prosperous damnation

i finally got around to reading the 2006 TIME article on the prosperity gospel and i was rather intrigued. if you have some time you can read it for the first time or review it here.

one man in particular - let's call him....joel osteen - receives a lot of attention in this article. now let me be very frank - i don't like him. i don't like him as a preacher (doesn't talk about the sacrifice of Christ for the atonement of our sins, aka...THE GOSPEL), i don't like him as a steward (spent $75 million to give the compaq center a western church makeover) and i don't like that he will not submit himself to the scriptures and preach what they say (youtube search for him on larry king sidestepping the question "is Jesus the only way?"). he has a responsibility as a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ to teach just that...the gospel of Jesus Christ and he's not doing it. he's teaching how to have your best life now, which is garbage.

the time article mentions something about using God as a means to an end and that scares the hell out of me, because honestly let's look at our lives. how often do we lean upon God solely when we need something? it's so easy then, but we blaspheme and spit in His face when things are great and we don't acknowledge Him.

at church this weekend our pastor spoke on the passage of matthew 25:31-46. it's the parable of the sheep and the goats. what he so brilliantly pointed out was that both the sheep and the goats asked the same question: when did we see You and when did we do/not do these things? now, this is to break the notion that our faith is based on works. the sheep didn't do these things for God's approval/blessing...they did them because of what the gospel had done in their hearts. it wasn't a matter of "how can i live a better life here on earth?"....it was "how can i show Jesus to people for His glory?"

i pray that we would strive to show Christ to the world so that they may rejoice in Him, not in riches that fade away.

(p.s. i in NO WAY condone the website Godtube.com but youtube is blocked at work. regardless, i wanted to include john piper's take on the prosperity gospel. the video is nothing special, just be sure and listen to the audio. i love it.)

subtleties

the back to the future trilogy never ceases to amaze me. i started watching it again the other night and i still catch things that they put in the first movie and continued to expand upon even through the third one. for example:

twin pines mall. marty goes back in time and runs over one of the pine trees. once back in the future we see that the name of the mall has changed to lone pine mall.

in the third (and weakest but still good) installment the ravine the train crashed into was named the clayton ravine because clara clayton was supposed to go over the side in her carriage. again, once back in the future the name has changed to the eastwood ravine after marty's pseudonym.

those are obviously just a couple of examples, but it goes to show how creative the writers and film makers were during the process of making this trilogy.

i love it when there are subtle jokes in movies/tv shows. i like to pretend that i'm in on an inside joke with the writer whenever i discover them. i think i might freak tina faye out if i ever did meet her b/c i would act like we're best friends.

on to the ultimate show of subtle jokes...arrested development. it is without a doubt the most genius tv show ever made. that's right, i said it. better than seinfeld. don't believe me? that's fine...i just feel sorry for you. i can watch any episode over and over and every time notice some new joke written on something or understand a reference one of the characters makes. it's so awesome. i can't wait for the movie in 2009.

hope this post wasn't too subtle.

that was an awful joke.