The meaning of life

Ok. I told you however many posts ago that I was going to blog about my pastor's message LAST Sunday morning. It is now Saturday evening and I haven't done it yet. So, I will do my best to sum it up here now.

About 125 people between the ages of 10 and 19 will attempt suicide today. 5-6 of them will succeed. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in young people ages 15-24 and the 2nd leading cause of death in college students.

King Solomon, the wisest man ever to live, pondered the meaning of life and found that all is vanity (meaningless), until the final verse of his book Ecclesiastes, which we will get to in a moment.

As human beings, we must have meaning to our lives, or we soon sink into an aimless existence. It is one of the cruelest of conditions to simply exist and yet have no meaning to your life.

The New Testament of the Bible was written in Greek. The Greeks used two different words to describe life:

Bios - which is the biological process of our life... our mere existence here on earth.
Zoe - which goes beyond mere existence and describes life as the absolute fullness of life which belongs to God, destined to last forever.

Now... the Scriptures have a lot to say about this kind of life. Here are just a few...

John 1:4 In Him was LIFE (zoe-life with meaning), and the LIFE (zoe-life with meaning) was the light of men.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting LIFE (zoe-life with meaning).

The LIFE that Jesus imparts gives meaning to our lives.

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the Bread of LIFE (zoe-life with meaning).

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the resurrection and the LIFE (zoe-life with meaning). No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives LIFE (zoe-life with meaning); the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are LIFE (zoe-life with meaning).

The words of GOD are not just some dead words recorded on the page of an ancient book... they are words that come alive as they enter our being! Have you ever been reading the Bible, and the words seem to jump off the page and minister to you? That is real life... zoe life... life with meaning.

Solomon struggled as he searched for the meaning of his life. He wrote an entire book about the emptiness and worthless-ness of life. But then he wrote the last verse (praise God)! It says, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments, For this is the whole duty of man." There you have it. Life with real meaning can only be found in a relationship with God. Solomon lived before the day of Jesus Christ. Had he lived in this day, his words would have been, "The meaning of life is Jesus Christ." He is the way, the truth, and the LIFE (zoe-life with meaning). He is the reason for meaning in our lives.