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You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has,
with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth'
from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible
short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose
Driven Life ' author and pastor ofSaddleback
Church in California.
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren,
Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life?
And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for
eternity. We were not 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 trillions 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 go 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, II
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.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD..
If you do not pass it on, nothing will happen. But it
will just be nice to pass it on to a friend....just
like I have done.
God's Blessings
HE ARRIVED THIS MORNING, WE HAD PRAYER;
SPENT SOME TIME JUST TALKING, AND HE HELD
ME FOR AWHILE BEC AU SE I WAS HAVING A BAD MORNING..
THEN, HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO YOUR PLACE.
When He gets to your PC, escort Him to the next stop.
Please don't allow Him to sleep on your PC. The message
He is carrying is very important and needs to go round.
May God bless you as you do this- AMEN.
Walking for Jesus!
Say a prayer, and then pass Him on to bless others. Our
assignment is to love and spread the gospel throughout
the world.
Have a blessed day and touch somebody's life today! I just did.
He's walking around the world - via e-mail!!
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