Month: December 2008

Thank you, Lord for a wonderful year!

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

This year has been very different from all others. We have seen gas and oil prices reach levels that our parents and grand-parents never dreamed of. We elected the first African-American to be President. We have gone into a recession like none before it with the exception of the Depression of the thirties and are still coming through it. Banks have gone out of business, the auto industry is on the skids with possible bankruptcy looming. We had record heat during the summer, snow in New Orleans, more rain in December than we saw all summer and we are only half way through winter!

I know it sounds gloomy but God is in control of all of it! Every leaf that has fallen, every penny lost, every snow flake was His doing. But it was all planned to bring our attention around to realize that we are not in control, He is! Nothing that we do can change the color of he sky or the leaves, but He can. The salmon lives it’s life in the ocean until it is time to spawn, then it makes its way back to its birth stream to do so. Science says it is instinct, the real reason is that God is in control and the salmon does His will.

We are the only creation to which God gave a free will. We can choose to do His will or we can choose not to do His will. He knows which one we will do but He also knows when or if we will ultimately come to Him. He also knows the trigger that will bring us to Him and He will use it. It may hurt, it may cause us to doubt Him for a time but ultimately, no matter how hard or how far you run from Him you are always running to Him. No one can escape God or His will for their lives. You can put it off, but if He truly wants you to do something for Him, you will. It may nearly take your lifetime to bring it about but He knows when your time is up on this earth and He knows when you can do Him and His kingdom the most good. Even if it is on your death bed.

Don’t let it be on your death bed! Go to Him in a church, in your car, in your closet….wherever you need to meet Him, He will meet you because He is always with you no matter where you are or what you may be doing. To me, that is a sobering thought. Knowing that God is always at my side no matter what! He always sees what you do and when. Tell Him you are sorry for doing something which is wrong in His sight, regardless of how small you think it is it matters to God. It should matter to you too.

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How much is too little?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

Do you have the time to give to God? He gives us twenty-four hours in each day and all He asks for is a bit more than one hour in the morning and in the evening before bed. Do we give Him that? Most of us don’t unfortunately. I give Him my time while writing here and at my blogspot.com blog of the same name, but I don’t post here everyday.

I am sorry to say that my life, or my perception of it gets in the way of my service to Him. I have to ask His forgiveness for this everyday and sometimes I just don’t. I see my responsibilities to my family and the things I do for them as more important. They are NOT! My service to Him and His kingdom is more important than anything that I can do for my family.

We are a weak race of people, the human race not Caucasians, African-Americans, Indians, etc. These just separate us by skin color and culture and sometimes religion. But we are all of the same race, God made us that way although we can’t see it that way most of the time.

Our lives, our service to God and to our fellow man should be our way of life. Our religion should be to follow Christ’s example of service to each other not for ourselves. Selfish desires have caused far more pain and suffering in the world than all the war and disease combined. Religious wars and disputes have also caused their share but most of the real suffering was due to selfishness and greed.

Don’t let your life be defined by things that don’t belong in it. God put you where you are for a purpose, His purpose! Every person, every animal, every plant, and every microbe on this earth does the will of the Creator at one point or another. The human race is the only one that has the free will to do otherwise. He gave us that free will so we would come willingly to Him when He calls us.

If you are feeling that call or have heard it and not responded please consider doing so. God will bring you to Him once the call has been sent. You will answer Him but if it is a negative answer, you may not like the consequences afterward. He is not a vengeful God, but like your father here on earth He expects to be obeyed when He calls. Give your life to Him willingly and you will never regret it, I haven’t. He has taken care of my family’s needs ever since I was told I wasn’t needed at a former job almost two years ago. He will take care of yours too! Give Him the chance and He can make your life more than you ever thought it could be. It won’t be because of you, but because of Him.

A bit of wisdom for today

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

There are many sides to the title both positive and negative. If you have nothing at all, gaining something is truly an accomplishment. If you have little, then more usually is better whether it is money or friends. I think many people would agree with me on this matter, but some would not know if they had a little or too much.

The amounts are arbitrary. Regardless of their number, it is the usefulness that counts. Twenty million rocks would do you little good if you wanted to buy a house or some land, but if those rocks were quarters you would be in good shape. With the exception of the weight and the fact that you would have to have an armored truck to carry that many quarters.

Anything is possible if you believe it is, regardless of how much you have. By that I mean that it doesn’t matter how much money, or rocks, or whatever you may have. As long as you believe in yourself and your ability anything really is possible! I don’t mean to depend entirely on yourself, even if that is what it sounded like. You have to depend on someone greater than yourself, meaning that you have to let Jesus and God into your life and allow them to work through you to accomplish the things that will benefit the kingdom of God and you too.

If we depend on our own strength, it will never be enough. We will be a frazzled mess which is why the drug industry is thriving today. Not just illegal drugs but the legal ones as well. There are so many people in the world living chemically dependent lives regardless of whether they are “hooked” on the chemicals or not. They just don’t realize how dependent they are until it is too late. We weren’t created to live this way! We weren’t created to do many of the things that we do, like work seven days a week or work nearly twenty hours per day or even work all night long at our jobs. God does understand that those things are necessary but He didn’t create us to live that way. When He sets up His kingdom on earth, we won’t have to work or live that way, no one will. Please, during this season, go to a Bible teaching church and listen to the message. You might just get something out of it that you didn’t expect, a relationship with your Creator and your God!

Jesus only wants to come in

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

He stands at the door of your heart and knocks waiting for your invitation, what will be your answer? Even if you have been one of the most sinful people on the face of the earth and you don’t feel like you deserve to ask Him in, you can! Even though you are right, you don’t deserve it, none of us do! No one on the face of the earth deserves salvation no matter who you may be, not even the Pope!

Our lives are His creation and we truly do owe our lives to Him every day, not just because of the sacrifice He made on the cross. At this time of year everyone is more concerned with what they will get for Christmas, well at least those in Christian nations. Those who live in countries where Christmas is not celebrated may not think of anything at this time of year. Jesus may not have been born on December 25th but we celebrate his birth anyway. One day we will learn the date of His birth and know all about Him and His ways, but until that time we need to serve Him with all of our heart and soul and strength.

If you will give your heart to Him and ask Him to come into it, your life will be changed in ways that you can’t imagine. He will soothe your fears, wipe the tears away and give you the strength to do what He asks no matter what it is or where it happens to be.

Give Jesus a chance in your life. He knows exactly what you can do and how. He loves you regardless of what you have done in the past or what you are doing now. He will forgive you if you will repent and turn away from those things and give your life to Him. Once you do, your life will never be the same again. He loves you more than anyone on earth can if you will let Him show that love to you you will know how much that is. Won’t you give Him that chance?

Hello world! It is time!

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

Time to start believing in God and His son, Jesus! There is no better time than around Christmas or Hanukka to give God the glory He so richly deserves. He is the Creator of everything and everyone, there is no other. He created each and every one of us and He knows all of us more intimately than anyone else. I have served Him for the past twenty years but I truly committed my life to His work about five years ago. My life hasn’t been the same since.

Belief is not the only requirement. Satan believes as do his fallen angels in Hell. Belief doesn’t save you by itself, but following through on that is faith in Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Belief in Jesus and His saving grace which was extended to all on Calvary and at His resurrection, is what saves your soul from Hell. Many people wonder how a loving God could send someone to Hell. The Bible tells us that He extends His grace and mercy to us through Jesus so that we can escape the punishment of Hell, punishment for not believing in His grace and mercy through Jesus is eternity in Hell.

Your body, physically, dies when you die but your immortal spirit lives on and it is that which is punished or rewarded based on your decision, not His! It is you and your decision that determines where you spend eternity, not God! Even the most vile, wretched person in the world can be saved from this IF they will repent and accept Jesus into their heart, even on their death bed (wherever that may be). Please, read or listen to God’s word at a church or online, there really is no time to lose! We are not guaranteed to live past our next breath, only by the grace of God do any of us live day to day at all! I am not trying to scare anyone, but the time for Jesus’ return to take the Church away is growing near and once it is gone, things on earth are truly going to get BAD!

Think about it, please! God bless you all and have a safe and Merry Christmas! Happy New Year too!

God truly loves you!

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

How any one can possibly think that the creator of the universe could be a vengeful and unloving God I just don’t know. He is the one who formed you in the womb from the genetic material of your mother and father. A creator who can do that for every living person has to love His creation! He already knows what color your eyes will be and your hair color too. He knows what you will look like and what your personality will be and even how you will respond to Him and His call on your life.

Our world and the solar system it resides in did not happen by chance, or cosmic accident or any of the other scientifically explainable way, it was created by God. Whether people choose to believe that or not is irrelevant. His word says it and I believe it. I know all about the “discovery channel” and it’s so-called explanation for things as well as the “history” channel but they are both influenced by educators who likely don’t believe in God or want proof of His existence. The proof is that we are here!

There are too many variables which have to be perfect just for our existence to continue and chances or so-called “evolution” just doesn’t produce such perfection. It would take a perfect being to cause us and our world to work in such a fashion and other than God and Jesus, I don’t know of any. God’s love for us allows us to live each and every day so that when we realize who it is that is giving us life, we will respond and accept Him as our savior.

God loves us all, this is true and He wants us to know it without any doubt. The conditions for our life on earth are just too exacting for it to have happened by chance and God did that for His creation, us! If there were any way that we could create life we would have done it by now, but He is the only creator, anything that we could do would be a very poor imitation and not viable either. God’s love for us is boundless and He has immense amounts of patience but eventually the last person that will accept Him is going to and then the trump will sound! It could be tomorrow, it could be fifty years from now but I believe it will be in my lifetime and I am already near the half-century point. Be ready and willing to accept Him soon or you may regret your decision for eternity.

The Holiday Season is upon us, do we remember Who this is about?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

All the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Running here and there getting presents, going to work or school, visiting family who we haven’t seen in months or years…all these things happen during the holidays.

But, does anyone pay attention to Who the holidays are supposed to be about? Many people think that Christmas is for our pleasure, our benefit and in some ways it seems to be, but celebrating Christmas is supposed to the be the birthday of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Our lives are so commercialized these days until we can’t seem to focus on much else. God loves us all and He gave us His Son to take the punishment for us all so that all we have to do is accept Him and His sacrifice and offer Him our service, our life as a living sacrifice to Him every day. Some people mistakenly think that they have to become a missionary or preacher to be a real Christian. Nothing could be further from the truth but in reality you become a minister of His when you truly accept Him into your heart. People who know you or knew you before you became a Christian will especially be watching you to see if there really has been a change in you.

You may not know they are doing it, but they are. And they will start spreading the news if your life shows a real change. They will spread the news even faster if you claim to have Jesus and your life hasn’t changed! You will be the hypocrite that everyone talks about! Your life is a gift from God. He knitted your DNA together in the womb bit by bit. You are known more intimately by Him than anyone on earth could possibly know you. He knew before you were born how your hair would look, your personality, the way you would laugh, etc. Everything there is to know about you, He knows! He also knows when you will come to Him, if you ever do! He knows that too.

Our life is one of the greatest gifts that He gave us, but the greatest gift that we have ever been given is Jesus! We have the possibility of living with Him forever and serving Him now. The only requirement of us is faith in Him and acceptance of Him as our savior and Lord.

This holiday season, go to a Bible believing church and learn about Him. He is waiting for you. Your life is a part of God’s plan and always has been. Make it a greater part by serving Him with your life and your work. Just the fact that you accept Him, makes you His servant. What you do as His servant is up to Him. You may just show the effect of Him in your life in your job or eventually you may be called to be a missionary or preacher. Whatever you do, do it for Christ, even if it is flipping burgers at a restaurant or cleaning the floors at a hospital.

Merry Christmas to you all!