Page 5 - Good News January 2007 paper

his is an absolutely incredible year, all of a sudden, when my book
interview with Rick Warren, sold 15 million copies, it made me very
T"Purpose Driven Life" author and wealthy instantly. It also brought a lot of
pastor of the Saddleback Church in notoriety that I had never had to deal
California. His wife now has cancer, with before. I don't think God gives you
and he now has "wealth" from his money or notoriety for your own ego or
book’s sales. for you to live a life of ease.
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw, So I began to ask God what He wanted
Rick Warren said: “People ask me, me to do with this money, notoriety and
what is the purpose of life? And I influence. He gave me two different
respond: In a nutshell, life is prepa- passages that helped me decide what
ration for eternity. We were made to to do, 2 Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
last forever, and God wants us to be First, in spite of all the money coming
with Him in Heaven. One day my heart in, we would not change our lifestyle
is going to stop, and that will be the end one bit. We made no major purchases.
of my body – but not the end of me. I Second, about midway through last
may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I year, I stopped taking a salary from the
am going to spend trillions of years in church.
eternity. This is the warm-up act - the Third, we set up foundations to fund an
dress rehearsal. initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant
God wants us to practise on earth what churches, equip leaders, assist the
we will do forever in eternity. We were poor, care for the sick, and educate the
made by God and for God, and until next generation.
you figure that out, life isn't going to Fourth, I added up all that the church
make sense. had paid me in the 24 years since I
Life is a series of problems: Either you started the church, and I gave it all
are in one now, you're just coming out back. It was liberating to be able to
of one, or you're getting ready to go serve God for free.
into another one. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to
The reason for this is that God is more live for possessions? Popularity? Am I
interested in your character than your going to be driven by pressures? Guilt?
comfort. God is more interested in Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going
making your life holy than He is in to be driven by God's purposes (for my
making your life happy. life)?
We can be reasonably happy here on When I get up in the morning, I sit on the
earth, but that's not the goal of life. The side of my bed and say, 'God, if I don't
goal is to grow in character, in Christ- get anything else done today, I want to
likeness. know You more and love You better'.
This past year has been the greatest God didn't put me on earth just to fulfil a
year of my life but also the toughest, to-do list. He's more interested in what I
with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. am than what I do. That's why we're
I used to think that life was hills and called human beings, not human
valleys - you go through a dark time, doings.
then you go to the mountain-top, back If you experience:
and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Happy moments -
Rather than life being hills and valleys, PRAISE GOD.
I believe that it's kind of like two rails on Difficult moments -
a railroad track, and at all times you SEEK GOD.
have something good and something Quiet moments -
bad in your life. WORSHIP GOD.
No matter how good things are in your Painful moments -
life, there is always something bad that TRUST GOD.
needs to be worked on. And no matter Every moment -
how bad things are in your life, there is THANK GOD.
always something good you can thank http://jmm.aaa.net.au/
God for. articles/17175.htm
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