Joel Osteen Warns Christians To ‘Be Careful’ of What They Watch: ‘Violent Images Will Prevent You from Entering God’s Rest’
Joel Osteen, with wife and co-pastor Victoria, leads Houston’s Lakewood Church, now the largest congregation in the United States, with over 40,000 members. He has also authored numerous books and his broadcasts from the Lakewood Church in Houston each Sunday reaching more than 100 million homes in the United States and millions more in 100 countries around the world.
Joel Osteen, with wife and co-pastor Victoria, leads Houston’s Lakewood Church, now the largest congregation in the United States, with over 40,000 members. He has also authored numerous books and his broadcasts from the Lakewood Church in Houston each Sunday reaching more than 100 million homes in the United States and millions more in 100 countries around the world.
Lakewood Church leader and best-selling author Joel Osteen has encouraged Christians to be careful of what they watch for entertainment, as negative images and violence will “depress” their spirit and prevent them from entering fully into God’s rest.
In a recent blog post, Osteen, 53, wrote that the apostle Paul encourages Christians to “enter into the rest of God” in the New Testament book of Hebrews. However, it’s not always easy to maintain internal peace when every day brings new temptations and challenges.
Instead of giving up, Christians have to fight daily to maintain their peace, not allowing “peace stealers” to cause them a life of stress, worry and grief: “There will always be people and circumstances trying to pull you out of peace. If you’re going to live in peace, you have to put up some boundaries,” he writes. For example, one should not watch the news 24 hours a day and expect to stay at rest, he argues.
“Your mind wasn’t meant to take in all the tragedies, accidents and killings over and over,” Osteen cautions. “That’s going to pull you out of the place of rest. Do yourself a favor; turn it off. Be careful what you meditate on.”
The megachurch pastor uses an example from his own life in which he went to see a movie with his wife, Victoria, but the movie was so violent that he left the theater “on edge.” … Read More