“Worldly Christians look to God primarily for personal fulfillment. They are saved, but self-centered. They love to attend concerts and enrichment seminars, but you would never find them at a missions conference because they aren’t interested. Their prayers focus on their own needs, blessings, and happiness. It’s a “me-first” faith: How can God make my life more comfortable? They want to use God for their purposes instead of being used for his purposes.”
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Rick Warren
“You may have had so many failures at changing the way you eat or exercise or think or act that the possibility of lasting change feels like an unreachable goal. Well, to be honest with you, it probably will be — unless you plug into God’s power. What is impossible from a human standpoint is easy to God. With God, today’s impossibility is tomorrow’s miracle.”
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Rick Warren
“God sometimes removes a person from your life for your protection. Don't run after them.”
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Rick Warren
“Martin Luther said, “You cannot keep birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” You can’t keep the Devil from suggesting thoughts, but you can choose not to dwell or act on them.”
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Rick Warren
“Jesus stood at a fork in the road. Would he fulfill his purpose and bring glory to God, or would he shrink back and live a comfortable, self-centered life? You face the same choice. Will you live for your own goals, comfort, and pleasure, or will you live the rest of your life for God’s glory, knowing that he has promised eternal rewards?”
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Rick Warren
“Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.”
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Rick Warren
“Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom said, “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.”
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Rick Warren
“The difference between being a church attender and a church member is commitment. Attenders are spectators from the sidelines; members get involved in the ministry. Attenders are consumers; members are contributors. Attenders want the benefits of a church without sharing the responsibility. They are like couples who want to live together without committing to a marriage.”
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Rick Warren
“Betsy: "Do you have daddy issues, Warren?"
Warren: "Dad was supportive, intelligent, read to me as a kid, left me a trillion dollars. It's hard to complain.”
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Rick Warren
“We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives.”
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Rick Warren
“Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.”
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Rick Warren
“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. Don’t waste your pain; use it to help others.”
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Rick Warren
“It’s encouraging to know that all of God’s closest friends — Moses, David, Abraham, Job, and others — had bouts with doubt. But instead of masking their misgivings with pious clichés, they candidly voiced them openly and publicly. Expressing doubt is sometimes the first step toward the next level of intimacy with God.”
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Rick Warren
“If you really desire to be used by God, you must understand a powerful truth: The very experiences that you have resented or regretted most in life — the ones you’ve wanted to hide and forget — are the experiences God wants to use to help others. They are your ministry!”
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Rick Warren
