Pastor Rick Warren offers a third and final metaphor to teach us God’s view of life in Chapter 6 of The Purpose Driven Life: 3. Life is a temporary assignment. Since our time on earth is brief, we shouldn’t get too attached. Just as citizens of a foreign country working in the United States must carry […]
Pastor Rick Warren begins Chapter 5 (“Seeing Life from God’s View”) of The Purpose Driven Life with this quote from French-born American writer and diarist Anais Nin (1903-1977): “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” Rick adds that how we picture life is our life metaphor, a description of […]
“The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.”- Psalm 38:8a In Chapter 2 (“You Are Not an Accident”) of The Purpose Driven Life, Pastor Rick Warren begins by unequivocally affirming that our birth was planned by God, conceived in His mind long before our own physical birth. God has planned every aspect of our life […]
Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church has published an expanded 10th anniversary edition of his classic book The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here For? This edition contains 2 additional chapters that incorporate a fresh understanding of the barriers keeping us from finding our purpose in life. In Chapter 1 (“It All Starts with […]
God is Closer Than You Think (Zondervan, 2005) Pastor John Ortberg’s premise in writing God is Closer Than You Think is that the story of the Bible primarily is about God’s desire to be with people. The author notes that the Bible’s most frequent promise is “I will be with you.” God becomes a living […]
In Chapter 3 of When I Don’t Desire God, Pastor John Piper gives 5 reasons why the fight for joy is a good fight of faith: 1. Evil is the enemy of our joy. When we delight ourselves in God more than in our accomplishments and ministry or job identity, we are opposing Satan and […]
John Piper notes in Chapter 3 of When I Don’t Desire God that, at first glance, linking fighting with joy seems absurd. We don’t fight to like physical tastes like hot fudge sundaes. Physical tastes are morally neutral, neither right nor wrong. But having a spiritual taste for Christ is not morally neutral. Pastor Piper […]
In Chapter 2 of When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy, author John Piper asserts that while both desire and delight enable us to glorify God, only God is the ultimate goal. Pastor Piper begins by observing that, contrary to Western culture, in the Bible words like desire and delight can be […]
Pastor John Piper begins Chapter 1 of When I Don’t Desire God by introducing and defining the concept of Christian Hedonism, which forms the foundation of the book. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines hedonism from a secular perspective: “the self-indulgent pursuit of pleasure as a way of life.” Christian Hedonism, in contrast, trumpets the truth […]
In Chapter 10, the concluding chapter of God is Closer Than You Think, author John Ortberg reminds us that Jesus came to earth not only to die on the Cross, but also to bring us the reality of God’s presence: “Jesus didn’t just come to pierce the hedge that separates God from human beings. He […]
Pastor John Ortberg points out that people’s laments are the prevalent theme of wintry Bible books (Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, many of the Psalms) in Chapter 9 of God is Closer Than You Think. He cites Old Testament scholar Ellen Davis, who has written that Israel’s lamentation prayers were unparalleled in comparison to other religions of the […]
The Lord called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized the Lord was calling the boy. So he told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say,’Speak, Lord, for you servant is listening.’ “- 1 Samuel […]