Your Purpose Driven Life - Interview #1
Your Purpose Driven Life - Interview #1
Interview with Rick Warren
Author of "The Purpose Driven Life"
interviewed by Paul Bradshaw
In an interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, author of
"The Purpose Driven Life," Pastor 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 you to 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.
======================================
Rick Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life" is probably the best
book I've ever read other than the Bible. I highly recommend you
get your own copy. You can use this crazy-long link to get it:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0310205719/qid=1123889800/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-0728181-1958258?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I started this new blog recently to help promote Pastor Rick's awesome
book. See his site at http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/.
Chip Tarver
<><
http://www.FirstContactSecrets.com/
http://www.FirstContactSecrets.com/blog
http://www.FirstContactSecrets.com/publicity-blog/
http://www.Free-Targeted-Traffic.com/
(c)2005 - 2022 Chip Tarver and FCS
Chip Tarver's Articles
First Contact Secrets Business to Business Experts
B2B Tips Blog
PR Tips & Public Relations Techniques
Interview with Rick Warren
Author of "The Purpose Driven Life"
interviewed by Paul Bradshaw
In an interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, author of
"The Purpose Driven Life," Pastor 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 you to 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.
======================================
Rick Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life" is probably the best
book I've ever read other than the Bible. I highly recommend you
get your own copy. You can use this crazy-long link to get it:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0310205719/qid=1123889800/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-0728181-1958258?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I started this new blog recently to help promote Pastor Rick's awesome
book. See his site at http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/.
Chip Tarver
<><
http://www.FirstContactSecrets.com/
http://www.FirstContactSecrets.com/blog
http://www.FirstContactSecrets.com/publicity-blog/
http://www.Free-Targeted-Traffic.com/
(c)2005 - 2022 Chip Tarver and FCS
Chip Tarver's Articles
First Contact Secrets Business to Business Experts
B2B Tips Blog
PR Tips & Public Relations Techniques
posted by Chip Tarver | 7:17 AM
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