My Beliefs About God and Religion

I was raised practically from birth in a conservative Baptist church, and so as one might expect, most of my views of right and wrong, the natures of God and mankind, and the origin of the world were formed in that likeness. As I grow older and gain broader perspectives, I find that there is a real difference between what God actually said and did (if one considers the Bible to be accurate on these matters), and some of the things that have been taught in the churches I have attended throughout my life.

I still adhere to the fundamental principles of Christianity and biblical principles, and make no apology for that; rather, I consider my early training and personal Christian experience to be a blessing.

Here are some of the specific things that I believe to be true:

1. The Bible is the Word of God; the primary communication we have from Him. (Note that this is substantively different from saying that I believe everything that people say that the Bible teaches!) (I Timothy 3:16)
2. There is one, and only one true and living God. God the Father is joined in the Trinity by His Son Jesus Christ (which is, of course, where the term "Christianity" comes from), and by what the Bible describes as the Holy Spirit. (I Timothy 2:5)
3. God was the creator of the universe we live in. (And, I believe, also the creator of worlds we have never seen.) I like Einstein's argument in favor of creation (as opposed to spontaneous generation of some basic life form that, through evolution, became mankind). Einstein asked: "So, if you took iron ore, silica, etc. and laid them out alone on a desert island, how long do you think it would be until you could come back to the island and find a working Swiss watch?" (Genesis 1:1)
4. God and man had a falling out early in their relationship (described as the fall of man in Genesis), because man has a propensity to put his/her own needs and desires above the interests of all others, even above those of the Creator. God cannot countenance sin in His presence, and as a result, His plan for reconciliation was put into motion. (Genesis 3:1 - 5:32)
5. There really is good and evil in our universe. The Bible makes this clear, and the evidence of it is all around us. I think most people recognize, and even admit to this. Where many, many people have trouble accepting the tenets of Christianity - particularly around good and evil - is when they run into the Bible's description of the ultimate fate of good (righteous) and bad (unrighteous) people (See Romans Chapter 2). Few are willing to accept that some people will actually go on to an afterlife of eternal punishment, even though the Bible makes that fact undeniable. (Romans Chapter 2, Isaiah 14:12-17, Revelation 12:7-11)
6. In order to be acceptable before God, people must recognize their own propensity to sin (put their own interests and desires above all else), confess that condition to God in prayer and in sincerity, and ask God for forgiveness. The Bible says that God provided His Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice at His crucifixion, to open up an avenue for people to be reconciled to God. I believe that this is true and that for reconciliation to be complete, people must recognize and accept that sacrifice in their own hearts, in order to be covered by it. (Romans 3:23, Titus 3:5, Romans 6:23, John 5:24, I Peter 2:24, Ephesians 2:8-9)
7. People continue to transgress (sin), even after they have recognized their sinful condition, repented, and accepted the sacrifice of Christ. The basic nature of people remains unchanged, although their past and future transgressions are covered by the sacrifice of Christ. Their lives always represent a tug-of-war between good and evil, between their own interests and desires and the greater good, manifested as the will of God. In fact, even Jesus' own disciples demonstrated this. (Matthew 19:27, Mattehw 20:24, Matthew 26:31-34) If you need a modern-day example, look no further; Here I am.
8. Much of what is taught in even our most fundamental churches today is nonsense. Several examples come to mind, including the Baptist assertion that the wine Jesus made in the Old Testament was really just grape juice. There is no point in opening all of that up here; but the fact is that there is a tendency among church leaders, feeling the need to have answers for all such questions at hand, to make assertions that simply are not biblically supportable - no matter how passages may be taken from context or artificially stitched together in a sermon. (Matthew 7:22-23, Matthew 15:2-3)
9. Almost no church leader today is truly following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. If they were, we would certainly being seeing them on the national news. The New Testament disciples and apostles of Christ took on social issues constantly, and directly. Most of them ended up in jail as a result, and many of them were executed. Modern America is no more righteous than the countries visited by Christ's apostles in biblical times - many would argue that it is far worse. The fact that Christians are not being jailed and executed for the assertive presentation and deployment of their faith is a clear indicator that our faith has become watered down, and in most cases, ineffective. (Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 19:16-30)
   
   In the biblical account of the life of Jesus Christ here on earth, there are episodes where He did things that clearly contrast with the behavior of Christians - and Christian leaders - today. At a wedding, He made the best wine they had ever tasted. In a Jewish Temple, He became so angry when he saw people selling merchandise in the temple that He physically drove them out of it. (He did not, by the way, stop to wonder whether He was "obeying the laws of the land" when He did so. He obeyed a higher law. What do you think He would have done if He had encountered an abortion clinic?) He was constantly moving on to the next town, trying to draw others to God, and seeking nothing for Himself (as God, He already owns everything anyway). Today, we Christians all have time - first and foremost - for ourselves. One rarely sees a Christian leader being arrested for trying to close down an abortion clinic, but it's no problem to find many of those pastors and deacons on the back nine at your local golf course from week to week.

My personal journey through....
The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

This book has been recommended to be by a number of people. Certainly, there's no arguing its popularity; the cover of the book says that over 2 million copies have now been sold. Several family members are working their way through this book now, as a part of their regular weekly worship routine. A couple of weeks ago, I found the book laying atop the desk of a colleague of mine in Wichita. I picked it up and leafed through it. Several of the excerpts I read there piqued my interest, and I decided that it would be worth my time to examine it more closely. I have long been convinced that most people, looking back on their lives at its end, will be mildly disappointed - or more deeply disappointed - with what they have done with their time on Earth. For many years, I have tried to set personal goals that aligned with the things I was interested in, the things I was good at, and the things that gave me satisfaction. As a result, the title of the book struck a chord in my heart, and I think the topic is very important.

I am going to record some of my thoughts about this book as I work my way through it. I am finding as I move through the text that there is much I agree with - and much that I do not. I'll do my best to point those areas out - chapter by chapter - as I move along. If you are reading this book too, or have already read it - I'd love to hear your feedback.

Before I get to the chapter by chapter review, I want to mention that there are a couple of minor points about the book that are an annoyance to me personally. They are probably nits (not important in the big scheme of things) but I want to mention them anyway. First, the author chose not to capitalize his references to God. Certainly, the words God, Jesus, and so on are capitalized, as would the names Sally, Tom, and Jim be capitalized; they are proper nouns. But the author has chosen not to capitalize the pronoun references, so that when he writes something like: "We can turn to what God has revealed about life in his Word.", the word "his" is not capitalized. In my own opinion, this diminishes the reverence afforded to God. Secondly, the author seems to move fluidly back and forth between translations of the Bible as it suits his purposes in light of the point he is trying to support - he simply chooses whatever translation seems to best support his position. Finally, the author occasionally falls into the trap of supporting his points with passages of scripture that are marginally relevant at best, based on lifting them out of their biblical context. In all fairness, he doesn't do a lot of that - most of his references, though ripped from context, seem to me to be pretty consistent in tems of their message with what he is trying to get across. However, the unfortunate tendency of many pastors- like politicians these days- is to parse scripture, plucking phrases or individual words from the context of the story, and amplifying them in a way that dilutes or corrupts their meaning, to support some otherwise unsupportable assertion. Any shade of it just makes me flinch. Interestingly, the author recognized at least the last two items in a kind of "cover myself" epilogue on page 325. These explanations just don't wash with me. I think the fact that different translations better suit the designated point is a much more reasonable explanation for the multi-translation syndrome, and the fact that Jesus quoted what were, in essence, His own words is no justification for us ripping fragments of scripture out of context to justify our various positions. We are human, and therefore we err. People - even Christians - OFTEN practice this technique to justify absurd positions - at least to themselves, and in my view we have no business doing it.

Chapter 1 - It All Starts With God
The primary assertions of the author in this chapter are that God created all human beings for His own pleasure. As a result, we will never find meaning in our lives by looking inward - the purpose emenates from outside of us - from God. I have no argument with any of that, because I believe that it's true. The foundation for this assertion - and the basis for all of the other assertions made by the author in this book - is the Bible. The challenge presented by using the Bible as the sole basis of assertions like this is that a lot of people don't believe it's true. In fact, based on about five decades of observation, it seems to me that only a subset of those who SAY that the Bible is true really believe that. Certainly, basing proofs about the history and nature of mankind - where men and women came from and so on - is acceptable to a fairly large percentage of Americans. However, Old Testament guidelines about what is moral behavior are embraced by a diminishing population. While most agree with some interpretation of the Ten Commandments, for example, fewer and fewer Americans are willing to accept what God says about homosexuality and other matters. I remember at one point last year, for example, trying to explain to people who were posting to an AOL message board that God finds homosexuality abhorrent, and says so EVERY SINGLE TIME it is mentioned in the Bible - both Old testament and New. The response I got was something like this "OK, I hear you; thanks for pointing that out. Now, can you help me with where I should take my oxen to have them sacrificed?" The writer went on and on, but his point was simply this: The Old Testament is not viewed as terribly relevant to modern day living, since it instructs believers to do blood sacrifices, kill those who practice witchcraft, and so on. This is a tough argument to combat, because you never get these folks' attention long enough to point out the difference between the Old Testament life under Mosaic Law and the New Testament life of grace that exists because of the sacrafice of Christ on Calvary.

Chapter 2 - You Are Not An Accident
The primary assertions of the author in this chapter are that God created every human being deliberately and with forethought. Further, God did so in order to express His love toward us and through us in the lives of others. Again, I have no quarrel with the premise. However, supporting the premise with a passage from Isaiah (46:3-4) may not be a great choice. These two verses were part of a message carried to the "House of Jacob" (the Jewish people) from God telling them that He would be with them and deliver them out of the captivity they were about to experience, and that they should be reassured about that because He had "carried" them (protected them) from the time they were still in the womb; therefore they should continue to trust Him in the difficult years ahead. It was NOT written to modern-day Christians, as Mr. Warren implies on page 25 of his book. Even in Old Testament days, of course, the capture of the House of Jacob involved battles, and the Jews were carried off into slavery for years. Undoubtedly many were abused, and many died. For those and their families, the reality of God's promise would have been more difficult to see. They would have had to trust that God had a reason for permitting that series of events, and that His reason outweighed the destruction that they saw in the lives of themselves and their families. I am compelled to wonder if some of them didn't turn to God and ask: "God, I know that You have all power and all knowledge. Why did You not create another path to provide the witness and build the faith that You desired; a set of circumstances and events that would not have required my family - Your children - to be brutalized and murdered?" Of course, God doesn't owe us any answers to the "Why?" questions. We are, after all, His creatures. However, He designed us with free will and an intellectual curiosity for a reason, and as Mr. Warren points out later in his book (Chapter 12), the best "friends of God" depicted in the Bible (including Job and David) often complained to God bitterly about what He was allowing to transpire in their lives. To quote Warren (p.93): "God, however, didn't seem to be bothered by this frankness; in fact, He encouraged it!" (I capitalized the "He".)

Chapter 3 - What Drives Your Life?
The primary assertions of the author in this chapter are that everyone's life is driven by something. Further, he says that for most people that "something" is resentment, anger, guilt, fear, materialism, or the need for approval. He says that life has no purpose without God, and that the greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose. here again, Mr. Warren promises (page 31) that if you (as a modern-day Christian) are feeling hopeless, you shouldn't worry because "wonderful changes are going to happen in your life". He offers an excerpt from scripture that says (in whatever version he was working from that day): "I know what I am planning for you, I will give you hope and a good future." Again, this is a passage from a prophecy to Judah - NOT a message to specific Christians, and certainly not designed as a message to Christians living in America in 2004. While it is illustrative of God's love for His children, it simply does not wash as a message from God for the earthly lives of every Christian. In fact, even after the 70 year enslavement of that country when the message was current, only a remnant of those taken into captivity lived to see their nation delivered. Mr. Warren also asserts that knowing the purpose of one's life simplifies, focuses, and motivates it, all the while preparing the Christian for eternity. I think I agree with those statements almost entirely. A purpose is a good thing, and that's true for everyone - Christians and non-believers as well. I think this is a greta message - one that all of us should take to heart.

Chapter 4 - Made to Last Forever
The primary assertions of the author in this chapter are that this earthly life is only a precursor to a much longer life called eternity, and that recognizing the relative scale of earthly life compared to the vast scale of eternity, one's values are changed. Warren says: "You place a higher premium on relationships and character instead of fame or wealth or achievements or even fun. Your priorities are reordered." I wish I had observed this to be true in the lives of more Christians, including my own. I am a very achievement-oriented person, I think. I feel the need to accomplish things, set and meet objectives, make and deliver on commitments. In fact, the greatest regrets I have in life are failures to meet commitments that I have made - to myself, to others, and to God. I believe that people should do what they say they are going to do, when they say they are going to do it. Almost no one consistently does. The relationships built in life here on earth are no doubt important, and because as humans we are so limited in our understanding of events and the world around us, I'm sure that we often fail to grasp the importance of our words and actions in the lives of others. But even in the lives of professing Christians, what percentage of us act in accordance with these words? How many of us choose to visit friends in the hospital or volunteer at the food pantry, or any of the myriad of other opportunities rather than hitting the golf course of flopping down in front of the television? "it would be wiser", Mr. Warren says, "to live each day as if it were the last day of your life". Wouldn't THAT be interesting? I certainly wouldn't be at work! I do think that some aspects of the statement are true; it would be a far better world if we took the time to tell our families - and show them - that we love them every day. It would be a far better world if we realized how fragile and fleeting this life is. A couple of weeks ago, a very dear relative of mine turned 46 years old. I called him on his birthday, and asked him what he and his wife were doing to celebrate. He replied that they really didn't have much time for that stuff, and noted that 46 isn't exactly a milestone year(like 50) anyway. It was none of my business of course, but being me, I said: "You need to AT LEAST take your family out to dinner; Really, you do. I know this isn't the 'Big 50', but you just never know. You may not live to see 50. You have to celebrate while you can." I think that, although it was unsolicited and probably unappreciated, it was some of the best advice I have ever given.

Chapter 5 - Seeing Life From God's View
The primary assertions of the author in this chapter are life on Earth is a test whose purpose is to develop character, and that life on Earth is a trust in which we are to use our resources, skills and talents prudently for God. By way of illustration, Mr. Warren points out that "God continually tests people's character, faith, obedience, love, integrity, and loyalty. Words like trials, temptations, refining, and testing occur more than 200 times in the Bible. God tested Abraham by asking him to offer his son Issac. God tested Jacob when he had to work extra years to earn Rachel as his wife." Further, Mr. Warren goes on to point out that: "A very important test is how you act when you can't feel God's presence in your life. Sometimes God draws back, and we don't sense His closeness." (Again, I capitalized the "His".) By way of a supporting scripture passage, Mr. Warren again directs us to the Old Testament (though I think there are other New Testament examples that would have sufficed here), offering II Chronicles 32:31. On page 43, Mr. Warren says: "The Bible says, 'God withdrew from Hezikiah in order to test him and to see what was really in his heart'. Hezekiah had enjoyed a close fellowship with God, but at a crucial point in his life God left him alone to test his character, to reveal a weakness, and to prepare him for more responsibility." Now this is a really fascinating concept to me. I can get my mind around the idea of giving my children progressively more responsibility as they mature, and employees progressively more responsibility as they learn more about the operations of the company and develop additional skills. I am really struggling, though, to understand this approach in the context of an omniscient (all knowing) and omnipotent (all powerful) God. The phrase "to see what was really in his heart" here is troubling. Did God not already KNOW what was in Hezakiah's heart? How could an all-knowing God NOT know what was in Hezekiah's heart without even testing it? Something is wrong here - either in translation or in my understanding of these words. An omniscient God does not have to perform tests to discover things. Then there is the whole concept of God removing his presence deliberately from Christians in order to test our character. Again, God KNOWS our character - He does not NEED to test it to see what we will do. For me, this is a real conundrum, and it will be amplified in a subsequent discussion (Chapter 9).

Chapter 6 - Life Is a Temporary Assignment
The primary assertions of the author in this chapter are that: compared to eternity life on Earth is very brief, and since Earth is only a temporary residence, one should not become too attached to it. I have no problem with either of those assertions. It is the extrapolation of those precepts that gives me pause. On page 49, Mr. Warren says that "The fact that Earth is not our ultimate home explains why, as followers of Jesus, we experience difficulty, sorrow, and rejection in this world. It also explains why some of God's promises seem unfulfilled, some prayers seem unanswered, and some circumstances seem unfair. In order to keep us from becoming too attached to Earth, God allows us to feel a significant amount of discontent and dissatisfaction in life - longings that will never be fulfilled on this side of eternity." Mr. Warren offers no biblical foundation for this startling assertion, and I believe that he would be hard pressed to do so. Aside from the general common sense view that because there is sin on Earth, and we are not with God in heaven, I have never seen any indication anywhere in the Bible that God allows His children to be unhappy just so that they will be ready to leave Earth behind. In fact, the premise seems counter-intuitive to much of the rest of Scripture. God created animals and plants and so on for mankind to maintain dominion over, as stated in Genesis, and beyond that Mr. Warren goes to some lengths in this very book to point out that God wants humans to experience pleasure from His creation here on Earth. It would be a much stronger argument to say that people experience suffering and dissatisfaction while living here on Earth because there is sin here on Earth, and none in heaven. The one troubling aspect of THAT premise for me is that Satan sinned while he was IN Heaven, and was cast down FROM heaven to Earth. (Isaiah 15:12)

Chapter 7 - The Reason For Everything
The primary assertion of the author in this Chapter is that the ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God. It is the reason that everything exists, including every human being. The author expands on this point by saying that God's glory is best seen in Jesus Christ. He points out hat we bring glory to God by worshipping Him, loving other believers, becoming like Christ, serving others with our gifts (talents / skills), and by telling others about the Lord Jesus Christ. All true, in my view, and all supportable from scripture. I would only add that extremely few of the professing modern-day Christians actually become "like Christ", and therefore almost no one really brings glory to God today. I should point out that there ARE exceptions. I just heard reports yesterday of Christian missionaries shot to death for no more reason than that they were Americans, as they witnessed for the cause of Christ in Iraq in recent weeks; I think they are examples of the few who really have chosen to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. They, like the Apostles, lost their lives as a result of doing exactly what God has called ALL Christians to do (Matthew 28: 18 - 20). The rest of us have no excuse. I know that many of us say to ourselves: "Well, I work and give money to the church, and they pass that money along to missionaries, and so I am an active participant in missions, and so I am fulfilling my role in the Great Commission", but I think we are deluding ourselves. It's like the thought process that Ananias and his wife Sapphira went through in Acts chapter 5, where they sold a piece of property and reported that they were giving the proceeds of the sale to the church, when in fact they kept back a portion for themselves. God killed them on the spot. If we do not follow Christ in full by selling our posessions and following Him (Luke 18: 18-30) to perform the evangelism and related work (Ephesians 4: 11-12) we are kidding each other, possibly, kidding ourselves, probably, but we are NOT fooling God. His command and his position on this matter are clear in Luke 18: 18-30: If you really want to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, you have to give up everything on this Earth, follow Him in a life of evangelism, probably lose your life in the process, and you will be rewarded with far GREATER riches in heaven. Yet here we are, you and I, driving nice cars, living in nice homes, eating until we are too fat to fit into our clothes, and watching TV every day. Renting a movie from Blockbuster now and then. Going out to eat regularly. Updating our wardrobes. Putting money away for retirement. But God wants us to be happy, right? Mr. Warren doesn't think so (see page 49), and the Bible doesn't seem to indicate that either. We are here to serve God and please Him. Measured by the biblical standard, we are just about ALL failing miserably.

Chapter 8 - Planned For God's Pleasure
The primary assertion of the author in this Chapter is that "Bringing enjoyment to God, living for His pleasure, is the first purpose of your life." (page 63). He further points out that bringing pleasure to God is called "worship", and asserts that "anything you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship". He continues by pointing out that worship is far more than music, and notes that "Worship has nothing to do with the style or volume or speed of a song" (I have relatives who, I know, just cringe at those words!). He continues (page 66) by saying that "God's heart is not touched by tradition in worship, but by passion and commitment." I have to admit, I think that statement is right on the money! I know that Mr. Warren is trying to make the point here that "traditional" is not synonymous with "holy", and that today's Christians should be more tolerant and understanding about different kinds of music and praise activity they recognize as valid forms of worship. I believe there is merit in what he says, because the Bible is clear that all kinds of musical instruments and celebratory dancing - yes, even DANCING - II Samuel 6: 14-16, Psalm 149: 3) - were / are pleasing forms of worship to Him. I will admit that I have a personal struggle with this. I visited a church in the St. Louis area last Sunday morning, and they had a completely scriptural (as nearly as I could tell) worship service. But the music - while perfectly within the biblical framework of worship - just made me uncomfortable. As I told my daughter later that day, it was just "too Hollywood" for me. Maybe it was the bongo drums - I'm not sure. Anyway, then Mr. Warren makes this statement: "Worship is not a part of your life, it is your life.", and backs up his statement with several scripture references, some of which seem to be to be applicable. (My favorite is I Corinthians 10:31.) Mr. Warren says: "This is the secret to a lifestyle of worship - doing everything as if you were doing it for Jesus." (page 67). I have always had a problem with "lifestyle Christianity". I think Mr. Warren is attempting to let himself - and all the rest of us - off the hook here by saying to continue to work at the same job, live in the same place, and basically go about your daily life (save with re-ordered priorities) as you did before, but just to do everything in an attitude of worship. I'm having trouble finding this in the Bible. Jesus didn't send Peter back to be a more spiritual fisherman, or Luke back to be a more spiritual physician. He didn't say to Saul: "Your name is now Paul. Stop persecuting my followers, and go back to being a righteous public servant." He said: "Follow Me!" And they followed Him, almost all of them, to their deaths.

Chapter 9 - What Makes God Smile?
The primary assertion of the author in this Chapter is that there are certain specific things that we, as Christians, must do in order to "make God smile". Among those are: Love Him supremely, trust Him Completely, obey Him wholeheartedly, thank Him continually, and use our abilities. (Again, the capitalization of the "Him"s in this sentence are mine.) If it strikes you, as it struck me, that everything except good oral hygine is included here, it was no mistake. According to Mr. Warren, "every human activity, except sin, can be done for God's pleasure if you do it with an attitude of praise." (page 74). I have no problem with the fact that all activity except sin can be done in an attitude of praise, but I don't equate "a good attitude" to "worship". Further, Mr. Warren continues on page 75 by saying: "Every act of enjoyment becomes an act of worship when you thank God for it." NONSENSE! He then says that I Timothy 6:17 says: "God...generously gives us everything for our enjoyment." (page 75) UTTER NONSENSE! The verse actually says: "Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy." (NASV) Paul's point in this verse is that the rich should be told to get off their "high horse"; They didn't earn all that nice stuff they have, so much as God ALLOWED them to have it, and by the way, it is God from whom ALL good things / blessings / enjoyments flow. That is a substantially different message, I think, than the one Mr. Warren is implying. Beyond that, Mr. Warren's translation of this ripped-from-context partial verse is diametrically opposed to his "You're not here for your own pleasure, and you should expect to suffer while you're here!" positions shown both earlier (see chapters 6 and 7) and later (see chapter 25) in his book. Fascinating paradox. God put us here to bring pleasure to Him, which means that we must suffer and be tested, but God put all of this creation here so that we can enjoy ourselves.

Chapter 10 - The Heart of Worship
The primary assertion of the author in this Chapter is that the heart of worship is surrender. Mr. Warren points out that surrender to God's will is a perfectly natural thing for Christians (page 77), saying that "We give ourselves to Him (my capitalization), not out of fear or duty, but in love, 'because He (my capitalization) first loved us'." (I John 4:19) He goes on (page 78) to say that: "God wants all your life - all of it. Ninety-five percent is not enough." Then he lists and amplifies on 3 barriers that Christians face in totally surrendering their lives to God; fear, pride, and confusion. Again, this seems a bit confusing to me; If it is only "natural" that Christians would respond to God's love by surrendering their lives to Him, why would all of these barriers exist? The author spends the next several pages amplifying on each of these barriers, a very good review of the concepts, I think, but the whole thing only serves to show that the immediate and unconditional surrender of 100% of one's life is ABSOLUTELY NOT a part of human nature, even in response to the recognition of God's love, and the sacrifice that Jesus represents for each of us. Indeed, with the thousands of people currently viewing and praising Mel Gibson's recent film "The Passion of the Christ", how many lives were given over 100% to God as a result of seeing a faithful depiction of that sacrifice with their own eyes? The answer? Almost none. How do I know that? I return to the biblical examples of lives that WERE completely yielded - from Noah to the Apostles. If a thousand people surrendered their lives TOTALLY as described by Mr. Warren, the world would never be the same. At the conclusion of this chapter, Mr. Warren issues a warning on page 84: "Let me warn you: When you decide to live a totally surrendered life, that decision will be tested. Sometimes it will mean doing inconvenient, unpopular, costly, or seemingly impossible tasks." Certainly, the Bible does seem to support Mr. Warren's position on this. I noticed especially the stories of Joseph, Paul, and especially Abraham, and I know in my heart I could never be that faithful. Consider Abraham's situation: "Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!", and he said, "Here I am." And He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." Abraham rose up early the next morning, took Isaac with him, and went - fully intending to comply with God's direction. Could you do that? I am certain I could not. And the question that haunts me is: Why would God tell Abraham to? God knew Abraham's heart (He knows all things). He did not HAVE to test Abraham. Was this the best way to set an example for Isaac, the other two men who traveled with them, and the rest of us who now read this account in Genesis chapter 22? I don't know. It seems unnecessary and cruel to me, when our omnipotent God could have divised another - less traumatic - way. I am not saying that God was wrong. The creature (me) is in no position to judge the actions or motives of the Creator (God). But the Lord provided me with the faculties and curiousity to wonder about this, and so here it is.

Chapter 11 - Becoming Best Friends With God
The primary assertion of the author in this Chapter is that God wants to be the best friend of every Christian. Mr. Warren offers two steps in this chapter toward becoming "best friends" with God: Through maintaining a constant conversation with God, and through continual meditation. I think this chapter is a good one, and that the premises of the author are sound and well communicated. I did find it interesting that Mr. Warren said this on page 91: "Friends share secrets, and God will share secrets with you if you develop the habit of thinking about His (my capitalization) Word throughout the day." Here's my question; Why do any of us need to keep secrets, and why most of all, does God need to keep secrets? Aren't keeping secrets, and yielding them up to only selected individuals, merely a way of keeping some folks more distant than others? Just a thought.

Chapter 12 - Developing Your Friendship With God
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that each Christian is as close to God as they choose to be. Mr. Warren lists specific ways in which that choice is manifested, the first of which is "I must choose to be honest with God." (Page 92) He continues on page 99 by saying that "In the Bible, the friends of God were honest about their feelings, often complaining, second-guessing, accusing, and arguing with their Creator. God, however, didn't seem to be bothered by this frankness; in fact, He (my capitalization) encouraged it." You can imagine my relief at reading this! He continues with "I must choose to obey God in faith." As nearly as I am able to tell, this is an absolutely accurate rendering of the position of God (see John 15:14). On page 96, he continues with "I must choose to value what God values", and finally on page 97, "I must desire friendship with God more than anything else." In the closing frame of chapter 12, Mr. Warren presents the following fragment in his "Verse to Remember" section: "Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you." (James 4:8a). I think this passage, along with the overall theme of this chapter (you are as close to God as you choose to be) are extremely important elements to remember, when thinking through chapter 14!

Chapter 13 - Worship That Pleases God
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "God wants all of you". He goes on to outline a number of characteristics of worship that pleases God, including: God is pleased when our worship is accurate (based on the truth of scripture), God is pleased when our worship is authentic (a sincere expression of the heart), God is pleased when our worship is thoughtful (mentally engaged and specific), and God is pleased when our worship is practical (physical worship that costs the worshipper something). He buttresses these assertions with the biblical concepts of Christians "presenting" our "bodies as living sacrifices" (see Romans 12:1). Here again, I have no argument with this chapter. I think it accurately reflects biblical perspectives. In fact, my favorite quote from the book is found in this chapter on page 106: "The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart."

Chapter 14 - When God Seems Distant
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "To mature your friendship, God will test it with periods of seeming separation - times when it feels like He (my capitalization) has abandoned or forgotten you." Mr. Warren continues: "This is a normal part of the testing and maturing of your friendship with God." He says that "the most common mistake Christians make in worship today is seeking an experience rather than seeking God. When you are a baby Christian, God gives you a lot of confirming emotions and often answers the most immature, self-centered prayers - so you'll know he exists. But as you grow in faith, he will wean you of the dependencies." Mr. Warren admits that the "situations will stretch your faith most will be those times when life falls apart and God is nowhere to be found." In these situations, Mr. Warren recommends that as Christians, we should: "Tell God exactly how we feel", Focus on who God is", "Trust God to keep His (my capitalization) promises", and Remember what God has already done" for us. He points to the biblical examples of Job, and the Lord Jesus Christ (specifically His response to God the Father when He was separated from the Father's presence at the time of His crucifixion) (Matthew 28:46).
In almost every case, I agree that Christ is the example that Christians should emulate - and frankly, I am often bitterly disappointed in my own failings in light of His example, and His direction to be selfless and forgiving. However, this particular example is quite different. Expecting a human being - ANY human being - to successfully emulate God incarnate here on Earth is expecting the (theologically) impossible. Christ asked His Father why He had turned His back on Him during His crucifixion. (This has also been theologically problematic for me, since I know that Jesus, as God Himself, is omnipotent and therefore knew full well why God the Father withdrew His presence from our Savior for that short but terrible time.) The use of Job is a far stronger case, I believe. Job surrendered everything - his family, his wealth, his personal health - to God when God took it away in order to prove that Satan's assertions about him were false. Job did, indeed, refuse to "curse God" in the face of all the things he endured. Job bears witness that this kind of faith CAN be born and exhibited by humans. It is interesting to me, though, that God describes Job to Satan in the following way: "And the Lord said to Satan: Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him alive on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity although you incited Me against him, to ruin him without cause." (Job 2:3) The relevant point to the theme of this chapter in "Purpose Driven Life" is that God said Job was "like no one else on the earth". This is a great example, but certainly not a class that I or anyone I know of here is ever likely to achieve. Even so, Job did complain repeatedly and vigorously, and begged for relief from his oppression, and although he made it clear in chapter 9 that neither he nor any other man is in a position to argue with God, he makes his case to God and other men anyway in chapters 10 and 16. Other things that God said here are - well, challenging for me - as well. Among them are that: Job is "blameless" (since mankind is born with a sinful nature (Psalm 51:5), how is this possible?), and that Satan had "incited" God by teasing Him (Job 1:9-10, Job 2:4-5). How is it possible that Satan could evoke this kind of response from God, who created all things, and KNOWS all things even BEFORE they even occur? My hope is that there is some limitation imposed by the translation of scriptures that renders the current reading of these verses to be different than surface-level appearances. However, that too would present challenges of its own - opening up our current translation of the Bible to broader questions. It is, for me, a profound conundrum.
And here again, I am at a loss to understand why an omnipotent, omniscient God would need to - or choose to - allow Satan to do these things to a man whom He refers to as "blameless". Certainly, it is incomprehensible to me that His purpose was, as Mr. Warren indicates, to "mature His friendship" with Job by withdrawing His presence and His protection, leaving Job to feel completely abandoned in the most horrific of circumstances. It leads me to wonder whether Mr. Warren deliberately separates himself from his wife and/or children for extended periods of time, cutting off all communication and virtually all support to her when they are sick or grieving, in order to strengthen their marraige.

Chapter 15 - You Were Formed For God's Family
In this chapter, the primary assertion of the author is that each human being was formed for the purpose of being a member of God's family. To quote Mr. Warren directly, "God wants a family, and He created you to be a part of it." (My capitalization on the "He", of course.) He continues by pointing out that "God's invitation is universal, but there is one condition: faith in Jesus. So far so good - I have no argument with anything thus far. On page 119, the author continues by saying this: " The Bible says, 'Since you are His (my capitalization) child, everything He (my capitalization) has belongs to you'." (This is supposed to be a rendition of Galatians 4:7, but looks nothing like the Galatians 4:7 in MY Bible, which says: "Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, an heir through God. (New American Standard version).
Mr. Warren continues: "Here on earth, we are given 'the riches...of His (my capitalization) grace...kindness...patience...glory...wisdom...power...and mercy. But in eternity we will inherit even more." (The book's end note pertaining to this sentence lists a number of verses in different areas of the Bible from which the individual phrases were extracted.) He enumerates: "First, we will get to be with God forever. Second, we will be completely changed to be like Christ. Third, we will be freed from all pain, death, and suffering. Fourth, we will be rewarded and reassigned positions of service. Fifth, we will get to share in Christ's glory." He also makes the point a couple of times that the heavenly inheritance is what we should be working for and looking forward to, rather than the earthly retirement goals most of us set. OK, I buy that; it is, after all, the same promise held out by ALL religions to their followers: If you follow these teachings throughout your earthly lives, then God will reward you on the other side of death. Of course, this is a little like buying life insurance, isn't it? People never REALLY know if it pays off until it's too late to change their minds - no one gets a second chance to decide whether to follow Christ or Allah or Confucius or no one at all, if they find out in the afterlife that they followed the wrong leader.
There are some nuances in the text here that make me a little nervous - mostly related to the "we will be like Christ" part. After all, it was a desire to be "just like God" that caused Lucifer to be cast out, and Christ is after all God, but I will assume here that Mr. Warren means "like Christ" in terms of being a son of God entitled to some heavenly inheritance, and NOT in terms of deity status.
Mr. Warren finishes up with a discussion about the importance of baptism. It was mildly amusing for this life-long Baptist to note that the author carefully side-stepped the "politically" charged issue of whether baptism requires immersion - though he does mention that it symbolizes Christ's death, burial and resurrection. That was smart - taking a position there would undoubtedly have affected book sales.

Chapter 16 - What Matters Most
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "Life is all about love. Because God is love, the most important lesson He (my capitalization) wants you to learn on earth is how to love." Mr. Warren also points out on page 123 that loving unselfishly is not easy, because it runs counter to our self-centered nature. (This echoes my comments elswhere on this web page.) He then continues, asserting that God wants His children to express love more generously to fellow believers than to non-believers (p.124), and cites Galatians 6:10 as his proof text in an end note. Galatians 6:10, at least in my New American Standard version, reads: "So then, while we have an opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith." While this distinction between how we treat believers and unbelievers is there, it is a relative afterthought to the apostle Paul's primary point that we should treat others kindly. (The author is stretching here, in my view, to support a very firmly staked out position about relationships inside the local church. It shows up even more starkly in Chapter 17.) Mr. Warren drives home his point by quoting a version of John 13:35, which says: "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (I am a bit surprised that he doesn't mention I John 3:14 or I John 4:20 here, which seem to me to offer more powerful arguments.) I am sure that the premise is accurate - it is an undeniable statement in Scripture - that followers of Christ should absolutely be recognizable - even distinguishable from non-believers - by their love for others, and for each other. However, I am struck by the exceptional lack of this characteristic in churches all through my life. The church body - defined at least as the membership of the church - seems, in my experience to perfectly mirror the Pareto principle; about 20% of the members do about 80% of the work, about 20% of the members give about 80% of the tithes & offerings, and about 20% of the members overtly express love for their fellow believers through assistance in times of need. I am speculating here, but my guess is that the population of the local church is not greatly different than the population of the greater community in these respects. One difference - in the area of tithing - should be noted, and perhaps I'll have an opportunity to reflect on that in a subsequent chapter.
The author goes on to report that "Life without love is worthless" (no argument from me), "Love will last forever", (quoting Mother Teresa here was a nice touch), and that "We will be evaluated on our love". Mr. Warren says: "The third reason to make learning to love the goal of your life is that it is what we will be evaluated on in eternity. One of the ways God measures spiritual maturity is by the quality of your relationships." I suppose there is truth in this - certainly, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ was a life exemplifying love in action, and I believe it is the paramount example of selfless love in our world's history. However, the undercurrent of "you had better do this now, or you'll be in real trouble when you meet the Lord!" motivation wears a bit thin with me personally. I have seen it abused far too many times.

My favorite point in this entire section of the book (not necessarily because it is the best point, but because it resonates so deeply with me) is that "The importance of things can be measured by how much time we are willing to invest in them. The more time you give to something, the more you reveal it's importance and value to you. If you want to know a person's priorities, just look at how they use their time." Perhaps, in the spiritual context, Mr. Warren summarizes this best when he says: "Why should God give you another day if you're going to waste it?" Here, HERE! Well said, Mr. Warren! I watch some of those I care most deeply about while away almost a third of their lives in front of the television, the Play Station, or the golf course, and I want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them, saying "Wake up! Wake up! What are you accomplishing? Don't you understand? Half or more of your life is over, and you are burning minutes right now that you will NEVER GET BACK! Is this the legacy you will leave - that you watched every episode of Friends, or you shot a 79 on that course? What is the matter with you?".
The author then goes on (p. 127-8) to mention that men, in particular, don't understand the importance of focused attention to others (especially their spouses and children), and I think this is true. He says: "Many have said to me, 'I don't understand my wife and kids. I provide everything they need. What more could they want?' They want you! Your eyes, your ears, your time, your attention, your presence, your focus - your time." I'm sure that's right, too. However, in defense of the gender, let me offer up a couple of my own observations about this. The breadwinner in the family (whether male or female) almost always has to spend 40 hours per week at work, and another hour per day (or 5 hours per week on average) in a commute to/from work. In addition, there's at least a half hour of getting dressed and prepared for work each day. Now, in the case of many of us who ended up in management jobs, the typical week isn't 40 hours at all - it's more like 50. In fact, these days the economy is forcing more people to work more overtime, and more households to become multiple-wage-earner households to survive, but I won't even go there for purposes of this discussion. So if we assume that each week day has 24 hours, and 11.5 of those are spent either preparing for, traveling to/from, or performing work, that leaves 12.5 hours. Assuming 8 hours of sleep (including getting ready for bed), the remainder is 4.5 hours. Then there are meals (arguably, though in reality rarely, a family time), and time for things like running to the grocery store, the barber, Home Depot, paying the bills, reading or at least scanning the mail, dealing with the telephone calls that come in, and so on. Finally, let's assume 30 minutes each evening for a little daily devotional time. Let's see, now....1 hour for dinner and assisting with cleanup, an average of 1 hour for various errands, 30 minutes for phone calls and postal mail, and 30 minutes for devotions.....that all leaves us 1.5 hours on average for good, "QUALITY" time with those we care about. For those of us who have children that would like help with their homework, or would like to be taken to their basketball practice, or who would like us to ATTEND their sporting events or concerts, or parent/teacher conferences, or whatever, well we will always do our best to meet those needs too. However, are you beginning to see my point here? What if one of us had the incredibly selfish urge to sit down and read a book (perhaps a book like "The Purpose Driven Life" - or even MORE selfishly, we wanted to sit down and WRITE a book? Well, I suppose if God wants us to do something like that, then He will provide a way for us to do it without taking any beneficial time away from demonstrating our love to our spouses, children, fellow-believers, or fellow-men. Perhaps we could work fewer hours....perhaps assume a pastorate somewhere? A few times over the course of my career, I have been a management consultant. Most of the time, I have been in private industry - many of those years for pretty big, well-recognized companies, in a position of some responsibility. I am acutely aware of the difference between advising others on what they should do, and having to implement those changes one's self. There is a lot of "advising" in this book.

Chapter 17 - A Place to Belong
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "You are called to belong, not just to believe" (speaking here in the context of the local church). Mr. Warren points out that "Even in the perfect, sinless environment of Eden, God said, 'It is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18), referring to God's decision to provide Eve as a "helpmate" for Adam. I don't take real umbrage with the position that people are "created for community, fashioned for fellowship, and formed for a family (unless it is a literary objection to so much alliteration) - certainly that seems to be an unassailable fact of human nature. Further, God did indeed institute human marriage, and endorsed familial structures throughout the Bible. In fact, some of God's all-time favorite people (such as king David) were very big on family, having multiple wives and tons of children.
As a sidelight, I find it interesting that modern Christianity is so down on polygamy, when God said to David after he had ordered the murder of one of his soldiers so that he could take his wife Bathsheba: "I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these!" (II Samuel 12:8) Later God, telling David of his impending punishment in verse 11, says: "Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your companion, and he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight." This passage is fertile with discussion topics, like "Why would God, who 'knows no sin', 'raise up evil' as a punishment? Anyway, backing up, the point is that God has no problem with polygamy - he told David that he shouldn't have murdered to get Bathsheba - if the wives (plural) he had weren't enough, He would have given David more of them!
Back to the author's point here, though: "Following Christ includes belonging, not just believing. We are members of His (my capitalization) body - the church. He goes on to point out that being a member here means being an active participant, not merely an attender. He further asserts that the first symptom of spiritual decline is usually inconsistent attendance at worship services and other gatherings of believers. A couple of times in this chapter, I think Mr. Warren - perhaps even deliberately - confuses the meaning of the terms "Church" (the entire body of believers; past, present, and future - with the term "church" - the local gathering of believers who meet regularly to worship together. He does so on page 132, where he follows up without distinction his statements about failure to attend local worship services with "Jesus said' 'I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.', referring to a fragment of the verse Matthew 16:18. Again, if it were not ripped from context, this passage would clearly be illustrative that Christ was speaking to Peter and referring to all believers who followed the incident described in Acts 3:21. It was NOT referring to each small group of believers who gathered locally to worship together. The biblical reference here is to the 'Bride of Christ', the macro-level group of all believers. It has no weight to lend to the argument the author is making that failing to attend local worship services signals spiritual trouble, whether the position is true or not. A far better passage to use - and in fact the only passage I know of that applies in this case - is Hebrews 10:24-25, which says: "and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the manner of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more, as you see the day is drawing near." (Here an interesting question is: If "the day is drawing near" (referring we believe to the second coming or rapture of the church - the BIG church - almost 2,00 years ago), how near could it have been? I mean, "the day" had to be at least 2,000 years in the future for these folks!) Anyway, God clearly has indicated in this passage that He does indeed want the New testament believers (and I believe that includes us) to gather regularly to worship and to encourage each other, as well as to care for one another. How regularly "regularly" is, is of course open to interpretation. My personal belief is that it should be as regular as it is meaningful (not empty ritual) and effective (useful to the attendees and therefore also useful to God).

Chapter 18 - Experiencing Life Together
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "Real fellowship is so much more than showing up at services. It is experiencing life together. It includes unselfish loving, honest sharing, practical serving, sacrificial giving, sympathetic comforting, and all the other "one another" commands found in the New Testament." He goes on to point out that when it comes to fellowship, size matters; smaller is better. "You can worship in a crowd", Warren says, "but can't fellowship with one". He then goes on to elaborate on the differences between real and 'fake' fellowship, saying that: "In real fellowship people experience authenticity, In real fellowship, people experience mutuality, In real fellowship, people experience sympathy, and In real fellowship, people experience mercy. I agree on all points. I have never liked large churches for that very reason - I think there is little real worship, and even less genuine fellowship in big congregations. It is easy - and all too common - to slip in and out unnoticed and uninvolved. "But we have small group worship, too - all yo have to do is sign up!", right? Maybe, but something is still lost, in my view. The days of many small churches, where members knew all of the other members - no matter what neighborhood they lived in, or what age they were, and CARED about each other, and sought the face and the will of God together - perhaps those days have gone the way of Norman Rockwell. If so, not only has America lost its way, in my view, but so has the modern-day church. I believe the best example of the operation of a New Testament church is found in Acts 2:42-47. The more closely our current church model emulates that one, I believe, the closer the church grows to God. Yet no one - including Mr. Warren - ever advocates the true adoption of this model. It's simply not a practical model for today's society, is it? And so when we have to choose between what God has given us as the model to follow, and what is practical so that we can continue to function in this present world, we choose - well, I guess we can all fill in the blank for ourselves.

Chapter 19 - Cultivating Community
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that in order for the believer to have a healthy relationship with other believers, genuine commitment is required. His first point is that cultivating community among belivers requires honesty. He says: "You will have to care enough to lovingly speak the truth, even when you would rather gloss over a problem or ignore an issue. While it is much easier to remain silent while others around us are harming themselves or others with a sinful pattern, it is not the loving thing to do. He offers several verse fragments and verses as evidence that this is a biblical practice, and I believe it to be correct. However, the rub always comes when people make one or both of two mistakes: They either use this as a license to become self-righteous, holier-than-Thou lay preachers, prying into the lives of others where they have no business being, or they approach their counseling task not in love as Christ would have done, but with genuine obnoxiousness.
The author also notes this condition in his following points: "Cultivating community takes humility", where he notes that "Self-importance, smugness, and stubborn pride can destroy fellowship faster than anything else.", and "Cultivating community takes courtesy", where he says this: "In every church and in every small group, there is always at least one "difficult" person, usually more than one. These people may have special emotional needs, deep insecurities, irritating mannerisms, or poor social skills." Mr. Warren then continues: "God put these people in our midst for both their benefit and ours. They are an opportunity for growth and a test of fellowship: Will we love them as brothers and sisters and treat them with dignity?" (This seems logical to me, but no Biblical evidence is offered by the author that this is really the reason these people are placed in every congregation, and I know of none.)
Mr. Warren continues with: "Cultivating community takes confidentiality, where he notes that gossiping is bad, and supports that position with a rendition of Proverbs 16:28. I suppose that there are venues more prone to gossip than local churches - card games, cafeterias and break rooms at the office, perhaps, but not many in my experience. "Cultivating community takes frequency" is the author's final point in this chapter. He asserts that community (a kind of code word for local church group through this part of the book) "is built not on convenience ("we'll get together when I feel like it") but on conviction that I need it for spiritual health." An interesting sidelight here - last evening when I was driving home from work, the local radio news carried the story of a nearby Baptist Church - Vandover Baptist in Festus, Missouri, I think - has decided to offer a special "30 minutes or less" Sunday morning church service at 9AM for those too busy to attend full 1-and-a-half-hour services held at 11 AM. "St. Louisans are smart, busy people" the pastor's sound bite declared, "We want to provide them with a way to get the meat of church in and still have time to attend baseball games and do the other things that they need to do on Sunday." Fascinating, and sadly funny. Where did the entire concept of the weekend come from? Wasn't the Sabbath supposed to be primarily for worship, meditation and rest?
Anyway, returning to Mr. Warren's point, he finishes up the chapter by saying that: "it is obvious why genuine fellowship is so rare. It means giving up our self-centeredness and independence in order to become interdependent." I think that's true. Still, some of the best friendships - and the most enduring friendships - that I have had in adult life sprang from relationships built in local churches where I have attended. I think that making good friends is ALWAYS worth the effort.

Chapter 20 - Restoring Broken Fellowship
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "relationships are always worth restoring." (Personally, I don't believe that is true.) He continues by saying that "Since Christ wants His (my capitalization) family to be known for our love for each other, broken fellowship is a disgraceful testimony to unbelievers." He follows with: "If you want God's blessing on your life and you want to be known as a child of God, you must learn to be a peacemaker." He notes that "peacemaking is not avoiding conflict", and that "peacemaking is also not appeasement". Mr. Warren recommends what is mirrored in the New Testament as a remedy for discord (though oddly he never refers the reader to that passage, found in Matthew 15:15-17.) He states that most conflict is rooted in unmet needs (no biblical foundation or support offered here either), and that others are caused by prayerlessness (Here the supporting passage of scripture offered is James 4: 1-2. This passage is one where James has told a local New Testament church that they are quarrelling because they don't have something they want, and that they don't have it because they haven't asked God for it in prayer. A personal note here: I know of people who HAVE asked God earnestly and with an open heart for things that they seemed, in all objectivity, to need and deserve. Simple things, such as the sparing of the life of their terminally-ill child, or the genuine affection of their own spouse. And yet God has, in these circumstances, chosen to not answer those desperate pleas or else answer them with "no". I cannot help but wonder why. I know that the conventional answer is that there is more going on that we cannot see (or foresee), and that God is working some greater purpose in these cases. Yet I am plagued with doubt - beginning with the story of Lucifer, then Adam and Eve, then Job, then King David, and in case after case that I have observed in my own lifetime. Could an omniscient and omnipotent God not have devised a way to endow humans with the characteristics He desired, without having to put us through such heart-wrenching trials and personal loss? After all, He created Adam and Eve as physically mature adults; why not create them as spiritually mature adults as well - not having to plunge the world into sin and then rescue only a portion from the fires of Hell to acquire the family He wanted?
Returning to Mr. Warren's method for restoring believers from broken fellowship, he offers this advice to believers: Always take the initiative, sympathize with their feelings, confess your part in the conflict, attack the problem and not the person, cooperate as much as possible, and emphasize reconciliation - not resolution. On this last point, Mr. Warren says: "We can reestablish a relationship even when we are unable to resolve our differences. Christians often have legitimate, honest disagreements and differences of opinions, but we can disagree without being disagreeable." I know that it's not necessary to be disagreeable to disagree, and that we should always strive to do exactly that. However, I have a hard time with the whole concept that we should just "agree to disagree" on points, leaving them to fester or remain unresolved. Mr. Warren does not advocate this - in fact, he counsels believers to continue to try to resolve issues underlying conflict - but in practice, none of us ever really do. We never hold on to those really, really hard problems and refuse to let go until we have resolution. You know the ones I'm talking about here, or at least some of them: abortion, divorce, homosexuality, and all of the other politically charged issues. Instead, we always "agree to disagree" compromise, and fall into levels of ineffectiveness in our local churches - giving rise to ineffectiveness as a larger, global community of Christians. The underlying problem that fuels these things is that we We fail to hold ourselves or each other accountable. But far more insidious and profound is the problem that we can't even get our pastors and other Christian leaders to recognize and adhere to the biblical standards set out for us in these areas. No one wants to touch this stuff - it causes people to get huffy and leave the church. When the membership numbers in a church become more important than adhering to God's guidelines, the purpose of the church gone.
Our current political state of affairs in the United States is an imperfect mirror of this situation. The intent of this country's founding fathers has been so corrupted by human judges and inferior (to the framers of our Constitution) minds, that the entire premise of a government founded on the principles of Christianity has been twisted to protect EVERY religion, as well as the position that NO religion should be ALLOWED to be taught in public schools. The further we as Americans, and as Christians, depart from the principles upon which our governance is founded, the more diluted and powerless our lives become.

Chapter 21 - Protecting Your Church
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that: "It is your job to protect the unity of your church. Unity is the soul of fellowship. Destroy it and you rip the heart out of Christ's Body. It is the essence, the core, of how God intends for us to experience life together in His (my capitalization) church. On pages 160 and 161, the author again confuses the two churches - the "Church" that is the entire group of believers, beginning with those who believed in the New Testament book of Acts and ending with the last soul to be redeemed at the end of prophetic time described in the book of Revelation), and the church which is the local group of believers who worships together.
Mr. Warren advises us, in protecting the fellowship in the local church, to "focus on what we have in common, not our differences", noting that "it was God who chose to give us different personalities, backgrounds, races, and preferences, so we should value and enjoy those differences, not merely tolerate them. God wants unity, not uniformity." He further advises us to "be realistic in our expectations", noting that "other believers will disappoint you and let you down, but that's no excuse to stop fellowshipping with them." He says that we should "encourage, rather than criticize", and refuse to listen to gossip". He then gets around to mentioning the biblical method of church-level conflict resolution in Matthew (as I mentioned in a previous chapter review), and ends with an admonition to "support your local pastors and church leaders." Mr. Warren closes out the chapter with: "God blesses churches that are unified. At Saddleback Church, every member signs a covenant that includes a promise to protect the unity of our fellowship. As a result, the church has never had a conflict that split the fellowship. Just as important, because it is a loving, unified fellowship, a lot of people want to be a part of it! In the past seven years, the church has baptized over 9,100 new believers." This is indeed wonderful - if the conversions are genuine, the message is correct, and the guidelines of Christ are applied in the lives of those who are baptized.
I have never attended Saddleback, but my experience with large churches has been that membership swells as the meat of the message is watered down. The politically sensitive topics are avoided, the message is always upbeat, and the inclusiveness required to achieve spectacular numerical growth is strongly correlated to the willingness of the church's leaders to compromise in these areas. In this reader's opinion, unity is not the top priority; adherence and dissemination of the truth is. Certainly, I have seen no biblical evidence that those becoming members of any local church should be enjoined to sign a contract stating their support of church unity! If the pastor and church leaders speak the truth, the members of the church can either recognize and support it, or disagree. If it really is the biblical truth they are disagreeing with, they should be encouraged to explain where the Bible supports their position or stop saying things that are simply untrue. In my own experience, these disagreements most often occur over small matters that have little or no biblical standing, and shouldn't even surface; What color the church carpeting will be, what time Sunday morning worship will begin, whether hymnals or chorus sheets will be used, and so on. This is simple human nature stuff, and requires basic leadership skills on the part of church leaders to resolve. The bigger issues that truly are a matter of theology and Christian principle almost always have black-and-white biblical answers; the problem here is that none of us are willing to face up to them. That sword cuts both ways, of course; dancing really IS ok, and homosexuality really is NOT. None of us is perfect - least of all me - and compassion should be the overlayment to our treatment of one another in all of these cases, but the truth is the truth.

Chapter 22 - Created to Become Like Christ
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that all of us were created to become like Christ - not gods ourselves, but possessing the characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of the way we think and act - especially toward others - while here on Earth. He points out that like God, we are spiritual beings, intellectual beings, and relational beings - possessing a moral conscience - an internal compass that separates right from wrong. (I was gratified to see that the author did, on page 172, at least mention in passing that murder and even abortion are wrong.) Then he pushed on, saying that "God's ultimate goal for your life on Earth is not comfort, but character development. He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ." He follows that up several sentences later with: "....life is supposed to be difficult! It's what enables us to grow." This point was examined in detail in prior chapters, and I'm not sure why the author felt that going over this road again here was necessary - I will only repeat my question from before - WHY is it necessary? Why didn't God simply fast-forward to the answer in our lives, creating us in a spiritually mature state so that we did not have to suffer, and cause the suffering of others, in order to make us into what He wants us to be?
Mr. Warren continues by saying that it is the the job of the Holy Spirit to produce Christ-like character in the believer, the "most of the time the Holy Spirit's power is released in your life in quiet, unassuming ways that you aren't even aware of or can't feel. He often nudges us with a 'gentle whisper'." My question here again is: "Why?" If God has some guidance for me, I often wish he'd come out with it. It's awfully easy for us as Christians to blame "the Lord's leading" for actions we simply take on our own. I imagine most of us know people like this: "I just have to tell you this because the Lord has laid it on my heart...." and then they lower the boom on us. It is as though these folks feel that the Lord has a special relationship with them, and has sent them like Jonah to warn the rest of us sinners about our conduct. At least for myself, I feel like if the Lord wants to tell me something, I'll do my best to listen - to HIM; I often wish He would just talk to me. I know that as a single human being, I am pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. Yet, God chose to send His only Son to be a sacrifice for me on Calvary; does it seem so unreasonable that God could just drop in to say hello in person once in a while? Sending along an outsider is a pretty ineffective approach for me, though it seems to have worked (eventually) in the case of Jonah. In the Bible, God spoke directly to people most often in the Old Testament - it seems that the Bible and the - practically undiscernable - urging of the Holy Spirit are the methods du jour for more recent centuries.
Finally, the author says that "We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit's work. The Holy Spririt releases His power the moment you take a step of faith. God waits for you to act first. Don't wait to feel powerful or confident. Move ahead in your weakness, doing the right thing in spite of your fears and feelings. This is how you cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and how your character develops." (pp.174-175) He points to the example of Joshua and the priests who carried the arc stepping into the rushing Jordan River (book of Joshua) before the flood waters receded and they were able to cross as an example. I think it is equally illustrative, though, that God simply had Moses hold out his staff over the Red Sea and the entire sea rolled back Exodus 14:21-22), leaving dry land for the fleeing Israelites to cross - but of course that illustration doesn't support Mr. Warren's case. It could certainly be argued - and often is argued, in fact, that even if God spoke directly to us and performed the kind of dramatic miracles that are recorded in the Old Testament, the skeptics among us would still be just as skeptical. It certainly appears that the children of Israel backslid and complained a lot in those days - even resorting to producing a golden calf to worship while Moses was communing with God on a nearby mountaintop. But I'm not sure that this washes as a reason for the lack of God's presence that many Christians feel today - and especially over the last several hundred years. It's too easy to simply say "Well, we have the Bible today - we don't need miracles and direct sensory contact; we should just believe, and rely upon that faith to sustain us." Why do I feel so strongly about this point? Because to me this would be like saying to my children, "Look kids, I'm going to be really busy doing other things with other people for the rest of your earthly lives, and so I won't be speaking directly with you or see you face-to-face ever again until we reach Heaven. But in the mean time, just have faith that I'll be with you in spirit, and take this book that I have written for you - It is filled with great advice, and lots of stories about how some of your ancestors handled difficult situations in their own lives." Would my kids really think that I loved them just as much? Of course, one might argue that I couldn't make this work because no humanly authored book of advice and guidelines for living could ever equal the living Word, and this is certainly true. Further, one could argue that I could never be "with" my children "in spirit" the way the Holy Spirit indwells the heart of the Believer, and that is true as well. However, God really IS omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. He really COULD be with, talk to, and guide each of us physically and all of the time if He chose to, and wouldn't HAVE to expose us to the sin and resulting pain in this world to bring us to spiritual maturity without the benefit of His physical presence and comfort, so why DOES He? I'm pretty confident that none of us knows the answer to these questions, and I'm OK with that. What really bothers me is that so many folks seem to want us to believe that THEY have these answers, and want to advise us on how to just "step out on faith", knowing full well that a fair amount of the time, we're going to fall on our faces. On page 176, Mr. Warren says: "God uses people. He usually prefers to work through people rather than perform miracles, so that we depend on each other for fellowship." Based on Mr. Warren's reasoning here, I guess God must not have been as interested in character development and fellowship among His children in Old Testament days.
At the end of the chapter, the author says: "Much confusion in the Christian life comes from ignoring the simple truth that God is more interested in building your character than He (my capitalization) is anything else. We worry when God seems silent on specific issues such as 'What career should I choose?' The truth is there are many different careers that could be in God's will for your life. What God cares about most is that whatever you do, you do it in a Christ-like manner." Personally, I am a bit offended by this statement. While I realize that God is most concerned about my willingness to be used for His own purposes, I think it's extremely presumptuous for Mr. Warren to say that 'there are many different careers that could be in God's will for your life', because it demeans the fact that so much of our lives are spent in the pursuit of a career. Furthermore, I think the statement is patently false! While it is true, in my view, that God can and does use people not perfectly attuned to His will, God certainly DOES have a perfect will for each of our lives, and a specific place He wants us to be, and specific things that He wants us to be doing all of the time. To say that one career choice versus another is of little significance to God is to say that God doesn't really care what activity we are engaged in for about a third of our time spent on Earth. It is ludicrous. If God remains silent on a decision as important as a career choice, there is another explanation. One such explanation is that God has REALLY only set out a limited number of careers for true believers, and they are listed in Ephesians 4:7-16. God clearly states that our primary mission as believers is to go out into the world and bring others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and in this passage of Ephesians, the apostle Paul makes it clear that spiritual gifts are given to equip the saints (not just a few of the saints) for that purpose - to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Perhaps everything else is a digression from God's will for our lives. I see no biblical evidence that God ever provided the "gift" of automobile assembly, life insurance sales, or cashier - nor do I see any biblical evidence that, once saved, Jesus instructed anybody to go off and do any of those things. But that's not practical, right? I mean, if we were all preachers, teachers, evangelists, and so on - who would perform all of the manufacturing, sales and so on? Well, here's a news flash: If every Christian were committed enough to truly follow in the footsteps of Jesus in one of the vocations listed above, the world would be SO different that it probably wouldn't matter. The problem isn't practicality; the problem is a fundamental unwillingness on the part of believers (including me) to sincerely follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Yes, we all have to eat - but as God demonstrated in both the Old Testament (Exodus 16:4) and New Testament (Matthew 14:17-21), that is NOT a problem for God.

Chapter 23 - How We Grow
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "your heavenly Father's goal for you is to mature and develop the characteristics of Jesus Christ." He continues by pointing out that: "Spiritual growth is not automatic. It takes an intentional commitment. You must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing. Discipleship - the process of becoming like Christ - always begins with a decision." As his proof text, Mr. Warren offers up a rendition of Matthew 9:9, which in my New American Standard version says: "As Jesus passed from there, He saw a man, called Matthew, sitting in front of the tax office; and He said to him, 'Follow Me!' And he arose, and followed Him." This is of interest to me for several reasons, one of which is the point I discussed in the prior chapter review. Matthew was a tax collector for Capernaum for the Roman government, and although he was - as such - no doubt disliked by his Jewish countrymen, his position was not insignificant. Yet Jesus never said to Matthew, "Go about your business of being a tax collector, but do it in a manner that brings glory to God." No, Jesus said (paraphrasing): "Get up, leave that tax collecting position, and follow Me - don't look back!". Similarly, Matthew 4:18-25 recounts the exchanges between Jesus and His first disciples - Peter, James, and John - all of whom he told to leave their fishing nets and boats, which was how they made their living, and follow Him. All of them did so immediately. Jesus further decried the pursuit of wealth in Matthew 6:19-34. As to the common objection: "If I gave up my occupation and took one of those God lays out in Ephesians 4:7-16, how would I feed myself and my family? Surely, God would not want me to be so irresponsible as to fail to care for my family!" I cannot respond to this question, but Jesus can - and He did respond to it in Matthew 6:25-33. The problem is that almost none of us - and I include myself here - are willing to demonstrate that level of trust. We continue to straddle the line of trying to serve both God (by living a "good" life, attending church, and even serving as asked or where we see a need there) and man - or ourselves / our families (by continuing to spend FAR MORE of our life in the pursuit of food, shelter, clothing, cars, dvd players, and golf clubs.) I don't know who we think we're kidding, but based on the passages of scripture found in Matthew 6:24-25 and Matthew 8:19-22 and Matthew 19:28-29 as well as several others, I KNOW we're not kidding God. True discipleship involves following Christ - not only in attitude but in actions that mean leaving the pursuit of earth-based life things behind. Few have made that level of sacrifice, and shown that level of trust in Jesus Christ. I am not among that very small group, and frankly, I don't think I know hardly anyone who is. I know a lot of truly teriffic people, I know a lot of people that I would call believers, and even more who would call THEMSELVES believers. However, I know almost no one who meets Jesus' criteria (as it is described by Him in these passages) as a true disciple.
Mr. Warren continues by saying that "It is at this point of commitment that most people miss God's purpose for their lives. Many are afraid to commit to anything and just drift through life. Others make half-hearted commitments to competing values, which leads to frustrations and mediocrity." I believe that describes about 95% of us who are believers - we continue to be "committed" to an earthly career, and "committed" to serving God - but we never commit to wholeheartedly following in the footsteps of Christ.
At this point, between pages 180 and 183, the author reverts to repeating the fact that more mature Christians focus more on others, while less mature believers tend to focus more on themselves and their own needs. He frames it in other - more psycho-babblish - terms such as "changing your autopilot", but it is basically repetition. The chapter could probably best be summarized by saying "Repent of your self-centered thoughts and deeds, and focus on the needs of others by thinking the way Jesus Christ thinks."

Chapter 24 - Transformed By Truth
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to make us like the Son of God. To be like Jesus, we must fill our lives with His (my capitalization) Word." He continues by pointing out that abiding in God's Word day by day involves 3 things: Accepting the authority of the Bible, Assimilating the truths in the Bible, and Applying the truth of the Bible (another shameless application of aliteration). He amplifies on the assimilation point by pointing out that we must persoanlly read the Bible, research/study it, and that we should also memorize as much of it as we can. I have no arguement; I think this is great advice. Personally I find the New American Standard is my favorite translation, and that the "Open Bible" version is exceptionally usefull in the study and appropriate application of Bible passages in terms of keeping things in context. It also shores up a personal weakness of mine in remembering the exact references of the passages that I have memorized.
One of the things that struck me particularly about this chapter is a small portion of page 190, which says: "One of the reasons God called David 'a man after My (my capitalization) own heart' (a reference to Actsw 13:22) is that David loved to reflect on God's Word. He said, 'How I love your teachings! I think about them all day long!'." (referring to Psalm 119:97). The extraordinary highs and lows in the life of David are breathtaking. His ability to please God was almost unparalleled, and yet there were times in his life that were filled with the darkest forms of sin. David, even after He knew the Lord, was guilty of adultry and murder that we know of. He did later repent of those sins, at least, and God eventually used his union with Bathsheba to continue the royal line that ultimately brought the Lord Jesus Christ into the world in human form. This is a drama befitting the Soap Network on cable. I think the life of David reflects just about the full spectrum of humanity. It ranges from a life so atuned to God's perfect will that it virtually sang out in heaven, to a life so debased that entire countries suffered, and many people lost their lives. What higher honor could any of us ever attain than to have God say: "This is a person after My own heart?", and yet who among us would want to confess to the sins of David?
Finally, the author reports that most people struggle with applying what they learn from God's Word in their daily lives for 2 reasons: Satan tries to keep them from doing it, and it's a painful thing to do. To quote Mr. Warren, "The truth will set you free, but first it may make you miserable!"

Chapter 25 - Transformed By Trouble
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "God has a purpose behind every problem. He uses circumstances to develop our character." This entire chapter of Mr. Warren's book amplifies what he has stated repeatedly throughout the first 24 chapters: That God uses difficulties in our lives to build our character, test our faith, and make us stronger. As with every other time Mr. Warren has made this point, I find myself wondering why God chooses to do this when He could as easily have simply built spiritually mature disciples. The author lists a number of examples from the Bible of great spiritual leaders whom God tested by allowing difficulties to beset them including Joseph, Daniel, and Paul. I realize these men are presented as examples for us as believers to emulate. They certainly are that - examples of men whose faith was so extraordinary that God could use them to do magnificent things. People who left everything behind them - their homes, their families, and their possessions - and followed God's leading. Beyond being thrown into prison and lion's dens and being beaten, most of the New Testament examples of these men - including the Apostle Paul - were executed.
By way of illustration that God "never promised us a rose garden" here on Earth, Mr. Warren dissects the text of Romans 8:28-29 which, in my New American Standard version of the Bible, reads: "And we kn ow that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." Just for purposes of completeness of scriptural thought, I'd like to add verse 30 - the final verse in this chapter: "and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom he justified, these he also glorified." Of course this portion of the Bible, like so much of the New Testament, was written by the Apostle Paul. Mr. Warren goes to great lengths to ensure that the reader understands that individual events in the life of a believer may NOT be good things, but that when all of the events are considered in context, that they "work together for good". He also notes that this passage is written to believers, who are the ones "called' by God, and describes those believers who are "called according to His (my capitalization) purpose", which Mr. Warren explains to mean those who are called to "become like His Son (my capitalizations)". In concluding the chapter, the author says that believers should respond to problems in their lives as Jesus would, by remembering that God's plan is good, rejoicing and giving thanks, and by refusing to give up. I think that's reasonable advice.
On page 197, Mr. Warren asks this question: "Why would God exempt us from what He (my capitalization) allowed His (my capitalization) own Son to experience?" The answer to Mr. Warren's question is this: Because we are not the already-perfect, already holy Son of God; only Jesus Christ meets that standard. He refers to Hebrews 5:8-9 as his proof text, which says (in my New American Standard version: "Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation." (Personally, I think he might better have pointed to Hebrews 2:10, which says: "For it was fitting for Him, for Whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.") But the point is this: Mr. Warren's implication here is that the Jesus Christ was less-than-perfect until He endured the suffering of the temptations and pains of His earthly life. IF that is true, then Jesus could not have had the characteristic of sinlessness (perfection) when He was born of Mary, and the entire picture of a sinless Jesus is lost forever. I don't believe that perspective is accurate. I believe that Jesus Christ was sinless on the day He was born to Mary, and remained sinless throughout His earthly life and His death on the cross. For that reason, I think that the choice of the term "learned" in Hebrews 5:8 is an unfortunate choice on the part of the translator of scripture. It implies that Jesus Christ, who was - as God - omniscient (all-knowing), had to "learn" to be obedient. This simply doesn't square. I believe that this passage simply means that in order for Jesus Christ to be the perfect sacrifice for mankind, He had to endure the same temptations and trials that all men face in their day-to-day lives. Otherwise, people would have been able to say: Well, of course Jesus was sinless - if I didn't have to face all these problems every day, I could go without sinning too!". It wouldn't be true, of course, and frankly since people are born with a sinful nature, it's all irrelevant. But to assert that Jesus had to endure trials and tribulations in order to strengthen His character is to assert that Jesus Christ was deficient in some way; I reject that notion outright. It was God's plan for Jesus to suffer, and that was clear even a thousand years earlier when Isaiah chapter 53 was written. The "why" is still an unanswered question, no matter what explanations are offered up by the "experts".
Just as a side note, I want to mention a close friend, Kenny (last name ommitted) here. Ken's love for God is legendary among my family, and many of our friends. After leaving the service, and a short stint working for the US Government in a civilian capacity, Ken attended and graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary. I had the privilege of attending Ken's ordination many years ago, where he was questioned and examined by the most scholarly pastors and leaders of the denomination of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. Ken's "life Verse" was Romans 8:28, and he used to claim that verse whenever anything untoward would happen in his life. Ken married the eldest daughter of one of the pillars of our local church, and had two boys. Ken was always a genuine pleasure for me to be around; he loved life, he loved God, and he was one of the most intellectually gifted - and intellectually honest men I have ever known. I used to call Ken up when I had a particularly perplexing Bible-related question, and he would tell me what the original Greek or Hebrew text actually said, and what he knew about the passage. About 15 years ago, Ken suddenly contracted a serious illness and died quite unexpectedly. Since that time, his wife and children have left God behind in their lives. His wife remarried and has almost nothing to do with spiritual things, and his two children have gotten into all kinds of trouble. This has broken the hearts of the rest of their family, and deeply saddened the rest of us who love them. I know that the Lord knows what He is doing; but on the surface, this seems like a cruel and ironic twist in the life of a family whose leader was so focused on Romans 8:28 as a life verse.

Chapter 26 - Growing Through Temptation
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "Every temptation is an opportunity to do good." He continues with: "God develops the fruit of the Spirit in your life by allowing you to experience circumstances in which you're tempted to express the exact opposite quality! Character development involves a choice, and temptation provides that opportunity."
Mr. Warren then offers up an analysis of the four stages of temptation: Step one involves Satan identifying a desire within the heart of a believer. He points out that the desire is already there - it doesn't come from outside. Step two involves Satan sowing doubt in the heart of the believer about whether the act is truly sinful at all. Step three involves deception - the process of Satan lying to believers, convincing them that their sin will remain undisclosed, and will harm no one. Step four is the actual act of disobedience by the believer.
In terms of overcoming temptations, the author offers these guidelines: First, refuse to be intimidated (ashamed simply because you are being tempted). Second, recognize your personal pattern of sin so that future temptations can be avoided (notice where, when, and under what circumstances - as well as in whose company - you are most prone to temptation, and try to avoid those places, circumstances and people in the future). Thirdly, ask for God's help - praying for His deliverance when temptation does indeed beset you. A pretty good chapter, I think; pretty common-sense advice.

Chapter 27 - Defeating Temptation
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "There is always a way out. God has promised never to allow more on you than He (my capitalization) puts within you to handle it. He will not permit any temptation that you could not overcome." I really struggle with this, but I do agree with Mr. Warren that it is indeed a bedrock principle of the Bible, and like several other points, I'll just have to "get over it".
The author then follows up with what I thought were pretty interesting - and at times insightful - observations about getting around temptation. First, he notes that the Bible never once says "Resist temptation", only "Resist the Devil". I didn't realize that! His point is that focusing on NOT doing something is contrary to human nature - like a dieter focusing on NOT eating - and rarely works over the long haul. Instead, Mr. Warren recommends a strategy of focusing one's attention elsewhere, using Philippians 4:8 as a primary proof text. He also suggests revealing personal struggles to a godly friend or support group who will hold you accountable, saying that: "Some temptations are only overcome with the help of a friend who prays for you, encourages you, and holds you accountable." He continues (after another brief commercial for Saddleback Church) by saying that we should resist the Devil (through salvation and spending time in and memorizing God's Word), and realize our vulnerability. In realizing our vulnerability, Mr. Warren recommends that believers avoid carelessly placing ourselves in tempting situations. Again, pretty good advice - solid references, and pretty practical in my view.

Chapter 28 -It Takes Time
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "There are no shortcuts to maturity. The development of Christ-like character cannot be rushed. Spiritual growth, like physical growth, takes time." He points out in retrospect that the journey of the believer requires believing, belonging, and becoming. (The alliteration temptation is apparently just too strong for Mr. Warren to resist!) I do think he errs here (on page 219) by saying that believing is a function of worship. It is not; believing is an event that occurs when God uses the Holy Spirit to convict a person of the sin in his/her life, and causes them to recognize the need for God to intervene to prevent their inevitable destruction. It cannot involve worship, since worship can only truly exist when someone has already become a believer by accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in payment for their sins.
In this chapter (page 219), the author finally recognizes - or at least he finally states - what I have been saying all along: "Although God could instantly transform us, He (my capitalization) has chosen to develop us slowly." I completely agree, and do not understand why. Mr. Warren goes on to present several reasons why he believes that to be true, and none of them hold water (in my view). They include: "We are slow learners", "We have a lot to unlearn", "We are afraid to humbly face the truth about ourselves", "Growth is often painful and scary", and "Habits take time to develop". All of these things are true, and they are all irrelevant. God is omnipotent - He could easily overcome all of these things, and has chosen not to do so. He is not limited by our slow learning speed, fear, or stubbornness. He is GOD. There is something else at work here; something that none of us can see at this point, including Mr. Warren. It doesn't bother me nearly so much that this is true as it does that people like Mr. Warren try to convince us that they know WHY it is true. They don't, and this is a classic example.
The author then closes with some advice, including "Believe God is working in your life even when you don't feel it.", "Be patient with yourself and with God", and "don't get discouraged". These seem like pretty practical recommendations to me - particularly in light of the fact that we only have two choices in these situations - continue to believe that God is allowing all of this stuff in our lives for a greater purpose, or stop believing in God. The most interesting recommendation, in my view, is this one: "Keep a notebook or journal of lessons learned". Behold, my web site! I am unlikely to bear my deepest and darkest shortcomings in such a public forum, but I believe it's clear from this web page, that self-examination is not a new concept for me when it comes to spiritual things. I think the journal idea is a good one!

Chapter 29 - Accepting Your Assignment
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "You were put on Earth to make a contribution. You weren't just created to consume resources - to eat, breathe, and take up space. God designed you to make a difference with your life. You were created to add to life on Earth, not just take from it. God wants you to give something back. This is God's fourth purpose for your life, and it is called your 'ministry', or service." Personally, I wouldn't call this God's fourth purpose for our lives; In my mind, if this single purpose were realized, all of the other purposes would be realized as well.
The author continues by pointing out that "You were created to serve God", and then indicates that this is one of the reasons that all believers should be connected to a local church family - to fulfill their individual calling to serve other believers in practical ways. Then he continues with what I believe is the heart of the entire book in terms of God's real purpose for the lives of the believers still here on Earth: "You are commanded to serve God." Then he quotes an inferior translation of Matthew 20:28, which in my New American Standard says: "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." He continues: "For Christians, service is not optional, something to be tacked onto our schedules if we can spare the time. It is the heart of the Christian life. Jesus came to 'serve' and to 'give' - and those two verbs should define your life on Earth, too. Serving and giving sum up God's fourth purpose for your life."
On page 232, Mr. Warren continues by saying: "One day, God will compare how much time and energy we spent on ourselves and what we invested in serving others. At that point, all our excuses for self-centeredness will sound pretty hollow: 'I was too busy' or 'I had my own goals' or 'I was preoccupied with working, having fun, or preparing for retirement'. To all those excuses God will respond, 'Sorry, wrong answer. I created , saved, and called you and commanded you to live a life of service. What part did you not understand?'" He follows this up with a reference to several New Testament passages where Jesus Christ is quoted as saying: Whoever wants to follow Me needs to deny himself, leave his/her old life behind, "take up his cross", and follow Me". These passages include Mark 8:35, Matthew 10:39, Matthew 16:25, Luke 9:24, and Luke 17:33. In my mind, this is a very compelling case. God chooses to repeat this again and again and again throughout the New Testament; If you want to follow Jesus, leave behind your former life - not just your sin, but the things that formerly occupied your time and your priorities, and follow Him. I believe that the author stops short of the bulls-eye here, because he never closes on the heart of the matter; there is a direct correlation between the level of willingness to serve God and the priority of service in the life of the Christian. That means - and here is the hard part - that all of us who spend our lives working in non-Christ-focused careers, are guilty of having an OCCUPATION - rather than a MINISTRY. Only those whose ministry has become the central OCCUPATION of their time can possibly be very close to the target of truly following Christ. The rest of us fall woefully short.
Mr. Warren closes out his chapter with this: "If you're not involved in any service or ministry, what excuse have you been using? Abraham was old, Jacob was insecure, Leah was unattractive, Joseph was abused, Moses stuttered, Gideon was poor, Samson was codependent, Rahab was immoral, David had an affair and all kinds of family problems, Elijah was suicidal, Jeremiah was depressed, Jonah was reluctant, Naomi was a widow, John the Baptist was eccentric to say the least, Peter was impulsive and hot-tempered, Martha worried a lot, the Samaritan woman had several failed marriages, Zacchaeus was unpopular, Thomas had doubts, Paul had poor health, and Timothy was timid. This is quite a variety of misfits, but God used each of them in His (my capitalization) service. He will use you, too, if you stop making excuses."

Chapter 30 - Shaped for Serving God
The primary assertion of the author in this chapter is that "God formed every creature on this planet with a special area of expertise. Before God created you, He (my capitalization) decided what role He (my capitalization) wanted you to play on Earth. You are the way you are because you were made for a specific ministry.' He continues: "Not only did God shape you before birth, He (may capitalization) planned every day of your life to support his shaping process." (Mr. Warren refers to Psalm 139:16 to support his assertion here.)
At this point (beginning on page 236), the author unveils a lttle mnemonic devic to spell out SHAPE - Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experience. On the topic of spiritual gifts, Mr. Warren points out that they are distributed by the Holy Spirit, that each believer has been given a unique combination of gifts, and that they are given to us as a tool set to be used for glorifying God in our earthly ministries. He also points out that jealousy over gifts and a lack of understanding about fellow-believers' lack of enthusiasm about another believer's specific gifts are common problem areas in the modern local church. On the subject of the heart, the author says "The Bible uses the term heart to describe the bundle of desires, hopes, interests, ambitions, dreams, and affections you have. Your heart represents the source of all your motivations - what you love and do and what you care about most." He continues: "You heart reveals the real you - what you truly are, not what others think you are or what circumstances force you to be. Another word for heart is passion." He summarizes the topic by pointing out the two characteristics of "heart": "How do you know when you are serving God from your heart? The first telltale sign is enthusiasm. The second characteristic of serving God from your heart is effectiveness.

Chapter 31 - Understanding Your Shape
In this chapter, the author continues his description of the elements of spiritual "SHAPE", covering Abilities, Personality, and Experience. On abilities, the author says: "Your abilities are the natural talents you were born with", "All our abilities come from God", "Every ability can be used for God's glory", and "What I am able to do, God wants me to do". For the most part, I am in agreement. I do disagree in part with the outcome of the logic chain from his statements on page 243 regarding "wealth building" as an ability, but I will reserve comment on that - I believe it is coming up later, in Chapter 34.
On the topic of personality, the author reveals some formal education, I think, in the social sciences. He refers to "thinkers" and "feelers" (two elements of a very popular secular personality assessment tool known as the Meyers-Briggs Test), and to "sanguine" and "choleric" personality types (two of the personality types defined by popular philosopher Immanuel Kant a few hundred years ago). Mr. Warren goes to some lengths here to make the point that "God uses all types of personalities"., and says that: "There is no 'right' and 'wrong' temperament for ministry. We need all kinds of personalities to balance the church and give it flavor. Your personality will affect how and where you use your spiritual gifts and abilities."
On the topic of experiences, Mr. Warren says: "You have been shaped by your experiences in life, most of which are beyond your control. God allowed them for His (my capitalization) purpose of molding you.", and refers to Romans 8:28-29 - a marginally applicable passage for this point, in my view. Among the types of experiences listed are: family, educational, vocational, spiritual, ministry, and painful experiences - a real mish-mash combination of nouns and adjectives that lack cohesiveness, it seems to me. He amplifies most on the "painful experiences" part, noting that no one can comfort someone as effectively as someone else who has been through a similar experience. I have seen this work, and fail, in my own experience - sometimes those who have had the same life experience did not experience the same physical or emotional symptoms, and they tend to emphasize or focus on the wrong areas. God is the one who provides the best comfort, and the form He chooses to deliver that comfort is often surprising. None the less, although it is not always true, Mr. Warren's point is logical.

Chapter 32 - Using What God Gave You
In this chapter, the author focuses on the principle that God expects us to use the unique combination of skills, abilities, experiences and so on that comprises each of us to serve Him. To Quote Mr. Warren: "He shaped you for a purpose, and he (my capitalization) expects you to make the most of what you have been given." How does one do that? The author offers the following instructions: "Examine your experiences, and extract the lessons you have learned.", "Accept and enjoy your SHAPE", and "Keep developing your SHAPE". I think it's all good advice, and was especially pleased with Mr. Warren's observation that truly understanding one's own SHAPE takes time, and his suggestion that each believer "take an entire weekend for a life review retreat, where you pause to see how God has worked in the various defining moments of your life and consider how He (my capitalization) wants to use those lessons to help others."
I did find a couple of points in this chapter to be a bit problematic. One of them is on page 252, where the author says "Since God knows what's best for you, you should gratefully accept the way He (my capitalization) fashioned you. The Bible says: "Why cross-examine God? The pot has no right to say to the potter: 'Why did you make me this shape?' Surely a potter can do what he likes with the clay! This is a poor rendition of Romans 9:20-21, but it serves to support the author's point, which is that we have no right to question what God does in terms of forming us. However, it is diametrically opposed to what the author said in chapter 12: "In the Bible, the friends of God were honest about their feelings, often complaining, second-guessing, accusing, and arguing with their Creator. God, however, didn't seem to be bothered by this frankness; in fact, He (my capitalization) encouraged it." Mr. Warren seems to want to have it both ways - God ENCOURAGES us to second-guess Him (chapter 12), and God tells us that we HAVE NO RIGHT to second-guess Him (chapter 32). The second area that is problematic is Mr. Warren's statement at the top of page 253: "Part of accepting your SHAPE is recognizing your limitations. Nobody is good at everything, and no is called to be everything." He continues: "Your shape determines your specialty. When we try to overextend our ministry, reach beyond what God shaped us for, we experience stress.", and finally: "God wants you to enjoy the SHAPE He (my capitalization) has given you." This is, again, just about diametrically opposed to what the author says in Chapter 29: "Abraham was old, Jacob was insecure, Leah was unattractive, Joseph was abused, Moses stuttered, Gideon was poor, Samson was codependent, Rahab was immoral, David had an affair and all kinds of family problems, Elijah was suicidal, Jeremiah was depressed, Jonah was reluctant, Naomi was a widow, John the Baptist was eccentric to say the least, Peter was impulsive and hot-tempered, Martha worried a lot, the Samaritan woman had several failed marriages, Zacchaeus was unpopular, Thomas had doubts, Paul had poor health, and Timothy was timid. This is quite a variety of misfits, but God used each of them in His (my capitalization) service. He will use you, too, if you stop making excuses." In these cases, surely the folks involved, had they only paid attention to their spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personalities and experience (SHAPEs), would never have undertaken what they did. And yet, when God called them to do something very contrary to their SHAPE, they did it, and were successful enough for God to use them as examples to the rest of us over this last 2,000 years.
I do think that Mr. Warren's advice to consider practically what God has endowed each of us with an ability to do is good advice for a model of life that involves half-hearted or at least only part-time service (our current model of Christianity). But if believers ever REALLY turned their lives over to God, and decided to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, we would find that God would take us well outside our comfort zones and our SHAPES, just as He did with all of the saints mentioned above. Your SHAPE is only important when you exist in a life model where you have a primary occupation, and Christian service is a secondary matter. When we say to ourselves: "I am serving God by running this cash register", we are - for the most part - kidding ourselves. I know from my own experiences and observations that God does indeed use people at times no matter where they are, and what they are doing. But to be occasionally used by God in spite of the fact that you have a full time occupation is NOT the same thing as serving God by following in the footsteps of Jesus and His disciples. I don't believe that God called anyone to sell life insurance or build refrigerators. He called believers to serve Him, leaving their "normal" lives behind. In fact, Jesus Christ made this EXTREMELY CLEAR in Luke 14:25-35. He does use us, sometimes, and certainly still loves us, even though we have not succomed to His will and have chosen instead to follow a path of our own, and give Him only a portion of our waking hours. I believe that there is a direct relationship - a better than 1-to-1 correlation - between the percent of one's life given over to serving God, and the amount of blessing that floods into, through, and out of that person's life. More than 90% of us give God our full attention and service less than 5% of the time. As the young people of today are so fond of saying: "You do the math."

Chapter 33 - How Real Servants Act
In this chapter, the author focuses on the service-oriented nature of Christianity, saying: "We serve God by serving others." God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you. The disciples argued about who deserved the most prominent position, and 2,000 years later, Christian leaders still jockey for position and prominence in churches, denominations, and parachurch ministries." He continues with: "God often tests our hearts by asking us to serve in ways we're not shaped. Your primary ministry should be in the area of your shape, but your secondary service is wherever you're needed at the moment. This is, as I pointed out in the last chapter discussion, completely untrue if the believer is completely given over to following Jesus as a disciple. It would not have worked for Joseph, Noah, Moses, David, or the Apostle Paul. However, in the current model of Christianity - the model which Mr. Warren is supporting here - it works just fine.
Amplifying on the characteristics of Christian servants (in the current model), the author says that "Real servants make themselves available to serve." Curiously, he follows this up with "Servants don't fill up their time with other pursuits that could limit their availability." This is more than a little schizophrenic, until one realizes that Mr. Warren's assertion in earlier chapters is that practically everything we do is "Christian service" when we do it "as unto the Lord". It's baloney, but it's consistent, and most people are following it because it's a LOT more comfortable than following Jesus (Luke 18:18-27, Luke 14:26-35). Unfortunately, when Jesus describes us (He is talking about you and me here, in that we did NOT give up everything in our secular lives and follow Him), He says this: "And why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord" ad do not what I say? Everyone who comes to Me, and hears My words, and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when the flood rose the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who has heard, and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house upon the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great." (Luke 6:46-49 - my good old New American Standard version). God doesn't want any of His believers to be less than followers - managers, salespeople, or whatever first and Christian workers second or third. He wants us to drop our secular possessions and positions and FOLLOW HIM. But since more than 95% of us refuse to do that, the kind of advice offered by Mr. Warren in this book is quite practical. It is a manual on how to serve God a little better, while we are largely out of His will.
Mr. Warren continues with: "Real servants pay attention to needs", "Real servants do their best with what they have", Real servants do every task with equal dedication", "Real servants are faithful to their ministry", and "Real servants maintain a low profile". As i read this description of "real servants", I am struck by the fact that these are characteristics of my nephew, Kevin Duncan. Kevin is in his mid-20's now, and since graduating from college, has spent his life serving others - several years in the Peace Corps, and some working as a lay pastor in wilderness areas of national parks, etc. Kevin never tries to gather any attention to himself - just goes around serving others. He works hard, and owns almost nothing. He has taught HIV prevention in some of the most desolate and inhospitable regions of the world, English as a second language in countries where he has had to learn their language himself first, and had some incredible adventures. Most importantly, he left his family and home and everything else of comfort behind, and went off to do whatever God wanted him to do. I don't hold Kevin up as an example for others to follow - I'm sure he wouldn't want that, any more than Mother Teresa does. Perhaps one day, Kevin will decide that he wants a family and home of his own, and he'll settle down somewhere here in the US again and do that. I just point him out as an example of someone who has demonstrated that it really is possible - even in this present world - to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in serving others - leaving the model that the rest of us use (I'm a computer programmer, but I serve God while I'm building these accounting applications) behind and adopting the model that Jesus laid out for us "One thing you lack; sell all that you possess, and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." (Luke 18:22) The only problem is that 95% of us who are believers lack the faith and obedience to do what Jesus has commanded us to do.

Chapter 34 - Thinking Like a Servant
In this chapter, the author asserts that "Service starts in your mind. God is always more interested in why we do something than in what we do. Attitudes count more than achievements." He continues by making these points: "Servants think more about others than about themselves", "Servants think like stewards, not owners", "Servants think about their work, not what others are doing", "Servants base their identity in Christ", and "servants think of ministry as an opportunity, not an obligation".
Mr. Warren makes several interesting observations in this chapter. One of them is this: "We can measure our servant's heart by how we respond when others treat us like servants. How do you react when you're taken for granted, bossed around, or treated as inferior?" Now, for me this struck a nerve - it REALLY ticks me off when this happens to me. However, I'd like to share an example I observed in an airport recently. At the gate, we were all ready to board. You are probably familiar with the drill: The first group to board is always the first class passengers (unless you're flying Southwest, or another aircraft that is too small to have a first class section). So I was standing with the rest of the group waiting to board after they had called for first class passengers, and there was no particular line - people just stand wherever they want, which always makes it pretty difficult to tell who is going where and in what order. Anyway, on my left was a cleric of some denomination or other (White reversed collar, black over-shirt and slacks). Up from behind him comes a brusque, nicely dressed young business man and says to the gray-haired cleric, "Excuse me, please? I'm trying to board now" or something to that affect." The cleric, completely unruffled and with what seemed to me to be a genuine smile, stepped back immediately and allowed the man to take his spot (he couldn't get any further for other people blocking his way). "Are you in first class?" the cleric asked the young business man. By way of response, the traveler just turned his boarding pass over in his hand, still gripping his carry-on (REAL business travelers always carry everything, you know.). It was clearly marked: "First Class". The cleric, a picture of gentleness and humility, said: "Oh well here, let me help you." and reached up to straighten the young man's tie. The young man was, I think, suitably embarrassed, but his actions did not appear to reflect it - at least immediately. On he went, to assume his "proper" station in the first class cabin. By adopting a true servant's heart, the cleric communicated a message from God to this young man (and caused me to notice it so that I could report it to you here, I guess) without being at all condescending or superior in his attitude.
Another of Mr. Warren's assertions is that: "To become a real servant you are going to have to settle the issue of money in your life, and refers to Luke 16:13, where Jesus said: "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (New American Standard version.) He continues: "Living for ministry and living for money are mutually exclusive goals. Which one will you choose? If you're a servant of God, you can't moonlight for yourself. All your time belongs to God. He insists on exclusive allegiance, not part-time faithfulness. Money has the greatest potential to replace God in your life." Now on all of these points, I am in agreement. The problem, in my view, is that Mr. Warren then immediately reverts back to the modern-day model of Christianity, assuming that Christians will, for the most part, have secular occupations first, and serve God with only a portion of the yield from those occupations / vocations. While he avoids the entire "tithe" concept (this is a tough concept or a lot of "modern model" Christians, and hard to support in the New Testament) which, like the topics of divorce and homosexuality, give rise to a lot of dissention among church members. Clearly, taking a stand on these topics, even when God has been extraordinarily clear on them in the Bible, is just too risky for Mr. Warren to deal with them in this book. Anyway, returning to the point, Mr. Warren says that there are two kinds of people in the world: Wealth-builders and Kingdom-builders. They both make as much money as they can, but the wealth-builders keep it for themselves, while the kingdom-builders give it away (see pages 267-268). Interesting approach - not at all biblical, as far as I can tell, but interesting. If all believers simply followed Christ's directions laid out in the Book of Luke, this would all be unnecessary. However, as long as our current model of Christian life remains so fundamentally flawed, I guess these types of (somewhat gimmicky) steps will be required to shore up the tenuous platform of our current churches.

Chapter 35 - God's Power in Your Weakness
In this chapter, the author asserts that "God loves to use weak people." He continues: "Your weaknesses are not an accident. God deliberately allowed them in your life for the purpose of demonstrating His (my capitalization) power through you. A weakness is any limitation that you inherited or have the power to change. God will use us if we allow Him (my capitalization) to work through our weaknesses." Mr. Warren then presents several principles which he says are drawn from the example of the Apostle Paul, including "Admit your weaknesses" (be honest about yourself), "Be content with your weaknesses" (They cause us to lean on God, prevent arrogance, promote fellowship with other believers, and increase our capacity for sympathy and ministry), "Honestly share your weaknesses" (Let down you guard and share your struggles), and "Glory in your weaknesses" (this point was a real stretch to me, and I don't think I understand it's value well enough to reproduce it here).

Chapter 36 - Made for a Mission
In this chapter, the author asserts that "You were made for a mission. God wants you to have a ministry both in the Body of Christ and a mission in the world. Your mission is a continuation of Jesus' mission on Earth. Your mission is a wonderful privilege. Telling others how they can have eternal life is the greatest thing you can do for them. Your mission has eternal significance. Your mission gives your life meaning. God's timetable for history's conclusion is connected to the completion of our commission."
Here again, Mr. Warren focuses on the fact that each of us as believers have been given a mission - or comission - by God to continue Jesus' work here on earth. He says: "This commission (referring to Matthew 28:19-20) was given to every follower of Jesus, not to pastors and missionaries alone. This is your commission from Jesus, and it is not optional. These words of Jesus are not the Great Suggestion. If you are a part of God's family, your mission is mandatory. To ignore it would be disobedience." I agree completely. However, my faith and my level of commitment are not strong enough to fulfill that commission as expressed by Jesus, and I know almost no one else who fulfills it either, most pastors included That's no excuse for me, just a recognition of the current state of Christianity.
Whether he realizes it or not, Mr. Warren supports my point when he says: "To fulfill your mission will require that you abandon your agenda and accept God's agenda for your life. You can't just 'tack it on' to all the other things you'd like to do with your life. You must say, like Jesus, "Father, I want Your (my capitalization) will, not Mine.' You yield your rights, expectations, dreams, plans, and ambitions to Him (my capitalization). You stop praying selfish prayers like "God bless what I want to do." Instead you pray, 'God help me to do what you're blessing!' You hand God a blank sheet with your name signed at the bottom and tell Him (my capitalization) to fill in the details. The Bible says: 'Give yourselves completely to God - every part of you...to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for His (my capitalization) good purposes." (a reference to a fragment of Romans 6:13) Now, does that sound more like the model Jesus directed us to develop and use in Luke 14: 26-35 and Luke 18:18-27, or does it sound more like the current Christianity model supported by Mr. Warren where we maintain secular occupations, giving as much as we can to God through the "kingdom builders" method and doing what we can to serve God where we are? The answer seems clear to me.

Chapter 37 - Sharing Your Life Message
In this chapter, the author provides some guidelines about how a believer in Jesus Christ should prepare him/herself to share their faith with others, winning over unbelievers to enlarge the family of Christ. He indicates that the message should be thought through in advanced, and rehearsed so that Christians are always prepared to offer a testimony of their faith when an opportunity arises. According to Mr. Warren, the "life Message" should contain four parts: the testimony, personal life lessons, personal godly passions, and the "Good News".
The testimony is comprised of how coming to know Christ has made a difference to you personally. It is personal, eye-witness testimony of what has happened to you.
The Life Message includes life lessons (the personal lessons learned that Mr. Warren recommends recording in a journal in one of the previous chapters of his book.)
The Godly Passions portion of the Life Message should include what the specific areas of personal interest and ministry you are passionate about, though I get the impression from Mr. Warren's description here that it would be pretty easy to go overboard on this one - He repeatedly cautions the reader to "not expect everyone else to be passionate about your passion." In the "Good News" section of the Life Message, Mr. Warren is the standard "witnessing" and "evangelism" message that has become a mainstay of Christianity over hundreds of years. During my upbringing, the best biblical path to follow was known as "The Romans Road", but it essentially is the method of walking people through the specific areas of the Bible that lay out the reason that salvation through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is required (Romans 3:23), The provision that was made for all of us to accept the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary and thereby avoid our otherwise inevitable fate (Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8, and Romans 10:13), and the specific steps outlined by the Bible that believers must take to be guaranteed everlasting life with God (Romans 10:9-10). I was surprised that these passages were not highlighted in the book.
One other point about this chapter: On page 294, Mr. Warren says: "As long as there is one person in your community who isn't in the family of God, your church must keep reaching out. The church that doesn't want to grow is saying to the world: 'You can go to hell'." However, I see absolutely no biblical evidence that reaching unbelievers and converting them to Christianity - to having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ - is the function of the local church, nor any evidence that large churches are regarded with more pleasure by God than smaller ones. Instead, Christians are charged by Jesus Christ to "go out" into the world, and convert the lost. They are never told to "bring the unsaved into a local church to hear the gospel". The New Testament church is established to teach and mature believers, and to provide a means for us to minister to one another. It's primary purpose was never to win the lost; That job is laid upon the shoulders of individual believers. It is only our failure as disciples that leaves this work for pastors to do.

Chapter 38 - Becoming a World-Class Christian
In this chapter, the author says: "You have a choice to make: You can become either a world-class Christian or a worldly Christian. Worldly Christians look to God primarily for personal fulfillment. They are saved, but they are self-centered. Their prayers focus on their own needs, blessings, and happiness. In contrast, world-class Christians know they are saved to serve and made for a mission. They are eager to receive a personal assignment and excited about the privilege of being used by God."
He then offers several guidelines for how to "think like a world-class Christian", including: "Shift from self-centered thinking to others-centered thinking" (which involves primarily praying for the needs of others rather than your own needs), Shift from local thinking to global thinking" (pick out a specific foreign country to pray for regularly), "Shift from here-and-now thinking to eternal thinking" (don't focus on things that won't matter in the face of eternity), and "Shift from thinking of excuses to thinking of creative ways to fulfill your commission" (ask God earnestly what He wants you to do - and consider becoming a missionary to a foreign country).
I think that this is a pretty good chapter, assuming once again, that we are only interested in incremental change. The most radical step outlined here is to ask God whether He wants you to become a missionary in some other place. The answer to the question is in the Great Commission though; asking it of God again seems tantamount to insulting. I think the only real question is whether we as Christians are willing to respond to that call. Tragically, as I observed earlier, for 95+% of us, the answer is "No".

Chapter 39 - BAlancing Your Life
In this chapter, the author says that we should all be "balanced" Christians, holding 5 elements on an even keel: worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship, and discipleship. To accomplish this, he says, the believer should "keep your life balanced and on track by joining a small group for accountability, by regularly evaluating your spiritual health, by recording your progress in a personal journal, and by passing on what you learn to others." I think it's all pretty good advice, though I do think the author has stretched a bit to support some elements (like the personal journal) with scripture. Using God's direction to Moses to record the events that eventually became the foundation of our Old Testament is a pretty spurious example of why modern-day believers should record their personal spiritual journeys. I think that if there isn't clear biblical support for the advice one gives, one would be better off to say so and not reach like this - it damages the credibility of those points are ARE firmly grounded in scripture.

Chapter 40 - Living With Purpose
In this final chapter, the author says: "Most people struggle with three basic issues in life. The first is identity: 'Who am I?' The second is importance: 'Do I matter?' The Third is impact: 'What is my place in life?' The answers to all three questions are found in God's purposes for you." (To review, Mr. Warren asserts that God's 5 purposes for each of us as believers are: 1) To love God, 2)to be part of His (my capitalization) family, 3)to become like Him (my capitalization), 4)to serve Him (my capitalization), and 5)to tell others about Him (my capitalization). - see page 282 -
Mr. Warren then concludes his advice by recommending that each believer author a personal "Life Purpose Statement", comprised of sentences that: summarize God's purposes for your life, point to the direction of your life, defines "success" for you, clarifies your roles, and expresses your SHAPE (see discussion about chapters 29-31).
He concludes chapter 40 - and the book - with what he calls "Life's 5 Greatest Questions": What will be the center of my life?, What will be the character of my life? What will be the contribution of my life?, What will be the communication of my life? and What will be the community of my life? (All those who are glad this book is finished, because they just cant stand any more alliteration, raise your hands!)
Mr. Warren's overall point here, which is that every believer should give some really serious thought and prayer to what he/she intends to do with life is - in my opinion - excellent. In fact, I'd recommend that kind of serious introspection for anyone - believer or non-believer. However, I am convinced that anything short of total commitment as directed by Jesus Christ in Mark 8:35, Matthew 10:39, Matthew 16:25, Luke 9:24, and Luke 17:33 will only result in incremental improvement in individual lives, and never come close to achieving what Jesus directed us to do in this life. It is, in the larger scheme of things, pretty futile. Still, if undertaking the steps outlined in Purpose Driven Life will result in even incremental improvement in the lives of Christians,and especially if even a few people actually turn their lives over to following in the footsteps of Jesus as a result of examining scripture after reading the book, it will certainly have been worth the effort!

Things I Wonder About (August 2008)                                                                                                                                                                               Prior to his fall, Satan was called "The Son of the Morning" by God.  He was God's favorite angel, and as such it seems to me that he must have been second only to Jesus and the Holy Spirit (which are all members of the Trinity, and as such, indivisible elements of a single entity.)  Therefore, it seems less of a leap that Satan would have aspired to be "like God", since he was basically the next level down on the food chain at that point.  In addition, the bible says that Satan comes before God and accuses God's people of things (a clear example of that is in the story of Job.)  So Satan does indeed come before God while God sits on His throne, and God's throne is in Heaven.  Therefore, sine can exist in Heaven - at LEAST in the form of Satan.
 
I surmise from these things that:
 
1. At least at that point, prior to the fall, Satan must have been not only a good guy, but a VERY good guy to be placed in that position by an all-knowing God.
2. Since God is and always has been all-knowing, He knew when he created Satan that Satan was going to betray him, and created him and turned him loose in spite of that knowledge.  We can only speculate about why God did this; Was Satan as an evil alternative necessary in order for humans to have a choice to follow good or evil?  Evidently not, since Lucifer chose evil even when there was no Satan.  So Satan does not have to exist for evil to exist - since evil was a choice for Lucifer even before he became Satan. 
3. Angels do indeed have free will, and can choose to do evil or good.  It seems logical, based on point #2 above, that angels can decide to: a) do God's bidding, b) do Satan's bidding, or c) do evil things that are not Satan's bidding at all, but their own. 
 
Now all of this seems pretty logical (in fact it seems air-tight to me), but it also appears to contradict New Testament passages where Jesus says that humans must choose to follow Him or the devil (Satan), implying that there is no third alternative.  God has determined that anyone who does not follow Christ is going to Hell.  Period.  Even if they chose not to follow Satan, mankind has an inherrently sinful nature (since Eve & Adam ate the forbidden fruit, which enabled them to understand the difference between good and evil.)  Therefore, we have only two choices because of the structure created by God; follow Jesus Christ and live in heaven and sin-free (and therefore, almost by definition, no free will), or follow either your own inclinations (leading to sin) or Satan's leading also leading to sin), which leads to Hell. 
 
So in summary, an all-knowing and all-powerful God created this entire structure where angels were created to serve Him but have free will to the extent that they may choose to do evil (which in this structure is defined as doing anything that is not the will of God), and humans were created for the purpose of giving God someone to adore Him and choose Him over a competitor for their affections (Satan), but also have free will giving them the ability to do evil - and really basically compelling us to do evil as a result of our sinful nature.  (We have no choice but sin since we have an evil nature.)  When we recognize that we are sinning, repent, and ask God to forgive us and substitute the sacrifice of His own Son Jesus Christ rather than destroy us in the fires of Hell, we are allowed to escape Hell and live in Heaven with God, but we will undoubtedly give up our free will to do so, or else someone (probably evryone in fact) would inevitably sin again after entering heaven. 
 
So now we have this situation; Angels clearly have fee will even in heaven, but humans do not.  Both angels and humans can sin, but humans can avoid the consequences of their sin by accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.  Can angels who were cast out of heaven with Satan similarly repent of their sin, ask God for forgoveness, and accept Jesus as their Lord and re-establish heavenly citizenship?  I see no evidence of that in the Bible.