Seize and Maintain the Joy of Jesus!

Good morning, Happy Souls!

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

In the worst of times, Jesus is there to guide and
comfort us.  The Holy Spirit is also with us to direct
us.  After we die, Jesus will take us to God if we are
saved.  No matter what our troubles, we should feel
all of the joy that we have from our Holy connections!

Please read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL   SATURDAY APRIL 22, 2006
( Psalms 16:11, 126:5, Isaiah 12:3, Romans 14:17,
John 16:33 )

Don't let anyone or anything steal your JOY!   I realize
that as many of you wake up and read this message today,
you have allowed people or the circumstances in your life
to steal your joy.  DON'T LET ANYONE OR ANYTHING STEAL
YOUR JOY!!!  If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior, you have the assurance that when this brief
journey here is over you will be forever with the Lord. 
That fact alone is the reason you should always have joy.

Do you know how many people are waking up this morning who
will die and spend eternity in hell because they have
rejected Jesus Christ?  Many of those people have been
deceived into following a false religion, many have simply
chosen to live their lives acting like God doesn't exist,
and sadly, many simply don't care.  Let me assure you that
no matter how deeply someone believes in a false religion,
how great the material possessions a person may have,
without knowing Jesus Christ by faith there can be no real
joy in this life.

People choose to live every day without Christ and deal
with the trials and tribulations of life on their own. 
Deep down they know something is missing.  Deep down they
know there has to be more to this life.  No matter how
wonderful your family may be, no matter how much wealth you
can amass, no matter how successful you may become, the
fact is living your life without Christ leaves you empty
and void of true joy.

This is a simple yet very profound message for you today. 
Don't let anyone or anything steal your joy.  No matter
how much someone you care about may hurt you, you can still
have joy.  No matter what someone you work with or go to
school with does to you, you can still have joy.  If you
are fighting a health battle today, you can still have
joy.  If you are hurting financially, you can still have
joy.  If your marriage is in trouble, you can still have
joy.  If you need a job, you can still have joy.  If you
are battling an addiction, you can still have joy.  DON'T
LET ANY PERSON OR ANY CIRCUMSTANCE STEAL YOUR JOY!

I love you and care about you so much.  I realize many of
you are dealing with serious issues with people in your
life today.  I am fully aware that many of you are
fighting great battles in your life today.  The message
that I want you to hear loud and clear is that no person
or no circumstance can take away your joy.  That joy
comes from the promise Jesus gave His disciples and us
just a few hours before His death.  He said that in
this world we would have trials and tribulations, but to
be of good cheer, for HE HAS OVERCOME THIS WORLD.

That my friend is where our joy comes from.  From that
precious promise that no matter who or what may be going
on in our life, because we know Jesus Christ by faith, we
not only have the assurance of eternity with Him, but the
promise of His strength, His peace, and HIS JOY during
this brief journey!  Because you know Jesus, you have the
Holy Spirit that supplies you with God's power.  Because
you know Jesus, you have the peace that passes all human
understanding.  Because you know Jesus, you have
unspeakable JOY!

I will be praying for you today.  As a child of God, a
follower of Jesus Christ, that joy is yours always.  It
is like if someone gives you a car and adds on a top of
the line stereo system.  If you don't play that stereo
system it is YOUR FAULT.  If you don't have the joy of
the Lord in your life today, it is YOUR FAULT.  For
those who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior you
should always have joy in your life.  Don't ever let
anyone or anything steal your joy!!!

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

Use the Bible as a Prayer Guide for Responding to the News

Good morning, Happy Souls!

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

Some terrible event occurs in the news.  What should
be our response in prayers? 

Please read on for some examples from current events.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL   FRIDAY APRIL 21, 2006
( 1 Corinthians 10:11, Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 2:2,
Psalms 119:105 )

Applying God's Word to the real world we live in.  We read
the Bible, we hear our pastor preach from the Word of God,
we study the Scriptures to know how to live and what God
expects from us, yet every day we see things happening in
the world around us and need to understand them in the
context of God's Word.  God's Word is applicable to
everything that happens in life.  As a Christian, it is
imperative that we look at the events that happen in our
world as well as in our life through the filter of the
Bible.  After all, the Bible is God's inspired, inerrant
Word, representing Absolute Truth and our final authority
in ALL matters.

In today's headlines, some of the top stories are the war
in Iraq, oil over $70 a barrel and gas prices at $3 and
rising, and the 2 Duke lacrosse players who have been
charged with raping a stripper at a party.  You may look
at these simply as financial, energy, legal, political,
and national security stories, but each one is also
relevant from a Biblical standpoint.  While we watch the
events in our world unfold, we should always look at what
is happening around us in the context of the Bible. 
Again, God's Word is our final authority in ALL matters.

The ongoing war in Iraq is about our national security,
even though many do their best to politicize it.  I have
dealt in previous Devotionals on the Biblical case for
war, and the Word of God clearly supports our nation's
right to defend itself from those who would seek to
destroy it.  In the context of God's Word, we have brave
men and women sacrificing their lives, even unto death,
defending this nation by confronting head on those whose
agenda is the destruction of the United States and the
death of each one who lives here while bringing freedom
and democracy to the oppressed people of Iraq.

We need to pray for President Bush, Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld, and all of those in leadership who have to make
the difficult decisions each day regarding the war in
Iraq.  We need to pray for our brave men and women who are
serving our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as
those serving throughout the world and here at home.  We
pray for their protection, for God to watch over them, and
to bring them back to their family and loved ones quickly. 
We also pray for the families of our service men and
women since they are making a great sacrifice as well.  May
God bring peace to Iraq and allow those who seek the
destruction of our nation to be defeated.

Oil being at record highs and gas prices are over $3 a
gallon, possibly on their way to $4 a gallon, is a
financial and energy story.  Where does the Bible fit into
this one?  It can come into play in many areas of this
issue, but primarily it is about God's provision.  God
knows you need gas for your cars, and that energy prices
have an impact on every area of the economy that
ultimately is paid for by the consumer.  It is in these
times of financial pressure that we must rely on the Lord
to provide for our needs.

We need to pray for those who are in control of the
world's oil supply to recognize the responsibility they
have to market their product at a fair price.  We need to
also pray for Got to give men and women wisdom from on
High to develop new energy sources that will help meet
the world's growing demand at reasonable prices.  While we
feel the pressure of rising gas prices here in the United
States, in some countries those prices are 3-4x as high,
and in other nations, there is simply not enough energy at
any price to meet the needs of the people.  May God help
us all to be good stewards of the resources He has
provided.

The sad story out of Durham, North Carolina involving the
allegations that a stripper was raped by members of the
Duke University lacrosse team is a legal and moral issue
that also has the elements of race, politics, and
economic status.  From a legal standpoint, the DA has
indicted two of the Duke players for the rape and
kidnapping of this young woman.  You have both sides
putting our their version of what happened and
eventually this case will go before a jury where the
evidence will be presented, cross examined, and the truth
of what happened or didn't happen that night will come
out.  Until that time, nobody can know for certain what
really transpired on that fateful night.

What we do know, however, is that if all involved were
following God's Word, this sad event that will scar their
lives regardless the legal outcome would have never
happened.  First, there is absolutely no legitimate
reason for a woman to ever sell her body for money.  I
deal every day with single moms who go to school, work,
and make great sacrifices without prostituting themselves. 
Second, the mentality that it is OK for young men to hire
a stripper to entertain them is straight from the pits of
hell itself.  Lusting after a woman you are not married to
is called a sin in the Bible, and sin always costs.  The
argument that these are just college boys having some fun
is as weak as the argument that it is OK for a women to
strip to earn extra money.

On top of these clear moral issues, we also have the
element of politics, race and economic status that are in
play.  The DA involved is up for re-election in a month,
the accuser in this case is black while the young men are
white, and you have the affluence of Duke University versus
the lack of resources in the area surrounding the campus. 
Satan's tried and true tactics of personal gain and
division are alive and well in this sad story. The Bible
calls for men and women in public service to be above
reproach.  The Bible says that ALL men are created in the
image of God.  The Bible tells us that God is no
respecter of persons and we all have immeasurable worth
to God regardless of the balance in our bank account.

Let's pray for this woman who has made these charges to
find the Lord's strength through all of this, that God
will help her to value herself enough to never go back to
selling her body for money, and that He will open doors
to provide for her and her children.  Let's pray for
these students who have been charged that they will seek
the Lord through this ordeal and this will cause them to
fully surrender there lives to Him.  We need to pray that
through the legal process the truth will be told and that
those who have committed a crime will be punished for what
they have done and those who are innocent will be
exonerated.  Let us also pray for the DA to put his
service to the community above his personal goals, and for
the Durham community to not allow satan to use this
incident to cause any more division between those of
different races and socio-economic backgrounds.  Let God
bring UNITY in a situation satan wants to use to bring
division!

I love you and care about you so much.  I hope these
examples help you see how the Word of God is not
irrelevant to our lives each day, but very RELEVANT!  The
fact is, God's Word doesn't just apply to all of the
events that happen in our world each day, it also applies
to all the events that happen in YOUR LIFE each day! 
Everything that happens in your life can be looked at
through the filter of God's Word.  Everything that
happens in your life each day MUST be looked at through
the filter of God's Word!

That is my word for you today.  You have got to start
putting your life in the context of God's Word.  You see,
it is the Bible that is our guide through life.  The Bible
is the only Truth there is.  That is why it is imperative
to look at everything going on in your life each day
through the lens of God's Word.  It is His Word that
guides us in the decisions that we have to make throughout
our journey through this life.  It is His Word that helps
us to know the mind of God on any of the issues that we
face.  That is why it is co critical to be in the Word of
God each day, reading and studying what God says so we
know how respond and act no matter what life throws our
way.

I will be praying for you today.  Praying that God will
open your heart today to hear this important word for your
life.  Start applying God's Word to the events you see
unfolding each day throughout our world, and most
important, start applying God's Word to the events you see
each day in your very 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

Work with God to Clean Up the Consequences of Your Sin

Good morning, Happy Souls!

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

Most people find themselves not only sinning, but ending
up with bad consequences from those sins.  I know that I
have.

If you ask for it, God will forgive you.  But then how do
you clean up the mess?

Please read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL   WEDNESDAY APRIL 19, 2006
( Matthew 26:41, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 John 4:4  )

"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.
The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
Matthew 26:41 (NIV)

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond
what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)

Satan is out to get YOU!  I know yesterday's Devotional on
falling off the wagon was a "heavy" and very personal word
that applied to everyone who read it.  Some days it is
easy to dismiss what you read in the Devotional since it
doesn't directly apply to your life at that moment.  That
is a key point of this Devotional today.  Satan is out to
get YOU and you will be shocked at how he will try to
accomplish that, and even more shocked when you wake up
one morning and find yourself in one of his traps that you
never dreamed you would be in.

Every day I read emails from people that start out, "I can't
believe I am in this situation."  Sin is so subtle, can
start out so innocently.  I don't know how many people we
deal with each day who became addicted to pain killers after
using them legally under the supervision of a doctor.  We
deal daily with people who let a few glasses of wine with
dinner enslave them to alcohol.  Often I hear from dear
people who went to play the slot machines at a local
casino for a night of "fun," and have now destroyed their
finances due to gambling.

Over and over I hear of work friendships that turn into
adulterous affairs.  Sadly, I deal too often with pastors
and men and women in the ministry who allowed themselves
to get too close, too emotionally involved in the life of
someone of the opposite sex, and it ended up destroying
their marriage and their work for God.

Please hear me today when I tell you to NEVER, EVER, think
you are above falling into any type of sin.  Just because
you may not have a propensity towards drugs and could never
see yourself in that bondage, doesn't mean one day you
won't.  Just because you don't have a propensity to drink
and could never see yourself bound by alcohol, doesn't mean
one day you won't.  Just because you love your wife or
husband and could never imagine in your wildest dreams
having an affair, doesn't mean one day you won't.

The point is, NEVER, EVER feel you are above any sin,
because you are not.  In most cases, it is those areas of
your life that you feel you are the strongest where you
are most likely to fall!

Perhaps quicksand is the best example of what it is like
to be in one of satan's traps.  You sink, slowly to your
death in quicksand.  If you try to get out by yourself,
it only pulls you in deeper.  That is exactly what it is
like when you wake up one morning and find yourself in
sin.  For some of you, your quicksand may be drugs,
alcohol, gambling, shopping, food, or any of a number of
other addictions.  For others, your quicksand may be a
sexual sin.  For still others, your quicksand may be
greed and the lust of things this world has to offer.
Regardless of what your quicksand may be, the question
now is how do you get out?

The first step is to realize that you are in a situation
that on your own you can't get out of.  If you were
strong enough to get out, you wouldn't have fallen into
this trap in the first place.  So now is the time you
have to humble yourself before the Lord and come to Him
for help.  That begins with repentance and asking the Lord
to forgive you.  I'm not talking about that "I'm sorry I
got caught" type of repentance either.  But having a
real, broken and contrite heart for sinning against the
Lord and seeking His forgiveness for your sins.  He knows
your heart and He knows if you are sincere or just trying
to use Him to get out of the trouble you are in.

The second step is to fully surrender yourself to the
Lord and submit yourself to whatever His plan is for
getting you out of the quicksand.  We all want God to
come swinging down out of the trees like Tarzan in the
movies, grabbing our outstretched hand and pull us out
of the quicksand, placing us on solid land.  He may do
it that way too.  He also may take us out the slow way
as well.  We may have to stay in that quicksand for a
while, simply being sustained by His grace and mercy.
You are in no position to tell God how to rescue you,
just be thankful that if you surrender to Him, He will.

Never forget that there are ALWAYS consequences for our
actions.  Once we are out of the quicksand, it is very
possible that we will have to deal with the consequences
of our choice to rebel against the Lord.  The key is,
Christ is our ONLY hope to get out of the quicksand and
to eventually get our lives back on track where they need
to be.  We must surrender ourselves completely to Him and
know that it will only be His grace and mercy that will
see us through whatever we have to face in that process.

The third step is that time of restoration.  After we have
fallen, been rescued, we now need to have our relationship
with the Lord restored.  No doubt one of the greatest
examples of this process is Peter being restored by our
Lord after he denied Jesus on the night He was taken in
the Garden of Gethsemane.  (Note: Peter is a perfect
example of a man who fell into a sin he would have never
expected to.  Denying Christ is probably the last sin
Peter ever expected to commit, proving my earlier point
how we are immune to NO sin.)

The restoration of Peter is a powerful and encouraging
message that even if you have failed the Lord, sinned
against Him, He is ready to forgive you and restore you
to fellowship.  The Peter we read about in the Book of
Acts after being restored by Jesus, is a powerful and bold
man of faith who helped to lead the early church.

I love you and care about you so much.  I realize that the
Devotional on Tuesday and this one today are not easy to
read.  I realize that it has caused many of you to
literally break down in tears as you were reading these
words, knowing that God Himself was speaking to you.
Listen my friend, He loves you!  He loves you more than you
will ever know.  God is there to try and protect you from
satan and his traps.  But you do have free will, and in
exercising your free will you can choose to obey the Lord
or rebel against Him.

Satan does not play by any rules and is out to destroy
you.  He will use whatever tricks and traps he can to
accomplish that.  That is why as I stated yesterday you
must stay close to the Lord each day thru the Word and
prayer, stay busy, especially finding ways to serve the
Lord so that you aren't as likely to dwell on your flesh
and the allure of this world.  The message today is that
you are not above ANY type of sin, so you must always
be on guard and don't ever think you are immune from
being tempted by the evil one.

We all sin, we all fail God at times.  The key is if you
wake up one morning and find yourself in the quicksand,
realize you can't get out without the Lord's help.
Humble yourself before Him and submit to His plan in
getting you out.  Lastly, allow Jesus to restore you to
fellowship.  Failure does not mean you are finished.  Often
your greatest works for the Lord come AFTER you have failed
and have been restored to His fellowship.

Satan is out to get YOU.  However, I want to leave you
today with that powerful promise we have in God's word,
"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome
them, because the one who is in you is greater than
the one who is in the world."  1 John 4:4 (NIV)  AMEN!!!

Thank you for your love, prayers, and support of all God
is doing each and every day here at Liveprayer.  It is
friends like you that make all we do each day for so
many possible.  May the Lord's richest blessings be
upon you and your family as you faithfully serve and
follow HIM.

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

Work with God to Clean Up the Consequences of Your Sin

Good morning, Happy Souls!

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

Most people find themselves not only sinning, but ending
up with bad consequences from those sins.  I know that I
have.

If you ask for it, God will forgive you.  But then how do
you clean up the mess?

Please read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL   WEDNESDAY APRIL 19, 2006
( Matthew 26:41, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 John 4:4  )

"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.
The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
Matthew 26:41 (NIV)

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond
what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)

Satan is out to get YOU!  I know yesterday's Devotional on
falling off the wagon was a "heavy" and very personal word
that applied to everyone who read it.  Some days it is
easy to dismiss what you read in the Devotional since it
doesn't directly apply to your life at that moment.  That
is a key point of this Devotional today.  Satan is out to
get YOU and you will be shocked at how he will try to
accomplish that, and even more shocked when you wake up
one morning and find yourself in one of his traps that you
never dreamed you would be in.

Every day I read emails from people that start out, "I can't
believe I am in this situation."  Sin is so subtle, can
start out so innocently.  I don't know how many people we
deal with each day who became addicted to pain killers after
using them legally under the supervision of a doctor.  We
deal daily with people who let a few glasses of wine with
dinner enslave them to alcohol.  Often I hear from dear
people who went to play the slot machines at a local
casino for a night of "fun," and have now destroyed their
finances due to gambling.

Over and over I hear of work friendships that turn into
adulterous affairs.  Sadly, I deal too often with pastors
and men and women in the ministry who allowed themselves
to get too close, too emotionally involved in the life of
someone of the opposite sex, and it ended up destroying
their marriage and their work for God.

Please hear me today when I tell you to NEVER, EVER, think
you are above falling into any type of sin.  Just because
you may not have a propensity towards drugs and could never
see yourself in that bondage, doesn't mean one day you
won't.  Just because you don't have a propensity to drink
and could never see yourself bound by alcohol, doesn't mean
one day you won't.  Just because you love your wife or
husband and could never imagine in your wildest dreams
having an affair, doesn't mean one day you won't.

The point is, NEVER, EVER feel you are above any sin,
because you are not.  In most cases, it is those areas of
your life that you feel you are the strongest where you
are most likely to fall!

Perhaps quicksand is the best example of what it is like
to be in one of satan's traps.  You sink, slowly to your
death in quicksand.  If you try to get out by yourself,
it only pulls you in deeper.  That is exactly what it is
like when you wake up one morning and find yourself in
sin.  For some of you, your quicksand may be drugs,
alcohol, gambling, shopping, food, or any of a number of
other addictions.  For others, your quicksand may be a
sexual sin.  For still others, your quicksand may be
greed and the lust of things this world has to offer.
Regardless of what your quicksand may be, the question
now is how do you get out?

The first step is to realize that you are in a situation
that on your own you can't get out of.  If you were
strong enough to get out, you wouldn't have fallen into
this trap in the first place.  So now is the time you
have to humble yourself before the Lord and come to Him
for help.  That begins with repentance and asking the Lord
to forgive you.  I'm not talking about that "I'm sorry I
got caught" type of repentance either.  But having a
real, broken and contrite heart for sinning against the
Lord and seeking His forgiveness for your sins.  He knows
your heart and He knows if you are sincere or just trying
to use Him to get out of the trouble you are in.

The second step is to fully surrender yourself to the
Lord and submit yourself to whatever His plan is for
getting you out of the quicksand.  We all want God to
come swinging down out of the trees like Tarzan in the
movies, grabbing our outstretched hand and pull us out
of the quicksand, placing us on solid land.  He may do
it that way too.  He also may take us out the slow way
as well.  We may have to stay in that quicksand for a
while, simply being sustained by His grace and mercy.
You are in no position to tell God how to rescue you,
just be thankful that if you surrender to Him, He will.

Never forget that there are ALWAYS consequences for our
actions.  Once we are out of the quicksand, it is very
possible that we will have to deal with the consequences
of our choice to rebel against the Lord.  The key is,
Christ is our ONLY hope to get out of the quicksand and
to eventually get our lives back on track where they need
to be.  We must surrender ourselves completely to Him and
know that it will only be His grace and mercy that will
see us through whatever we have to face in that process.

The third step is that time of restoration.  After we have
fallen, been rescued, we now need to have our relationship
with the Lord restored.  No doubt one of the greatest
examples of this process is Peter being restored by our
Lord after he denied Jesus on the night He was taken in
the Garden of Gethsemane.  (Note: Peter is a perfect
example of a man who fell into a sin he would have never
expected to.  Denying Christ is probably the last sin
Peter ever expected to commit, proving my earlier point
how we are immune to NO sin.)

The restoration of Peter is a powerful and encouraging
message that even if you have failed the Lord, sinned
against Him, He is ready to forgive you and restore you
to fellowship.  The Peter we read about in the Book of
Acts after being restored by Jesus, is a powerful and bold
man of faith who helped to lead the early church.

I love you and care about you so much.  I realize that the
Devotional on Tuesday and this one today are not easy to
read.  I realize that it has caused many of you to
literally break down in tears as you were reading these
words, knowing that God Himself was speaking to you.
Listen my friend, He loves you!  He loves you more than you
will ever know.  God is there to try and protect you from
satan and his traps.  But you do have free will, and in
exercising your free will you can choose to obey the Lord
or rebel against Him.

Satan does not play by any rules and is out to destroy
you.  He will use whatever tricks and traps he can to
accomplish that.  That is why as I stated yesterday you
must stay close to the Lord each day thru the Word and
prayer, stay busy, especially finding ways to serve the
Lord so that you aren't as likely to dwell on your flesh
and the allure of this world.  The message today is that
you are not above ANY type of sin, so you must always
be on guard and don't ever think you are immune from
being tempted by the evil one.

We all sin, we all fail God at times.  The key is if you
wake up one morning and find yourself in the quicksand,
realize you can't get out without the Lord's help.
Humble yourself before Him and submit to His plan in
getting you out.  Lastly, allow Jesus to restore you to
fellowship.  Failure does not mean you are finished.  Often
your greatest works for the Lord come AFTER you have failed
and have been restored to His fellowship.

Satan is out to get YOU.  However, I want to leave you
today with that powerful promise we have in God's word,
"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome
them, because the one who is in you is greater than
the one who is in the world."  1 John 4:4 (NIV)  AMEN!!!

Thank you for your love, prayers, and support of all God
is doing each and every day here at Liveprayer.  It is
friends like you that make all we do each day for so
many possible.  May the Lord's richest blessings be
upon you and your family as you faithfully serve and
follow HIM.

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

Work with God to Clean Up the Consequences of Your Sin

Good morning, Happy Souls!

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

Most people find themselves not only sinning, but ending
up with bad consequences from those sins.  I know that I
have.

If you ask for it, God will forgive you.  But then how do
you clean up the mess?

Please read on.

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

DAILY DEVOTIONAL   WEDNESDAY APRIL 19, 2006
( Matthew 26:41, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 John 4:4  )

"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.
The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
Matthew 26:41 (NIV)

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond
what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)

Satan is out to get YOU!  I know yesterday's Devotional on
falling off the wagon was a "heavy" and very personal word
that applied to everyone who read it.  Some days it is
easy to dismiss what you read in the Devotional since it
doesn't directly apply to your life at that moment.  That
is a key point of this Devotional today.  Satan is out to
get YOU and you will be shocked at how he will try to
accomplish that, and even more shocked when you wake up
one morning and find yourself in one of his traps that you
never dreamed you would be in.

Every day I read emails from people that start out, "I can't
believe I am in this situation."  Sin is so subtle, can
start out so innocently.  I don't know how many people we
deal with each day who became addicted to pain killers after
using them legally under the supervision of a doctor.  We
deal daily with people who let a few glasses of wine with
dinner enslave them to alcohol.  Often I hear from dear
people who went to play the slot machines at a local
casino for a night of "fun," and have now destroyed their
finances due to gambling.

Over and over I hear of work friendships that turn into
adulterous affairs.  Sadly, I deal too often with pastors
and men and women in the ministry who allowed themselves
to get too close, too emotionally involved in the life of
someone of the opposite sex, and it ended up destroying
their marriage and their work for God.

Please hear me today when I tell you to NEVER, EVER, think
you are above falling into any type of sin.  Just because
you may not have a propensity towards drugs and could never
see yourself in that bondage, doesn't mean one day you
won't.  Just because you don't have a propensity to drink
and could never see yourself bound by alcohol, doesn't mean
one day you won't.  Just because you love your wife or
husband and could never imagine in your wildest dreams
having an affair, doesn't mean one day you won't.

The point is, NEVER, EVER feel you are above any sin,
because you are not.  In most cases, it is those areas of
your life that you feel you are the strongest where you
are most likely to fall!

Perhaps quicksand is the best example of what it is like
to be in one of satan's traps.  You sink, slowly to your
death in quicksand.  If you try to get out by yourself,
it only pulls you in deeper.  That is exactly what it is
like when you wake up one morning and find yourself in
sin.  For some of you, your quicksand may be drugs,
alcohol, gambling, shopping, food, or any of a number of
other addictions.  For others, your quicksand may be a
sexual sin.  For still others, your quicksand may be
greed and the lust of things this world has to offer.
Regardless of what your quicksand may be, the question
now is how do you get out?

The first step is to realize that you are in a situation
that on your own you can't get out of.  If you were
strong enough to get out, you wouldn't have fallen into
this trap in the first place.  So now is the time you
have to humble yourself before the Lord and come to Him
for help.  That begins with repentance and asking the Lord
to forgive you.  I'm not talking about that "I'm sorry I
got caught" type of repentance either.  But having a
real, broken and contrite heart for sinning against the
Lord and seeking His forgiveness for your sins.  He knows
your heart and He knows if you are sincere or just trying
to use Him to get out of the trouble you are in.

The second step is to fully surrender yourself to the
Lord and submit yourself to whatever His plan is for
getting you out of the quicksand.  We all want God to
come swinging down out of the trees like Tarzan in the
movies, grabbing our outstretched hand and pull us out
of the quicksand, placing us on solid land.  He may do
it that way too.  He also may take us out the slow way
as well.  We may have to stay in that quicksand for a
while, simply being sustained by His grace and mercy.
You are in no position to tell God how to rescue you,
just be thankful that if you surrender to Him, He will.

Never forget that there are ALWAYS consequences for our
actions.  Once we are out of the quicksand, it is very
possible that we will have to deal with the consequences
of our choice to rebel against the Lord.  The key is,
Christ is our ONLY hope to get out of the quicksand and
to eventually get our lives back on track where they need
to be.  We must surrender ourselves completely to Him and
know that it will only be His grace and mercy that will
see us through whatever we have to face in that process.

The third step is that time of restoration.  After we have
fallen, been rescued, we now need to have our relationship
with the Lord restored.  No doubt one of the greatest
examples of this process is Peter being restored by our
Lord after he denied Jesus on the night He was taken in
the Garden of Gethsemane.  (Note: Peter is a perfect
example of a man who fell into a sin he would have never
expected to.  Denying Christ is probably the last sin
Peter ever expected to commit, proving my earlier point
how we are immune to NO sin.)

The restoration of Peter is a powerful and encouraging
message that even if you have failed the Lord, sinned
against Him, He is ready to forgive you and restore you
to fellowship.  The Peter we read about in the Book of
Acts after being restored by Jesus, is a powerful and bold
man of faith who helped to lead the early church.

I love you and care about you so much.  I realize that the
Devotional on Tuesday and this one today are not easy to
read.  I realize that it has caused many of you to
literally break down in tears as you were reading these
words, knowing that God Himself was speaking to you.
Listen my friend, He loves you!  He loves you more than you
will ever know.  God is there to try and protect you from
satan and his traps.  But you do have free will, and in
exercising your free will you can choose to obey the Lord
or rebel against Him.

Satan does not play by any rules and is out to destroy
you.  He will use whatever tricks and traps he can to
accomplish that.  That is why as I stated yesterday you
must stay close to the Lord each day thru the Word and
prayer, stay busy, especially finding ways to serve the
Lord so that you aren't as likely to dwell on your flesh
and the allure of this world.  The message today is that
you are not above ANY type of sin, so you must always
be on guard and don't ever think you are immune from
being tempted by the evil one.

We all sin, we all fail God at times.  The key is if you
wake up one morning and find yourself in the quicksand,
realize you can't get out without the Lord's help.
Humble yourself before Him and submit to His plan in
getting you out.  Lastly, allow Jesus to restore you to
fellowship.  Failure does not mean you are finished.  Often
your greatest works for the Lord come AFTER you have failed
and have been restored to His fellowship.

Satan is out to get YOU.  However, I want to leave you
today with that powerful promise we have in God's word,
"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome
them, because the one who is in you is greater than
the one who is in the world."  1 John 4:4 (NIV)  AMEN!!!

Thank you for your love, prayers, and support of all God
is doing each and every day here at Liveprayer.  It is
friends like you that make all we do each day for so
many possible.  May the Lord's richest blessings be
upon you and your family as you faithfully serve and
follow HIM.

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

What to Do When You Fail in a Promise to God

Good morning, Happy Souls!

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

Do you ever fail in your promises to God? 

What should you do when that occurs?

Please read on.

*********************************************
DAILY DEVOTIONAL   TUESDAY APRIL 18, 2006
( 1 Corinthians 10:12  )

"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall." ( 1 Corinthians 10:12)

Falling off the wagon.  You have a battle with alcohol
and promise the Lord you will stop drinking, 12 days later
you drink.   You have a battle with prescription drugs and
promise the Lord you will quit, 4 days later you take some
more.  You have a battle with pornography and vow to the
Lord you won't look at porn any more, 17 days later you are
looking at porn.  You have a battle with your weight and
tell the Lord no more sweets, 2 nights later you are
sitting at your kitchen table eating a quart of Haagen
Dazs.  You have a battle with smoking and finally tell the
Lord you won't smoke again, 24 days later you are having a
cigarette.  What do you do when you decide once and for
all to take a stand over whatever bondage you may be
battling in your life, to start living in victory over that
bondage, and then fall off the wagon?

When you fall off the wagon, you feel like a failure.  You
are consumed with guilt and shame.  You can't believe after
you did so good you fell.  You are disgusted with yourself
for being so weak.  You know in your heart you not only let
the Lord down, but broke your promise to Him.  On top of
all of those feelings and emotions, here comes your old
buddy the devil to pour salt in the fresh wound.  He
reemphasizes what a failure you are, how you lied to Jesus
and now He wants nothing to do with you, that whatever
goes wrong in your life is God punishing you for falling,
how the Bible is lie otherwise you would have been
delivered from this bondage, that it is OK to give in to
your carnal urges, God really doesn't expect you to be
perfect, and oh yes the best of all, you aren't really
saved or you wouldn't sin like that.

WOW, are you still with me or did you stop reading and
delete this already?  The fact is, EVERYONE needs to hang
in there and get through this message today since
EVERYONE has bondages that we fight throughout the course
of our life.  Just so you know, lying is as much of a
bondage as drugs.  Gossiping is as much of a bondage as
homosexuality.  Anger is as much of a bondage as alcohol. 
Being mean to people is as much of a bondage as
pornography.  The fact is, we all have bondages in our
life.  Some people may not be fighting the more visible
and popular bondages, but anything that is keeping you
from being like Jesus and living in obedience to God's
Word is a bondage!

Since we all fight different bondages during our life, it
is critical to talk about what happens when we fall off
the wagon or fail since that is part of the battle.  Let
me say right up front, when you fail it doesn't mean you
don't love the Lord or aren't really saved, it simply
means your flesh is weak.  Paul summed up this classic
battle between our flesh and the Spirit  in Romans 7 when
he stated that, "He did the things he didn't want to do
and didn't do the things he wanted to do."  My friend, we
are men and women of flesh and blood.  Our flesh is weak. 
Failure is part of the human experience.

Does that make is OK to sin?  OF COURSE NOT!  Is it an
excuse to sin?  OF COURSE NOT!  Does it mean we are
doomed to failure?  OF COURSE NOT!  It simply means that
in the course of battling with whatever bondage you may
be dealing with, you may have a moment of weakness and
fail God.  What I want to do today is share with you how
to respond to your failure.  What do you do when you
fall off the wagon?

The first thing you do is go to God and ask Him to forgive
you.  1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins, He
is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all
unrighteousness.  After you go to God and confess your
sins, asking Him to forgive you, the next step is to go
back to living in victory over your bondage as you were
before you fell.  It is the old adage of when you fall
off a horse get right back on.  Don't ever forget, you
have an enemy that wants to see you fail, that takes
delight when you fail.  If you do fall off the wagon, ask
the Lord's forgiveness and then get right back to living
in victory and freedom over your bondage.

This is where your faith has to take over and becomes so
important.  You have to realize that even though your
bondage is in the natural, what you are really fighting
is a spiritual battle.  While you need to have the
practical day-to-day pieces in place to live in victory,
things like being accountable to others, staying away
from people, places, or things that could cause you to
fall, working hard to keep from being in a position to be
tempted, you also have to work on the spiritual aspects
of walking in victory.  The Bible tells us that our battles
are NOT against flesh and blood, but they are spiritual.

That is why we have to be praying every day, all
throughout the day.  We have to be in the Word of God
every day, taking time to study and meditate on His Truth. 
We have to be part of a local church to be fed and grow
spiritually, to have fellowship with other Believers, to
serve the Lord. These are the basics we have to be doing
to stay connected to the Lord each day and stay strong
spiritually.  We already know our flesh is weak, so we
can never lose sight that it is a constant daily battle
to live in victory.  We can never take for granted that
we have won and are safe, since the second we stop doing
the things necessary to keep our faith strong, that is
when we will fall.

Today's anchor verse from 1 Corinthians is the key.  We
can never stop doing the things we must do to stay strong
spiritually or we will fail God.  I know in my own life
as I have worked to overcome different bondages in my
life, to try to become more like Jesus each day, when I
am not praying as hard as I should, or when I am not
reading and studying the Word like I should, or when I am
not doing all the things to stay strong spiritually that
I should, that is when I fail God.  When you stop doing
all the things you need to do each day to stay strong
spiritually, that is when you will fall off the wagon.

I love you and care about you so much.  Everyone reading
these words today knows what it is like to fight some
bondage in your life, get victory for a period of time,
then fail.  That is part of life my friend.  The Book
of First John was written to Believers and tells us that
if we say we don't sin then we are a liar.  God doesn't
stop loving you or caring about you.  His promises didn't
change, they are still true.  YOU ARE MORE THAN A
CONQUEROR IN CHRIST JESUS!  My word for you today is that
when you are in the battle over some bondage in your life
and fall off the wagon, go to God and tell Him you are
sorry and then get back on that road to victory!

Don't waste precious time having a pity party and being
discouraged.  Don't sit there and listen to satan lie to
you.  Get back to doing the practical and spiritual things
you need to do in your life each day and start enjoying
the great feeling it is to live your life in obedience to
God and His Word and in victory over those weaknesses in
your life.  God has much work for you to do, so the
quicker you get back to walking on the road of victory,
the quicker you can get back to fulfilling your purpose in
this life which is to serve and glorify Him!

I will be praying for you today.  Praying especially for
those who have fallen off the wagon.  God is a God of
restoration and He wants to restore you today so that you
can not only live in victory over your bondage, but know
the peace and joy of your relationship with Him.  We all
wish we could go back and do things different in our life
but that is not reality.  The reality is if you have
fallen off the wagon it is time to get up, dust yourself
off, and get back into that close, intimate daily walk
with the Lord so that you are operating in His strenght
and not your own.  In your strength it is only a matter of
time before you fail.  In His strength, you will not fail
but live in VICTORY!!!

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