Why we need One another?

I've always wanted to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.



Not as governor of California, but as Arnold the bodybuilder, from the neck down.
My quick solution to become an Arnie look-alike rests in a fantasy where another guy does all the gym work then transfers his six-pack abs and 30-inch waist to my sagging frame through a miraculous invention akin to the teleporter on Star Trek.
Poof! I've got 21-inch biceps.

When I hit 40, blood sugar rising and staring at a future in 38W Levi's, I was working at a seminary in Africa. One of my co-workers was a 24-year-old graphic artist named Innocent who looked like he camped on a weight bench.

Innocent would pat my pot belly and say, "Old man, when are you going to do something about that gut?"
Believe me, I had tried. Exercise. Diet. Failure.

But Innocent challenged me to meet at the gym every morning before work to reverse 4 decades of North American metabolic disorder.
He designed a program "to get results" and breathed down my neck to make sure I lifted with proper technique, completing every repetition. I developed pains that made me wonder if I had pectoral cancer.
Innocent just kept pushing and I lost 20 pounds. He helped me do something that I failed to do alone. Innocent also desired that I help him grow spiritually, and that motivated me to do breakfast at the gym.
We basically told each other, "I need you and you need me."
We developed an accountability relationship.

Read More at http://www.ccci.org/growth/accountability-with-friends.aspx

Plug in will you?

Why The Christian Life is IMPOSSIBLE!

After six hours of hand-numbing labor in the blistering sun, I'd gotten about 5 feet done. My despair had just about reached its zenith when I heard a chugging noise in the distance. Crawling out of my hardpan rut, I squinted my eyes to see what was coming.

Before long, I could make out the distinct scorpion tail of a backhoe heading my way.

Within minutes, the shiny, yellow machine drew up next to me. "Howdy, young feller!" the grizzled driver shouted down at me. He looked at the separator, the ditch, my shovel and me. "Got yourself a bit of a job, ain't ya?"

"You've got that right," I said, trying not to sound as tired and defeated as I felt. I'd never seen this guy before, but I noticed that his backhoe sported the logo of a competing company.

He glanced up at the blazing sun, then at his watch, and chuckled. "Don't suppose you'd want a little help, would ya?"

My heart leapt. "You mean it? I don't work for your outfit, you know..."
"Don't matter. I can see you're out-gunned. It'll only take me a minute."
He motioned me up onto the machine. I swung up and stood next to him as he positioned it at the end of my six-hour ditch. In the space of about six minutes, I'd finished the job -- I, the stranger and the backhoe, that is!
It's the same in the Christian life -- we can accomplish far more when we become a partner with the overcoming power of the Holy Spirit than when we try to do things in our own strength. Read more at http://www.ccci.org/growth/spirit-filled-life/why-christian-life-is-impossible.aspx

Am I really Happy!

Rediscovering the lost art of

being happy

What do you really want? What drives you, motivates you, gets you up in the morning? A job? A dream? A commitment to get good grades, or meet the right person, or earn a decent pay cheque?

Here’s my bet: You do these things because you want to be happy. You work, you earn, you relate, and strive, and set goals because, when all is said and done, you want happiness. And so do I! The map we follow to get there may look different: some of us might plot out a course of professional achievements and financial success, while others seek meaningful relationships or exciting experiences. But the destination we’ve circled in red ink is the same. We want to be happy.

So, are we? Are YOU? My guess is you’ve run into a few dead ends. Things intended to bring you happiness, haven’t. Experiences you thought would satisfy you didn’t. Am I right?

I had only been a Christian for a few years when I realized my own map to happiness had been leading me in circles. I was listening to a speaker at a conference when he shared an illustration that God used to shape my thinking for the next 25 years.

We’re all chasing rainbows, he said, and our rainbows all have little golden buckets at the end of them. For some of us those buckets are labelled “success.” For some of us “popularity” or “physical perfection.” Some simply read “security” or “family” or even “fame.” But those buckets are empty.

This word picture fascinated me because at the ripe old age of thirteen, I had decided that sports, academics and dating the right girl would determine my success in life.

Then I woke up one day as a senior in high school about to graduate, and realized that I had achieved my goals. I had good grades, a pretty girl and athletic awards. And yet, I felt absolutely empty. It was as though I had chased my rainbow to the very end, only to discover that the bucket at the bottom had nothing in it. I realized that my entire perception of happiness had been warped.

So where does that leave us? Does that mean we can never be truly happy? Absolutely not! In fact, God does no less than promise happiness, if we are willing to follow His map instead of our own. Read more at http://www.bible.org.za/articles/rediscovering_the_lost_art_of_being_happy.html

A New Powerful Life Changing Experience

40 Days of Love Campaign

Coming Early 2009 Saddleback’s newest 40-Day Spiritual Growth Campaign!

Unearth the core of Jesus’ ministry in how we show love to the people God has placed in our lives here on earth. This campaign covers every aspect of what matters most. How can we communicate more like Jesus? How do we love our creator, our neighbors, and ourselves?

We invite you to embark on this new journey with us in early 2009. 40 Days of Love is our first new campaign in more than three years! Let’s discover together a love that is patient, kind, forgiving, unselfish and always speaks the truth, all during this six-week journey into the very heart of the matter.

Included in the campaign will be:
The Relationship Principles of Jesus book by Pastor Tom Holladay – broken down into 40 days of reading and six relationship principles.

Six group studies by Rick Warren based on 1 Corinthians 13, plus accompanying small group guides. (with DVD)

Sermon transcripts for six weeks of the campaign

For more information visit us at http://www.purposedriven.com/