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Saturday, May 1, 2010

Spiritual Sundays





I received this in the form of an email this week and wanted to share it with you all here @ Spiritual Sundays. Please join in or head over to read other posts here. You will be blessed more than you know!!

P.S. I am so sorry Clif ~ it is longer than you like ;) Have a blessed weekend everyone!!



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 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

19 comments:

Beth Herring

oh, wow - what a great interview! I haven't ever cared much for his philosphy, but it seems like GOd has done a mighty work in his life. Is this a new interview?

Have a fabulous and glorious day of worship tomorrow, Loren.

May God show Himself mighty to you,
Beth

Denise

Awesome, thanks so much for sharing this, love you.

Whidbey Woman

This is an excellent message to share with us. Thank you. We all have so much to learn from it!

Debbie

Oh how I needed to read all this today...Soo packed full of truth. Soo good. I am soo thankful and glad you posted this. Have a wonderful week-end Loren...HUGS, Debbie

Musings of A Minister

Wow! This is a good post. Thanks for posting it. And yes, I did read it ALL. I had to after you put my name up in red letters.

Saleslady371

How encouraging this is! I've read it before and it gets better each time. Thank you for your love and prayers for me! Bless you!

A Busy Single Mom

This is excellent! Thanks so much!

Girly Muse

Wow, what an amazing testimony...so many nuggets of wonderful God-inspired wisdom in this. I needed to read this RIGHT when I did.

Thanks for sharing this, sweet Loren. You are an anointed woman of God. Have a blessed weekend. Love you!

Kathleen

Such wisdom!

May we all choose that good part, finding ourselves at the feet of Jesus.

Blessings,
Kathleen

Sandy

Thank you for sharing, Loren!

Sue

Great Posting Loren,
I have always believed that God is more interested in an intimate and personal relationship with Him, rather than just knowing about Him. He is so right on trials we have either been, are going , or will soon go through a trial. There is so much truth in this interview, thanks for sharing.
Blessings,
Sue

Charlotte

Wow, Loren. This is so good. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Blessings,
Charlotte

Nikki (Sarah)

this was well worth the read. Sarah

Susan B

Wow, what an encouraging post! Thank you for sharing it.

Renee

Thank you for sharing this. I remember when this first came out...Rick and Kay Warren are amazing in their obedience to GOd. I read Kay's book recently and it helped me through my own journey. God bless.

Kaye Swain

I have long appreciated Rick Warren's ministry. Thank you for sharing his newest words of encouragement that have obviously been forged in the fires of trials and tribulations! I will definitely be passing it on :)

Ginger~~Enchanting Cottage

Wow! Thats pretty amazing. He is such a strong Christian man. I enjoyed the Purpose Driven Life. I didn't know that he gave 24 years of paycheck back to the church. What a blessing for the church.
Thank-you for sharing this today.
Ginger

He & Me + 3

That was awesome. Thank you for passing it along. I had no idea his wife was battling cancer. Great answer he gave.
Hugs,
Mimi

COUNTRY MOM

Loren, Thank You for sharing and taking your time to write me. Much Love,

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