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On the phone is an angry woman hit not only by hard times (divorce, financial difficulties, etc.) but now also her church. Though very involved before her crisis time, having now sought her church's help was told she didn't have "enough faith" for her "demons to be removed" so she was welcome to leave. I listen hard, counsel some, encourage much and pray, but nothing seems to help her. Her faith in God and his people is shattered. At the door is a healthy young man in his thirties who has been laid of from his job, but must still support himself and his wheelchair bound mother. However, he has been unable to find a new job. His greatest concern though is that he bought into a certain preacher's message and did his best to live by it - live right, let your light shine, work hard, give God praise and God will give you financial security. Not asking for a single cent of help he dares to share the question that's killing him: "How can I trust a God who doesn't keep his promises when I've done my best to keep mine to him?" I listen hard and long, counsel some, encourage much and pray with him, but nothing seems to help. Those are just two of the folks I've encountered as a preaching minister in the Houston, Texas area in recent years. You see, I often see what you will never see aired on Lakewood Church's television show or see dealt with in one of Joel Osteen's books - hopeless, rung out people at the end of their wits because they swallowed smiling Joel Osteen's false message of hope. Hook, line and sinker they swallowed it, all right, and now they've washed up on the beach spiritually dead. "Serve God and he'll put money in your pocket" sounds pretty good - until it doesn't pan out! That's when they seek me out, or any of a number of other ministers. Their hopeless questions and statements of despair are hard to hear. "What's so bad about me that God won't fulfill his promises to me? I must be truly useless!" "Why does God promise me such and then not come through?" "I just don't want anything to do with Jesus anymore if that's what Jesus is about!" I wish I could say that I've seen some success at recovering a soul or two from such despair, but I can only sadly report I have not. And that's just one reason why I cringe when brothers or sisters in Christ ask me with a hopeful look in their eye: "What do you think of Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church?" How am I supposed to answer that question? This is how I answer it. I swallow hard, look them right in the eye and say: "If you had seen and heard the things I have repeatedly seen and heard, then you wouldn't be suckered in by Joel's big smile and Lakewood's slick marketing. All that is there is simply the slickest presenter and embodiment around of a very old lie - the "health and wealth gospel." There's no hope there, just trouble waiting to tear your heart out!" Now what is the "health and wealth" gospel (aka: the "gospel of success," "prosperity gospel," etc.)? It's the teaching that says, in essence: serve God and he'll bless you big time with money and material goods. Whoa - stop and think! The flip side to that must be that if you're not getting blessed big time in tangible ways, then you either don't really know God or you're not serving God acceptably! Honestly, is God really about rescuing your soul from spiritual rot so he can bless you with stuff that rusts? Stop and compare that teaching with what the Bible says about Jesus Christ, too. Jesus was perfect - literally - and yet he suffered mightily all his life! He didn't "rise above" trouble. Gracious, he was the "man of sorrows!" He wasn't blessed with "stuff." The Son of Man had "no place to lay his head" (Luke 9:58) and was dependant on others for his ministry (Luke 6:1-4). Clearly, the living Lord Jesus experienced something very different from the Osteen philosophy of faith! And if it's a message about a different from the Jesus in my Bible, it's a different Jesus than I need to know! The apostle Paul is another good example. It wasn't God's purpose to set Paul up for life, but it was God's set purpose to make Paul suffer mightily throughout it all! (Acts 9:15-16) God didn't call Paul to "rise above" suffering; he called him to "grow through" trials. And guess what? He calls you to do the same. Suffering, trials, deprivation and loss are tools in the Master's hand to develop perseverance, character and genuine hope within us. Without such tools shaping us, we would, at best, become stunted in growth and remain ever immature. ". . you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith . . . may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." (1 Peter 1:6b-7 TNIV) "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete . . ." (James 1:2-4 TNIV) ". . . we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." (Romans 5:3-4 TNIV) The sum of it all is this - whether sincere or not, Osteen's preaching removes Christ's cross from the Christian faith. I have no use for a cross-less faith, nor should you. Osteen and Lakewood come across as dispensers of endless hope, but don't let the glitz and shine, smooth speech and polished ways fool you. The old rugged cross is what Jesus is truly about. The Christ of that cross beckons you not to eat, drink and be merry at God's expense, but to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him, come what may. And may that be precisely what you and I do, until the final Day arrives. For your best life isn't now, but is yet to come! If you're listening to any other message than that - change the channel! -David Smith Missouri Street Church of Christ Baytown, Texas |
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