The purpose of life

ALL OF us want to use and enjoy our lives to the full.

But we can never forget that the greatest treasure we have, life itself, is a very fragile possession.

During his public preaching Jesus said “I have come to give them life that they might have it to the full” (John 10:10).

And as time went on he began to explain to his followers exactly what he meant when he used the word “life”.

He told them that the only life that matters is the life that does not die – everlasting, “I am the resurrection... if anyone believes in me even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

The word used in the Russian Orthodox Church for a saint, prepodobnia, means ‘very, very like’ and is a perfect description of what Jesus meant by the ‘true life’.

If we want to obtain life everlasting, we must become very, very like Jesus himself.

And we can only do this if we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit – the Lord and Giver of life.

Throughout his time on earth the Holy Spirit worked within Jesus guiding and inspiring him.

To be really like Jesus then, we must have the Holy Spirit within us too.

That is why when the time came for him to leave his apostles, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit.

“It is for your own good that I am going,” he said to them.

“Because unless I go, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you” (John 16:7).

Over the last weeks, in this column I’ve invited you to rejoice that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

The purpose of our life is to know God: to know God, we must spend time with God.

Please visit my free website: https:// wewanttheworldtoknowjesus. weebly.com

Father Richard Lindsay