Many times we are right about the purpose God has for us but the path He chooses to get us there is often very different than what we hoped or believed they would be. Joseph had a series of dreams as a young boy where God gave him visions of his purpose. Joseph was so excited, so in awe of the vision of his future that he told his whole family, multiple times. He knew God was going to use him in a significant way. I'm pretty sure Joseph wasn't quite as thrilled with the path that God used to bring him into that purpose, though.
When God starts to show us what our purpose will be, His goal is to build our faith and give us hope for the future He has for us. What He isn't concerned with doing is giving us the details. If He did that, it wouldn't be a journey of faith and We would never come to know and love the God of our purpose more than our purpose itself. Of course, as is our human nature, we instantly become lead detectives in our own Sherlock Holmes mystery and spend much of our time figuring out just how God is going to bring what He has shown us to past. This is where Satan is often able to derail people from the purpose God has for them.
We often times get so caught up with doing our best to make our own path to get where God has shown us we're going or trying to figure out which path God is going to use that it becomes more about the path than the purpose. In our minds, we equate one with the other and when the path isn't clear or the path we've formulated doesn't work out ,we think the purpose God showed us is doomed to the same fate. This is what we must learn, though - God has many different paths to get you to your purpose . Chances are that at some point, in some way, the path you started on to get there will not be the path that you arrive on when you step into the fullness of your purpose. Many things can alter our path - our mistakes, the enemy's schemes, God's sovereignty, and the fact that we happen to live in an imperfect and fallen world. When a path doesn't work out, The key is to hold onto the purpose.
There's actually beauty to be found in a path crumbling before our feet because One of the main ways we come to truly believe In and not doubt the purpose God has given us is that even though a path we hoped would work out, doesn't - the purpose within our hearts doesnt dissapear. After the disappointment of being wrong about the path fades, we find that the passion and belief for the purpose still remains deep within our heart and spirit.
Hold tightly to your purpose but loosely to the path that you are hoping gets you there. In Psalm 138 it says "God will fulfill His purpose for me. " but it doesn't say He will fulfill the path we want to take us there. Let's always make sure our faith is in God and the purpose He has for each of us. Let's rest in His goodness and trust the paths He chooses to get us there.
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Saturday, April 16, 2016
How are you feeling?
Have you noticed how much we all talk about our energy level throughout the day or the week? It really is crazy if you take a second to list just a few of the phrases we use - "Im so excited!", "I'm completely exhausted", I'm feeling totally refreshed!", "I feel like I'm running on empty". We tend to do this just in passing conversation as a declaration of our current emotional, physical, or mental state. Other times we explain how much gas is left in our proverbial tanks in response to being asked how we're doing or how the week is going for us in some area.
This is just human nature, and we all do it. It's just part of who we fundamentally are that we need to express how we feel at times. The problem with this can be that if we're not careful, how we feel can dictate where we're going in life and how succesful we "feel" we are at getting there, especially in our walk with Christ.
Emotions are an awesome part of who we are, given to us by God. They are often the reason that we feel like God is right beside us, giving us a giant bear hug in that incredible moment of worship or making it seem as if the message preached by the Pastor was a personal love letter written by God, just to us. He certainly knows how to flood our senses with His love. The danger in this, is to become so reliant on where our "spiritual feeelings meter" is at the moment, that our emotions shift from being an aid to help us on our journey to a progress report of the journey itself.
If we allow this to happen, we usually have thoughts similar to these - "well, I havent had a moving experience in worship in two weeks now, I guess I'm not as on fire as I was a few weeks ago." or "I just haven't been as excited to have my devotional time recently as I was last month. When we focus too much on thoughts like these, we are actually checking with our emotions to detrmine the current state of our relationship with Christ. This is what we all need to realize early on in our walk with Christ, though - Feelings should never be used to determine or measure our faithfulness. I fear we spend to much time from week to week worrying about where our feelings are at based on some imaginary spiritual thermometer (Am I on fire?, why am I not as excited about praying this morning as I was yesterday?) that we often time forget that Jesus didn't call us to feelings, He called us to faithfulness.
Let's not forget that we would all be without the forgiveness that came from Jesus' death if He had decided wheter or not to go to the cross based on how he felt that night in the garden. He didn't want to go through with it; that was how He felt. He did go through with it; that was His faithfulness. We are saved today because of the latter, not the former. 1 John 3:20 says "For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything." In other words, we can"t always trust our feelings.
Never let the enemy convince you that how you feel at the moment is a direct indication of where you're at in your walk with God. Feelings are fleeting but our faithful actions day in and day out, in times of joy and sorrow, in times of being on fire and feeling like we're on empty, that faithfulness stands as a monument before God. That's what matters and I'm sure He would tell each of us "you're doing better than you feel like you are." I hope we can all remind ourselves in the coming days that our journey with God is filled with so many awesome moments of elation, joy, and passion but if we haven't felt that in a while, don't stop to dwell on it too much. Just stay on the road of faithfulness and I promise you, more of those moments are in your future.
This is just human nature, and we all do it. It's just part of who we fundamentally are that we need to express how we feel at times. The problem with this can be that if we're not careful, how we feel can dictate where we're going in life and how succesful we "feel" we are at getting there, especially in our walk with Christ.
Emotions are an awesome part of who we are, given to us by God. They are often the reason that we feel like God is right beside us, giving us a giant bear hug in that incredible moment of worship or making it seem as if the message preached by the Pastor was a personal love letter written by God, just to us. He certainly knows how to flood our senses with His love. The danger in this, is to become so reliant on where our "spiritual feeelings meter" is at the moment, that our emotions shift from being an aid to help us on our journey to a progress report of the journey itself.
If we allow this to happen, we usually have thoughts similar to these - "well, I havent had a moving experience in worship in two weeks now, I guess I'm not as on fire as I was a few weeks ago." or "I just haven't been as excited to have my devotional time recently as I was last month. When we focus too much on thoughts like these, we are actually checking with our emotions to detrmine the current state of our relationship with Christ. This is what we all need to realize early on in our walk with Christ, though - Feelings should never be used to determine or measure our faithfulness. I fear we spend to much time from week to week worrying about where our feelings are at based on some imaginary spiritual thermometer (Am I on fire?, why am I not as excited about praying this morning as I was yesterday?) that we often time forget that Jesus didn't call us to feelings, He called us to faithfulness.
Let's not forget that we would all be without the forgiveness that came from Jesus' death if He had decided wheter or not to go to the cross based on how he felt that night in the garden. He didn't want to go through with it; that was how He felt. He did go through with it; that was His faithfulness. We are saved today because of the latter, not the former. 1 John 3:20 says "For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything." In other words, we can"t always trust our feelings.
Never let the enemy convince you that how you feel at the moment is a direct indication of where you're at in your walk with God. Feelings are fleeting but our faithful actions day in and day out, in times of joy and sorrow, in times of being on fire and feeling like we're on empty, that faithfulness stands as a monument before God. That's what matters and I'm sure He would tell each of us "you're doing better than you feel like you are." I hope we can all remind ourselves in the coming days that our journey with God is filled with so many awesome moments of elation, joy, and passion but if we haven't felt that in a while, don't stop to dwell on it too much. Just stay on the road of faithfulness and I promise you, more of those moments are in your future.
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Running room
I long to run. Im looking for room. I'm desperately praying for running room. I want to go running with your name held high, but I have yet to come to the door, the door that leads to the place. A place of purpose being fulfilled and possibilities becoming reality. where I can stretch your banner wide and display your glory afar. I know there's purpose in the stillness and growth in the darkness but if your word gives light, let it shine in my night. Let it shine so I can see the plans you have for me. Shine just bright enough that I can catch a glimpse of all you have in store. so that I can see a path to the open door. Because I'm longing to run. I'm looking for room. I'm desperately praying for running room. Help me see all I have. Help me call it good. Show me I'm blessed in the waiting, even when it feels like being trapped in a room. Am I in the waiting room? Or am I still under the knife? Maybe I'm not waiting on God. Maybe God is waiting on me to fully come to life. Waiting on this new heart He put in me to beat more in rhythm with His. Not to the old rhythm I knew but to a life brand new. The abundant life I need within me to fight the fight and run the race. This was His plan all along. His eternal desires placed in my new heart; discovered through dreams that He designed from the start. His heart within me is the very reason why I long to run, I'm looking for room. I'm desperately praying for running room.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
His truth Vs. My reality
God has really shown me the past few weeks that submitting to His word is not just submission to His principles and standards. It is submission to who His word says we are and what His word says He wants us to have. If the reality of my life in any area is contrary to the truth of what God's word says, how am I responding? Am I bowing down to what I see and accepting my reality or am I submitting to His word and saying " I refuse to accept what I see instead of humbling myself and saying "what I see is so small in comparison to who you are. I know your word is the ultimate truth, beyond even what I see and feel. I submit to what it says, I believe it, I cherish it, and I trust in it's power to change my current reality."
It's arrogance on our part to assume that things will never change just because they haven't changed yet. What is any of our situations when confronted with the power of God's word? Change WILL come. If you are willing to STILL believe! Just stay humble and submitted to what His word says, not what you see and feel. Remember that what we see is only a very small part of the puzzle that God is putting together in our life.
It's very easy to take matters into our own hands after we have tried things God's way and nothing has changed. circumstances haven't changed, people haven't changed, we haven't changed. We tell ourselves "It's just not meant to happen for me". We strike out to make things happen as best we can in our own power or we tell ourselves we'll make the best of our life without that thing we were once so confident that God wanted to do for us.
The truth is though, this is arrogance. It's our human pride convincing us that it's an extremely reasonable and even responsible conclusion to come to when things haven't changed after all this time. We rely on our wisdom and critical thinking
instead of on God's wisdom and the counsel of His word and Holy Spirit. Just look at those who God used the greatest in the scriptures - they all submitted to God and what He had told them in spite of no change in their circumstances, and they did this for years. Some of them did this for decades.
Let's all take a step back and remember who we are in comparison to who He is and ask ourselves "is that area of my life really hopeless, or have I just grown tired and weary of humbly submitting to the hope found in His word concerning that situation?" It takes energy to believe, to expect, to hope. It takes us submitting our fears and doubts to God and believing that the promises in His word will bring about a change, regardless of how long it has been. I encourage you today to humbly admit that what you see at the moment has no weight in comparison to what His word says and start believing once again to see His truth change your reality, today!
Blessings to you all and "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."
- Roman's 15:13
It's arrogance on our part to assume that things will never change just because they haven't changed yet. What is any of our situations when confronted with the power of God's word? Change WILL come. If you are willing to STILL believe! Just stay humble and submitted to what His word says, not what you see and feel. Remember that what we see is only a very small part of the puzzle that God is putting together in our life.
It's very easy to take matters into our own hands after we have tried things God's way and nothing has changed. circumstances haven't changed, people haven't changed, we haven't changed. We tell ourselves "It's just not meant to happen for me". We strike out to make things happen as best we can in our own power or we tell ourselves we'll make the best of our life without that thing we were once so confident that God wanted to do for us.
The truth is though, this is arrogance. It's our human pride convincing us that it's an extremely reasonable and even responsible conclusion to come to when things haven't changed after all this time. We rely on our wisdom and critical thinking
instead of on God's wisdom and the counsel of His word and Holy Spirit. Just look at those who God used the greatest in the scriptures - they all submitted to God and what He had told them in spite of no change in their circumstances, and they did this for years. Some of them did this for decades.
Let's all take a step back and remember who we are in comparison to who He is and ask ourselves "is that area of my life really hopeless, or have I just grown tired and weary of humbly submitting to the hope found in His word concerning that situation?" It takes energy to believe, to expect, to hope. It takes us submitting our fears and doubts to God and believing that the promises in His word will bring about a change, regardless of how long it has been. I encourage you today to humbly admit that what you see at the moment has no weight in comparison to what His word says and start believing once again to see His truth change your reality, today!
Blessings to you all and "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."
- Roman's 15:13
Monday, February 1, 2016
Bitterness or hope
As many of you may know, I lived in Arizona from September of 2014 to March of 2015. What many of you may not know is that it has taken me until now to fully get my footing back in my walk with God from the seven month journey. To be honest - I was deeply disappointed and I was completely and utterly baffled by the ways of God. It was, to say the least, an arduous journey of faith and complete reliance upon God that left me exhausted in pretty much every way that one can be exhausted, especially in my spirit and mind. I'm not writing this to tell you about that journey step by step though or to lament about it in 600 words or less. I'm writing to tell you about what God has shown me now that I'm almost a year removed from being in the dessert, both literally and figuratively.
To explain to you what God has shown me from all of this I must briefly explain that my trip to Arizona was one of complete faith. There was no logical explanation for going except that God said "Go". Now obviously, there are more details behind why I felt He was telling me to go and of course as we all often do, I had placed certain "expectations" on God for what I thought He was going to do while I was over there. To be fair though, those expectations were the entire reason I believed He was calling me to go in the first place. So, needless to say, after I came back home after seven months of believing and not giving up hope all while being homeless and going hungry at times, I didn't have much hope or faith left. The only way I can describe how I felt is to imagine someone telling you to wait outside your house for them to pick you up. They promised they would pick you up, and you waited...for seven months. Now before the phrase "well, you were just an idiot comes out of your lips (I can sense it about to roll off your tongue) please realize that there were many times I was ready to give up and come home and God would always reassure me in some way shape or form that I was where I was supposed to be and He would renew my strength to stay. That went on for seven months until He finally told me it was time to come home. No explanation for why nothing I felt He had promised hadn't come to pass in my life. No answers. Simply "you did everything I asked you, you were faithful, I'm proud of you. It's time to go home now." Those words absolutely helped in the moment but they ended up being a tiny drop of solace in a sea of shattered hopes and dreams after I returned home. My mind tried to process what happened while my hands tried to pick up the pieces and move on. Then, just three weeks ago, God walked in my room. Not literally, but in every other way that matters and in the way I desperately needed most. In the form of renewed hope.
He led me to a story in the Bible that has genuinely given me the strength to get up and believe again. To fight the good fight of faith and hold to His promises once more and is the reason I wanted to write this. See, I told you this was about more than me making you read about my past tales of sorrow!
In first Samuel chapter 30, David is still on the run from Saul, he has been for quite some time. He was in a season of hardship, trial and sorrow. In fact, he had even developed a following of loyal men who were also down on their luck in life and were feeling pretty miserable. I should also mention that they all had one thing in common - they were all warriors, men of battle; Kind of like an Emo fight club. They loved to fight. They were good at it, especially David. It's all they had left, the one thing that still brought purpose to their life. In chapter 29 we find that David and His men are told by the commander of an army that they can no longer fight in battle with them. They are told to return home. The one thing they still found purpose in and probably distracted them from the mess that was life, they could no longer do. This brings us to Chapter 30.
David and the men return home to find their entire village had been looted, torn down, and burned to a crisp. Even worse, every single one of their wives and all of their children had been taken.
I shared this story to share what God showed me through this. Both about my time in Arizona and all of us as believers and followers of Christ. When you really follow God and you have the type of faith to believe Him for incredible things, you will experience incredible times of disappointment, confusion, and heartache. Not because God isn't faithful but because we live in a broken world and we have an enemy who was described by Jesus Himself as being one who "comes only to steal, kill, and destroy". That's just the truth of it and David knew this. He had accepted it. He had moved past blaming God for what hope or dream didn't happen or what bad did happen. He saw God, not as the person he didn't know if he could trust or not with his life, he didn't see him as the source of all his pain, but he saw God as the person who could help him recover all that the enemy had stolen. He saw Him as he did one of his fellow warriors. He was in this war with Him. God was on His side and His God was the one that was going to help him rise from the ashes, shake off the dust and find strength to fight again. This is what you all need to know - The enemy cannot kill your God given dreams. Satan can not kill the purposes and promises God has for your life. Your dreams ARE NOT dead...but your hope might be. Satan tries to "steal" our dreams and then kill our hope for them, causing us to think they are indeed dead or that we will never see them happen. If it had not been for David finding strength in God and renewing his hope to fight for what had been stolen David and His men would have likely never seen their families again. The enemy would have won. Their families would've indeed been as good as dead to them...but God. The next time you feel as if your dreams have been destroyed or the promises of God for your life are dead; don't ask "why God?", stand up and declare with resurrected hope "but God!"
To explain to you what God has shown me from all of this I must briefly explain that my trip to Arizona was one of complete faith. There was no logical explanation for going except that God said "Go". Now obviously, there are more details behind why I felt He was telling me to go and of course as we all often do, I had placed certain "expectations" on God for what I thought He was going to do while I was over there. To be fair though, those expectations were the entire reason I believed He was calling me to go in the first place. So, needless to say, after I came back home after seven months of believing and not giving up hope all while being homeless and going hungry at times, I didn't have much hope or faith left. The only way I can describe how I felt is to imagine someone telling you to wait outside your house for them to pick you up. They promised they would pick you up, and you waited...for seven months. Now before the phrase "well, you were just an idiot comes out of your lips (I can sense it about to roll off your tongue) please realize that there were many times I was ready to give up and come home and God would always reassure me in some way shape or form that I was where I was supposed to be and He would renew my strength to stay. That went on for seven months until He finally told me it was time to come home. No explanation for why nothing I felt He had promised hadn't come to pass in my life. No answers. Simply "you did everything I asked you, you were faithful, I'm proud of you. It's time to go home now." Those words absolutely helped in the moment but they ended up being a tiny drop of solace in a sea of shattered hopes and dreams after I returned home. My mind tried to process what happened while my hands tried to pick up the pieces and move on. Then, just three weeks ago, God walked in my room. Not literally, but in every other way that matters and in the way I desperately needed most. In the form of renewed hope.
He led me to a story in the Bible that has genuinely given me the strength to get up and believe again. To fight the good fight of faith and hold to His promises once more and is the reason I wanted to write this. See, I told you this was about more than me making you read about my past tales of sorrow!
In first Samuel chapter 30, David is still on the run from Saul, he has been for quite some time. He was in a season of hardship, trial and sorrow. In fact, he had even developed a following of loyal men who were also down on their luck in life and were feeling pretty miserable. I should also mention that they all had one thing in common - they were all warriors, men of battle; Kind of like an Emo fight club. They loved to fight. They were good at it, especially David. It's all they had left, the one thing that still brought purpose to their life. In chapter 29 we find that David and His men are told by the commander of an army that they can no longer fight in battle with them. They are told to return home. The one thing they still found purpose in and probably distracted them from the mess that was life, they could no longer do. This brings us to Chapter 30.
David and the men return home to find their entire village had been looted, torn down, and burned to a crisp. Even worse, every single one of their wives and all of their children had been taken.
Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 1 Samuel 30:1-3
Can you imagine? you're already in a bad place in life and have been for quite some time, you've already experienced more than your fair share of bad breaks and heart ache and now you have to come home to tell your wife that you just got fired from your job as an "Emo fighter for hire", only to realize that you can't tell your wife because her and your children have been taken alive likely to never be seen again. If David and his warriors were on twitter, I'm pretty sure their hashtags read something like #worstdayever and yes, even #FML...let's just be honest here. The scripture even tells us as much in the next few verses.
Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. -1 Samuel 30:4-6a
In case you thought the "FML" hashtag was a bit much on my part, it says in the passage above that the men's weeping quickly turned to bitterness and that they actually talked of killing David, while David was sitting right there with them. So yeah, if you don't like #fml, try these hashtags on for size #deaththreats #murder. They were so spent, so incredibly exhausted beyond belief in every way possible that they wept until they couldn't weep anymore. Then, as is natural for a fighter at heart, their sadness quickly turned to anger and thoughts of revenge. Only, instead of being angry at the people who had kidnapped their family they were angry with David. They wanted to blame the one who brought them out there in the first place. Doesn't that sound like how we choose to act toward God so many times? We don't want to blame the person who broke our heart, we want to blame the one who allowed us to feel like we could trust them in the first place. It's just stupid to blame God when things are clearly your fault but it's much easier to justify blaming Him when you ended up on the bad side of things because you submitted your life to him, you trusted Him and you followed Him. These men entrusted their lives to David, they followed him, fought for him and with him, and now they were paying a far greater price for than they ever wanted to. Yes, they were indeed bitter. And here's where this story comes takes a truly amazing turn......But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. 1Samuel 30:6b
If the men were mad at David, didn't David have every right to be mad at God? Let's briefly take a glance back at David's story up to this point and remember that David had been anointed King of Israel, only to have to go right back to tending sheep. Then David finally gets recognized when he defeats Goliath, only to become public enemy #1 on King Saul's hit list. He flees into the wilderness where he's been for years now, literally running for his life from the very army that he was promised by God He would be King over. Now his only friends in life are talking about killing him. Oh yeah, His wife and kids have also been taken. If that's not enough ammunition to fire a few verbal rounds off at God with, I don't know what is. Yet David did none of this. He did the very opposite of what His men were doing. David ran to God, he took shelter in the presence of God and strengthened himself in the memory of all that God was to Him, in spite of all that was happening. David didn't get bitter. He didn't have a pity party. Yes he cried till he could cry no more but then he turned to God. He didn't get bitter, he humbled himself in the presence of God. He didn't demand answers. He just asked for strength. And a funny thing happened once he got a proverbial shot of hope in his veins...And David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all.” 1 Samuel 30:8
Isn't it funny how no one had even mentioned going after their wives or kids until this point? I believe there's a reason for this. Remember what time period this took place in. There is no police force to report a kidnapping to, and no faster form of transportation to make up the ground that was already between them and the army that had taken their family. To all of David's men, their family was as good as dead and David had no reason to think otherwise himself...until. Until he strengthened himself in God. God breathed life back into His spirit and clarity back into his mind. He went from thinking "they are dead, or as good as dead. we will never find them." to remembering back at all the times God had given him victory in seemingly impossible situations. He remembered the lion and the bear. He remembered Goliath. He remembered His God. And then he said "Lord!!... Shall I pursue them?!!" I imagine him saying it like this because now, David was angry; not at his men but at the true enemy in this situation. It was a righteous and godly anger. God told him to pursue and recover all he and his men had lost. Remember, this wasn't their favorite sword that had been stolen. It was their family, their entire life, their hopes and dreams.I shared this story to share what God showed me through this. Both about my time in Arizona and all of us as believers and followers of Christ. When you really follow God and you have the type of faith to believe Him for incredible things, you will experience incredible times of disappointment, confusion, and heartache. Not because God isn't faithful but because we live in a broken world and we have an enemy who was described by Jesus Himself as being one who "comes only to steal, kill, and destroy". That's just the truth of it and David knew this. He had accepted it. He had moved past blaming God for what hope or dream didn't happen or what bad did happen. He saw God, not as the person he didn't know if he could trust or not with his life, he didn't see him as the source of all his pain, but he saw God as the person who could help him recover all that the enemy had stolen. He saw Him as he did one of his fellow warriors. He was in this war with Him. God was on His side and His God was the one that was going to help him rise from the ashes, shake off the dust and find strength to fight again. This is what you all need to know - The enemy cannot kill your God given dreams. Satan can not kill the purposes and promises God has for your life. Your dreams ARE NOT dead...but your hope might be. Satan tries to "steal" our dreams and then kill our hope for them, causing us to think they are indeed dead or that we will never see them happen. If it had not been for David finding strength in God and renewing his hope to fight for what had been stolen David and His men would have likely never seen their families again. The enemy would have won. Their families would've indeed been as good as dead to them...but God. The next time you feel as if your dreams have been destroyed or the promises of God for your life are dead; don't ask "why God?", stand up and declare with resurrected hope "but God!"
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Joel Osteen: How I used to view him, how I view him now, and the journey in between
So, after seeing yet another post slandering Joel Osteen and his ministry I felt the strong desire to come to his defense. No, not because I believe I can change any body's opinion of him or be the one who magically and suddenly shifts the less than stellar opinion that many in the religious community hold of him.
I'm doing this simply because as Christians, we are always supposed to support one another, love one another and most of all - we are supposed to constantly encourage one another at all times and rebuke only when necessary,not the other way around. I'm standing up for Joel Osteen because I have been blessed,encouraged, and given the strength to keep on moving forward in my walk with Christ and all that God has called me to do countless times by Joel's messages and books and anytime we receive from a ministry, we need to be faithful to give back to that ministry and honor them in whatever way we can. This is my way of honoring Joel Osteen and his ministry. Yes, that's right, I said "honor".
In 2006, when I first came back to a faithful walk with God after an extended "vacation" from Christianity, I didn't even know who Joel Osteen was but I soon realized that I didn't need my own opinion of Joel, because every other person in Christendom already had one. Everyone from the Head Pastor of my church at that time to people my own age who attended my church and other churches. Being the "recently returned sheep" to the fold that I was, I just assumed they knew much more than I did and so I went along with popular opinion and even laughed when the snide comment or quick jab was made in reference to Joel and his ministry. I've actually noticed that many people have made it a hobby to make fun of Joel and His seemingly ridiculous and downright offensive style of ministry. To many, it's not ministry he's doing at all and what he's preaching certainly isn't the Gospel but downright heresy.
Because I grew up in a small independent Baptist church, I had no problem going along with this view of Joel Osteen at first. when I returned to God in 2006 and started attending a Southern Baptist Church, I was already going against much of what I was raised to believe. I mean, in the independent Baptist church I grew up in, just attending a Southern Baptist church and reading out of any other Bible than the King James version was considered heresy in and of itself! So, when my southern Baptists friends, who accepted me with loving and open arms, overlooked all of my tattoos, and didn't believe that the King James version was the only "real" version of God's word and even allowed me to be on stage and play drums, looked upon Joel Osteen as one step away from heresy, I had no problem following their lead.
In the first year or so of being back in church, I even caught Joel Osteen a couple of times while flipping through trying to find other pastors I enjoyed watching on TV. I remember the feeling I had, the immediate opinion and instant reaction. It was the same that millions of others have had to his ministry at first glance. I remember thinking "Oh, there's Joel. I've already heard all about you, buddy. You and your "feel good", "candy coated", version of the Gospel. Yep, there you go telling everybody that they just have to "have faith" and that "God wants to bless you more than you ever imagined". Just like many others, I listened for about two minutes out of sheer curiosity but truth be told, my mind was already made up. He was a motivational speaker, not a minister.
I mean, that's the problem that most people have with Joel, he doesn't preach the "Gospel". Where are His messages on sin and on righteous living and on not fornicating, not being a drunk or an adulterer? For crying out loud, where are his messages about what we are supposed to be doing for God and not what God can do for us?!! I mean, that's the problem isn't it? That's why so many people are almost in disgust with Joel Osteen - he brings out the righteous anger within them!! The real Gospel isn't being taught and someone has to stand up and say something about it! Sin isn't being preached about or even acknowledged by His ministry and it's just not right!
I must admit, I agreed with this completely. What he preached did not line up at all with what I grew up hearing preached nor did it line up with what I was currently hearing preached by my Pastor at the Southern Baptist church I was attending. It was totally different than anything I had ever heard. In Christianity and religion as a whole, we all know that one of the main unspoken doctrines is that if something is different than what we have heard or seen our entire life, then it is automatically and unequivocally wrong. I grew up in a church where we were saved by grace and not by works. yes, I was a Christian by grace alone but now that I was a Christian, I had to live right, I had to do right, I had to think, do, and speak a certain way because I was a Christian and as a Christian this is what I owed God. I owed God my life and that meant that all that I thought, said or did better bring honor and glory to Him. If it didn't, I wasn't being a faithful Christian.
This is what I was raised hearing preached - Clean living, Faithfulness, Being a servant. Sunday after Sunday it was all about what I was supposed to do because I had been saved. Anybody who has listened to Joel's messages know that this is not what he preaches. No, Joel doesn't preach about how we're supposed to live as Christians, he just preaches about God and His goodness, how He loves us so much and longs to bless us and restore us and heal us. It stands in stark contrast to what is being preached in many conservative evangelical denominations today. So, which Gospel is right and which is heresy? The answer is both. Both messages are right.
It is absolutely true that now that I am a Christian I owe God my life. Christianity isn't a free pass to live how I want and still make it to Heaven. All of my thoughts, words and actions need to be honoring and glorifying to God. As I came back to Christ in 2006 and started faithfully attending church and walking out my faith, I soon realized this need to be faithful to God in every area of my life. The problem was that I was raised to believe that "clean living" was my end of the deal with God. He saved me from Hell, now I have to live a clean and faithful Christian life. Sure, It'll be easier if I read my Bible and go to church but at the end of the day, if I don't figure out how to live a faithful Christian life, there are consequences and punishment from God awaiting me.
So how does Joel Osteen's candy coated Gospel of blessing and prosperity even begin to show me how to live a faithful life to God? How is his message possibly right and true to God's word?
This is how so many people truly feel about Joel Osteen. People who truly love God and are committed to living for Him secretly wish they could ask Joel Osteen how he dares to get up and preach on blessing and prosperity week after week when people really need to hear messages on how to live faithfully for God, how to live a life that is void of continual sin and that is righteous and holy and glorifying to God. I felt this way as well for a couple of years. I wasn't angry at Joel, I just wasn't buying what he was selling. I wasn't sure if God was really in His ministry or if it was even, as I've heard some say, the work of the Devil luring people into a false Gospel. As the days went on and on however, I became more and more frustrated at my inability to live for God faithfully in every area of my life like I knew I needed to be doing, I became frequently discouraged, defeated and at times even hopeless. It's true that we all need to try our best each day to live completely for Christ in every area of our lives and we love to display the areas in our lives where we have been successful at this but at the end of the day, we often feel privately defeated because of the areas where we feel like victory and bringing that area into alignment with God and His word seems impossible. We try in those areas, of course we do. So did I. I tried so hard because I loved God and wanted to be faithful to Him in every area but I failed time after time because I was still human. I was a Christian but I was also human.
It was at this point in my life that I stopped changing the channel when I saw Joel Osteen. As I listened to Joel's messages more and more I suddenly realized that Joel wasn't preaching heresy. Joel was just preaching about a God that I had never experienced before. Joel was giving me hope when I had none. Joel was reminding me of the love of God when I doubted it, Joel was reminding me of God's good plans for my life when Satan was telling me I was a lost cause. Yes, I was saved, and yes I had a personal relationship with God. I read my Bible and prayed to God and had even had times of personal intimacy with God where I felt his presence,love, and peace strongly but I soon realized that I still didn't know God like Joel knew Him. I must say that one of the biggest personal deceptions in Christianity is when we think "all that I know God to be is all that He is." This is simply not true. Yes, God's word reveals all that God wants us to know about who He is and how he works BUT that is where revelation comes into play. Have you ever read a Bible verse that you've read a thousand times before and it suddenly makes sense and comes to life in a way that you had never understood it before? You had read it many times before and processed it in your mind but this time - it came to life in your spirit and it gave you strength, direction, peace, a greater understanding of who God is!
We are foolish to think that there is not so much more to God -(who He is, what He has for us, how he wants to show Himself to us) than what each of us know of Him and have experienced of Him to this point. As I listened to Joel and heard him preach about God and who He was and all that He wanted to do in our lives, I realized that Joel knew and was Experiencing God's goodness and abundant love on a level that I didn't even know existed. Joel was breathing in the air from a different atmosphere. This is where I admitted that I was wrong, not Joel. I had misjudged him and therefore wasn't open to his message.
This is where so many of us miss out on all that God wants to do in our lives. We stick to what we know about God. What we've been taught, what we were brought up hearing preached or even the beliefs that we're currently walking in and we put God in a box by convincing ourselves that we have God completely figured out and that we know just who God is and exactly how he works. We tell ourselves this because we say that we have a Bible and all of who God is and how He works can be found within those pages. Remember what I just said about revelation though, there is so much of who He is and how He works that it is simply layered -layer upon layer in the Bible so deep and intricate, that if anyone states that they have received full revelation of all of God's word and who He is, they are lying or completely ignorant.
Joel Osteen has a revelation of God's love, goodness, favor, and blessing like few others. I still find myself longing to have a heart as kind and loving as Joel Osteen's. Joel Osteen refuses to get on National television and call homosexuals out for their sin and tell them their going to Hell if they don't repent. He refuses to get before his congregation Sunday after Sunday and preach the same message of clean Christian living and the consequences we face if we don't fall in line. Joel just preaches about God's goodness, about God's love, God's mercy and God's desire to bless His children. Joel has been widely criticized for his appearances on national TV interviews and how he has refused to use his opportunities in the spotlight to promote the absolute truth of God's word or forcefully speak out against homosexuality or same-sex marriage. Joel just says the same thing during the interview as He does behind the pulpit.
I have listened to many of Joel's messages and read a couple of His books. I can assure you that I have heard Joel, many times, assure people that God does not want them to live in sin, that it is wrong and that it needs to be put to an end in their life. The difference is that Joel doesn't try to get them to do this by making them feel obligated to do it in their own strength because they are Christians and that's just how Christians are commanded to live. No, Joel continually points them toward Jesus, toward the love and mercy and goodness of God because Joel has realized something that many Christians haven't. It's God's goodness and loving kindness that always leads us to repentance. Joel knows that God's grace and power is not for salvation alone but it's through God's strength and focusing on Him and His goodness and love that we find the ability to live a fruitful Christian life.
I now long for others to receive a revelation of God's goodness and love on the same level that Joel has and on the level that God has shown me. I'm not where Joel is at but I know that I'm getting closer and closer. Before we judge Joel we need to take a closer look at Jesus' life and ministry.
Jesus had so many encounters with so many people and yet on almost every encounter Jesus didn't leave those people without them having experienced His love and His goodness displayed through His mighty works. I find it amazing that Jesus never went from place to place strictly teaching on how people should live and properly obey the then commandments. Yet Jesus himself said that I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Jesus also said that not one letter of the law could be changed but that it must be upheld to the fullest extent. Stating that if people wished to see Heaven they must uphold the law even better than the pharisees! So why then did Jesus not spend all of His time teaching the law? Jesus, Just as Joel Osteen on national TV, had his chance, in front of a large crowd to show just how true the law was and how serious he was about it being followed and this is what He did -
The Pharisees caught a woman in the very act of adultery, a direct breaking of the commandment that was to be punished by stoning the person to death! They brought her to Jesus right in front of everybody in the middle of Him teaching and demanded that Jesus prove whether He was for God's commandments or against them. The Pharisees were sure they had Him trapped! They knew God loved to show people mercy but they also knew that Jesus had clearly stated that He had come to uphold the law. There was just no way to show this woman mercy without overlooking the word of God! They were going to prove Jesus to be a liar and a heretic! Isn't this what so many people accuse Joel Osteen of doing? Sure Joel is a loving and kind person but that means nothing because Joel won't stand up and proclaim the true word and demand that people repent of their blatant sin! Jesus confronts the Pharisees and tells them to cast the first stone if they are without sin. They all drop their stones and leave. Jesus looks at the woman and tells her that she has no accusers left, that He himself doesn't accuse her, even though He has every right to do so. He then tells her to go and sin no more.
You might be thinking "well, that was Jesus, he had the right to overlook and forgive her even though she deserved death but we aren't Jesus. We have to tell people about their sin so they realize they need Jesus' love and forgiveness. If that was so, then why didn't Jesus accuse the woman, tell her how wrong what she had done was, tell her that she had sinned greatly but now she was forgiven? No Jesus floods the woman with a demonstration of His love, goodness and mercy, tells her that even He doesn't accuse her and then, almost as an afterthought, tells her to go and sin no more. Joel Osteen is simply doing what Jesus did. His ministry is not about accusing people, it's about showing people God's love for them. Just as Jesus knew that He was soon going to fulfill every requirement of the law and that He needed to show this woman His love and not accuse her, Joel Osteen realizes that their is no need to accuse people by telling them that their choice of lifestyle is sin. You must show them the love of Jesus. Be a connection for them to Jesus and then let Jesus tell them to go and sin no more. Joel Osteen has indeed stated on national TV interviews that God's word says that homosexuality is a sin (please click on link and watch video) http://youtu.be/tgCpRNfBzys but he always reverts right back to God's love and how God still loves them and wants His best for them. You see, it's not that Joel doesn't believe God's word, he does, he knows and believes that what God calls sin, is indeed sin. Joel has just had the revelation that we all need more of each day. The revelation that Jesus doesn't focus on our sin and He doesn't want us to either. He wants us and all of our focus to be on Him and His goodness and love and mercy. That's when true change happens.
I admire Joel Osteen, I love Him as a brother in Christ and fellow Minister and I honor Him and all that He has accomplished for the Kingdom of God and I wholeheartedly support Him. He nor His ministry is perfect by any means and yes there are things that I would do differently as a Minister but that's because I'm me and not Joel, not because Joel is committing heresy or being unfaithful to God's word. Everyone's ministry is not going to look the same. Many of the differences we see in ministry and ministers isn't because some are being faithful and others aren't. It's because God calls Ministers to a specific area of ministry in many instances. Just like the Apostle Paul was called to deliver the message that the Gospel was for the Gentile as well as the Jew. I believe Joel has been called to help people receive a revelation of God's goodness and love on a level they have never experienced before. One look at Joel ministering and you can see that He's anointed to do what He does. No one else could minister in the way that he does. Joel Osteen pastors the largest church in America. As a Christian, you need to have an opinion on the minister of the largest church in America. You owe it to yourself to watch Him and find out more about Him with an open and prayerful heart because numbers aren't just numbers-they're lives, they're people and more people are attending his church each week than anywhere else in the nation. We need to stop just saying He's wrong and start honestly asking ourselves if we might be wrong about Him. We need to ask God if we are the ones who need to come into alignment with how Joel views God and not the other way around.
I'm doing this simply because as Christians, we are always supposed to support one another, love one another and most of all - we are supposed to constantly encourage one another at all times and rebuke only when necessary,not the other way around. I'm standing up for Joel Osteen because I have been blessed,encouraged, and given the strength to keep on moving forward in my walk with Christ and all that God has called me to do countless times by Joel's messages and books and anytime we receive from a ministry, we need to be faithful to give back to that ministry and honor them in whatever way we can. This is my way of honoring Joel Osteen and his ministry. Yes, that's right, I said "honor".
In 2006, when I first came back to a faithful walk with God after an extended "vacation" from Christianity, I didn't even know who Joel Osteen was but I soon realized that I didn't need my own opinion of Joel, because every other person in Christendom already had one. Everyone from the Head Pastor of my church at that time to people my own age who attended my church and other churches. Being the "recently returned sheep" to the fold that I was, I just assumed they knew much more than I did and so I went along with popular opinion and even laughed when the snide comment or quick jab was made in reference to Joel and his ministry. I've actually noticed that many people have made it a hobby to make fun of Joel and His seemingly ridiculous and downright offensive style of ministry. To many, it's not ministry he's doing at all and what he's preaching certainly isn't the Gospel but downright heresy.
Because I grew up in a small independent Baptist church, I had no problem going along with this view of Joel Osteen at first. when I returned to God in 2006 and started attending a Southern Baptist Church, I was already going against much of what I was raised to believe. I mean, in the independent Baptist church I grew up in, just attending a Southern Baptist church and reading out of any other Bible than the King James version was considered heresy in and of itself! So, when my southern Baptists friends, who accepted me with loving and open arms, overlooked all of my tattoos, and didn't believe that the King James version was the only "real" version of God's word and even allowed me to be on stage and play drums, looked upon Joel Osteen as one step away from heresy, I had no problem following their lead.
In the first year or so of being back in church, I even caught Joel Osteen a couple of times while flipping through trying to find other pastors I enjoyed watching on TV. I remember the feeling I had, the immediate opinion and instant reaction. It was the same that millions of others have had to his ministry at first glance. I remember thinking "Oh, there's Joel. I've already heard all about you, buddy. You and your "feel good", "candy coated", version of the Gospel. Yep, there you go telling everybody that they just have to "have faith" and that "God wants to bless you more than you ever imagined". Just like many others, I listened for about two minutes out of sheer curiosity but truth be told, my mind was already made up. He was a motivational speaker, not a minister.
I mean, that's the problem that most people have with Joel, he doesn't preach the "Gospel". Where are His messages on sin and on righteous living and on not fornicating, not being a drunk or an adulterer? For crying out loud, where are his messages about what we are supposed to be doing for God and not what God can do for us?!! I mean, that's the problem isn't it? That's why so many people are almost in disgust with Joel Osteen - he brings out the righteous anger within them!! The real Gospel isn't being taught and someone has to stand up and say something about it! Sin isn't being preached about or even acknowledged by His ministry and it's just not right!
I must admit, I agreed with this completely. What he preached did not line up at all with what I grew up hearing preached nor did it line up with what I was currently hearing preached by my Pastor at the Southern Baptist church I was attending. It was totally different than anything I had ever heard. In Christianity and religion as a whole, we all know that one of the main unspoken doctrines is that if something is different than what we have heard or seen our entire life, then it is automatically and unequivocally wrong. I grew up in a church where we were saved by grace and not by works. yes, I was a Christian by grace alone but now that I was a Christian, I had to live right, I had to do right, I had to think, do, and speak a certain way because I was a Christian and as a Christian this is what I owed God. I owed God my life and that meant that all that I thought, said or did better bring honor and glory to Him. If it didn't, I wasn't being a faithful Christian.
This is what I was raised hearing preached - Clean living, Faithfulness, Being a servant. Sunday after Sunday it was all about what I was supposed to do because I had been saved. Anybody who has listened to Joel's messages know that this is not what he preaches. No, Joel doesn't preach about how we're supposed to live as Christians, he just preaches about God and His goodness, how He loves us so much and longs to bless us and restore us and heal us. It stands in stark contrast to what is being preached in many conservative evangelical denominations today. So, which Gospel is right and which is heresy? The answer is both. Both messages are right.
It is absolutely true that now that I am a Christian I owe God my life. Christianity isn't a free pass to live how I want and still make it to Heaven. All of my thoughts, words and actions need to be honoring and glorifying to God. As I came back to Christ in 2006 and started faithfully attending church and walking out my faith, I soon realized this need to be faithful to God in every area of my life. The problem was that I was raised to believe that "clean living" was my end of the deal with God. He saved me from Hell, now I have to live a clean and faithful Christian life. Sure, It'll be easier if I read my Bible and go to church but at the end of the day, if I don't figure out how to live a faithful Christian life, there are consequences and punishment from God awaiting me.
So how does Joel Osteen's candy coated Gospel of blessing and prosperity even begin to show me how to live a faithful life to God? How is his message possibly right and true to God's word?
This is how so many people truly feel about Joel Osteen. People who truly love God and are committed to living for Him secretly wish they could ask Joel Osteen how he dares to get up and preach on blessing and prosperity week after week when people really need to hear messages on how to live faithfully for God, how to live a life that is void of continual sin and that is righteous and holy and glorifying to God. I felt this way as well for a couple of years. I wasn't angry at Joel, I just wasn't buying what he was selling. I wasn't sure if God was really in His ministry or if it was even, as I've heard some say, the work of the Devil luring people into a false Gospel. As the days went on and on however, I became more and more frustrated at my inability to live for God faithfully in every area of my life like I knew I needed to be doing, I became frequently discouraged, defeated and at times even hopeless. It's true that we all need to try our best each day to live completely for Christ in every area of our lives and we love to display the areas in our lives where we have been successful at this but at the end of the day, we often feel privately defeated because of the areas where we feel like victory and bringing that area into alignment with God and His word seems impossible. We try in those areas, of course we do. So did I. I tried so hard because I loved God and wanted to be faithful to Him in every area but I failed time after time because I was still human. I was a Christian but I was also human.
It was at this point in my life that I stopped changing the channel when I saw Joel Osteen. As I listened to Joel's messages more and more I suddenly realized that Joel wasn't preaching heresy. Joel was just preaching about a God that I had never experienced before. Joel was giving me hope when I had none. Joel was reminding me of the love of God when I doubted it, Joel was reminding me of God's good plans for my life when Satan was telling me I was a lost cause. Yes, I was saved, and yes I had a personal relationship with God. I read my Bible and prayed to God and had even had times of personal intimacy with God where I felt his presence,love, and peace strongly but I soon realized that I still didn't know God like Joel knew Him. I must say that one of the biggest personal deceptions in Christianity is when we think "all that I know God to be is all that He is." This is simply not true. Yes, God's word reveals all that God wants us to know about who He is and how he works BUT that is where revelation comes into play. Have you ever read a Bible verse that you've read a thousand times before and it suddenly makes sense and comes to life in a way that you had never understood it before? You had read it many times before and processed it in your mind but this time - it came to life in your spirit and it gave you strength, direction, peace, a greater understanding of who God is!
We are foolish to think that there is not so much more to God -(who He is, what He has for us, how he wants to show Himself to us) than what each of us know of Him and have experienced of Him to this point. As I listened to Joel and heard him preach about God and who He was and all that He wanted to do in our lives, I realized that Joel knew and was Experiencing God's goodness and abundant love on a level that I didn't even know existed. Joel was breathing in the air from a different atmosphere. This is where I admitted that I was wrong, not Joel. I had misjudged him and therefore wasn't open to his message.
This is where so many of us miss out on all that God wants to do in our lives. We stick to what we know about God. What we've been taught, what we were brought up hearing preached or even the beliefs that we're currently walking in and we put God in a box by convincing ourselves that we have God completely figured out and that we know just who God is and exactly how he works. We tell ourselves this because we say that we have a Bible and all of who God is and how He works can be found within those pages. Remember what I just said about revelation though, there is so much of who He is and how He works that it is simply layered -layer upon layer in the Bible so deep and intricate, that if anyone states that they have received full revelation of all of God's word and who He is, they are lying or completely ignorant.
Joel Osteen has a revelation of God's love, goodness, favor, and blessing like few others. I still find myself longing to have a heart as kind and loving as Joel Osteen's. Joel Osteen refuses to get on National television and call homosexuals out for their sin and tell them their going to Hell if they don't repent. He refuses to get before his congregation Sunday after Sunday and preach the same message of clean Christian living and the consequences we face if we don't fall in line. Joel just preaches about God's goodness, about God's love, God's mercy and God's desire to bless His children. Joel has been widely criticized for his appearances on national TV interviews and how he has refused to use his opportunities in the spotlight to promote the absolute truth of God's word or forcefully speak out against homosexuality or same-sex marriage. Joel just says the same thing during the interview as He does behind the pulpit.
I have listened to many of Joel's messages and read a couple of His books. I can assure you that I have heard Joel, many times, assure people that God does not want them to live in sin, that it is wrong and that it needs to be put to an end in their life. The difference is that Joel doesn't try to get them to do this by making them feel obligated to do it in their own strength because they are Christians and that's just how Christians are commanded to live. No, Joel continually points them toward Jesus, toward the love and mercy and goodness of God because Joel has realized something that many Christians haven't. It's God's goodness and loving kindness that always leads us to repentance. Joel knows that God's grace and power is not for salvation alone but it's through God's strength and focusing on Him and His goodness and love that we find the ability to live a fruitful Christian life.
I now long for others to receive a revelation of God's goodness and love on the same level that Joel has and on the level that God has shown me. I'm not where Joel is at but I know that I'm getting closer and closer. Before we judge Joel we need to take a closer look at Jesus' life and ministry.
Jesus had so many encounters with so many people and yet on almost every encounter Jesus didn't leave those people without them having experienced His love and His goodness displayed through His mighty works. I find it amazing that Jesus never went from place to place strictly teaching on how people should live and properly obey the then commandments. Yet Jesus himself said that I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Jesus also said that not one letter of the law could be changed but that it must be upheld to the fullest extent. Stating that if people wished to see Heaven they must uphold the law even better than the pharisees! So why then did Jesus not spend all of His time teaching the law? Jesus, Just as Joel Osteen on national TV, had his chance, in front of a large crowd to show just how true the law was and how serious he was about it being followed and this is what He did -
The Pharisees caught a woman in the very act of adultery, a direct breaking of the commandment that was to be punished by stoning the person to death! They brought her to Jesus right in front of everybody in the middle of Him teaching and demanded that Jesus prove whether He was for God's commandments or against them. The Pharisees were sure they had Him trapped! They knew God loved to show people mercy but they also knew that Jesus had clearly stated that He had come to uphold the law. There was just no way to show this woman mercy without overlooking the word of God! They were going to prove Jesus to be a liar and a heretic! Isn't this what so many people accuse Joel Osteen of doing? Sure Joel is a loving and kind person but that means nothing because Joel won't stand up and proclaim the true word and demand that people repent of their blatant sin! Jesus confronts the Pharisees and tells them to cast the first stone if they are without sin. They all drop their stones and leave. Jesus looks at the woman and tells her that she has no accusers left, that He himself doesn't accuse her, even though He has every right to do so. He then tells her to go and sin no more.
You might be thinking "well, that was Jesus, he had the right to overlook and forgive her even though she deserved death but we aren't Jesus. We have to tell people about their sin so they realize they need Jesus' love and forgiveness. If that was so, then why didn't Jesus accuse the woman, tell her how wrong what she had done was, tell her that she had sinned greatly but now she was forgiven? No Jesus floods the woman with a demonstration of His love, goodness and mercy, tells her that even He doesn't accuse her and then, almost as an afterthought, tells her to go and sin no more. Joel Osteen is simply doing what Jesus did. His ministry is not about accusing people, it's about showing people God's love for them. Just as Jesus knew that He was soon going to fulfill every requirement of the law and that He needed to show this woman His love and not accuse her, Joel Osteen realizes that their is no need to accuse people by telling them that their choice of lifestyle is sin. You must show them the love of Jesus. Be a connection for them to Jesus and then let Jesus tell them to go and sin no more. Joel Osteen has indeed stated on national TV interviews that God's word says that homosexuality is a sin (please click on link and watch video) http://youtu.be/tgCpRNfBzys but he always reverts right back to God's love and how God still loves them and wants His best for them. You see, it's not that Joel doesn't believe God's word, he does, he knows and believes that what God calls sin, is indeed sin. Joel has just had the revelation that we all need more of each day. The revelation that Jesus doesn't focus on our sin and He doesn't want us to either. He wants us and all of our focus to be on Him and His goodness and love and mercy. That's when true change happens.
I admire Joel Osteen, I love Him as a brother in Christ and fellow Minister and I honor Him and all that He has accomplished for the Kingdom of God and I wholeheartedly support Him. He nor His ministry is perfect by any means and yes there are things that I would do differently as a Minister but that's because I'm me and not Joel, not because Joel is committing heresy or being unfaithful to God's word. Everyone's ministry is not going to look the same. Many of the differences we see in ministry and ministers isn't because some are being faithful and others aren't. It's because God calls Ministers to a specific area of ministry in many instances. Just like the Apostle Paul was called to deliver the message that the Gospel was for the Gentile as well as the Jew. I believe Joel has been called to help people receive a revelation of God's goodness and love on a level they have never experienced before. One look at Joel ministering and you can see that He's anointed to do what He does. No one else could minister in the way that he does. Joel Osteen pastors the largest church in America. As a Christian, you need to have an opinion on the minister of the largest church in America. You owe it to yourself to watch Him and find out more about Him with an open and prayerful heart because numbers aren't just numbers-they're lives, they're people and more people are attending his church each week than anywhere else in the nation. We need to stop just saying He's wrong and start honestly asking ourselves if we might be wrong about Him. We need to ask God if we are the ones who need to come into alignment with how Joel views God and not the other way around.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Blessings : perceiving leads to receiving
In the story of the prodigal son, there are actually two sons that we need to take valuable lessons from, not just one. We often focus on the prodigal son because we easily recognize this as a story of God's loving kindness and forgiveness but we often focus so much on this story being about God's giving of mercy and grace that we miss the fact that it is also a story about receiving.
I want to focus on the other brother for a moment, the one who didn't run away. The one who did everything he could possibly do to be pleasing to the father...or so he thought.
Luke 15:25 -31
25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.Obviously this brother was furious at His father and probably even more so at his younger brother and honestly, when we read the story, don't we all kind of know deep down that we would have a pretty hard time not reacting the same way? The brother seems perfectly justified in his "righteous anger"! He lays the case out to his father like a seasoned prosecutor laying out the overwhelming evidence against a guilty defendant. He also points out to his father not only the younger brother's obvious faults but justifies himself in the process by reminding his father of just how faultless he has been compared to his younger brother.
However, there's something the older brother has missed entirely...
That is that the father already knows that he has been far more faithful than the older brother. The father knows that the older son has been far more just in his actions and righteous in his ways. The father also knows, however, that this isn't an issue of who has been faithful, who has been righteous, or who has been just in their actions. The father knows what the issue is really about -
The father knows that it's all about receiving!
You're probably thinking, "wait a minute- this has always been a story about forgiveness. This story is about the son screwing up royally and then the father showing unbelievable love and grace by completely forgiving him."
You're right! this is a story that demonstrates God's willingness to forgive us BUT it is not a story specifically about forgiveness. It is a story about being able to receive forgiveness among many other things. If it was only about forgiveness, then why is the second brother even part of the story? This story is about receiving. Let me show you!
We all know Jesus was a master teacher and the main way he taught was often through stories. This being said, Jesus would not just flippantly throw in the second brother and his dialogue with the father as meaningless filler to end the story. Jesus wanted us to focus on the second brother just as we focused on the first.
This is where we come to the issue of perceiving and receiving.
The older brother was furious at the father because he was throwing this huge party for his younger brother who had just returned from completely abandoning his father and squandering the inheritance that he had worked so hard to put aside for him. The older brother could not even begin to grasp how any of those actions were worthy of a celebration. In his mind, I'm sure he was wondering how the father even wanted this son back in the first place.
The real issue the son has, however, is not so much the fact that the party is being thrown for his prodigal brother, but the fact that a party was never thrown for him! In verse 29, the older son tells the father "look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends."
What we need to realize here is that the older brother is telling us in this very moment, the type of man he believes his father to be! He says that he has served him, and never disobeyed him. These are terms that a slave or servant would use regarding their master! Then the younger son tells the father that in spite of all his "loyal service" he never even once offered him a goat to cook that he might celebrate with his friends. This shows us that the older son viewed his father as a taskmaster whom he served and never received anything from in spite of his hard work and loyalty. His perception of the father couldn't have been more flawed. This is why he never received anything from the father.
His inability to correctly perceive kept him from being able to freely receive.
The older son couldn't make sense of what was happening and just how wronged he felt because he viewed his life and his relationship with his father as one of works, rewards, and consequences. He lived by the code of "do good get good, do bad get bad". So, in his eyes, he deserved good rewards which he wasn't getting and his brother deserved harshness and consequences which he clearly wasn't getting. You can see how this older brother's entire worldview was being rocked at this moment in time.
Then the father steps in and says this in verse 31...
"Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours."
The father was trying to get the son to realize two things. First, He calls him son, to remind him that he is his son, not his servant or his slave and he tells him "you are always with me." The older brother was trying to distinguish himself as better than the older brother because he had always been there with the father and had never ran away but the father was telling him "you are always with me". Notice the father didn't say "you WERE always with me". The father is letting him know that because you are my son, you will always be with me whether you're here physically or not. The father says this to show the older brother that even though his younger brother ran away, he is still my son just as much as you are and what he did or where he went doesn't change that.
The second thing the father wanted the son to realize is that it was never about doing and earning but about perceiving and receiving. The older brother never enjoyed the blessings available to him as the father's son because he wrongly perceived the father. He kept waiting and waiting for the father to come and acknowledge just how hard he had worked for him and what a great son he was and reward him for his faithfulness when all the son had to do was stop trying to earn rewards for perfection and start willingly receiving the benefits of being a son.
The father lets him know that because he was his son, he was entitled to all that the father had to offer, all he had to do was willingly receive it instead of breaking his back trying to earn it. All he was working so hard for was right there in front of him but he wouldn't stop trying to earn it long enough to simply set his tools down, open his hands and receive it.
We are the same way many times when it comes to God's blessings. The Bible is full of promises from God to us - blessings that he says are freely ours simply because we are His sons. Yet many times we are continually trying to work and earn just a little bit of blessing from God and when we don't get it, we think we need to work harder or live more perfectly as a Christian. I have come to learn this truth - If we are trying to earn God's blessings by how we live and what we do, we will never receive what we are hoping for because we're really not trying to receive it in the first place, we're trying to earn it.
our problem is not perfection, it's perception.
We are perceiving God and who He is incorrectly and it is completely blocking our ability to freely receive His blessings. I've always said that a blessing is called a blessing because it's something that we don't deserve and couldn't earn. You don't receive your paycheck each week and burst into thanksgiving and elation and say "oh, what a blessing!" No, because that paycheck is your due wages according to what you have earned.
Romans 4:4&5 "Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."
God is our father and Jesus paid the price for us to be perfected and to be in perfect relationship with Him thereby allowing us to simply open our hands and freely receive all that God has for each of His children. This is exactly why the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that "all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus, yes, and Amen." Christ's death makes us eligible for every blessing God wants to give us! But as long as we spend our lives trying to live perfectly, trying to make ourselves eligible in our own strength, we are missing all that God has for us. We will never be able to receive from God until we correctly perceive God as the loving Father who longs to bless us and is just waiting for us to rest in Jesus' finished work so that we can simply receive all that He has for us.
The most ironic part of the story of the prodigal son is that the prodigal son had a more correct perception of his father than the older brother did. He was able to receive when the older brother wasn't. Think about it - The younger son, knew that his father would probably freely give him what was his, or he would have never even bothered asking for it. He knew that as his father's son, he was entitled to those things simply because he was his son. Even more revealing is the fact that after he had squandered all of the inheritance and was eating pig slop, he still knew deep down that his father was a truly loving father and wanted good for him. That's why he knew that his father would at least take him back as a servant. The normal protocol in that culture would have been for the son to be stoned to death! Yet this son knew deep down that His father was good and loving.
The most important truth we see in the prodigal son is that in spite of his sin and the hurt he had caused, he was still willing to simply receive all that his father wanted for him. He didn't demand to only be a servant and nothing more. He willingly accepted being treated once again as a son of the father.
Are we allowing God to treat us as His children and receive from Him simply because we're his sons and daughters? Or are we still trying to earn our way as perfect servants? Change the way you perceive God and open your hands to freely receive all that He has for you!
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