How do you say it? j/n?

[QUOTE]
So I may be mean, judgmental and a troubler of evangelical Israel, but I’m not jealous of Osteen.

I’m not jealous of his message, because there’s no treasure of Christ in it. It’s a message of good works and human efforts at manipulating God. You can have it.
[/QUOTE]

That’s it. And if anyone wants to count that as jealousy, nuts to them. God is jealous, and I stand with Him. Joel Osteen can’t stand where God stands, and when Joel takes God out of the middle of the picture — even if he doesn’t put anything in God’s place — he’s calling down God’s jealousy.

If your stick breaks beating on this issue, I’ll hand you another one. Swing harder: this horse has been known to fake being dead and then claiming it has risen from the grave.

Going out-of-balance like that usually triggers others to go equally out-of-balance in the opposite direction. I would expect a reaction concentrating only on the afterlife to the point of asceticism or total indifference to the here-and-now. Or maybe we’ve already seen that in a lot of Evangelical Protestants (especially the Left Behinders) and Osteen et al is the reaction.

I think C.S.Lewis said the Devil sends temptations/sins in opposite pairs, so that in fleeing from one we end up embracing the other.

You’ve encouraged me today. I’ve been ministering for over 16 years in a small church in central Virginia. I’ve got a number of friends who graduated from college about the same time I did that work in much bigger churches, pull down much bigger salaries, enjoy much bigger budgets, involved in much bigger programs, receiving much greater notoriety than I could ever dream of receiving. Sometimes I do get jealous. I know in my heart that they are no more gifted than I am and that I could be doing the same things they’re doing and more if given the opportunity. But then I look around at what God is doing in the lives of the people in the church community He has placed me in, and I realize that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. Because in the end it’s not about me. It never was. It’s about what God wants to do though me, which is infinitely more than what I could do on my own. Thanks for helping me remember that today.

One side of her family preaches and practices Prosperity Gospel. Her statement makes me shiver with such coldness when I think upon them.

I look at my pastor right now – one of his sons fathering a child out of wedlock, that woman perhaps never ending up together with him, his wife in perpetual depression, a face that even when smiling can only be reserved… his salary is not great, and neither is his life, but I do not think he would be jealous, either.

Anyway, thanks for sharing a glimps of your world…it sounds fantastic!
-jeremy

You are correct when you state in the previous post,
“MEN abandoning their place in the church is one reason for the ascendancy of Osteen, so blame us”.

However, one can not totally blame men for this dilemma. A major reason for men abandoning their place is the democratic process. Since all, whether male or female have an equal vote in contemporary society including the church, and since women are the majority in most churches, and since by nature they tend to shy from confrontation more than men, what is left for true men to do but to join in the emotionally oriented praise and worship, or abandon ship altogether. While I am not recommending physical warfare, when Truth is at stake, polemical warfare is necessary.
Paul promotes discernment and confrontation;
1Co 14:29 Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.
1Co 11:19 “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.”
Discernment requires confrontation, and confrontation may result in polemical battle in order to divide Truth from error.
Allow men to be men, and they will again put on the whole armor of God, and in taking up their cross will also take up the sword of the Spirit, and do Spiritual battle for Christ and His church. Tether them and confuse their masculinity by majority vote, and they will become like Nero and the dying Roman empire.

I’m far more concerned about this nation who can’t say enough about Osteen. Of course, he sounds great at first but over a long haul? Don’t they get tired of reality not meshing to what he has preached? Is it possible God raised up Osteen intentionally to show us what Christians in this nation have come to?

Aside from this. In the eternal realms there will be people grateful to you and your colleagues for their selfless contributions to the buildings of precious metals and stones that will be tested with fire that Paul spoke of. You didn’t build with straw and stubble nor did you give such to others to build with.

I work at a church that is a strange mesh between an innercity church and a backwoods country church (in Western North Carolina); its by no means a megachurch… but even still, the prosperity gospel has been interwoven throughout. Things like, “if you’ll give, God will bless you” and “you need to teach sunday school, if you do, you’ll be setting yourself up for a blessing.” There is always some more “blessing” to get.

the point I’m trying to make is that the reason why people have not risen up against people like Osteen, is because when it comes down to it, they’re just like him. Christians all over the nation live lavish lifestyles, preach one form or another of the prosperity gospel, aspire to be famous, etc….

If you call Osteen out, you’re calling most American Christians out. And most people don’t like that kinda thing. But it needs to be done.