I don’t follow Joel Osteen.
I haven’t read any of his books.
It’s okay. He’s doing just fine without me.
I’ve seen enough Osteen-isms to feel confident I can skip the books.
You can “talk yourself into victory”…
Joel must live inside a box with no windows, television, internet…
…or Bible.
Every week, with his ears plugged and a bag pulled over his head, he is lead on stage to speak.
When he’s done smiling and saying things, he returns to his cardboard limbo.
If you’re a Joel Osteen fan, I gotta ask:
What is it about this guy that you find so helpful?
Do you live in a box too?
I don’t get how a grown-up, who lives in civilization among other human beings, finds wisdom in Osteen’s pabulum.
Here are 10 things for which you cannot “talk yourself to victory”:
- Arm wrestling
- Bar fight
- Moon landing
- Chess match
- Extinguishing a forest fire
- Jailbreak
- Receiving the Nobel Prize
- Defying Laws of Physics
- Slowing the Passage of Time
- Avoiding the Wages of Sin
Those are just off the top of my head.
There are MILLIONS of other things that will turn your positive mental attitude into a pile of fiery wreckage.
Osteen would then grin and announce the title of his new book, “When life hands you fiery wreckage, make lemonade!”
Pagans eat that stuff up!
Osteen is great for people who want to feel good without God.
Christians don’t need it.
If you’re a Christian who quotes Osteen as doctrine, allow me to introduce you to a better source of theology.
It’s called, “The New Testament”.
Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
1 Co 3:18–20
Get out of your box and read.
Christianity teaches that victory is possible.
But it doesn’t come from you.
This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
1 Jn 5:3–5
14 Responses
I pick on Osteen all the time. I have to, the glare from his perfect dental work and the blank pages of his bible, is just blinding.
That said however, I think he serves a valuable purpose and manages to reach the broken. We really are called to be in the process of, “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” If we don’t first learn how to shut down the negative self talk, God can’t get a word in edgewise. We are who God says we are. Christians, even some very well seasoned one, can be very defeatest, negative, and in denial about the power of our tongues. If you say something like “prayer doesn’t work,” than prayer doesn’t work for you. If you say, “God wants me to remain forever unsuccessful and miserable,” than that’s probably exactly where you will stay.
I’m laughing here, because while it’s true I can do nothing without Christ, I actually have talked my way through a bar fight and even managed to slow the passage of time. There have been some dire circumstances and the Lord really did encourage me to talk my way to victory. Talk is cheap, but talk backed up by the Lord is everything.
Lol!
I’d love to hear about slowing time. Maybe a blog post in the future?
Talk is cheap, but talk backed up by the Lord is everything.
I like this statement.
In order to “speak to yourself the right way”, you must know who you are. To know who you are, you must know who God, the One Who created you, says you are by knowing His word, the Bible. You are either a sinner or a redeemed saint. If you are a sinner, you can’t have “victory” in anything until you humble yourself before God, acknowledge your sinful state, and believe that the only way to escape the consequence for sin is to accept the gift of salvation Christ procured by taking the punishment for any sin you ever have or will commit. Only then will you be transformed by the Holy Spirit into a redeemed saint who NOW has access to the God who can enable, empower, and equip you THROUGH HIS STRENGTH, to be victorious over the trials of this life.
HOWEVER, victory in God’s dictionary isn’t the same as in ours. His goal, unlike Joel, isn’t to make you happy. God doesn’t NEED anything from you so He has no reason to manipulate or appease you. His goal is to transform you into so much more than you can imagine. He loves you and wants the best for you but like a good parent who knows that all cookies and no veggies isn’t good for kids, James talks about the growth and good that comes through trials that God allows for OUR GOOD. Many a person, Christian and even those who are not, can tell how trials they never would have chosen, made them a better person in the end.
A preacher/pastor is supposed to preach the word, the Bible, all of it,
not just the the warm, fuzzy, parts, or a message of unconditonal love and happiness to all. As Paul Harvey would say, there’s the rest of the story.
We are supposed to compare what a pastor/preacher says against what the Bible says and if his messages don’t agree, we are being wise to not be tossed about like waves, but to search for God’s truth. That’s not judging, and it’s not what the Bible says is judging. It’s doing our part to not be fooled or led astray by those who don’t do the job as defined by the God who wrote the book. At the end of our lives, only God’s opinion of us will matter. If we don’t spend our lives knowing Him and His Bible, living our lives for and by His ways, all our self talk, positivity, and good works will be a waste of time.
After hearing me criticize Joel O’Steen I had a pastor challenge me to listen to him and give him another chance. I chose five sermons at random and found them to be 80% fluff which meant nothing and 20% heresy or near heresy. When I reported my findings my pastor told me that he himself had never actually listened to Joel Ostein. Essentially, if his books are like his preaching, you only need to read 20% of them to see what he actually thinks, and what He thinks is mostly Wrong. But it’s admittedly hard to pin him down to an actual heresy because it’s hard to get him to make an actual statement. He would make an excellent politician.
Fluff isn’t much better than outright heresy. Often, positive thinking and self-affirmation replace the Gospel. A good attitude isn’t “wrong”, but neither is it sufficient to eliminate sin and connect you with God.
“You can read his books cover to cover and you’ll have no idea that the promised victory requires faith in Jesus.”
I thought you didn’t read his books. Are you closet Osteenist?
But seriously, Osteen’s speech does seem to be all fluff. The closest support I’ve given him is i found “Your Best Life Now: The board Game ” at Goodwill and gave it to my dad. It was two fifty well spent 😀
I HAVE THAT GAME!!!
David Pendleton gave it to me for my birthday a few years back. It’s one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received.
Maybe we should play it on an episode of the podcast…?
That’s amazing! I mean… I would definitely listen to that podcast and share it with friends. We never found the time to play it… I think it had the same appeal as playing Mystery Date – kinda funny to think about playing, but not really appealing to actually sit down and do ^_^
That’s what I’m afraid of too.
Reading through the rules made us laugh pretty hard though. I’m gonna suggest we try it.
Worse thing that could happen is we won’t be able to use the recording. (That’s not likely since we have really, really, low standards.)
One can never be disappointed with low enough standards.
Alright, I’ll bite.
I haven’t read/watched/heard much of Osteen’s preaching, and I personally wouldn’t call myself a fan. However I don’t have a problem with this tweet you’ve quoted if he’s talking to Christians. In context, he’s not talking about just anything. Strength, courage, vision and healing are the “victory” he’s speaking of. You’re right. Victory is possible, but not by our own power. It is by the power of Christ living within us. Hence, if he is speaking to Christians, he’s well within Scriptural accuracy in what he said. For reference:
“There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health.” (Prov. 12:18)
“For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” (Matt. 12:37)
“He that keepeth his mouth, keepth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.” (Prov. 13:3)
“Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from lies.” (1 Peter 3:10)
“From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Prov. 18:20-21)
“From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things, and the work of their hands brings them reward.” (Prov. 12:14)
The way we speak directly influences our life. Even secular people understand this, with their philosophies on optimism and the power of positive thinking. Do they alone lead to salvation? No. But that doesn’t mean their philosophy is inaccurate within a biblical worldview. We’re told to renew our minds, and speak with grace (Rom. 12:12, Col. 4:6).
We all know Christians who gripe, complain, and are negative about every aspect of their life. Generally their lives match the misery they speak. Likewise, those that have a positive outlook on their lives and speak hopeful, wholesome words see more of the goodness of God than those who do not, though they may go through struggles and trials. Even James tells us that if we never stumbled with our words, we would be perfect (James 3:2). Mark 11:23 also shows us that we have whatsoever we say, not what we pray. This all lends itself to prove our words are important and that it is very possible to “talk ourselves” into different outcomes.
All this—of course—is taken with the understanding it is being spoken to Christians. It won’t save a person’s soul. The only kind of talking that will do that is found in Romans 10:9.
While not a fan of Osteen, I dislike seeing him disparaged. I think we are free to scrutinise his doctrine, by all means (1 Thess. 5:21). But I don’t believe it is right to ridicule him as an individual. His mission statement upholds the truth that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the cleansing of sin and the salvation of mankind (sorry, “peoplekind”). This makes him a brother in Christ, and therefore makes me more hesitant to be condemning. Even if he does have a cheesy smile.
You asked, I delivered. I live to please! Aaaand, now I’m going to pull on my helmet.
You can take off the helmet. I can’t argue with any of your points.
The problem I have with Joel is there is similar to the problem I have with John Pavlovitz. In some ways, Osteen is WORSE because he’s so likable. Nobody reads anything Osteen writes and says, “Gosh, that guy is a jerk!”
Osteen doesn’t mention Jesus hardly ever. You can read his books cover to cover and you’ll have no idea that the promised victory requires faith in Jesus. Osteen’s gospel promises strength and success to everyone. He never specifies, “You gotta bend your knee to Jesus.”
Some years ago, Larry King asked Osteen some questions about salvation. Joel’s response was essentially, “It’s not my place to judge.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwL1DThtxYg
Joel has nothing of value to offer our atheist friends. He’ll smile and tell them it’s okay to believe differently than he does because God will sort everything out.
Fair call. Which is why I made the statement that speaking encouragement of this nature only works if you’re telling people who are already saved. The things I tell my close Christian friends probably wouldn’t do much for an atheist out of context of Christianity. Horses for courses.