Oral Roberts
Essays, Featured — By Karen Spears Zacharias on December 17, 2009 at 11:35 am
I learned of the death of Oral Roberts through a Twitter post that said: “Celebrating with Oral Roberts as he came face to face with Jesus. Your mansion is sooooo big. I’m sure of it!”
The news was jarring. Not that Oral Roberts was dead at age 91, though, I imagine for those who loved him his passing on to Glory was still very hard. What troubled me was the remark about the size of Roberts’s mansion.
Up until Roberts died and I read that stupid tweet, I never gave a second-thought to the real estate market in heaven. I just assumed we’d all get an equal share of prime property. Surely God knows me well enough by now to know that in order for me to be eternally happy I need a piece of beachfront property.
What if that peep is right, though? What if God awards us mansions according to our earthly legacy? If that’s the case, Jesus is probably stacking the cinder blocks next to some run-down singlewide that he got on trade-in from a manufacturer named Buddy, with me in mind. .
But then again, Oral Roberts may have awoken to find himself in a large holding cell, while God sorts through 70 some years of financial records, making sure there was no fiduciary misconduct, no falsifying of documents, no false testimony, no staged healings in an effort to bilk millions from the unsuspecting.
******
When Oral Roberts first started his healing ministry people were dying in those tent meetings, much like those that died recently at the hands of so-called healer James Arthur Ray in that Sedona sweat lodge.
According to Roberts’s biographer, David Harrell Jr., during the early days of Roberts’s healing ministry several people died while seeking a touch from him: In 1951, an Alabama businessman died while attending a campaign in Atlanta. In 1955, an elderly man died at tent meeting in Calgary. And in 1959 there were several deaths reported, but the saddest may have been the three-year-old who died in her parents’ arms at a tent meeting in Fayetteville, N.C.
“Such tragedies struck with some regularity during the 1950s and were generally accompanied by flurries of bad publicity,” Harrell reported.
Like a lot of sons, Roberts became a preacher because that’s what his daddy before him did. But his ministry really took off in 1947 after Roberts realized something he’d been overlooking — God called him to be prosperous. He read it right there in the B-I-B-L-E: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” III John 1:2
It was nothing more than a salutation. A way of saying, “Hey buddy, hope all is well with you.” But Roberts took that scripture out of context and built a gilded empire on it, with the help of millions of hardworking people hoping to build an American Dream for themselves by sending in their “seed faith” money to Roberts.
The revelation that God wanted Americans to prosper was the first of many such revelations to follow. Roberts found a welcome audience among post-War Americans. Raised up capitalists with a Calvinistic-work ethic, and now abetted by a view that God really was on their side, Americans were primed for the Prosperity Gospel. Hell, yeah, baby. It’s me and you, God. Show me where to dig the hole and when I strike gold, I’ll give 10 percent to you.
Roberts reportedly responded to God’s revelation about prosperity just exactly the way one would expect any good-hearted American would – he went out and bought a Buick. Roberts later said that car represented to him what a man could do if only he had enough faith in God.
And that notion – that buying or building things, bigger and better things – as proof of a person’s faith in God marked Roberts’s entire life.
Or marred it, rather.
It was his faith in a God who favored him and all that he did that guided Roberts to build Oral Robert Evangelistic Association, a television and radio ministry that he claimed reached a billion people. No one dared question the veracity of such a claim.
This favor of God was also the impetus for building Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Roberts claimed God told him to build it. While other students were marching in favor of Civil Rights and protesting the war in Vietnam, ORU students were abiding by a loftier calling, pledging they wouldn’t smoke or drink or engage in premarital sex and that they would go to class everyday dressed in business attire.
According to Harrell, it was the Reverend Billy Graham who ushered Oral Roberts and his Word of Faith movement into mainstream America, when Graham asked Roberts to lead a prayer at the World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin in 1950:
“Robert’s friendship with Billy Graham — highlighted by Oral’s presence in Berlin and Graham’s dedication address at ORU — did much to lessen tensions between charismatics and evangelicals. The spread of the charismatic movement into the main-stream churches, bringing unexpected acceptance to the Pentecostal experience of speaking in tongues, and Oral’s discovery of the evangelical world and welcome into it.”
To the casual observer, it certainly seemed as if Oral Roberts had indeed discovered the pipeline to God. That’s if you measure favor only in terms of hundred dollar bills. Harrell reported that tax records from 1977-1978 reveal over $38 million were donated to the ministries of Oral Roberts. That seems like a paltry sum compared to the $100 million being drawn down by the likes of Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer and others who have fashioned their footsteps after Roberts. But it was enough to put Roberts far beyond every other religious association in the nation at that time.
In 1979, former employee Jerry Sholes, wrote a book (Gimme that Prime-Time Religion) criticizing what he claimed was the hypocrisy of Oral Roberts:
“Here is a portrait of the real Oral Roberts, the man not too many of his admirers know. He dresses in Brioni suits that cost $500 to $1000; walks in $100 shoes; lives in a $250,000 house in Tulsa and has a million dollar home in Palm Springs; wears diamond rings and solid gold bracelets employees ‘airbrush’ out of his publicity photos; drives $25,000 automobiles which are replaced every 6 months; flies around the country in a $2 million fanjet falcon; has membership, as does his son Richard, in the most prestigious and elite country club in Tulsa, the Southern Hills (the membership fee alone was $18,000 for each, with $130 monthly dues) and in the ultra-posh Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California (both father and son joined when memberships were $20,000 each–they are now $25,000); and plays games of financial hanky-panky that have made him and his family members independently wealthy (millionaires) for life.”
Yet, Roberts was able to press on and prosper. The first hint of economic trouble didn’t surface until the mid 1980s when the City of Faith hospital, built with funds from his partners, opened to only 130 of it’s 294 beds.
Despite Roberts’s claims that a 900-foot Jesus had told him to build a hospital where people would be treated both the conventional way and through the healing power of prayer, the people did not come. They’d still seek healing from Roberts’s directly, but not from his staff of his wellness physicians. The hospital operated in the red for eight years before they had to lock the doors.
More trouble followed after Roberts announced in a January 1987 broadcast that God had told him in March 1986 that he had a year to raise $8 million or a he would be struck dead. He claimed he had raised $3.5 million but if he didn’t get the extra $4.5 million by March 31 he’d die.
What’s a follower to do with a message like that?
Apparently nobody thought Roberts had lost favor with God. I guess they just figured God was having a cash flow problem because they sent in the money right quick like and Roberts’s life was generously spared.
For awhile anyway.
Learning of Roberts’s recent demise makes me nervous. I’m sweating all up underneath my armpits. Up until that peep mentioned the expanse of Roberts’s mansion, I’ve never thought of heaven as a place where size mattered. I just assumed that heaven is like Trumanville, a place where everybody’s mansion is the same size. You don’t suppose they have Doublewides in heaven, do you? I mean Jesus never mentioned needing to go away to spruce up the trailer court.
36 Comments
Thanks for your article. I grew up in the Charismatic movement. The church I attended worshipped (and I do mean worshipped) the likes of Oral Roberts and his contemporaries — RW Shambauch, Norvel Hayes, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, et al. It has taken some time and some distance to realize that 99.9% of what was being taught revolved around money, prosperity, conquering and the like. I heard very little about Christ unless they could find some place in the Gospels where Jesus talked about the hottest “overcoming-everything” theological topic.
It’s sad he died, but I hope the truth about him and the others comes to light and we see what really went on — see the men behind the curtains.
Chris
Chris, not to be nitpicky, but many people who consider themselves charismatic are not followers of Prosperity preachers. They are two separate doctrines.
I hope we never meet before I die. You seem to have a fondness for making sure people know the REAL scoundrels that people are in the wake of their deaths.
We’re all scoundrels. People thinking certain scoundrels are great and others aren’t needn’t effect us personally.
The “bigger and better mansions” thing is one I’ve heard since I was little. It’s off-putting and irritating. There’s nothing in the expression that tells people about how much they’re loved and sought after by their God. It’s all more striving and working and winning to curry favor with a real estate baron. Ugly.
i didn’t know too much about oral roberts before he died, but he was pretty out there. he also claimed to have raised a kid from the dead.
http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2009/decemberweb-only/151-34.0.html
Karen, Christianity Today distances Oral, right or wrongly, from the prosperity gospel.
Karen, I share your disappointment ( to put it lightly) with the damage done by the Prosperity message. But I wondered, when I read about his death, what the moratorium is on bashing a dead guy.
Like most Christians, he probably had his good points, and blessed a lot of lives with his actions. And he clearly had his bad points, too. Just like you do, and I do. So do we let the guy at least get buried before we talk of his faults?
I’m not professing to know the answer, nor am I criticizing you for writing this today. I’m asking.
Larry: I think that was a generous article by CT. Revisionist history in the making.
James: It’s a worthy question. I suppose all those years of being a journalist trained me to think that it’s news when a person of OR stature dies. I also believe that as Christians we ought to be truth tellers, and the paper-trail that Roberts left behind reveals a man torn between his love of God and his love for the Bling Life.
As Rich Mullins so aptly said of those who preached the PG: They are not bad. They are just wrong.
Would it have made a difference if I waited a week to say that?
I don’t know if it would have. Just asking. There’s no doubt that your criticisms of OR are valid.
I think my question was colored by the fact that, a short time ago, I was reminded of how, just a few hours after Ronald Regan passed away, Ted Rall posted that Reagan was “roasting in hell right now”. It was in extremely bad taste, which is not surprising coming from Rall, as he is the Ann Coulter of the Left. But the immediacy of his comment sure left a bad taste in my mouth. I wonder if there should be a waiting period for stuff like that.
Karen,
Yeah, I was $urpri$ed. He definitely used $piritual extortion to get money from the flock. Perhap$ he didn’t promi$e pro$perty to his $supporter$?
I truly don’t know. Maybe there’s a few flavor$ of crook$ out there?
James: Not sure that there should be a comment like that at any time. That’s not my sentiment toward Roberts nor my sentiments for anyone, not even Ann Coulter, though she’s certainly tempted me.
james, i think you’re giving ted rall way too much credit.
Karen, I have to agree with James. I get it. You have your criticisms of prosperity teachers and faith healers. It’s rather disrespectful though of you to bash on Oral Roberts just two days after his death. So you believe he was flawed. Big deal. So you don’t agree with his doctrines. Big deal. The fact is that Oral Roberts accomplished much in his lifetime in furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sure, he made mistakes along the way. We all do. I have never met a perfect minister or pastor. But really? You’re really going to bash him this close to his death. Do you really see no good in the man at all?
Even Jesus took time to mourn with those who lost a loved one. FYI, Jesus doesn’t put us in a holding cell while sorting out our wrongs…He bore all of them on the cross.
I also found it curious that you, a journalist, seemed so dismissive of Christianity Today’s (a reputable, balanced mag) article on Oral Roberts.
Oral didn’t make a few “mistakes.” He systematically fleeced the flock over decades. Christianity Today said he wasn’t part of the prosperity gospel. They didn’t say he didn’t tell his congregation that if they didn’t produce $8M in a month, above budget, that God was going to take him. How’s that for emotional black mail?
And there was that conversation between 900 ft. Jesus and Oral. The topic: Big Jesus needed more cash, fast.
If Oral isn’t in the prosperity gospel camp it’s only because he didn’t use promises of abundance to bamboozle the masses. He just put a metaphorical gun to his own head and declared himself Jesus’ hostage.
Vince, to clarify, I am not saying Karen shouldn’t post a criticism of OR so soon after his death. I am posing a question of whether it’s too soon or not. I am not afraid to take a side on lots of issues, but on this one, I am ambivalent, and asking for the input of others, no more and no less.
Maybe Karen’s right in posting this so soon, maybe she’s not. She’s certainly right about his doctrine.
His accomplishments:
a) He was the fist successful TV preacher.
b) He brought healing into Christian worship services, which was not a practice in America before then.
c) The creation of the university, to advance the education of Pentecostals, who were at the time stereotyped as poor hicks and oakies.
So we’ll give him one and half, then. I am certainly not a Pentecostal, but I am against the stereotype.
Until recently, I really haven’t spend much time here. I have read some articles in the past. I did want to say this. James W, I don’t know who you are and how many comments I may have read from you. As I said, until recently I haven’t spent too much time here. I know I read at least one other and want to tell you this. I am wonderfully impressed. Truly. I hope this is an encouragement to you. I like what I see as your higher ground insights. Your comments seem full of wonderful insights. And I hope I don’t sound like “I’m for Appollos or Paul” thingy. I’m for Jesus. Others have had wonderful comments too. I just have taken notice of yours and wanted to encourage you James, whomever you are. That is what was in my heart.
I suspect this online magazine attracts the quite a bit youth and do want to see them growing and doing better than the previous generation, while still giving due honor for what they have accomplished, even if with some mistakes. Guess you can say I feel somewhat protective of them in the sense of helping them see at that higher realm. I’m sure Karen is implementing her protective measures too.
As this place continues to grow it will also have a larger influence, especially on those it attracts here and I am glad for your insights here James (as with others) that I feel will help them in their journeys to shine brightly for our Lord. You, in my eyes, are already shining brightly. I hope this is an encouragement to you.
Karen, wanted to ask, even as you feel you should share your comments there and feel I get that and some benefits in it, do you not feel an obligation to mention how we should pray for each other? Things like that, especially considering the sphere of influence? Know what I mean? I mean do we want the less mature taking this and going with it in the wrong direction? As with those you said died at those Oral Roberts meetings, can you see how this can run negatively too. Shall we put all the responsibility on you if it does? Do we also put all the responsibility on Oral Roberts? I feel those that have the pulpit so to speak (and this place is its own pulpit so not just speaking of pastors) would be held to a higher accountability, even if not all of it.
I understand the grievances yet when we share things like this on a more public forum, we should consider our audience and how it can influence them. That applies to all of us, me too.
One more. I know several people that are right in facts and stick to their guns there, but seem to miss the larger picture of how their being right can negative to the overall picture. And I mean they can lay it out good too with really good points in regards to their right. I’ve been quite impressed with their knowledge and have even acknowledged their right in facts. Really, like I am very impressed with the points they make and have to acknowledge their knowledge there. But they seem to miss that their right is causing more chaos and problems for others. At these times I feel we should abandon our liberties and rights for the love of God. Didn’t the Apostle Paul mention something similar?
And not saying I haven’t gone there too. Sometimes we can be blind to our own faults.
Also, not saying Karen is doing this. Do know that Karen. Just giving input on this concept of being right. We know right if found being connected to the heart of God in Jesus. So again, my commments are more about things I have observed with being right.
I watched as people talked over twitter, bout how much good Oral Roberts did for the kingdom of God. I didn’t say anything because I had nothing nice to say. BUT I think now that he is dead, we should all just move on, extend grace, and not bash the guy. If someone asked me what I though of Oral Roberts ministry, I would tell them, other wise, I will not.
Hmmm, I tend to agree w Carole on this one. BAshing one who just died seems somewhat opportunistic. And if the whole realm of Charismatic crazies I think Oral Sr. was a little more balanced. Karen you find great joy in finding all the bad in people. A little balance might be nice from time to time or we are all going to get tired of your writing. Everyone has at least one redeeming quality right? Even you…smile
Paul
Well, then, Paul, you are going to love Will Jesus Buy Me a Doublewide? because that’s exactly what I did — went in search of the folks who are getting this whole God and money perspective right. Found a bunch of ‘em too. Rich ones. Poor ones. And a bunch of those in-between.
I’ve been studying and writing on Genocide as I see alot of co-relation within the body of Christ on a spiritual / heart level in regards to conflict. There is alot of good too with people praying for each other and their enemies. I agree and was just talking the other day about how it is getting quite depressing and discouraging to hear of all this constant emphasis on the negative. I tell you I gotta get my dose of encouragement from God first and people like Joel to help me out.
Rwanda keeps coming to me in regards to those in an overseers position and those that are not. The whole thing about groupings, stereotyping, labeling that dehumanizes a person in the eyes of others making it easier to commit a crime against them.
Not only that but the role of influential leaders, forerunners, and the media.
And we know that eventually the Hutu group (considered the average citizen) retaliated with dire consequences. Some civil and revotionary war built on the ways of old.
The history of Genocide is sad.
Seems that the main issue in Genocide is this polarized, stereo-typing, and even racist mentality that fosters the blame of their problems and / or problems in society, on a certain group. Usually the perpetrators feel justified in their actions.
An excerpt from an article:
Rwandans take history seriously. Hutu who killed Tutsi did so for many reasons, but beneath the individual motivations lay a common fear rooted in firmly held but mistaken ideas of the Rwandan past. Organizers of the genocide, who had themselves grown up with these distortions of history, skillfully exploited misconceptions about who the Tutsi were, where they had come from, and what they had done in the past. From these elements, they fueled the fear and hatred that made genocide imaginable. Abroad, the policy-makers who decided what to do—or not do—about the genocide and the journalists who reported on it often worked from ideas that were wrong and out-dated.
Anyway, Genocide topics as in things that lead to it, a review of history there, amd preventive measures are very interesting to me now and like I said, I see much co-relation. And we know with God things are a matter of the heart, “if you look upon with lust in thine heart…if you hate you have murdered…if you covet you have stolen, etc”. Who of us has not fallen short of that glorious standard? Thank God for the blood of Jesus and his grace. Where we all meet is at the cross of Christ. Hard to condemn our neighbor and feel justified when one understands that.
It’s good read. You may want to review.
Here’s someone that I share with in regards to the song in their heart on such matters. Some may know Rabbi Eckstein from his program, “International Fellowship of Christians and Jews”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H66qB1gkw-o
Anyway, I think he has some wonderful things to share and I hear a similar song in my heart for the body of Christ.
God bless you all and I enjoyed the comments full of wisdom and grace.
Love in Him,
Jo
a few things to remember — first, Christianity Today was founded, at least in part, by Billy Graham (for whom I have great respect) and represents largely that stream of evangelicalism that helped bring Oral Roberts into the mainstream. So, yeah, they were kind and probably holding off on any critical comments.
I don’t think Karen’s article was harsh and unnecessary. I think she wrote like a journalist, sprinkling her thoughts and comments in there is she should do now as a writer expressing her experiences and perspectives. What she shared is all true; not a character assassination, but an honest – and BIBLICAL – critique of a man’s lifestyle and “theology” that made him rich off of the pain and hopes of others.
I pray for his family and friends who grieve. But, honestly, my first thought when i heard of his death was, “well, I guess he didn’t raise enough money this time.” There is something wrong with Christianity that professes God will want us to send millions of dollars to one person, or else he’ll be taken away.
Karen and I share a fondness for the life and music of Rich Mullins. What a contrast in lifestyle and the meaning of following Christ! By Oral’s own defiinitions, Rich was a failure that God wouldn’t have approved of. He gave away his money; he made sure his accountant gave him a poverty-level salary and gave away the rest of his royalties and income. He served and loved freely. Which, while resembling the life of our Lord, has no place in the theology of the Roberts’ family. God bless them – but I can’t imagine God “took Rich home” because he wasn’t trying to get rich through his ministry.
God is with them in their pain and grief, and I wish them the best and do pray for them. But I do not accept, and will always stand opposed to, the message of Oral Roberts and his family … and other such “preachers.”
I follow Jesus, not Donald Trump.
thanks, Karen, for your honesty and boldness. And I’ll have time to visit with Oral on that great gettin’ up morning … like it or not, there’ll be no private gated high society exclusive clubs and manions to keep me out up there in heaven.
A few things to remember — first, Christianity Today was founded, at least in part, by Billy Graham (for whom I have great respect) and represents largely that stream of evangelicalism that helped bring Oral Roberts into the mainstream. So, yeah, they were kind and probably holding off on any critical comments.
I don’t think Karen’s article was harsh and unnecessary. I think she wrote like a journalist, sprinkling her thoughts and comments in there is she should do now as a writer expressing her experiences and perspectives. What she shared is all true; not a character assassination, but an honest – and BIBLICAL – critique of a man’s lifestyle and “theology” that made him rich off of the pain and hopes of others.
I pray for his family and friends who grieve. But, honestly, my first thought when I heard of his death was, “well, I guess he didn’t raise enough money this time.” There is something wrong with Christianity that professes God will want us to send millions of dollars to one man, or else he’ll be taken away.
Karen and I share a fondness for the life and music of Rich Mullins. What a contrast in lifestyle and the meaning of following Christ! By Oral’s own definitions and standards, Rich was a failure that God wouldn’t have approved of. Rich gave away his money; he made sure his accountant gave him simple base salary based on poverty-level measurements, and he gave away the rest of his royalties and income. He served and loved freely. Which, while resembling the life of our Lord, has no place in the theology of the Roberts’ family. God bless them – but I can’t imagine God “took Rich home” because he wasn’t trying to get rich through his ministry.
God is with them in their pain and grief, and I wish them the best and do pray for them. But I do not accept, and will always stand opposed to, the message of Oral Roberts and his family … and other such “preachers.”
I follow Jesus, not Donald Trump.
Thanks, Karen, for your honesty and boldness. And I’ll look forward to visiting with my brother Oral – flawed like me – on that great gettin’ up morning … like it or not, in heaven there are no private-gated-high-society-exclusive-clubs-and-mansions to keep me out.
You can call what Karen is doing “bashing” or you can see it as corrective. A surgeon who diagnoses cancer “calls” out mutant cells and the body is better for it. And the church is better when distorted teaching is correct.
“distorted teaching is corrected.”
Larry: I like your comments, especially the one about “emotional blackmail.”
Ever read any Will Campbell? He calls TV evangelists “soul molestors” and is very serious about it … molesting people’s souls with manipulation for their own selfish desires.
I believe what many disagree on is the timing. It does leave one with a bad taste.
Sometimes other things speak louder than words.
There are also many wonderful stories that have come out of such ministries. This is a point that has been made before. God doesn’t need us to be doctrinally correct to use us wonderfully.
There is a way that the bible speak of too in regards to addressing such things. Even our own laws have have “false light” and “defamation” laws to work as a protective measure for more public figures. How well they apply to Roberts, unsure of now. Just something to prayerfully consider. Even if it doesn’t apply, you may want to read it as it can help to see some helpful things with it.
When one presents one side of the story and how one presents it, it can come across a bashing. What I would call a more subtle form but having the same effect. It can also be misleading to others. I’ve never been real keen on that type of news reporting. But that’s me.
There are more ways than one to commit emotional blackmail and use others for the lusts of the flesh. There are people molesting other’s souls all the time for their selfish desires. May not be as apparent but its there.
I personally am concerned with how it is left. I’ve seen others take things like this and run with it the wrong way. I personally would be considering my audience and as a believer would at least close with the elements of praying for each other and things like that.
And we all don’t have to agree on everything. We can agree to disagree and continue to move forward in the love of God.
Love in Him,
Joanne
Sorry, those laws also work as to help offset abuses that can come from freedom of speech.
i agree with Karen and Bert, but there are still some troubling things about this. I found the way people pounded on Ted Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, so soon after their deaths, to be a bit offensive and insensitive to the suffering of their families. Feeling that way, I logically have to be troubled by pounding on Oral for a week or so.
And sure, he was not someone I’d want my parents to send money to, but Oral did affect some lives in a positive way. He should get some credit for that. I’ll grant you that anyone who writes books like “How I Learned That Jesus Was Not Poor” might not be the best role model, but at least he has got some people to believe in something. Who he got to believe in what is something he’s working out with God right now.
I kinda need to go with Karen on the “heavenly real estate” issue, though. It makes for some fine jokes, but this ludicrous idea seems so antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ that it makes for a pretty poor epitaph.
Not to make this talk all theological and all, but since Karen mentioned her disdain for the “mansions” thing, I thought I’d back her up with some good, old-fashioned exegesis.
There is only one verse where so-called mansions in heaven are mentioned:
John 14:2 (KJV) In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
The Greek word which is translated “mansions” actually means simply “a place to stay.” Moreover, by using the particular phrasing He chose to use int he verse above, Jesus was alluding to the Hebrew practice of a groom building an extra bedroom onto his parents’ house in preparation for matrimony.
You don’t often hear of anyone referring to an add-on bedroom as a mansion, but that’s the mistranslation that the KJV gives us in this case.
This is not hair-splitting; it’s a very important point, because this one badly-translated verse is being used by some people to build a case for some bad doctrine. I don’t say “bad” because it’s incorrect. I say it’s bad because, as Karen has pointed out numerous times, the doctrine is damaging. It wreaks havoc in the soul of people who don’t know any better.
I am sure that whatever God has planned for us in Eternity is going to be something special. It will be breathtaking, and more than we ever dreamed of or imagined. But that’s no reason to twist the words of Jesus to set people up, in this life, for disappointment.
I might be dense, but Oral’s Jesus as tall as three football fields laid end to end and demanded a cool eight millions dollars or he was going to kill a preacher. That’s not Jesus, it’s Jee-zilla, a lumbering monster of Oral’s imagination.
We just can’t call b.s., realize that this wasn’t Jesus of the Bible and reality that Oral was seeing, and move on?
Hey all. Not to take away from this. The discussion on emotional issues here had me thinking of some things I have learned there and some more subtle, but still very potent emotional traps and manipulation. Whether we are always conscious of it or not, probably not. I don’t doubt I been guilt and done that too. I feel I have at times. But when we know better we can do better as we remain in Christ.
Anyway, I shared alot but I think it is revelant because sometimes we just see the more visible things and remain oblivious to the more subtle forms that can sneak in on us. That snake is cunning and He doesn’t always make things real obvious. We may not be any competition for him of ourselves but He is no competition for Jesus and the life of Jesus in us.
Anyway, I apologize now if it wasn’t appreciated here. We love you Karen and don’t want to take away from this subject, as thus posted it elsewhere in an article I had read previously that also reminded me of these things.
It’s long and detailed but feel it has some good insights. Now I must be off. Anyway, the link to the other article regarding emotional porn: http://burnsidewriters.com/2009/10/29/emotional-porn-usually-starring-sandra-bullock/
Gotta go now as it took awhile to write and must be onto other things. Love in Him,
Jo
Hey, before I attempt to check out again for the holiday season I wasnted to share these. Ran across the first one today on something I had previously shared elsewhere. It reminded me of the second one.
Wasn’t sure where to put and don’t want to take the time to try and find the right place so feel free do whatever with it. Seriously.
Either way, I think these songs make a nice point and closing.
Song: So Small
Artist: Carrie Underwood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChPAoacVen4
The orginal video is good too, just thought the outfit was kinda racy for what I wanted the song for.
I love this next one. First heard it on one of my Bocelli DVDs and thought to myself, ‘Now this gal can sing, and with such depth and range.’ And loved the words too. With some changes to some of the lyrics, I like to sing it to the Lord. Just reminds me of how things can distract us from our relationship with Jesusa and those more important things.
Song: Dancing
Artist: Elisa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi6_41G63ck
Ok, Merry Christmas all and a blessed and prosperous new year in Jesus. Thank you to all!!!
This is the first article I posted on, but it’s been an interesting discussion. The last post reminded me of the Hooters’ song “Satellite”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNZsf8fXSEQ
or Genesis’ ” Jesus He Knows Me”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugZq9hiuCJo
At any rate I also appreciate the more measured and helpful article that Bert posted at http://www.thefaithlab.com.
I had a strange idea. I heard in China, something like 50% of girls get plastic surgery before age 18 because for girls, being successful is all about snagging the best guy you can get. best meaning most affulent. And being hot is naturally the easiest way to snag men.