The purpose of life !

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