I love my God …

Rick Warren
Title: Pastor, bestselling author
Age: 51 Why we envy: Ultra-connected. Biz cred.

Look, if anyone is going to heaven, it’s this guy. Saddleback Church, which he founded in his living room in 1980, is now a 120-acre campus with an average weekend attendance of 21,000. His book The Purpose-Driven Life has sold over 25 million copies and is among the bestselling nonfiction hardcovers in U.S. history. Apart from the Rolling Stones, not many middle-aged white guys can fill a stadium with adoring fans, but Warren can, and his are actually sober. The most influential evangelical since Billy Graham preaches in Hawaiian shirts and sandals. As if that weren’t enough: Warren gives away 90% of his income. And he’ll never wake up wondering if his job has meaning.

Fortune, October 17th, 2005 issue

After reading that article the night before, I asked myself again and again “What my purpose driven life will look like after business schools?” Hmmmm, I don’t have the answer yet! =)
Do you have yours already?

In the mean time, I came across other stories of Rick Warren:
- His office, at the request of Pentagon officials, is planning t o ship copies of the book to the troops in Iraq.
- His focus now will be to assist pastors in Third World countries as well as those woh pastor while holding down a second job
- The success of his book, along with that of Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the christ” indicates the world thirsts for a better relationship with God.
- Warren headed for Washington where he had been invited to speak to the U.S. Senate.
- Warren talked about being a fourth-generation pastor who simply believed in the Word and in serving God. “My dad never pastored a church larger than about 75 people at one time,” he said. “So for 20 years, all I’ve done is train pastors of local churches. I’ve never wanted to be a celebrity.”
- Despite his enormous success, Warren refused to put his church services on television or radio. It’s not about him, he said; it’s about God.
- He and his wife became “reverse tithers” meaning they give 90 percent of their earnings to the church and live on 10 percent.
- Lastly, Warren said “There’s only one reason for an awakening-it’s all about God.”

The Holiday
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In Florida, an atheist became incensed over the preparation for Easter and Passover holidays and decided to contact the local ACLU about the discrimination inflicted on atheists by the constant celebrations afforded to Christians and Jews with all their holidays while the atheists had no holiday to celebrate.

The ACLU jumped on the opportunity to once again pick up the cause of the godless and assigned their sharpest attorneys to the case. The case was brought before a wise judge who after listening to the long, passionate presentation of the ACLU lawyers, promptly banged his gavel and declared, “Case dismissed!”

The lead ACLU lawyer immediately stood and objected to the ruling and said, “Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? Surely the Christians have Christmas, Easter, and many other observances. And the Jews–why in addition to Passover they have Yom Kippur and Hanukkah… and yet my client and all other atheists have no such holiday!”

The judge leaned forward in his chair and simply said, “Obviously your client is too confused to know about, or for that matter, even celebrate the atheists’ holiday!”

The ACLU lawyer pompously said, “We are aware of no such holiday for atheists, just when might that be, your honor?”

The judge said, “Well it comes every year on exactly the same date – April 1st!”

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
Psalm 14:1, Psalm 53:1

one of my favorite examples of creativite ideas:

Can Octopus, a winner of arrangement on canned food donation shown on New York Times

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.
Worship is. Missions exists because worship does not . . .

When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.It is a temporary necessity, But worship abides forever.

John Piper, Let The Nations Be Glad

A funny one … multimedia movie … cool!
A primitive Matrix version.
Ping pong: reloaded!!!
http://www.ntv.co.jp/channel/asx/hkzkt10.asx

“Often one seeks greener grass on the other side, only to find when he gets there that it’s not edible. Sometimes, however, it is. But if the grass is greener on the other side, you can bet their water bill is higher.”
Charles Swindoll

“Never interpret the silence of God as the indifference of God”
Erwin Lutzer

aim at heaven and you’ll get earth thrown in
aim at earth and you’ll get none.
C.S. Lewis

The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek words theor and en and literally means
“God within.” It is a fire, a flame, a passion within you.

Insight for Living Notes, Sunday, November 9, 2003
When God became a man, He didn’t parade His perfection; He became one of us. And, ultimately, God’s “with-ness” is the only lasting solution to the problem of pain–at least, it’s the only solution we can understand. We may not be able to explain to a child why her Daddy left; we may not know the good that can come from a young bride’s cancer; we may not perceive the reasons why one godly couple is childless, while thousands of precious babies are born to abusive parents. There may be no better reason than the fact that we live in an ugly, sin-infested world. But what keeps us from despair is realizing that Jesus suffered too.