Month: September 2009

To Live in His Service is to Gain Eternity

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

I don’t know how many people have thought of this before but in the interest of salvation and your immortal soul it has to be brought to mind. On a daily basis our lives are bombarded with messages from the secular world.

Messages which contain violent images, hatred for Christians, war, disease, natural disasters. And this is just from our morning news! How much more are your children exposed to at school or through commercials? If they aren’t learning about Jesus from you at home where are they getting their information? What information are they getting daily? Is it something that you would be proud for them to tell Jesus about?

Children are the next generation and if we are not teaching them what they need or if we haven’t learned it well enough to teach it to them, how will they learn?  What will they learn? Sometimes, that question scares me because of the amount of information out there and the ease with which our children have access to things that we would not be proud of them learning or seeing. We must be diligent in our walk and our talk, especially in front of our children. The condition of their eternal soul and ours is important, after all, eternity is a very long time.

Eternity is a concept of time that we cannot understand because it has no end. Our service to God begins at home by leading our families to Christ so that we will have them with us for eternity. Then we have an obligation to tell others about Him and mentor them in their walk so that they will not be crowded out by the “thorns” of society.

If we are to gain eternal peace with Jesus in Heaven we must live in service to Him while we are here on earth. It doesn’t take being a martyr of any kind nor is it required of us to do anything. The most that we have to do is believe in Jesus and what He did for us and accept Him into our heart. Once that change happens, you will no longer want to go back to your “old” life. Even if you do, your new spirit will not allow you to be happy with it.

There are many ways to find out about Jesus. Go to a church and listen to the sermon, listen to AFR on the radio, read the Bible (especially the New Testament). He is the only way to get to Heaven though. At least believe in Him and ask Him into your heart, that is the only real way to get to Heaven and to have salvation from an eternity in Hell.

Many people don’t believe in the existence of hell or that God would send you there. He doesn’t. You do. By rejecting His grace and the sacrifice made by Jesus and rejecting Jesus from your life, you condemn yourself to hell. Our spirit is eternal, whether we spend that eternity in torment or in service to Him is our choice. Personally, I would rather serve Him! I don’t like pain.

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Our Moral Character is Broken

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

The character of our society is broken, spiritually. Is it possible to fix this?

Yes, it can be fixed but it is going to take real effort on the part of all Christian Americans to do it. It can’t be wished, or prayed away. Prayer is a good start, but by itself it will not fix the problem. Our country is going further into spiritual brokenness every day. Christians, pastors, Gideons should all be mobilizing to get the Word out to teens and the rest of our country. If we don’t, there will be more people left behind to endure the Tribulation than there should be.

God knows who will accept and who will not regardless of how much they know or hear about Jesus. But that should not stop us from getting out there and letting people know that God loves them and cares about them deeply. The time is now and it cannot be put off because our society is just getting worse. The lack of God in our schools and in everyday lives is eroding the fabric of our nation. I would say that people of even one hundred years ago would not recognize our country anymore. They would be appalled at the way our people have put God out of nearly every area of America’s government and out of people’s daily lives.

Something must be done and that something is getting Christians out as missionaries in our own land, not just going elsewhere to spread the news of Christ. It is needed here just as badly if not more because we as Americans should be the leaders of the world not following it to destruction. We were called to be lights in the darkness, and we need to be doing what Christ called us to do?

God loves all of us because He created each of us as individuals and He knows us intimately. Read His Word, pray about what you read and ask Him to show you what He wants you to do and how. All of the New Testament is good training for us but the whole Bible is good for your soul. Read it, think about the message that is contained in it.

Don’t throw it out or treat it like it is an old book that doesn’t have anything to do with today. God can see the past and the future. He knows exactly what is going to happen tomorrow or even the next minute. Give Him your life and allow Him to work through you. I can guarantee you will never regret it.

Can you know the Father and the Son?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

Is it possible to know both the Creator and His Son? Yes it is, in fact it is part of being a Christian to know them both. They know us more deeply than we can ever imagine, down to the DNA which makes us who we are. Doesn’t it make sense that the creation would want to know the Creator intimately too? This is a relationship which the ruler of this world does not want to happen and will do anything to keep it from becoming the relationship we were meant to have with God and His Son, Jesus.

Satan loves to entice people into doing things which he knows that they want to do. He knows your weaknesses and how to tempt anyone into doing that which they know to be wrong. He even can entice us into doubting God’s love for us. He has been doing this for a very long time so he is very good at it. Jesus called him the “Father of lies”, and he knows how to make them sound so convincing, even using scripture in a twisted way to make it sound good.

The only way that we can withstand his assault on us on a daily basis is to submit to the Lord daily. Ask for Jesus to come into your heart and to give you the strength and faith to be able to say to Satan, “Get behind me,Satan, I have the Lord on my side”. Although I wouldn’t want him behind me and by quoting scripture he will leave you alone, for a time. But, you have to have Jesus in your heart otherwise he will come back stronger and possibly meaner than before.

When you are making a difference for God you are fighting him and he doesn’t like it, especially when, by the power of Jesus’ name and our faith in Him, we are winning the fight. I fully expect him to come after me in the days to come, but I know that in the end he has already lost regardless of what may happen to me.

Give Jesus a chance in your life and then go out and let others know what He has done for you. He will work through you and bring others to Him and the result will be even greater than you can imagine. Think about it this way, you comfort someone and pray for them in their time of need. When they come to Jesus, then they speak to someone else about Him and what He did for them. Then that person tells a couple of their friends about Jesus. Later, they tell someone else what Christ has done for them. In a few months or years, one act of kindness from you has spread out to hundreds or maybe thousands. I pray for all who read these pages in His Holy name so that He will call you to Him.

Is Your life in need of something?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

Today is a very somber day in our history because of what happened eight years ago today.  Our perception of the world and our safety in it changed dramatically on this day eight years ago and I pray that we will not forget what we have learned from it. When we don’t pay attention to the little things, bigger problems will arise.  Sometimes our everyday lives are like that. Little things like taking an aspirin or eating certain fruits or vegetables can have an enormous impact on your health years after your mother tells you that you need to do these things. Your spiritual life is the same way, and the Bible tells us exactly what we should do and how to do it to keep our relationship with God alive and fresh. If you don’t follow those instructions though, that relationship won’t be what it could be.

He wants that relationship with you because He created all of us. Not only us but the entire universe all the way from the largest galaxies and stars to the smallest atomic particles. He knows exactly how many hairs are on your head and on your body. God knows how you will answer a question before you answer it and what consequences will arise from that answer. Your life and what you do with it cannot be hidden from God regardless of what you do or where you go. It doesn’t matter who you are because God doesn’t respect your standing here on earth, He only respects the decision that you make regarding His position in your life and your heart. Some would say that what I just said is wrong and that Jesus is the answer. He is, but He is also part of God too. What you decide to do with God is the same as what you do with Jesus. Jesus came to pay the penalty for all of our sins and He did so all you have to do is accept His gift of grace and forgiveness into your heart and you will be changed. The old, sinful life that you were drawn to will pass away and everything will be new.

Believe me, if He can create the universe in six days, changing your life isn’t hard to do. He will change your heart and your perspective toward life and serving Him and your life will be totally different from that moment on. The life that we live before He comes into our heart is in total opposition to Him. Afterward, you may still have problems and sinful thoughts which come back from time to time, but He will give you the spiritual strength to withstand those temptations if you will let Him. Your life is not without purpose because He gives you a purpose, to serve Him. When He calls you and you answer, your purpose in life is to serve Him wherever you may be. Regardless of title, position or rank to the world. You are a child of the Living God and the Creator of the Universe and have been called to be His servant no matter what. That position is above all others and supersedes all others . Of course, you can serve Him by doing your daily job as well and representing Him in everything that you do.

Organized Religion and Jesus

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

It seems that there has been a lot of shouting, screaming and gnashing of teeth lately over organized religion. I am not sure what this term means exactly, “organized religion”. Is it referring to all Christians, Muslims, Hindi, Buddhists, or is it directed at Catholics, Jewish Temples, Presbyterians, Baptists, etc. ?

The latter are more doctrine than “organized religion”. Granted, the Catholic church has been around nearly as long as Christianity itself, and the Jewish religion has been around for far longer than most any other out there, but that doesn’t mean that the religion itself is bad. It just happens to be an old religion. Religions are not bad but some of the people who claim that they practice those religions may be. You can be religious at doing anything that you like, such as fishing or hunting. That doesn’t make it a religion but you get the idea.

Christianity and following Jesus is a different matter from “religion”. Christianity is a state of mind that you have after accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior that you practice religiously. So, in a sense, it is a religion. There have been many “doctrines” applied to it over the past few hundred years but the basics of being a Christian, as outlined in the Bible, are the same. I know that many terrible acts have been done in the name of religion and in the name of Christ too, but that doesn’t mean that Jesus was behind any of it. It just means that His name was used in the commission of the act itself by someone who wanted to stand behind that name.

There have been horrendous acts done by other religions as well but it seems that everyone wants to pounce on Christians these days. Maybe because we are nearing the time of Christ’s return? I am not sure what the reason for the animosity except that it was predicted by Jesus Himself nearly two thousand years ago. Our lives, in service to Him, are forfeit in the grand scheme of His plans. Our spiritual lives will go on no matter what happens to us here. We will serve Him and the blotting out of God or religion will not have any effect on the world or its condition into eternity.

Please, read Romans chapter 8. Pray that you will accept Jesus and I will be praying for all who visit here and read these pages. He is knocking, won’t you let Him in?