for God to ever
forgive them.  Some tell me that they have done
things so bad in their life, God could never, ever
forgive them.  I want you to hear me clearly today. 
There is nothing, NO THING that you have ever done
that God can't and won't forgive you for.  The
Bible tells us that if you will humble yourself
before the Lord and ask Him to forgive you, HE WILL!!!

It is important for you to understand what sin is. 
Sin by its very definition is rebellion against God. 
It is your sins that separate you from a Holy God. 
There are no categories of sin, no such thing as
"good sins" and "bad sins."  There is a bright line
and you are either on one side of that line, in
obedience to God and His Word, or you are on the other
side of that line, in rebellion to God and His Word. 
That is why one sin is no better or worse than another
sin, since ALL sin is rebellion against God.

The Bible in Matthew 12:31 and 32 talks about the
"unpardonable sin."  My friend, there is only one
unpardonable sin and that is rejecting Jesus Christ. 
The only sin that you can commit that there is no
forgiveness for is rejecting Christ.  You see, God's
desire is NOT to see men perish for all eternity. 
Quite the opposite.  The Bible tells us that His
desire is that ALL come to repentance and none be
lost.  God doesn't send men to hell, men choose to
go to hell by rejecting Christ as their Savior. 
Hell was not created for man but for satan and the
fallen angels who followed him.  You can only get
to hell by CHOOSING to go there.

God loved this world so much, He made a way for His
fallen creation to be redeemed.  That is the reason
He sent Christ to this earth, to die for the sins of
the world.  To die for your sins and mine.  You have
to understand that the reason God will forgive you
for your sins if you ask Him to, is because Jesus
already paid for them.  Your sins, no matter what they
are, can be forgiven because Christ hung on that cross
and shed His precious blood as payment for them.  That
is why there is nothing you have ever done, no sin you
have ever committed, that God won't forgive you for. 
THE PRICE FOR YOUR SINS HAS ALREADY BEEN PAID!!!

I love you and care about you so much.  I know many of
you are living today with the guilt and shame of what
you have done in your life.  You have chosen to listen
to the lies of satan as he tells you that you are not
worthy of God's love and forgiveness.  You have chosen
to listen to his lies as he tells you that what you
have done is even too much for God to forgive you for. 
I want you to know that satan is a LIAR!  The TRUTH is
that God loves you, He cares about you, and has made a
way for you to find forgiveness and have your sins
washed away.  All you have to do is ask Him to forgive
you.

Believing in Jesus is the only way to be saved because
it was Jesus who died for your sins.  There is no
other way to be saved, no other road to God, there is
no other plan of salvation!!!  This is God's one and
only plan to reconcile His fallen creation back to
Himself.  This is the only way that you can escape
eternity apart from the God who created you in His
own image.  It is through His grace and by your faith
in Jesus Christ who died so that your sins could be
forgiven.

The most important decision you will make in this
life is not who you will marry, or where you will
live, or what kind of job you will have.  The
most important decision you will make in this life
is to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and
Savior.  If you have not done that yet, the Bible
says that TODAY is the day of salvation.  I would
invite you to go to www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.html .  
Pray to ask God to open your heart, read the words,
pray the prayer, and accept God's gift to you today,
the forgiveness of your sins and everlasting life
through His son Jesus.

For those of you who already know Christ as your
Savior, I would encourage you to forward this
message to someone who you know who is lost and
without Christ in their life.  Maybe they feel,
like many others, that they have simply done too
many bad things in their life and God could never
forgive them.  I pray that these words will open
their heart to His love for them, and they will
ask Him to forgive them of their sins and accept
by faith Jesus Christ into their heart and life.

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

Take a Stand for Jesus

Good morning, Happy Souls!

Bill Keller wrote a thought-provoking 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.

As you read this devotional, I suggest that you
remember that Jesus told us we are to love everyone
as did the Ten Commandments.

Read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL   WEDNESDAY JANUARY 25, 2006
(The entire Book of Acts)

Taking a stand for Christ.  There comes a time in
the life of every Believer when God is going to ask
you to take a stand for Him.  I know most followers
of Christ do all they can to avoid being in that
position, but I want to encourage you today to not
fear those moments but look forward to them.  Let
me put this to you bluntly.  When it was time to go
to the cross for you, Jesus went.  Very few people
will ever be asked to die for Christ, only take
a stand for Him from time to time.  If Jesus was
willing to die so that your sins could be forgiven
and you could receive everlasting life, aren't you
willing to take a stand for Him?

Monday morning I received a phone call from the
political editor of the Weekly Planet in Tampa.
The Weekly Planet is the paper in Tampa, much
like similar papers most communities have, that is
published weekly and given away free in the bars,
clubs, restaurants, sex businesses, and other
retail outlets around Tampa, Florida.  Its articles
are very liberal and their target audience is the
18-40 crowd who dine out, go to the clubs and
concerts, support a woman's right to kill her baby,
advocate gay marriage, and for the most part live
their lives void of God and in rebellion to His
Word.

The political editor wanted to know if I would be
willing to do a live event next Monday night where
I would be one of 6 guests in front of an audience
debating how the church and religion shape the key
political issues of the day like school vouchers,
gay marriage, the teaching of intelligent design
along with evolution, as well as other key issues
that have religious components to them.  Even though
this will be held during my normal sleeping hours, I
agreed, since there will be plenty of time to sleep
when the work in this life is over.

The other panel members include Phyllis Hunt, the
lesbian pastor of the abominable Metropolitan Community
Church in Tampa that condones, glorifies, and supports
the sin of homosexuality, Nadine Smith, another lesbian
who is the head of a group called Equality Florida that
fights for gay rights and promotes the homosexual agenda,
Joe Redner the infamous owner of one of Tampa's oldest
strip club who I actually had on my TV program several
years ago, and their token for the other side, a woman
who is the partner in a PR firm that does commercials
for Republicans.

They obviously realized that this was going to be a
totally one-sided discussion and they needed a strong
advocate for the other side, not to mention that the
live audience would mostly be coming from the readers
of their paper.  I was amused to learn later that my
name was brought up in the initial discussions about
panel members but many who were putting this event
together had seen my TV program and quite frankly
didn't want me included. I wonder why?  I was also sad
to learn that they had reached out to numerous pastors
of many great churches in the Tampa area, as well as
several people who are part of the Christian TV and
radio stations here locally, and ALL turned them down
with various excuses.

Let me digress for just a moment.  It is a sad
witness to the lost in the world when those who God
has elevated to positions of leadership in His
church run and hide from events like this.  One of
the organizers commented to me that these guys must
not really believe what they preach.  They asked
how they can preach to thousands in the pews on
Sunday, broadcast on Christian TV and radio, but run
and hide when they have the chance to share their
faith to a mixed group outside the four walls of
their church.  All I could do is apologize for them.

It made me think of Paul throughout his various
missionary journeys.  Time and time again he was in
hostile settings with the chance to share the
Gospel.  Did he pass on those opportunities?  NO WAY!
You can tell that he treasured them!  Even though it
often meant being thrown in prison, having his very
life threatened, being ridiculed and scorned, Paul
stood in the midst of the assembly and declared Christ
and Him crucified!  Let me remind you again, when it
was time for Jesus to die for your sins He didn't
run and hide.  He took those nails in His body and
willingly died for YOU.  If Jesus took a stand for
you, how you can you not take a stand for Him?

I love you and care about you so much.  Here is the
word today, listen carefully.  There will be times
in your life when you are going to be asked to take
a stand for Christ.  It will most likely not be going
head to head in a live debate with people who
advocate living in rebellion to God and His Word in
front of a hostile audience, but probably with a
co-worker, a neighbor, a friend, a family member.
When you are faced with that opportunity, what will
you do?  Shut up and say nothing or take a stand for
Christ?

Read the Book of Acts tonight.  There are 28 chapters,
it will take you about an hour.  It will be more
fruitful than whatever nonsense you will watch on TV
tonight for an hour.  Pay close attention to Paul on
his various journeys and how he stood for Christ.
Nothing fancy, no clever sermons, simply the GOSPEL!
When it is time for you to take a stand for Christ,
all you need to do is share from your heart how Jesus
has changed your life and that what He did for you He
will do for anyone.

Share the simple truth of the Gospel.  We all sin,
it is our sin that separates us from God, we will
all die one day, and at that moment our sin will
separate us for all eternity from God.  However,
God made a plan for us to escape eternal punishment
by sending Jesus to die for our sins.  That is why
it is faith in Jesus and Jesus alone that can wash
way our sins and bring us back into an everlasting
relationship with God our Creator.  It is a choice
each person has to make in this life, and the choice
that will determine if our eternity is spent forever
with God or apart from God.

I will be praying for you today.  Praying that God
will give you boldness and courage as you read about
Paul's life.  I will be praying that when the
opportunities in life present themselves for you to
take a stand for Christ, YOU WILL!  He loves you,
He died for your sins, through faith in Him you
have the assurance of everlasting life, so how can
you not willingly and gladly stand for Jesus when
you have the chance?  I count it an honor and
privilege to stand for Christ and will do so with
my very last breath!!!

*Please be praying for me next Monday night at 7:30
p.m.  This event is being held at the Shimberg
Playhouse which is part of the Tampa Bay
Performing Arts Center in downtown Tampa.  If you
live in the Tampa area, it is FREE.  I would be
honored if you came down and were part of the live
audience, especially since it will most likely be
very heavily stacked with people in favor of the
anti-God and anti-Bible position all of the other
panelists will be sharing.  I am looking forward
to standing in the midst of these people who have
yielded themselves as tools of unrighteousness
and letting them know that God is real, there is
only ONE TRUTH , and there is only ONE SAVIOR.
Just like on Mt. Carmel, may THE GOD OF THE BIBLE
answer by fire on that night!

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

Prepare for Spiritual Attacks and Blessings

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.

Read on.

*********************************************
DAILY DEVOTIONAL    TUESDAY JANUARY 24, 2006
(1 John 4:4, James 2:17, Ephesians 6:13-17,
Psalms 68:19)

Most people aren't prepared for major spiritual
attacks in their life, nor are they prepared for
major blessings in their life!  This is a mature
word for you today, so I suggest you take a few
moments to clear your head and open your heart to
receive what God is trying to tell you in this
message.  Every day I deal with so many people who
find themselves under tremendous attack spiritually. 
Most of them are not prepared in any way for the
onslaught of the destruction satan brings into their
lives.  When the attacks are over, their lives look
like those horrible pictures of Pearl Harbor after
the Japanese sneak attack on December 7th, 1941. 
Likewise, I deal daily with people who have been
blessed abundantly, and are just as unprepared to deal
with all of God's blessings as those who are
unprepared to deal with major spiritual attacks.

Let me give you a personal observation from dealing
with millions of people over 15 years of ministry. 
Most people CHOOSE to stay on the sidelines because
it is safe there.  The fact is, they don't really
want to be abundantly blessed and they really don't
want to suffer major spiritual attacks.  They SAY
they want to be abundantly blessed, but don't want
to pay the price to receive and be responsible for
those blessings.  They also live their lives
defensively to try and avoid any major spiritual
attacks.  So they have found the safest place is the
sidelines.  Sitting in a pew on Sunday morning,
attending a few Christian events during the year,
going to an occasional Bible study, helping out here
and there, but for the most part keeping their heads
down and just trying to be "safe."

Here is the problem with that strategy....IT DOESN'T
WORK!  Here is another problem...it goes against
God's Word!  God never expected His children to be
passive in their faith, but ACTIVE!  Many people
totally misunderstand James 2:17, "Even so faith, if
it hath not works, is dead, being alone."  This is
NOT a passage declaring you have to have good works
to be saved.  Quite the contrary.  It is a passage
written to Believers stating that good works flow
FROM your salvation.  In other words, if you have
truly accepted Christ into your heart and life by
faith, if you have been "born again," it is natural
that good works will flow from your life!  GOOD
WORKS CAN'T FLOW FROM YOUR LIFE IF YOU ARE SITTING
ON THE SIDELINES!

Over and over in the Gospels, we have the exhortation
from Jesus to "be about our Father's business."  We
are told to "go out and preach the Gospel," and to
"bring in the lost and hurting."  Many parables are
about investing our gifts and talents in serving the
Lord.  It is clear that God's Word doesn't suggest,
but COMMANDS Believers to be active in their faith
by serving God.  As a matter of fact, the general
purpose for all of us is to serve and glorify God
with our lives.  Service is an action word.  YOU
CAN'T SERVE GOD IF YOU ARE SITTING ON THE SIDELINES!

I realize that a big reason so many Believers are on
the sidelines is that they don't want to deal with
the major spiritual attacks that come from serving
the Lord.  Many have stepped out to serve the Lord
and been attacked and immediately retreated.  That
is exactly what satan wants.  He wants to scare you
into doing nothing.  The reality is, you are going to
be attacked whether you are serving the Lord or just
sitting on the sidelines.  So you might as well obey
God and serve Him and simply prepare yourself for the
attacks you know will be coming.  After a while, you
will not only get used to the attacks, but see them
coming since satan is really not very creative.
You'll get to know his entire arsenal pretty quick. 
That doesn't mean you can let your guard down, only
that you will be ready for him when he comes after
you.

Satan will attack you personally.  We ALL have weak
areas in our life.  By trial and error, satan WILL
eventually find yours.  Constantly shore up those
weak areas in your life since it is a guarantee that
he will come after you hard in those areas.  Satan
will attack you through those people you are closest
to in this life, your spouse, your children, your
parents, your siblings, other family members and
friends.  Satan will attack you through your finances. 
Trust me when I tell you, satan can attack you
through your finances whether you have just a little
money or vast amounts of resources.  Satan will
attack you through your health.  We will all die
one day, and most of our bodies will experience
breakdowns along the way. Satan will attack you
through your school, employment, and hobbies. 
Suffice it to say, there is not one area of your
life that satan will not attack you.

Listen my friend, God knew that when you chose to
follow and serve Him that the enemy would come after
you.  That is why He has given us that great promise
in 1 John 4:4 that "greater is He that is in me,
than he that is in the world."  That simply means
that the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells
every Believer, is greater than the power of satan
who is attacking you.  We also have the "armor of
God" found in Ephesians chapter 6.  Again, God knew
that those who served Him would come under attack,
and has given His children all they would need to
withstand the attacks from satan and press forward
in their service to Him.  It is not a matter of if
satan will attack, only when, in what area, and how
hard.

Just like most people aren't prepared for the major
attacks from satan, believe it or not, most people
aren't prepared for the major blessings from God in
their life!  Blessings require accountability and
responsibility.  God will hold us accountable for our
blessings, meaning we are responsible for how we
appropriate those blessings.  Do we simply hoard our
blessings like some miser holding onto his first
dollar?  Or do we share our blessings, knowing that
God has blessed us so that we can be a blessing to
others?  Just like we can't escape the attacks from
satan, we can't escape the rich blessings from God. 
Let me say that once more since I know that went
right by most.  Just like we can't escape the
attacks from satan, we can't escape the blessings
from God!!!

God LOVES to bless His children.  God blesses us
despite ourselves, even though we don't deserve them! 
When we are faithful, when we are obedient, when we
are honoring God with our lives, God will bless us
above and beyond anything we ever could imagine. 
Those blessings require us to take an even bigger
stand for the Lord.  Those blessings force us to an
even greater level of commitment in serving Christ. 
Whatever we may have done yesterday for the Lord
isn't enough any longer.  Because of God's abundant
blessings, we have to do more.  My friend, no matter
what you have done for the Lord in the past, no
matter what you are doing for the Lord today, YOU CAN
ALWAYS DO MORE TOMORROW!  GOD'S BLESSINGS ON OUR LIFE
REQUIRE US TO DO MORE!

I love you and care about you so much.  Here is my
word for you today, please hear me.  If you have
accepted Jesus Christ into your heart and life
by faith, you are COMMANDED and REQUIRED to serve
Him with your life.  Your life is no longer your own,
it belongs to Him.  Sitting on the sidelines is NOT
an option.  That means you will come under attack. 
Be prepared for it.  God has given you all you need
to withstand the attacks of satan.  Just know going
in that he is going to come after you, but that God
is watching over you and will protect you.  That is
why staying close to the Lord through His Word,
through prayer is so important each day.  That is
why following God's Word in how we live our lives
each day is critical.  Satan is already going to
come after you, so don't help him by opening the
door through sin.

By following the Lord in your life, that also means
you are going to be blessed, above and beyond what
you ever imagined.  Be prepared for it.  Know that
with God's blessings comes a responsibility to be a
good steward over those blessings.  God blesses us
so that we can be a blessing to others.  As we walk
in obedience to the Lord, faithfully serving Him, God
will bless us so that we are able to serve Him in
greater ways.  The more we serve the more blessings we
will receive, the more blessings we receive the more
we must serve.  There is no limit to God's blessings
and there is no limit to our ability to serve Him.

I will be praying for you today.  Praying that you
will not be afraid of satan's attacks in your life,
but be prepared for them.  They are a sign that you
are a threat to the enemy.  God will protect you! 
I will also be praying that you will be prepared for
God's richest blessings in your life as you faithfully
serve and follow Him.  Receive His blessings as an
encouragement to press in deeper into your own daily
walk with the Lord as well as your service to Him. 
Blessings are a gift from God and His way of saying
"well done thou good and faithful servant" even now
during this life as you honor Him with your service.

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

Giving Your Life to Jesus

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.

Read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL   MONDAY JANUARY 23, 2006
(Galatians 2:20, 1 Corinthians 6:20,
Matthew 16:24,25)

Getting saved is not just about what we get, but it
is also about what we GIVE!  In our narcissistic,
"what's in it for me" culture, we have learned how
to market salvation to the masses like we do cell
phones, cars, and hamburgers.  In our zeal to win
people for Christ, we have been very careful to
focus on the benefits of salvation, making sure
people understood all the reasons why this is a
good choice, while being too afraid to tell them
the WHOLE plan of salvation.  We sell salvation
just like the late night infomercials sell weight
loss pills, whipping people into an emotional
frenzy by hyping all the benefits of getting saved,
but never explaining to them the FULL COST of
getting saved.  The "fine print" in the salvation
message is not what we get, but what we GIVE!

I am saddened when I hear people share the Gospel,
giving people an invitation to know Christ, but
never really explain what a person is actually
doing.  Please don't misunderstand me, I am
grateful for everyone who shares the Gospel, gives
people the opportunity to come to know Christ as
their Savior, but my point today is that we MUST
tell them the complete truth about what they are
doing.  When a person makes the decision to accept
Christ into their heart and live by faith, they are
surrendering their life to Him.  It is called
giving your heart and life to Jesus because that is
exactly what you are doing.  From that moment on,
your life no longer belongs to you, it belongs to
Jesus.  That is the critical part of the salvation
message so many fail to tell people.

We are quick to point out that if you accept Jesus
you will have the assurance of everlasting life with
God your Creator.  That is true.  It is our faith in
Christ, the One who died for our sins that allows us
to be reconciled with a Holy God and know that when
our brief journey through life is over we will be
with Him for all eternity.  We also make sure people
understand the tremendous benefits of being saved. 
At that moment, the Holy Spirit indwells a Believer
to supply them with the power of Almighty God.  By
accepting Christ as your Savior you have peace and
joy in your life that is impossible to know otherwise. 
You come to realize that your life has meaning and
purpose and experience the abundance of this life that
Jesus promised.  All of these things are true and need
to be pointed out.

It is easy to see why people would want to be saved. 
Most people on the planet can accept that there is a
Supreme Being or God out there.  It is not hard for
anyone who is honest to admit they have sinned, so
asking for your sins to be forgiven makes sense. 
Even the heathen with the hardest heart will admit
that one day he will die.  Everyone knows that is a
day each one of us will face.  So accepting Jesus
by faith to have the assurance that when this life
is over you will go to Heaven and not Hell is a
logical choice to make.  To also have the Holy
Spirit living within you, know a special peace and
joy, have a purpose in life and experience its
abundance, all makes the decision to accept Christ
very attractive and really something only a foolish
person would turn down.

So people make that eternal choice to accept Jesus
by faith.....and nothing really changes.  They wake
up the next morning in the same bed, the same
house.  They have the same family and friends. 
They go to the same school and have the same job. 
They have all the same problems they did the night
before, and maybe even a few new ones.  They do all
the same things.  Even though the Bible proclaims
that they are "born again," that they are a "new
creature in Christ," that the "old has passed away,"
their real, practical, day-to-day life has not
changed.  This is why so many people who accept
Christ are truly saved, but they never grow in their
new faith and many of them see very little change in
their life from BS (before being saved), to AS
(after being saved).

The reason is when they got saved, what was left out
or never really explained to them was the complete
story of accepting Christ as their Savior.  The part
of the salvation experience that is often left out
and never properly explained to people is the fact
that when you accept Christ into your heart and
life by faith you are giving your life to Him.  It
is an act of sacrifice and surrender, two words that
most people want no part of.  That is why this most
critical element of what it means to be saved is
never really spoken about.  The bottom line is, when
you get saved you are surrendering your life to Jesus
Christ.  Your life no longer belongs to you, it
belongs to the Lord.  Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice
when He literally gave His life in payment for your
sins, and when you get saved, you are making a
sacrifice of your life to Him.

This is so important since it goes to the very core
of what being a Christian, a follower of Christ, is
all about.  We have sacrificed, surrendered our
life to Jesus.  Our life is no longer our own but
now belongs to Him.  All we do, where we go,
everything regarding our life is now in the Lord's
control.  When you get saved, you are literally
giving Him your life.  That is why so many who know
Christ live without His peace, without His joy,
without any real purpose, without the victory, because
they have refused to fully surrender their lives to
Him.  That is why most of the false religions of the
world are so popular.  You simply accept their false
teachings but you can still live your life anyway you
want to.  When you become a follower of Jesus, your
very life now belongs to Him.

I love you and care about you so much.  That is why
even though Liveprayer reaches a massive audience
each day through the Internet and on TV and we have
people accepting Christ as their Savior every single
day, we do our very best to first make sure they
understand that in asking Jesus into their heart
and life by faith they are literally surrendering
their life to Him, that their life now belongs to
Jesus.  We send them a booklet that helps guide them
in the basics of their new faith, things like reading
the Bible and praying every day.  We do our best to
work with local churches to get people plugged in so
they can be properly discipled and start to grow
in their new faith.

When a person is saved, there is a supernatural
change that happens to them spiritually.  It is now
critical for that person to understand that their
life will never be the same again, that they are
different now, and to help them begin the process
of transforming their mind and day-to-day life to
be a true follower of Christ.  That doesn't happen
overnight, but over time. It is that process of
sanctification, or becoming more like Christ,
that begins at the moment a person is saved and
continues to their very last breath.  It is vital
that each person who knows Christ is not only
being discipled by someone more mature in the
faith at all times, but that they are giving of
themselves to disciple someone who is younger in
the faith at all times.  We can only grow in our
faith as we are helped along by those who are more
mature, and we have that same responsibility to help
those who are younger in the faith grow in their
relationship with the Lord.

I will be praying for you today.  Praying that as
you share the Gospel with people like our Lord has
commanded all of His children to do, that you will
clearly highlight the benefits of being saved, but
not leave out the fact that being saved also
includes surrendering our very lives to the Lord. 
We are actually cheating people by NOT telling them
the whole story, since our purpose in life, the
fullness of our peace and joy in knowing Christ,
the true abundance of this life, can never be fully
experienced unless we have unconditionally surrendered
our life to Christ.   Getting saved is not just
about what we get, but it is also about what we
GIVE..our life to Jesus Christ!

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