How to Find Lasting Joy and Success in This Present World

By: James Thomas Lee Jr

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

This book is actually based on the merging of two separate books that I wrote in 2020. The first book of 2020 was about how to be saved and how to live a blessed life. That book was written because of something that Jesus said during His public ministry. John 10:10 says, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." So the blessed life of the first book is the abundant life that one can have through a personal relationship with Christ. The second book of 2020 was written because a lot of people experience unpleasant consequences due to some of the bad decisions that they make or have made. So that book encourages everyone to live what this author has called the Proverbs life, by internalizing many of the more important teachings of Solomon from the book of Proverbs.

Now for this third book about how to live a good life, the idea has been to bring together the main ideas of the blessed life and the Proverbs life to come up with a type of composite life or victorious life. The belief of this author is that those two lives, combined, will give any individual the best possible life. That victorious life is a life that will produce lasting joy and success. Ideally it will be the abundant blessed life because it is based on many of the positive personal attitudes that are found within the scriptures. It will also be a life of very few unpleasant consequences because it will be based on the lifegiving teachings of Solomon, who was the wisest man who had ever lived other than Jesus. Of course, everything about that life begins by having a personal relationship with Jesus. So that is where this text will begin, too. Without Him, one may as well pack up and go home because there is not any real life or victorious life without Him.

Before concluding this introduction, though, one more comment must be made. The expression "lasting joy and success in this present world" is actually code for living one's life in the way that the Lord would have that person live. Lasting means that it is a life that will endure any situation that occurs in one's life. Joy is the inner peace and satisfaction that the Lord gives to those who are living for Him and trusting in Him. Success is again living the life that the Lord wants that person to live. Finally, in this present world means that a person in Christ can live this life of God-given joy and success beginning today. The point is simple. A life lived for the Lord today begins to pay rich dividends today and into eternity. A life lived for oneself often ends in sadness and disappointment and has no eternal benefits. Every person is free to decide which path he or she will take. This author hopes that everyone will choose the one that is offered by the Lord because there are no negatives whenever a person lives his or her life for Him.

There is one final note to make concerning the organization of this text. Something that the reader might find useful is boxes throughout that show the different passages that are being referenced at the times and in the places where they are being referenced. That way, he or she will not have to jump all over the place or get into or out of the scriptures to locate a particular reference. Hopefully that inclusion will help the reader in trying to understand the various events and put them into their right context.