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."

we are his hope; he is our hope.

I struggle with this idea....

first.  We are His hope in glory.

second.  He is our hope.

But our hopes, so often, as even the Bible says, that the understanding is darkened and there is inequity in the heart.

Yet we are His hope.

Like the faith that moves mountains, can we harness this to achieve the best of our desires?  The most providential?

I come down on the side of that, if it fits God's plan, if it doesn't destroy another maybe, that we could be granted something.....  but such parameters are so vague and foggy.

I'm inclined to think my faith is a powerful tool, as per Word of Faith pastors.

What we are not given is a set of parameters or conditions; Christ says the mountain will move, if one's faith is set on it.

Dare we think parabolically, a kind of circles-in-on-itself way that we can remove, by mindset, various lapses in judgement, dignity, personality flaws, all by will, and the will the tip of the spear of the believer's own faith?

We could pray for a million, or we could already have the effect, the happiness of the "million" of popular thinking.

We could have that feeling, and that feeling is pretty much as good as having the million dollars, and that accomplished by will, like we moved a mountain inside our own minds.....

We are His hope.

He is OUR HOPES.

Paul orients this towards the endpoint of our earthly existence, to keep our eternity in focus.  Eternity matters so much more than arguing with the people next door, anyway, but what indeed of the everyday minutia?

We have various interpretations, mystical things, like feeling the feeling of victory irrespective of the reality, contemplating victory, speaking it out to make it happen, or just settling back like lambs waiting, lambs waiting but all the while, petitioning the Shepherd for the outcome.

Or those that force contentment, and that no false peace from the inner perspective, but very real, all the while, trying to ignore the world, trying to think not on the things of man.

At time of writing, Eagle Mtn church is airing basically a political rally hosted by a dubious politically-oriented pastor.

At time of writing, the Catholic church is throwing weight behind what is politically offensive for some.

At time of writing, my good friend and compatriot LD Oneal takes unto himself mostly, for days at a time, and keeps a circle of believers at his little country church.  He stays inside himself, but in frequent prayer, and then also interacts with that tight-grained, tight-knit church family, advising and encouraging, guiding, and staying on the look-out for God's will and purpose.

I'd say this, of God being my hopes manifested: not all my hopes are just or good, and God's plan, and God himself, is always just and good.  Therefore I suppose God is the most just and good of our hopes.

*God is the most just and good of our hopes.

He is our hopes, and we are His hopes.  We loved him, because He first loved us.

If God is the most just and good of our hopes, as believers, all we can hope is that our own private hopes are as just and good as God himself, that there is nothing that God has to overlook, or at least not much, not much to bypass or ignore in His love for us.

Let us be just in our hopes, and as Paul says, Let brotherly love continue.

Pray for the addict that still suffers, pray that the poor are fed, and the meek in spirit are lifted up.