Month: January 2014

Salvation, is it possible for all?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

According to the Word, yes it is possible. Jesus is the way, the Truth and the author of Life eternal. He came so that we might live for Him and through Him, He did not come to be worshiped, although it is due to Him because He is God the Son, the Creator and Redeemer of us all. Worshiping Jesus should be an honor and serving Him here or in Heaven is not enough to repay Him for what He did for us.  He came to give us life and freedom from sin, regardless of what the sin might be.

YoushallbesavedAll that the thief did on the cross next to Jesus was to believe in Who He was and he asked Him to remember him when He came into His Kingdom. Jesus did remember him and he was taken into paradise that very night after he died on the cross. His last breath on the cross led to his first breath in Heaven. That thief is still there and will be there for eternity, just as you and I will be if we have believed in Jesus.

God loves us, each of us, and it is humbling to be loved by the Creator of the universe. The problem that most people that I know seems to be with the simplicity of receiving their salvation. The Bible says that we must believe that Jesus died to pay the ransom for us in order to be saved. We don’t have to believe “in” Jesus or God, but we have to believe that what Jesus did is enough to save us.

Just as Abraham believed God and what God had told him and it was credited to him as righteousness, we have to believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again on the third day in order to save us. That is all that is required of us…is the belief in His saving grace and in what He did for us and the acceptance that it was enough.

Satan believes in God and Jesus because he knows that they are and that they exist, but he refuses to serve them. His pride and arrogance won’t allow him to be the servant that he was created to be, because he wants to be “like God”. The created cannot be “like God”, we have been given the privilege of being adopted into God’s family through Jesus and that should be enough. Eternal life with Him is something that we should all strive for because in serving Him in this life we gain eternity, what is more valuable than that?

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Please share to show my pupils how far a photo can go (even if you don’t want it to!)

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

Pictures on the Internet don’t go away either. Once they are out in the public domain they never come back.

Not about everything

Sharing this, because it seems an interesting lesson.

I am teaching E-safety to my pupils at the moment and wanted to try a little experiment. Please share this photo and see how far it gets, I want to show my students how easily photos etc can go viral, even when you may not want them to. Share it and see how far it goes!

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Depression and anxiety hurt

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

For many people, coming out of the holidays is more painful in an emotional way than it is in a financial way. Sometimes we are missing loved ones who either can’t come during the holidays or they may have finished their time here on earth and have moved on. Whatever the case, it hurts in ways that many people don’t want to acknowledge.

Anxiety and depression are two of the main causes of suicide during the winter months. The reasons behind these two emotions can vary as much as there are differences between each of us. The point is that we are not alone in this, ever. God is always just a prayer away, He is by your side regardless of whether you go to mass on certain days or nights, or church on Sunday or whatever your timetable for worship happens to be.

We give days and weeks to our favorite sport, we will devote countless hours to our hobby and some number of weekends to our family but how much time do you give to God each week? How much time do you spend in the Bible, learning about God and listening to His counsel? I am not talking of going to mass or confession at a Catholic church or a Jewish synagogue or any other religion or religious service. I am talking of getting to know God, the only God that matters, the One who has known you since before the foundation of the world was laid.

I know, there are many who don’t believe in God or the Bible as His Word, which is fine. You can believe whatever you wish to believe and it won’t hurt my feelings at all, but not believing in God doesn’t change the fact that He exists and that He is your judge at the end of your life. When it comes to that moment in your life, what will you cling to that will be enough to give you eternal life? If you are clinging to anything or anyone other than Jesus and belief in His sacrifice for your sins to be forgiven then your life is over. Nothing or nobody can save you except Jesus. You are not good enough, Billy Graham is not good enough, the Pope isn’t good enough, your ancestors are not good enough, Muhammad is not good enough and neither is Allah!!!!

The only person Who can get you into Heaven is Jesus. Belief in Him and the act of submitting your will and your heart to Him is the only way into eternity. Believe or decide not to believe in Him, but when your life is over here and you stand before God, what will you say? God provided the way into eternity through Jesus and His sacrifice and all that you have to do is believe it and accept it, then repent of the sins that you are living in and become the person that God meant for you to be…His child.

What is in the news today?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

2 Timothy 3:1-5
Amplified Bible (AMP)

1 But understand this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear].
2 For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane.
3 [They will be] without natural [human] affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good.
4 [They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God.
5 For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them].

I use the Amplified version because it has a deeper, more meaningful impact to us and our language today. There is nothing wrong with the older translations, but this version helps more people to truly understand what God’s Word is saying regarding the times that the early Church had to deal with. It also sounds a lot like today’s headlines doesn’t it?

We are acting and doing all of these things and more today, and yet they were happening to the early church as well before the coming of all of today’s conveniences and all the “knowledge” that we have being thrown in our faces today as if it is “new-age thinking”. Nothing is happening today that hasn’t happened before.

Just as The Preacher said in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun”, and there isn’t. Oh, it is true that Solomon didn’t have the Internet and neither did Jesus and His disciples, but other than the “electronic age” that we are having to endure, there is nothing new, there is nothing that hasn’t happened in the past in some way or another.

I have written about the news being or at least seeming to be mentioned in the Bible before, but when you read 2 Timothy as in the beginning of this post, it does truly sound like today’s headlines. God knew then and He knows what is happening now and what will happen in the future. He knows when the end of the age is…the exact day and hour, but no person can claim such knowledge. It is not found in the Bible nor in any other arcane book found in book stores.

But, the time is foretold, so we have to be prepared. Whether you are or not won’t matter regarding the outcome, the only part of this that we have control over is whether we have accepted Jesus as our personal Savior or not. That is the part which will have a direct impact on your personal future.

Think about it.

Is Satan real?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

“Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God: “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.” (Ezekiel 28: 12-15)

There are many sites which question the validity of the Word of God which states that he is real and also bring up the idea that he is just a metaphor for mankind’s evil state. Well, if the prophets say that the Spirit of God gave them the knowledge and the words to write about him, then I believe it. Also, our Lord Jesus said that He witnessed Satan fall from Heaven like lightning, so to answer the question: Yes, I do believe that Satan is real!

Look at all of the evil things that go on in the world. I know that mankind is evil in some ways, but some of the things which happen to people and especially to youngsters must be prompted by Satanic forces, demons, principalities, whatever you want to call it. It is just too depraved, it seems, for a person to do some of the horrendous things which make the news sometimes without being pushed or influenced by a truly evil presence.

He is known by many names among which are: Satan (the Accuser); Lucifer (the name he was given by God); Beelzebub (the evil one). He is also known as the Dragon and the King of Tyre. By whatever name you call him, he is a created being that was created by God to be a guardian cherub which is why he is so powerful. He was created with all of the beauty that God could bestow upon him and when he saw himself and realized how magnificent he was, he wanted more and pride took root in his spirit.

Lucifer, became Satan when he tried to take what a created being has no right nor power to take. He tried to become a god, above the throne of God on the mountain of God. A human can’t do it and neither can an angel or a cherub, no matter how powerful they may be. He will bow one day to Jesus as the King of Kings. He won’t like it, Gabriel or Michael may have to force him to bow, but he will.

The most wonderful news that I can give you, as a Christian, is that you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and therefore you have power and protection against him. Although, I believe that anyone would be frightened if he actually showed up in physical form regardless of your belief! We have the Spirit of God in us as Christians and therefore we have a part of the Trinity living with us. If you have not asked Jesus into your life, then Satan has an open door to your heart and soul and can enter at any time he chooses. If you mistakenly invite him in by playing a game or playing with witchcraft, then you will pay the consequences.

Give your life to Jesus, decide to follow Him, read and pray about what you are reading in the Bible. God will reveal things to you through His Word to teach you about Himself and about who you are in Christ. Once you have taken the Word of God into your heart by the reading of it, determine to learn from it and you will have a weapon against Satan that he cannot go up against.

Think about it and one day I may meet you in Heaven.  🙂