Oh to simply adore

1: to worship or honor as divine
2: to regard with loving admiration and devotion
3: to be very fond of

I will tell you someone who America, if not the world, adores these days. Her name is Oprah Winfrey. I remember her when she was just another struggling talk show host. My mom and I used to watch her; Oprah was an underground champion for us Chicagoans. She would compete against Phil Donahue (remember him?) and her shows would be about real issues, like divorce, abuse, women’s issues. In fact, she is credited with bring homosexual issues to the forefront of television.

Now she certainly does not struggle anymore. She regularly makes the top five in the Fortune 500 list of the world’s richest people. She has been noted in CNN and Time magazine as being ‘the world’s most influential woman.’ Her guests are top celebrities, artists, doctors and newsmakers. She has her ‘favorite things’ shows where she gives luxurious gifts to her entire audience. She recently had ‘Oprah’s Big Give’ where she had contestants give money to complete strangers in a benevolent fashion. She currently has over 22 million faithful viewers. Her website registers more than 70 million page views and more than six million users per month according to research websites.

Therefore, it comes as no small feat when a million people sign up for her latest endeavor; A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purposes book study. If you have been living in the dark, this is an online study done with Eckhart Tolle and Oprah based on the book Tolle wrote. It is a little difficult to describe this book, so let a female minister from Texas describe how the book and the study have influenced her. A New Earth has also shown Margit a different way of looking at Jesus Christ. "I've always tried to find a deeper inner connection with the purpose that Christ had here on earth," Margit says. "All my life, I thought it was just for him to die on the cross for my sins. But I now recognize that Jesus actually taught me Christ consciousness. To be fully human is to be Christ-like." Sounds a little different from the Jesus I know.

“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11.3

The most unnerving part of this whole issue is how much blind trust people place in Oprah’s hands. Over the past weeks I have watched ‘testimonies’ from people who say how refreshing this course has been, how enlightening, how much more freeing than the Christianity they know. Oprah has a sway over people that few people in history has ever had.

Oprah says herself that to say that Jesus is the only way is extremely narrow-minded and judgmental. Here is a list of differences between ‘Old Spirituality’ (Jesus) and ‘New Spirituality’ (new-age theories espoused by Oprah and company. This list was found on Oprah’s website in answer to the question of whether these new teachings will mesh with people’s current religions.

Old spirituality
1. Who Has Authority? The hierarchy has the authority. Church authorities tell you how to worship in church and how to behave outside of church.
2. What Is Spirituality? God, and the path to worship Him, have already been defined. All you need to do is follow the directions.
3. What Is the Path to God? There is only one path. It is the right way and all other ways are wrong.
4. What Is Sacred? Parts of yourself—like the body, or ego, or emotions—are evil. Deny or transcend or sublimate them or they will lead you astray.
5. What Is the Truth? The truth is like a rock. Your understanding of it should never waver. Therefore ask the same questions and receive the same answers at all stages of life.

New Spirituality
1. Who Has Authority? You are your own best authority. As you work to know and love yourself, you discover how to live a spiritual life.
2. What Is Spirituality? You listen within for your own definition of spirituality. Your deeper longings are your compass on the search.
3. What Is the Path to God? Many paths lead to spiritual freedom and peace. You have a rich array of gems from which to draw illumination: the world's religious traditions; mythology; philosophy; psychology; healing methods; scientific wisdom; your own experience. String a necklace all your own.
4. What Is Sacred? Everything is sacred—your body, mind, psyche, heart, and soul. The world is sacred, too, with all of its light and darkness. Bring the exiled and unloved parts of yourself back into the fold.
5. What Is the Truth? The truth is like the horizon—forever ahead of you, forever changing its shape and color. Let your spiritual path change and diverge as you journey toward it. You live many lives in one lifetime. The truth accommodates your growth.


Enough of this. It makes my heart heavy and when I look at these ‘worshippers’ at the altar of delusion and confusion, I see something that scares me a little. I take heart that the Lord warned us of this through Paul. “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” 2 Timothy 4.3

Is it filling something in some people that they need to hear? In this day, where everything is about the self, isn’t it time to find out that we are indeed Christ too?

We need to remember something so very exquisitely simple, “TASTE AND SEE THAT THE Lord IS GOOD; BLESSED IS THE ONE WHO TAKES REFUGE IN HIM.” Psalm 34.8

Christ’s message is so simple, but I am afraid that people are turned off because it sounds kind of judgmental and confusing. People do not want to hear that they are sinners. Nevertheless, the truth is-we are. However, God is good. He is so good that He forgives us our sins. Let me ponder this, if I am my own Christ, do I have to forgive myself? And who helps me not to do it again?

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O LORD, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. 1 Chronicles 29.11

I do not know about you, but I do not want to draw my spirituality from mythology; I do not want my truth to be constantly changing. I want my truth to be a solid foundation I can walk upon, and trust it will still be there. I pray this week that you will think about this and do some praying to Someone outside of you. He is listening and He loves you.