“Better Than Wisdom” by Rev. Marlen (Mikey) Meester || September 14th, 2025
   No one likes to feel stupid. However, as Christians the world can often make us feel stupid for our beliefs. We are declared to be stupid, simpleminded, and superstitious people by those who would claim to be “enlightened” and “freed from the bonds of religion.” When this happens, it can be very disheartening for us and can even cause us to question our faith. However, knowing that we would face this mocking from the world, God has both acknowledged our foolish feelings and provides us with an answer in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
   In verse 18 of our text, St. Paul tells us that “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing” thus acknowledging that the world views Christianity as foolish. But why do they see it as such? According to Paul in verse 22 there are at least two reasons why non-believers see our faith as folly. He writes that “Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom.” You see, throughout Jesus’ ministry on earth, the Jews constantly demanded signs or proof that He was sent from God. Likewise, non-believers today also demand “proof” that God exists and that Jesus is God. Often, along with claiming that they want proof, they also claim that they already know that there is no proof and that we as Christians simply believe in God because of wishful thinking. And when they make these claims, sometimes it can shake our faith. For to believe in something for which there is no proof truly be quite foolish and we would be devoting our lives to a mere wish.
   However, the problem with the non-believer’s claims is that there is proof for God and that Jesus is God. The mere fact that this world even exists which all of its intricate details should be proof enough that there is a God. However, quite often (but not always) those who claim to want proof have been given proof. They simply just ignore it because they don’t want to believe in God. The Jews of Jesus’ day constantly asked Him for a sign. They even asked Him for a sign the day after He had fed them and 5,000 other people! Jesus’ ministry was full of signs. And still, they crucified Him. Even today, we see this same scenario. The famous atheist, Richard Dawkins, once said that the only thing that could convince him of the existence of God was if God Himself appeared to him. However, since then he has changed his mind saying that if God appeared to him, he still wouldn’t believe, because he would assume he was hallucinating. Thus, many who claim that we are stupid because there is no proof for God, actively deny any proof that is presented to them.
   But not only does the world demand proof of God’s existence, but it demands wisdom. The Greeks of Jesus day were very intelligent people. St. Justin Martyr, who was born about the same year the Apostle John died, once called the ancient Greek philosophers “Christians before Christ,” because although they were not themselves believers in the One True God, they were able to come to deep understandings of who God is without it being revealed to them in Scripture. However, with their great intelligence came a demand for wisdom and logic. This demand made parts of Christianity seem very foolish. For example, the Greeks looked around at the wickedness and evil in the world and concluded that the physical world was evil. Thus, they believed that the goal of life was to escape the evil physical world for the goodness of the spiritual. However, Christianity upholds the goodness of the physical world. God became flesh in the man Jesus. Christ will raise us physically from the dead and will physically remake the world. But to the Greeks this was a ridiculous notion. Even today, the world sees Christianity is illogical. Many would think it illogical and foolish that a perfectly holy God would come down to die to save us imperfect and sinful creatures. On the opposite side of the spectrum, many think it illogical that a good God could allow evil in the world. To much of the world our faith is foolish because they don’t think it makes logical sense. And when they accuse us of believing in something so foolish, again it can make us question if what we believe is true.
   But while Christianity may seem foolish, that’s okay because as verse 21 tells us: It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” You see, the answer to these feelings of foolishness is the cross of Christ. For those who mock you will eventually perish, but you who trust in Christ will be saved. You know, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that God would come to die for you. God isn’t like you and me. He doesn’t make mistakes, or fail. He doesn’t have aches and pains. He alone made the entire universe. He made you. He is infinitely greater than you or I. In fact, He is perfect. And how foolish does it seem that an infinitely perfect God would come down and live in His own creation; experiencing cold, hunger, pain, and even death? And how foolish does it seem that He did this for you? God doesn’t need you. He would be perfectly fine without you and yet He died for you anyway! What this shows is truly just how much God loves you. He loved you so much that He died for you so that if you believe in Him you will spend eternity with Him in heaven.
   And, the cross answers the question of evil too. Why doesn’t a good God do something to stop all the evil in the world? Well, He has. He sent His Son to die for us. And in Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection He has crushed sin, death, and the devil so that it only lives on borrowed time. And when Jesus returns He will cast all evil into the eternal lake of fire, while all of us who trust in Jesus death on the cross will live for an eternity with Jesus where there will be no more evil ever.
You see, the answer to the mocking of the non-believers is the cross of Christ. As you go about your life and are attacked and mocked for the seeming stupidity of your faith, you don’t need to feel foolish. Because at the end of the day, at the end of time, those people who mock our faith will not be laughing. But you will be spending eternity in perfection with your Blessed Savior because of His work and love on the cross.
   And this can be very freeing. In fact, it can be so freeing that when you are mocked for your faith, instead of feeling foolish or getting defensive, you can trust in the cross of Christ, knowing it is true. And then out of love which Jesus gives you, you can share the good news of the cross with your mockers, you can pray for them, so that they might not perish because of their worldly wisdom, but would turn to the foolishness of the cross so that they might spend eternity with Jesus as well.
   And so, of you ever feel foolish because of your faith, I pray that you would be emboldened as you look at the cross of Christ. As you look to Jesus, nailed to the tree, be confident in your salvation and rejoice in the foolishness of the cross. For it is the power of God to destroy sin, death, and evil and to welcome you and all who trust in Jesus into everlasting life.

“A Matter of Life and Death” by Rev. Marlen (Mikey) Meester || September 7th, 2025
   The phrase “A matter of life and death” is pretty self-explanatory. When someone uses the phrase it usually means that if they do not solve the issue immediately, then someone might not be alive for much longer. Now, while earthly matters of life and death are serious, spiritual matters of life and death are even more serious. These spiritual matters don’t just determine our earthly fate, but they determine where we will spend eternity - in heaven or hell. Considering the seriousness of these spiritual matters of life and death, it is important for us to know the path of life and the path of death, in order that we might choose which path we would like to follow. In order to show us these paths, God gives us instruction in Deuteronomy 30:15-20, where He begins by saying: “I have set before you today life and good, death, and evil” (Deut. 30:15). And in giving us these instructions, it is God’s hope that you would choose the path of life and good, so that you might spend eternity with Him in heaven.
   Let us start, however, with the path to death and evil - or hell. How do we choose hell? (For God does not send people to hell, but they choose to go there). According to verses 17-18 the path to death and evil comes if your “hearts turn away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish.” There are two things here to highlight: First that we choose hell when we ignore God’s word, and secondly when we choose to worship other gods.
   Now, the thing that most often causes us to ignore God’s Word is our feelings. We live in a culture that is very feelings oriented. If we feel that something is wrong, then we think it must be wrong. This can even happen to Christians. We feel so compelled by our feelings that if we read something in the Bible that we don’t like, instead of accepting it, we try to run away from it by ignoring it or “reinterpreting” it so it makes us feel better.
   And this placing of feelings over Scripture, ties in well with the worship of false gods. While certainly the most explicit examples are those who worship Allah or Vishnu (Muslim and Hindu gods), what is perhaps even more relatable to us as Christians is the worship of ourselves. Often our feelings cause us to question authority. We see this in politics, in healthcare, and even in religion. How many people in the world today are “spiritual but not religious” because they don’t feel that they can trust the authority of the Church or any other religious institution? But when we or anyone else make ourselves the authority over Scripture as has been understood and interpreted by the Church since the time of the Apostles, then we are worshiping ourselves. We are putting ourselves in a place of authority over God. And this, if it is done with the primary matters of faith and continues in unrepentance, is the path of death and evil.
   But what then is the path to life and good? Verse 16 says: “If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statues and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you…” Here we see that the path to life and good is the exact opposite of the path to death and evil: Instead of ignoring God’s Word and worshiping false gods, we are to hear every word of God and keep and do it.
   But there is a problem: Because atheists can follow God’s Laws just as much as any Christian can. They can love their neighbor. They can give to the poor. They can help others. But the atheist doesn’t go to heaven. So how can the path to life and heaven be keeping God’s commandments if anyone can do that?
   Well, you’ll notice something that I’ve left out. The heart. You see, when God talks about both the path to life and the path to death, He always talks about the heart. When talking about the path to death He says, “If you heart turns away…” and when talking about the path to life He says, “If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God.” You see, the difference between the Christian and the atheist, is that the Christian does all of his work out of love for God. And this is ultimately what God cares about. He doesn’t really care about how many good works you do, but what He cares about is if you love Him. And if you do love Him, then that love will act, and you will obey His commandments just like He has called you to do (although you certainly won’t do it perfectly here on earth.)
   A great example of this in the Old Testament is of the covenant of circumcision. God gave this covenant to Abraham and his offspring, the Israelites, as a sign that they were God’s people. However, the Israelites began to do circumcision believing that it made them right with God, and then went on to ignore God and worship idols. And so God tells the people that He doesn’t really care about the physical circumcision. What He really wants is circumcision of the heart. He wants their hearts to follow and love Him, not just their physical actions to look like the loved him. God expresses this well in Deut. 30:6 when He says: “The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
   And this is what God wants of you and me. He doesn’t just want your actions, but He wants your love - your heart. But how do we love God? Well, just as in Deut. 30:6 we see that while we cannot love God on our own, He works that love in us. In Colossians 2:11-12 St. Paul writes: “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism…” Here we see, that just as God circumcised the hearts of the Israelites, so does He circumcise your heart in baptism.
   As Jesus rose from the dead, He did not just promise you a remade and perfect body, but also a remade and perfect heart - one that is capable of loving Him. And as you were baptized, you were united with Jesus’ resurrection and have been given that circumcised heart so that now, you might choose to love Him. And if you love Him, not only will you do the good works He has called you to do, but you will also be on the path to life, to good, and to heaven.
   And so, if you are wondering today which path you might be on, look to your baptism. Look to Jesus and what He has done for you. Trust Him and love Him. And in that love, seek to do His will, not because doing His will on its own will get you into heaven, but because He has already given you a place in Heaven through the power of His resurrection from the dead.

“Heavenly Civics Test” by Rev. Marlen (Mikey) Meester || August 31st, 2025
   When individuals want to become citizens of the United States, they are required to take a civics test. On this test are various questions about the U.S. government, U.S. history, and current events. However, one category that is not on the civics test is: “How to be a good citizen.” As Christians in America, how we can be good citizens should be something that we take very seriously. Why? Because this is something that God takes seriously.
   In Proverbs 25:2-10, God gives some practical instruction on how we can be good citizens. And while He doesn’t cover everything, these instructions tell us both how we as citizens should treat our political leaders and how we should treat our fellow citizens.
   First, God tells us how to treat our political leaders. In verses 2-7 God describes kings and how they should be treated. Now, while we in America do not have kings, the principles taught here still apply to our political leaders today.
The first way in which God describes our leaders is that they are wise. As God has hidden His truth in our hearts, in nature, and in His Word, it is the responsibility of our leaders to search out that truth. And then in finding the truth, they are to have the wisdom to apply that truth to our lives through laws.
   Secondly, God describes our leaders as righteous. He points out that if we were to remove all wicked influences from our government officials they would be righteous. Their rule over our land would be as good and perfect as God is.
Now, it is because of their wisdom and righteousness that we are to honor and respect our leaders. And one way which God tells us that we can show our leaders the honor they are due is by being humble around them. We should not treat them in an overly friendly manner, lest we risk making a fool of ourselves in front of them. Only when our leaders ask us for our thoughts and opinions, or invite us to come along side them should we then feel comfortable to share our insight with them.
   But now, as we read this, it can be rather alarming. Because as we look around at Springfield or Washington D.C. we don’t see many wise and righteous politicians. How can God expect us to treat these men and women with any honor or respect when they are so corrupt? Well, what we need to remember is that while we are certainly subject to our earthly leaders, we are also subject to the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus. And while we face corruption on earth, our King, Jesus, promises us a future Kingdom under His reign where all evil will be gone. But until that time, He has set up earthly governments to rule in His stead. In Romans 13, St. Paul tells us that all governments are instituted by God and that governing leaders are even “ministers of God.” (Romans 13:6). You see, just as pastors are called to stand in the place of Christ to bring the forgiveness of sins and declare salvation to God’s people, so are our government leaders called by Jesus to stand in His place to bring justice and execute His judgment. And so, even when our leaders fail, and even as we seek to remove them from office for their wickedness, we should still respect their office, because that office has been set up and instituted by God.
   After telling us how to treat our leaders, God goes on in verse 8-10 to tell us how we should treat our fellow citizens. And here He gives us just two things: Don’t be hasty to sue, and don’t tell other people’s secrets.
Now, God’s reasoning for these two commands is the same: Don’t do these things so that you aren’t shamed. You see, God cares a lot about whether or not His people are put to shame. Why? Because when Christians are put to shame it reflects poorly on the faith. How can we expect men and women to come to faith in Jesus Christ when those who claim to follow Him are constantly being shamed for suing other people and telling other people’s secrets?
   And in the case of suing, God calls us to instead argue our cases personally with our neighbors instead of bringing them to court. And this is because of what Jesus did for you. Psalm 51:5 tells us that from the moment that we were conceived we were sinful. Before faith in Christ, our entire lives were ones in which we defamed and hurt God. Yet, instead of judging and condemning us, God sent His only Son, Jesus to die and rise again for us. And ever since then, He has worked constantly to get you to see the truth of your sin, and to turn to Him. And as we face difficulties with our fellow men, instead of seeking to sue them, we should work with them to try to get them to see the error of their ways so that they too might become citizens of God’s Kingdom.
   Ultimately, this is why God calls us to be good citizens. Because by honoring our leaders, working things out with our neighbors, and keeping other people’s secrets, we are showing others what it looks like to be citizens of the Kingdom of God so that they too, might someday also be numbered in the population of our heavenly country.

“Do You See What I See?” by Rev. Marlen (Mikey) Meester || August 24th, 2025
   When the Apostle Nathanael first met Jesus, he was skeptical. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (v.46) were the words he spoke when he first heard of Jesus. His skepticism continued when upon his arrival at the place where Jesus was staying, Jesus greets him by saying: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” (v. 47). To which Nathanael responds: “How do you know me?” (v.48)
   Nathanael had never met Jesus before and yet here Jesus claimed to know his heart - to know that he was honest. Nathanael understandably is hesitant. However, Jesus’ response to Nathanael proves that He does, in fact, know Nathanael’s heart and everything else about him. Jesus tells him where he has been. In verse 48 Jesus says, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
   Upon hearing Jesus tell him where he had been, a switch suddenly flips within Nathanael. Jesus had no way of knowing where he had been. There were no phones or cameras or GPS to locate him. Jesus had to have just known. And more than known, Jesus tells Nathanael that He had seen him under the fig tree. Jesus must be able to see everything.
   And this highlights something very important about Jesus. He sees and knows everything. He sees and knows all you do and all you’ve done. He knows the intimate thoughts and desires of your heart. Everything, good or bad, is done in full view of Jesus.
   Now for some this might be a scary thought. But for Nathanael, it brought him joy as he exclaims: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” But why does knowing that Jesus sees everything bring Nathanael joy? It’s because the God of the Universe, Jesus Christ, knew Him intimately. And this is the same reason it should bring us joy.
   Think, for a moment, about this. Jesus sees all your hurt. He sees all your pain. He sees when you cry alone at night. He sees the pain you feel when someone you love hurts you. He sees your anxiety and your stress. He sees it all. And He doesn’t just see your pain and leave you to deal with it yourself. He did something about it.
   Jesus died and rose again so that your pain might be healed. Jesus’ resurrection guarantees that all people will rise from the dead, and for those who place their faith in Him, He guarantees eternal life without pain and without suffering.
But not only does Jesus see and care about your hurt, but He sees and cares about your sin. Jesus knows every detail of everything you’ve ever done wrong. He knows all of the dark thoughts that have crept in the deep recesses of your mind. He knows all the things you’ve done when you thought no one was looking. He knows it all. But instead of despising you and abandoning you to your own wickedness and to rot in hell, He loved you and experienced hell on the cross so that if you trust in Him, and ask Him to take all your sin from you, you won’t have to go to hell. He will forgive you. And that is cause for joy.
   But not only does Jesus see you, but if you believe in Him, He gives you the opportunity to see and know Him. In verse 51, Jesus tells Nathanael that because he believed, he would see: “heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
   What Jesus is referring to here is two Old Testament passages which illustrate who He is and what He will do. The first passages is Genesis 28:12 where Jacob has a dream in which he sees a ladder go up to heaven and angels ascending and descending the ladder. The second passage is Daniel 7: 13, 14 in which the Son of Man receives the eternal and glorious kingdom of all nations. And now in the Gospel of John, Jesus says that He is the fulfillment of those passages.
   Jesus is the ladder which will unite heaven and earth, and He is the Son of Man who at the end of time will receive the glorious heavenly kingdom. What Jesus is talking about is His return. When Jesus returns heaven and earth will be united as they were in the Garden before the Fall. And Jesus will rule and reign over all nations and peoples for eternity. And Nathanael, and all who believe will witness this amazing sight. In short, as Revelation 21:3 says “The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God”.
   What Jesus is promising in our text is that you will get to dwell with Him. And to dwell with someone is more than just being a roommate. To dwell with someone is the live in an intimate relationship with them. And as Jesus describes Himself in this text, that is exactly what He is describing.
   And this should also bring us joy. Not only does Jesus sees us for who we are and love us and care for us in spite of all He sees. So, does He promise that if you believe in Him, you too will get to know Him in His entirety as you dwell with Him for eternity. And what could bring us more joy than that?

“Defining Faith” - Rev. Marlen (Mikey) Meester || August 10th, 2025
   What does it mean to “have faith”? This question seems simple. We know we must have faith in Jesus to be saved, but when we stop to think about what it actually means to “have faith” we can have difficulty finding an answer. However, as we read the Bible, we find that God gives us the very answer we are looking for. In Hebrews 11:1 God tells us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Later in verse 6 He goes to explain this even further: “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” From these two verses, we can put together an answer for the question of what it means to have faith. Faith is a conviction. Faith is an assurance. And faith acts.
   First, we find that faith is “the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). This is further clarified as the belief that God exists (Heb 11:6). In other words, to have true faith is to believe that God is real. But we can’t just believe that any god is real. Most of the world believes that a god exists, yet most of the world does not have true faith. No, we must believe in the Christian God. We must believe in the Trinity - One God in Three Persons. We must believe in Jesus as God’s only Son who is fully God and fully man. In essence, we must believe what we confess each Sunday in the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds.
   This belief in the Christian God is called the “conviction of things not seen” because while none of us witnessed the events of the Bible, we still believe it! However, we do not believe blindly. The world sees faith as a blind hope based on the feeling that something is true, despite all evidence pointing against it. Yet we believe because time after time, we see God’s Word proven true.
   Perhaps the greatest evidence of all for our faith is the evidence for the resurrection. In Lee Strobel’s book The Case for Easter he points to the fact that out of every atheist scholar who seriously studies the resurrection there is only one who attempts to explain how the tomb was empty and how 500 people saw a risen Jesus. And that explanation is that the disciples stole Jesus’ body and that His secret identical twin brother appeared to everyone! The evidence for the resurrection is so strong that most people would rather be silent than try to give an explanation.
   Faith is the conviction and belief that the Christian God is real because the evidence so strongly points to its reality.
   Secondly, faith is the “The assurance of things hope for,” (Heb. 11:1) or the belief that God “rewards those who seek Him” (Heb 11:6). You see, merely believing in the Christian God is not the entirety of faith. Even the demons believe that God is real (James 2:19). True faith is believing that the Christian God brought salvation to YOU.  
   You see, Jesus left His heavenly glory and set it aside to become a poor baby for you. He lived a perfect life so that you don’t have to be burdened by trying to keep God’s law perfectly. He was whipped, cursed, and nailed to a cross - dying, so that your sins might be forgiven. And Jesus rose from the dead so that you too might rise again. Jesus did this all for you. Not just for the world in an abstract sense, but for you personally. And having the assurance and believing that Jesus did all this for you so that you might spend eternal life with Him in heaven, that is the second part of true faith.
   Finally, true faith takes this conviction and belief in the Christian God and the assurance and belief that He has saved you and it acts. Verses 4 - 16 of Hebrews give example after of example of men and women from history who had true faith and acted on it.
   Perhaps the most well-known of these examples is of Noah. Verse 7 says: “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.” You’ll notice here that the text doesn’t say” “By faith Noah sat there.” Instead it says: “By faith, Noah did something!”
   In giving these examples, God tells us something very important: Faith always works. You see, “faith alone” doesn’t mean that all we have to do is believe and then we can go about living our lives however we want. “Faith alone” means you don’t need to worry about doing good works to get into heaven, because having faith in Jesus will get you there. And now, that you are saved, you can do good works - not out of fear of God - but out of love for Him and confidence in His promises to you in the face of the difficulties of life.
   When God came to Noah, He told him something that must have sounded ridiculously hard and crazy. There was a flood coming that would wipe out the whole world, so Noah was supposed to build a big boat and put a bunch of animals on it. Imagine what Noah’s neighbors must have thought! Yet, Noah believed that God was the Almighty Creator of the world and that He would save Noah and his family from this flood. So, in faith, Noah built the ark.
   In a similar way, God often asks us to do difficult and seemingly crazy things. He asks us to defend the truth of marriage, sexuality, and life even when the world would call us intolerant and wicked for it. He asks us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us such as terrorist or dictators. Sometimes He even asks us to lay down our lives for Him.
   And yet, despite how difficult these things appear, when you place your faith - even faith as small as a mustard seed - in God and trust in His power to protect you and His promise to give you eternal life, you can act on your faith even in the scariest and most difficult of circumstances because God will take care of you.
   So what does it mean to have faith? It means to be convicted that God is real, to be assured that He has saved you, and to act on that conviction and assurance - going about and doing His work and will in the world until all believers receive their reward: eternal life with Jesus.

“The Meaning of Life” - Rev. Marlen (Mikey) Meester || August 3rd, 2025
   Does life have any meaning? This is a question that mankind has asked since Adam and Eve fell into sin. Even today, many people, perhaps even you, have asked this question. Fortunately, God knew that we would ask this very question and in His great goodness provided us with an entire book of the Bible to answer this deep question. That book is Ecclesiastes.
   In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon begins by saying: “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecc. 1:2). Now, “vanity” isn’t a word we use too often today. However, in more modern terms, what Solomon is saying is: “Meaningless! All is meaningless.”
   And there is our answer: According to Solomon - According to God: Life, on it’s own, is meaningless. But why? How did Solomon come to such a depressing conclusion? Later in Chapter two, Solomon explains: “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.” (Ecc. 2:18-19). What Solomon realized throughout his life, was that everything he worked so hard for would eventually go to someone else - and he had no idea if they would use it wisely or destroy it. According to Solomon, life is meaningless because nothing that we do lasts forever.
   And we can see this in our own lives. I can name only one of my great-great grandparents. All of the others have been forgotten. And a couple of generations from now, you and I will likely be forgotten too. How many of our favorite shops and restaurants from childhood are gone? How many family farms have been sold to someone else? All of these things that we once cherished so dearly eventually go away and will be forgotten. Even the most successful people and the greatest inventions are ultimately meaningless. No matter how influential a person or invention has been, all it takes is one asteroid to hit the earth at the right time and all humanity is wiped out completely, and none of those people or inventions matter. What we see from our own lives confirms what Solomon saw from his. Ultimately, life, on its own, is meaningless.
   But while this seems like a rather depressing thing to think about, Solomon gives an answer to the meaningless of life. And what he tells us is that while life, by itself, is meaningless. Life with God has meaning.
   In Chapter two Solomon writes: “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” Here, Solomon tells us that the meaning of life with God is to enjoy what God has given you. Sometimes, I think we are afraid to enjoy life. We want everything to be “special”.
   My mom recently threw a party all because she had some candles she wanted to use. Years ago she had bought some fish candles. And the only time she ever used one was on my first birthday. The rest, however, she kept packed away for a “special day.” However, that special day never came. And so, 25 years later, she decided that she should just enjoy the candles. And so, she threw a party. The meaning of life is to enjoy what God has given us, whether it is fish candles, a bowl of ice cream, or a pair of new shoes. God wants us to enjoy the gifts He gives us.
   But not only should we enjoy His gifts, but also the jobs that He calls us to do. Because when we do the work God calls us to in joy, we have the potential to make an eternal impact. Without God, when you feed the hungry it ultimately doesn’t matter - that person will go hungry again, and ultimately you both will die and be forgotten. But with God, when you feed the hungry with the joy of Christ, God can use you to bring that person to Him, so that when you both die, you can spend eternity being satisfied in the presence of Jesus.
   The meaning of life is to enjoy the gifts and work that God has given you. But do you know why God has given these things to you? It is because of His Son Jesus Christ.
   In John 10:10, Jesus says: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus came in order to give you and abundant life. And while this is certainly true of heaven, this is also true of here on earth. All of the good gifts that we receive on earth today are because of God’s love for us which He ultimately expressed as Jesus was nailed to the cross. And these gifts are glimpses and promises of what is to come for those who trust in Jesus. So that as you sit around with your loved ones, enjoying their company, what you are experiencing is a glimpse and promise of what heaven will be like as you experience eternal and perfect fellowship with all who trust in Jesus.
   So, does life have meaning? On its own, no. But with God, yes! With God, the meaning of your life is to simply enjoy the gifts and work that He gives you, trusting that it is a promise and glimpse of the enjoyment yet to come when Jesus returns.