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 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 r ails 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.
Stop shoving your relgion down my throat.
Religion equals nothing more than pious people what the rest of us should thing or feel.
What a crock of crap.
Why do public expressions of religious faith make some atheists like Marseil and Cool Beans Boi so angry and unhappy?
I don't believe in the teachings of Hinduism but if someone posts them on a message board or talks about them on tv, I feel no anger about it. I just ignore it. Same with Buddah or Islam or Wicca or any other belief system, I disagree with. Why can't you accept that some people including myself might have been inspired by Bob's post.
I am hostile because this BULLSHIT dominates our political scene, frankly I am sick of it. I don't need this board to become the Repbulican party. --- Religion and money
President Bush has a lower approval than Nixon, Democrats just won seats in hardcore Republican districts in Louisiana and Mississippi and gay marriage was just declared legal in California.
I don't think Republicans are dominating anything right now.
Of course I really understand why atheists are angry. If you don't know the love of Christ, of course you are unhappy and hostile because that is the only path to true peace.
But I still wondered what answer Cool Beans and Marsiel would give as to why they are so hateful.
"Of course I really understand why atheists are angry. If you don't know the love of Christ, of course you are unhappy and hostile because that is the only path to true peace"
That is only one man's opinion, thankfully it is not mine.
BTW I never said I was an atheist, I just don't believe in any kind of organized religion.
This hostility is both unbecoming and misdirected.
The modern American mega-church movement is not the organized religion that we grew up with. Warren's philosophy has more in common with self-centered humanism than self-sacrificing Christianity. He doesn't even seem to be that attached to Christianity, per se, except as he's most familiar with Biblical terms. To Saddleback Church, it's better to be open to new ways of thinking than to be dedicated to doctrine.
In less abstract terms, Rick Warren has actually put both Hillary and Obama in his pulpit to discuss their projects. He's very concerned with social justice, seeing to the plight of less fortunate people. He's also not opposed to using the coercive power of the government to do so.
I agree. Obviously, being a pastor, I don't get upset when someone writes about their Christianity. However, I also would not get upset were someone to write about Hinduism, Mormonism, or even scientology. As has been said before, this is touted to be an open forum wherein topics can be bounced around freely.
I have experienced the same overtly aggressive tone when I post things of a Christian nature, and yet any other topic can be addressed maturely and openly.
While I don't intend for Potpourri to become a religious pulpit I don't see harm in someone occasionally posting something of a religious nature- just as you are free to post something of a atheist nature. The very name of the forum implies an assortment of varying views. The one thing we don't allow here is personal attacks on fellow posters. If you don't want to read an occasional religious posts- skip over it. No need for such angry retorts. How would you feel if someone attacked homosexuality every time it's mentioned?
Well, I don't regard Rick Warren as being much better than a devout practitioner of another faith.
I tried reading "The Purpose-Driven Life," and the wildly inappropriate Biblical references and hand-wavy teleology gave me a headache, so I had to stop. In particular, when reading his Biblical references, I could imagine him getting some idea from pop psychology, and then running a text search on 100 dubious translations of the Bible until he got a passage that sounded like what he wanted to say.
Other people with more dedication have spent the time to dissect his books and shown how the Biblical references sometimes mean the opposite of what Rick was trying to say. And which branch of pop psychology he actually practices.
The big problem with Rick is that he says many good things, but he also says many wrong things as absolute truth. So, we can get many pithy quotes from him, but I wouldn't recommend him for someone unfamiliar with the Faith, who can't figure out what he's saying that's wrong.
I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I'm not going to sue somebody for singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December. I don't agree with Darwin, but I didn't go out and hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his Theory of Evolution.
Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be endangered because someone says a 30-second prayer before a football game. So what's the big deal? It's not like somebody is up there reading the entire Book of Acts.
They're just talking to a God they believe in and asking him to grant safety to the players on the field and the fans going home from the game.
But it's a Christian prayer, some will argue.
Yes, and this is the United States of America, a country founded on Christian principles. According to our very own phone book, Christian churches outnumber all others better than 200-to-1. So what would you expect -- somebody chanting Hare Krishna?
If I went to a football game in Jerusalem, I would expect to hear a Jewish prayer.
If I went to a soccer game in Baghdad, I would expect to hear a Muslim prayer.
If I went to a ping pong match in China, I would expect to hear someone pray to Buddha.
And I wouldn't be offended. It wouldn't bother me one bit.
When in Rome...
But what about the atheists? Is another argument.
What about them? Nobody is asking them to be baptized. We're not going to pass the collection plate. Just humor us for 30 seconds. If that's asking too much, bring a Walkman or a pair of ear plugs. Go to the bathroom. Visit the concession stand. Call your lawyer!
Unfortunately, one or two will make that call. One or two will tell thousands what they can and cannot do. I don't think a short prayer at a football game is going to shake the world's foundations.
Christians are just sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our courts strip us of all our rights. Our parents and grandparents taught us to pray before eating, to pray before we go to sleep. Our Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Now a handful of people and their lawyers are telling us to cease praying.
God, help us. And if that last sentence offends you, well, just sue me.
The silent majority has been silent too long. It's time we tell that one or two who scream loud enough to be heard that the vast majority doesn't care what they want. It is time that the majority rules! It's time we tell them, You don't have to pray; you don't have to say the Pledge of
Allegiance; you don't have to believe in God or attend services that honor Him. That is your right, and we will honor your right; but by golly, you are no longer going to take our rights away. We are fighting back, and we WILL WIN!
God bless us one and all ... Especially those who denounce Him. God bless America, despite all her faults. She is still the greatest nation of all. God bless our service men who are fighting to protect our right to pray and worship God.
Let's make 2008 the year the silent majority is heard and we put God back as the foundation of our families and institutions ..........And our military forces come home from all the wars. Keep looking up.
"Christians are just sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our courts strip us of all our rights"
Rubbish, who is stopping you from praying in your church, or in you home? NOBODY.
"and now a handful of lawyers are telling us to stop praying"
Once again RUBBISH, no one is closing down churches...well maybe the right wingers want to shut down Mosques, but that is another argument.
Put it this way, we all have to right to sex, but public sex is illegal.
Prayer has it's place. In church, at home, at relgious ceremonies, but not at general public non religious events.
The Libs are fond of insisting that children need sex education in school, as they claim parents cannot be relied upon or trusted to give information or to do so accurately.
But, when it comes to matters of faith, they don't think that way. They say that "Religious instruction, such as teaching Creationism, has no place in the public schools. Such instruction is for parents and the home environment."
So, which is it? Can parents be relied upon to teach religion but not to teach sex? Why would anyone think that would be the case? Parents teach, or they don't. So, if we're concerned that parents aren't giving needed instruction in one respect, I don't think we should assume they would teach in other respects.
Or, as I'm sure is the case, is that the very point? The Libs WANT sex education, but they DON'T want children taught religion. You can be taught how to fool around, but don't DARE teach the kids any standards of conduct or morals. Sounds like the Liberal agenda to me!
Imperfect comparison.
Churches are there to teach religion. There are very few organizations to teach sexual matters. Cons block them at every turn. As far as parents not doing a good enough job so sexual responisibilty has to to taught.
That is a valid argument, while the need to teach religion is not.
Children need to be taught sexual responsibility to stay healthy since everyone has to face sexuality in their lifes. If religion is not taught, no dire medical consequences will come of it. In other words, religion is not necessary, while understanding sexuality is.
Conservatives want prayer in every school, but want to ban sex education, so much for their libertarianism.
I have no problem with the teaching of creationism in public schools as philosiphy. The problem is that cons want to teach it as science! It is not science in any form of the word.
"If we cease to be a nation under God, we will have become a nation gone under."
As for the "science" of evolution . . we have already discussed the underlying assumptions that the Scientific Method requires BEFORE it starts to get rigorous. And when you call scientists on the inconsistent findings of research, they retreat to the "these are complicated matters" excuse. C'mon science! Either you are able to provide specific and unchanging answers with your supposedly rigorousdiscipline, or you are no more than a leap of faith yourselves!