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A blog by Bill Keller's listeners:
"I've been wondering when BK is scheduled to be back
on Nationwide TV since he signed up with that joint venture capitalist
last December. I just found this at his website about it,
dated 2/19/07:
An excerpt from Bill Keller's Devotional Page:
".... Very few could ever understand the level of warfare
I have learned to assimilate in my daily life over these past
8 years as a result of bringing God's Truth to over 2 million
souls worldwide every day through the Internet and the tens of
thousands more every night on secular television via the TV program.
What I experienced during those 10 weeks was 100x, no 1000x greater
than anything I had ever experienced before. In addition to the
financial aspects, I fully understand why other ministries stay
in the safety of the Christian TV networks, or the few who do
air on some secular stations simply preach a very non-confrontational
pre-taped message geared to a church audience on Sunday morning.
Financially, Liveprayer has been an absolute miracle of God.
We never should have survived the first year after the venture
funds we expected 6 months in dried up as a result of the dot.com
bubble bursting in early 2000. However, God sustained the work,
allowed us to expand and reach more people each year through
the Internet, add the secular TV program to the mix which continued
to expand, and over time not only stay current with our financial
obligations but work down the debt we incurred surviving those
first 2 years from over a million to right at $600,000. Having
seen God work miracles time and time again in meeting our needs,
I underestimated the fact that this would become our main battleground
in taking the TV program to the nation. Satan knew if he could
keep the finances dried up, we could not stay on the air. Despite
years of financial victories, we were now at an entirely different
level in going from a budget of $1 million a year to just over
$10 million a year.
The reason the warfare was so intense, the reason satan was
fighting so hard was evident in those 40 nights we were on. An
average audience of 200,000 people each night were hearing the
Truth of God's Word proclaimed loudly, boldly, and visibly like
nobody else was doing. Being on nationwide "live" for
an hour 5 nights a week, people were able to call in and have
their faith rewarded as God met their needs. Each night over
5,000 emails for prayer poured in from people who were hurting
were reaching out in their time of need, looking for answers
and hope. Most important of all, over 8,000 souls we know of
came to faith in Christ during those 40 nights. EIGHT THOUSAND!
Praise God!
Each night, I felt the incredible power of being able to share
with a lost and hurting nation the Truth of God's Word and the
fact He loves them so much. I sensed the hunger and desire through
those cameras as people from coast to coast tuned in to hear
His Truth proclaimed and the fact they could have a personal
relationship with His Son Jesus Christ. Each one of those 40
nights as I told the viewers how they could be saved, I knew
there was an all out war going on in the heavenlies. Night after
night, the commitments poured in as people surrendered their
lives to Jesus!
I love you and care about you so much. God clearly honored
our faith to follow Him in using that program during those 40
nights to impact millions of lives, transforming many for all
eternity. However, in the world we live in, the fact we were
not able to sustain the program past those initial 40 nights
would correctly be classified as a defeat. It was in defeat that
I learned what it would take spiritually, emotionally, and financially
to sustain the program reaching the entire nation "live"
for an hour 5 nights a week on a major secular television network.
It was in defeat that I found the comfort of God's love and His
strength to press forward. It was in defeat that whatever commitment
I had made to the Lord to boldly take His Truth and the hope
of Christ to the nation through secular television was now solidified
and I became resolute in fulfilling His call upon my life.
*YOU CAN EITHER LET THE DEFEATS IN LIFE INTIMIDATE YOU FROM
EVER REACHING YOUR GOALS, OR YOU CAN USE THE DEFEATS IN LIFE
TO MOTIVATE YOU TO VICTORY!!!
Even though I understand that what we did those 40 nights
was clearly a victory in God's eyes and for millions of people,
satan has temporarily won since every night we are not on nationwide,
people are not hearing God's Truth and how they can be saved.
I know that every day people who will never go to church, never
read the Bible, never watch Christian TV, are dying and going
to hell because the TV program is not on. I have learned the
lessons I needed to learn in defeat so that when we get the program
back on nationwide, this time it will be declaring God's Truth
and bringing people to faith in Jesus Christ until our Lord returns.
*Be praying as we are waiting patiently for the financing
to come together from the group we entered into the joint venture
with last Christmas. Once we get the word they have raised the
money, we will be back on nationwide within 4 weeks. One change
is that the program is moving to an afternoon time slot in order
to reach a larger audience and compete head on with Oprah, her
puppet Dr. Phil, Montel, and the rest of the false hope merchants
who litter the television during the afternoon hours.
I will be praying for you today. Praying that you will remember
that there is no failure with God. Don't fear stepping out in
faith to fulfill whatever it is God has called you to do with
your life. I will also be praying that you will realize that
we all win and lose along our journey through this life. Losing
is no fun, but use those moments as opportunities to correct
your mistakes and work on those areas you are weak. Don't let
the defeats you experience in life get you down, but use them
as learning opportunities so that you can do better the next
time. We all enjoy winning, but never forget that we can learn
the most from our defeats.
Of course, the one defeat you will suffer from for all eternity
is rejecting Jesus Christ as your Savior. The most important
victory in your life comes when you accept Christ into your heart
and life by faith and have your sins washed away and receive
the free gift of everlasting life. If you have never experienced
that victory, I encourage you to go to: www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.html
Pray, ask God to open your heart to the truth of the words there,
and make the choice today to ask Jesus Christ into your heart
and life by faith. Coming to know Jesus as your personal Savior
is the greatest victory there is, since it is one you will enjoy
for all eternity!!! © 1999 - 2007, Bill Keller Ministries.
All rights reserved. Maintained by PacketCity. http://www.liveprayer.com/ddarchive3.cfm?id=2841
[...] Blog continued:
Be praying as we are waiting patiently for the financing to come
together from the group we entered into the joint venture with
last Christmas. Once we get the word they have raised the
money, we will be back on nationwide within 4 weeks. One
change is that the program is moving to an afternoon time
slot in order to reach a larger audience and compete
head on with Oprah, her puppet Dr. Phil, Montel, and the rest
of the false hope merchants who litter the television during
the afternoon hours.
[...]
LOL about "Oprah's puppet, Dr. Phil."
He may have started out as her puppet, but I think Dr.
Phil pretty much stands on his own two-feet now. I also
don't get the feeling Dr. Phil is much of a Christian even though
he and Robin were on James Robinson a few weeks ago. She
was vocal about her faith in Jesus Christ but ol' Phil never
made such an outright confession. They both seem a tad
carnal to me, but then maybe it's what naturally comes with "success."
-- Lastly, Keller and Dr. Phil should have an interview/pow-wow
together. Ewwww boy, I wonder how that would go over...?
Speaking of Oprah, found this at
BK's site from 2/15/05:
http://www.liveprayer.com/ddarchive3.cfm?id=2084
Oprah was in Tampa, Florida for her, 'Live Your Best Life Tour'.
Her message is that women can succeed through ³spiritual²
growth. The problem is, Oprah¹s brand of spiritual growth
is NOT through Jesus Christ or the Bible, but a mixed bag
of New Age concepts with a universalistic theology that ³all
good people will get to heaven.² Over the years, she
has generated a cult following of women that I have yet to
figure out. She is a role model for mothers, but has no
children of her own. She ³preaches² to her followers
to find fulfillment outside of their job, yet is a workaholic
herself. She tells others how to have a perfect marriage,
yet she isn¹t married herself.
[...]
LOL. Can't argue with any of that.
Strangely, my mother can't stand Oprah or Dr. Phil either. She
won't watch either of them. But her reasons are NOT the
same as Keller's. Mom doesn't like it that Oprah, not being
a doctor herself, gives advice as if she is a psychologist, etc.
I do NOT agree w/Mom on that. Oprah is SELF-TAUGHT,
hello, it's called READING. Mom's problem
is she is in total denial that parents' actions (or LACK THEREOF)
have any effect on how their kids turn out. Mom, imho and
from statements she has made over the years, is terrified to
learn that her lousy parenting just might be part of the problem,
so she closes her mind to ANYTHING to do with psychology and
child-rearing, family dysfunction, etc.
[...]
Oprah is a wonderful woman who has done incredibly great
things for many people. However, she has adopted a universalistic
view on life that being good is all that it takes to get
to Heaven. Dr. Phil is a good man, and much of his counsel
is very sound. However, it is from a purely secular standpoint
and not a Biblical one. Bill O¹Reilly is a journalist,
but from time to time shares his personal-faith belief which,
again, is a universalistic view of life that being a good
person is all God requires. Tony Robbins mixes New
Age spiritualism into his self-help training that basically teaches
that all things are possible through ourselves.
Again, all 4 of these are no doubt wonderful, caring, loving
people. But be careful! Anyone can call themselves Christians.
Just because someone prays does not make them a Christian. Just
because someone uses the 'right words' does not make them a Christian.
You will NEVER hear any of these people say that Jesus Christ
is the only REAL answer, or that Jesus Christ is the Lord of
my life. The fact is, being a 'good person' will NOT get
you to Heaven.
[...]
Very true! And this from his 3/6/07 Daily Devotional...
http://www.liveprayer.com/ddarchive3.cfm?id=2862
[...]
Sadly, those few men and women of God who have ventured into
the marketplace decided to compromise the Truth of God's Word
in order to appeal to a lost world. Rather than calling themselves
preachers of the Gospel they use worldly terms like "life
coach."
Isn't that the truth! More and more
of that going around... pretty ridiculous. Mark Chironna
immediately comes to mind. /bg
Rather than preaching against sin and calling people to holiness,
they "tickle ears" with nothing more than a message
any unsaved motivational speaker would deliver.
Right on, again. /bg
Then you have men like Peter Popoff,
Robert Tilton, and Jim Bakker who shamed the name of Christ
in the past with their scandals, greed, and excess, but are
still out there doing the same thing. Popoff was caught wearing
an earpiece so his crew could relate personal information about
people in the audience that he would then act like God told him.
He is back on television in the middle of the night, making
tens of millions of dollars selling vials of "holy water."
Tilton is also back on TV with his "Success" infomercials
asking people to make "vows" of $1,000 to insure
they become millionaires. Bakker, who after his release
from prison wrote a book titled, "I Was Wrong," admitting
the prosperity message was theologically flawed, is now back
on TV with his latest wife hawking products, asking for money,
and recently has dusted off his old hard hat to raise funds for
his latest Christian theme park near Branson, Mo.
[...]
I'm not familiar with either Popoff or Tilton from their past,
but I did notice Tilton a few months ago on TV somewhere (Steve
Lumbley has that rather descriptive article at his site about
the years he worked for him), but I have to admit I am GUILTY
of enjoying the "Mike Douglass style-show" set-up of
Lori and Jim Bakker's "new" show. I like his
"new" wife... she was a druggie who he helped get off
the streets years ago when he was doing street work after he
got out of prison. - Recently Jim admitted (for the first time
he said, on TV) that he was molested when he was a kid. That
explains alot about him, imho. He's a small guy and pervs
especially like to go after the "little people." Today
he said he can't tell his left hand from his right and has always
had to point this way or that way with the hand he knows he writes
with. LOL. That hit home as I've always done the
same exact thing... can't "think fast enough" to determine
which is left or right, so I've always just "pointed the
way." Together they are a cute couple. -- I don't
like their beloved CEV Bible version, but they are not shy about
talking about Jesus so I can't fault them for that. -- I have
heard Jim mention Rick Joyner a few times, so I guess he's mixed
up with those guys, naturally.
This "internet war" news
from BK dated 1/12/07: http://www.liveprayer.com/ddarchive3.cfm?id=2803
[...]
60 days after the launch of Liveprayer (August 1999) we came
under a major attack. The week before Halloween in 1999, someone
signed up about 400 witches and warlocks to receive the Daily
Devotional. As you can imagine, those folks were not happy. We
only had 4-5,000 subscribers so we had over 10% of our list complaining
about SPAM. When Liveprayer started, we had our Internet site
and mail hosted by a third party and they literally shut us down
due to the complaints.
[...]
In the end, these "content filters" everyone is
now using ends up filtering out lots of legitimate mail that
happens to use some of the same words the "content filters"
are looking for.
The other danger in these "content filters" is obvious.
The programmers who create these filters can put any word they
want into their dictionary to filter. For example, they could
put in words like, Liveprayer, Bill Keller, Daily Devotional,
Jesus, Bible, and God. Do you now see how dangerous these
"content filters' are? The fact is, the ISPs we are sending
our Daily Devotional to are private companies and have the right
to filter their incoming mail however they choose. They also
aren't forced to tell ANYONE their dictionary list. If they choose
to filter all Christian emails, they can. We have been told flat
out by one major ISP that they have "trained their filters
to block our mail!"
However, since Thanksgiving (2006), we have been in an all
out war with one major ISP and several smaller ones who are using
their software. After sending our Daily Devotional to our
subscribers using their domains every day for over 7 years
without any problems, they are now telling us that their filters
are labeling our mail as SPAM. I have to pay one of our techs
to sit and manually send all of our mail to this ISP and others
using their software to insure our subscribers get their
Daily Devotional each morning. This should be an automated process
that takes a few hours, but now takes 6-7 hours and is costing
us over $3,000 extra month in labor. I am committed to getting
the Word out to those who subscribe no matter what we have to
do since lives and souls are at stake!
The fact is, all ISPs would love to stop ALL email. One of
their latest ploys is to have outside companies that they endorse,
determine who is a safe mailer or not. These outside companies
charge people who send email tens of thousands of dollars a year
to "endorse" your mail. The fact is, it doesn't help
you bypass an ISPs "content filters." It is really
nothing more than extortion to try and force legitimate mailers
to pay to send email to people who have requested it. Legally,
there is no recourse since again, these are all private companies
and they can do whatever they want. The bottom line is if
those who use their email system don't like it, they can go somewhere
else.
[...]
The TV program added over 400,000 NEW subscribes to the Daily
Devotional last year. Once we are back on nationwide, we
will add well over 2 million new subscribes in the first year.
This will increase our subscriber base to well over 4 million
that we will need to send to every day. So this war is not going
to be over any time soon, as a matter of fact, it is only just
beginning.
[...]
BTW, the credits that would run at the end
of BK's show (last year when I could see him on Florida TV),
one of his producers was named "RICH NATION."
Recently I noticed the same name at the end of JOE
VAN KOEVERING's Prophecy show. Since Keller and Koevering
both are over in the same area of west Florida (Tampa/St.Pete),
I guess they all know each other.
This from his
2/9/07 email:
http://www.liveprayer.com/ddarchive3.cfm?id=2837
[...]
Let me share a question with you I get all the time during
the many media interviews I do. It is a GREAT QUESTION that
comes from reporters who aren't Believers. They ask me
why are there more churches, more ministries, more Christian
resources, more Christian media, than ever before in the history
of Christendom, yet at the same time our culture and the world
around us is in a spiritual freefall, the better percentage of
two full generations don't even go to church, and Christianity
has very little impact in the daily lives of the vast majority
of people. It seems to be quite a paradox doesn't it? With
all the churches and Christian influence that exists today, this
should be a far better world.
I respond to their question by telling them the answer is quite
simple. The above phenomena exists because we preach to the
choir instead of reaching out to those who need the message the
most. We have retreated into this incestuous place I call
the "Christian trough" where the churches and most
all Christian ministries live and operate. It is this Christian
subculture that has evolved over the past 40 years that consists
of the church, Christian TV and radio, Christian publishing,
Christian music, and all of the various para-chruch ministries.
It targets Believers with their message, not those outside the
four walls of the church, since people who are already Christians
will be friendly to the message, buy what they sell, go to events,
and donate their money.
Make no mistake about it, it is business, and BIG business.
Billions of dollars a year! Everyone talks about "reaching
the lost," but the reality is they all end up simply preaching
to the choir because that is where the money is at! Let me
give you a great example. A little over a year ago, I
was in the office of a gentleman who God has richly blessed financially.
Money is relevant and this is a man who could write a check
for $100,000 without blinking an eye. After sharing with
him what God was doing at Liveprayer and asking for him to
help us financially, he told me that he couldn't help me right
now because he had just agreed to head up the finance
team to bring a well-known evangelist to Tampa. He shared that
he was responsible for raising $2.3 million dollars for this
2-day event and that the evangelist would only agree to come
after the money was in the bank. (Who needs faith to follow this
plan?)
Indeed, good question. /bg
Knowing others who were involved in the
organization of this event, they spent the last year getting
hundreds of the area churches to get their people to come to
this event. So ultimately it is going to be a couple of services
with apx 100,000 people from area churches. Listen, I pray
that many hearts and lives are touched and impacted during these
two days. I have no doubt there will be some souls saved, and
praise God for that. But the point I want to make is that
this is how it works in the world of Christian business. Big
names who won't even come until they are guaranteed to make so
much money. Big events that are called "evangelistic,"
but are full of people who have been recruited to come from the
area churches.
Do you want the perfect contrast? What we are doing for 12
days at the Florida State Fair! For less than $20,000, we
have a major presence in the heart of the State Fair that will
have 600,000 people in attendance. Are those people coming to
see Liveprayer? No. Most haven't got a clue Liveprayer even exists.
However, we will be there, boldly and visibly letting people
know that if they are hurting, going through problems in their
life, there is a place to come and find help and hope. We will
be praying for people, no doubt leading many to faith in Christ,
and most every person who comes to the State Fair will have one
of our brightly colored flyers with the Plan of Salvation on
it!
[...]
I don't agree with everything about Bill Keller, but he's got
the right idea about preaching to John Q. Public. He should
set up a table sometime next to the JWs who sometimes set up
tables at Malls and Walmart, etc. That would be a hoot
to see... BK vs. JW.
Well, I was
trying to find more info at his site about his "nationwide
tour" plans and whatever else he's got down the pipes, but
I'm out of steam for now. You can't search his old emails
BY DATE, but only by subject, and I'm fresh of ideas.
/bg
"The Besuras haGeulah According to Mattityahu (Matthew)"
chp 28:19-20:
"Therefore, make talmidim for Moshiach of all the nations,
giving them a tevilah in a mikveh mayim in HaShem, the NAME of
HaAv, HaBen, and HaRuach HaKodesh, teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you. And--hinei-- I (Moshiach) am with
you always, even until the kets haOlam hazeh."
Have
You Been Saved by the Gospel?
http://www.letusreason.org/Doct55.htm
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What Must I Do to be Saved?
http://www.prophecyinthenews.com/WhatMustI.htm
http://www.wayoflife.org/whatmust.htm
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Is Your Name in The Book? Take the Salvation "Self-Test"
Here:
http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/salvation.html
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