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p.2 Your best life now is your only life Pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen -- Front wheel drive Osteen was interviewed by his Christian post on his book “I Declare: 31 Promises to Speak Over Your Life, " I think it's all based on the Bible, but I think it's principles that help you to have a good self-image and feel right about yourself, and I think God wants us to feel right about ourselves." What about being right about with God? This is Schullerism to the ‘T.’ God does not want us to focus on feeling right about ourself, he wants us to get our focus off ourselves, die to self, crucify our desires in life (carry the cross of Christ daily) so we can become mature in Christ. Without this death to self there is no spiritual ife of Christ. “Do good for your own self.” In the Osteen’s worldview of things, God exists for us, to bring you happiness. Do they not understand one can be happy doing the wrong things? This is a consistent teaching of both He and his wife. Mans fallen nature, his natural inclinations is about himself and his happiness. All of this may sound foreign to your ears, I hope it is giving you an alternative than this minimal unbiblical teaching he speaks. The 24/7 radio station on satellite radio “the channel will feature broadcasted services from Lakewood Church and audio from special events like the “Night of Hope,” a series of special events hosted in cities around the nation. “ We want to take our message of hope and inspiration to a new audience,” Osteen said. ”I’m trying to reach people outside the church walls .” And Osteen’s wife said, “ God takes pleasure when we're happy. That's the thing that gives him the greatest joy this morning. So I want you to know this morning, just do good for your own self. Do good 'cause God wants you to be happy. When you come to church, when you worship him,you're not doing it for God, really. You're doing it for yourself, because that's what makes God happy. Amen ?" This statement is the exact opposite of what it says in Word. John 1:17-18 explains that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. In 1Jn.1:6 John speaks of practicing in the truth. In 3 John 3-4 Hohn writes” I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Men like this are NOT called of God. They have NO anointing because they do not know the truth. This is why they do not preach the truth, they do not understand it nor walk in it. Osteen is not teaching Bible doctrines but new ageism under Christian terminology. This is “new Thought” that has been around since the late 1800's in America. Passive church attendees will eat what makes them feel good about themselves. SHHH don’t talk to others about what is wrong, keep it positive, positive thinking will keep you on the path of blessing. God is not a positive thinker, trying to make us think positive. Again, He told Adam the day you eat of the fruit of this tree you will die. That’s about as negative as you can get. God (positively) tells us the truth, He does not have us avoid it by convincing us positively. New Book[s] same old story Osteen’s book “You Can, You will” is a title that echoes Caesar’s philosophical statement “Veni, vidi, vici” we came, we saw, we conquered. His smiley face is on the cover to sell it and the people don’t even know when they are being made merchandise of. Osteen says in his TV ad to all general viewers “ there is someone greater in you.” In this book he says God lives in you, take care of yourself. Not making it clear that he lives in believers born from believing the gospel, not everyone. Osteen is showing us he is a universalist, which explains many of the prior statements he publicly made. With 45,000 attendees to his gatherings, his reluctance to speak of sin is missing when the gospel is mentioned. Certainly He must know what it is but he does not teach people to stand in the gospel as Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 15:1-2 “ Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-- unless you believed in vain.” In his book it says, “Winning is in your DNA. The most high God breathed His life into you. You've got what it takes. This is your time. This is your moment. Shake off doubts, shake off fear and insecurity, and get ready for favor, get ready for increase, get ready for the fullness of your destiny. You can, you will! " Osteen regurgitates the same lifted out of scripture teaching. “I’ve found that whatever your vision is, God will supersize it. He will do more than you can ask or think.’ Which certainly is referring to Eph. 3:20 “ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us . ” God works in those who believe in the gospel, not everyone. And the same non - Christian techniques (Visualization) are in his book . “Are you believing for a child? Go buy a baby’s outfit and hang it in your closet where you can see it every day. Keep your vision in front of you ” (visualization, spiritual imaging) and he quotes Proverbs which says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Unfortunately this is not what it means, it means we perish without a revelation from God, which is certainly lacking from him. Osteen writes in his book “you’re being limited by your own imagination… “I can imagine somebody handing us that one-hundred-million-dollar check. I can imagine us feeding a million children a day. I can imagine living a long, healthy life. I can imagine my children superseding anything we’ve done. Not only that, I can imagine you fulfilling your dreams. I can imagine you totally out of debt. I can imagine you healthy and strong.” Besides all the “I’s” he is admitting that he is living by his imagination (Oprah’s Secret, contained within Richard Fosters teaching in his book ‘Celebration of Discipline’). God wants us to live in reality, the real world not the one we imagine we want to live in our head. “ In the scripture, God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. In the natural it was impossible. Abraham didn’t have one child. He was eighty years old. But God didn’t just give him the promise; God gave him a picture to look at. God said, “Abraham, go out and look at the stars—that’s how many descendants you will have.” I’ve read where there are six thousand stars in the Eastern sky where he was. It’s not a coincidence that there are six thousand promises in the scripture. God was saying, “ Every promise that you can get a vision for, I will bring it to pass .” God told him also to look at the grains of sand at the seashore, because that was how many relatives he would have. Why did God give him a picture? God knew there would be times when it would look as if the promise would not come to pass, and Abraham would be discouraged and tempted to give up. In those times, Abraham would go out at night and look up at the sky. When he saw the stars, faith would rise in his heart. Something would tell him, “It’s going to happen, I can see it.” The only difference is that this was not Abraham’s imagination, God said your descendants would be this number far in the future, because God holds the future in his hands, not us. He did not say to keep imagining the stars or the sand and I will bring it to pass. It was to happen because God said it would. Unfortunately for Osteen the Scripture is not silent on this matter (Heb.11) and proves that he has inserted his own imagination over the Scripture. Rom. 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness ." The three times this is mentioned in Scripture it is referring to faith. It was by faith, which means it was not by his sight, but from what God said Osteen talked with the Huffington Post about his thoughts on prayer, the Pope and the homosexual lifestyle. HuffPo’s host Josh Zepps took a quote from Osteen’s new book: “ It doesn’t matter who likes you or who doesn’t like you, all that matters is God likes you. He accepts you, he approves of you .” Pastor Joel Osteen: “Absolutely,” Osteen insisted, “ I believe that God has breathed his life into every single person. We’re all on a journey. Nobody’s perfect.” Our being made in the image of God, does not mean God’s life is in us all, that is why we must be born again. We must understand we are sinful in our human nature and fall short of what God’s standards to be born again. Osteen also discussed Pope Francis in his interview with the Huffington Post, saying how he appreciates the pontiff’s inclusive nature. “ I think the pope is fantastic, his tone, his humility,” he said. “We may not agree 100 percent on doctrine and theology, but the Catholic Church, our church, it’s open for everybody. I like his tone, not pushing people away.” A caller during the live interview asked Osteen to give his definition of spirituality and religion. “I do think that religion has turned a lot of people off. …. I’m not trying to get them to join my religion, I’m just trying to plant a seed of hope in their heart.” The real seed is the Word, that is our hope, and for the Word to take root it must be accepted as the truth about our condition. One does not have to look any further than the most religious of all religions - Roman Catholicism. Yet Osteen has spoken elsewhere of being invited to the Vatican and enjoyed the mass. God is not just love, He disciplines and punishes and judges. We are not on a yellow brick road but a narrow path with many obstacles to face on the journey to our eternal life which is to be our best life. In his telling of Adam and Eve after they ate from the tree: “Back in the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they hid. In the cool of the day, God came to them and said, 'Adam, Eve, where are you?' They said, 'God we're hiding because we are naked.' I love the way God answered them. He said, 'Adam, who told you that you were naked?' In other words, 'Who told you that something was wrong with you?' God immediately knew the enemy had been talking to them .” Osteen’s interpretation is that they thought “something was wrong with them,” but there was nothing wrong with them! But it was actually something wrong with what they did, they had disobeyed and sinned. His interpretation goes to the root of our problem and changes the whole point of why Jesus came as man to redeem us. Not because we have a low self esteem and not thinking positive of ourselves. The Bibles account is different Gen. 3:11 And God said, " Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" Osteen is not a careful student or expositor of the Word, not that most of his followers would notice or care. Yet teachers of the Bible will stand accountable for misrepresenting the Bible to the people. It may not be noticed now but it will be accounted for later. If you are Following a man who does not know scripture means you will end up in the same place that he does.
LARRY KING asks Osteen: Don't you ever doubt?
How confused can a person sound in one sentence? This is similar to Kenneth Hagin’s statement (whom Osteen’s dad learned from) who said If I were sick I WOULDN’T SAY THAT I’M SICK! What more can we expect from Osteen who uses ‘I AM’ to attract what he wants in his life. Osteen says your best life is now, according to God Your best life is after. That is when true believers will live eternally in God’s presence. If your Best life is now you should consider your eyes are on the world for your happiness. If born by God’s Spirit We have two life stages, and the best one is later, not now. If you are not born of God’s Spirit – then your best and only life is now, that’s all you get, probably because that’s all you want, you need to change. Stop going to the “O mart ‘to get your daily words of wisdom, go to Scripture where it leads to Christ who alone can give you eternal and abundant life.
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