Maybe I Am Mistaken

I do not do this often....as a matter of fact I have never done this before until today, and I seriously doubt that I will ever do it again. But today, just to see if I could stand it, I looked up a Joel Osteen clip on Youtube.

The clip was five minutes long....I got through two of those minutes before I turned it off.

However, as angered as I was to see a "Christian" leader twist the Bible into something it was never meant to be, I was more angered when I saw the first comment under the video which was:

"I'm a Muslim but i still listen and watch joel osteen on t.v. and youtube! he is so very inspirational!! and when you look at the core and foundation of both islam and christianity, you can find many things to be similar. love it"

Maybe I am mistaken, but I always thought that Christian preaching was about showing the gospel to all peoples no matter how offensive to them it may be, not making sure that all peoples are not offended by what the gospel says. I thought Christian preaching was supposed to speak of the beauty, worth, wrath, love, perfection, and all of the other many glorious attributes of Christ as shown through the Bible, and I also thought that Christian preaching was about showing how unworthy we are to have even heard of His holy being, much less to receive His wonderful grace and mercy.

I thought, as Christians, we were supposed to preach the Word so that our Savior may call His elect to Himself, not that He needs us, but because He commanded us to do so. For " How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" (Rom. 10:14) I had no idea that Christianity was about giving "sermons" that all religions can relate to.

I thought Christianity was about Christ.


Instead we have so many "Christian" preachers and teachers teaching "tolerance" to be a necessity to love. This concept seems so strange to me

It seems like the big three things that we "must tolerate" in order to display "love" is abortion, homosexuality, and false gospels/religions. But I thought that true love would try to abolish these evils rather than encourage them.

It seems to me that true love would try to rescue these people from theses things that will destroy them. It seems to me that true love would try to show Christ to these people so that He may perform a miraculous act in them in the same way as He has performed such an act in me and in many others.

Not because we deserved it. Not because we earned it. But because He is holy, He is righteous, and for some unfathomable reason He chose to love us.

Do not misunderstand me, I am not saying I am better than these people. I am not trying to point my finger at them and condemn them for being evil while raising myself up above them. If anything I am lower than they are. I, as Paul said, am the chief of sinners. I am flawed. I am not perfect by any means and do not claim to be, but by God's wonderful grace I am saved.

I am nothing, but Christ is everything. I try my best to display Him.

Do I succeed?

I would say no, or not as much as I would like at least. Like I said I am human and I am flawed, but I am striving. I want to fight the good fight. I want to run the race with endurance. I want to persevere in the faith.

All of the earlier mentioned observations are purely observations. By observing I am by no means trying to exalt myself, but rather I am trying to exalt Christ, and I hope and believe I have done so.

Maybe I am mistaken, but I do not think I am.