My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; James 1:2 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jas.1.2.KJV
Live joyfully in Jesus
Author: Tracy Eldridge
This my witness for my Lord and Savior on the web. I pray that you find these posts useful in your search for Jesus.
http://thelivingmessage.com
What makes the difference?
What makes a difference in a person’s life? I don’t mean materially like having a lot of money, what I am speaking of is an eternal difference. Now, there are some in our country today who would ask, “What do you mean “eternal difference”? Well, according to God’s Word which, isn’t read very much in America anymore, all of us have an eternity to look forward to after we die. Some of us won’t like it there at all. They will see their eternity as a punishment and a prison. Well, it is.
You see when you live your life like the devil then your eternity will be to live in eternity with the devil. Now during this life, I have heard many people say that in hell we will be having a party all through eternity. But that is not the way Jesus describes hell. He said the smoke of their torment rises for eternity and that they will be thrown into the lake of fire with Satan and his demons. A lake of fire doesn’t sound like a party to me. Especially when your eternal body is capable of feeling pain even though the lake of fire can’t kill you.
The difference that we make in other lives and in our own life can only come by one Person, Jesus Christ. He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith and it is His Spirit which remakes us into a child of God. We cannot do this transformation on our own. There is no amount of money or time or work, which will miraculously make us righteous in the sight of God. Only belief in the Son, Jesus Christ for our salvation will accomplish this task. We do not choose this on our own because even when you have been in a revival tent or meeting if you feel that you need Jesus and you go down front that decision may be because of your friends going down or some girl going down.
When the Holy Spirit touches your heart and breaks it so that you know that you need Jesus regardless of who may see you or what your friends might say. Nothing will keep you from going down and making Him your Savior. God’s Holy Spirit will move you to make that decision and you will make it. Sometimes it may take a few more prompting touches from Him but you will get down on your knees and give your life to Jesus.
What does all of this have to do with making a difference? Because others will see the difference in you and they will want to know what happened? Your life and your way of living changed and someone will want to know how they can have the peace that you have. They will hear about your life turning in the opposite direction from where you were headed and they will see a difference in you. Some may not see it as a good thing and that’s okay but there will be others who see the change and they will want what you have found.
When your life changes like that then you will make a difference in someone’s life. Maybe even more than one person. Then they can go out and make a difference and the effect will keep going from there. God can make one person…one seed sprout into a field of new growth for His Kingdom. It only takes a spark to start a fire if the right kind of wood is there. Your “spark” comes from the Holy Spirit and the fire that He starts in your heart is what other people see. Once they see this change in your life, they will want to know what or Who it is that made this change.
Make sure that they know it was Jesus Christ Who brought you to this place in your life.
God loves you!
The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/zep.3.17.KJV
Where do you find “JOY!!”
Joy is a baby’s cry exclaiming that they are alive! Joy is a child chasing butterflies and laughing. Joy is the love that you find in another when God brings you together as husband and wife. Joy is seeing a puppy open its eyes and gaze in wonder at the world around them. Joy is the love that you finally find in Jesus because He knit you together and He put all of your parts together and He knows you better than anyone in the whole world.
We look for the source of this joy all during our lives. Sometimes we find it in the person that we feel is our soulmate. Then we find that they can’t fill that space because they aren’t the One that can. Many times we try to find it in our careers or our accomplishments, if there are any, but this is also false.
Jesus Our Yahweh. He is our God, our Creator, our Savior, our Yahweh and He is our joy. Cling to Him during your hard days and during your trials. Cling hard to Him during those times that you don’t understand what is happening. Stay close to Him in all of your trials and your tests and in those days that turn out to be joyous and happy…thank Him for giving you His JOY!
Endless love for…
We have heard songs for this and we’ve prayed for it to happen to us but until you realize that you already have it…it never really sinks into your conscience. God has loved every one of us since before the first blade of grass grew in Eden. He has known our weaknesses and our strengths and where and when we would make mistakes and He loves us anyway. Even when we refuse to listen to Him or we turn away from Him for a time and do our own thing…He still loves us. Feeling loved or unloved? Seek God in the Psalms and Proverbs. His love shines so bright that our own Sun cannot be bright enough to make a shadow.
Endless love. The kind of love that lasts not just for a lifetime but for eternity is the love that God has always had for each of us. Will He show this love to us while we are still alive? Yes, and He does it every time you wake up to a new day. When your day goes your way until you get home that was God making your day smooth and productive. God’s Spirit comes to live with you when you accept Jesus as your Savior and He is with you during the good days and the bad ones. He is never any further from you than a breath and a prayer. If you are hurting, the Holy Spirit can fill in the blanks that you can’t pray because of grief or the loss of a loved one. He knows your pain but He will give you the strength to get through it today and tomorrow and the next day too.
The gifts which the Spirit brings to your life will help with so much and add to your life and your enjoyment of it. God does so much for us each day and most of it goes unnoticed because He takes care of little things before they become big ones. Sometimes we ask Him to do something for us and He knows that we don’t need it or that it would cause problems for us later. He answers those prayers by not answering them. We don’t understand His logic but we aren’t supposed to understand Him. He’s God our Savior, our Protector, our Creator and our Redeemer. What more could you want or need?
Do the work of a Christian
Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. Philippians 4:9 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/php.4.9.KJV
Put your faith in Jesus into practice every day so others will see Him through you!
Choose this day whom you will serve
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord , choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord . Joshua 24:15 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jos.24.15.KJV
Live in the Spirit
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:25 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/gal.5.25.KJV
God watches over the righteous
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. 1 Peter 3:12 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/1pe.3.12.KJV
When you pray, God hears your prayers. If you are a sinner, the only prayer that He will hear is your prayer for forgiveness and repentance. After that, He will be near you every step of the way. God never turns away from a sinner if they are sincere about turning away from their sins. Only a prayer for forgiveness and repentance from a sinner will be answered instantly, if it is sincere. Just like trying to quit smoking or drinking will not work unless you truly mean it. God knows what is in your heart and He knows what you are thinking. It cannot be hidden from Him.
God does care about and He watches over all of us, sinner and saint alike, and His will for all will be accomplished because His will cannot be undone. The world around us thinks that they can change the future by their actions but the future is in God’s hands and it will happen the way that He says it will in His Word. Look to His Word for your peace and your salvation through Jesus Christ.
Another Saint goes home…
Life on Earth is getting harder to bear. More of my friends are going home to be with the Lord. Yes, we prayed for healing and God chose to heal by giving them their eternal body without disease or hunger or glasses. Life goes on here but I am truly looking forward to that day when the Trumpet of God is sounded and the Church, the Bride of Christ is called home. I don’t want to write much but I do ask for prayer for those who have lost loved ones to this COVID-19 thing! It is time for this to end.
We, and I mean all of us, are sometimes confused about God’s way of healing. Love works in ways which few of us can truly understand. Especially when it comes to God’s love which is deeper and more complete than any emotion that men or women can feel. Our emotions are not comparable to God’s. We ask Him for a healing, sometimes we plead for it for weeks or months, and we don’t see a healing happening…yet. But God has something planned. It may not be what you want or the way that you want it but God can see all of the options and His knowledge is boundless. He can see that one person’s death will bring about more than his or her life would’ve accomplished had they lived.
God is not being mean to the family because their faith will grow if they see that something greater is happening because of their witness in this life. Many may not have known about his ministry or influence. He or she may not have known that someone was changed or inspired in some way by their life or something that they said or did. God knows what it will accomplish and it is His will that it continue and it might not even begin had they lived.
God does things much different from the way that we think. Even the first miracle that Jesus did confused the people who had been serving the wine at the wedding in Cana. His mother called Him over and told Him that they were out of wine. He said, “What is that to me? My time has not come yet.” She still told the servants to “Do whatever He tells you to do”. He told them to fill six jars which held about sixty gallons each with water. When they had done so, He said to give a sample to the head waiter of the house. Then the man said that most people serve the best at the beginning of a celebration but you have kept the best until later.
Those who have been healed by taking them into eternity hopefully were followers of Jesus Christ. Some may not have believed in Him for their salvation but their death may still influence someone to change their life. God allowed His Son to pay the price for ALL OF OUR SINS so that we could have an eternity with Him. A strange way to save humanity when most of them don’t even believe in God or His Son. It is because of His great Love for us that He has for all of us. Did my friend believe in Jesus for his salvation? Yes! I envy him right now because of the wondrous sights he is seeing, especially because he is reunited with his Daddy and his grandparents. Yes, I envy him because I can’t see those wonderful sights until I am there and I’m looking forward to it.
