Rick Warren – Trading Paper Crowns

You stretched out your mighty hands and made the land beneath our feet. All sensation between my toes in the summer months is from you, Mighty Savior.

Your majestic voice spoke, and this world appeared from the darkness. My life is filled with colors, night, day, oceans and rocky terrain because of your artistic and creative mind.

You formed us. You didn’t have to; but, you did – and you breathed life into our bones.

God, you want us. You do not need us; but you want us.

God didn’t need us. He wanted us, and that’s the most amazing thing. – Rick Warren

You gathered dust and created man. From man’s side you formed woman in your image. What a humbling truth to digest – you want us.

“So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:27

How honored we should feel to be chosen by you to carry out your eternal plan. You, in all your glory, want to live through us and desire to inhabit our souls. You chose us – picked us out; and made us in your image – to do good works for the Kingdom of God.

May we fulfill this calling you have for us, Sweet Savior and proclaim your majesty from the mountaintops and rooftops that our God reigns!

We have a God – that handpicked us. We desperately need him – for Power, O God, belongs to you!

I praise you for giving life and breath and everything else, LORD. May we live each day with your praises flowing out of our mouths – like bubbling fountains.

May the fountain of my mouth sing, ‘All praise, honor, glory, power to you!”

“You were made by God and for God – and until you understand that life will never make sense.” These words said by Rick Warren struck an artery in my heart this afternoon. I felt a rush through my body as if the blood in my veins was pumping just a little bit more freely.

Made by God. As Christians, we know this. It is something taught in Sunday school. Genesis explains that God breathed life in Adam and Eve was formed from man’s side. But, if this truth really transcends your mind – and reaches your soul – it is absolutely exquisite that you carry within in you the breath of God – the breath of Heaven – as a famous song points out. He inhaled into you air from his wondrous, everlasting lungs. This is not something to shrug off as typical religious knowledge. The breath of God is in the fiber of your being. It makes up who you are. You carry within you – air from the Living God.

Made for God. What was I made for – what is my gift, my calling? Its simple – to be a lighthouse for Christ. You are his vessel. Like a mason jar illuminated on a front porch step, you are the light in the night of this dark world. Everything else is really minor. You are God’s billboard. How you live your life, what you say and do should reflect God. You are his face on earth. Of course, God wants you to prosper and make the most of your life here on earth. He wants you to pursue your passions and dreams; but, with those dreams is also a yearning and need to reflect Christ. It is shallow without ever filling that innate soul yearning. We are simply the reflection of our light source – the Son of God.

Life Makes Sense. Pastor Warren is right. Without understanding these concepts {that are way more complex then they appear} we will never really understand life. Life is simply empty without Christ as the center. I love the song that boldly proclaims, ‘From my heart to the Heavens, Jesus be the center. It’s all about You. Yes it’s all about You.’ As humans, we tend to make life about ourselves – our plans, our future, that promotion or raise at work, that desire for a family or children, that house that we’ve always dreamed about – our wants are endless. And we will always be empty if we reach for our desires – for they are not his! However good they are – Jesus will always want more for you! Yet, with Jesus as the center of it all, don’t those personal needs dissipate just a little bit? We are spiritual beings and our soul years for a spiritual connection. We can never be good without God. Knowing that we were made by God and for God puts life in perspective.

I will loudly cry out, Jesus be the center of my life!