Purpose of Life

My dad cleaned up the attachments and copied and pasted for easier reading – It wasn’t coming across correctly on our computer...

Rick Warren - About Life


I thought this came at a good time for all of us. Maybe you've read it before.


AN INTERVIEW WITH RICK WARREN (AUTHOR OF "A PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE")

Interview with Rick Warren , 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 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 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 my wife 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.

God's message through Bob (CCSA)

Extend your arm, and point at a corner of a wall. Now draw a long line, and then once you have drawn a line to the other corner of the same wall, keep extending it with your mind. Just go through the wall, extending it down the street, till you’re disappearing out of the atmosphere, past the moon, past the solar system. That line is going. You should have the line being drawn way out there, beyond reaches. The line is still going; and it is still going! Now that, is a long line you have drawn. You’d have to agree. Now extend you arm one more time, full length, and turn your finger up flat, close one eye and cover up as much of that line as you can with your fingernail. Right at the start of that line (that long line that you drew is your life) this amount that you cover with your fingernail that is your life on earth. Is that accurate? Is it true? I believe it is! Your life is long, and it’s not going to end. That is true for everybody whether or not they enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Life on earth, even by our own logic, compared to this is so short. Scripture over and over refers to as grass, as a breath. And yet life demands our attention. And therefore its traps work better. If you allowed your whole focus to be on this, I mean what does the Lord call that? Foolish. The parable of the rich farmer, Jesus didn’t say he was corrupt or evil. But in the parable, in this telling: for those who may not remember it, this guy brought in an incredible crap. He says I have so much crap that I can’t even store it. I’m going to tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and I’m going to lay it up for a lot of years and I’m going to sit back and say: eat, drink, and be merry. I’ve got it made. And it says, God says to him: you fool! That’s strong words. But He didn’t call him a fool because he was corrupt; he called him a fool because his whole focus is on this. What I want to say to you is, if somehow your contentment (see in human condition, we lead to discontentment, we lean toward it hard actually) and if you allow your contentment to be bound up, really, with anything in this small place, in this short line, then you’re not going to taste the kind of contentment that Paul is talking about. You’re missing an opportunity; I believe to lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, to live on the long line. 2 Corinthians 5, “Now we know that this Earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands.” What did it refer to our body as? The tent, what’s a tent? It’s temporary, it’s flimsy. Hey listen, our bodies are great blessings, a healthy body is a beautiful blessing from the Lord. But your body is not who you are, it never is who you are. You don’t have a soul remember? Peter lord first said this to us: You are a soul, you have a body. Who you are, is still going to be who you are out here 8,000 years 8 million years, and on and on and on, that’s who you are. I would say you’re going to have your own name and that the Lord is investing in you and not just in this. Is He aware what’s going on here on earth, sure you bet. Is it His highest goal for you, no way. We know that in all things, in all things, God works for the good those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. For those God who knew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His son. Now where’s that conforming going on? It’s in the you that’s really you, it’s in this part of you. It’s in that expression of Godliness, and the choosing of contentment when things on a short line are horrible. That is a laying up of treasure for you. I’m telling you and it is a conforming of who you are, the “real” you. It is a conforming to that of the likeness His son. This is God’s purpose for us.

How I met Cheyenne

I'll never forget the day when me and Cheyenne started talking at school. It was my senior year and her freshman year. For one of my class periods I was an office aid, and while I was in the office Cheyenne would come in every so often. I asked her one day what was wrong and she had told me she started to have seizures and was waiting to be picked up. We started talking about what could have been causing her to have her seizures and what doctors were saying and I told her, "Well I can totally relate to you because when I was younger I use to have seizures all the time." I felt in my heart God telling me here's your chance and opportunity to show love and to be there for someone in need. So the very next day I put a goodie bag in her locker with a journal, some candy, a weird gadget toy and a couple of other things. I also slipped a note in there and told her if she ever needed anything to not hesitate to text me and asked her if she wanted to join me to youth that following Wednesday. A day later I get a text from her that said, "thank you soo much for your gift and I would love to join you to Youth this Wednesday." I was stoked and soo excited. When Wednesday arrived I picked her up from her house and took her to youth with me. It all started from there. I'm soo praiseworthy that I obeyed God in following my heart to chase after Cheyenne.. Because later down the road she was huge help in areas of my life. Never will I find someone as great and fun as Cheyenne. Never will I laugh the same laughs I did with her. And Never will I find the love we had for each other as sisters. I miss her greatly and not a day goes by where I don't think of her and the love I had for her.. I love you sooo much Cheyenne and I miss you more than you know! Praise Christ our Lord that He has set me free from looking upon her death. I will cherish and always remember the memories we had with each other.

Journey to Ellerslie

It started in summer of 2009 when I was reading one of Eric and Leslie's book called, When God Writes Your Love Story. It changed my whole perspective on relationships and showed me how to see Christ as my heavenly husband, and I, as His bride. I noticed that there were more books written by Eric and Leslie Ludy so I got online and ordered up a storm of more of their books. It wasn't till then (fall 2009) that I noticed an add on their order page about Ellerslie. Every other day I'd check to see the progress of the books' shipment and each time I'd get on the site, it brought more desire and interest to keep checking this school out. Back in late September early October I printed out copies of the Ellerslie's statement of beliefs to show my Dad seeing what he thought about it. So far his thoughts were good until he saw that part of the finale of the school had to go to Haiti (not a bad thing), it wasn't in my dad's interest for me to be going there. I sort of left that out of the question and moved on with some of the college classes I was already involved in and such. Months pass by and I was just "going through the motions". In mid January I see on the news that a severe earthquake had just hit Haiti. Immediately Ellerslie popped up in my thoughts. I asked God, "God is this a sign? I know you wouldn't let an earthquake happen just for a sign for me, but a part of the many reasons why this earthquake happened should I consider going to Ellerslie?" I sort of left it at that and wasn't really praying about it much. February came along and mid February, was a weekend Christian event called Acquire the Fire. It was till then I decided God wanted me to attend to this school. I felt so excited and enthused because I had really wanted to go as well God wanted me to. I called my parents and told them "God wants me to go to this Ellerslie School!" My parents are very supportive for this sort of thing. They know when God commands, we must obey. And I wanted to obey Him on this one. So we talked about it a bit more and prayed about it, a month past by and I got on to the Ellerslie website, started filling out an application, answering questions thoroughly. I submitted it, and within a few days I received an e-mail from one of the Ellerslie's staff informing me that within a couple of days someone will be interviewing me. I was super nervous but confident at the same time. The 2 days past up and on March 15th I received the phone call and was trying not to sound too nerve wracking. But I only did what I could and felt ok with that. At the end of the phone call the staff had told me she was real confident in my acceptance to Ellerslie. I was stoked and the next day I received a congratulation e-mail confirming my acceptance to Ellerslie. Never had I felt soo proud of myself and praised worthy of God for this sort of acceptance. I worked hard on it and felt for once I did something accomplishing. Little did I know that Satan was going to try to stop me with all that he could from attending at Ellerslie; because the day after I got accepted my Dad was informed that he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Never in any of my family member's lives would we have thought something like this could ever happen. I know it can be one of those "blessing in disguise," but what terror and heart break it is to find out that sort of news. And as if it didn't get any better 3 days later I receive a phone call from my best friend's mom (very much considered as my little sister) that she had committed suicide. It’s one thing when your "little sister" dies in a car wreck, but it's a totally different package when it's someone you love who takes their own life. I can't tell you how numb I felt, how much pain, grief, and sorrow that was within me. I was a zombie for weeks. My parents wouldn’t even let me drive for 2 1/2 weeks! It was traumatizing! This definitely made up mind to not go forth to Ellerslie anymore. I was very much in a careless state of mind and if you looked into my eyes during that time, you would of saw a blankness, deadness upon my soul. I was definitely going downhill for awhile and didn't care what was going to happen to me. I was still registered to go and it was now my parents who were in control of it and was commuting with the staffs at Ellerslie (and who of course were paying financially for me to go). I thank God that they helped me stuck with it or I definitely wouldn't be here. There were a couple of times where I was saying "No, I changed my mind I don't want to go now," then I would be encouraged to go forth. One night I was determined not to go because of my boyfriend. Thank God I saw lessons that were learned from others in my life not to either stay behind for a boyfriend or go somewhere for a boyfriend. But I still had that careless heart to want to choose other things over God and after a long night of decision making and talking it through with my sister and parents I decided, "Ok, I'll go. I'm going. Dad, book my airplane tickets." Before I knew it I was on the plane flying out of good ole' Texas. I thank God and praise Him to be here, for Him to change my life each and every day that I've been here. It's His timing, plan, and command that I must trust and obey.