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DAILY DEVOTIONAL FRIDAY MAY 30, 2003
( Matthew 6:24, 12:30, Mark 9:40 )
***Become a LIVEPRAYER.COM DAILY SPONSOR AT:
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***AFTER WRITING THIS DEVOTIONAL EVERY DAY FOR 44 MONTHS NOW, THIS
IS BY FAR ONE OF THE BEST, SPIRIT-LED DEVOTIONALS THAT I HAVE EVER
WRITTEN IN REGARD TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. YOU SHOULD FORWARD TO
EVERYONE THAT YOU KNOW. FIND WAYS TO GET IT POSTED ON YOUR CHURCH
BULLETIN BOARD, AT THE WATER COOLER WHERE YOU WORK, EVERYWHERE
THAT YOU POSSIBLY CAN. EITHER GOD IS REAL...OR HE IS NOT!!!
Either God is real, or He is not! One of the things that has greatly
troubled me recently, is the number of people who say that they believe in
God, say that they are a Christian, yet have no problem supporting choices
that are clearly defined in God's Word as sin. My friend, Jesus said it
best when He said that "no man can serve two masters". The Christian faith
is not a smorgasbord where you can pick and choose what you like. You can't
claim to have faith in Christ, yet support the things that the Bible speaks
against. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CHRISTIAN MODERATE to
borrow a political term. Either God is real, or He is not.
Let me first clarify what a Christian is. A Christian is a person who has
made the personal choice to repent of their sins and ask Jesus into their
heart by faith (John 3:16, Romans 10:10, Ephesians 2:8,9). It is your
personal faith in Christ that makes you a Christian. The church you belong
to cannot save you. Having a priest or pastor baptize you when you were a
baby did not save you. Living a good life does not save you. The fact
that your parents are Christians cannot save you. Only making the choice
to repent of your sins and ask Christ into your heart makes you a Christian.
***If this is something that you have never done, the Bible says that TODAY
is the day of salvation. Pray, ask God to open your heart, then click on
this link and read what is written:
www.liveprayer.com/SPlan.html God has
made it so easy, but it is a choice that only YOU can make.
Once you have gotten to this point, the next step is that you MUST accept
the Bible as God's inspired, inerrant Word. ***It is IMPOSSIBLE to be a
Christian and not accept the Bible as God's Word. You see, to come to
Christ by faith, you have accepted that this is God's plan to give His
creation, which is separated from Him because of their sin, a way to come
back into His everlasting fellowship. This is God's ONLY plan!
That is why faith in Buddha will not save you. That is why faith in
Muhammad will not save you. That is why faith in a golden statue will not
save you. It is ONLY faith in Jesus Christ that saves you because it was
Jesus Christ
who God sent to die for your sins! He was God's perfect sacrifice to give
fallen man a way back into everlasting fellowship with Him. So if you
accept THAT,
then you have to accept the ENTIRE BIBLE as God's inspired, inerrant Word.
It can't
be only partially right!!!
The reason is God cannot lie. The Bible is an all or nothing proposition,
it is either ALL true, or NONE of it is true. This is very serious, so
please hear what I am saying to you today. You can't live your faith with
one foot in the world, and one foot in the church. You either believe it
all, or you don't really believe any of it. Either God is true, and we can
count on EVERYTHING He says, or God is a liar, and we are the most foolish
of all people. My friend, there is NO MIDDLE GROUND!!!
This is where so many Christians break down in their life. They simply
don't want to let go of the things of this world. The fact is, this life is
only a brief journey anyway. When it is over, the things of this world will
be
gone, and the ONLY thing that you will be left with is the fact that you
have Christ
in your heart, or you have rejected His love for you. PERIOD.
I love you and care for you so much. I realize that this is difficult for
so many of you to read. I already know that there will be thousands of very
angry emails about how intolerant I am, how the Christian faith is horrible
for excluding so many good people. The fact is, the only thing intolerant
about the Christian faith is accepting sin in a person's life. Would a
parent feed their child a plate of garbage to eat? Of course not. Why?
Because they love them and know that it would be very harmful to them. When
God
says don't sin, He is saying don't eat a plate of garbage because it is
harmful to you.
As for the Christian faith being exclusionary. That is the FARTHEST thing
from the truth. The Bibles says "whosoever believes in Him shall not
perish." Whosoever is potentially EVERYONE. Everyone has the opportunity to
accept Jesus Christ into their hearts and accept God's free gift of
everlasting
life. I don't find that exclusionary, but IN-CLUSIONARY!
I will be praying for you today. Praying above all that you realize how
serious it is to make a full and total commitment of your life to the Lord.
The fact is, when we ask Him into our hearts, the Bible says that it is no
longer our life, but that it belongs to Him. We surrender our life to Him.
I realize as much as anyone how unpopular our faith can be to the world that
we live in. The sad fact is, much of that world is lost, hurting, and
living without ANY hope. They have chosen to reject God and live life the
way they want to. That is fine. God has given everyone the free will to
make that choice.
Sadly though, no matter how they may appear on the outside, inside they
never experience the true joy, peace, and abundance that this life has to
offer. As they get older, they start to realize that there has to be more to
life, and in their search for God, get caught up in every kind of New Age,
crazy
philosophy that exists. What they are REALLY looking for is the peace that
ONLY comes from a personal relationship with Christ. As a Christian, you,
me, each one
of us, is called to be a light to this dark world that we live in. We can
ONLY let our light shine bright when we are living fully, 100% for HIM. If
you
believe that God is real, TODAY is the day to make sure your that life
reflects that
belief!
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller
copyright 2003 Bill Keller Ministries. All rights reserved.
