It’s no Cake Walk

Are we running a race, or playing a game of Cake Walk? 


How many pastors will get up this Sunday and preach a sermon about self love, confidence, or even health and wealth? Probably a grand majority of the professional Ear Scratchers. How many will get up and preach a message that’s actually relevant to the sheep living in a fallen, cursed, world? Too few.

I think this is a contributing factor to the rapidly decreasing percentage of church attendance. If I want to get a pep talk I can turn on Joel Osteen without wasting gas money. I can get a great frap at McDonalds now for two bucks less then most ‘church coffee bars’ are making them. If I want great music I can book myself tickets to my favorite band. All the ‘church growth’ models are failing because they’re making the church like the world. Believers go to church to get away from worldliness, not to wallow in it.


What happens then when a pastor stands up on Sundays and preaches the Cake Walk? The members are ill prepared for the race they’re running. How discouraging to go throughout the week facing temptation, mockery, exhaustion, and the general wear and tear of life, only to have the leader of your church pat you on the shoulder and tell you how great life is. Your best life now? 

What if my child just died? How do I have my best life now? What if my husband just left me? Is this as good as it gets? What if I got fired and I don’t know how I’m going to make rent? I’ve heard Jeremiah 29:11, got anything for how to pay rent? How about for the wretched sinner? Is there anything in the Bible for sinners? Or are you just going to stand there and tell me stories about how you climbed a mountain and saw a beautiful view?


Oh beloved, how do men who read the Bible stand and say such foolishness? They have to, because they began the false doctrine they teach with a lie. That lie is that if you come to Christ everything will get better. You’ll be healed, your marriage will be fixed, your income will be multiplied. If they’ve gotten you into their churches by convincing you that Christianity is all about the worldly gifts, they have to keep repeating that lie.

It becomes very dangerous when someone finally stands up and says ‘hey, I came here for a Cake Walk but all I’ve had in this life is trials and tribulations’. The danger isn’t in the question, it’s in the answer. ‘Friend’, the Joel Osteen wanna be will say ‘you just don’t have enough faith. You just need to sow a bigger seed.’ What heavy burdens they have placed on their flock, burdens they are unwilling to help carry!


Christianity is not a Cake Walk, it’s a race. You don’t run this race to get a bigger house, or more attention from your spouse, you run it for the glory of God. Why glory in God? He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever shall believe in Him shall not parish but have ever lasting life. He is worthy of all honor, praise, and glory! 

Beloved, there are scores of people, an entire harvest of them, who have been disenfranchised by the health and wealth false gospel. We only need to be courageous enough to share the true Gospel with them. I have a simple suggestion, brethren, Gospel tracks. Did you know that people are still finding, reading, and coming to saving grace through Gospel tracks? My daughter and I have a blast finding different places to leave them in hopes that the lost will be found. 

Run your race well, dear ones, as always be good Berean’s and study to show yourselves approved.

Author: lnhereford

I am a Christian, wife, mother, podcaster and homeschooler currently traveling the United States with my loving husband and darling daughter!

14 thoughts on “It’s no Cake Walk”

  2. Thanks for the message, sister! Yes, we must always be about our Father’s business. Tracts are always a good option. I accepted Christ while sitting with a tract in my hand (after years of fighting His call). I think tracts are considered passé at hip mega-churches. Do you stamp or affix a church address label to the back of the tracts you hand out? I know some Christians who hand out tracts but can’t put a church address on the back because there are no good churches in their area.

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    1. I never even considered putting a churches address on it, what an excellent idea! I would have to be sure to find a good church in each town we go to, I can imagine there might be some towns that will be harder then other places.
      Gospel tracks were certainly not something I heard about until leaving the WoF movement. I previously assumed they were cassette tapes! I was thrilled when I found out that LivingWaters has a sample pack where you get one of all the different types they have. It’s great to have specific ones for each place we go. How wonderful that you were saved with a tract in your hand, brother! God’s Word is truly living, and sharper than any two edged sword!

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  4. You’re preaching a very concerning message here.

    To say that it is godless for pastors to give a positive message to their congregation especially when someone is going through a rough patch is disgusting. When people are having a hard time, the last thing they need is to be told that they’re sinners and going to hell. I don’t like the prosperity preachers either, because I think they prey upon the financial weaknesses of people, but if this is the one message that gets someone out if bed in the morning, it’s better than nothing.

    Go after Joel Osteen for expecting people to pay for their salvation. But don’t go after him for telling people that they’re wonderful, fabulous, and that God wants them to be happy.

    Because, you know what? YOU are wonderful, fabulous, and God does want you to be happy. God doesn’t want you to change everything that makes you you; otherwise he wouldn’t have made you the person that you are. Happiness isn’t a sin to be fought against!

    I read a blog post this week from another woman who preaches a message similar to yours who said that women should blindly obey their husband regardless of how poorly he treats her. That is the very definition of condoning spousal abuse! Your message against pastors who preach self-confidence and happiness has the same horrible tone:

    Obey God just a little more and your husband won’t stop beating on you, but God will be thrilled with your service.

    I very much prefer the ideal that people have the freedom of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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    1. Hello Catherine, firstly I’m not preaching any message. I’m stating a very true fact that life is full of difficult situations, and for pastors to deny that is irresponsible. I don’t expect this to be something you would understand unless you spent a great deal of time in the specific types of churches I’m referring too. The idea is that if you go through a struggle and have bad days your showing a lack of faith. If your sick your showing a lack of faith. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be happy, but that we will not always be happy.

      If you go to a pastor who tells you that you are wonderful, fabulous, and that God wants you to be happy then you’re being lied to by that pastor. I’m not wonderful, I’m a wretched sinner that has broken every law God gave. I’m not fabulous I’m full of pride, envy, and ego. God doesn’t want to make me happy, He wants to sanctify me. He sent His Son to rescue me.

      Think logically through what you’ve said. What if the very thing that makes me happy is to harm someone else? Like that abusive husband you mentioned. You said God wants him to be happy, he’s fabulous right? Beating his wife makes him happy. Isn’t he wonderful? Why should any pastor stand up and say his sin is wrong?

      The truth is that people are not wonderful, and the sin they covet will not make them happy. When you preach the false message that God wants you to do whatever makes you happy you end up with miserable sinners marching their way to hell.

      This all misses the very point, the very heart of what I was saying. Although it does show anyone who happens to read through these comments what I meant by professional Ear Scratchers, as this is the very message the lost always want to hear. The heart of what I’m saying here, however, is that telling people to come to Christ so they can have all their sinful desires fulfilled is a lie. In the end people leave the church disheartened, as they neither found Christ nor received the riches and wealth they were promised. The broken hearted who make their way to church every Sunday are told to go pretend, put on a happy face, God wants you happy after all! They aren’t comforted by Gods Word or Gods people.

      Also, and I do hope you’ll actually go read my last response to you in my previous post, I have never and would never suggest a woman stay with an abusive husband. I can not judge what someone else wrote based on how you interpreted it, in light of your frequent attempts to twist what I’ve said. So, while I’m unsure of what you read elsewhere, I can tell you that the scriptures NEVER suggest such a thing. It strictly lays out the needed behavior of the husband towards the wife, to love her as Christ loved the church.

      Again, and this is the last point I want to make, what you prefer doesn’t have any effect on what God has commanded. You can prefer freedom of life, liberty, and happiness all you want. God sets the law, He judges us by that law, and in the end, unless you repent and put your faith in Jesus Christ alone, you’ll stand condemned.

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  5. We all go through hard times.
    The difference between us and those in the world is that we are blessed with the Holy Spirit walking through it with us while those of the world have the Joel Olsteens who do them no good.
    We can use our testimony of how this has blessed us to strengthen and encourage others.
    You made some very good points that everyone should hear.
    Asian Christians call western Christians marshmallows. As soon as the heat comes they melt.
    The first question they ask is how much you have suffered for Christ.

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