joel osteen

i don't know how many of you know, but Joel Osteen, of tele-evanglist fame, was recently on Larry King. In the interview Osteen says many startling things. King tries to get him to say that Jesus Christ is the only way, but he couldn't get himself to say it. he also said some other things that i much disliked. I'm not a fan at all of Osteen. I think his ministry is questionable and self serving. I think his message is wrong and misdirected. Many people have been taken by his nice appearance and gentlemanly personality. His smile can be seen in any bookstore within 5 seconds of walking in on the cover of his book 'Your Best Life Now' which should tell you about what his ministry is about. well, here's the transcript.

well, needless to say, the backlash from people who actually know and defend the gospel was severe. Here's his response.


here's teh big part:
OSTEEN: Yeah, I don't know. There's probably a balance between. I believe you have to know Christ. But I think that if you know Christ, if you're a believer in God, you're going to have some good works. I think it's a cop-out to say I'm a Christian but I don't ever do anything ...

KING: What if you're Jewish or Muslim, you don't accept Christ at all?

OSTEEN: You know, I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't go to heaven. I don't know ...

KING: If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They're wrong, aren't they?

OSTEEN: Well, I don't know if I believe they're wrong. I believe here's what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe. But I just think that only God with judge a person's heart. I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I don't know all about their religion. But I know they love God. And I don't know. I've seen their sincerity. So I don't know. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have a relationship with Jesus.




KING: What is the prosperity gospel?

OSTEEN: I think the prosperity gospel in general is -- well I don't know. I hear it too. I don't know. I think what sometimes you see is it's just all about money. That's not what I believe. It's the attitude of your heart, and so you know, we believe -- but I do believe this, that God wants us to be blessed. He wants us to be able to send our kids to college, excel in our careers. But prosperity to me, Larry, is not just money, it's having health. What good is money if you don't have health?

what freedoms...?

I don't know how many of you actually heard about this supreme court ruling, but in the case Kelo vs. the city of New London the supreme court ruled that it is ok for the government to sieze private land if it serves economic interests of the local government involved. when i heard this it absolutely blew me away. here's the link to the msnbc news article

Now there is a guy who wasn't going to sit back and watch our liberties be taken away. what he's decided to do is to see if he can claim one of the supreme court justice's land in the interest of the local government. This justice voted for the ruling, so obviously he must abide by his own ruling. So Justice David H. Souter is the target. The justice lives in a small town where all you have to do to get something on the ballot is get 25 signatures. once its on the ballot, it would go to vote in the town with about 6000 voters. If passed, it would be made law, since their is already a example of such things happening before. I guess the hope is that it would be appealed, eventually get up to the Supreme Court who would either ignore it and let the justice's land be taken, or overturn their previous decision.

oh, and did i mention this town is Weare, NH?

here's the link for the project: free star media

more pics

me with Santo Clause, the Mexican Kris Kringle who works at the south pole and utilizes cheap labor.



the famous ice cream trough... ahhh, so many kids got brain freeze. ahahahahaha




last year's 7th grader's initiation into jr high



winter camp a couple years ago. we all wore orange.





Purity Security's official band pic




my old band, Purity Security. Our number 1 hit was 'You shouldn't make out and Hume Lake' and got a standing o at open mic night. it was followed by an irish jig with riverdance




napoleon dynamite night participants




my present small group



the new freshmen when they were only 8th graders. awwww....



gangstas





my first small group, well, part of it.


now that i realized that pictures weren't nearly as difficult, here's more!

some pics

lucas in his manly pink go cart



matt and ian's skit being sequaled.



Emani playing her first game of mini golf!



bbq in the park!



banana boating! notice bradley trying to hang on in the back!



some of the guys flying off the banana boat



these guys are part of my small group. far too cool for me...



this is jessica, she wasn't feeling well that weekend but still had a good time. she agreed to go on the jet ski as long as i didn't flip her.... i didn't.



here's part of the group the day we were on the lake



this is ricky, 'the protege' in my posse. seriously, who wants to mess with this guy?



Here we are at the BBQ standing with Justin and Sarah.