Available for the first time, Rick Warren's#1 New York Times bestseller now includes forty unique QR Codes that link to exclusive videos of Rick Warren. These QR Code and video-based enhancements provide a cutting-edge, interactive experience to help you live out God's purpose for your life: reducing your stress, focusing your energy, simplifying your decisions, giving meaning to your life, and, most importantly, preparing you for eternity. A blueprint for Christian living in the 21st century, Warren offers his classic words of hope utilizing 21st century mobile and video technology for a whole new level of learning and engagement. Read, ponder, hear, and see Warren as he helps you discover the answer to life's fundamental question: What on earth am I here for? It's a fresh way to interact with a treasured book of hope that will be read, watched, and re-watched by you and by generations to come.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The spiritual premise in The Purpose-Driven Life is that there are no accidents---God planned everything and everyone. Therefore, every human has a divine purpose, according to God's master plan. Like a twist on John F. Kennedy's famous inaugural address, this book could be summed up like this: "So my fellow Christians, ask not what God can do for your life plan, ask what your life can do for God's plan." Those who are looking for advice on finding one's calling through career choice, creative expression, or any form of self-discovery should go elsewhere. This is not about self-exploration; it is about purposeful devotion to a Christian God. The book is set up to be a 40-day immersion plan, recognizing that the Bible favors the number 40 as a "spiritually significant time," according to author Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, touted as one of the nation largest congregations. Warren's hope is that readers will "interact" with the 40 chapters, reading them one day at a time, with extensive underlining and writing in the margins. As an inspirational manifesto for creating a more worshipful, church-driven life, this book delivers. Every page is laden with references to scripture or dogma. But it does not do much to address the challenges of modern Christian living, with its competing material, professional, and financial distractions. Nonetheless, this is probably an excellent resource for devout Christians who crave a jumpstart back to worshipfulness. --Gail Hudson
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Pastor of Saddleback Church, a Southern Baptist mega-church in southern California with weekly attendance of more than 15,000, Warren now applies his highly successful "purpose-driven" framework, developed in the best-seller The Purpose-Driven Church, to individual experience. The same principles Warren has taught to thousands of pastors to help churches be healthy and effective can also drive lives, he says. The book argues that discerning and living five God-ordained purposes-worship, community, discipleship, ministry and evangelism-is key to effective living. His 40 short chapters are intended to be read over 40 days' time, giving readers small pieces of his purpose-discovering program to chew on. Warren certainly knows his Bible. Of 800-plus footnotes, only 18 don't refer to Christian Scripture. He deliberately works with 15 different Bible translations, leaning heavily on contemporary translations and paraphrases, as an interesting way of plumbing biblical text. The almost exclusively biblical frame of reference stakes out the audience niche for this manual for Christian living. It's practical yet paradoxically abstract, lacking the kind of real-life examples and stories that life-application books usually provide in abundance. The book has flaws editing might have fixed. People are quoted without being identified, and subheads simply repeat lines of text, which tends to make the prose sound too simple. This book is not for all, but for those needing a certain kind of scriptural rock, it is solid.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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More About the Author
Rick Warren is often called "America's most influential spiritual leader." He and his wife, Kay, founded Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, which is now one of the largest and best-known churches in the world. He also wrote the #1 all-time bestselling hardcover book, The Purpose Driven Life.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
98 of 108 people found the following review helpful
By C. Johnson
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Purpose Driven Life is a devotional book, and with over 30 million copies sold, it's become quite popular. So what's all the fuss about? Well, the book offers readers a 40-day personal spiritual journey, and presents what the author says are God's five purposes for human life on Earth. They are:
1 You were planned for God's pleasure
2 You were formed for God's family
3 You were created to become like Christ
4 You were shaped for serving God
5 You were made for a mission
What you're suppose to do with the book is this. It's divided up into 40 brief chapters, and the reader is urged to read but one chapter a day so you can take time to think about it's implications for your life. Therefore, you really start finding yourself interacting with the book, and not just merely "reading" it. To that end, each chapter finishes with points to ponder, a verse to remember, and a question to consider.
All-in-all I found this to be a pretty thought provoking and inspiring book. The chapters are short, which I greatly appreciated due to my busy daily schedule. Additionally, I found the author's writing style easy going, which makes the book an overall enjoyable read. So if you're looking for a good book to help guide you along your spiritual journey, or a "workbook" to help you answer some of life's most important questions, I can definitely recommend you check it out. Other self-help books I liked include The Prayer Project: How Each One of Us Can Make The World a Better Place to Live - In a Few Minutes a Day.
1 You were planned for God's pleasure
2 You were formed for God's family
3 You were created to become like Christ
4 You were shaped for serving God
5 You were made for a mission
What you're suppose to do with the book is this. It's divided up into 40 brief chapters, and the reader is urged to read but one chapter a day so you can take time to think about it's implications for your life. Therefore, you really start finding yourself interacting with the book, and not just merely "reading" it. To that end, each chapter finishes with points to ponder, a verse to remember, and a question to consider.
All-in-all I found this to be a pretty thought provoking and inspiring book. The chapters are short, which I greatly appreciated due to my busy daily schedule. Additionally, I found the author's writing style easy going, which makes the book an overall enjoyable read. So if you're looking for a good book to help guide you along your spiritual journey, or a "workbook" to help you answer some of life's most important questions, I can definitely recommend you check it out. Other self-help books I liked include The Prayer Project: How Each One of Us Can Make The World a Better Place to Live - In a Few Minutes a Day.
295 of 353 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I rate this book as one of the best christian books available. Although I was aware of this book for quite some time, The Purpose Driven Life was given to me as a gift for Christmas. I read the whole book in a few days over the holiday vacation and have since started over taking a chapter a day and really absorbing the contents.
The Purpose Driven Life is truly a life changing book and a must read for anyone who wants the most out of life and live their lives according to the principles of God.
668 of 805 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The Purpose-Driven Life focuses on helping readers answer the question, "What on earth am I here for?" Warren sets out to help readers become the people that God wants them to be.
He elaborates on five truths to answer this question of why we are here. According to Warren, we exist for the purposes of worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship and discipleship. He states that in fulfilling these roles on earth, we find and fulfill our purposes.
This is a comprehensive book about how to live the Christian life successfully. It discusses most of the major themes of The Bible. Warren cites over 1,000 scriptures in the book. He rarely makes a point without quoting from the Bible. The messages of the chapters are relevant for new and mature Christians.
The book is formatted in 40 chapters. Warren suggests readers study a chapter a day for 40 days, so that the reader can take time to reflect and meditate on each chapter's lesson. Each chapter ends with a main point to consider, a scripture to remember and a question to answer. I found these questions to be thought-provoking and meaningful.
This book is an excellent tool for study groups to read and discuss. It emphasizes the importance of Christian character development and of becoming an active member of a community of believers. Warren provides reasons and practical ways for the reader to serve others inside and outside the church.
For a church wanting to develop individuals excited and prepared to do ministry, promoting studies of The Purpose-Driven Life would help to meet this objective. Warren concludes the book by addressing each person's mission within the church and world. He also includes an appendix with further questions to initiate discussion among readers.
In citing 1000 scriptures throughout the book, Warren uses 15 different Bible translations interchangeably. He explains that all translations have limitations and that he uses various translations to present scriptures in a fresh way. The references for the scriptures he quotes are in endnotes, so I was continually turning to the back of the book to discover the version and verse of a scripture. To a minor extent, I think this undermines the integrity and flow of the book.
I always try to keep in mind when reading a book like this that the author's opinions are not infallible like the Bible. I say this because there are a few times while reading this book when I disagreed with an opinion of Warren's which was stated as a fact. Readers should keep in mind that opinions of Christian authors are debatable and not gospel.
I don't think these two criticisms detract much from the value of this book.
Warren writes that "The purpose of your life fits into a much larger, cosmic purpose that God has designed for eternity. That's what this book is about." In The Purpose Driven Life, Warren has written indefatigably about this purpose, and I think reading it will help you identify and fulfill your purpose.
Craig Stephans, author of Shakespeare On Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare's Plays
He elaborates on five truths to answer this question of why we are here. According to Warren, we exist for the purposes of worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship and discipleship. He states that in fulfilling these roles on earth, we find and fulfill our purposes.
This is a comprehensive book about how to live the Christian life successfully. It discusses most of the major themes of The Bible. Warren cites over 1,000 scriptures in the book. He rarely makes a point without quoting from the Bible. The messages of the chapters are relevant for new and mature Christians.
The book is formatted in 40 chapters. Warren suggests readers study a chapter a day for 40 days, so that the reader can take time to reflect and meditate on each chapter's lesson. Each chapter ends with a main point to consider, a scripture to remember and a question to answer. I found these questions to be thought-provoking and meaningful.
This book is an excellent tool for study groups to read and discuss. It emphasizes the importance of Christian character development and of becoming an active member of a community of believers. Warren provides reasons and practical ways for the reader to serve others inside and outside the church.
For a church wanting to develop individuals excited and prepared to do ministry, promoting studies of The Purpose-Driven Life would help to meet this objective. Warren concludes the book by addressing each person's mission within the church and world. He also includes an appendix with further questions to initiate discussion among readers.
In citing 1000 scriptures throughout the book, Warren uses 15 different Bible translations interchangeably. He explains that all translations have limitations and that he uses various translations to present scriptures in a fresh way. The references for the scriptures he quotes are in endnotes, so I was continually turning to the back of the book to discover the version and verse of a scripture. To a minor extent, I think this undermines the integrity and flow of the book.
I always try to keep in mind when reading a book like this that the author's opinions are not infallible like the Bible. I say this because there are a few times while reading this book when I disagreed with an opinion of Warren's which was stated as a fact. Readers should keep in mind that opinions of Christian authors are debatable and not gospel.
I don't think these two criticisms detract much from the value of this book.
Warren writes that "The purpose of your life fits into a much larger, cosmic purpose that God has designed for eternity. That's what this book is about." In The Purpose Driven Life, Warren has written indefatigably about this purpose, and I think reading it will help you identify and fulfill your purpose.
Craig Stephans, author of Shakespeare On Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare's Plays
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
I didn't pick up this book when it first came out because it was so trendy. But 10 years later the book has stood the test of time so I decided to pick it up. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Bob
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Purpose Driven Life Beautifully written book!!
Very inspiring writing...My brother gave a copy to my husband. I needed my own copy to take with me and read in spare moments during the day.... Read more
Published 7 days ago by Suzanne
3.0 out of 5 stars
definition of "like new"
the product was what I was looking for but the seller's idea and my idea of what "like new" means are different.
The book was written in. Read more
The book was written in. Read more
Published 9 days ago by Patricia K.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good inspirational reading.
Very good inspirational reading. The book is worth the money and should be read by everyone looking for answers in their life..
Published 11 days ago by bob
5.0 out of 5 stars
Answers
Interesting , think every individual has their own path . Up lifting to anyone having self doubts. Loved it, listen to it often.
Published 18 days ago by Leah Schroeder
1.0 out of 5 stars
Can't recommend his method of using scripture
The more I read through this book the more disappointed I am with how Rick Warren uses scripture. He uses many many different translations. Read more
Published 29 days ago by Kris
5.0 out of 5 stars
Second-best selling book of all time
You should really become familiar with the best-selling book of all time (Google it) but the beauty of Rick Warren's writings is that they all include thousands of quotes from the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Benjamin D. Mcclary
5.0 out of 5 stars
Phenomenal
An absolute must for the young wonderful female that is growing up in today;s harsh culture/society. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Abby McCarthy
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (Purpose Driven...
Love the book! Fast turn around from purchase to delivery. I would buy from this seller in the future, and recommend to friends!!
Thanks so much
Thanks so much
Published 1 month ago by Kimberly M Adamson
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read
I began reading this book with a male friend of mine. We went through our 40 days as partners. We followed the instructions of the book, making sure we did our lessons at the end... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Crystal Hollingsworth
