Purpose Driven Life - Day 1 - It all starts with God
Well hello all. Those of you in church today will probably have heard that I've been ill for the best part of a week now with a kidney infection. Something I've had a couple of times before so I must have a weakness for it. Anyway, I'm on antibiotics now and feeling much better but was gutted to have missed this weekend with the "Whats' On" event and the start of the "Purpose Driven Life" which I was so looking forward. However, sounds like the "Whats On" event went really well, Lee did a fantastic job in stepping in for me on Sunday morning and the youth team did an incredible job with their drama at both events. There's a video of the drama posted by one of the youth on YouTube here and a podcast of the sermon and the sermon notes here.
So presuming you're reading this on Monday here is the first of the promised daily updates with thoughts on that days reading. Can I encourage you to prioritise finding 15 minutes today to read chapter 1 of Rick Warren's book "The Purpose Driven Life", if you've got children or youth talk through with them the workbooks we gave them on Sunday. Also to go to a Life Group (what was a housegroup) this week to discuss further the stuff we're studying.
So below are the thoughts on Day 1 - written by Rick Warren before anyone starts to give me any credit for them.
Hope you have a great week. Please pray for me to get some energy back as I still feel very drained but much better than I was :-)
Simon.
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It’s not about you!
“For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, …everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.” Colossians 1:16 (Msg)
“It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s life is in his power.” Job 12:10 (TEV)
You were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not using him for your own purpose. Focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose.
The easiest way to discover the purpose of an invention is to ask the creator of it. The same is true for discovering your life’s purpose: Ask God.
Andrei Bitov, a Russian novelist, grew up under an atheistic Communist regime. But God got his attention one dreary day. He recalls, “In my twenty-seventh year, while riding the metro in Leningrad I was overcome with a despair so great that life seemed to stop at once, preempting the future entirely, let alone any meaning. Suddenly, all by itself, a phrase appeared: ‘Without God life makes no sense.’ Repeating it in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase, got out of the metro and walked into God’s light.”
You may have felt in the dark about your purpose in life. Congratulations, you’re about to walk into the light.
So presuming you're reading this on Monday here is the first of the promised daily updates with thoughts on that days reading. Can I encourage you to prioritise finding 15 minutes today to read chapter 1 of Rick Warren's book "The Purpose Driven Life", if you've got children or youth talk through with them the workbooks we gave them on Sunday. Also to go to a Life Group (what was a housegroup) this week to discuss further the stuff we're studying.
So below are the thoughts on Day 1 - written by Rick Warren before anyone starts to give me any credit for them.
Hope you have a great week. Please pray for me to get some energy back as I still feel very drained but much better than I was :-)
Simon.
-------------------------------------
It’s not about you!
“For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, …everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.” Colossians 1:16 (Msg)
“It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s life is in his power.” Job 12:10 (TEV)
You were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not using him for your own purpose. Focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose.
The easiest way to discover the purpose of an invention is to ask the creator of it. The same is true for discovering your life’s purpose: Ask God.
Andrei Bitov, a Russian novelist, grew up under an atheistic Communist regime. But God got his attention one dreary day. He recalls, “In my twenty-seventh year, while riding the metro in Leningrad I was overcome with a despair so great that life seemed to stop at once, preempting the future entirely, let alone any meaning. Suddenly, all by itself, a phrase appeared: ‘Without God life makes no sense.’ Repeating it in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase, got out of the metro and walked into God’s light.”
You may have felt in the dark about your purpose in life. Congratulations, you’re about to walk into the light.