Your Life is Meaningful

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Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. … For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. – Ecclesiastes 1:2,2:21

What is the meaning of life? It is one of those cosmic questions that everyone asks at some point but, since it seems too big for us to get our heads around, we tend to quickly dismiss it and go on to the next meeting or mall or movie.

A man named Solomon asked this question near the end of his life. Solomon was the king of Israel at the height of Israel’s power. He was healthy, wealthy and wise. Yet, as he neared his life’s end Solomon realized that none of his power or success or wealth would last. In the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon wrote, “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. … For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it.”

If this life is all there is, none of it means anything in the end.

But, Jesus changes everything! Jesus promises that there is a life after this one, an eternal life in heaven. He guarantees we can have this life through faith in him because he paid for our sins on the cross and because he himself came back to life on Easter morning! This means that this world is NOT all there is. We are only going to live in this world for a few years compared to the eternity we are going to spend in the world to come.

So, we don’t need to get so uptight about how much money we don’t make. We don’t have to be constantly stressed over every little thing that doesn’t go our way. We don’t have to chase after every trend that comes down the media highway into our homes.

Live your life in the Lord Jesus and you will learn how meaningful your life is both in the here and now as well as in the heaven to come.

Searching For What Was Lost

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Jesus told this parable, “Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:8-10).

My wife works with a lady who buys her lottery tickets every now and then. One day, a rumor spread that our local grocery store sold a $100,000 ticket. We both thought, “Are we winners?” How would we spend it? Then I said, “Honey, where’s the ticket?” After a brief panic, and a 20 minute search of the house, we found it. The ticket was a loser.

When we lose something that we hold to be valuable, we search for it frantically. That’s what Jesus described in this short story about a woman searching for a coin that she lost. Without Jesus you and I are like that lost coin. Our lustful thoughts, hurting words, and loveless deeds—everything we think, say, or do that fails to be perfect—are sins that separate us from God. How frightening to be lost in sin!

Thankfully, though, there is good news! Jesus came “to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). God sent Jesus to find us and reconnect us to God. Jesus did that by loving us so much that he paid for all our sins by his death on the cross. That’s how much Jesus loves us!

Jesus searches for us and finds us. The angels in heaven rejoice! Jesus comes to us through his Word and takes away our fear by comforting us with the forgiveness of sins. He assures us that he has made us dearly loved children of God. Through Jesus, heaven is our inheritance.

God loves us so much that he stopped at nothing to find us and save us from eternal separation from him in hell. Through Jesus, we have the gift of eternal life, which is a whole lot more valuable that winning the lottery. How fortunate we are! We will never be lost again when we cling in faith to Jesus, our Savior.

Like heaven’s angels, we can rejoice over all that Jesus did to find us and give us life with God.

How do I know there is a God?

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Have you ever thought about how many things you know and believe without having seen them? Take gravity for instance. I have never seen gravity, but I see evidence of it all around me. As a matter of fact, we depend on it for almost all of our everyday activities. Gravity holds our cars on the road. It keeps us from floating away into space. We would be in serious trouble without it.

I look at God in very much the same way that I look at gravity. I have never seen him, but I see evidence that he must exist in the world around me. Whether I am taking in a soft summer sunset or a late night display of the constellations, I know that someone took some serious time and effort to get things just right. The Bible puts it this way, “Every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” (Hebrews 3:4)

Have you ever taken time to look closely at the world in which we live? Get up a little earlier than normal tomorrow and let the sunrise speak for itself. You decide which is more impressive, the beauty of the sunrise or the fact that it has risen every day in the history of the world. You will hear an inaudible voice in that sunrise. It is God’s voice. (See Psalm 19:1-4)

Perhaps you are more impressed with detail. Take time to count the hairs on one of your arms from your wrist to your elbow. As you notice the delicacy with which each hair is connected, consider how hard plastic surgeons work to duplicate a “normal” hair pattern. They never do get it quite right, do they? All of this is part of God’s great attention to detail and more evidence that he does exist.

I have never seen God, but, like gravity, I know he is here. He has taken the time to leave evidence of his existence all around the world in which we live. Take time to notice it. You will see that he is very real. If you want more, definite information, take time to get to know him better in the Bible.

What Is the Trinity?

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“Trinity” means “three-in-one.”  It’s true, the word “Trinity” is not in the Bible.  But the concept is.

The true religion has always stated that there is only one Divine Essence who is called “God.”  From the beginning of time God has revealed himself as the LORD God (Genesis 2:4) and there is no other but him (Isaiah 44:6).  Monotheism set the Hebrews apart from other nations (Deuteronomy 6:4), and Christianity follows the same truth.

God the Father is God.  Jesus spoke of him as “the only true God” (John 17:1,3).  The apostle Paul spoke of God the Father as the creator God and the source of life (1 Corinthians 8:6).

God the Son is God.  Hebrews chapter one emphasizes that fact, explicitly saying “the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (1:3).  We believe as the Bible teaches that “in Christ all the fullness of the deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9).  And we believe that “he is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).  Besides, the Bible attributes to Jesus all the characteristics of God (Matthew 28:18).  Jesus is also to be worshiped as true God (Matthew 28:17; Hebrews 1:6).  The New Testament shows that Jesus is the redeemer of the world from sin and the power of Satan.

God the Holy Spirit is God.  “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17).  He is distinguished from the Father and Son when Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, the Spirit of truth, to be with you forever” (John 14:16-17).  The Holy Spirit is more than an impersonal power of God.  He grieves (Ephesians 4:30), and is the person of the Trinity who works faith in our hearts.  Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3).  Some people “speak against the Holy Spirit” to their damnation (Matthew 12:32).

There are many places in Scripture that mention all three Persons of the Triune God (Matthew 4:16-17).  God has always presented himself in plural terms (Genesis 1:26).

There are three Persons, each one the complete God, and yet there is no more than one single God.  “We worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God” (from the Athanasian Creed of the Christian church).

The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. And they are one God.