Interview with Rick Warren

This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, "Purpose Driven Life" author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California. These are new 'insights' that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and his having "wealth" from the book sales.

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 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 in to 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.

Rain of blessings

Went to the Mall of Asia last Sunday to watch Superman at the IMax theater. I've actually wanted to do that but I heard tickets were all sold out already. But the "surprise" came in just last Sunday while I was attending a BSM class... My sister texted me that she had an extra ticket for me. (Yeah, I became my niece's sub coz she came down with a fever T_T) And so I watched with my kulit nephews, my sis and bro-in-law.

The Mall of Asia
3-y/o Franklin: "Look! An earth-like thing!"
This boy is really something =) Did he know how the earth looked like?

MOA was really crowded then. Indeed, it has huge space but with the entire Philippine population present in just one vicinity, there ain't no space wide enough! (bien sûr, i was exaggerating ü) It could really get a bit tiring walking around with 3 kids who want to go here and there and everywhere, plus the crowds... but what I really liked about MOA is its really nice view of Manila Bay... I really am a water-lover... And with the summer-y weather for the past days, it felt as if we were just right in front of the beach. Too bad, I wasn't able to bring mom's new digicam then (hehe, techy na rin si mommy!) but I found some nice shots while surfing a while ago...

Superman in IMax
Too bad, there were only 4 scenes re-rendered in 3D. Was actually expecting Superman to fly around us...=) But the movie was okay. I didn't have the chance to read Superman comics before so I don't have any expectations as to how the story's supposed to go... :"> The effects were so-so (but too loud at times, wished they would provide individual headphones so viewers could control the volume...)

I really didn't find watching it in IMax that fabulous... I guess it really depends on the movie you're watching. The effects of IMax would surely work with horror movies where the monster would look at the audience and make him feel it's out to get him (just like the T-Rex trailer where the t-rex looked as if it's gonna bite my head off). Try Sadako getting out of the movie screen, or something like that =)

But I have to say, I enjoyed the movie, in terms of story... and of course, company =) It's so cute to watch my youngest nephew clap his little hands for Superman... And oh, I've gained some insights from Superman, too.. Just remembered a time when I attended worship service at VCF and the pastor there showed a clip from the old Superman movie... Superman caught Lois and told her "I got you..." I'm just so thankful to know Who's got me... =)

cheesy---> *lolz*