If reading anything that has a religious tone to it bothers you then please close this thread and move on.
Do not wish to offend anyone who does not believe.
Subject: "The Purpose Driven Life
In an interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren,
author of "The Purpose Driven Life," Rick Warren said:
"People ask me, What is the purpose of life?" And I
respond,
"In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity."
We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be
with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the
end of my body - but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to
spend trillion of years in eternity.
This is the warm-up act, the dress rehearsal.
God wants us to practice on earth what we will do
forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure
that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one
now,
you're just coming out of one or you're
getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in
your character than your comfort.
God is more interested in making your life holy than He
is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's
not
the goal of life.
The goal is to grow in character, in Christ-likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life
but
also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you
go
through a dark time, then you got to the
mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that
anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe
that
it's kind of like
two rails on a railroad track and at all times you have
something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is
always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is
always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or....... you can focus
on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into
self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my
pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain
is
to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of
hundreds of thousands of people, God was not
going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has
strengthened her character, given her a ministry of
helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her
closer to Him and to people...
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the
bad
of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is
harder.
For instance, this past year, all of a sudden,
when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me
instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had
to deal with before.
I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your
own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this
money, notoriety and influence.
He gave me two different passages that helped me decide
what to do,
Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would
not
change our lifestyle one bit.
We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped
taking
a salary
from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we
call The Peace Plan - to plant
churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the
sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in
the 24 years since I started the church,
and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to
serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for
possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt?
Bitterness?
Materialism?
Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my
life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my
bed and say,
God, if I don't get anything else done today,
I want to know You more and love You better ....
God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do
list.
He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings,
not human doings.
Do not wish to offend anyone who does not believe.
Subject: "The Purpose Driven Life
In an interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren,
author of "The Purpose Driven Life," Rick Warren said:
"People ask me, What is the purpose of life?" And I
respond,
"In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity."
We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be
with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the
end of my body - but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to
spend trillion of years in eternity.
This is the warm-up act, the dress rehearsal.
God wants us to practice on earth what we will do
forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure
that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one
now,
you're just coming out of one or you're
getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in
your character than your comfort.
God is more interested in making your life holy than He
is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's
not
the goal of life.
The goal is to grow in character, in Christ-likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life
but
also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you
go
through a dark time, then you got to the
mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that
anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe
that
it's kind of like
two rails on a railroad track and at all times you have
something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is
always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is
always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or....... you can focus
on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into
self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my
pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain
is
to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of
hundreds of thousands of people, God was not
going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has
strengthened her character, given her a ministry of
helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her
closer to Him and to people...
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the
bad
of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is
harder.
For instance, this past year, all of a sudden,
when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me
instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had
to deal with before.
I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your
own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this
money, notoriety and influence.
He gave me two different passages that helped me decide
what to do,
Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would
not
change our lifestyle one bit.
We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped
taking
a salary
from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we
call The Peace Plan - to plant
churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the
sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in
the 24 years since I started the church,
and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to
serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for
possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt?
Bitterness?
Materialism?
Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my
life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my
bed and say,
God, if I don't get anything else done today,
I want to know You more and love You better ....
God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do
list.
He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings,
not human doings.
