As the saying goes...."no cross, no Christ". A fitting metaphor for the Gospel according to Joel.
"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" isn't Joel's favorite piece of Scripture.
Well, at least he doesn’t have any trouble playing his bills.
When you buy his books, you’re paying his bills.
Joel O is a fraud of monumental proportions using Christianity to pack his bank balances by tens of millions of dollars. Will these imbecile followers ever learn?
He actually talks about and personally demonstrates a surrendered life, a committed life to the Lord, and living by faith in God's grace.
Many confuse a Philadelphia church with a Laodicean church. We are living in the lukewarm Laodicean era where Christ's return is imminent. Many who view Mr. Osteen from a distance and/or don't read his books confuse his ministry with the lukewarm Christ-less, faithless, cross-less, bloodless message of the apostate church. (I wasn't sure about him either until God helped me to take a closer look.) His ministry is biblically based, founded on scriptural doctrine, anointed, and infused with faith, hope and love.
The Pharisees of Jesus' day hated him because he didn't condemn people the way they did or follow their religious dictates. They also envied him because so many followed him. Crowds or the lack thereof neither qualifies nor disqualifies a ministry. "By their fruits (not leaves) you shall know them." Inspect Osteen's fruit and see what you come with. Pharisees are notorious leaf inspectors. No different with the Pharisees of today. Our notion of holiness isn't necessarily God's holiness. Jesus is the revelation of the Father and his holiness.
If you drop down the page which you had given the link for, you would have seen that story that Osteens saying that Obama loves the Lord. BARF!
I guess no one learned the lesson that Jim Bakker taught...
“hay, wood and stubble”
joel too positive everything is great for me preacher. i need some fire and brimstone to put me back in my place from time to time. no disrespect to joel just not my kind of message i need
Excuse me, but the cross is only a symbol of Christ’s SACRIFICE for all humanity. The cross is not an idol to be worshipped.
And .. for anybody who is willing to hear, CHRIST IS NOT ON THE CROSS ANY LONGER. JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD - BY THE POWER OF GOD - PROVING THAT JESUS’ SACRIFICE WAS REAL AND HAD A PURPOSE. THE PURPOSE WAS TO SAVE ALL THOSE WHO BELIEVE ON HIM (CHRIST) .. not all those who believe on Joel.
I watch Joel every Sunday. I find his preaching refreshing and uplifting, and I write down all the scripture references he uses and read them for myself.
It’s only jealously to be afraid of a Christian man who owns a huge and fancy arena in which to preach. Such a person needs to be redeemed.
A good key to remember is this: If Joel is from God, nobody will be able to stop him. If Joel is not from God, God is more than capable of shuting him down. The unbelievers of this world don’t have to do anything .. God can take care of it.
I seem to recall that Jesus promised his followers suffering in this life...but that kind of thing doesn’t exactly fill an arena now does it?
Is he telling the congregation what it yearns to hear? I tried to listen to him once, but my mind started wandering off in a hurry.
CNN....oh please give me a break...
Really?
Funny, there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of Christian churches around the world who do not have a cross in them.
And yet they are far better Christians then many I have met here in the States.
I used to wonder about the ‘unfairness’ of circumstances among people whether they are Christian or of any other faith or without a faith. I felt it most keenly one night when I was upset about something I thought was ‘big’ in my life but I lay in a modest dwelling with a favorite blanket wrapped around me. It was about 45 degrees outside and I knew quite well that the homeless would be lucky to find a place for the night and they probably wouldn’t have their ‘favorite’ blanket with them. In the eyes of God, I do not ‘merit’ a blanket and others the cold hard ground in the winter.
If I remain unemployed much longer I will lose my house but I do thank God that I ever had a house to begin with…and He never promised me a house – He promised me a lasting home, with Him.
Why, if we are all to prosper literally, do some dig through rubbish for food (in our country or any other)? Why am I ambulatory and another confined to a wheelchair if God wants us to prosper (in health) in this life? In the past few years I have come to agree with the pastor of the church I attend – God loves us and wants us to prosper but it is not always material things or physical health that he uses to prospers us.
God also promises ‘in this life you will have struggles’ and my pastor jokes that he has yet to see that particular promise in a inspirational Hallmark figurine (like the little waif holding a sign that reads ‘I wuv you’) or a lovely Hummel figurine.
I think Joel Osteen preaches half the message – the encouraging half – and by omission does a disservice to those who are undergoing struggle, financial or otherwise. I read his book and was at times encouraged by his positive mindset and other times repelled by his confidence that God wants him to have a luxurious house (my paraphrasing of a passage in Joel’s book).
I think there is room and need for both halves of the Word – the struggle half and the prosperity (in all its forms) half. Why did Job struggle? It wasn’t because he didn’t love God or wasn’t faithful. This recorded (mp3) sermon, titled “Surviving Life’s Unanswered Questions” finally makes sense to me and has given me the best explanation, so far, for the ‘unexplainable’ (the concept of suffering)
http://www.tlc.org/sermons/details.php?sermon_id=288
I feel Joel doesn’t help his followers prepare for the hard times we all face.
“Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, 16 go, sell what you have and give to (the) poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22
When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
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17 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.
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Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
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18 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?”
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Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
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Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?”
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19 Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
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And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.
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20 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Matthew
Chapter 19USCCB
Mark
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No, people help HIM pay his bills..