The Reason For Everything (Part 2)

Last week we took an overview of the material on “God’s five purposes for your life” as summarized in Rick Warren’s booklet “What On Earth Am I Here For?”. The all point to the overarching purpose of bringing glory to God (“the reason for everything” as Warren put it).

Those five purposes are:

1. You bring God glory by getting to know and love him.
2. You bring God glory by learning to love other people in God’s family.
3. You bring God glory by becoming like Christ.
4. You bring God glory by serving others.
5. You bring God glory by telling others about him.

I then asked these questions:
Have you ever clearly stated what you think is your own purpose for life?
and…
How does your purpose for your life fit with (or compare to) the 5 purposes Warren lists?

These five purposes sound a lot like “preacher talk”. They sound like they are written for an audience of Christians who are expected to be already focused on living the Christian life. It seems like we are looking at the condensed outline of someone’s sermon, or a sermon series.

What do they have to do with someone in America, even a Christian, trying to live life in the real world? Even more, what do they have to do with someone who is not a Christian, whether in America or another country, who is trying to survive and succeed in a highly secular world?

Well, Rick Warren is a preacher, so it’s what you might expect of him. His sermon series turned into a book that is read by millions. The question still remains about the relevance of his premise that the purpose in life is to bring glory to God. Doesn’t God have enough glory on His own without having to receive glory from us? Humanly speaking, it sounds egocentric to think that God created us specifically in order for us to bring glory to Him.

But what if Warren is right? What if God in all His glory created us solely in order that we might experience some of that glory ourselves. By becoming the kind of people He created us to be, we can refract the glory of God out to others.

Like light through a prism, others will not see the perfect white light but a diffused and even refracted light showing a multitude of colors. Still, they will see enough that they too will want to contact the source of the light.

Experiencing even a part of the glory of God, we find joy, love, and a host of other “colors” of the nature of God Himself. Being made in His image, we fulfill our purpose in reflecting back to God His nature, His character, His attributes. We experience in limited measure what God experiences, and He is satisfied that His creation is complete.

I just had some play time with my granddaughter who is 11 months old. Just walking, not yet talking, able to laugh and even tease, it gives me enormous joy to see her, hear her, and enjoy having her come to me with arms up and a big smile on her face.

I feel fulfilled in seeing my granddaughter becoming a person, just as I am fulfilled in seeing my own daughters reach maturity and have success and families of their own. Isn’t this just a shadow of the satisfaction God must have in seeing His creation becoming what He created it to be.

So, I can understand that God, in creating us to bring glory to Himself, purposes that we will thereby benefit as well. We will become what He created us to become, and then we will be able to share some of His glory. It’s not egocentric at all—God wants us to bring Him glory so we may share it with Him. It’s enough to make me want to sing or even shout!!

And what a pity that some will never have that experience because the only apparent purpose for their life is a self-centered one. That’s why, in typical “preacher” fashion Rick Warren doesn’t conclude his message without asking for a response. On page 56 he says “Its time to settle this issue. Who are you going to live for—yourself or God?”

Look at the verse quoted on page 57, “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Now, I’ll state in question form what Warren writes as the way to share in this glory—believing in Jesus Christ and receiving Him as your Savior and Lord.

Have you ever believed that “God loves you and made you for his purposes”?

Have you asked God to forgive you for whatever you have done that was not in sync with His glory, and invited Jesus to change you into one that will reflect His glory?

Have you received “Jesus Christ into your life by allowing Him to become your Lord (manager, boss, the one in control) and Savior (who died to pay the penalty for everything you’ve ever done wrong)”?

If you can answer yes to these questions, congratulations, you are already on your way to fulfilling God’s purpose for your life.

If you answered no, you too can start your own relationship with Jesus Christ right now. On pages 57 and 58 Warren offers a model of a prayer to get you started. If you have some more questions, or would rather talk with someone before proceeding, you can email Rudy Antle. I will be glad to talk with you.

The Reason For Everything (Part 1)

The ancient Hebrews didn’t try to prove the existence of God. They didn’t function with the kind of logic Aristotle brought to the Greeks (of course, the Greeks didn't have that kind of logic before Aristotle either). Their relationship with their environment was less cerebral, more practical.

They simply saw the expression of God in everything that exists—even themselves. In the world around them they saw God’s power, beauty, love, care, honor, wisdom, creativity—in other words, His glory.

They also saw that something was wrong. This beautifully created and wonderfully organized world also contained some ugliness, chaos, and especially in fellow humans, something that didn’t seem to fit. Something was not in sync with the glory in the rest of God’s creation. Being out of harmony with God’s glory produced something undesirable—evil.

Providentially, the Creator revealed Himself from time to time so that one part of creation God made to be most like Himself, people “created in His image”, could know and relate to Him in love.

Those revelations came to us through many different ways (actions, words, prophets, etc.) until at last God revealed Himself in humanity as one of us—Jesus Christ.

We most clearly see our raison-d’etre, our reason for being or purpose for life, when we are in sync with God as He has revealed Himself. Somehow, life begins to make sense when we get to know God, relate to Him in love, and especially when we ourselves begin to reflect His glory.

Warren summarizes the purpose for life as bringing glory to God, and lists 5 aspects of that purpose in our study booklet, “What On Earth Am I Here For?”. These 5 purposes are covered more fully in "The Purpose Driven Life". For now, write them out for yourself as Warren states them on pages 51-55 of the booklet.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

You might list some additional purposes (or even a completely different purpose) for your life.

We’ll cover the last part of this chapter in our 8th (and final) installment of this study next week.

Questions for today:

Have you ever clearly stated what you think is your own purpose for life?

How does your purpose for your life fit with (or compare to) the 5 purposes Warren lists?

Life Is A Temporary Assignment

In the last post we covered one of Rick Warren's "life metaphors" in his booklet "What On Earth Am I Doing Here?". That metaphor was that life is a test. This week we look at the other two metaphors Warren uses--that life is a trust and a temporary assignment.

The idea behind "life is a trust" is that everything we have--from life and health, to intellect and talents, to relationships and possessions--everything has been entrusted to us. We are to care for it, manage it, enjoy it, and then someday account for what we did with it.

What God wants to say to us at the end of our life is what the master said to his faithful servant in the parable of the talents, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things: I will put you in charge of many things." (Matt 25:21)

Closely related to the concept that life is a trust is that life is a temporary assignment. Here, though, instead of the master going on a journey and leaving his servant in charge at home, the master sends his servant as an ambassador on an assignment to represent the master in a foreign country.

This assignment is critical to the master's business, so the ambassador must learn the language, know his task, and relate to the people well.

The ambassador must be careful, though, to not get too comfortable in that foreign land nor identify too much with its inhabitants. The ambassador represents the master, not the country to which he has been sent, and will one day be called home to give an accounting of his work.

What do you think of this statement by Warren on page 45: "In order to keep us from becoming too attached to earth, God allows us to feel a certain amount of discontent and dissatisfaction in life..."?

Warren also says, "God is more interested in your character than your comfort." I've often said the same thing to myself and to others during times of difficulty. Does it give you insight into some difficult times in your own life?

What is it that God has entrusted to you, and how can you invest it for your Master's benefit?

To whom have you been sent as God's ambassador? How is the assignment going so far?

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“Seeing Life From God’s View”

This is the 5th week of our study of Pastor Rick Warren’s booklet, “What On Earth Am I Here For?”. The title of this week’s chapter reminds me of that unforgettable photo of the “earthrise” taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders in December, 1968. It changed everything when humans started seeing the world from God’s view. The world suddenly seemed smaller and everyone became our neighbor.

Rick Warren said, “The way you see your life shapes your life” (page 34). James Allen said something similar in his classic book, "As A Man Thinketh". What we think discloses who we are and determines what we become. It is critical, then, that we see our life as God sees it and begin to think the way God thinks.

What kind of “life metaphor” do you have for the way you see your life? Is it one of those Warren mentioned that a lot of people choose: a party, a race, a marathon, a battle or game? Or is it one suggested by the Bible: a test, a trust, and a temporary assignment?

Romans 12:1,2 tells us to not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by having our mind renewed. Warren refers to this verse as a way for us to seriously consider looking at life through one of the biblical metaphors he mentioned.

Probably the most common of those metaphors is a test. You see this in so many of the stories in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

How many Bible stories can you remember where the main character is linked with “trials, temptations, refining and testing”. What test, temptation, etc. would you associate with the following characters Warren mentions?

Adam & Eve—
Abraham—
Jacob—
King David—
Joseph—
Ruth—
Esther—
Daniel—

What other characters and tests can you think of?

What tests and characters do you identify with yourself?

Do you agree with this statement from page 36, “Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test.”? Why or why not?

Fill in these blanks. Warren says he has noticed that God tests his __________ through problems, his _________ by how he handles his possessions, and his ________ through people. Can you think of some times when God has tested you in the same ways?

In his speech to the graduating class of Stanford June 12, 2005, Steve Jobs talked about some “sidetracks” his life sometimes took, and that he later realized how fortunate he was that he took them. “Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” You can read his entire speech here.

Some things that happen in our lives make us wish we could connect the dots forward. But as Warren says on page 37, “Sometimes God intentionally draws back.” When that happens, we have trouble understanding what’s going on. We can’t “connect the dots”.

Have you ever had a time when you could not feel God’s presence and you felt He had abandoned you?

As you look back on it now, could that have been God’s test of your character in some way?

Well, I haven’t gotten to the other metaphors in this chapter. Let’s save those for next time.

Made To Last Forever

We live in a culture where nothing is “made to last forever”. We’ve become accustomed to products designed for short-term use: cars, computers, clothes—whatever the product, we expect to replace it sooner or later with the latest update or newest fashion.

We see this in our culture’s concept of relationships, and even of human life.

Friendships die as families move; and sometimes are still-born because often-relocated people become reluctant to make new friends.

Marriage “till death do us part”? It’s still in most marriage vows, but is it voiced with sincerity? It seems there are a lot of “dead” people walking around—they have parted from the relationship so death must have already occurred, right?

The “sanctity of life” is an increasingly outdated concept as the aged, infirm, or others who are seen as a “burden” become expendable.

Now comes Rick Warren saying you were made to last forever. “This life is not all there is.” On page 30 of “What On Earth Am I Here For?” Warren says, “The most damaging aspect of contemporary living is short-term thinking."

To grasp this concept and its implications for your life today (whatever the date is when you are reading this), you almost have to consciously reject the creeping secular world-view and embrace the biblical concept that this life is not all there is. We have an eternal destiny for which this life prepares us.

Now, let’s ponder these questions:

1. Warren asks, “Why do you think God made us to last forever?” Answer that question if you like, or at least challenge the secular noise bombarding you daily and ask, “Do I think God made me to last forever?”

2. Think of some things in your daily life that are affected when you fall into “the most dangerous aspect of contemporary living” which he identifies as “short-term thinking”. (finances, relationships, time-management, etc.)

3. What if you grasped the concept that God’s purpose for your life was not just for this earthly life, but for eternity. Would it make any difference in how you see God’s purpose for you in this life?

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