Saturday, September 30, 2023

Gloria Copeland and "my house"; first world problems.

Things I'd neither confirm nor deny; hear me out.  Gloria Copeland is a bit of a giant in the Word Of Faith denomination, and is particular large in the Kenneth Copeland ecosystem of believers.  Her works such as "God's Will Is Prosperity" are fundamental to making the case, not only for "prosperity" as they use the word, but also God's love.

In the first world, so many people are concerned with the day-to-day financial obligations and somewhere in there is the great dream of a "dream house".  The Copelands and their comrades preach God's love often in the lens of indulging those wishes for dream houses and paid bills, and maybe the odd new car here and there.  

I don't defend this lensing of the Gospel, and indeed, I tend to think less in terms of dream houses or new airplanes, and more in terms of generic happiness and having needs met, but that's such as what gets attention in the first world, that sort of brief focus on financial prosperity, and in that vain, the Copelands and their friends get a lot of people listening to Bible teaching that would ordinarily ignore it altogether.

"God's Will Is Prosperity" by Gloria Copeland is not only a tour-de-force manifesto of prosperity, but again, a giant glorification of God Himself, telling us, page after page, about how God loves us.

In my own walk, I aim not for a dream house, though its not completely an ignored possibility, because the truth of the matter is that I have difficulty keeping a more modest house running.  It keeps me busy; it costs money.  There are time and attention demands that could drive a person crazy without faith in his maker's will.

My house was once a neighborhood bar some many decades ago, before my Grandparent's bought it and had it moved some few miles away.  There were bullet holes and bloodstains here and there from its days as a bar.  However, soon enough the house was filled with a faithful family's love, and to some extent, we'd like to think decades of family use erase some of that stain of the checkered past, just as God forgives people, God repurposed a bar as something of a family's center of love and mercy.

As for Gloria Copeland, there have been recent health complications, a year or so back, and one might say, "maybe her faith isn't strong enough", and yet, we see she's already given us her own testimonials in the form of the written works "God's Will Is Prosperity" and "Blessed Beyond Measure".  Satan is always working against us, looking for weak spots, and need we also remember that the Apostle Paul had a malady which effected his preaching.  He mentions in the book of Galatians that his health effected the way he preached, physically; we need not question another believer's strength of faith, when Satan is out there working against us.

Just a thought.

And of course, its always good to amplify a message of love, "Dio te ama."


No comments:

Post a Comment

new group

https://chat.whatsapp.com/FV7dX5JiIciAbA4R5PM2Rz Jesus and more Jesus.  Join in.