Reliable Truth

What is the purpose of work? Jeffrey Salkin in the Wall Street Journal said this, “Americans work so hard that we often put work at the emotional and spiritual center of our lives.” And then Sigmund Freud who, in all that I’ve read about him, lived a miserable life -  he said, “Work is the most powerful deflector to keep us from having to face the unhappiness of our existence.” Last week we looked at the problem of making pleasure the highest goal in our lives. This week, we’re looking at a second very natural diversion - our work. Our labor, as Solomon calls it.Work is good. Work is ordained by God. In fact, II Thessalonians 3:10, Paul says this, "If a man is not willing to work, don’t let him eat!" Your work has the great potential to give your life a certain sense of meaning. The problem with it, just like pleasure, it doesn’t last. It’s just temporary. Join me as we look for wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes!

What is the modern secular view of life? You might say it is the same as Solomon’s conclusion in Ecclesiastes - if there is no God, life is meaningless. Your pursuits and your endeavors are temporary, and nothing more than chasing after the wind. Solomon concluded that life "under the sun" means there is no God who stands behind you and existence. There is no God sustaining the universe. No life after death. There’s no judgment. There’s no eternity. When it comes to all the big questions the philosophers and intellectuals have asked over the centuries, there are no answers, and no one to give you the answers to those questions. Solomon concludes life is meaningless.If there is no God, if there is no meaning to life, what should we do? 

"Do you find yourself unsatisfied with things in your life?" Warren Wiersbe asks in his commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes. He continues, “If so, you are in good company, because dissatisfaction is a part of the human condition. That’s why God gave us the book of Ecclesiastes — to remind us that satisfaction in life is not an external issue that can be appeased by amassing more stuff, or having certain life experiences. It’s an internal condition of the heart,” He goes on to say, “I believe for the satisfaction of this life is possible, but to only the extent of my personal relationship with God. This is the big idea that runs through the book of Ecclesiastes.”Join us today as we study the book of Ecclesiastes together!

Jerry Leachman of Leachman Ministries joins us again today to share a special message about Christmas. His focus is on the shepherds, the first people the angels told about Jesus' birth. They were the first to see the baby Jesus. They knelt and worshipped him. They were the first to worship and on the way back to their sheep, they witnessed to everybody. They were the first missionaries. They told everybody, the Messiah has come. We saw Him and we praised Him. These humble shepherds. Don’t we all need a bigger dose of humility? And our pride, and our sense of entitlement today?Jerry is a favorite speaker at The Center's events. Along with being an associate Chaplain in The NFL for many years, Jerry has done ministry in Guatemala, Scotland, Russia, Europe and Africa as well as all over the U.S. He and his wife Holly have been on Young Life Staff and continue to be involved with Young Life here and also internationally. Learn more about Jerry here.

What are you living for? A few years ago USA Today did a poll, asking their readers this one question, “If you could ask God one question and get an answer, what would that question be?” And interestingly, the overwhelming number one question that the readers answered was ‘What on earth am I here for?’ Why am I alive? Why do I exist? What are you living for? Because the way we answer that question will ultimately determine if we will ever find meaning in life.French novelist and Nobel prize winner Albert Camus once said, “The fundamental question about life is the question of meaning. Anything else is secondary. Until the question of meaning is dealt with, I cannot give answers to the other questions of life.” I think Camus is telling us that the question of meaning is the most pivotal question in life. Life can be full of meaning... but it can only truly be found in Jesus Christ.

How much of your life have you wasted trying to impress others? How much different would your life be if you were delivered from the fear and worry about what others think of you? Today we're looking again at what Solomon has to say about our work in the book of Ecclesiastes.Solomon says this, “What does the worker gain from his toil? I’ve seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the heart of men.” Solomon is saying that our lives are linked to eternity because we are eternal beings. And he says, because of that, we desire a permanence to our lives. We would like to think that our lives are going to have a permanence and a stamp and a significance in this life that I’ve lived.If Jesus were standing before us today, and if we asked Him to make a comment about our work and success and the fruit of our labor, I wonder what would He say to us? I believe that out of love, He might tell us the same thing He told his disciples. Now Jesus always told them not what they wanted to hear, what they needed to hear. And this to me is a powerful, powerful verse from Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

If you could live your life over again, would you do anything differently? As I meet with men every day, I find that there are so many men who live with the pain of regret. Today's podcast is about the book of Ecclesiastes - a philosophical book about the sorrows, the regrets and the life of King Solomon. You see, he turned away from his faith in his latter years, and he turned away to false God gods and to idols of the many wives that he had taken from foreign lands. And as he writes this book, he often stops and looks back, and he asked this one question, "Can man find meaning in life if there is no God?" I encourage you to join me for today's talk.As we approach this Christmas, remember the words of the hymnist, "Joy to The World, the Lord has come, let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing."

Are we in the land of the living? Actually, we are in the land of the dying.My guest today, Jerry Leachman, would tell you that this is a message from a dead man. Five years ago he had a massive heart attack, and experienced what his doctor described as “sudden death”. Jerry tells his story about being with Jesus during that time, and the message that he was impressed with to share with us.A second touch. A second opportunity to get your life right with God. That's what Jerry got. Could you or someone you love be in need of a second touch from God.Jesus and heaven are real. They are real. Don’t miss either of them. >>Watch the video on YouTube here.

What gives meaning to life? How do we treasure God and people? What is God's unique purpose for me, and then how do I wisely invest my life?Today my guest is Ken Boa, President of Reflections Ministries. In this final message on Transitioning Well, Ken will give us tools on how to live wisely; to give us a sense of encouragement, destiny and an understanding of where our lives are meant to be.God is ever seeking to transfer our affections and hopes from the temporal to the eternal. The principles in today's message can help you become a person who is able to walk in this world with composure and clarity, so that you can approach relationships out of the overflow of Christ in you.

Today my guest is Ken Boa, President of Reflections Ministries. This is Part 2 of his 3 part series on Transitioning Well – Living this day as if it's your last.Do you think it's possible for a person to miss his life, like a person that misses a plane? Yes! I can live for the future, thinking if I can accomplish this or that, then I'll be happy, I'll be content. Guess what happens if you are among the rare people who actually achieved that thing you were really hoping to do? You’ll discover it’s not all it was cracked up to be, that the happiness was only temporary. So, instead of living in the future, we are called to live in the now and to enjoy His presence in the present tense, to live fully and to recalibrate and to have an understanding that God’s presence in our present is the idea of practicing His presence in the now. You only have one day and that’s this day.Most of your impact is hidden in this life. But there is a purpose, there is a hope and there is a calling. And my prayer for all of us is that we would seek Him out, ask Him to guide us, empower us and become more like Him.