I Don't Expect My Best Life Now...
When I was newly saved, I remembered how I enjoyed listening to Joel Osteen, Mike Murdock and other prosperity preachers until I found out that they were preaching a lot of unbiblical stuff. I dropped them off. Then I wanted some good Christian books. I went to a local Christian bookstore where there were some good books like by the late D. James Kennedy. I bought the book "Why I Believe" several years back and I still have a copy of that old book. What disturbs me to think is that why are even some Christian bookstores selling Joel Osteen's "Your Best Life Now?" It's just really outrageous that Christian bookstores should even sell it.
The whole idea that you can have my "Your Best Life Now" is easily non-offensive because Osteen himself preaches what Isaiah 30:10 calls as, "Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:" It's also the same age old problem as Jeremiah 5:31 says, "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?" 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says, " For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."
Years ago, I remembered a lecture by Pastor Armando C. Borja of Christian Church in Cebu when he described that false prophets are that worldly people easily loves them, they speak according to the worldly viewpoint and that they are crowd pleasers. If you want to be popular then never give the bad news. Just preach good things. That's exactly why I stopped watching Trinity Broadcasting Network which I used to watch when I was just newly saved. That's exactly why I dropped Joel Osteen off. These are not pastors after God's heart but are the pastors condemned for doing a bad job. If you want a pastor, look for a Jeremiah 3:15 preacher. Look for a preacher who pursues to be more like Jesus. Besides, the whole idea that if you'll be like Jesus the world will love you is just wrong. If the world hates Jesus, the world will also hate His followers. I can only tell such people, "If I'm going to be like Jesus, I can only expect the world to hate me. What Bible are you reading anyway? What kind of Jesus do you believe in? Mine is the Jesus of the Bible."
Years ago, I remembered a lecture by Pastor Armando C. Borja of Christian Church in Cebu when he described that false prophets are that worldly people easily loves them, they speak according to the worldly viewpoint and that they are crowd pleasers. If you want to be popular then never give the bad news. Just preach good things. That's exactly why I stopped watching Trinity Broadcasting Network which I used to watch when I was just newly saved. That's exactly why I dropped Joel Osteen off. These are not pastors after God's heart but are the pastors condemned for doing a bad job. If you want a pastor, look for a Jeremiah 3:15 preacher. Look for a preacher who pursues to be more like Jesus. Besides, the whole idea that if you'll be like Jesus the world will love you is just wrong. If the world hates Jesus, the world will also hate His followers. I can only tell such people, "If I'm going to be like Jesus, I can only expect the world to hate me. What Bible are you reading anyway? What kind of Jesus do you believe in? Mine is the Jesus of the Bible."
There's a strong warning about that as John 15:18-19 and James 4:4 warns that friendship with the world means enmity with God. This doesn't mean having friends is wrong but to be accepted by worldly fallen standards means you're not right with God. Preach like Jeremiah, live like Jeremiah. Jeremiah was an unpopular man. Hananiah the false prophet had the respect of the crowd but not Jeremiah. Every time I feel like giving up, I skip several chapters or go back several chapters just to get some encouragement. If the prophets were so hated then so will others who follow Christ. Elijah did what's right and what did he get? A lifetime of persecution! That's why I don't expect to be popular and well-loved when I choose to be more like Jesus.
If you think you can have a Madison Avenue Jesus then you're just dead wrong. Do you know following Christ means enduring hardship? A few months ago, I remembered reading "Hard to Believe" by John F. MacArthur. The book really had a lot of scary insights. Sometimes, I felt like I could be a false convert because of certain areas in my life that I'm not free from. Yet the book also assures that one of the marks of true Christianity is the inability to find pleasure in sin. If you're Once Saved Always Saved then it's accompanied by the perseverance of the saints. I have no reason to buy the lie that a person can be saved and still remain the same. Such people who teach such nonsense aren't saved. If you're saved then good works should follow because God's grace is teaches good works (Titus 2:11-14). Just the term "peculiar people" means Christians don't belong to this world. When I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I have already rejected the world to embrace the Cross. Romans 12:1-2 warns to be never conformed according to the values of this world but be renewed in Christ Jesus.
The world today doesn't want to accept sin as sin and only accept sin as sin if it works against their favor. It's just like how the world thinks stealing and murder is wrong but they consider the death penalty for crimes against life to be barbaric. They think that homosexual activities harms nobody even when the evidence says otherwise. They think that abortion is not murder even if facts prove that it's murder. They think that nothing's wrong with playing around with sex or sex outside the bounds of marriage. To think about accepting sin as sin only when it goes against them just think of this idiocy. A good example of such stupidity is how pornography and prostitution are becoming more and more accessible and legal. Yet you have people who are suddenly complaining why there's a huge increase in sexual crimes like sex trafficking, sexual harassment, adultery and fornication. They tend to complain about marital infidelities and teenage pregnancies. But when they're told that pornography and prostitution are the cause, most people just say that it's coincidental. The same goes for thinking nothing is wrong with the alcoholic beverage business yet complaining about the damage that drunk people do.
Every now and then, I encounter Roman Catholics who continue to tell me stuff like I'm foolish to have left Catholicism, I was just "misinformed", that there are many evangelicals becoming Roman Catholics (these are false converts, 1 John 2:19), that I'm just choosing to be an orphan because I reject their dogmas on Mary, that I'm definitely now "burn again" and that born again Christians are jealous of them because the Pope gets so much attention and love from the world. So much for the false accusation that there hasn't been any born again charity organization or charity work, or that there's no pastor who suffers for the sake of the Lord Jesus just to name a few of their many outrageous false accusations. So much for them saying they're suffering for Christ while bragging that the Pope gets more attention than born again Christian pastors.
They even say that they're the "true church" because of estimated over 1.2 billion or more Roman Catholics. On the contrary, the Lord Jesus warns in Matthew 7:13-14 saying, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." It's a strait gate where only one person will be admitted at a time. How many enter into destruction? Many! How many enter into life? So very few. At this very moment a lot of people are headed for Hell on the wide road. Many people tend to think numbers make right. But God isn't moved by a majority vote. A truth is a truth though more disagree and a lie is a lie though more agree. Before you get mad about anybody's lying habit be sure you're not the kind who thinks truth is truth based on a majority vote. It's hypocritical how parents get mad when their children lie to them yet they themselves not only lie to their children but teach their children that they know the truth because most people accept it. Just because a church has no many members doesn't mean it's right. Sometimes, a sound church has many members but it will never have the same number of members such as the deceived church attendants at Lakewood Church or the big time Jesuit founded parishes.
Let me quote the late Baptist pastor Jonathan Edwards who said, "This world is all the hell that ever a true Christian is to endure, and it is all the heaven that unbelievers shall ever enjoy." Roman Catholics may go ahead and dismiss him as a "buang (lunatic) again" preacher, brag how well-loved the Pope and their Pharisees are but their numbers don't make them right. Just because most of them refuse to believe that the sex scandals are real won't erase the sex scandals from existence. Just because most of them believe that the Inquisition was just a myth doesn't make it a myth. If you live for Jesus the world will hate you. While I don't deny that there are Catholic priests who are getting executed by religious extremists but not so many care too much about a man of God who got killed for the name of Christ. The Pope gets the greetings of the world, he gets all the attention of the world, he's got the most publicity but that's not a mark of a man of God. Anybody who stands by Jesus that person may lose material blessings, fame, fortune and just everything that worldly people value above godliness.