I am not an accident. No matter how my birth came about, even if it was a mistake in human terms, it was not a surprise to God. He had planned for it long before I was born. Not only did he know I was going to be born but he also knew where I would be born, how I would be born and even how long I would live. My life was perfectly planned and brought to perfect execution. He did all of this to fulfill His purposes. Now that I realize God is the one responsible for my life, I am accountable to God to make Him the focus of my life so that through Him and in Him I can discover its meaning and purpose.
Warren goes on to teach that all that God has done He has done out of love. God, Warren says, being the perfect example of love, and indeed the very essence of love, created me to love me. I find myself quite uncomfortable with this teaching. I believe it is more Scriptural to say that God created me so I could love Him! Yesterday I quoted question and answer one of the Shorter Catechism and would like to turn to that again. I use this because it nicely summarizes several passages of the Bible (Psalm 86, Isaiah 60:21, Romans 11:36, I Corinthians 6:20, 31, etc). “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” God created us so that we could bring glory to Him. It is true that He created us out of love and with the intention of loving us, but that was not His primary purpose. His prime purpose was His own glorification.
Bible Passages
In this chapter Warren quotes the Bible 9 times. He uses 5 different translations and paraphrases. I am concerned by a couple of the passages. In attempting to prove his assumption that God created us to love us he quotes The Message’s paraphrase of Ephesians 1:4 which reads, “Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love.” Compare to the NASB which reads, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” That verse clearly does not prove that God’s motive for creating us was His love. The next verse goes on to say that, “In love He predestined us to adoption” but that speaks of our election and justification, not our creation.
Near the close of the chapter Warren states that we can discover God’s meaning and purpose only when we make Him the reference point of our lives. He again quotes The Message which paraphrases Romans 12:3 as, “The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what He has done for us.” Again, I will compare to the NASB which says, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgement, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” I agree completely with Warren’s statement, but can not understand how this passage, when properly translated, proves his point.
Point To Ponder
Today’s point to ponder is “I am not an accident.” To me that is not a major revelation and accepting my life has never been a struggle. However, when I began to ponder the statement, especially in light of today’s Question To Consider, I realized that though I have not struggled with my life being accidental, I have often struggled with parts of my personality and character (and even physical traits) as being accidental. I see now that God created and foreordained me not only in an abstract sense of giving me life, but also in an intimate way of providing me with a certain type of character as well as a specific personality and specific physical traits. Rather than be disappointed or angry with God for giving these to me, I should accept them as part of who God created me to be. Rather than hide them, I should discover how I can use them for Him.
Next Up
Tomorrow’s topic is What drives my life?
Comments (5) »
1. maryanne
November 15, 2003
6:53 AM
Tim-
I am amazed at the differences in biblical translations- and how the meanings become totally different from one to another…kind of scary, because people may be reading a very inaccurate and misleading Scripture. Good job with your thoughts….they are communicated very well.
2. Betty
January 20, 2004
10:46 PM
Warren doesn’t write that God knew the when and where and race of your birth, he writes that He “deliberately chose”, and “prescribed”, which is different. Isn’t this the theology that allowed Christians to own slaves? God made slaves to be slaves, owners to be owners? I can accept that God knew, as you say, but not that he deliberately pre-determined who would live in comfort and power and who would live in poverty and oppression.
I’m really struggling with this book being taught in my church, and I’m naturally suspicious of Christinan Bookstore Industry fads. Your blog is helping, thank you so much for the time and effort. I continue to have lots of uneasy feelings about the whole “40 days of purpose” package deal, which started when it was advertised in my church newsletter as “not intellectual!!” (as in “don’t worry about making the effort to think for yourself!”) I only started reading the book when a college student in my Sunday School class told me she and her suitemate had abandoned it as their evening devotional when they started feeling something was “wrong with it” but couldn’t quite decide what. thanks again, bb
3. Tim
January 21, 2004
9:40 AM
That’s amazing that the advertise it as “non-intellectual.” It really does show that people do not want to be challenged to think…
4. Mark
May 12, 2004
6:51 PM
Hmmmm. if I’m not an accident and my parents were chosen for me then being born into a satanist coven for the express purpose of sexual abuse which is contrary to any form of love and justice….. I’m confused …. tell me does God plan and organise such abuse as this … I don’t think so!!!!
5. Nikki
September 30, 2008
9:37 AM
god does plan everything. i had someone once ask me, “if god already knows who is going to heaven and who is going to hell, then why does he even let those going to hell to live? Why does he allow people to be born who will be hurt by those supposed to protect them?” This pertains to “mark”. God does love you. He formed you. He made you in his image. If you allow God to take control of your life he will help you. People go through hard times. I have been abused by family members and gone through counsling. I have been raped by my ex’s friend while my ex held me down. i have been smacked around and been abused almost any way you can think of. but that DOES NOT mean God doesn’t love me. All of this happened and i learned from it. It has made me have a fire and desire to help. My experience was torture. It hurt. I felt abandoned. But I began going to Church. I began trusting in God. I got help. And i have been able to help others. My Fiance` and I are reading The Purpose Driven Life together every night over the phone. I agree, if you do nothing more than read the words on the page then no it is not a challenge. We use it not as a program but as a tool. we are not blindly reading this book. our devotions consist of reading the passage for the day (which takes almost 1 1/2 hours in itself because we stop and question and discuss and analyze everything) we challenge each other to learn the verses and we also look up the same verse in NIV, KJV and occassionally online. I understand that different translations word things different ways but at the same time you can have one version where everyone reads the exact same words and even still it will not come out to mean the same thing. There are many interpretations of every single passage but only one CORRECT meaning. The problem there is, “who is right?” that is something that each individual person will be held accountable for. whether or not your preacher or your mother tells you something is true or isn’t YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU!!! it is up to YOU to go through the bible and understand it for yourself. you can not blindly listen to what other people said. You can not say that God does not love you. A proof of his love is answered in the question i first stated. Why let live if going to hell….. because he loves you. Even if we do not choose God, he already told you. He gives us free choice to love him or not. he gives us the answer. he already paid the price. all you have to do is accept his son and the sacrifice he was… the attoinment of our sins… the savior…. LOVE.