Come Back 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   THURSDAY FEBRUARY 2, 2006
( Luke 15:11-32, Mark 8:36 )

It is time for you to "go home."  One of the great
passages of scripture is the Parable of the Prodigal
son.  It is such a powerful picture of those who
know Christ as their Savior, have a relationship
with Him, and decide one day they want to live life
apart from the Lord.  They no longer have a desire
to follow Jesus and simply want to live their life
in rebellion to God and His Word.  I share with you
often the fact that our way never works, God's way
always works.  When we choose to live life our way,
there is nothing but pain and heartache.  When we
choose to live life God's way, there is peace and
joy and the abundance that Christ promised.

TODAY, GOD IS SPEAKING TO YOU THROUGH THESE WORDS
AS LOUD AND AS CLEAR AS IF HE WAS SITTING RIGHT NEXT
TO YOU.  HE IS SAYING, "COME HOME!"

The parable starts out with the younger of two sons
asking his father for his portion of the estate.  He
basically went to his dad and said let's figure out
what part of the estate is mine, and let me have my
share now. The father did as his son requested and
the Bible tells us that very soon after he got his
share of the estate, the young man took off for a
"far country."  He had obviously been planning his
rebellion, since it was immediately after he cashed
out his portion of the estate that he left.

My friend, when we rebel against God it starts in
our heart.  Our actions are simply the manifestations
of the rebellion that started in our heart. When we
sin, before we ever commit the act, it starts in our
heart, moves to our head, and ultimately is manifested
in the action itself.  That is why we have to guard
our hearts.  It is critical that we keep our hearts
pure before the Lord.  David cried, "create in me a
CLEAN HEART."  We keep our hearts clean  through our
time each day with the Lord in prayer and in God's
Word.

The Bible tells us that once this young man was in
the "far country," he wasted all of his money on
"riotous living."  Now we don't have a detailed
account of what this young man did, or what "riotous
living" involved, but we probably have a good idea.
If it was the year 2006, he would be out every night
drinking, doing drugs, frequenting the strip clubs,
the casinos, having sex with many different people.
He would wake up the next day and do it all over
again.  For anyone who has lived this type of
lifestyle, you know that it is only a matter of
time before your money, no matter how much you have,
runs out.

That is exactly what happened to this young man.
He ran out of money and about that same time the
Bible tells us there came a great famine in the
land he was in.  I am sure you have heard the
expression, "when it rains, it pours."  When you are
living your life in rebellion to God, NOTHING GOES
RIGHT!  It is simply one problem after another, and
eventually they mount up and just living from day to
day becomes a nightmare.  You don't even want to get
out of bed, and eventually you don't even have a
bed!  As I tell you often, SIN COSTS AND COSTS MORE
THAN YOU EVER EXPECTED TO PAY!

This young man was now faced with being in a foreign
land, broke, and simply trying to survive day to day.
The Bible tells us that he went to work for one of
the citizens of the country he was in.  His job,
FEEDING THE PIGS! Here was a young man who just
months earlier was an executive in his father's
business.  No doubt he worked hard, but he was in an
executive position, overseeing the day to day
operations, people working for him, making the
important decisions that have to be made each day in
any business.  All of a sudden he is no longer an
executive but the lowest of the low, literally feeding
the pigs!

REBELLION TO GOD COSTS, MY FRIEND!  When you choose
to live your life in rebellion to God, do it your
way, you will pay the price in so many different
ways.  One day you are a big time businessman,
running companies, hundreds of people working for
you, spending your time making deals, eating out
in nice restaurants, driving nice cars, wearing
nice clothes.  The next day, all of that is gone
and you are simply trying to survive from day to
day.  You have gone from enjoying your life to
just existing.  You will always pay a huge price
when you choose to live in rebellion to God.

It was at his lowest point that this young man
began to hear God speaking to him.  Let me make
sure you understand something very important.  The
Bible proclaims that God will never leave you nor
forsake you.  That is a promise from God to you, and
it is true.  God is there with you every step of the
way whether you acknowledge Him or not.  What happens
is we quit listening to God, we tune Him out.  When
we are living in rebellion to God, He is the last
person we want to hear from since we know deep down
inside we are sinning.  However, God is always there,
always trying to get our attention, waiting patiently
for us to listen to His voice and respond.

In 1989, near the end of my 10 years of running from
God, I was driving down the Kennedy Expressway in
Chicago heading downtown where I lived.  It was 3
a.m., I had been out drinking that night, my legal
problems were starting to mount, I was looking to
escape in every way imaginable, and as I was driving
home I flipped through the radio stations and
stopped when I heard booming from the radio, "FOR
WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN, IF HE SHALL GAIN THE
WHOLE WORLD, AND LOSE HIS OWN SOUL!"  The voice was
that of Dr. Joseph Stowell, Chancellor of the great
Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, but it was clearly
God speaking to me trying to get my attention.
Sadly, I was in full rebellion to God and He was the
last person I wanted to hear from.  It would be many
more months before I was ready to listen.

The Bible tells us that this young man began to hear
God's voice that was clearly calling him home.  He
began to reason that he was sleeping with the very
pigs he fed, eating the same food they were eating.
The servants in his father's house at least had a
nice place to sleep and plenty of food to eat.  He
realized that he would be better off going home,
asking his father's forgiveness and becoming one of
the servants.  That was GOD speaking to this young
man telling him to go home.

Many of you reading this today are "sleeping with
the pigs," you are eating the same food the pigs eat.
You are tired of living like this, tired of waking
up each day with no hope, tired of running from God.
My friend, God loves you, He cares about you so much,
and He is waiting for you today.  The fact is, God is
NOT going to force you to come home.  That has to be
your decision.  No doubt this young man's father
could have tracked him down and brought him home, but
he didn't.  It was not because he didn't love his
son, but because it was a choice his son had to make
on his own.  God is not going to force you to come
home, it is a choice YOU have to make yourself.

I love you and care about you so much.  The wonderful
end to the Parable of the Prodigal Son is that the
son did go home.  When he arrived, he was not made a
servant in his father's house as he was hoping, but
he remained a SON!  My friend, just because you have
left the Lord, you never stopped being His son or
daughter.  You may have denied Him, you may have
chosen to reject Him, but He never denied you and
He never rejected you.  YOU NEVER STOPPED BEING HIS
SON OR DAUGHTER!

I will be praying for you today, praying that God
will speak to your heart about going home.  You
don't need to be miserable any longer.  You don't
need to dread waking up each morning.  God can take
the pain and the hurts in your life and replace
them with a peace that passes all human understanding
and His joy.  God is speaking to you today.  God is
waiting for you to come home.  He is waiting to
rejoice, "for this my son was dead, and is alive
again; he was lost, and is found."

Let me leave you today with the words to the great
hymn "Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling."  Read
the words, they are from God for YOU today!

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He's waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.
Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
Pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,
Mercies for you and for me?

Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
Coming for you and for me.

O for the wonderful love He has promised,
Promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,
Pardon for you and for me.

Refrain:

Come home, come home,
You who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

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

How to Live in the Spirit Daily

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 provides a powerful answer for
all those times I wished I knew how to be a better
Christian but wasn't sure what to do. 

Read on.

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

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

***SO MANY people emailed after the Devotional last
week where I spoke of "dying to self," that I felt
the need to re-visit that issue by explaining exactly
HOW to "die to self" each day.  I pray that God will
open your heart as He speaks to you about how to have
the deep, intimate relationship with HIM each day.

HOW to "die to self" daily.  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.  Maybe you are
wondering how you could be raising your hands to Jesus,
speaking in tongues, and being used by God to touch
lives one day, and sinning against God the next.  The
answer is when you fail to die to self each day, you
are walking in the "flesh," not the "Spirit."

The question that needs to be addressed today is HOW
does a person "die to self?"  The first step is an
action, something that you must do.  Dying to self is
a conscious choice that you must make, one nobody can
make for you.  It is the act of surrendering your
life completely to Christ.  The reason God's Word
talks about dying to self DAILY is because it is
something that we must do each and every day.  Our
life with Christ is not for an hour or two on Sunday,
but literally 24/7.  It is critical to make the
choice to die to self each and every day.

Since this is something you must do each day, I do
it and counsel others to do it the moment you wake
up in the morning.  As I first open my eyes to a
new day, before I do anything I take a moment and
thank God for a day that was not promised to me and
make the conscious choice to completely surrender
my life to Him that day.  I literally tell God to
take my life and use it for His glory that day, to
use me as an instrument of blessing.  When we get
saved, we not only ask Christ into our heart and
life by faith, but we give our very lives to Him. 
In dying to self each day, we are reaffirming that
our life doesn't belong to us any longer, it is His.

At the moment we are born again, we receive the
promise of the "Comforter," or the Holy Spirit. 
Each Believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit to
empower them and guide them throughout their life. 
t is literally the power of Almighty God living
within each person who has given their heart and
life to Christ by faith.  As you surrender your
life afresh to Christ at the start of each day,
you are allowing your life to be controlled by the
Holy Spirit and not by your flesh.  It is no longer
you but God that is in complete control of your
life.  You have traded in your thoughts and desires
for God's thoughts and desires.  It is not YOU that
is living, it is Christ living in you as Paul wrote
in Galatians 2:20.

This whole process takes only a few minutes of time
alone with the Lord, but it is the most important
few minutes of your day.  When you don't go through
this process each and every morning, you wake-up,
start going through your day, and not only does it
feel like the day is weighing you down, you don't
have that confidence.  The reality is, the day IS
weighing you down because you are operating in your
strength and not the Lord's, and the lack of
confidence comes from the fact you are in control
of your life and not Christ.

Sadly, some people go days, even weeks without
really dying to self, and it usually takes the
consequences of their poor choices during that time
to bring them back to the Lord.  Like I say often,
your way doesn't work, God's way works!  Let me give
you some advice out of my love for you.  You can
never run your life better than God can.  The sooner
you realize that, the more peace, joy, and abundance
you will know during this journey through life.

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.  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 Tony
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 "Spirit" 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

Forgive Others . . . and Yourself

Good morning, Happy Souls!

Bill Keller wrote a wonderful devotional yesterday
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
wanted to forgive myself for something, but couldn't.
I'm glad is more forgiving of me than I am!

I also realized that I should seek out opportunities
to forgive others . . . and not just when someone
asks for forgiveness.

Read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL    SUNDAY JANUARY 29, 2006
(Mark 11:25, Colossians 3:13)

Forgive those who have hurt you.  Not one person
reading this Devotional today, has not had someone
at some point in your life hurt you.  Some of you
may have been physically or sexually abused as a
child by a mother, a father, a relative, or someone
your family knew.  Some of you may have had a
wonderful childhood, but in your young adult life
been hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend.  Some of
you may have been the victim of a horrible crime
like robbery or rape.

Still others may have been deeply hurt by your
husband or wife that wanted a divorce.  There are
many of you that have been hurt later in life by
your children.  Lots of people reading this have
been hurt by employers, business associates, or
close friends.  Sadly, some of you have even been
hurt by a pastor or someone in your church.  The
fact is, EVERYONE reading this today has been hurt
at some point in your life.

As painful as the experience was that caused this
hurt in your life, so many people have compounded
that pain by letting bitterness, even hatred into
their life against the person or people who caused
your pain.  Today, I am going to help set you free
from this hurt and pain you have experienced in
your life.

In a prison, they have a central lock that can
automatically open all of the cell doors in a given
area.  If you have ever been in prison or watched
a prison movie you know what I am talking about. 
There is the loud buzz, followed by the clanking sound
of all of the cell doors automatically opening.  Today,
many of you are in prison from the hurts and pains in
your life.  Today, the cell door is going to open and
you are going to be FREE!!!

The key to unlocking that door is FORGIVENESS.  As
simple as this may seem, it can be one of the most
difficult things in this world to do.  Forgiving
someone who has hurt us deeply is one of the hardest
things to do in life. It is not something that we
can even do in our own strength, but must be done
in the strength we get from the Lord.

I realize that many people right now are saying,
"NO WAY, not after what that person did to me." 
As a Christian, it should be our goal to be like
our Lord every day.  What were some of the last
words Christ spoke from the cross?  What was his
last act before dying that horrific death?  He
asked God to forgive those who had crucified Him!

When we sin, and we all sin every day, what do we do? 
We go to God and ask Him to forgive us.  We do so
with the full assurance that He will forgive us
because He has promised to in His Word.  In
Colossians 3:13 the Bible tells us to "forgive as the
Lord forgave you."

God's Word is clear that just as Christ forgives us
when we sin against Him, we must forgive those who
sin against us!  That is the key to unlocking the
prison door and being free once and for all from the
hurt and pain you have experienced in your life. 
FORGIVE the person or people who have hurt you in
your life!

The other problem I deal with each day is people not
being able to forgive themselves.  Listen, the Bible
tells us that we have "all come short of the glory of
God."  We are all sinners.  We all make mistakes. 
When you go to God and confess your sins, the Bible
promises us that He not only forgives us but cleanses
us from all unrighteousness.  He not only has forgiven
us, but He has forgotten the transgression.  God acts
like it never happened. The point I'm trying to make is
that if God has forgiven you, if God has wiped the
slate clean, if in God's mind the sin never existed...
then you need to forgive yourself.

I love you and care about you so much.  I realize that
this is a difficult word for many of you to hear
today, but this is going to literally change the lives
of those who will receive it...and do it!  I want you
to take a moment right now, stop what you are doing,
and take out a piece of paper and a pen.  Literally
write down the name of the person or names of the
people in your life who have hurt you deeply.  Now,
pray this prayer,

"Dear Father, I come to you today, thanking you that
you love me so much.  I thank you that you are not
only a God of love, but a God of forgiveness. Thank
you for forgiving me of my sins.  Father, I come
today and pray that you will give me YOUR strength
to forgive those who have hurt me in my life. Right
now, this moment, I forgive (name/names).  I not
only forgive them, but Father, I ask that you bless
them.  They need you in their life and I pray that
they will come to have a personal, intimate
relationship with your Son.  Thank you for giving me
the strength to forgive and thank you for setting me
free from the pain in my life.  In Jesus precious name
I  pray,
AMEN!"

I will be praying for each of you today to pray this
prayer.  It is time to forgive those who have hurt
you, and it is time to forgive yourself if need be. 
Put the hurt and pain of your past behind you once
and for all and move forward with your life.  God
still has much left for you to do and by forgiving
those who have hurt you, you are now free to do all
that He wants to do in and through your life for His
Kingdom!

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