Andrew Schwab & Joel Osteen

Andrew Schwab has a blog on relevantmagazine.com and he recently updated it with his experience reading Joel Osteen’s latest book. I was a bit surprised he had bought it to begin with, but I do not pretend to be an authority on either man. I do have to say I was happy to see his reaction was that of shock and horror, and loaded with his unique brand of honesty wrapped in a heavy dose of sarcasm. Yet as he does there was a point where he laid all that aside and offered his sincere thoughts:

"What we really want and what we really need are sometimes two very different things. Be cautious when someone promises that faith is a means to a better life. They may be subtly trying to give you a message that may make you feel better, while neglecting what you truly need…to be broken and molded into a devoted servant, not a well-adjusted overachiever."

He wrote alot more than that, but in the end that best summarizes what he thought. I wanted to comment on it because for a while I've heard about Joel Osteen and this thing called Prosperity Preaching. I saw his interviews with Barbara Walters & Larry King and thought to myself Who is this Kook?

I'll tell you exactly why I thought he was a kook. As I understand it he does not have a cross or other "religious" type glass work or paintings in his church as they might be offensive to some people. You know I actually don't take issue with the fact that his newly remodeled multimillion dollar church might not feature traditional religious symbols. I DO think not having a cross is suspect, but a modern building might aesthetically allow for other mindful expressions of peace and harmony so I have to allow for some degree of openness, but the fact that these symbols were purposefully omitted because they might be offend people is offensive to my sense of what Christianity is all about.

After all what is it that we're really talking about here?

How is Jesus dying on the cross offensive to Christians? He knowingly died for our sin's. It was a beautiful gift! Don't get me wrong it was a horrible undertaking- the actual events that took place leading up to his death- were I can only imagine nothing less than horrific! Any believer who has not seen "The Passion Of The Christ" really does need to see it and from that movie alone you'll get a sense for what Jesus went through for us all. It's tragic and it's beautiful all at the same time and if anyone doesn't get that I'm sorry I do have to question it!

I wanted to send the actual quote to Andrew, but when I searched Wikipedia where I had previously shown a friend the text (she had just recently discovered him and wanted to know more) the offensive cross reference turned her off just as much as it did me and she is Protestant while I am Catholic so I don't think it's a denominational issue I think it's a Christian issue. When I logged onto Wikipedia this time I saw that Joel Osteen's page had been revised and all the criticisms had been stripped away- which kinda shocked me a little. I wondered why and how it became all positive and seemed very promotional in some respects. So I did a Google search and found two kinds of links. Some that were totally positive and seemed again to be promotional in nature and others that were filled with HATE! There was no in between, it was very polarized and I wondered what that meant.

Needless to say I couldn't find the quote....only references to the quote regarding the cross as offensive. I watched some interview clips as well and Joel seemed very likable and very joyous- almost like a stepford wife type of likability. What I did find interesting is that when an interviewer would press him to judge he skirted around judging people claiming that he didn't know if Mormons or Muslims wouldn't be allowed in heaven and I think that statement might be what has set people on fire- which I can understand although I don't think his statement was that off the mark. The fact of the matter is Joel Osteen doesn't know- only God knows who he'll allow into Heaven. We should not presuppose to know God. We should strive to be in relationship with him, but do we know him really? He knows us that's for sure, but do we know him? We know of him through bible readings and we get a sense of him through his miracles and through his son, Jesus. We know he is all powerful and all loving, but I think it's foolish to assume we know that he will deny one man and accept another based on our very limited understanding of God and our very rudimentary intellects.

So here I am thinking this man, Joel Osteen, is a kook and yet he has some interesting qualities. I find a world wide web that is polarized- he is either HATED or LOVED or well promoted at the very least. I find that a trusted source for me- Andrew Schwab is wary of his message and I am in no hurry to learn more about him yet I can't say he is wrong in what I do know, which brings me back to the question:

What is it that we're really talking about here?

This is the main reason why I have reservations about other Christians and other denominations. This is why I am being very careful in my walk. I spent a great deal of time away from God due to the ways of churches and religions and if I learned anything from this brief exploration into the subject of Joel Osteen I've learned that maybe Andrew Schwab is right to be wary and I am right to be careful. Something is amidst here, even if I don't know what it is.

One Will Stay & One Will Go

Lately I've been concentrating on my faith ALOT....or at least alot for me!!

I've been buying and reading books- more buying than reading.....can't keep up actually. God is guiding me in such a way that I am finding links and interesting facts and ideas so much quicker than I can absorb them so I will send away for a book even though I have 5 others to read with the idea that I will get to them all eventually.

Stay with me here:

My little cousin came over this weekend- we planned to hang out and decorate my house for Christmas and we were going to make bread from scratch! On Black Friday I went out at 4am and got a really good deal on a Kitchen aid mixer. Something that normally would cost me $400 I got for $100- I never take part in after Thanksgiving Holiday Sales, but this one I had to try for and happily I was in and out in 20 minutes and all was right in my world. No one where I shopped got trampled and/or got in fights- at least not in the 20 minutes I was there. I really despise how people become UGLY at the holidays. Thus my never taking part, but this was a deal that made me get up and I was and am very happy with my purchase.

Well that was a bit of blabbing- wasn't it. OK back to the story. She came over and we moved furniture and decorated the tree with my Mom's decorations. This is my first Christmas without my mom and I've been having a hard time about it. All these holidays are hard for me- I'm without my family and it SUCKS!

While she was over she informed me she was sort of seeing someone and she was torn a bit about having sex with him. She said every week she goes to church makes her think more and more about these kinds of decisions. She asked me what I thought. I didn't know what to say to her without sounding like a hypocrite- I was not faithful for so very long.....needless to say I am not a virgin. I told her that I tried it my way for years and it didn't work so now I was going to try it God's way. I told her I had recently decided that from now on I was going to try and limit my dating to only Christian guys, and that if I find myself in a relationship that involves sex that the temptation must have been too great and broken through prayers for strength on both sides. I told her I thought that dating a non-christian put her into a situation where she could be the only one trying to resist the temptation.

This is all theory to me at the moment- I am not seeing anyone so I haven't had to really live with the temptation.

In the end I told her that she needed to think about how she was going to go about living with her decision. She needed to think about how God and her future husband would think about her sleeping with this guy. Shortly after this talk she received a call from a friend offering some $$ in exchange for baby sitting. She needs money at the moment so she went- knowing she'd miss church this week and wouldn't you know it when I was at mass the message seemed to perfectly address temptations of the flesh. The message stated we need to live how God wants us to live because when Christ comes again two men will be plowing in the field- one will be living as God wanted him to and is prepared and the other is not. Another analogy was given for two women. One will stay and one will go with Christ.

WOW!!!

The devil through this baby sitting job prevented my cousin from hearing God's message to her about what she was struggling with. Of course I told her all about the readings- and hopefully she received the message into her heart even though she didn't make it to church. Hopefully we will both be ready when Christ returns and go with him to heaven. This is the kind of thing that's been happening to me so much these days. I feel God's guidance and presence in my life in very obvious ways- just like this situation. It's a honor for me to be used to deliver his message!