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By Rick Warren What On Earth Am I Here For? #1 You Were Planned for God’s Pleasure. #2 You were Formed for God’s family. #3 You Were Created to Become Like Christ. #4 You Were Shaped for Serving God. #5 You Were Made for a Mission. I hope that I'm not giving to much away by showing you above the five purposes of a Christians life as Rich Warren presented them in his book "The Purpose-Driven Life." The book consists of 40 days of readings. Each reading is about 5 or 6 pages long. The readings are grouped into sections of 7 days; with the last group being 5 days. If you read each one every day, the study will take you 40 days. Mr. Warren explains that the number 40 is an important number in the Bible. Mr. Warren calls this a guide to a 40-day spiritual journey. As I write this, I've just finished the reading to Day 38. While reading the book, suddenly all the things that I had been taught, studied, and learned over the years began falling into this framework of 5 purposes. Many of the thoughts that were included in the 6 sections that make up the book, I had heard at widely separate times in my life. But I have not had all these ideas compressed into one study in such small period of time. As I studied the daily readings, I would make notes of what I considered to be the main points and inspirational quotes of that days reading. I used a word processor to take notes on my computer, but you could just as well use a tablet or journal. Mr. Warren makes very good use of many different translations of the scriptures and quotes from other thinkers. At the end of each reading, he has a small section entitled, Thinking About My Purpose. In this section, you are given a Point to Ponder, a Verse to Remember, and a Question to Consider. I usually copied down all of this section as it summarized the reading. I tried to answer the question honestly , as that gave me a chance to see where I was regarding what I had read. One of the key points of Christianity is Love. He writes at the end of the Day 16 reading, What Matters Most, is: "The best use of life is love. The best expresson of love is time. The best time to love is now." When I think about that trio of sentences, I think, Of Course! That was what Jesus was teaching people. The Love that we show other people will live beyond us and it is the best use of our lives. The time that we spend with other people shows them that we love them. Each of us only have a small amount of time. Since we don't know the future, putting off a loving act may mean that it is never expressed. So the best time to love is now! Here is a link to the Purpose-Driven Life web site for more information. I hope that you get a chance to read The Purpose-Driven Life too, Charlie Keller, April 8, 2004 |
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