What on Earth Am I Here For? (The Purpose Driven Life Series) by Rick Warren is a book all about how to live a proper Christian life. One of the most surprising things about this book is that it was named New York Times “number one bestseller”. Rick Warren is a pastor of the Saddleback Church out in Lake Forest, California. He is well know for his other fairly influential book called The Purpose Driven Church which was released in 1995. After its release, he began organizing seminars for other church leaders to attend. What on Earth Am I Here For? (The Purpose Driven Life Series) is basically a book with 40 small lessons on what one can do to live a genuine Christian life. You are asked to partner up with somebody for 40 days to read one chapter at a time together. The very first chapter is titled “It All Starts With God” and it immediately set the persuasive tone of this book.
As the book progresses, it starts to break down into five main points. The points include:
- “You were planned for God’s pleasure” – Roughly about worship and the friendship you build with God.
- “You were formed for God’s family” – Which is all about finding a community and belonging to it.
- “You were created to become like Christ” – Touches on sanctification and how you can defeat temptation.
- “You were shaped for serving God” – Why we should always look to servant hood, humility, and purposefulness.
- “You were made for a mission” – The final chapters touch on evangelism, world missions, and other challenges.
At the end of each section you will find some group questions you can ask those around you who are also studying the book and the teachings of the book. There are also further study aids which will help someone who is interested in finding out more. There is also some information on how people can take what they learn and use it in their everyday life. This really is a great way of taking your faith and mixing it in with the way you behave to make sure you are living the way Christians should be.
The book doesn’t have any nonsense or useless information and lets you know exactly how to live a fulfilling Christian life. It cuts to the chase and tells you everything you want to know making this book a really well written one. The credits of the book are full of scripture references making it a very pleasant surprise if you want to look them up afterwards. Judgment is something that is only slightly touched on in the book which leaves it more open to interpretation. This may not be something that everyone likes but the book does invite you to follow Christ, quite persuasively in fact. It does state that God’s wrath and holiness are not something to be put aside and should always be followed by devout Christians. If you are interested in finding this book then you can easily search for it online where you can find a copy near you.
