Embrace life with God

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 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 d o 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: 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.

甭自滿

Sermon NPAC Mar 8 by Rev Siu 要發熱心—老底嘉教會 (啟 三：14-22)

- 基督徒成長最大的敵人是自滿及驕傲
- cs lewis: 人太容易墜入滿足 (my interpretation: comfort zone)
- 幾時滿足於現狀，則幾時失去鹽的用處 (luke 14:34)
- 生命要委身於神，才能被使用，才能蒙福
- 幾時以為滿足，不能夠(或沒有空間)領受神的恩典
- 要真正謙卑自己，知道自己的有限，尋求心靈/真正的富足
- 求神賜我們精金、白衣及眼藥

提醒: 今天的一切都是神的恩典及供應，與個人的行為或敬虔並沒有必然的關係。應當警醒，開到水深之處，繼續委身於神，讓神使用。

開到水深之處 (生命聖詩，371)
1. 上主之慈愛猶如極大海洋，遼闊淵深無可限量；
把纜索解脫快離開岸邊，駛入上主豐富恩海洋。

2. 可惜有多人只站在海岸邊，浩浩大洋徒自觀看，
從不敢挺身出去冒險探求，也不願開到深水中間。

3. 聖徒應開到大海洋深水處，此處豐盛救恩湧流，
應駛入上主慈愛生命海洋，就必知主恩浩大深厚。

副歌：開到水深之處，趕快離開岸邊，
　　　開到，開到神慈愛大海洋，主恩豐富無量。