Harry Potter... Again

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL TUESDAY NOVEMBER 20, 2001
(Proverbs 22:6)

Teach a child to choose the right path, and when he is older he will remain upon it.

Harry Potter....again. I have to admit, in the 27 plus months that I have written these Devotionals.. every morning.. I have never received more mail than I did from the Devotional I wrote last Tuesday on Harry Potter. This Devotional goes to over 840,000 email accounts worldwide. I know of over 100 websites including my own, that post my Devotional daily. We are the only website I know of, that actually sends a real, personal response instead of an AUTO-RESPOND message to every incoming email we receive. With all of the people who forward it to others, there are easily over 1 million daily who read these words I write each morning. I pray every morning and ask God to guide me, to inspire me, to give you something each day that will bless your lives in a practical way. Obviously, dealing with such a vast audience, many who are not saved, and dealing with the issues of life I address daily, I get an incredible amount of negative mail each day. (Positive too!!! Thanks, I deeply appreciate it!!!) That is fine. As someone who tries to simply proclaim the truth of God's Word, the negative responses are not really aimed at me, but actually at God. I am responsible for doing my job, delivering the message God wants me to share that day, and what each person does with that message is then between them and God. This is a good lesson for you when you share your faith with others. If they accept what you say, the are accepting God, not you. If they reject what you say, they are rejecting God, not you. I will apologize up front if some of my flesh is in this Devotional today. But based on the emails I received, I have to believe I did a poor job in getting my message across on this Harry Potter issue.

The entire purpose of my email last Tuesday on the Harry Potter issue was NOT to debate the merits of Harry Potter, but encourage parents to do a more responsible job in monitoring what their kids see and hear, and take the time to put it all in a biblical context from which they could make decisions later in life, from a biblically based perspective when you were not around to control what they would be exposed to. I obviously did a bad job of bringing this message, since so many of those who responded, thought that I was endorsing Harry Potter, and had become a heretic overnight. Anyone who has read my Devotionals very long understand that nobody will stand up for the Word of God as strong as I do. It is the inspired, inerrant Word of God. It is the ABSOLUTE TRUTH that we can all base our very lives on. I recently did a Devotional encouraging people to stay away from Horoscopes and the psychics since God clearly speaks against this as sin. I even laid out a clear Biblical context for this warning. Here are the Scriptures. Genesis 44:15, Numbers 22:7, Deut 18:14, I Samuel 6:2, Jer 27:9, Ezekiel 13:23,21:21, Zechariah 10:2, Acts16:16 Genesis 41:24, Exodus 7:11,8:19, 9:11 Deut 18:11 I Samuel 28:11 Isaiah 8:19, 2:6, Daniel 2:27,5:7 Deut 18:10, 2 Kings 17:17, 21:6, Isaiah 47:9, Malachi 3:5 Acts 8:11, 13:6 Exodus 22:18,Leviticus 19:31, 20:6, I Samuel 15:23 28:7, 2 Kings 9:22, 23:24, I Chronicles 10:13, Isaiah 8:19, 19:3, 29:4, Galatians 5:20. These are the same verses that apply to the current Harry Potter issue.

I realize that much of what people are saying, has been due to the public stance many major national ministries have taken on this issue. As some of you know, I was involved in a very big way in the Christian television world for many years before I launched Liveprayer.com. My ministry not only produced thousands of hours of programming seen on Christian television stations all over the nation, but I personally consulted with many large national ministries in the area of fundraising. I can tell you from personal experience that many of the major ministries you watch on TV plan their ministry around issues that they can successfully raise money on. I am saddened that many large national ministries who are so strongly speaking out on Harry Potter, are doing so to sell books and tapes that they have produced on this issue. Just like so many have used the homosexual and abortion issues to raise incredible amounts of money. The elements of Harry Potter that are dangerous, have been with us in so many other forms for many, many years since Biblical times. Yet when has anyone really spoken out so boldly about witchcraft? About horoscopes? These are the Biblical element that make Harry Potter dangerous. I have to be honest. One reason Liveprayer does NOT sell books, tapes to support this work of God we do, is so that I don't have to fall it he traps so many other ministries do of surviving based on getting people riled up over the popular issues of the day. We have chosen to simply share what God has for us to say that day, and rely on the Lord to move on people's hearts to support this ministry.

The key to what I am saying today is to reiterate my message of last Tuesday. ***Please do not miss this. My goal today is NOT to bash the Harry Potter books and movie, but to encourage parents to take an even greater role in monitoring what your children read, hear, and watch. Even more important, to take the TIME to put what is in our popular culture like Harry Potter, N*Sync, MTV, and all else they are exposed to, in a Biblical context. PARENTS: YOU CAN NOT CONTROL ALL THAT YOUR CHILDREN WILL SEE AND HEAR. YOUR CHILDREN ARE NOW, AND AS EACH DAY GOES BY, MAKING EVEN MORE DECISIONS FOR THEMSELVES. THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB THAT YOU HAVE IS TO LAY A BIBLICAL FOUNDATION IN THEIR LIVES FOR THEM TO MAKE THOSE DECISIONS FROM!!!!!

As dangerous as some of the elements of Harry Potter are, based on the tens of thousands of email I get daily, I can tell you that children living in broken homes are far more damaged by that experience than all the Harry Potter's ever could harm them. After taking in over 93 million in the box office over this past weekend, I can tell you that there is no more evil in the world today than last Thursday. J. K. Rowlings, the author of Harry Potter is lost. UNSAVED!!! What do you expect from someone who does not know the Lord? I am actually more concerned over those who claim to know the Lord. Popular icons our children look up to like Britney Spears and N*Sync come to mind. Britney claims to be a Christian, yet is living with her boyfriend. Anyone who has watched her music videos, live concerts, see that she has no shame when it comes to using her sexuality to promote herself. While many who are part of N*Sync claim to be Christians, if you ever read the lyrics to their music, the overtly support sex outside of marriage and other things the Word of God specifically talks against. I am not questioning their salvation since only God knows their hearts. However, they have allowed those who control their careers, the machine they are part of that derives hundreds of millions of dollars from their careers, to compromise whatever faith they claim to have. To be blunt, they have sold out. There are tons of other examples from popular books, movies music, and television I can talk about. I only bring out Britney and NSync since they claim to be Christians. Please, for you who like Britney and N*Sync, save the emails in defense of them. Again, only God knows their hearts, and I am not here to judge them, only state the obvious. Their "stage performances", the lyrics of their music, judge them. Would you want your son, or daughter, on stage being overtly sexually suggestive and singing about sex between people not married and other things clearly against the Word of God? Regardless what their personal faith may be, the bottom line is they have sold out to the world. There is NO defense for that.

I love you and care about you so much. I am sorry that so many of you missed the message I was bringing about how as parents, we have a responsibility to build a Biblical foundation in the lives of our children from which they will operate the rest of their lives. Is Harry Potter a legitimate issue? Yes due to the popularity of the books and movie. Is Harry Potter the anti-Christ. NO! Will reading Harry Potter, or watching the movie destroy your children's lives? Most likely no. Again, what I want you to take from this is that as parents, you MUST get involved in your children's lives. You have every right, and responsibility to censor what you allow in your home. But censor it with an explanation of why, so that hopefully was they get older, they can make that same quality decision for themselves. In 3 months Harry Potter will be off the radar screen, and trust me, there will be another "hot issue" to get all excited about. The fact is, as parents, we need to be constantly diligent about what our children are being exposed to, and put it into a Biblical context for them. Never forget, that in a very short time, you won't be around to make those decisions for them, and the foundation that you lay in their life now, is what will carry them the rest of their life. I pray today that you will take the time, put in the effort, to make that a strong, biblically based foundation from which they will be able to operate from the rest of their journey here on earth.

Again, I apologize that the real message of my Devotional seemed to have been lost. Bashing the elements of Harry Potter to me is as much of a waste of time as bashing homosexuality, adultery, or abortion. I am more interested in changing people's hearts. That is the only REAL change. Anyone who reads the Word of God knows that God condemns witchcraft and sorcery. It is a sin. Period. My larger concern is NOT over the obvious sin that is promoted, but over the role parents play in the shaping of their children's lives. Not just in being responsible and censoring material that could be harmful to them, but in helping them develop a foundation from which to make those same Biblically based decisions for themselves when their parents are NOT around. ***NEVER FORGET that your greatest ministry, not matter what else the Lord may have you involved in, is TO YOUR CHILDREN. There is NO GREATER ministry that you will EVER be involved in. Anyone who is a parent, is in full time ministry to God as much as anyone you will ever see on TV or hear on the radio. As a minister of God, it is your responsibility to help lay a Biblically-based foundation in the lives of those God has given you to minister to.. your children! That is the REAL MESSAGE of Harry Potter.

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.

***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. Click on "Search by Category", then locate DAILY DEVOTIONAL. I want to thank Ed Morando for making this service available for FREE to Liveprayer.com.

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