In Become a Better You, Joel Osteen encourages his readers to aim for a higher place. I fear that his readers cannot reach the highest place unless Joel’s teaching creates a hunger in their hearts for God, not for the things on earth. There are wonderful benefits to living in the higher realm of spiritual life. But our coming in to this realm of spiritual life and vision requires a separation from the things of earth—the sensual and temporal things. When we live from above, we care less about promotion and affirmation. We think less of ourselves—not more.
What is “above?” It is the invisible realm of God’s presence: the faith realm. Paul declares: “we live by faith and not by sight” (1 Corinthians 5:7). As one of our old familiar worship songs says: “the things of this world will grow strangely dim.” Many “good” things must be set aside if we would climb higher. Paul tells us “If you have been raised up with Christ, [then you must] set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1-2). As a pastor/teacher, this is what I would say to Joel Osteen:
If our teaching fails to create a hunger in our listeners for the “things above,” they will still long for the things of earth, and think that is the ultimate blessing of God. If so, we have not led people to the high mountain of God, but only to the foothills.
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