Month: March 2012

Jesus, can we believe in Him?

/ Tracy Eldridge / 1 Comment

Consider that He is the Living Word and the Son of God who took the punishment for the sins of mankind, how can we not believe in Him? The prophecies in the Bible from the time of the prophets and all the way back to the book of Genesis spoke of Him and He fulfilled almost all of the prophecies about Himself when He came the first time. Some of those prophecies that were not fulfilled are reserved for His second coming which is yet to happen!

He said that when He comes back He will receive unto Himself those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior. This is an awesome promise and one that cannot be broken because Jesus is our Creator and equal with God so He cannot lie. Your life and mine are His, regardless of our belief in Him or not and yet when you give your life and heart to Him it becomes much more. The world looks different, your friendships are different. Everything changes when you change from the inside out and asking Him to come into your life changes your perspective in many ways.

Belief in Jesus and in Who He is will change you, and yet many people find it hard to do. Satan and his demons believe in Jesus because He is the Creator and they know Him as the Holy One of God so the point of view that some have today that there is no God is totally wrong!

He has never left us alone and is always there waiting for us to ask Him to come into our hearts. The place inside us where we know that there is supposed to be “something” and yet until we ask Him in, we don’t know what fits in that place. We have tried to fill it with many things, but none of them satisfy the longing that we feel at times. When He comes into our hearts, the satisfaction is real and it is lasting!

Decide to give Him access to your heart today! We are not guaranteed tomorrow so this is the day of salvation. Please do not wait!

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The Lord’s Prayer

/ Tracy Eldridge / 3 Comments

 

Our Father, which art in Heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done,

On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us

Our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the Glory,

Forever.

Amen.

“Our Father”, we acknowledge that God is the Creator and Sustainer of all of us, as well as all of Creation itself. He is the Father of Jesus, our Savior and redeemer. He alone deserves our praise, not some god that man has fashioned from his imagination or from some part of creation itself.

“Which art in Heaven”, with these few words we are telling God that we know where He lives and we realize that He is above all, our thoughts, our ways and our sins. But, we are also acknowledging that we are, in spirit at least, there in our thoughts and in our longings.

“Hallowed be thy name”; we know that God is holy and we humble ourselves before Him. Because of Who He is, we can do no less. We can’t comprehend God anymore than a bacterium can comprehend us!

“Thy Kingdom come”; here we are telling God that we want His Kingdom to come and we are acknowledging that it is and will be His Kingdom that we want to be a part of it with Him!

“Thy will be done”; we know that God’s will is sovereign and over all. His will is over all of Creation and nothing happens outside of His will. Jesus said that not even a sparrow falls from the sky without the Father noticing it. Because He is in touch with His Creation to that extent, how do you think He feels when we push Him away?

“On earth as it is in Heaven”; we acknowledge that one day God’s will for us will be done on earth as in Heaven because He said so. The prophecies in God’s Word say that this will happen, therefore it will! There is no debate nor argument for or against this; God said it so it is done!

 “Give us this day our daily bread”; He will sustain us with His power and with our life’s work so that we can live for Him daily. If we choose not to live for Him, we are not forced but if He has a plan for our lives, circumstances will work toward getting us in line with His will eventually. Jonah found this out and we will too if we try to change things!

“Forgive us our debts”; we are to ask for His forgiveness for our sins humbly and willingly because we are guilty of being sinners.

“As we forgive our debtors”; this is the hard part to digest because it simply means that we are forgiven in the same way that we forgive others. Once you have asked Jesus into your heart and life, you are forgiven but you are to forgive others too. If you can’t forgive others, how can you show that you have been changed into the likeness of Christ?

 “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”; God doesn’t lead us into temptation, Satan does that by enticing us with things which he knows that we will pay attention to. If we are being led by God on a daily basis we will not be led into temptation, but we will be given the strength to resist it!

In delivering us from evil, God will deliver us from the evil influence of Satan and his demons by His strength as long as we are relying on Him and not our own.

“For Thine is the Kingdom”; we know that the Kingdom to come is the Lord’s and if we belong to Him, we will share in it. How could you not want to share in an eternal Kingdom with God?

“The power and the Glory, Forever”; God has always been, period. He is omnipotent or all-powerful. He is the Creator of everything from the smallest atom to the largest galaxy and everything in between! All of these things that He created show His wonderful majesty and awesome power! Our God, His Son, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three in One and between them and their influence in our universe everything works, PERIOD!

This is just a small part of what Jesus said while He was here, but what a mighty impact it has had. Many people pray that prayer as their prayer but it is supposed to be a model for us to pray, not a memorized prayer! We don’t have to pray exactly the way this prayer is laid out, but as long as we acknowledge Who is in control and give Him our petitions and problems and have the faith that He will work things together in our lives for our good and for His Glory, we only need to lean on Him in prayerful dependence with faith like a child.

He loves us more than we can comprehend. The only thing that is required from us is to love Him, we don’t have to but don’t you want to! God gives us all that we ever need or that we could want, not out of necessity but out of love for us. He doesn’t supply all the money that we want but He does supply our needs, because He knows each of us far better than we do.

Give your heart and your life to Him and all things will work together for your life in His will and for the good pleasure of Him who sustains you.

Can you know God?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

The answer to this is, YES! He reveals Himself to us through the Bible. All of His personality and character traits are there, all you have to do is study and pray while reading it and God will be revealed to you.

I know, there are many other so called “religions” which say that you can’t know God or Allah or whatever name they call Him by. But, you can! He wants to know you and He does but He also wants to be known by you. He created us for this and we are His creation. We are not an accident or some other random occurrence of natural processes.

God has a sense of humor and is compassionate toward his creation. In many churches you never hear of this. God is seen and preached as a stern figure which holds us to rules and regulations. He is much better than that. Why would He send so much quail into the camp of the Israelites that they would be sick of it if He didn’t have a sense of humor? They asked for meat to eat and He gave them more than they could handle!

The Pleiades which He hung in the heavens are as beautiful now as they were when they were put there. He asked Job, “Where were you when I hung the Pleiades and all the other stars during Creation?”

Is it possible to know Him as a friend? Yes, when you spend time in the Word of the Bible you will come to know Him as a friend. When you pray to Him daily and listen for His voice speaking back to you, then you will know Him as a friend. God is our Creator and our friend and He wants that relationship too. Our lives can be so much more productive for Him when we follow Him daily. Give Him your heart so that He can give you life!