Calvary Lutheran Church
Jacksonville, NC
Phone: 910-353-4016
E-mail: calvarylutheran@embarqmail.com
Home Pastor Page Elders Church Council Human Care Evangelism Stewardship Youth Christian Education Stephen Ministry Preschool Links Map Calendar
May 2008
I get a lot of different e-mail forwards & stories.
Most I read once and delete. Occasionally there is one that catches my
attention and I hang onto it for a while.
Rick Warren is Sr. Pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest CA, and has
written companion books, The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose
Driven Life. I have read both.
Even though I don’t agree 100% with Pastor Warren, I believe that he is
right on with his main point: Every
Christian has a purpose in life, one that God has given you.
Here’s a portion of an interview he gave recently:
“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.
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.
But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to
get your focus off yourself and onto God and others. Ask Yourself: 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
In Christ,