Mike Cope's blog is a good one today (no need for a hot link to a blog with 90,000 monthly views) on God and riches. As I commented there, God and riches is definitely a user-friendly sermon to the Christian consumer of today. And, I will admit that Joel O'Steen's sermons are easy on the ears and eyes. I've flipped through channels before and stopped on his sermons and listened for a few to several minutes.
In the past few years, however, I think I've matured and changed quite a bit in the area of God and riches. Oh, I'll certainly admit I'd like to be making more money, working fewer hours, and doing more for the Lord. But, my thought process is usually in that exact order - and that can lead to troubles.
I do believe that Jesus' message is not O'Steen's message - I think they are in total contrast to one another - and for that reason I do have a problem with Joel's ministry. It does not matter how many it attracts, it really doesn't. Is it somewhat unsettling to me that hundreds of thousands of Houstonians worship at his church in a given month? Somewhat, but not surprisingly so.
Jesus knew his words would not be attractive to everyone, but his message was very attractive to those we are to be ministering to - the fringe, the oppressed, the downtrodden, and, yes, to even the disillusioned, but the disillusioned are often looking for worldly answers to make their life richer - richer in every sense.
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2 comments:
Saw your post on Cope's site. I am going to remember your quote on "Jesus had quite a bit to say about money and the poor . . ." for a long time. That was very well worded and cuts right to it!
-Allen Gillespie
Thank you for your thoughts. It is certainly a challenge to put first things first and reverse the order that society says should be. Money is always a challenging topic. I live in a place where it is hard to get people involved because it seems like every living adult has to work due to cost of living. Then again, we do make time for the things we want to do.
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