Oral Roberts encourages his audience that if they had the faith of a grain of mustard seed they would contribute some money to him and prove their faith.
In Matthew Jesus was talking to his disciples who had just failed to remove a demon. They ask Jesus why they could not remove the demon and Jesus said it because of their little faith. Then he made the mustard seed reference, to his disciples not to future generations.
In Luke Jesus was talking to his apostles following their request for him to increase their faith and told them "If they had faith like a grain of mustard seed, they could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey them" again talking to his apostles not future generations.
I don't notice us using the mulberry tree but we claim the mountain example with a disclaimer that it is only figurative and not literal. It was literal for the disciples. Why is it figurative for us and what does figurative mean? When we claim it for ourselves aren't we taking it out of context like Oral Roberts does?
Joel Osteen says faith gave his church a 30-year lease for the Compaq Center (home to the Houston Rockets) for $12 million.
If Jesus was speaking to us does our not being as large as Oral's and Joel's organizations suggest we do not have faith as Oral and Joel?
Context is everything, isn't it?
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