OUTLINE:
Life Is Good
This is not conjecture, it is a fact. God says so. (Ref: Jas 1:17; 2Ti 2:19-21; Phm 1:4-7; Php 4:4-9)
Life Is Good
Since God is good AND God is eternal life, then the life that God has is good. This is the same life we are given at salvation; it’s called “eternal life”, and WOW, it’s good! 🙂
Life is good because we have the grace gift of obedience.
Obedience Is a Grace Gift
By grace, God has given us commandments and the spiritual energy to obey them. Obedience is a blessing meant to sanctify us. The more we understand this, the more we rejoice, pray, and give thanks (ala 1Th 5:16-18) that “life is good.”
“world”
from aion – means an age, a cycle (of time), especially of the present age as contrasted with the future age, and of one of a series of ages stretching to infinity [Strong’s]
Obedience Is a Grace Gift
By grace, God has given us commandments and the spiritual energy to obey them. Obedience is a blessing meant to sanctify us. The more we understand this, the more we rejoice, pray, and give thanks (ala 1Th 5:16-18) that “life is good.”
1Jn 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1Jn 4:1 [Message]
My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.
Obedience Is a Grace Gift
By grace, God has given us commandments and the spiritual energy to obey them. Obedience is a blessing meant to sanctify us. The more we understand this, the more we rejoice, pray, and give thanks (ala 1Th 5:16-18) that “life is good.”
Eph 3:19 [Amplified]
and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].
Familiarity
To become familiar is to lose one’s perspective. It may just be THE greatest disease of all plaguing believers in Christ. When we become familiar with the Word, we lose our “life is good” attitude (Maturity principle: this is tantamount to disobedience).
Familiarity
Don’t just say “life is good” because of this or that thing that exists in your life; say it because you know that EVERY facet of it is truly good because it has been designed BY GOD to be good.
Php 4:8 [Amplified]
Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].
Applying the Proper Lens
We should NEVER think about Jesus Christ through an earthly lens. If we apply an earthly lens to Him, it follows that we will apply an earthly scale of values to the things of God.
Lk 9:58 [TLB]
But Jesus replied, “Remember, I don’t even own a place to lay my head. Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but I, the Messiah, have no earthly home at all.”
You don’t really know someone until you say “No” to them.
– Secular Proverb –
Applying the Proper Lens
We should NEVER think about Jesus Christ through an earthly lens. If we apply an earthly lens to Him, it follows that we will apply an earthly scale of values to the things of God.
The “Life Is Good” Attitude
It’s transcendent, not transactional.