Joel Osteen: Teaching the Goodness of God with a Big Smile

By RobertMWorsham [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons
By RobertMWorsham [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons
Teaching the “Love and Kindness of Jesus” is Osteen’s drive.

Joel Osteen is an American preacher. When he was young, his father John Osteen, a former Southern Baptist pastor who founded the Lakewood Church, wanted him to preach. Osteen junior, however, always refused. Then one day, he agreed to his father's request and preached his first sermon in the Lakewood Church. John Osteen died six days later of a heart attack.

After his father's death, Joel Osteen started preaching on a regular basis. The rest is, as they say, history. It took no time for Joel Osteen to become one of the most popular preachers of all time. As of now, his televised sermons are viewed by over seven million people on a weekly basis and over 20 million on a monthly basis, in more than 100 countries. He holds to his name several New York Times bestselling books. As of 2012, his net worth was more than 56 million dollars.

Joel Osteen: Teaching the Goodness of God with a Big Smile.[/tweetthis]

Joel Osteen has his own style of preaching. He focuses more on the goodness of God rather than sin, hell, and the devil. His sermons emphasize more on the power of love and a positive attitude.

According to Osteen, he would rather take the “love and kindness of Jesus” approach rather than the “frightening hell and brimstone” approach. He said people are already beaten down more than enough by life. Most of them already feel guilty for not being able to do their job properly, like not raising their kids the right way or not helping their fellow beings or a million other things that they think are not being done properly. Emphasizing on their shortcomings, again and again, will only lead to a sense of hopelessness. How will a hopeless person be able to follow Jesus Christ with all his or her heart? Osteen believes that it is important to teach the message of Jesus Christ the right way. It is important that a person learns to love and accept Jesus and receive hope and salvation. Jesus Christ died to give the hope of salvation to all sinners.

As per Osteen, a peaceful life is not going to happen by accident. People need to make a determined effort to live in peace. Problems in everyday life is a reality. There will always be someone getting on your nerves and there will always be that unexpected bill. Waiting for that perfect time to find peace in life is just not practical. The trick is to find peace in the midst of the storms. God never said that He would keep his flocks from difficulties, however, he did say that he would give peace, to all, in times of difficulties.

Joel Osteen says that, sometimes, people have to take a step back, give a break to their mind, and let God handle things for them. Joel Osteen is now one of the richest pastors in America.

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