The number one topic in the Bible after salvation is taking care of the neediest in society. The object is to keep our religion pure and undefiled and God tells us how. Take care of the needy in their affliction. At the time this was written, that would involve visiting them but these days it could very easily be open your church doors when there is a historic hurricane destroying the lives of your neighbors. Note that it says "in their affliction." It is easy to play the role of caring when little caring is needed. It is nice to hand out backpacks to local kids or go build a random playground in some third world country. What do you do however when your area gets hammered for five straight days by a hurricane? What do you do when the people you claim to care about are in their affliction? Do you post some dubious tweets and then scramble through a PR nightmare trying to make yourself look better? If your religion was pure to begin with you would not have to. If Joel Osteen preached and believed the Gospel then he never would have hesitated when the predictions were that Houston was going to get hit hard. He never would have needed the PR experts to spin his way out of the mess he got himself into. His initial reaction would not be to worry about his brand or losing $600,000 per weekend. That brings us to the second point.
The second facet of religion as God intended it is to keep oneself unstained from the world. Joel Osteen and Lakewood are the definition of stained, defiled, and impure. Yes it is hidden well behind a polished machine and a winning smile but the truth cannot be denied. There are 50,000 people per weekend who travel to Lakewood to have their itching ears scratched. They pay $600,000 for the scratching so you know they get their money's worth. You see when the worst calamity to hit an area in our lifetime is barreling down upon us there are only two ways to react. One is pure, undefiled, and unstained from this world. This cares of this world do not matter to the Christ centered person. People are going to be in need and what can I do to help them. That is how the church is supposed to react. The second possible reaction is to list the practical, reasonable, carnal objections to helping. It is too hard logistically. It might cost us a lot of money. There are experts who do this sort of thing. Maybe you use your carnal thought processes to provide enough help to appear righteous while actually costing you very little. You know, like setting up a distribution center instead of allowing people to come in.
But then the world sees you for who you are. A con man who preaches charity until charity is needed. Living in a 10 million dollar mansion. Collecting over 30 million per year in tithes. Posting banal platitudes while people watch their entire lives collapse in a wave of water and indifference. Realizing on Monday that some damage control was needed when everyone else knew the hurricane was going to hammer Houston as early as last Wednesday. I see the Osteen adherents are already out in full force armed with talking points and shades of grey. The truly sad thing is disastrous as this hurricane is and devastating to the lives of Houstonians, it will pass. People's lives will be rebuilt. Cars replaced, houses fixed, water receded. Lakewood will then return to normal with 50,000 people attending each weekend to have their ears scratched with banal platitudes that cannot possibly save them for the eternal storm that is heading our way. Yes, God is most definitely on the throne beloved but if you spend your earthly existence hanging out at the heresy distribution center known as Lakewood Church, that should be no source of comfort for you. None at all.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- August 29, 2017
