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If someone were to ask you, “Do you love life?”
What would you say?
How about Good Days? Do you See Good Days? Looking back on this week, did you see more good days, bad days, or so-so days.
I think we all want to live a life that we can say we honestly love. To love our family, our work, our neighbors, who we are and what we do. We all wake up every morning and hope that we have a good day, that everything goes as planned, that we cross a few things off our To Do lists. That we have fun. That we enjoy success in all we do.
Peter, in the Bible, wanted his readers to love life and see good days. In 1 Peter 3:10-12 he reminded those who would read his letter, of something King David had written many years before-
Whoever would love life
and see good days
must keep their tongues from evil
and their lips from deceitful speech.
They must turn from evil and do good,
they must seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
So there it is. Five simple steps to loving life and seeing good days.
Let’s review. To love life and see good days we need to:
1. Keep our tongues from evil.
Evil – profoundly immoral and malevolent; harmful or tending to harm.
This definition reminds me of Ephesians 4:29, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
Keeping our tongues from evil means that we never say harmful words, only helpful words.
2. Keep our lips from deceitful speech.
Deceit – the action or practice of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth.
These first two principles for loving life and seeing good days both involve restricting what we say. James 3:2 says, “Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.”
If we want to keep our tongues from evil and our lips from deceitful speech, silence is the key. Dallas Willard, in his book The Spirit of the Disciplines writes a lot about the spiritual discipline of silence and shares the testimony of a young person entering the practice of silence – “The more I practice the discipline of silence the more I appreciate the strength of silence. The less I become skeptical and judgmental, the more I learn to accept the things I didn’t like about others the more I accept them as uniquely created in the image of God. The less I talk, the fuller are words spoken at an appropriate time.”
I think this young person loves life and sees good days.
3. Turn from evil.
We already looked at the definition of evil. Here we are directed to “turn” from evil. This makes me think of repentance, which many define as turning from one type of bad behavior to a good type of behavior. I like Dallas Willard’s definition of repentance in his book The Divine Conspiracy, “Radically changing the way we think about something.” We can never really turn from bad behavior if we don’t radically change the way we think about that behavior.
4. Do good.
Good – to be desired or approved of; pleasing and welcome; appropriate to a particular purpose; possessing or displaying moral virtue; showing kindness.
Psalm 100:5 says, “The LORD is good and his love endures forever.” From this verse I get the idea that God loves us and wants us to be happy. Our natural response to His love and goodness is to love others and be good to them.
5. Seek peace and pursue it.
The “peace” that Peter is referring to comes from the Hebrew word shalom, which is defined as “completeness, soundness, welfare, peace and success.”
We seek, pursue and find true peace through Jesus Christ. Paul writes in Romans 5, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Experiencing peace with God makes it much easier to experience peace with our neighbors, co-workers and family.
Pablo comes to mind when I think of these traits. Pablo came here to the Home For Needy Children in Oaxaca, Mexico, about four years ago after graduating from the FFHM Bible Institute in Baja, Mexico. He started working as a house parent for the little boys and later for the teenage boys. He also helped and continues to help with grounds keeping and maintenance. He preaches and teaches here as well as at rehab centers in the area. He is a fountain of encouragement and prayer for those men struggling with addictions. He does a lot of good.
But that wasn’t always the case. As a young man he was himself addicted to drugs, did a lot of bad things, and rarely saw good days. His life was miserable. One day he came to the end of his rope. People had been telling him about Jesus and His great love and power, and how Jesus could give him new hope and a new life. Pablo asked Jesus to take over his life. Jesus did and Pablo became a new creature in Christ. He radically changed the way he thought about life and God. Now everyday is a good day and he loves his new Life in Christ.
When you go to bed tonight, think about your day. Did you see a good day? Did you love life today? If not, tomorrow might be a better day if you reach out to God and ask Him to –
Keep your tongue from evil
Keep your lips from deceitful speech
Turn from evil
Do good
Seek peace and pursue it
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Suzy loves chocolate chip cookies. They make her happy. She asks her mom for one. 
Her mom tells her she may have one after dinner. Suzy sneaks some before dinner and eats them. They make her happy, but she has done an evil thing. Romans 1:29-32 says she should die.
Adolf Hitler hated Jews. It made him happy to have them killed. He had millions of them put to death. He was an evil man.
All people desire to be happy. No one wakes up in the morning and says, “I hope I have a terrible bad day and end up sad and miserable.” No, people hope to have a good day where everything goes as planned, and perhaps some great unexpected things happen and they end the day with a big smile on their face.
There is some part of the brain that is constantly making decisions about what will make me the happiest or what will cause me the least amount of pain or discomfort, be it emotionally, physically, mentally or spiritually. Everything I plan, every decision I make is ultimately based on what I perceive will make me happiest.
God made us and knows what will make us ultimately happy. That is why he gave us the Bible, to tell us what kind of choices we should make to be happy and avoid pain. This life on earth is short compared to eternity. Ultimate happiness is going to heaven and living in God’s immediate presence. Ultimate pain is hell. Got it? Heaven good. Hell bad. Heaven joy. Hell pain.
So it is in our best interest to make decisions that will make us happy both in this life and in the life to come. Reading the Bible and listening to people who know the Bible will go a long way toward this end. It will help us make decisions that lead to long term happiness and goodness, rather than short term happiness and long term evil and pain.
C.S. Lewis quote
I am thinking of a father and his soon to be 10 year old daughter. He loves her very much and wants to give her the best 
birthday party ever. He has been planning it for months, considering every detail so that it will be a beautiful affair, to be remembered always. It is to be a surprise party, so when the day arrives, mom takes the little princess out to have her hair done and nails painted and a special dress purchased. Meanwhile, the doting father is hanging miles of party streamers, inflating dozens of balloons, and placing hundreds of flowers all over the living room and kitchen. On the dining room table sits a beautifully decorated cake, filled with icing flowers of all colors and 10 candles. Loading down the kitchen counters is an array of catered food, the likes of which few people have ever seen, along with plenty of chips, and five kinds of pizza. The fridge is filled with soda and the freezer with ice cream. On a nearby shelf sits the gifts the father has chosen for his daughter’s special day. An i-phone, a Kindle tablet, a Blu-Ray player, and a 32” Sony LED TV, all wrapped up, waiting for his darling daughter to unwrap. He can almost hear her cries of delight and joy.
Her classmates, friends and family members, all decked out in their party best, begin arriving for the celebration at 1:3
p.m. for the 2 p.m. scheduled big surprise. At eight minutes past 2:00, the birthday girl and her mom walk through the front door and a thunderous cry of “SURPRISE – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” erupts. The young girl is blown away, overwhelmed by the decorations and love from family and friends. Music starts up from the live band out on the back patio and the party goes into high gear
The birthday girl rushes to her room to put on her new dress. Coming out of her room she runs into a 12 year old boy that she has a crush on. She is thrilled to see him at her party. He is looking at a red button on the hallway wall. He wishes her a happy birthday, and then asks her about the button. She tells him her house has a fire sprinkler system, and if there is ever a fire, all you have to do is to push the red button and the sprinkler system will go on. He tells her that sounds cool. He tells her that sounds like fun; just like playing in the sprinklers outside on a hot day. He tells her that she should push it; that it would be a great big joke on everyone and that everybody would laugh and dance around in the shower. She tells him that her dad said no one should ever push the red button unless there was a real fire emergency. He bets her that her dad would think this was a special exception, and that he would laugh and laugh and pick her up and dance around the room in the falling water, just like in the movies. She says that she will go and ask her dad first. He tells her that that would ruin the surprise. He gave you a big surprise party, and now it’s your turn to surprise him.
She thinks about it for a few seconds. She looks at the older boy with a bit of doubt in her eyes. He looks at her pleadingly. She looks at the red button and imagines what fun everyone will have in the water shower. She also thinks about what her dad has told her. She thinks and thinks. The boy says he’s getting a bit bored, and just remembered there was something he needed to do at home. He turns to go, and she pushes the red button.
Water gushes down on everyone and everything. It is all ruined. No one is dancing around in the water. No one is laughing . At first, all the guests look panicked – they look for a fire. They hurriedly make their way out to the front lawn or back patio. The party streamers turn soggy and drop from the ceiling onto party clothes and new carpet, which become stained. Frosting and cake slowly disintegrate. The pizza is inedible Some balloons drop and pop, adding to the chaos. Expensive electronic gadgets are flooded with water and become worthless. Firetrucks arrive and fire fighters rush into the house. All the people hoping for a happy, beautiful party go home upset. It was definitely one to remember.
The father is beside himself. He doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry; yell or die. The good, loving father truly wanted the best for his child. The best decorations; best food; best presents. Now it was all ruined. Now it was all ugly and bad; all because of a lie. All because of disobedience and distrust. All that’s left are regrets and remorse.
This story makes me think of our Heavenly Father. One time He prepared a great party for His children. It was a garden 
party. The garden was filled with the most beautiful flowers and plants ever seen. The variety of trees filled with good fruit was beyond description. All kinds of incredibly, beautiful animals roamed about freely. He invited His children to go in, and then yelled “Surprise!” His two children were overwhelmed with joy and the great. good, beautiful experience that they had. In the midst of their happy celebration, the Father walked them over to a tree. The name of this tree is “Knowledge of Good and Evil.” There are hundreds of beautiful trees in this garden, loaded with juicy, tasty fruit that will dazzle your taste buds and energize your bodies. I want you to enjoy all of them. But this tree, “Knowledge of Good and Evil” you must never eat of. You should never even touch it. In fact, just to be on the safe side, you should never even come to this part of the garden. The reason is, is, that the day you eat from it you will die.
I looked up the Hebrew words and definitions for “good” and “evil”.
Good is tobe:
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense; used likewise as a noun, both in the masculine and the feminine, the singular and the plural (good, a good or good thing, a good man or woman; the good, goods or good things, good men or women), also as an adverb (well): – beautiful, best, better, bountiful, cheerful, at ease, fair , fine, glad, good deed, graciously, joyful, kindly, kindness, like (best), loving, merry, most pleasant, pleasure, precious, prosperity, sweet, wealth, welfare, (be) well ([-favoured]).
Evil is rah, raw-aw’
bad or (as noun) evil (naturally or morally). This includes the second (feminine) form; as adjective or noun: – adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, + displease (-ure), distress, evil, + exceedingly, great, grief , harm, heavy, hurt (-ful), ill (favoured), mischief, (-vous), misery, noisome, sad (-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked (-ly, -ness, one), worse (-st) wretchedness, wrong.
Without eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they had all the good, beautiful, fair, bountiful, cheerful, joyful,loving, pleasurable, merry life that they could ever want. Unfortunately they disobeyed God. They believed the lies of the Evil One. They touched the tree and ate the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Banished from the Garden, their right relationship with God dead, thus their spirits dead, they suffer daily with the curse and punishment of God and experience the bad, evil, adversity, affliction, calamity, displeasure, distress, misery, noisome, hurtful, sorrowful, trouble, and wretchedness that most people in this world experience on a daily basis. They gave up all the good, and began to experience all the evil, the day they believed a lie.
Yet, some beauty, goodness and truth have survived. G.K. Chesterton gives us the image of a shipwreck and survivors living on a deserted island, in his book Orthodoxy. The survivors cherish the things that have washed up on shore from the lost ship. In the same way, after Adam and Eve made a shipwreck of humanity, God has left us remnants of the beautiful, good party. His love. His true Word. His grace and mercy. Things to cherish.
So we cling to beauty, goodness and truth for the basis of our happiness and joy in God. Daily, ugliness, evil and lies intrude into our lives, and often we have to battle to hang onto the good and beautiful and true. We seek to share the truth, the beauty, the good with a hurting world. We want to share our treasured remnants of the crash with those around us who have given up on having a good, beautiful life full of truth.
The Father has planned another party, bigger and better and more beautiful than the first. It’s called Heaven, or The New Jerusalem. Our invitations are found in the Bible. Have you RSVP’ed?
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Every component of our faith (worship, liturgy, creeds, theology, fellowship, spiritual formation, religious education, etc.), though in itself is valid and valuable, must lead to good works, good lives, good creativity, and goodness to help our world get back on the road to being truly and wholly good again, the way God created it to be. Brian McLaren in a Generous Othodoxy.
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Next blog – Purple Litter
To Enjoy God 