My Trouble with Joel Osteen

My problem with Joel Osteen and his health, wealth, and prosperity message, and those of is mold.

This week I wasted perfectly good commuting time by listening to Joel Osteen audio messages.

Why did I do it? Over Christmas break, I found a Joel Osteen devotional on the coffeetable of a beloved extended family member. Considering the context, and what she'd been through recently, among other things, I held my tongue and let my curiosity by piqued.

John Piper explains well why the prosperity gospel is so disgusting.
Can a true believer be fooled into believing the prosperity gospel? :: Desiring God Christian Resource Library

Other bloggers do a great job explaining theology. My purpose in blogging is to explain how this battle, like so many others, wages war within my own soul and how I live it out. I love the reality of the person and work of Jesus Christ. In an effort to be fair, I chose to listen for myself to find out for myself. Some of what he says might be more or less true some of the time, but he is truly preaching a different gospel that risks God's condemnation. I wished it were true that we could get what we want just by believing it enough. But God is wiser than that! We will someday be co-heirs with Christ. In the meantime, God gives each of us a unique combination of both trials and blessing in order to conform us to His image. For example, our family has received multiple blessings recently as we negotiated our new home. On the other hand, the CPA firm and I are devastated by the unexpected leave of absence of a staff member because of breast cancer, just as buy season is thrust upon us. What is God doing? Where's the correllation between faith plus obedience and getting the goods from God? We don't obey God to be blessed with what we want, We follow God because He is worth it!