Cleanse Your Heart of Sin

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.

Would you rather be wrapped up in sin . . . or
in goodness?  If you're not sure, this message
is for you.  If you would like to be focused on
goodness and don't know how, this message is also
for you!

Please read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL   MONDAY FEBRUARY 13, 2006
(Jeremiah 17:9, Mark 7:20-23, 1 Corinthians 10:13,
Psalms 51:10, Romans 12:2)

How do you wake up in bed with someone.....who is
not your spouse?  Or, how do you find yourself with
a straw in your nose snorting lines of coke?  Or,
how do you start talking to someone and end up
telling horrible stories about someone else?  Or,
how do you walk into a store and leave with an
item you didn't pay for?  Or, how do you tell your
parents you are going one place and actually go to
the exact place they told you not to go?  How
does a person come to that place where they are
actually COMMITTING sin?

I can assure you that you didn't wake up and just
"end up" in bed with someone who isn't your spouse. 
I love the great line people use, "I didn't mean
this to happen," or, "it just happened."  No,
actually you DID mean it to happen and NOTHING "just
happens."  Sin is the ultimate act of selfishness
since by its very definition, sin is rebellion
against God.  Even though satan, the great justifier,
will give you lots of reasons you sinned to help you
ease the guilt, the fact is sin is literally you
saying to God, "not thy will but MY WILL be done!"

It would be nice if we sinned in a vacuum and we
were the only one we hurt, but that isn't the case. 
As we just learned we hurt God when we sin.  You
should know by now that when you sin you hurt
yourself.  Sin costs, and it costs you much more
than you ever expected to pay.  Sadly however, in
addition to hurting God and yourself, your sin
hurts others.  Let's just look at the sin of adultery
or fornication for example.  In addition to hurting
God and yourself, you hurt the person you sinned with,
you hurt your family, you hurt the family of the other
person, not to mention people in both of your lives
that may be affected by your sin.  This notion that
you only hurt yourself when you sin is just another
one of satan's lies!

Please be honest enough to admit that when you sin,
it was because you WANTED TO!  The reality is, you
had more than enough opportunities to NOT sin if you
really didn't want to.  Sin starts in our heart. 
Jeremiah the prophet proclaimed, "The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it?"  It was our Lord and Savior Jesus
who said in Mark 7, "That which cometh out of the
man, that defileth the man.  For from within, out
of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All
these evil things come from within, and defile the
man."  That is why David prayed, "Create in me a
clean heart, O God" in the 51st Psalm.  The Bible
talks much about having a "new heart," a "clean
heart."

From the heart, sin then travels to our mind.  It
is in our mind where we "think" about our sin,
whether consciously or not.  This notion of running
out and sinning is sheer folly.  If you think back
on your sins, you will clearly remember those times
of actually thinking about or dwelling on your sin. 
The deeper we get into sin, the more time we spend
thinking about it.  Initially, our thoughts are about
the consequences of sinning, about whether we should
actually go through with it or not.  After we
physically commit the sin a few times, our thoughts
are more about the sin itself than stopping.  Again,
this is why the Bible talks to us extensively about
the "renewing of our mind."

This takes us back to the questions I asked you in
the very first paragraph. Once sin is born in our
heart, travels to our mind and is not stopped, the
physical act is inevitable.  If you let sin into
your heart, if you let it fester in your mind, the
chances of you having the "will power" to not
commit the physical act of sinning is very unlikely. 
The reality is and what you need to understand, is
that you have already sinned even before the physical
act occurs.  What happened in your heart and mind
is already sin.  That is why Jesus said if you lust
in your heart after another woman you have already
committed the act of adultery.  All the physical act
is, is the culmination of the sin you already committed.

I love you and care about you so much.  Now the good
news!  YOU DON'T HAVE TO SIN!  Let me say this loud
enough for the hard of hearing and even satan to hear, 
YOU DON'T HAVE TO SIN!!!  God CAN give you a new
heart.  God WILL help you to renew your mind.  God
DOES give you many opportunities to escape sin and
say no along the way.  YOU DON'T HAVE TO SIN!  Don't
let the enemy lie to you that you are too weak, YOU
DON'T HAVE TO SIN!  The fact is, God will give you
everything you need to live your life in obedience
to Him. Say it with me, I DON'T HAVE TO SIN!!!

This is why I share with you often how important
your daily relationship with the Lord through prayer
and the Word is.  The closer you are to the Lord,
the further you are from sin.  That is why it is so
important to "die to self" each day.  Again, when
it is Christ living and not us, sin has no part of
our life.  Also, never forget the great promise God
gives us in 1 Corinthians 10, "But when you are
tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you
can stand up under it."  I can guarantee you without
any hesitation that if you think back on the sins
you have committed in your life, you can point to at
least one, maybe dozens of "escape routes" God
provided that you ignored.

I will be praying for you today.  Praying that you
realize you don't have to sin. However, if you want
victory over sin in your life, there are things
YOU must do.  A football team can't show up an hour
before the first game and expect to win.  They have
to put in hours and hours of hard work and practice
before the game to have any chance at victory.  The
same is true if you want victory over sin, you have
to work at it.  If you will spend time each day with
the Lord in prayer, if you will spend time each day
renewing your mind through His Word, if you will make
that commitment to die to self each day so that it
is Christ in control of your life, if when confronted
with sin you will take the escape routes God gives
you, you can live your life in obedience to God.  YOU
DON'T HAVE TO SIN!

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

The Benefits of Avoiding Sexual Sin

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.

Sexual sin has a high price.  It's better to
read about that price rather than learning the
hard way.

Please read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL   SUNDAY FEBRUARY 12, 2006
(Ephesians 5:3, 1 Corinthians 6:18, 7:2, 10:8,
Galatians 5:19, Colossians 3:5, 1 Thessalonians 4:3)

***THIS IS A MUST READ FOR EVERY PARENT AND
GRANDPARENT, AS WELL AS FOR YOUNG ADULTS!!!

Friends with benefits.  Let me share a fact about
satan with you.  Satan cannot create, he can only
imitate and pervert.  However, satan is very good
at re-packaging an old lie to make it look new.
It would be like getting a present on Christmas
morning, carefully taking off the shiny bow on top,
tearing open the nice wrapping paper, opening the
box inside to find a pair of athletic shoes.  After
your initial excitement wanes, you begin to look
closely at the "new shoes," and come to realize they
are the same athletic shoes you have been wearing
for the past year.  They aren't new, they were just
packaged to look new.  That is exactly what "friends
with benefits" is.  An old lie with a new name.

Friends with benefits is what the young adults
today call a friend that they are having sex with.
It is nothing more than a new label for sexual
sin. In some circles, it refers to a person you are
having oral sex with.  Another common term young
people use today is "hooking up."  It means getting
together for sex.  Hooking up is meeting someone
for no other reason than sex, often not even knowing
the other person's name.

Let me be very clear, there is nothing new about
"friends with benefits" or "hooking up."  They are
simply the newest names for having sex with
someone you are not married to.  It is called
FORNICATION.  Fornication is a word that means ALL
sexual activity outside the bonds of marriage.  That
includes oral sex and any sort of touching.  If you
are having sex or engaging in sexual activity with
someone other than the person you are married to,
it is fornication!  It is clearly defined as SIN in
the Bible.  To see how God feels about this issue,
you should get a Bible concordance and look up the
word "fornication" and read all of the various
scriptures in God's Word that address this sin.

I get emails daily from people, young and old,
asking how "far" they can go with a boyfriend or
girlfriend.  I often remind them how the Bible says
we are to run from temptation, not run to it.
Listen, if you are trying to find "the line", you
have already crossed it.  You are only playing
mind games with yourself.  It is like the moth that
flies near the light.  Ultimately, the moth gets
too close and is killed.  You have to stop sin at
its root, in the heart.  Once you let it go from
your heart to your head, it is already too late.
Once you let it leave your head and actually
start to act out the sin, you are done.

Let me explain why fornication is wrong in very
real, practical terms.  First, it is a perversion of
God's plan for sex between a man and woman. God's
plan was for one man, one woman, one lifetime.  Sex
is part of that relationship between a man and woman.
When you have sex outside of that special union, you
are opening up very special, intimate emotions that
just don't work outside of marriage.  It is a very
special part of the marriage experience and by
perverting that plan, you cheapen it, you compromise
it, and it is never as special as God intended it
to be.

Of course, in addition to that side of the
fornication issue is the reality of sexually
transmitted diseases.  That is a very real byproduct
or consequence of this sinful activity.  Then you
always have the possibility of the woman getting
pregnant.  Again, this opens the door to a plethora
of consequences from abortion, to having a child
out of wedlock, to two people who God never intended
to be married getting married for all the wrong
reasons which almost always ends badly for both
people, to any number of other consequences that can
dramatically change your life.

THERE ARE ALWAYS...ALWAYS...ALWAYS...CONSEQUENCES
FOR SINFUL ACTIVITY.  At some level, you will have
to deal with the consequences if you choose to commit
the sin of fornication.

This issue perfectly illustrates the choices we
have.  If we choose to do it our way, give in to our
physical urges and engage in this sinful activity,
not only do we pay a very high price for choosing to
rebel against God's plan, but the fact is, what we get
for that choice is very little.  I can personally
attest that it is not in any way shape or form worth
the price you have to pay.  However, if we obey God,
do it His way, this can be one of life's great
blessings.  Sex is NOT bad.  God created it.  Enjoyed
in the context God created it to be experienced, it
is wonderful.

You see my friend, God gave us each free will.  We
can choose to do it our way and deal with the
consequences of our rebellion, or do it God's way
and know the blessings of obeying Him.   Often, the
blessings we seek in this life are there for us, if
we will simply be faithful and obedient.  We hold
the key to many of our blessings by simply being
obedient and doing it God's way, instead of rebelling
and trying to do it our way.

I love you, and care about you very much.  I know
this is a difficult issue for many of you, and
many are in the midst of struggling with it right
now.  God's timing is always perfect, and it is NO
ACCIDENT you are reading these words today.  God is
clearly speaking to you.  Again, it is your choice.
I can assure you that as long as you live in
disobedience, in rebellion, continue to sin in this
area, you will continue to struggle, have to deal
with the various consequences of this sinful
activity, and it will keep you from the close,
intimate, daily relationship with Christ He wants to
have with you.

I will be praying for you today.  Friends with
benefits is simply the same old lie from satan with
a new name.  I know for many this is a major
bondage in your life.  With the strength God can
provide and making it a priority, you can overcome
it and see victory.  From my own life I can tell you
this.  If you listen to God, do it His way, it not
only works, but it is incredible.  Why settle for
the scraps this world offers, when we can enjoy
the feast our God has prepared for us.

There is a "friend with benefits" whose name is JESUS.
The benefits are the forgiveness of your sins and life
everlasting.  He is a TRUE friend, with eternal benefits!

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