Surrendering to God is the heart of worship. My natural response to an understanding of what God has done for me should be to surrender my life fully to Him. There are three barriers to trusting God: Warren discusses the blessings that will come from surrendering to God. First, I will experience peace, then freedom…
Day nine of The Purpose Driven Life begins with the statement, “The smile of God is the goal of your life.” And certainly Rick Warren has been building to this statement. Because pleasing God is the first purpose of my life, it is crucial that I understand how to do that. To illustrate how to…
Two completely unrelated events gave me the inspiration for this article. The first was an awards show that I did not watch and the second was a drive home from a rather dull meeting. The American Music Awards were presented this week and for just the third year, one was presented in the category of…
I was planned for God’s pleasure. With this sentence Rick Warren begins day eight of The Purpose Driven Life and his discussion of the first of my five purposes. The first purpose of my life is to bring enjoyment and pleasure to God. As the crowning achievement of His creation, I can bring Him pleasure…
It’s all for Him. It’s that simple really. The reason God created everything is to show His glory. This leads to the question of what is God’s glory? Warren answers this by saying, “it is the essence of His nature, the weight of His importance, the radiance of His splendor, the demonstration of His power,…
In my Home Church (Bible Study / Cell Group) this week we are studying the prophet Daniel. Specifically we will be examining him as a shining example of a man who stood firm in his convictions. When commanded to cease worshipping God, he never considered disobeying God. Instead, he pressed on with his routine of…
Day six of The Purpose Driven Life finishes Warren’s thoughts about “how I see my life shapes my life.” You will recall he said yesterday that the Bible offers three metaphors for life: life is a test, a trust and a temporary assignment. Today we cover the last of these metaphors. The Bible is filled…
As I have launched into my 40-day study in The Purpose Driven Life I have found that some people are not familiar with who Rick Warren is. I am providing this as a brief introduction to Rick Warren as well as an introduction to why I am investing so much time in studying his book.…
“The way I see my life shapes my life” is how chapter five of The Purpose Driven Life begins. That sounds very “Anthony Robbins to me!” Warren asks the question of if I were to think of my life as a picture, what image would come to mind? I had never stopped to consider what…
Day four of The Purpose Driven Life picks up where day three left off. After ending the previous day with an explanation of how this life is but a dress rehearsal for eternity, Warren keeps his focus on eternity. He says that earth is just “the preschool, the tryout for your life in eternity.” Humans…
Everyone’s life is driven by something. I see now that Rick Warren likes to open each chapter with a concise summary of the chapter’s title! Chapter three of The Purpose Driven Life begins by stating that each person’s life is driven and controlled by something. Warren lists five of the most common driving forces. They…
I am not an accident. No matter how my birth came about, even if it was a mistake in human terms, it was not a surprise to God. He had planned for it long before I was born. Not only did he know I was going to be born but he also knew where I…
“It’s not about you.” So begins my journey with Rick Warren as he seeks to help me understand my life’s purpose through The Purpose Driven Life. Because God is the Creator, we, the created beings, can never hope to discover our meaning and our purpose outside of Him. The world teaches that so-called self-discovery begins…
Rick Warren is courageous. I don’t think I would have the courage to write a book, knowing full well it would be read by millions, which sought to answer life’s greatest question. Yet Warren claims that The Purpose Driven Life will do just that. It will answer the question of “What on earth am I…
I have started reading The Purpose Driven Life several times. So far I have not managed to finish it. I got to thinking that perhaps if I blogged my way through the 40 days of the book I could find motivation to keep reading it. So starting tomorrow I will attempt to blog my way…
There is a misconception about Christianity whereby non-Christians seem to think that Christians live their lives burdened by myriads of unfair and outdated rules. Though some of these rules are perceived to be admirable and praiseworthy, many others, they think, are simply burdensome and unnecessary. Few would argue that the commandment “Thou shalt not kill”…
I have been thinking a lot lately about The Regulatory Principle, especially as it relates to the worship service. If you are not familiar with the term, it essentially means: The only acceptable worship is that which is explicitly taught in the Bible. By extension then, anything that is not explicitly taught in the Bible…
Mother Teresa (known also as Mother Teresa of Calcutta) was born in what is now called the Republic of Macedonia in 1910. Born to Albanian parents she was at that time known as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. The labor for which she became renowned began on January 6, 1929 when she arrived in Calcutta, India to…
Dr. W.A. Criswell (1909-2002), long-time pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, was once traveling by airplane on a trip across the country to attend a speaking engagement and was thrilled to recognize the man in the seat beside him as a well-known Christian theologian. Criswell admired this man and wanted to strike up a…
Baptism means different things to different people within the Christian world. There are disagreements in the meaning, the methodology and the importance of baptism. In this four part message series, John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, seeks to interpret the Biblical meaning of baptism. To understand Piper’s analysis of baptism, it helps to know…