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osteen's book Joel Osteen wrote everything in this book that he usually preaches on Sunday. I am a former member of his church, and he will take the same 6 or 7 sermon titles and when he gets finished with all of them, he just starts over every couple months. Since I went to church at Lakewood for a year, I heard all these lessons a million times, so reading the book was nothing new to me. I was raised a Christian, and Joel Osteen was just about the first positive influence in my life. I'll always be grateful to him for that. However, the ministry at Lakewood uses its positive thinking and the fact that most parishoners are like me- (with the ministry being the first real positive influence in their lives) to coerce a lot of money out of people. Yes, Joel teaches that you can have this great life and this overcoming life, but there's a catch. You have to give the church 10% of your income. Otherwise, your life will be all just misery and despair. After rising to a new level in life, I have come to learn that a positive abundant life can be mine even if I don't give him my 10%, even if I don't dress like the prayer partners, and even if I don't pray in tounges. Even if every other word out of my mouth isn't "Jesus" or "praise the lawd". And even if I don't read the bible every single day.