Can Joel Osteen Help You Pay Your Bills?

CNN ^ | 12/18/09 | Christine Romans

[Petronski]

That’s it?

“I know you are but what am I?”

LOL

[presently no screen name]

I feel terrible about that

Please don't and you shouldn't because your message was right on! Instead smile, knowing that, because that was your purpose - to give a right on message and you fulfilled that purpose.

leaving my post and going back and forth before finishing.

I hardly doubt there is any poster - including myself - who hasn't done the same thing. That doesn't leave your message wrong and that is what is important.

Have a wonderful day

If someone would finish my shoveling - it would be a wonderful day!! ;)

[Quix]

Thanks for your kind words.

May you and loved ones have the best of CHRISTmas conversations and emotional intimacy.

[CyberAnt]

Hmmmm ..?? Even Mother Teresa provided housing and food - where did she get the money to buy those things ..??

She lived a life of “poverty” - which only means that she DENIED HERSELF SOME OF LIFE’S PLEASURES .. but that didn’t stop her from taking donations in order to feed and house other people.

Was she just doing it for the money ..?? How come you’re not questioning her ..??

You see .. your comments have no validity!!

Read Deuteronomy - Chapter 28:1 - In the beginning of the Chapter, God lays out his plan to bless man - then, in verse 15, God lays out the curses. God then makes this wonderful statement in Chapter 30:15 - “I’ve set before you life and good, death and evil.”

The choice is YOURS.

[CyberAnt]

And .. what is your definition of prosper ..?? Does that feed your family - pay the rent - make the car payment ..??

You can’t separate prosperity from finances. The key is - what you do with the finances you’re given ..??

Read Deuteronomy 30:9 - “And the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in every work of your hand, in the fruit of your body (your children), of your cattle, of your land (your business), for your good: for the Lord will again delight in prospering you ...”.

Geeeeeee ... that doesn’t sound like God likes you very much. And .. if you believe that .. I got this bridge in Arizoni I’d like to sell you.

I don’t understand why people are against prospering. It just baffles me.

[RnMomof7]

No, people help HIM pay his bills..

[Gapplega]

What protestant “sect” do you belong to? It’s hard to keep up with 20,000 and counting.

[longhorn too]

Oh I am not against prosperity, I just don't believe in the Joel Osteen message, or any other message someone has regarding the gospel of financial prosperity.

Although I am not Catholic, I believe Mother Teresa was a saint because of her faith in God and her zeal to please Him. I think she followed the Gospel as well as any human could, yet she was not prosperous in finances but she did prosper in so many other ways.

[Iscool]

What protestant “sect” do you belong to? It’s hard to keep up with 20,000 and counting.

No, no, no...There's over 60,000 now...Where ya been??? Oh, BTW, I'm a Moonie...

[CyberAnt]

Hmmmm ..?? Without “finances” how did she support her other nuns (I don’t recall ever seeing them in dirty or torn clothing - so where did she get the finances to purchase the uniforms ..??); how did she feed the poor; how did she provide them with anything without the finances to purchase the items she needed.

I dare you to explain that!

So when God, Himself, says in Deut. 30:9 that He “... will prosper the work of your hand, the fruit of your body, your cattle and your land, that doesn’t mean to you that God wants to bless you financially ..??

How do you explain that scripture as saying God does not want you to have finances ..??

But .. it comes down to this .. if you don’t want to be blessed, God will not force it upon you.

[longhorn too]

I think there may be a miscommunications somewhere down the line.

What I have been trying state from the very beginning has to do with God blessing a person financially for the greedy selfish purposes of being wealthy. I believe God blesses us all in His own way, whether is be financially, spiritually, health wise etc.. And that we are to use these blessings to help those who a not as fortunate as we are.

I have a mentally handicapped child that I consider a blessing, as he has thought me more about love and acceptance than any one else could have possibly done which has made me much more sensitive to others with disabilities, so instead of my son being a burden I consider him a a blessing! And God has blessed much more than I deserve!

[webstersII]

“By your logic God should have set an example to all of us and had the Son of Man born as a wealthy King and generously distributed his goods to the poor.”

Nope. Not at all.

I grew up in churches where they preach the stuff you are asserting here. I’m glad I don’t go there anymore.

[Gapplega]

You can laugh yourself all the way to hell. It happens, sweetie.

[Figment]

“I agree. I made the mistake of buying one of his books once but no more. Its amazing the number of books he and his wife manage to write and publish every year”

I know his wife, and she couldn’t write an intelligible sentence , let alone a book

[webstersII]

“But our rewards will be eternal not temporal. “

Yes and no. The primary rewards are eternal.

But don’t forget Matt 19 where the disciples told Jesus they had given up everything to follow Him. He said they would receive all that and much more, in this life and the next. This was a consistent theme in the OT as well.

As for the widow, she gave out of her poverty, but we are promised that God would open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings when we give tithes and offerings.

God does not like to be in debt to anyone. The OT says, “Who has ever given to God and God has owed him the debt?”

[CyberAnt]

You think if God blesses you then it would be for greedy selfish purposes of being welthy ..?? Sorry, but I just don’t believe that.

God blesses us ACCORDING TO HIS WORD. If we want to know how he’s going to bless us, all we have to do is read the Bible. There are tons of promises (somebody actually counted them), but what they tell me is that God will go out of His way to bless us.

The only people who can be greedy and selfish is us. God has nothing to do with that. He may bless us because He is able to read our heart and He’s sure we will do His Will with the finances.

You’re right .. God’s many blessings far exceed the financial ones .. and spending time with the Lord is probably the most special blessing of all .. but when God trusts you to bless others, it’s very special .. it’s not greedy or selfish at all.

Those people who get blessed and then act foolishly with the finances .. are soon parted from their finances. That isn’t God’s purpose of the blessing. His purpose was for them to bless others.

A lot of people don’t want God to bless them because they’re afraid they won’t be able to handle it. But .. if people are connected to God .. and are willing to do HIS Will and not their own .. then the amount of the finances has no bearing at all.

Remember this .. God gave to man the greatest gift - the power to choose. He loved us so much that He allowed us to NOT CHOOSE HIM. But .. when we do choose to follow HIM, then it’s his voice we’ll listen to when it comes to using the finances we’re given.

God bless you and your special child.

[Steelfish]

“Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20).

[presently no screen name]

in Bethlehem where was born a helpless infant in the bitter cold of the night to a poor maiden, the Crucifixtion on Calvary and the empty burial .tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea.

Why is everything here in the NEGATIVE? Helpless? Did he not have parents? God PROVIDED. Bitter cold? A bit extreme but, again, God PROVIDED the animals for warmth. "Poor" maiden? How so? They HAD money for a room but there was no room. And God provided.

You are trying to paint a picture, falsely, that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were poor. NOT SO! What about God's blessings and the wise men who came to bestow their gifts on Jesus?

Crucification? A bad thing? Look what Jesus thinks of that!! YOUR answer in bold

Matt 16:21,22,23 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"

Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.

Borrowed tomb? Of course, he didn't need a permanent one - it was borrowed because he only needed it for three days - it's part of it all - God PROVIDES what we need!

How 'poor' was Jesus? So 'poor' that he had needed his own treasurer. Would you like to be that 'poor'?

To deliberately paint a picture of Jesus being poor when Scripture shows otherwise is not good. Perhaps your "poverty" teaching has tainted you against the Truth.

[Iscool]

You can laugh yourself all the way to hell. It happens, sweetie.

Can't do that...Already got a place staked out in Heaven...

[presently no screen name]

if you don’t want to be blessed, God will not force it upon you.

Exactly! If fact it only comes if we BELIEVE and ACT on His Word. It's His law of 'sowing and reaping'.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

ALL for His Word to be preached. And this article asks Can Joel Osteen Help You Pay Your Bills? Just like CNN - promoting people to look for a handout. As usual, God's Way is proven and so is CNN's way (deception). Good vs. evil. Prosperity vs. poverty. Take/expect from someone else because they have it.