Joel Osteen's "Today Is Your Day" Sermon

"A lot of times, we have faith for the future. We believe that one day we’ll get a good break, one day we’ll feel better, one day we’ll see the problem turn around. If we’re not careful, we’re always putting our faith off, believing that in the future something good is going to happen.  But true faith is always in the present....God wants to be good to you, but He’s waiting for you to start expecting His favor and begin looking for His goodness. Today is your day to live with expectancy—where you can’t wait to see what God is going to do in your life." [1]

The sermon was on television Sunday, February 9.  The gist of Joel Osteen's message is to believe that our prayers for divine intervention are answered in the present, even though the result may not be immediately apparent.  He asked us not to pray for something we would like to be given to us some day but to be given now.  He cited two examples from the Gospels.

The first was healing of the centurion's servant at the very moment the centurion expressed his faith in Jesus. [2]  The second was a woman who was suffering from bleeding for twelve years and was healed when she touched Jesus' cloak. [3]

In these two instances, the results were immediate but also in these two instances, Jesus was there.  Jesus had resurrected but He is still answering prayers.  Depending on the urgency, some prayers, I believe, are answered presently.  Others, however, are answered in time.  I believe the prayers that are not immediately answered are not appropriate for us to receive because God sees that we are not ready to receive them or that they are not appropriate for us to receive and that there is something else that suits us better, or because that we, deep down, truly do not want them answered because we are afraid or are not prepared to have them answered, or because we do not have enough faith in God and are skeptical that God answers prayers.

Of the forgoing reasons that prayers are not answered presently, the most compelling is that we truly do not want them answered, despite our denials. However, if we insist, our prayers could be answered, even though we might not be ready for them, or that they may not be good for us.  As the saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for." [4]


[1] February 09, 2014, #605, "Today Is Your Day!" See  http://www.joelosteen.com/Pages/ThisWeeksMessage.aspx , accessed February 11, 2014.
[2] See http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%208:5-13 Quoted, in part, below:

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”  Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed....Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

 [3] See http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+9:20-22 Quoted below:

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.  She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”  Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

 [4] For example, parents who wish to have a million dollars so that they can quit working and have a nice home in an upscale neighborhood and send their children to good schools.  What will they do with all that time, face each other all day long?  Will they fit in with their new neighbors?  Will their new neighbors enjoy having them?  Will they miss their children when they are far away in college?  Will their educated children be ashamed of their less educated parents?  Will they be truly happy?  Mr. Bieber is truly rich.  Did he wish to be rich at one time?  He has security guards.  He flies around in private jets.  He drives fancy Italian sports cars.  He had millions of fans and can date them all.  He was recently arrested for driving under the influence, and resisting arrest.  See http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/23/showbiz/justin-bieber-arrest/ Is he happy?   Mr. Seymore Hoffman was a talented actor.  He won acting awards.  Did he wish to be a famous actor?  He recently died from a drug overdose.  See http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/philip-seymour-hoffman-70-bags-heroin-police/story?id=22342702  Was Philip Seymore Hoffman happy?

The Misguided Francis Papacy

This pope talks often of the need for social justice and an end to economic inequality when he should instead be inspiring people at all economic levels to pray for the salvation of souls, their own and his.  He certainly needs to be saved by prayers for he is exhorting the Catholic leaders around the world to behave like social service workers and turn every church into a social service center that has nothing to do with strengthening one's faith in God and living one's life like Christ but has everything to do with demanding money for the poor as if having money will heal and save a poor person soul.  While charity is a virtue every Christian ought to practice, it is not for the pope to demand it in the same way a secular socialist leader would.  This pope especially should himself embrace poverty, just like his namesake saint, San Francesco d'Assisi, had embraced poverty and not be a hypocrite, so that he can inspire others to give away their belongings and follow Christ.  Sadly, this he could not do or he would have done so long ago.  This pope is not a saint, and he certainly is nothing like San Francesco d'Assisi.  He is not humble like Saint Francis of Assisi but seems to enjoy, perhaps even crave, popularity, attention, fame and power.  Sure he has his supporters but he also faces opposition within the ranks.  I think the papacy will disintegrate under him and that he could very well be, as St. Malachy had predicted, the last pope.

The Loss Of Innocence

We were all born with innocence and vulnerability and we were all beloved for such qualities.  At some point, we became less vulnerable but we also became less innocent.  Perhaps it is the other way around, that we have become less innocent so that we can be less vulnerable.

I do not think living a life of suspicion and vigilance on earth is living a life as it is in Heaven.  In Heaven, there is no need to be watchful or fearful for there is no evil lurking in dark places or deceit hidden in broad daylight.  There, the soul could regain its innocence and fear nothing.

Is earth not possible to be like Heaven so that man to return to innocence and not have to worry about being attacked, so that defense spending and all kinds of security forces and protection would be unnecessary?  I believe that at one time, long ago, before Cain killed Abel, people were able to live innocent lives.  I also like to imagine that some small communities at a later periods were able to do so as well even though I do not think it was likely because I am accustomed to suspicion, suspecting therefore the prevalence of jealousy and infidelity among people.

We are what we are, sinners, and the world is what it is, a cauldron of unsettled scores and impossible justices, where the strong seeks continually to exploit and ruin the weak and Mother Nature in a environment of conflicts and disagreements.  Thus I have no hope that innocence can reign on earth anytime soon, certainly not before the Final Day of Judgment.

Embrace The Poverties Of Christ And Be At Peace

Jesus was poor in national pride.  Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea.  How could Jesus be proud of Judea when King Herod of Judea wanted to kill Him?  Why would Jesus have any kind of national pride?  He did not belong to the world even though the world belonged to Him.  He loved the world, one that is without borders and without nations, one that knows no national or ethnic pride, one that does not distinguish one man from another.  He treated Jews and Gentiles alike.  He loved humanity with all its imperfections and died for it to perfect it, from north to south, and east to west.

Jesus was poor in personal pride.  Jesus was humble.  He was forgiving.  He turned the other cheek.  He forgave His persecutors.  He died willingly and without sin.  He never demanded justice.  He accepted the life God gave Him, the life of a refugee, the life one who was despised, criticized and rejected, the life of one who was persecuted, the life one who was betrayed, the life one who was unjustly accused, the life of one who was unjustly punished, tortured and crucified.

Jesus was poor in material possessions.  He was born in a stable.  He owned no home, no luxury goods or unnecessary possessions.  He did not care to have riches.  His detachment from all material possessions was complete.  He did not demand comfort.  He did not demand to be served but served instead.  He did not envy those who were well-off or powerful.  He did not care about equality.  He did not feel entitled to what He did not have.  He lived His life giving of Himself even when He had nothing tangible to give besides His life, for the forgiveness of Sin.

I believe that if we are poor in national and ethnic pride, then there is no reason to protect a certain national interest or preserve a certain ethnic group or culture by spying on or going to war with one another.  I believe that if we have humility, conflicts based on selfishness or religious differences will not arise and cooperation toward sustaining the earth that nurtures all life will take place.  I believe that if we are detached from material possessions, charity, not greed, will be the motivator.  Without greed, national, ethnic and personal pride, I believe that the world will be at peace and we can have inner peace, the peace that Christ gives.
 

January 21, 2014, Homily At The Vatican

In his homily, the pope said:

“[God] always speaks personally, with names. And he personally chooses,” the Pope explained, adding that the story of creation shows us this because “it is the same Lord that with his hands made man and gave him a name: 'You are called Adam.'” [1]

The pope craftily omitted quite an important part of the story.  He omitted to say that Satan also speaks personally to each individual.  After the Lord created Adam and Eve, Satan spoke and convinced them to eat the forbidden apple.  They did, and Hell opened up to receive those who reject God but follow Satan.

I am not sure if this pope is hearing the words of God and acting on them or taunting God with his deceit and doublespeak [2], fulfilling the wishes of Satan.  I very much want this pope to be God's messenger and not Satan's minion.  The fact that he may actually be the latter would not surprise me one bit but I would be overjoyed if he is speaking God's words.  So far, I remain unconvinced that he is God's choice. 


[1] http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/god-always-chooses-the-little-ones-pope-francis-reflects/
[2] Doublespeak example:  "During one of his Wednesday audiences, Pope Francis evoked a cheer from the people, who proceeded to repeatedly shout his name. In response, the Holy Father diverted from his text and earnestly admonished the crowd, “non Francesco, non Francesco! – Cristo! Cristo! Cristo!” Whereupon they proceeded to cheer even louder. "  See http://www.catholic-sf.org/ns.php?newsid=21&id=62113 At first one would think that the pope is humble because he wanted the crowd to cheer for Christ ("Cristo!") rather than for him ("Francesco!").  The effect of doublespeak comes in deftly and insidiously when the sinister side is revealed: This pope wanted to hear the crowd below him cheer "Cristo! Cristo! Cristo!" as if he were Cristo and not Francesco.  Satan desperately wants the same.  It wants you to see It as Christ, to think of It as Christ, albeit It is the anti-Christ.

During one of his Wednesday audiences, Pope Francis evoked a cheer from the people, who proceeded to repeatedly shout his name. In response, the Holy Father diverted from his text and earnestly admonished the crowd, “non Francesco, non Francesco! – Cristo! Cristo! Cristo!” Whereupon they proceeded to cheer even louder. - See more at: http://www.catholic-sf.org/ns.php?newsid=21&id=62113#sthash.r62VVd4m.dpuf

During one of his Wednesday audiences, Pope Francis evoked a cheer from the people, who proceeded to repeatedly shout his name. In response, the Holy Father diverted from his text and earnestly admonished the crowd, “non Francesco, non Francesco! – Cristo! Cristo! Cristo!” Whereupon they proceeded to cheer even louder. - See more at: http://www.catholic-sf.org/ns.php?newsid=21&id=62113#sthash.r62VVd4m.dpuf

During one of his Wednesday audiences, Pope Francis evoked a cheer from the people, who proceeded to repeatedly shout his name. In response, the Holy Father diverted from his text and earnestly admonished the crowd, “non Francesco, non Francesco! – Cristo! Cristo! Cristo!” Whereupon they proceeded to cheer even louder. - See more at: http://www.catholic-sf.org/ns.php?newsid=21&id=62113#sthash.r62VVd4m.dpuf

During one of his Wednesday audiences, Pope Francis evoked a cheer from the people, who proceeded to repeatedly shout his name. In response, the Holy Father diverted from his text and earnestly admonished the crowd, “non Francesco, non Francesco! – Cristo! Cristo! Cristo!” Whereupon they proceeded to cheer even louder. - See more at: http://www.catholic-sf.org/ns.php?newsid=21&id=62113#sthash.r62VVd4m.dpuf

Disunity In The Catholic Church And The Last Pope

After reading a Reuters article [1], I am more convinced now than before that this pope is going to be the last pope as predicted by St. Malachy because of the deep divisions within the Church on a number of fronts.  As a result, I believe this will cause the next pope to be elected with a significant number of voting Cardinals absent in protest.  He or she would therefore not be a "real" pope which will effectively fulfill St. Malachy's prophecy that Pope Frank I, Peter the Roman [2], will effectively be the last pope.  According to bibleprobe.com, San Francesco d'Assisi also foresaw "an uncanonically elected pope." [3]

 [1] The article at http://news.yahoo.com/top-pope-ally-urges-vatican-doctrine-chief-loosen-205104535--sector.html is quote below in its entirety:

PARIS (Reuters) - An influential aide to Pope Francis criticized the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog on Monday and urged the conservative prelate to be more flexible about reforms being discussed in the Roman Catholic Church.

Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, the head of a "kitchen cabinet" the pope created to draw up reform proposals, said that Archbishop Gerhard Mueller - who has opposed any loosening of Church rules on divorce - was a classic German theology professor who thought too much in rigid black-and-white terms.

"The world isn't like that, my brother," Rodriguez said in a German newspaper interview, rhetorically addressing Mueller in a rare public criticism among senior Church figures.

"You should be a bit flexible when you hear other voices, so you don't just listen and say, 'here is the wall'," Rodriguez said in an interview with the daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger.

Rodriguez, archbishop of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, did not cite any possible reforms in particular but said the pope's critics, such as those upset by his attacks on capitalism, were "people who don't understand reality."

Former Pope Benedict picked Mueller in 2012 to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the successor office to the Inquisition. Benedict ran that office as a powerful and feared guardian of Church orthodoxy for 24 years as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, until he was elected pope in 2005.

But its influence has waned under Francis, who soon after his March 2013 election was reported as telling visiting South American priests and nuns not to worry if the CDF wrote to them criticizing what they were doing.

NO TO CHANGING DIVORCE RULE

In an article in the Vatican daily last October, Mueller firmly rejected growing demands for divorced and remarried Catholics to be reinstated as full members of the Church.

Catholics who divorce and remarry in a civil ceremony are excluded from communion because the Church teaches that Jesus declared marriage an indissoluble bond.

With divorce on the rise, more Catholics are asking Rome to show mercy for them. German bishops have been in the forefront of reform thinking and one archdiocese even published guidelines on how to readmit them, which prompted Mueller's article.

The Vatican is due to consider reforming its rules on divorce at a worldwide synod of bishops next October.

Mueller has also strongly defended Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who reaped stiff criticism from German Catholics and the title "luxury bishop" in the media after it was revealed he spent at least 30 million euros ($40.69 million) on a new residence complex.

Tebartz-van Elst's grand plans were so far from the modest approach favoured by the Argentine-born pontiff that Rome sent an envoy to inspect his diocese and later sent him off to a monastery for a leave of absence pending a final decision.

Rodriguez did not think Tebartz-van Elst would return to Limburg and said Latin Americans like himself and the pope found it hard to understand spending so much money for opulent features such as a 15,000-euro free-standing bath tub.

"For most people, a shower and a toilet are enough," he said. "They're enough for the pope in his three-room apartment too." ($1 = 0.7373 euros)

[2] "Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ was an Argentine cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the current Archbishop of Buenos Aires, serving since 1998. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 2001. Pope Francis the 1st took his name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, an Italian Catholic friar and preacher (and Catholic Saint) who worked with the poor and who founded both the Franciscan order for men, and the Order of St. Clare for women. Something that may play into this, which has also been overlooked by many is the fact that Francis of Assisi was born in Italy. He was a roman priest/friar whose real name was 'Giovanni di Pietro (Peter) di Bernardone', but nicknamed Francesco. Some think this translates literally to 'Peter the Roman.'"  See http://www.bibleprobe.com/last10popes.htm
[3] Scroll down to find the subtitle "Saint Francis of Assissi (1226 A.D.)" at http://www.bibleprobe.com/last10popes.htm.  Below is quoted the entire paragraph::

Prophecy of St. Francis of Assisi (d. 1226): "There will be an uncanonically elected Pope who will cause a great schism, there will be diverse thoughts preached which will cause many, even those in the different orders to doubt, yea, even agree with those heretics which will cause my Order to divide, then will there be such universal dissensions and persecutions that if those days were not shortened even the elect would be lost" (Rev. Culleton, The Reign of Antichrist, Tan Books, 1974, p. 130.).  Some believe this prophecy referred to the controversy surrounding the election of Pope John XXIII and Cardinal Siri.  But it could refer to the next and last pope (Peter the Roman).  The last pope may just cut Catholics loose from unity and the papacy, causing total disruption and confusion.  (Emphasis original.)

To God With Gratitude

In the split second that you wake up, before your mind is fully functional, do you know where you are?  You don't.  Do you know you are truly alive?  You don't; you only think you are. 

In the next split second, you see your familiar surroundings and your faculties are now fully intact.  You realize you are in the flesh.  Only in that moment can you be certain you are not only a soul with intellect but a soul with intellect and flesh.  You know are alive.  You are alive in the flesh!

At that moment, you have to be grateful for what God has given you.  Can you imagine waking up and finding out that you are only a field of intellectual energy without the flesh?  How devastated will you be?  Whatever the degree of devastation, your degree of gratitude ought to be a thousand fold - that is not enough - an infinite million fold is more like it.

In the flesh, we can do so much good collectively, and be so thankful for the earth that nurture our existence.  What we do, we must humbly and thankfully do, for one another and for the earth that gives us life, whatever it maybe.  Whatever that is done with love and kindness is unquantifiable; the scale of grandness or the degree of attention received is irrelevant.  Any kind and loving gesture, even if it is seemingly insignificant, is expansive in the heart of person delivering it and in the person receiving it.  It is  the flame of the living God in all its splendor that is inexpressible, just like Heaven is un-illustratable.

To be able deliver in the flesh to another an act of humility, kindness and love is a privilege, one that we must treasure, that we must thank God for because without being alive, we are incapable of such expression.

At the end of everybody's life is the time that one is no longer capable to forgive and to love, to be kind and humble.  Not having to regret for an eternity to deny another forgiveness, kindness and love because of arrogance or pride or some other reason and instead performing humbly beautiful acts of forgiveness, kindness and love when one has ample of opportunity to do so is a step toward Heaven, and a step toward one's union with God when lasting fulfillment is at last attained.