***IN LIGHT OF THE RECENT "PEACE" DEMONSTRATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES, AND DUE TO THE POPE TAKING SUCH A HARD STAND FOR PEACE INSTEAD OF WAR WITH IRAQ, I WAS LED TODAY TO RE-AIR A RECENT DEVOTIONAL ON THE REALITY OF EVIL IN OUR WORLD.

NO SANE PERSON WANTS WAR, AND PEACE IS THE BEST OPTION. HOWEVER, IT TAKES TWO PARTIES TO HAVE PEACE.  EVIL IS NOT A FRIEND OF PEACE.  EVIL DOES NOT WANT PEACE.  ADOLPH HITLER WAS AN EVIL MAN.  DURING HIS RISE TO POWER IN THE MID 30'S, EUROPEAN NATIONS REFUSED TO CHALLENGE HIM.  THEY TRIED TO IGNORE HIM, HOPING THAT HE WOULD GO AWAY.

MY FRIEND, EVIL IN THIS SINFUL WORLD IS VERY REAL AND WILL NOT GO AWAY.  IT MUST BE CHALLENGED OR IT WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING THAT STANDS IN ITS WAY.  AS NOBLE AS THE PEACE MOVEMENT IS, AS NOBLE AS THE CALL FOR PEACE THAT THE POPE ISSUED IS, IT IS NOT A LEGITIMATE OPTION WHEN DEALING WITH EVIL.

SADDAM HUSSEIN IS AN EVIL MAN.  HE HAS KILLED OVER 1 MILLION OF HIS OWN PEOPLE IN THE LAST DECADE.  LIKE HITLER, THERE IS ONLY ONE OPTION IN DEALING WITH HUSSEIN.  TAKE HIM OUT OF HIS POSITION OF POWER WITH WHATEVER FORCE IS NECESSARY.  YOU EITHER ELIMINATE EVIL, OR IT WILL ELIMINATE YOU.

DAILY DEVOTIONAL    FRIDAY MARCH 7, 2003
(Micah 7:2, 2 Timothy 3:1,2)

The godly have been swept away from the land;
  not one upright man remains.
All men lie in wait to shed blood;
  each hunts his brother with a net.

You may as well know this too, Timothy, that in the last days it is going to be very difficult to be a Christian. For people will love only themselves and their money; they will be proud and boastful, sneering at God, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful to them, and thoroughly bad.

SOURCE #1: (Micah 7:2) The New Student Bible, ©1992 Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Michigan 49530
SOURCE #2: (2 Timothy 3:1-2) The Children's Living Bible, ©1970 Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187

Is evil real? After living through a day that the world "glorifies" evil, I wanted to let you know that evil is not a paranoid concept, IT IS REAL! Most people want to dismiss evil as a fairy tale, but what happened in the United States on 9/11 was an example of evil. The recent sniper incident that held the entire Washington DC area in terror for 3 weeks was an example of evil. The tens of thousands of babies aborted each day worldwide is an example of evil. Those men and women around the world who plot to kill other people for whatever reason are an example of evil. EVIL IS NOT AN FANTASY... IT IS REAL... IT IS PART OF THE HUMAN EXISTENCE!!!

First, understand that God is NOT the author of evil. Evil stems from the rebellious hearts of man. Man has to make choices throughout each day, to either obey God, or rebel against Him. Evil is a manifestation of that rebellion. Those who choose to follow God, make choices that build people up, advance the cause of God on this earth, are positive. Those who choose to reject God, make choices that destroy people, oppose the plan of God for this world, and are negative. To be blunt, those who follow God are good, those who choose to reject God are evil. This may sound harsh, but evil can ONLY come from those who are in rebellion to, and reject God!

Satan is the embodiment of evil. He rejected God and was cast out of Heaven, and his entire purpose is to oppose the work of God. Satan is the poster boy for rebellion against God/evil! The simple fact is that any time that you rebel against God in your life, any time that you reject His way, you contribute to the evil that is in this world. Evil ONLY EXISTS because of the rebellious hearts of man. As hard as this may be to accept, the fact is, every time that you reject God, every time that you choose to ignore God, YOU ARE SIDING WITH SATAN AND ARE CONTRIBUTING TO THE EVIL THAT IS IN THIS WORLD!

I love you and care about you so much. The motivation for this Devotional today was the way our society has tried to down play what Halloween really is, the way that our society tries to downplay the existence of evil in our world. The way our society tries to make every excuse in the book to call evil anything but what it truly is....EVIL! The point I want you to understand today is that every time that you rebel against God, every time that you choose to reject God and not follow His way, YOU are contributing to the evil that is in this world.

I pray today that you keep your heart open to the Lord, and His guiding influence in your life. This is why I emphasize so often how important it is to read the Bible each day, since THAT is how we better understand exactly what God expects from us, how He has asked us to live our lives. That way, we can follow Him in all of our choices, and we don't have to be in rebellion, we don't have to contribute to the evil that already is rampant in our world today.

The good news is this. The Bible tells us that in the end, God will wipe out ALL evil from this world. It will no longer be part of this existence. But until this time, we have a responsibility as His children to not only fight against the evil that exists, but to not contribute to it through the choices that we make each day. Evil is real, but God is greater than evil, and He will one day, very soon, eliminate it.

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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