From Historic Creeds: A Journal, by Kenneth Boa:
There is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
-I Corinthians 8:6
We do not exist for ourselves – we exist for the Father and through the Son. The world tells us that we derive our existence from it and that we should live for ourselves, but the Word teaches us that all we are and have comes from the Father who formed us for His pleasure and purposes.Ultimate reality is not the cosmos or a mysterious force, but an infinite and loving Person. The implications of this are astounding and pervasive. The infinite-personal Lord of all is an unbounding loving community of three timeless and perfect Persons. In the superabundance of His joy and life, He is at once solitude and society, the one and the many, supernal being as communion. The magnificent God who abounds in personal plenitude has no needs, yet He invites us to participate in the intense and interpenetrating life of the three eternally subsistent Selves. Jesus prayed on our behalf “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us….I in them and you in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:21,23). The impenetrable mystery of us being in the divine Us, and the divine Us being in us, transcends our imagination – but if it is true, all else pales in comparison.
This is probably a side note. One could have viewed the purpose driven life as a self-centered movement, considering that millions of churched people were re-asking themselves “what is my purpose?” It seemed to me to be a symbol of a me-centered Christianity–what can I get out of God, how can I find the best for me? It seemed to be an image of our consumer, self-driven culture.
However, I have recently come to see that Rick Warren is a genious–or maybe more appropriately, the Spirit is working through him and his staff in the books he is writing.
Warren, I recently found, wrote the Purpose Driven Life as a initial part of a trilogy. Sure, it seemed to cater to the individual, but that was for a larger purpose. The second book is called the Purpose Driven Community. Now, Warren is taking those people who have found their individual purpose, and are trying to expand their faith into unifying the local brotherhood of believers and sharing the gospel with local non believers. THe third aspires to do the same, except on a global scale.
The point is this: we are called to be like God. He is community yet unity (3 in 1), and because of who He was, God the Son came out from that and into the world to serve. We too must be unified into one body, and willing to expand/be sent into the world to serve and share the gospel. I was afraid that Rick Warren had a gimmick to serve the individual, to heighten our “self-esteem.” How that I have heard his overall goal, I praise the Lord that Warren does not want us to stay where we are, but to go out and be unified. God forgive me for my judgment on Warren. Thank God for Warren’s service and obedience