hi sisters,
> An Interview with Rick Warren (REMEMBER HE WROTE
> 'PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE')
>
>
>
>
> 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 of
> Saddleback 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
> eternit.
>
> 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 somet! hing 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
> insance, 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 lib!
> erating 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.
> God's Blessings on you today.