Month: January 2011

If Jesus is not who He said He was, we’re in trouble!

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

If Jesus is not God in human flesh, nothing matters. If Jesus is God, sent to us in human form who died for all of our sins and rose again then nothing else matters. With His apostle John, faith in Him is commitment. John was not interested in nice believers—only in committed believers. Christianity is not knowing certain facts; Christianity is living a life.

Our faith in Christ and in who He is has nothing to do with religion or the “orthodoxy” that goes with religion. The faith that we live by on a daily basis is what matters. If your faith can’t stand up to daily life, then you need to pray and ask God to show you what may be hindering you from His service.

In our daily life, we can choose to follow the crowd or to lead by example. Our example is Jesus and we should be striving to be as much like Him as we can but we can’t do it on our own. We have to rely on the power of God and His Spirit to enable us to do things which we cannot do on our own and with our own strength. He will enable us to do exactly what we need to do for Him and through Him as long as we are following Him.

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Is God in control?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

Yes, absolutely! He has always been and always will be! Nothing escapes His gaze because He is everywhere! God cares for all of us, no matter what religion we happen to hold on to. God knows about everything that each of us do on a daily basis, even down to the birds and animals on this world that He created. Nothing escapes His notice.

Every word spoken, every thought that comes to mind, He knows about them. Each time you text “OMG” to someone you are using His name vainly, frivolously and He notices. Our Creator is a loving one and He has much patience but the time is growing short for His return and there are many things about our world and about us that He will not be pleased with. He has given us a way to know Him more intimately through His Son’s sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. If we only accept His grace as the free gift that it is and give our life and our heart to Him, our lives would be so much better. The world itself would be better.

In many ways, everyone’s life would be better by serving Him. Because that is what we were created to do, have fellowship with Him and a relationship with Him. That is exactly what the emptiness inside you is for….. to be filled with Him.

The Awesome Power of Our Creator!

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

In six days He spoke the universe into being, then rested on the seventh. I wonder if anyone has ever thought that He could have done it in one day if He had chosen to? Nothing is impossible with God but what do you think of Him? He knows all of us, whether we acknowledge Him or not.

When He sent the part of Him that was the Christ to earth as a human born of a virgin, He was still God. When they beat Him, and flogged Him with the cat-o-nine tails so that He was almost un-recognizable, He was still God. When they hung Him on the cross or execution stake with nails through His hands and feet, He was still God. He could’ve called down legions of angels or even wiped mankind from the earth with a thought but He did neither of those, because He was and is God!

Our Creator, the Ancient of Days, was before time and the one who created time itself along with everything else. Our God, the One that many people don’t think is real, is more real than we are! His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not like ours. He is above us and perfect in every way. One analogy would be that He is above us as we are above bacteria and maybe even more than that!

Even being the great I AM, the God and Creator doesn’t keep Him from loving His creation, even those of us who were created in His image and then rejected Him. Your life will never be perfect on earth, but you will be able to grow toward that perfection if you will give your heart to Him and walk with Him daily. That is all He has ever wanted from us, our fellowship and our love for all that He gives us every day.

If you want to have hope and a chance at a fulfilling life for eternity, ask Him to come into your heart. He will place a small piece of Himself there and fill the void which you have felt but didn’t know how to fill. God loves you more than you can know, return that love and you will feel it in ways you never imagined.

New Year, New Commitment to ?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

Happy New Year - The Daniel Fast

Happy New Year! Will this year be different for you and your friends and family? Possibly. The degree of the difference is up to you and the commitment that you make toward it. Are you going to change your life and the lives of others by doing something differently this year? I hope so.

Be committed to giving of your time and talent to others who need it. God gave you the talent that you possess in order to glorify what He can do and what you can do through Him. Your DNA did not just magically happen to form in the womb with the characteristics that you have. It was fashioned in that way by the Creator because He knew you before the world itself was formed!

That statement is one that puzzles most scientists and skeptics, but it is true. Why would a Creator come to this world as a man to give His life, as perfect as it is, as a ransom and a payment for all of our sinful ways if He did not know all about us and how many there would be that needed Him to do so? Our God is wonderful, powerful, awesome, gentle, kind, and loving toward His creation and He loves all of it, but especially us! Why would an all-powerful Creator love us when we, as fallible humans, have rejected Him for “things”?

If the Creator were a vengeful one, He would’ve destroyed and recreated us many times and yet He hasn’t done that but once. I am not saying this because He couldn’t but because He didn’t want to. Our world was created for us to use as stewards for His purpose and for ours and we have done a great disservice to that calling. That is the commitment that we need to get back to, being stewards of the world that we have been given and to those who need us to show them the way to God!

The world would have us believe that all that is important is profit, money, power, greed and what we can get out of life while we are here and many people live their lives that way. Those are the “ways of the world” but that is not the way that we were created to be! We were created to be servants and stewards. Servants of God and stewards of the gifts and talents that He gave us and of the world around us. Your life will never be what it was meant to be nor as meaningful until you give your life and your service to Him.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love thy neighbor as you love yourself. On this the whole of the Prophets and the Law hang together. (Paraphrase of Mark 12:30-31)

In His Service.