Month: July 2013

Our life in Christ

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

We, as believers, are to live in Christ but have you noticed that He may not be in some who claim to know Him? Making the claim that you know Jesus is easy and truly, you don’t have to prove it to anyone because we are not supposed to judge our brothers and sisters.

That being said, if their life and their fruit don’t bear any resemblance to Christian behavior, what are we to do? The Lord and His Word says to confront this brother or sister with a witness and not alone, try to bring them to the conviction that their behavior is not consistent with their belief and heal their spirit.

Of course, there will be some who will not listen or hear a rebuke like this because they believe that they are right with Him. We must not confront them in a way that would push them away from the church or from Jesus, so if they won’t listen then pray for them and let it go.

Our life in Christ and with Him is to be one that is not to be pushy, but to let people know of Him in love and in a loving way. Jesus didn’t condemn the religious leaders with the exception of telling them that they were wrong in their religion, but He knew their hearts and He knew that they wouldn’t change in the short time that He had with them.

The only responsibility that we have in letting people know about Jesus, is to do just that. Give them some scriptures which tell of His love for them, tell them what He has done for you since you have been following Him, pray with them if they want to or pray for them if they don’t but tell them about Jesus! After you have done that, it is up to the Holy Spirit to take care of the seed that has been planted in their heart. If it grows into a relationship with Him, great; if it doesn’t…then keep praying for them. It may take a while for roots to take hold of their lives and convict them of the needed change, but if it is meant to happen it will in God‘s time.

We have to understand that, when we pray for or witness to someone or do anything hoping that God will work in a situation or in someone’s life, it will happen by God’s timing and not our own. Just as the answers to our own prayers about things in our life come in God’s time, not on our schedule. He may decide to answer according to our time table, but it will be because our expectations and His will were in synch, not because of anything on our part.

God loves each of us for who we are because that is how He made each of us. Nothing that we do can cause God to make our life miserable or cause trouble in our life, we do that all on our own. He may allow certain troubles to come into our life to make us cling tighter to Him or to come closer to Him, but He doesn’t cause the trouble for us. God allows Satan to cause trouble in each person’s life and he knows exactly how and where we are vulnerable. But, God sets limits on him so that he can’t go too far with the punishment or trials that we have to endure.

The main point of this is this: don’t ever ask God to give you more patience!

You will regret asking for that because He will allow things to try your patience in ways that it never has been before in order for you to cultivate more patience! God loves us dearly, but we cannot fathom His ways anymore than an ant can fathom ours. Once you get to know God, you will know better how to ask Him for things that will fit into your walk with Him and then things will begin to go smoother in your walk with Him and in your life too.

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Are you ready?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

For what? There are many things in life that we are or should be ready for, but how do you know when you are ready? Do you even have a clue what it is you feel the need to get ready or be ready for?

Many people, including me, don’t have a clue. Should I be ready for a “zombie invasion” or a nuclear winter, or maybe a financial meltdown and the anarchy which will follow? Some of these are just fantasies of course, but what about the rest? Are you ready for things to really get bad? And when they do, what will you do? Are you going to be one of those who may be helping or will you be part of the problem?

Life on this earth, the only place that we have to live at the moment, is getting harder to handle in light of the economic crisis that the whole world is in right now. Can we have an impact on the way things turn out in the long run? In a way, we can, but we will have to make sure that our heart is right with God first. The reason that I say that is because the world is getting close to the time when this age will end. I don’t know when, nobody knows that except God Himself, but it will likely be in our lifetime.

Many people are worried about asteroids hitting the earth or some other catastrophic, world-wide calamity that will plunge us into anarchy and the only one that is going to happen with any certainty is the one that is predicted in God’s Word. You will have to choose sides in this time of conflict, whether to serve the one who is “in charge” of the world at the time or to be a servant of God and try to help others who are His servants at the time.

Many people will leave the church during this time because it has been prophesied that there will be a falling away from the faith at this time. What will cause this? People have asked this question this for many years and the cause that has been debated and discussed has changed many times. Apathy, dissatisfaction with religion in general, many people, even now, are turning their back on the religion that they grew up with.

The “falling away” during the Tribulation will be so great that very few devout, believing Christians will be left. I know that many people are going to read this and wonder about the “rapture” and whether it happens or not, the answer to that is…I don’t know. The theology that brought that into the teaching of the church did not come into the church until 1830 so I am not sure when we will be gathered up with Him.

The point is that we must be ready regardless of when Jesus sends His angels and blows the trumpet which signals that the saints will be gathered to Him. Like the ten brides in the parable, only a few of them were ready with their lamps when the groom came and that is what we must be…ready.

We must be looking, watching for Him, but we also must be telling others who will listen about Him if they don’t know their Savior. We have to be about the Master’s work when He comes so we won’t be caught unaware and unprepared. If you have given your life and your heart to Jesus, then you must tell others and keep praying, looking for Him until He comes. Whether it is five years or fifty years until that time, I don’t know but when they time comes we must be ready.

Don’t listen to false teachers who tell you that they are the Christ or that they have seen him because they have not. Jesus told His disciples that “many will come in my name claiming ‘I am the Messiah‘, and will deceive many” Matthew 24:5. We have to be studying the Word of God and learning all that we can through it, so that when claims are made about a particular someone, we will be able to see through the lies and deceit that will be spread to all of the world.

If you have not given your heart to Jesus, please consider that when your life is over on this earth you will stand before God in judgement. We are not good enough, regardless of the charitable things that we have done while living, to be ushered into Heaven. Unless you have asked Jesus into your heart and accepted Him as your Savior, you will be condemned the same as the fallen angels and Satan himself!

That is the only requirement that we have to meet to be allowed into Heaven, no amount of good deeds will help, because Jesus accomplished everything that was needed, all that you have to do is accept it as His grace to you and believe that He died for your sins. When you have accepted this and believed in His sacrifice for you, then you are an adopted child of God! Don’t wait, because we are not guaranteed our next breath, or tomorrow let alone years from now!