:::::Life Tips from Rick Warren:::: you'll surely be blessed

This is an absolutely incredible
short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose
Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback
Church in California .


> 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.

> 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.

> 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