Purpose Driven Life

[kayre]

The pastor opened his sermon today by telling folk that “This book is NOT the latest revised edition of the Bible.. it’s one man’s experience. There will be parts we agree with, and parts we don’t.. that’s okay.” Thank goodness. I suspect my email was part of the reason :)

Summary: The other four keys to “friendship with God.” 3) Be honest with God. At times this means complaining, arguing, being angry. 4) Obey in faith. 5) Value what God values. 6) Desire friendship with God more than anything else.

My thoughts: Today is actually the first day I’ve finished the chapter without clenched teeth. While there are some minor points, and one or two more odd uses of scripture, this chapter seemed less harsh and dogmatic.

How does being honest with God fit in with the ‘unquestioning obedience’ of earlier chapters?

The problem with ‘valuing what God values’ is figuring out exactly what that is... for some people that can mean horrible things in the name of “traditional values.” Warren’s answer is that God values the redemption of his people-- which is fine as long as that doesn’t mean "saving them from sin" in a judgmental manner.

Interestingly, in the “desire friendship with god more than anything else” section, he cites Jacob wrestling with the angel. Somehow I never had the impression that ‘friendship’ was what Jacob was seeking! But he also says “God isn’t offended when we ‘wrestle’ with him, because wrestling requires personal contact....”

The final quotation is another bizarre paraphrase: “Some of these people have missed the most important thing in life-- they don’t know God.” That’s a partial sentence in the NIV, so I’ll start a verse earlier: “Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith.” (1 Timothy 6:20b-21) A bit of a stretch!