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

God, where are You?


Have you ever asked God, “Where are You?” It is an apt question, but do you truly want to know where God is? Consider that He is everywhere, whether you believe in Him or not. The problem with us, as human beings, is that we think too much. We look around and see the world and everything in it and we don’t understand how all of the evil in the world could be happening if God cared. The thing is this: God does care and He loves each of us but it is our responsibility to follow Him in our lives. The peace He gives to us comes from knowing Jesus and having security in our salvation.

So, to concentrate on the question a bit more…where is God? He lives outside of our existence but He holds all of creation together by His power and His plans. He is near us all of the time. We cannot feel His touch or see Him but His attention never wanders far from us, even if we don’t believe in Him. God provided for the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years and He does the same thing for us today. He gives each of us talents and abilities to be able to make a living in this world and He places us in areas that He knows we can excel in.

All of these wonderful blessings come mostly to those who do truly believe in Him and trust Him for their salvation. Does He watch over those who haven’t really made up their mind about being His in a personal way? Yes, He does. His call on your life is truly your choice although it takes some of us a little longer to realize that He is calling us. Because it is our decision to choose Him as our Savior. We are not forced into belief because we can’t be, and He knows the beginning and the ending too. He knows the day and the hour that you will accept His offer of salvation, but He doesn’t push it on you.

Love and trust are two important aspects of a relationship with Jesus and God and neither of these can be forced upon anyone. You have to want this relationship and know that it is right for your life because eternity is not possible without Jesus in your life. Jesus came and gave His life to pay the penalty for your sins and all you have to do to claim your eternal life in Him is believe in Him and repent (turn away from) of your sinful life. Then read about Him in the Bible and learn how to be more like Him until He comes again. Living with Him one day at a time and do it every day. That is how you find Him and He keeps you in His hand.

Seek the kingdom of God first!


I thought of you when I read this quote from “In The Flesh – My Story: The first-person novel of Jesus” by Michael Gabriele –

“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and he will provide the things you need in life!””

Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/hkjxRrY

Submit your life to God


Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/jas.4.7.KJV

The Lord is always near you


Can you have peace in your life?


You must believe that God is in control of your life and your circumstances, no matter what they may be. Otherwise, you will attempt to gain control of your life and your circumstances and there is no peace in the struggle which comes from each of us trying to gain control of things which we can’t control. Each of us tries to gain control of our lives and our problems even when we know that there is no way that we can fix things. But, that doesn’t stop us from trying.

Does your life or your problems exempt you from asking God to help you to gain control of them? Are your problems too big for God? How can that be when He created the entire universe! He can give you the strength to get through every problem and every circumstance in this life. There is no condemnation in God’s sight toward your unbelief or your problems if you have given your heart to Jesus.

Each of us must believe that His offer of peace for your circumstances is real and be willing to accept His offer in spite of our feelings to the contrary. We should fully surrender our life, mind, will and our emotions to Jesus as our Lord. Because if you don’t fully surrender all of your life to Him then you don’t have Him in your life as your Lord and Savior. If Jesus is not the source of your peace, then what is? Here is the scripture and the promise from Jesus which cements this in His Words:

John 14:27

26But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Living your life by the power and the strength of your faith in Jesus Christ is your service and it is the living of it in front of the world around you which is your witness for Him to every person around you. Everything that you do or say is witnessed by those around you, whether you think they are watching or not. If they know that you are a Christian then every little thing that you do or say is part of your witness. If you are a new Christian then your light isn’t very bright yet, but you are still responsible for those who are watching to show that Jesus truly is your Savior. The longer that you are a Christian with years of Bible study then you are more responsible for more of His Light.

Are you perfect? No, none of us are perfectly sinless and we can’t be! Are we going to slip up and mess up your witness to others? Probably. At one point or another, every one of us will make a mistake at some point in our life. It may be a willful sin or one which you decide that you are going to do, even if it misses the mark. Will your salvation be taken away from you? If your salvation was real and genuine with repentance from those sins, then it can’t be taken away. If you just felt a good feeling and said some words that sounded right, but you have gone back to your old way of life then you are likely not saved at all. Do those of us who are saved fail in our living our life for Jesus? Yes, but we feel the failure in our heart and we are convicted of it by His Spirit. We want to ask His forgiveness as soon as we can.

Don’t turn away from His call on your life. When you feel it, answer His call and give your heart to Him because you may not have another chance to do so.

Be strong in the Lord!


Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Ephesians 6:10 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/eph.6.10.KJV

He truly is worthy!!


What has love got to do with salvation?


Truthfully, it was love which sent Jesus to the cross to pay for your sins and mine. Love has everything to do with even the possibility of your salvation and your eternity. Without love, there is nothing. Without the Love that God shows to us each day when we wake up and begin a new day, we would not have that day. There are so many in the world who look for love from friends and acquaintances and from their family as well and yet there are many who can’t find the love that they seek. Why is that? Actually, it is because the Love that our soul craves doesn’t come from friends or family or anything that we can buy or get on our own. The Love that our soul craves is the Love of God through Jesus Christ.

Until we find that…until we find Him as our Savior, we feel empty and hollow without hope and miserable in our search. Why? Because, as I said, the Person of God’s Love is Jesus the Christ and until we ask Him to come into our lives and make us into the person which God already knows we can be that hollow, empty feeling will remain. It won’t matter if we gain wealth or fame or anything which the world would accept as proof of our success…if you don’t have Jesus as your Savior then none of that matters at all.

God values your soul more than all of the wealth in the world. In today’s economy that would amount to, as a guess of course, about twenty to thirty trillion dollars. I don’t know the amount of ALL the wealth in the world but that number sounded big enough to me. If you could imagine having that much wealth, what would you do with it? What good would it do if you acquired it today and you died tonight? Not one little bit of good at all actually. Money will not buy the stairway to Heaven and even if it did you wouldn’t have the key to get in.

The key to gain entrance into Heaven is Jesus. If you don’t have Him as your Savior and Lord believing in Him for your salvation then you will be judged for your sins and sent to Hell. It doesn’t matter if you feel you have been wronged or how much money you gave to the poor and needy, if you don’t have Jesus as your Savior before you die then your eternity will be in hell. I ask that you make sure of your destination while you can because there is no second chance after death. Hell is not going to be an eternal party like Satan has told many people. There will be punishment there which lasts forever.

Fear the Lord


Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord , and depart from evil.
Proverbs 3:7 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.3.7.KJV

To those who are graduating…


Life at home has sometimes been challenging and hard. Trying to live up to the expectations of others and not knowing what you expect of yourself…it is confusing. But, if you have graduated from high school or even moved up into the next grade then more is expected of you. In our world today, children are asked to be more and do more than almost any generation with maybe the exception of those who chose to fight in World War 2.

This generation is looked at from the point of view of being the “Me” generation. As if everything is about me and what I have or what I want in life. In some ways that is true, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you take a good look at your life and if you are truly honest with yourself about what you do and how you live, Christian or not, most of us live our lives as if it is “about me”. The big problem is that it isn’t about you or me, it is about Jesus and whether or not you have accepted Him as your Savior.

When you go off to college many of the restrictions which we had while we were in school are taken away. We aren’t living under our parent’s roof, usually. We have a certain amount of freedom to choose our own course in life and for many people that is frightening. So, how do you cope with that kind of power over your own life? Some of us try to fill that void with drugs or alcohol or even sex, if you are brave enough or stupid enough to go that way. But the question remains: what is missing?

God placed a longing in our soul and our spirit which we can’t define or know what it is exactly until He touches you and your soul feels His touch on your life. Drugs of any kind will not fill that void, that longing for a purpose and neither will anything that we can do or buy with our money. That place which feels empty is made to be occupied by only one Person and that is Jesus Christ. Until you have truly given your heart and soul to Him and turned away from your so-called “old life”, there will always be an empty feeling which is never filled.

No amount of education will fill that space and no amount of money or fame or anything else will ever make it go away until you let Jesus into your heart and allow Him to change you into the person that He knows you were designed to be.

Pride and arrogance are not part of a Christian’s life, at least they aren’t supposed to be. Running after a perfect score on a test or an average of 4.0 in college won’t matter to your employer. Employers are looking for people who are disciplined by the experience of going to college so that they can bring that discipline to the workplace but your paycheck isn’t going to be any better if you have a 2.8 or a 4.0 average. It is your ability to learn and to do the job which employers are looking for.

Just as being a Christian requires you to obey God and follow Jesus into the rest of your life, a position at a workplace will only be yours if you follow directions and obey the rules of the job. Living with Christ as your example is something that all Christians should try to live up to. Granted, He was and is the Son of God and He didn’t have a “human nature” to fight with day in and day out, but we should strive to live like He did in many of life’s challenging moments. Seek Him out as you go through the process of going to college and don’t latch on to the secular teaching which tries to replace God or the Bible with theories and ideas.