puricarexfiles: August 2017

Thursday, August 31, 2017

HATING JOEL OSTEEN - Some Christians hate Joel Osteen more than they love the truth – and that’s wrong. The response from many people spreading false information shows their character, not Osteen's. The irony for some in this moment is clear: They hate Osteen because he distorts the truth—and then they do the same when they critique him with false information. You don't have to appreciate Osteen, but you do need to care about the truth if you are going to post about it.

Vehicles queue to deliver supplies for Hurricane Harvey evacuees at the nondenominational Lakewood Church, founded by pastor Joel Osteen, in Houston, Texas, U.S. Aug. 29, 2017.

Hating Joel Osteen

some christians hate joel osteen more than they love the truth – and that’s wrong

ed stetzer

So, I never thought I'd write a post defending Joel Osteen ...

But, seriously, the floodgates of media unleashed against Joel Osteen, based on an unclear church statement and fanned by agenda-driven social media, tells me that we have a cultural problem.

The fact that many Christians have joined in shows me it is a Christian problem. It's wrong in both cases, but disturbing to see some Christians joining in.

It seems some Christians hate Joel Osteen more than they love the truth.

I'd expect that from the world, but I hoped for better in the church.

Osteen

So we are clear, Osteen and I are not on the same page theologically. And I have serious problems with the prosperity gospel.

Furthermore, his platitudes and lifestyle have not helped in this moment.

But do we have to join the deluge of hatred toward him for what is a questionable situation—at best?

In other words, I get people upset about Osteen's theology and approach to his work.

But why are so many Christians joining in on spreading a false narrative about his actions in Houston?

Some Facts

Apparently, Osteen had canceled church on Sunday, and the church indicated (perhaps inarticulately) that the church was impassible.

(They did not say it was flooded, though who needs to worry about facts when we hate someone, right?)

The church directed their people, and presumably others, to take shelter with friends, family or at the George Brown Convention Center.

As the waters rose in Houston, social media spread the word that Lakewood Church, housed in a 16,800-seat arena, was turning people away who were seeking shelter.

Nope. They said that is not what happened.

You can see more facts here, here and here.

Christians Join in Spreading a False Narrative

Fast forward 12 hours, and the facts began to surface that the church itself was flooded in a few sections.

And Lakewood responded that only three people came for shelter, and they had all been helped.

So, well, maybe we might see that facts are our friends.

And just because you hate (or just have theological concerns with him) Osteen does not entitle you to your own set of facts.

I'm not saying they did not bungle their first statement. I am saying that a lot of Christians spread false statements. Let's let the world spread lies as we stand for truth.

Facts

Fact-checking sites such as snopes.com give mixed reviews and no clear answer on the amount of flooding at Lakewood. But that's not the main point.

We may never know just how hard it would have been to organize a relief effort at a facility that has been prone to flooding in the past.

Before Lakewood bought the building, it was the Compaq Center, where the Houston Rockets played.

In past decades, the arena actually had been closed in really bad weather during the Rockets' glory days.

The truth is that many were casting and spreading judgment about a situation that they could not possibly know in its entirety.

The response from many people spreading false information shows their character, not Osteen's.

The irony for some in this moment is clear: They hate Osteen because he distorts the truth—and then they do the same when they critique him with false information.

You don't have to appreciate Osteen, but you do need to care about the truth if you are going to post about it.

What Now?

How should Christians handle this kind of media tidal wave?

It seems that the brother of Jesus had something to say about being quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to get enraged.

1. Stop the selective listening. Let's face it. Many already hate Osteen, so they are hungry for a scandal. Here's the tough question: Are we hungry for a strategic or moral failure at Lakewood, too? As I mentioned above, I have serious thoughts about Osteen's theology. But I need not plug my ears so that I can't hear what is true.

2. Speak without the rage. Some take to Twitter like a death-metal band. The screaming squeezes the logic out of our comments. When we dial back the emotion, we are also more likely to retract when we have been wrong.

3. Tweet your retractions too. If we can learn anything from piling on at this time, it may be that saying sorry is something Christians should do well.

4. Be silent. I waited to spill some ink on this topic. I had one thought at first. And another thought as the facts came out. What if I had piled on at the beginning? Or defended their decision too quickly? It has been best to be silent until there is something to say. And perhaps the best is to simply pull the plug.

Now, if only we could just pull the plug and drain the water out of Houston ... meanwhile, let's save our energies for praying and supporting relief efforts.

Ed Stetzer holds the Billy Graham Distinguished Chair of Church, Mission and Evangelism at Wheaton College, is executive director of the Billy Graham Center and publishes church leadership resources through Mission Group.

This article originally appeared on The Exchange.

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https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/67066-some-christians-hate-joel-osteen-more-than-they-love-the-truth-and-that-s-wrong

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5 Life Lessons from

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Joel Osteen's Mother:

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Joel Osteen Just Explained Why He Refuses to Preach on Hell

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Joel Osteen Says Pope Francis Is a ‘Man of the People,’ Stands for Humility

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Why does it hurt sometimes to do what's right?
Cindy Cruse Ratcliff – Lakewood Church

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Pastor Joel Osteen's Full Sermon "The Power of 'I Am'"

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TEFLON - The History of Teflon - A colorless, odorless powder, Teflon® is a fluoroplastic with many properties that give it an increasingly wide range of uses. The surface is so slippery, virtually nothing sticks to it or is absorbed by it – the Guinness Book of World Records once listed it as the slipperiest substance on earth. It is still the only known substance that a gecko's feet can't stick to.

Teflon

The Invention of Teflon - Roy Plunkett

The History of Teflon

By Mary Bellis

Dr. Roy Plunkett discovered PTFE or polytetrafluoroethylene, the basis of Teflon®, in April 1938.

It is one of those discoveries that happened by accident.

PLUNKETT DISCOVERS PTFE

Plunkett held a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Master of Science degree, and his PhD in organic chemistry when he went to work at the DuPont research laboratories in Edison, New Jersey.

He was working with gases related to Freon® refrigerants when he stumbled upon PTFE.

Plunkett and his assistant, Jack Rebok, were charged with developing an alternative refrigerant and came up with tetrafluorethylene or TFE.

They ended up making about 100 pounds of TFE and were faced with the dilemma of storing it all.

They placed the TFE in small cylinders and froze them.

When they later checked on the refrigerant, they found the cylinders effectively empty, even though they felt heavy enough that they should still have been full.

They cut one open and found that the TFE had polymerized into a white, waxy powder -- polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE resin.

Plunkett was an inveterate scientist. He had this new substance on his hands, but what to do with it?

It was slippery, chemically stable and had a high melting point. He began playing with it, attempting to find out if it would serve any useful purpose at all.

Ultimately, the challenge was taken out of his hands when he was promoted and sent to a different division.

The TFE was sent to DuPont’s Central Research Department. The scientists there were instructed to experiment with the substance, and Teflon® was born.

TEFLON® PROPERTIES

The molecular weight of Teflon® can exceed 30 million, making it one of the largest molecules known to man.

A colorless, odorless powder, it is a fluoroplastic with many properties that give it an increasingly wide range of uses.

The surface is so slippery, virtually nothing sticks to it or is absorbed by it – the Guinness Book of World Records once listed it as the slipperiest substance on earth.

It is still the only known substance that a gecko's feet can't stick to.

THE TEFLON® TRADEMARK

PTFE was first marketed under the DuPont Teflon® trademark in 1945.

No wonder Teflon® was chosen to be used on non-stick cooking pans, but it was originally used only for industrial and military purposes because it was so expensive to make.

The first non-stick pan using Teflon® was marketed in France as "Tefal" in 1954.

The U.S. followed with its own Teflon®-coated pan -- the "Happy Pan" -- in 1961.

TEFLON® TODAY

Teflon® can be found just about everywhere these days: as a stain repellant in fabrics, carpets and furniture, in automobile windshield wipers, hair products, lightbulbs, eyeglasses, electrical wires and infrared decoy flares.

As for those cooking pans, feel free to take a wire whisk or any other utensil to them – unlike in the old days, you won’t risk scratching the Teflon® coating because it's been improved. .

Dr. Plunkett stayed with DuPont until his retirement in 1975.

He died in 1994, but not before being inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame and the National Inventors’ Hall of Fame.

https://www.thoughtco.com/invention-of-teflon-4076517

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Tuesday, August 29, 2017

- WOMEN PREACHERS IN CHURCH - In a time when many men continue to wallow in self-pity and visionless missions, let the women arise from out of their quietness and shout from the housetops. When men still refuse to answer God's call to the home church pulpit or the foreign fields, let the women arise and forever proclaim, "Here am I, use me!"

Women

Preachers In

Church

Should Women Be Allowed to Preach in Church?

DR. CLYDE HUGHES

In the beginning, God created male and female.

The characteristics of each are very unique for some basic functions.

Men, usually more muscular, are more suited for heavy physical labor.

Women were created with equal mental strength but with a physical makeup closely related to childbirth and childrearing.

The beauty of that diversity is a wonderful balance in society.

Men are more cognitive in their thinking. "Just the facts, Ma'am," many men have said.

Their ability to see the black and white, undistracted by feelings allows for a determined, undistracted effort to finish a task.

Women are said to think affectively, allowing their reasoning to be filtered through an emotional test, such as, "How will Sue feel if we do this."

God knew what He was doing. Just imagine if men raised the babies: "All right now! You are dry! You have your bottle! There is no logical reason for you to cry," and then they would walk off.

A mother would care for all the physical needs and then rock the baby to sleep.

Most of us would be a mess if raised by our fathers.

Perhaps that imbalance has been perpetrated onto the church because we have deprived our people of the special graces women bring into ministry.

Christianity found woman degraded and exalted her.

In the surrounds of Bible days, women were chattel. If they were not slaves, they were servants of their husbands.

Even in the Old Testament, the kings we revere had many wives.

We can only believe that God allowed, but did not approve of that behavior.

In Jewish custom, women were far more equal than other cultures of the day.

But in Christ, there is neither male nor female and an expansion of that liberation places the role of women in a whole new light.

Until the women's liberation movement, 66% of all women preachers were Pentecostal.

Early Pentecostal churches were greatly augmented by the ministry of many great women preachers.

Early Pentecostals believed the prophecy given by the prophet Joel, "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy."

Many preachers believe they are adhering to Paul's supposed injunction against women preachers in I Corinthians 14.

In its fuller context, Paul was discussing order in the early Pentecostal church.

Many of the preachers who forbid women to speak turn right around and conduct some of the most disorganized worship services, betraying their own prejudices.

In an attempt to understand Paul, we find there are three views of Paul's instruction to the Corinthian Church:

The first view states that Paul had no right to state such a law or that he was not in the Spirit. We, who believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, would not accept off-the-cuff remarks as part of Scripture.

The second view believes the utterance was conclusive and final in an absolute sense and in all times and in all cultures. This injunction would have been contrary to the very nature of Judaism. Note the cases of Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Huldah, Anna, the prediction of Joel and the four daughters of Philip. An absolute interpretation would be a denouncement of all ministry activity by women.

The final view feels that while there are unchanging matters of faith and morals, there are matters of manners and customs, which are local, national and timely. The text given was addressed to a Greek culture, not a Jewish culture. The Greeks disallowed an unveiled woman to be seen on the street.

A Greek could have observed a woman in a local assembly and have been shocked.

He may have said, "So this is Christianity? How irreverent. It takes a mother from her home, so it is anti-family. It is similar to the cults!"

Paul was probably saying that the Greeks should not discredit their own culture.

Similarly, Paul did not denounce slavery in the issue of Onesimus in the book of Philemon.

Was Paul wrong for not denouncing slavery? Was Paul wrong for not antagonizing the Greek culture?

On Mars Hill, was Paul wrong for not only avoiding a denouncement of pagan gods, but also building upon a faith in pagan gods to introduce Christ?

Christianity has had a very unique way of blending in with culture when its basic message is uncompromised.

Christianity made the woman a prophetess. No false interpretation of Scripture can ever shut down her vocal chords.

Neither faith, hope, love, learning, eloquence, nor the gospel itself has a sex.

It was to women that the angelic news of Christ's resurrection was pronounced and the responsibility of preaching its good news given.

It was to women that God gave the charge of developing nearly every prophet and apostle in Scripture to godly manhood.

Organizations who do not allow women to preach contradict their own teaching by allowing female Sunday school teachers and women missionaries.

Could it be that perspective is birthed with a touch of racism?

An American man should not sit under a woman preacher, but men in the developing world can.

From that we must deduce that men in the Third World are lesser creatures than men in the First World.

Maybe when we really understand the practical ramifications of our teachings, it isn't so pretty.

We preach that the gospel is preached in song, but churches that disallow women preachers allow women singers.

If women cannot do some jobs in the church, is it not a balanced response that men cannot do other jobs in the church?

How can we acknowledge God speaking through Balaam's jackass when we do not acknowledge God speaking through a woman.

Could our understanding be derived from an inflated view of ourselves?

Does the preacher originate the message or is he simply the medium? If the preacher is simply the medium and the emphasis is on the Giver of the message, then is not any called and chosen vessel appropriate for God to use?

Do those who forbid women to preach deny God the ability to endow women with Spiritual gifts? How foolish that would be!

Consequently, if God endows women with Spiritual gifts, then are we going to forbid God to use these women in pulpit ministry?

What God has called clean, let us never call unclean.

What God has called, let us never un-call!

Pentecostals were forerunners of liberation because our elevation of women to the pulpit is not based on any societal rebellious bandwagon with no concern for God's plan for the world.

Rather, our advancement of women is rooted in the elevation all of us inherited through the cross.

For when Christ was raised up on the crude cross, with Him He took the despair and discrimination of all people with Him.

The rights of Christian women have not been won through any march up Pennsylvania Avenue, but by that infamous march down the Via Dolorosa.

Should women preach in your church?

A prerequisite to that question should be, with whom does the problem lie.

If you have a legitimate problem due to your view of scripture, that is your right.

But if we are catering to our people's sentiments, are we going to allow our people's prejudices run our church or are we, as leaders, going to lead.

As the pastors go, so go the churches.

If your people do not accept women preachers, is it because your leadership has not persuaded them? After all, that's what leadership is to do.

In a time when many men continue to wallow in self-pity and visionless missions, let the women arise from out of their quietness and shout from the housetops.

We need a woman to stand in the gap as Deborah did as she cried out to her cowardly men, "Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleating of the flocks (instead of going into battle)?"

He who says it can't be done should not get in the way of she who is doing it.

When men still refuse to answer God's call to the home church pulpit or the foreign fields, let the women arise and forever proclaim, "Here am I, use me!"

Dr. Clyde Hughes served as the Bishop/General Overseer of the International Pentecostal Church of Christ for 24 years. A veteran, Hughes holds an MA Degree from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, and an honorary DD from Heritage Bible College. He was secretary of the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America and editor of The Pentecostal Leader for about 28 years.

The SpiritLed Woman podcast is empowering women weekly to follow their purpose in Christ and boldly walk in faith. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

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http://www.charismamag.com/life/women/32781-should-women-be-allowed-to-preach-in-church

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