I think most people here know that my favorite subject to blog about is love. Not just shmoopy, kissy-face, sappy "luuuv", but LOVE. The kind of love that God shows us and says that we should show to one another. Today at church, one of our new pastors preached on loving each other, and I really felt that this was a good time to review it here too.

Matthew 22:37-39
Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."

Luke 6:31-33
"Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that."

John 13:34, 35
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another."

These are just a few of the many verses in the Bible that talk about loving each other. Jesus spent so much of His ministry preaching about love and with love. He didn't perform His miracles to be the center of attention or to be the life of the party. He did them out of love for others.

When we go out in the world, how easy is it for us to overlook others' needs? Pastor Brenda told us in her sermon that she was at the grocery store the other day. There was a young mother with a screaming baby a few lanes over, trying to check out. Although the screaming baby got everyone's attention, the other shoppers all ignored the mother, who was close to tears. Finally, a young couple, looking work-weary and tired themselves, went up to the mother and whispered in her ear. She broke down crying and nodded, picked up her baby and sat down on a bench to feed the child, while the young couple continued loading her groceries up in bags, and even helped her bring her purchases out to the car after she had finished. This young couple took 5 minutes out of their busy day to help a young mother in need, and not only were they a blessing to her, but also to everyone checking out that night. A random act of love doesn't just affect the persons directly involved, but also anyone that's watching.

There are about 4,000 people in my church. If each of those people went out and showed God's love to 20 people this week, that's 80,000 people affected. If each of us did that every week for a year, we'd show God's love to over 4 MILLION people over the course of that year. Now, that might seem like a huge number of people, but remember, I'm not talking about going out and overtly witnessing, simply showing God's love to other people.

What would happen if every Revelifer went out into the world and loved just 5 people this week? How many people could we affect this week? Or this year?

*Note: I don't like to post on controversial subjects, but this is something that's been itching at me for a while.

A few weeks ago, we were spending time with my husband's family, and his mother mentioned that she was reading "Your Best Life Now" by Mr. Osteen. "Oh, have you read his book?" she asked me. I said no, and that I most likely would not. "Oh, don't you like him?" she pressed. (Mind you, I try to avoid these conversations with my mother-in-law, as I rather enjoy the fact that I get along with her fairly well, and I don't really care to offend her.)
"Well, no, in fact, I don't like him."
"Why not? He seems very nice and he's got a really positive message."
"Well, he's not teaching a complete Gospel and he rarely uses Scripture properly, to start."
I really didn't want to get into the conversation at all, and luckily, we were interrupted by Grandma before I had to go into much more detail.
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Tonight, my husband was channel surfing, which is actually not that easy when you don't have cable. He landed on Joel Osteen's Sunday evening broadcast, as he's done several times before. I sat down and watched it with him, and cringed every time that I heard Joel say "abundance" and "free", among other things. Then at the end of the show, Joel invited any unsaved people to pray with him. It went about like this: "Lord, I want to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior and to make you Lord of my life. Amen." No mention of asking for forgiveness for our sins. No mention of WHY we need a savior. Just that we want to luuuv Jesus. Throughout his show, he twists Scripture to support his prosperity message. He takes verses that speak of our eternal life in Heaven and takes them out of context to make it sound like we are supposed to be showered in supernatural blessings in this lifetime, and that all God wants to do all day is to give us our greatest desires.

Joel Osteen is dangerous to the true Gospel. Millions of people watch his show, and thousands attend his church to hear his positive message. But Joel's positive message isn't in the Bible! Joel is teaching that God is going to make us happy and healthy and wealthy, if we just believe that He will. The Bible does NOT teach that. In fact, the Bible tells us that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter Heaven. We read in the Gospels about how Jesus' disciples left everything they'd had to follow him. They were the original believers, and Jesus sure didn't make them rich!

Joel has repeatedly avoided talking about sin, Hell, judgment, and even the fact that Jesus is the only way to Heaven! In fact, on Larry King Live, Joel actually dodged the question "Is Jesus the only way?" by answering "Well....I can't really say...."

SERIOUSLY??

This is a man that many people are relying on for the entirety of their Gospel message. They are being fed a cotton candy Gospel. All the fluff, none of the substance. If we don't know about sin, how can we know how much we NEED a savior? Without sin, without the absolute depravity of man, there is no need for Jesus to die for us. Our good works are nothing but dirty rags to God. We NEED Jesus for our sins to be forgiven, and if I had to guess, I'd say that a lot of Joel's congregation has no idea *why* Jesus died for us.

This video (clicky the linky) really sums up how much Joel Osteen skews the Bible message. It's only 3 1/2 minutes and worth the watch. I don't want this post to come across as being alarmist, but this guy needs to be exposed for what he really is. A smiling motivational speaker that makes people feel good, definitely NOT someone meant to be a pastor of the largest church in the world.