The Good Life...According to God

The Good Life…According to God

By Jim Lewis

Distributed by: Smashwords

©2015 Lewis

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), ©2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

License Note

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover design by Jason Blackburn and Katie Zaske Gleason

Contact the author at:

usti@wmis.net

About the cover

The images on the cover are intended to reflect some of the secular ideas of The Good Life such as Sex, Fame, and Fortune in contrast to a biblical view of The Good Life...According to God, which includes a focus on some of the attributes from Hebrews such as Peace, Love, and Joy. The color contrasting depicts coming from the darkness of secular thinking into the Light of God.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One - Outside Influences

Chapter Two - It’s a Wonderful Life

Chapter Three - Life's Circumstances

Chapter Four - Living the Good Life by Living for God

Chapter Five - Life's Circumstances and How We Should Respond

Chapter Six - Is all that this World has to offer Enough?

Chapter Seven - The Good Life

Epilogue

Appendix - More Perceptions

Other Perceptions

Still More Perceptions

About the Author

Bibliography

Sample Reading - Invisible Heroes - Role Models for Christ

Sample Reading - Adrift in the Sea of Life

Introduction

"Therefore let us not pass judgment

on one another any longer, but rather decide

never to put a stumbling block or hindrance

in the way of a brother."

Romans: 14:13 (NIV)

As I embark on this writing ministry I will endeavor to be mindful of Paul’s words in Romans. Paraphrasing part of his letter to the Romans, it is not my intent to judge one person's view of what constitutes a good life versus another person's view, but to simply compare our various views to the one true view, that being God’s Word. I am not a theologian, so my interpretation is as insightful as any other lay person. To ensure that my interpretation doesn’t lead any reader astray I have relied on people schooled in The Word to review and edit this work before publishing it.

It’s funny how we aren’t aware of things around us until those things start to become part of our life. An example would be the phenomenon that sometimes precedes the purchase of a new car. Once the decision on a new model has been made, that model seems to be the only one on the road. Was that model always there or did it suddenly become one of the most popular? Was the subconscious aware of the popularity of this model while the conscious awareness wasn’t triggered until a decision to purchase a new car was made?

What does buying a new car have to do with the good life? Not much really, except that once I decided on the title for this book, I suddenly became aware of all of the references to the good life around me. The phrase has crossed my path in a variety of forms. In fact, I was in the grocery store shortly after beginning to write this introduction when I found a display of recipe cards under a banner titled, For Your Good Life. The cards didn’t contain any prophetic words for living a good life or how this particular food would enhance your life, nor was the name of the company sharing the cards in any way related to the phrase. The lack of a relationship between the cards and the company got me to thinking that maybe I hadn’t been devoting enough time to this ministry and God was just getting my attention. Whatever the reason, that phrase continues to pop up.

While on a business trip I came across three different references to the good life. One was a magazine called Good Life Community™ that I picked up in Alachua, Florida. Another was The Good Life RV Resort along a route between Fort Myers and Orlando. The third one was a sign in a restaurant that said, Life is Good in Beautiful Downtown Alachua. Since my home is in Michigan, I have to admit that Alachua is a nice place in the winter, but even the natives complain about the summer heat and humidity, and the Love-Bugs that are such a nuisance in May and September. But to say that life is good in one place verses another is open to individual interpretation.

I’ve seen references to the good life across the back of private boats, painted on luxurious RVs, emblazoned on clothing, and as stickers displayed in a variety of ways and locations. One recent encounter with that phrase was the vanity plate on the back of an expensive automobile that raced passed me on the highway as though their agenda was the only one that mattered. The plate was cryptic in that the actual wording was LIFSGOD. I suppose that could mean Life is Good or Life is God. I assume by the actions of the driver that it was the former. None of these references make any claim to possessing the secret to a good life so there is nothing deceptive or misleading going on. However, the connotation seems pretty clear – the good life is about seizing the day and enjoying all of the finer things of this world regardless of the consequences.

One reference to the good life that went beyond planting a seed of carpe diem was a bumper sticker for the Website, www.goodlifekids.com. The bumper sticker was so unusual that I had to check out the Website. Goodlifekids.com promotes good eating and exercise as foundational for a good life. Although those are commendable qualities that we should all embrace, the focus is on the flesh instead of the soul.

****

Is there not a foundation out there with emphasis on living a life for Christ rather than self? Yes, there is, or at least there used to be. Unfortunately, many people seem to have forgotten how to tap into it. The foundation I’m referring to is the Bible.

I remember being part of a family unit, when two-parent families were the norm, where the Bible was the foundation that was built upon by a larger community – the family of God – the Church. I don’t know when the Bible started to get pushed aside in the family unit, but the movement probably paralleled laws restricting prayer in schools; eliminating the Pledge of Allegiance in schools and at school activities; efforts to remove The Ten Commandments from public places; birth control, profanity and blatant sex on television; and legalization of abortion. If those changes didn’t start the demise, they certainly fueled it. Shame on us as Christians for standing on the sidelines while Satan runs roughshod over our Judeo/Christian values. Now ‘Political Correctness’ has the United States on a downward spiral to the levels of biblical Sodom and Gomorrah with the sanctioning of same-sex marriage.

This book may not be able to stem the tide or reverse the downward spiral, but it will provide a comparison of how our perception of the good life has changed and evolved over the last few generations, especially within the life span of children of the ‘greatest’ generation to the golden-years of that same generation. You will also see how the younger generation of the 21st Century perceives the good life and the influences they have to deal with that form that perception. Some of the influences have been constant throughout time, while some are unique to this new era.

Besides the blending of various generational perspectives, I have also incorporated a range of demographics and cultures into the book, so you can see both the sameness and uniqueness of life in the United States versus other parts of the world. I hope the perceptions, stories, and views that have been shared with me from a variety of cultural, ethnic and generational groups will be as refreshing for you to read as they were for me.

This journey into the perceptions of what constitutes a good life compares and contrasts the generally accepted secular view with the only true good life - The Good Life…According to God. I hope you enjoy the journey and I also hope that along the way your perception will either be solidified or modified.

****

Has our society reached the point of no return? I don’t believe so. God said, … if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land (2Chronicles 7:14-15 ESV). Some people may find that solution too simple to be true, but the Israelites experienced it many times and each time God welcomed them with open arms.

We can find both comfort and hope in the words of Nehemiah as he detailed how the people of Israel confessed their sin and renewed the covenant with God following their exile and subsequent resettlement to the promised land, the land of milk and honey that God had given their forefathers, so they could live The Good Life…According to God after suffering in slavery. Nehemiah recorded:

And you [God] gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan. You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.

And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies. (Nehemiah 9:22-23, 25-28 ESV).

That is not the end of the story. Believers continue to fall away, and God continues to hear from heaven and forgive our transgressions. There is still time to draw a distinction between the good life that we chose for ourselves in a secular world and the good life God planned for us.

****

I would like to clarify a point made earlier. I implied that the demise of Judeo/Christian values in the United States has been fueled by such things as removing prayer from schools along with any reference to God and His creation of the World, disintegration of the family unit and condemnation of the Ten Commandments. Although those events have and are continuing to happen, all of the blame should not be heaped there.

I had the opportunity to do a short-term mission in the Republic of Ireland. My perception of Christianity in the Republic of Ireland was far removed from reality. The state religion of the Republic is Catholicism. However, few people attend services regularly and few have any understanding of the Bible. According to surveys, only 4% of the population have any affiliation with the family of God. Until recently the Bible was banned from private ownership. As a result of various missions that are reaching out to the people of the Republic, the ban has been lifted and the Bible has even become required reading in schools. Although that is a significant step forward, and miles ahead of requirements of our public schools, studies of the Bible in schools of the Republic of Ireland center on the history of events and not on the Salvation story.

How do the events in the Republic relate to the United States? Well, just because the Bible is required reading in the schools doesn’t mean that mass conversions