Eternal life (Christianity)

Can’t I do it without church?

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

Some people wonder why they have to go to church if they become a Christian and they complain about it. They even ask, “Can’t I become a Christian without being a member of a church?” Let me answer that question with another one–can a honey-bee be a bee without a hive? Can a sailor be a sailor without a ship? Can a person be a parent without a family? Can a father or mother be what they are if they don’t have children? None of these can be what they are supposed to be unless there is a reason for them to be.

Being a Christian is important for your salvation, but it is also important to God. He created man for daily fellowship with Him and they had that for a while. He will be with you whether you are in church or not, but your soul and your walk with Him will be much more blessed by having fellowship with other Christians.

While you can enjoy your fellowship with God whether you are in church or not, the fellowship that being with fellow Christians gives you will deepen relationship with Him. Living as a Christian will enhance your life here and give you a future to look forward to, unlike disregarding God as many people today seem to be doing.

It is unhealthy to ignore or disregard the existence of God as our Creator as many seem to feel the need to do today. You might ask “Why is that?”; well, the reason it is unhealthy is because you were designed by Him so your being, your soul yearns for fellowship with Him. If you continually reject Him, then you grow cold, distant and since you are dissociating yourself with the love of God, then you will reject love too.

By rejecting love, your personal relationships suffer, family relationships suffer, friendship suffers. God is Supreme Love, and by rejecting Him you are putting it (love) out of your life. You will have lust, and affection that can mimic love and make you feel wanted but it is not the same. Your life and mine were created to be more complete with love present in our lives and without it, there is an emptiness, a place which feels hollow that cannot be filled.

God loves each person on Earth and He provided a way for us to be reconciled to Him through the sacrifice of Jesus as the perfect sacrifice, the One that could pay the price for all of mankind’s sins. Jesus did pay that price for all of us and if you are feeling a pull on your heart, a tug at your soul that tells you that God wants you, then accepting Jesus as your Savior is the way to salvation. It is the only way to come to know Him and to have the hope of eternal life in Him.

Advertisement

Give Thanks in everything

/ Tracy Eldridge / 1 Comment

I am going to give you a quote to start this off, so here it is:

“God doesn’t expect me to be thankful FOR all circumstance, but IN all circumstances. There’s a huge difference. The first attitude is masochism. The second shows maturity.”   California mega-church pastor Rick Warren, writing in Time magazine about thankfulness during what he called “the worst year of my life” after his youngest son committed suicide.

This is exactly how our Savior wants us to be, thankful in all things because He will make His strength show through your weakness regardless of the circumstances you may be experiencing. So, how is your life going? Have you had some hard things to deal with this year? Did you experience some pain and suffering at some point? Were you thankful for it?

Most people are not thankful for it at all…mainly because it is usually so unpleasant that you can’t be thankful for it. I have wondered in my life, “Why would God want me to be thankful for suffering or pain in my life?” He does not ask us to be thankful for the suffering, as in the quote above, but IN the suffering. While you are in it, you are to be prayerful, staying near to Him so that He can strengthen you and help you through your troubles and your pain.

God loves all of us, but He doesn’t like the pain and suffering that we have to endure in this life. He is not the author of it, Satan is. Mainly because he wants to cause as many problems in our life as possible so that we will blame God for them. Many people do blame God or rather a god for their trouble or their problems. Why do they do this? Because He is thought of as a god who punishes and causes pain and suffering, yet these are descriptions of the kind of being that Satan is and has always been. God is not like this at all.

We, all of us, are special to God because He formed man out of the earth, in His image and placed the breath of Life in him. No other creature in all of Creation has that honor, not even the angels in Heaven. This sets us apart as the part of Creation that God wants to have fellowship with, now and forever. This life on Earth is just preparation for the extended part of your existence, into eternity. You are free to believe what you wish about God and eternity, but when your life here is over and eternity begins…where will you be?

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believed in Him would not perish, but would have eternal life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:16-18

A very small sermon

/ Tracy Eldridge / Leave a comment

“For God loved the world so much and each one of us in it, that He gave (sent) His only Son. That whosoever will believe in Him and His sacrifice shall not perish (die), but will have everlasting (eternal) life.”

Paraphrase of John 3:16

Believe it, read the Word, pray to God for your forgiveness and ask Him to come into your life. Then tell others what you have come to know.

What does Easter mean to you?

/ Tracy Eldridge / 1 Comment

The passion of Christ, His crucifixion and resurrection…what does it mean for us, for you?

In our daily life and our lives in general it means the difference between having hope for eternity and having no hope at all. Your life and the meaning of your life while you are here doesn’t mean much to the world in general. Most people or countries don’t care anything about us as individuals. We are just numbers and revenue in the form of taxes and consumerism.

To Christ we are important. We, each of us, are important enough that He came and died for us so that we could have eternal life. But, it was not just for our benefit that He came and died, it was for the Kingdom of God and for His Glory. The work that we can do through Him and the work that He can do through us is the reason for our salvation and for His sacrifice.

So, why does life seem to be without hope to most people? Even if they are or claim to be Christians? It could be that they have not given themselves totally to Christ. Many people think that because they have asked Jesus into their lives and their heart that that is all that is required. True, for you to have eternal life that is it, but an abundant life and the eternal rewards that you will receive for the work that you do as a follower of Christ is what you do beyond that.

For Easter and its Christian meaning to have real meaning for you, your life in Christ has to have or be meaningful. I am not speaking of being a mother or father or of your job, those positions are important because your Christian life can shine through those areas as well. To be meaningful in Christ your life in Him must show to the outside world in some way that others will see it and want what you have.

The mini-series that is on the history channel, “The Bible”, this year is one couple’s way of doing that. Each of us can be more or do more with the strength and wisdom given to us by God and that is what I am speaking of in this writing.

Many people wonder, “Does God give me a gift or the wisdom to do these things?”, the answer to that is Yes! In the Bible, there is a passage that says (paraphrased) “ask of God and He will give you wisdom” James 1:5; each of us is unable to do the things that we do in the ministries that we have unless we have the ability and the wisdom from Him to do them.

The writing that I have been doing for these past five years or so would be impossible for me to to without the words and the wisdom that God gives me. I don’t have it in me to create this much or for it to make sense the way it seems to unless these words come from God and not me!

Easter is a time to celebrate Christ’s sacrifice for each of us, not to celebrate spring or chocolate or colored eggs. The celebration that we see each year is a pagan celebration of spring, that is all. Celebrating the love and compassion that God has for us and that through His Son, He could make a way for each of us to be reconciled to Him is what we should celebrate and truly be thankful for.

The love that God has for each of us is the reason that He came and sacrificed Himself for us to reconcile each of us to Himself, there was no other way to do it. Your life..our lives can have so much more meaning and purpose through Christ and with Him working through us. Give Jesus a chance to come into your heart and make it His home because once He does your life will never be the same!