Paul met Jesus while he was still “breathing out murderous threats” against Christians. In the Bible, God is seen as a Savior-someone who rescues people when they are at their worst, not when they are thinking positive thoughts. To tell bound people, people enslaved to compulsive self-destructive behavior, to just change their thinking is dead-on-arrival. Just stay positive? What about the very real bondage many people are in? The human condition, described in the Bible, is that “no one seeks God”-rather, we are bound to seek our selves, our own good. Second, this brand of conditional Christianity gives people an impossible task. The idea that my mental state could, as Osteen says, “tie God’s hands” is alarming. First, this conditional relationship implies that the level of your faith determines God’s ability to act in your life. Think bad thoughts, and bad things will happen to you. Osteen’s articulation of Christianity is conditional: Think good thoughts, and good things will happen to you. How should we respond? I’ll keep it short and simple. You can’t give God something without God giving you more in return, whether it’s peace or joy or satisfaction.” It may be He protected you from an accident you never knew.

Somehow, some way, God will make it up to you. “I believe God’s keeping the records, and I believe you will be rewarded even in this life. God works where there’s an attitude of faith. “I believe that when you think of the negative, and you get up discouraged - there’s nothing good in my future - I really believe it almost ties the hands of God. Here are two noteworthy statements by Osteen: (The article appeared in The Wall Street Journal.) Steven Waldman, the founder and editor of, the Internet’s “largest faith and spirituality website,” recently interviewed the always-perfectly-coiffed Osteen, providing the good people of Mockingbird a lot of food for thought. Many people at the church where I work read his books, watch his shows, and listen to his sermons. He is hugely popular and hugely influential. His 2004 book, Your Best Life Now, was a New York Times bestseller, as was his 2007 Become a Better You. Pastor Joel Osteen is, in the words of (fake) fashion icon Mugatu (played by Will Ferrell in Zoolander), “so hot right now.” The 46-year-old pastor heads America’s largest church, the Houston-based Lakewood Church, with 43,000 people in attendance per week.

Your best life now journal