And my first thought was from 1 Timothy:
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. (1 Tim. 4:1-5)
One of my rules of thumb for life is, "don't trust people who put their faces on the covers of their books." Mr. Osteen is one of those.
Forgive me, but the problem with these celebrity preachers is that they always have to be innovating. They have a product to sell, they can’t allow any stagnation, and they have to find new verses, new quirks, new gimmicks.
“God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fertile, increase in number, and fill the earth. All the wild animals and all the birds will fear you and be terrified of you. Every creature that crawls on the ground and all the fish in the sea have been put under your control. Everything that lives and moves will be your food. I gave you green plants as food; I now give you everything else. But you are not to eat meat with blood in it. (Blood is life.)” Genesis 9:1-4
And you quoted from 1 Timothy - “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer”
We live this way. Prayer changes everything. We are not under law, rather we are under God’s grace. And what does it mean, when God said to Noah, “Everything that lives and moves will be your food”?
I agree with you, and I also do not trust Mr O. I have listened to a sermon or two of his, and have no desire to listen to more.