Joel Osteen’s ministry kept coming up in my discussions with prayer friends and bible study group recently. I used to listen to his messages a lot in the first two years of my return back. Looking back his softer sermons were what I needed for they were easy to digest. After all, I haven’t eaten any spiritual food for a very long time. His ministry reminds me of “milk and not solid foods” that Apostle Paul talked about. I stopped listening to Joel Osteen because his teachings were no longer providing me with endurance for daily tough times and so I found teachers at Times Square Church, One For Israel, Derek Prince, Dr Charles Stanley, Francis Chan, Rick Warren, Joyce Meyer, Beth Moore, Billy Graham, Dr Tony Evans, Gary Hamrick, Amir Tsarfati, RT Kendall, John MacArthur, Greg Laurie, Sid Roth’s guests, David Hernandez and classic preachers such as Charles Spurgeon, AW Tozer, Oswald Chambers, etc.

Since Joel Osteen kept coming up in our conversations recently I decided to listen to his latest message and see if he has changed his tone and message. Last two years were so tough it should have changed him. I’ve changed a lot. I was surprised to see that his message has not changed much. I kept thinking that his followers are not going to make it if their faith and endurance do not make them “healthy and wealthy”. This is the reason why I wrote this message to my prayer group ladies. Having the right theology about suffering is very important. I’ve seen and heard of many believers who fell away when they were suffering greatly and their prayers were not answered as they had hoped for. I hope that all churches will teach from the pulpit on the theology of suffering. TSC does an amazing job with this.

My message to the prayer group: Although my bible study group has moved on from Hebrews 11, I keep thinking about the heroes of faith in this chapter. We all love the victorious faith stories of Gideon, Barak, David, Samson, Joshua etc. But Hebrews 11 ends with the unnamed heroes of faith who were sawed in half, tortured, murdered, persecuted, etc. By the time the book of Hebrews was written for the Jewish believers of Jesus Christ, many original Apostles were killed. Perhaps there were so many suffering believers, it wasn’t possible to name these heroes of faith. Perhaps as this epistle was being read to the Jewish congregants, they personally knew someone close who experienced these things. Perhaps it was themselves suffering greatly for their faith. Whatever the reasons were for not naming these heroes of faith who suffered, it is important to note that no believer is guaranteed to be “healthy and wealthy” on this earth.

This recent sermon by TSC pastor Tim DiLena talked briefly about the twelve Apostles and how they died.  These great heroes of faith, the founders of the first church did not die “healthy and wealthy”.  Please listen to learn how these heroes died.  Also, the sermon continues on about the last Apostle John who wrote the book of Revelation when he was in his 90s.  

http://sermons.tsc.nyc/surrounded-by-madness-with-nowhere-to-go/

Yesterday, I read Revelation 21 and 22, the last two chapters of the Bible.  I recalled Billy Graham’s quote“I’ve read the last page of the bible. It’s all going to turn out alright.”

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. – Romans 15:13

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews%2011&version=NIV;VOICE

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2021&version=NIV;VOICE

I still remember this saying by the keynote speaker that was hired by my children’s school PTO for their middle school career day – “When the student is ready, the teacher shows up.” I was a parent volunteer assigned to follow him in a smaller group classroom. I feel like God is always wanting to teach me more about His ways. He’s always working on my heart and mind to get me ready to receive and understand more. Theology of suffering is not a popular subject course but it’s important to learn it so that we don’t fall away when our faith and endurance don’t give us the hopeful outcomes that we are praying and believing for.

Since I am very grateful to Joel Osteen’s ministry for sharing the goodness of God and helping me so much in the first two years of my return back, I am praying for him for the sake of his global ministry and many followers. I’ve heard enough testimonies from his life from his sermons and I believe he loves and trusts the Lord immensely. I pray that he will pivot his ministry message to also teach about the theology of suffering.