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[Ednote: It is very interesting that these stories broke right around Easter simultaneously in March of 2005. The biggest story was Terri Schiavo. She had been in a so called vegetative state for fifteen years and after all avenues were exhausted to stop her husband's desire to have the feeding tube removed, her husband prevailed. The world watched helplessly as Terri starved to death. She is still alive as I write this introduction but the procedure in hospices it to administer morphine, which results in heart failure. A doctor shared that boldly on the news right after my husband passed away. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and He reveals the truth when we have a question. My question was, why did they administer morphine when there was no pain? I kept asking my husband verifying that. He said he was not in pain and they administered it anyway reassuring me that they wanted him to be comfortable. Terri is not in pain either and is receiving morphine. What is morphine? Webster's Dictionary states: a bitter crystalline addictive narcotic base C.H.NO that is the principal alkaloid of opium and is used in the form of a soluble salt (as a hydrochloride or a sulfate) as an analgesic sedative. It looks like Terri is past the point of surviving this attack on her life. On 3.30.2005 Dr. Carpenter, Terri's former doctor, was interviewed by CNN. He asked why they are administering morphine when Terri is in no pain? A short discussion about euthanasia ensued. He stated that there is one person he knew of who sustained 8 days in Terri's situation and recovered. Terri is doing better than they expected. Dr. Carpenter stated that Terri had no private lawyer representing her case. The lawyer was assigned by the court. Conseqently, no one was representing Terri personally. Her parents did not have the funding to fight for her life. The case was decided 3 to 2 to starve her to death by simply denying her request for reviewing the case. Her friends stated on their visit that Terri's eyes were following them around in the room proving that she is not in a vegetative state. Vegetables have no consciousness. Rick Warren stated that Terri laughs, smiles, and even laughed out loud when she heard the name of Jesus, according to one report. She deserves to live, he said. Pat Boone's grandson Ryan is brain damaged and with therapy is speaking sentences today. The second story that broke involved a quadruple murder that included a judge who was to try Brian Nicholas for rape. Brian in trying to evade the police came to Ashley Smith's apartment to hide out. Ashley happened to have the book "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren on her coffee table which became instrumental in saving Brian's life because he turned himself in to the police. The third story was Scott Peterson's sentence to death for murdering his wife and unborn son. This same book, "The Purpose Driven Life" was on the backseat of his car when they arrested him. His girlfriend, Amber, had given him the book to read. Ashley made the rounds through the media and received book offers and a reward for apprehending Brian singlehandedly with simple kindness. Baptist Pastor Page stated that Ashley had been a member of his church for 10 years and was baptized. He stated that God came inside of Ashley and took control of the situation with Brian. It saved both of their lives. What was interesting on Larry King's show, Robert Schuller was very much part of the program that included Rick Warren, the author of "The Purpose Driven Life." Schuller said that Rick Warren was his pupil for a few years when Schuller taught successful church leadership, that he founded some 38 years ago. Schuller had high praise for Rick's book. Schuller quoted Mother Teresa who said that we should let Him use us without consulting us first. [Few people know that Mother Teresa had a Buddha on her dresser and stated that she had never tried to bring anyone to Jesus Christ, as to not disturb their beliefs. She believed that all roads go to God like many other celebrities.] Schuller also quoted his peers, Sigmund Freud and Victor Frankel who had tutored Robert Schuller, both representing the field of Psychology and Psychiatry. When Larry brought up negative aspects of what is going on here on earth, and why God allows it, Schuller stated that we must focus on the positives. Rick Warren stated that part of our purpose is to know God and the other part is to help people in need. When Rick's method was attacked, he stated that he is looking for products to send a message. His message is now appearing on greeting cards. Easter Sunday was Rick's 25th anniversary in ministry. He said he did not use television because he did not want to be a TV evangelist since that tends to blind one. Larry King defended Rick's book and Rick said that he used 1500 Bible verses in his book. That is what made it so powerful. He said that he interpreted the Scriptures in a simple way for the 21st Century. He said that people do not understand what repentance is. It doesn't mean die or fry but to change your mind. You don't have to give up anything. He said his book was a best seller for two years straight world wide. Warren has spoken at Harvard University and Law Schools to influence them into concentrating on the need for community. HE CALLS WHAT HE IS DOING A SECOND REFORMATION. He said that the church has had a big mouth and the arms and hands were cut off. He wants to re-attach the arms and hands to tackle poverty and disease. He believes he is a steward of Affluence and Influence because he made a whole lot of money selling millions of copies of his book. He said that he gives 90% of his income into charitable causes and lives on 10%. He developed a world wide PEACE Plan in 67 countries mobilizing hundreds of thousands of groups who have done 40 Day Purpose Driven Journey which includes businesses, corporations and anyone who wishes to participate to build a world wide community to get rid of poverty, iliteracy and disease. This plan will be revealed in 2006. Of course to the spiritually deluded public Rick Warren sounded flawless. Anyone who has not studied the Bible in depth would agree that he is indeed someone to trust as a shepherd. When Jesus was asked why He was going to leave to go back to His Father when the world was in chaos, the disciples wanted Jesus to be their King now the Bible states the following: Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Luke 22:29-30 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Luke 9:60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. John 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. Matthew 26:7-11 There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. Amen ]
Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. He and his wife, Kay, began the church in their home in January 1980, with one family. Now, with 16,000 in attendance each weekend, and over 50,000 names on the church roll, Saddleback is one of America's largest and best-known churches. It's been named the fastest growing Baptist church in history, and the largest church in the Southern Baptist Convention. In the past seven years, more than 9,200 new believers have been baptized at Saddleback. The church has also started 34 daughter churches, and sent over 4,000 of its members on mission projects around the world. Rick Warren is well-known as the pioneer of the Purpose-Driven paradigm for church health. More than 250,000 pastors and church leaders from over 125 countries have attended Purpose-Driven Church seminars in 18 languages. Peter Drucker calls Rick "the inventor of perpetual revival." Rick's previous book, The Purpose-Driven Church, has sold over one million copies in 20 languages. Winner of the Gold Medallion Ministry Book of the Year, it is used as a textbook in most seminaries, and was selected as one of the 100 Christian Books That Changed the 20th Century. In addition, Rick is the author of The Power to Change Your Life, Answers to Life's Difficult Questions, and Personal Bible Study Methods. Rick is also the founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community that serves and mentors those in ministry worldwide. Over 60,000 pastors subscribe to Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox, a free, weekly email newsletter. Rick was born in San Jose, California. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from California Baptist College, a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. Other honors include the Biblical Preaching Award, several honorary doctorates, and Metro Magazine named him one of the 25 most influential people in Orange County, California. Rick and his wife, Kay, live in Trabuco Canyon, California. They have three children, and a dog. In the early morning hours of March 12, Ashley Smith became a hostage in her own home as she was forced at gunpoint to provide temporary sanctuary for an accused rapist who had broken out of an Atlanta courtroom and allegedly killed a judge and three others. In the span of seven hours, a strange preordained bond was uncovered between these two as Ashley was empowered by God to question her captor’s motivation for life, and he in turn became receptive to the message. In the process, she read from a chapter in The Purpose Driven Life through which she herself was finding renewed meaning in her own difficult life. The chapter she read from was Chapter 33: “How Real Servants Act.”
“Whoever wants to be great must become a servant.”
Mark 10:43 (Msg) [Ednote: CEV spelled out is The Contemporary English
Version Bible – The Latest In The Perversion Of The Scriptures
Of Truth In The English Tongue according to Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley.
He states: Yet another colossal lie is being sold by the Ecumenical
World in the publishing of another perversion of the Holy Scriptures,
in the C.E.V. the CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION BIBLE.
We serve God by serving others. The world defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, and position. If you can demand service from others, you’ve arrived. In our self-serving culture with its me-first mentality, acting like a servant is not a popular concept. Jesus, however, measured greatness in terms of service, not status. God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you. This is so contrary to the world’s idea of greatness that we have a hard time understanding it, much less practicing it. 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. Thousands of books have been written on leadership, but few on servanthood. Everyone wants to lead; no one wants to be a servant. We would rather be generals than privates. Even Christians want to be “servant-leaders,” not just plain servants. But to be like Jesus is to be a servant. That’s what he called himself. While knowing your shape is important for serving God, having the heart of a servant is even more important. Remember, God shaped you for service, not for selfcenteredness. Without a servant’s heart, you will be tempted to misuse your shape for personal gain. You will also be tempted to use it as an excuse to exempt yourself from meeting some needs. God often tests our hearts by asking us to serve in ways we’re not shaped. If you see a man fall into a ditch, God expects you to help him out, not say, “I don’t have the gift of mercy or service.” While you may not be gifted a particular task, you may be called to do it if no one gifted at it is around. Your primary ministry should be in the area of your shape, but your secondary service is wherever you’re needed at the moment. Your shape reveals your ministry, but your servant’s heart will reveal your maturity. No special talent or gift is required to stay after a meeting to pick up trash or stack chairs. Anyone can be a servant. All it requires is character. It is possible to serve in church for a lifetime without ever being a servant. You must have a servant’s heart. How can you know if you have the heart of a servant? Jesus said, “You can tell what they are by what they do” (Matthew 7:16, CEV). Real servants make themselves available to serve. Servants don’t fill up their time with other pursuits that could limit their availability. They want to be ready to jump into service when called on. Much like a soldier, a servant must always be standing by for duty: “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him” (2 Timothy 2:4, NAS). If you only serve when it’s convenient for you, you’re not a real servant. Real servants do what’s needed, even when it’s inconvenient. Are you available to God anytime? Can he mess up your plans without you becoming resentful? As a servant, you don’t get to pick and choose when or where you will serve. Being a servant means giving up the right to control your schedule and allowing God to interrupt it whenever he needs to. If you will remind yourself at the start of every day that you are God’s servant, interruptions won’t frustrate you as much, because your agenda will be whatever God wants to bring into your life. Servants see interruptions as divine appointments for ministry and are happy for the opportunity to practice serving. Real servants pay attention to needs. Servants are always on the lookout for ways to help others. When they see a need, they seize the moment to meet it, just as the Bible commands us: “Whenever we have the opportunity, we must do what is good for everyone, especially for the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10, GW). When God puts someone in need right in front of you, he is giving you the opportunity to grow in servanthood. Notice that God says the needs of your church family are to be given preference, not put at the bottom of your “things to do” list. We miss many occasions for serving because we lack sensitivity and spontaneity. Great opportunities to serve never last long. They pass quickly, sometimes never to return again. You may only get one chance to serve that person, so take advantage of the moment. “Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now” (Proverbs 3:27-28, TEV). John Wesley was an incredible servant of God. His motto was “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.” That is greatness. You can begin by looking for small tasks that no one else wants to do. Do these little things as if they were great things, because God is watching. Real servants do their best with what they have. Servants don’t make excuses, procrastinate, or wait for better circumstances. Servants never say, “One of these days” or “When the time is right.” They just do what needs to be done. The Bible says, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done” (Ecclesiastes 11:4, NLT). God expects you to do what you can, with what you have, wherever you are. Less-thanperfect service is always better than the best intention. One reason many people never serve is that they fear they are not good enough to serve. They have believed the lie that serving God is only for superstars. Some churches have fostered this myth by making “excellence” an idol, which makes people of average talent hesitant to get involved. You may have heard it said, “If it can’t be done with excellence, don’t do it.” Well, Jesus never said that! The truth is, almost everything we do is done poorly when we first start doing it—that’s how we learn. At Saddleback Church, we practice the “good enough” principle: It doesn’t have to be perfect for God to use and bless it. We would rather involve thousands of regular folks in ministry than have a perfect church run by a few elites. Real servants do every task with equal dedication. Whatever they do, servants “do it with all their heart” (Colossians 3:23). The size of the task is irrelevant. The only issue is, does it need to be done? You will never arrive at the state in life where you’re too important to help with menial tasks. God will never exempt you from the mundane. It’s a vital part of your character curriculum. The Bible says, “If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody” (Galatians 6:3, NLT). It is in these small services that we grow like Christ. Jesus specialized in menial tasks that everyone else tried to avoid: washing feet, helping children, fixing breakfast, and serving lepers. Nothing was beneath him, because he came to serve. It wasn’t in spite of his greatness that he did these things, but because of it, and he expects us to follow his example (John 13:15). Small tasks often show a big heart. Your servant’s heart is revealed in little acts that others don’t think of doing, as when Paul gathered brushwood for a fire to warm everyone after a shipwreck (Acts 28:3). He was just as exhausted as everyone else, but he did what everyone needed. No task is beneath you when you have a servant’s heart. Great opportunities often disguise themselves in small tasks. The little things in life determine the big things. Don’t look for great tasks to do for God. Just do the not-sogreat stuff, and God will assign you whatever he want you to do. But before attempting the extraordinary, try serving in ordinary ways (Luke 16:10-12). There will always be more people willing to do “great” things for God than there are people willing to do the little things. The race to be a leader is crowded, but the field is wide open for those willing to be servants. Sometimes you serve upward to those in authority, and sometimes you serve downward to those in need. Either way, you develop a servant’s heart when you’re willing to do anything needed. Real servants are faithful to their ministry. Servants finish their tasks, fulfill their responsibilities, keep their promises, and complete their commitments. They don’t leave a job half undone, and they don’t quit when they get discouraged. They are trustworthy and dependable. Faithfulness has always been a rare quality. Most people don’t know the meaning of commitment. They make commitments casually, then break them for the slightest reason without any hesitation, remorse, or regret. Every week, churches and other organizations must improvise because volunteers didn’t prepare, didn’t show up, or didn’t even call to say they weren’t coming. Can you be counted on by others? Are there promises you need to keep, vows you need to fulfill, or commitments you need to honor? This is a test. God is testing your faithfulness. If you pass the test, you’re in good company: Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Daniel, Timothy, and Paul were all called faithful servants of God. Even better, God has promised to reward your faithfulness in eternity. Imagine what it will feel like one day to have God say to you, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together” (Matthew 25:23, NLT)! By the way, faithful servants never retire. They serve faithfully as long as they’re alive. You can retire from your career, but you will never retire from serving God. Real servants maintain a low profile. Servants don’t promote or call attention to themselves. Instead of acting to impress and dressing for success, they “put on the apron of humility, to serve one another” (1 Peter 5:5, TEV). If recognized for their service, they humbly accept it but don’t allow notoriety to distract them from their work. Paul exposed a kind of service that appears to be spiritual but is really just a puton, a show, an act to get attention. He called it “eyeservice” -- serving in order to impress people with how spiritual we are. This was a sin of the Pharisees. They turned helping others, giving, and even prayer into a performance for others. Jesus hated this attitude and warned, “When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. If you do, you won’t get a reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1, CEV). Self-promotion and servanthood don’t mix. Real servants don’t serve for the approval or applause of others. They live for an audience of One. As Paul said, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10, NIV). You won’t find many real servants in the limelight; in fact, they avoid it when possible. They are content with quietly serving in the shadows. Joseph is a great example. He didn’t draw attention to himself, but quietly served Potiphar, then his jailer, then Pharaoh’s baker and wine taster, and God blessed that attitude. When Pharaoh promoted him to prominence, Joseph still maintained a servant’s heart, even with his brothers, who had betrayed him. Unfortunately, many leaders today start off as servants but end up as celebrities. They become addicted to attention, unaware that always being in the spotlight blinds you. You may be serving in obscurity in some small place, feeling unknown and unappreciated. Listen: God put you where you are for a purpose! He has every hair on your head numbered, and he knows your address. You had better stay put until he chooses to move you. He will let you know if he wants you somewhere else. Your ministry matters to the kingdom of God. “When Christ … shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity” (Colossians 3:4, Msg). There are more than 750 “Halls of Fame” in America and more than 450 “Who’s Who” publications, but you won’t find many real servants in these places. Notoriety means nothing to real servants because they know the difference between prominence and significance. You have several prominent features on your body that you could live without. It is the hidden parts of your body that are indispensable. The same is true in the Body of Christ. The most significant service is often the service that is unseen. In heaven God is going to openly reward some of his most obscure and unknown servants—people we never heard of on earth, who taught emotionally disturbed children, cleaned up after incontinent elderly, nursed AIDS patients, and served in thousands of other unnoticed ways. Knowing this, don’t be discouraged when your service is unnoticed or taken for granted. Keep on serving God! “Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort” (1 Corinthians 15:58, Msg). Even the smallest service is noticed by God and will be rewarded. Remember the words of Jesus: “If, as my representatives, you give even a cup of cold water to a little child, you will surely be rewarded” (Matthew 10:42, LB). -Purpose Driven®- Excerpted from The Purpose Driven Life (Zondervan, 2002), by Rick Warren. ©Copyright 2005. Used with permission. All rights reserved. http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/articles/chapter33.pdf |