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WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE? Program 199 Recreated by God by Ernest O’Neill
What is the meaning of life? That is, why are we here? Why are you here? Why has existence taken place? Why was the earth brought into being? Or was it brought into being? That’s the question, or the topic, that we’re discussing this year on this program. And we’ve probably reached about the 199th broadcast in that discussion today. And we’re zeroing in now on the problem that many of us experience in our grown up lives; the problem of discovering our selves again. That is, finding out who we originally were.
So many of us have become just shadows of what we used to be. We were born into the world as little spontaneous, fresh individuals who had ideas of their own. And who found some excitement in the world. After twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years or more, we turn into grey ghosts of what we used to be, who are more like robots — that live to please everybody else or to get what we need from the world so that we can die a decent death. And when we try to find out who we originally were or what we were meant to do, we are unable to do it.
And we have, of course, been following through the explanation of why that is so that is given by the remarkable man Jesus who lived in the first century.(cid:9)And we believe that He is the Son of the Maker of the universe. And He explained that if we insisted on believing that there was no God and there was no Maker of the universe, then life would become a tale told by an idiot to us. It would make no sense. And so, we would look around and decide that we had to therefore, ensure our own food supply as best we could and our own clothing supply so that at least we could stay alive to think about it a little longer.
And in doing that, we would become utterly dependent on the companies that we work for or the banks or the money or the job or the people that we had to please. He said also that we would feel very lost and insignificant in the midst of four billion people because we were really made to be loved and to be recognized by the Maker of the universe. That’s why He made us. He made us so that He could love us. He really is our Father. And He really actually loves you. But when you don’t believe in Him, and you don’t recognize that He’s there, then you end up with a great sense of emptiness, because there is no one that loves you like He does.
And so you try to fill that emptiness by getting the approval of your wife or your peers or your friends or anybody who will approve and give you recognition. Just so long as you get some sense of self-esteem and self-worth. And Jesus explained that that’s what we would do, until we became utterly dependent on people for that sense of approval. And we became utterly dependent on things for our security and our shelter and our food and our clothing. And so, we would actually end up shells of what we used to be, who were simply the playthings of the things that we depended on — really, the world itself — for what we should have got from the Maker of the universe.
And Jesus explained that’s because the world actually doesn’t care too much about preserving you as you are. It isn’t too anxious to preserve your individuality. In fact, it’s anxious for the other. It’s anxious for the opposite: that you’ll conform to its image and become like the rest of the stereotyped individuals who are depending upon it. And so, there is a sense in which the world, when you depend on it, turns you into a shell or a robot that satisfies it, that pleases it.
And so Jesus explained that the only way you could ever find yourself, even after years and years of this kind of living, was if you believed what He said. That is, if you believed that He really was the Son of the Maker of the universe, and you believed His explanation of what went wrong, and you believed that you did not only have a body with the five senses by which you communicate with the world of people and circumstances and
things around you. You did not only have a soul, with which you were able to perceive what you felt and what you thought though your mind and emotions and will. But also had a spirit; that there was a real you inside all those shells. That there was something that was essentially you, that was different from everybody else in the universe.
And there was a spirit. That’s what He called it. He said it’s your spirit. The very spirit of you is “you” and you must first believe that I am really the Son of the Maker of the universe. Then you have to believe that that spirit is there. If you don’t believe that, there’s no way to find it. But you have a spirit. And believe that it’s there. And then, you have to believe that His Father, the Maker of the universe, is able to make that come alive again inside you. He’s able to make your spirit come into existence again. He’s able to recreate you as you originally were.
He’s able to bring alive you, as an individual, the very essence of you. The “you” as probably your mother first saw you; an individual, on your own, who is here for a set purpose, planned by the Maker of the universe and that you can fulfill. And that’s the third thing you need to believe. And then He said you need to believe that the Maker of the universe is more than willing to make that spirit inside you come alive. He’s able to get you to almost as if it were be born all over again. He’s able to bring that alive inside.
And then, He said that there’s one other need that you have in order to let the Maker of the world do that. And that is the need to change your whole mind. “Metanoia” is the Greek word — change your mind about the way you’re living. Change your mind. Change it from depending on your friends for your self-esteem. Stop that! That’s dumb. Just stop doing it. Who cares what they think of you? Many of them will die before you will. Anyway, they have no power over your destiny. And if you say, oh well my boss has — well he only has it as much as the Creator of the universe allows him to have it.
The Maker of the universe is able to make a path for you despite all the other people in your life. He is the one Significant Other. They are only the bluffed, deceived significant others. But He is the one that really matters. He is the “top banana”. He is the one that matters above all else. And believe that Jesus said that His approval is the one that counts. And believe that it’s not the money that gives you the security. He makes the money. Sometimes the federal, the Fed, make the money. Sometimes the Bank of England makes the money.
But the One who really produces the power that enables your bills to be paid is the One who originally made the “whole show”. And start trusting Him. Start believing in Him. Jesus said, “Look, don’t be anxious about what you’ll eat, or what you’ll drink, or what you’ll put on. Look at the birds of the field; they do not toil nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of much more value than they?” And so He said, listen, My Father has a vested interest in you. He made you in His own image. He wants you to be His friend. He wants you to love Him, and He wants to love you. So, don’t you see that He has a vested interest in taking care of you?
So, stop depending on the bank or the money or the job or the employer or the salary. By all means God might use all those to produce the stuff for you but it’s Him that does it. He is the original first cause. These are all secondary causes that are dependent on Him. So start being sensible. Stop believing that the milk comes from the milkman. It doesn’t. It comes from a cow. Believe that these things originally come from the Maker of the universe, and that it’s Him that you really ought to be grateful to. And start having that attitude to Him. That’s what is called faith. Start having that attitude to Him.
Start having your faith in the One who has really produced these things. I mean who makes the sun shine? Telecom? ICI? IBM? No. Who makes the food that feeds your body? The Maker of the universe. Jesus said, change your mind. Stop believing the lie that you’ve been believing which is absolutely unintelligible — that you
depend on everybody else for these things — and start depending on the Maker of the universe.
And He said as you start having that attitude to Him, an attitude of faith, He will begin to make you alive inside and you’ll start to sense that there is a real “you” deep down. And you’ll begin to sense what He wants you to do with your life and as you begin to do that, you begin to speak the things He guides you to speak, so you’ll start to sense a direction in your life and a reality that you’ve never had before. Well, would you try it? That’s what I’m saying. Will you try it? Will you start today? Start today. Let’s talk a little more tomorrow.
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