Dear Joel Osteen,
I have something to say, but it's not very funny. And it's not about me, it's about Jesus. I started following Christ 3 years ago at the age of 17, and afterward read my bible daily at the minimum of 4 hours a day, every day. I was and am to this day, on fire for the Lord. I'd read through Ezekiel and Isaiah and Jeremiah and knew all sorts of biblical facts. I could present a case of things to say the Lord had given me and taught me by revelation by the Holy Spirit, and I'd go to work at my telesales job with my team in their cubicles reading my bible and tell them about the amazing God I serve. And they'd find it hard to believe me. So I'd tell them this (Ezekiel Ch. 1), and that (Isaiah 14). And afterward, about 3 months after I started the job, I found that none of the people I was telling these facts to were getting saved. They weren't brought to the Saviour and bowing on their knees to humble themselves or having the same passion I was.
And under the covers I was still falling into sexual sin. I came to find that I didn't know what sin was, and from then on, even though I knew and loved my Lord Jesus, I hadn't understood why it was so important for Him to die on the cross, saying, "Yes, generally, we're all sinners. We all fall short." But I didn't know who went to hell or what I was saved *from*.
I was a false convert. The tree was good, in that I was saved, but the fruit was bad.
So I'd keep coming to the cross, and soon enough He taught me that I'd gotten saved, but I hadn't repented. I hadn't turned from my sin. I didn't have to say generally I'm a sinner, I was *required* to say first, I'm a liar, thief, and a murderer at heart. You see, I added Christ and accepted Him into my life. When, really, I myself needed God's acceptance first and foremost. I had told people they had a hole in their heart that needed filling with God, that money and drugs couldn't fill it, but God made it for Himself to fit. But that was twisted - they have a filthy, dirty heart that doesn't need filling, but cleansing! I had followed Christ to the cross without being crucified in Christ Jesus.
How could I carry my cross daily and deny myself if it was all about me? Is it Christ I serve, or is it myself?
So it's oh-so important to be crucified with Christ Jesus on the cross and repent and turn from sins - that it's Jesus that we serve and not ourselves, otherwise we experience a false conversion, like I did, fall away from the faith soon enough, and do nothing for the body of Christ or the kingdom of our God here on earth.

If I had preached this innocuous Gospel - that God can improve your finances, take away your debts, lead you to lasting happiness, and fill you with love and joy - without first telling them that they needed to be saved from God's wrath and repent, everyone that would have heard it (well not everyone, I'm one that heard it, and now know better) may have fallen away from the faith! The Gospel should always be these three things that Paul understood in First Corinthians Chapter 15 - Christ crucified, Christ buried, and Christ risen.

Crucified in that We triumph by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony and that we've killed our own dead lives and dead works on the cross with Jesus in repentance, continuing to put ourselves away to serve God; buried in that the old nature and its ways are dead in that grave and have been put to rest and true Sabbath is to do God's will rather than ours; and ascended in that we walk in the Spirit, and live to please the Lord rather than our own flesh!

You see God *can* rid me of debts and fill me with happiness and love! Those are fruit of the Spirit, and I love Him for that and thank Him for showing me the truth, but if I wasn't made right with the Lord first, I would never have understood it, never been right with the Lord totally in my own conscience, and fallen into unimportant theological things.

God is no longer my enemy because I've come to Him a sinner and surrendered, and as I follow Christ an ally, I now know and see that if God's judging flame was put to my devotional life back then - my wood-hay-stubble devotional life that was solely based around satisfying my intellect - would have been burnt up. Instead, we should be sharing the Gospel based around Christ dying for us, worth it, and not just restricted to our life down here, but that we actually have eternal life and forgiven sins down here on earth! Christ is able! I didn't need to hear that I was forgiven before I could know what the God I'd serve forever was forgiving me *of*. I know now that I'm saved from God's wrath in a literal hell, and I'm so thankful one can truly understand what God's grace and forgiveness *is*.