Rick Warren's book "The Purpose Driven Life" begins with the words: "It's not about you." So, I looked on the first page of Joel Osteen's "Become a Better You" and found the words: " You [emphasis added by me] were born for better than this; you are meant to live at a higher level...You can be better. The question is..."What must I do to become a better me?
Seems like it's pretty clear. Joel Osteen's message is all about "you." The Bible is very clear: it's all about God. When we make it about "me", and "my" blessing, my happiness, we reverse God's order. Listen to this quote by DeVern Fromke from his book "Unto Full Stature":
"Christianity is not a happiness cult. It's primary purpose is not to make us happy...happiness does come through the Christian faith. But if the end of the Christian faith is to make us happy, then we are using God - we are the center - not God. This means self-idolatry."
Just this morning I read a quote from Rabbi Heschel (not exactly a fundamentalist Christian!).
"In our technological age man could not conceive of this world as anything but material for his own fullfilment. He considered himself the sovereign of his destiny... postulating the existence of a Power [God] who would serve as a guarantee for his self-fulfillment, as if God were a henchman to cater to man's aspiration and help him draw the utmost out of life."
As believers we are either man-centered or God-centered. We must be very careful we do not make ourseleves to be the center of the universe. When the center is wrong, then all that follows is wrong. Jesus said "seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you." This is something you are not likely to hear emphasized from the Joel Osteen, and certainly missing in his book "Become a Better You."
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