Victoria Osteen, wife of mega church pastor, Joel , may have redefined the purpose and reason Christians worship God. In one of their recent weekly broadcast, Victoria raised eyebrows in the Christian community when she said the following:
“I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we’re not doing it for God—I mean, that’s one way to look at it—we’re doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we’re happy. That’s the thing that gives Him the greatest joy… So, I want you to know this morning: Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy,” she continued. “When you come to church, when you worship Him, you’re not doing it for God really. You’re doing it for yourself, because that’s what makes God happy. Amen?”
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Hmmm. . . . . Got to think about this one Noel and will be back. I think in part this is true. Anyways have to have some time to wrap my thoughts around it. God Bless, SR
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SR said exactly what I was going to say. So I shall simply wish you a very good day, Noel. 🙂
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Thanks so much for your input Elizabeth. May our father who is in heaven continue to bless and keep you.
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Thanks for sharing. If you want another perspective about what worship is about, I wrote an article about it a few months ago. Check it out if you have a chance: http://364daysofthanksgiving.com/isnt/
I would love to hear any thoughts you might have. Thanks!
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Hey Noel,
I have thought about this since I read it. For some reason I have never been able to connect spiritually with Victoria. Joel I do, and he is one of the ministers I still listen to. Being that said though, it took me nine years to connect with St. Therese of Lisieux. She is a Saint, so what does that tell you about my “connectors.” 🙂
Anyways, I went back in my thoughts when God told Moses and Aaron how He wanted to be worshipped. How He wanted everything to be done and set up. Not one of these words which Victoria spoke ever came out of God’s mouth. It was truly all about God and what He wanted.
Another thing I thought about is, the very act of being a Christian is about a life of service for God and others. It does not have one thing to do truly with us, though we do not like to accept that fact. All God wants is our “yes.” Jesus is the best example we have of that. Mother Teresa is another wonderful example. Everything she did she always said, “It was all for Jesus.”
So piecing these things together these are my thoughts. Worshipping God is about reverence and love to and for Him. Now I do believe it is an offering of ourselves to Him, the bad and the good, as we have to give ourselves completely to God. (This is all we have to offer to Him.) In His wonderful mercy and love He accepts the both in us. In doing so we unite with God in our worship, and He is standing there with hands outstretched to us.
Worshipping God to me, is not about making us “feel good.” I think this is a teaching that is doing more harm to Christians than good. It has all become so about “feeling God,” and our “feelings” as well. God wants us to KNOW He is God. For me it kind of starts and stops right there. God is NOT A FEELING. He is Spirit. He is truth. He is our Father. He is love. He is also our judge.
Does God want us joyful? Yes, but He wants us to be joyful because of how much He loves and cares for us.
When I “obey” God, it is only because and for God. Another thing is, I am also commanded to do so, and God did not say, “In doing so you will always be happy, happy, happy.” I do not believe for one moment Jesus was happy on the Day of the Cross, yet He was obeying God. Jesus did not die for Himself either in His obedience, He died for us. I do not believe the Blessed Mother was happy, watching her Son being whipped, tortured, and crucified, yet she was obeying God. Paul was not happy when he had the thorn in his side, yet he was obeying God. Job was not happy in his sufferings either, sitting in his own ashes, yet he obeyed God. This list can go on and on with Moses, Abraham, Joseph, and David, etc…
None of these people worshipped or obeyed God for themselves or to be happy. They did it because God is a very holy God, and they knew what He wanted from them. They also knew it would mean a lifetime of sacrifice for others. They gave up family, home, children, wives, homeland, freedom, and some their very lives being put to death to serve and worship our Lord, their Father.
When we look at those whose examples we are to follow, doing “good for ourselves” does not even fit into the life of being a Christian. Good thought provoking post. Thanks for sharing and God Bless, SR
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SR, I found the quote on Patheos website, and I did not want to believe Victoria said those disturbing words. I still believe she misspoke.
First of all, God is God without any of us, but we are nothing without Him.
Apparently Victoria forgot what happened after the children of Israel set feet on the promise land. It was because of their outrageous behavior-worshipping graven images why God gave Moses the law.
Worshiping God is serious business. Therefore, we must approach him with reverence, honor and respect.
SR, I take my Q from the Word of God as it is written in the Bible so those people can say whatever they please.
Thanks so much for your input SR. I enjoyed reading it as usual. May God continue to bless and keep you.
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Reblogged this on GoodOleWoody's Blog and Website.
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