A very inspirational message for all of us, especially those who are serving in the ministry. Keep up the work that God has given you to do!
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
Time, do you have enough?
It seems that when we wake up in the morning, the day just seems to be on meth (or so I’m told). When your feet hit the floor, the minutes just seem to fly by you without stopping. There never seems to be enough time to finish all of the tasks and errands for one day before another starts! I have also noticed that once the number of your birthdays gets past that all-important “21” marker, it seems that someone puts grease on the “line” and time and dates just slip by faster and faster from that point on.
Is it possible for us to take a step back and look at things without getting run over in the process? Actually, no you can’t. When you are born, your life has a certain number of days and years allotted to it by God and just like a pot when it is tipped to a certain point, that time just spills over and pours out faster and faster. As the numbers get larger, your time seems to go faster, at times, than at others.
When you were small, waiting for your birthday to come around took a whole year, but it seemed to take two or three. The same thing happened at Christmas, the time between did not change but it seemed to get longer and longer, until you got older and realized that Santa wasn’t real, he was just the “spirit” of Christmas.
So, do we have enough time? As Christians, yes we have eternity awaiting so we have time. We may not have enough time to tell all of our friends about Jesus though. Many friends don’t want to hear or they have already heard and really don’t want to hear it again. Some think that a decision that they made many years ago, even though it didn’t make a real change in their lives, is enough. The only person that knows for sure is God. But, I still want to tell them and I don’t know if I have enough time!
God will make the time, in His time. He will bring them about to Him, in His time and in His way. The only thing that I can do is present the good news of Jesus here and then hand it over to God and let Him take it from there.
God loves each one of us enough that He sent Jesus to die on the cross as a substitute for us, all of us. That sacrifice of His Son’s blood opened the way for each of us to come to the Father through the covering of His righteousness and ask forgiveness for our sins and our decisions, good or bad. Once we have come to the place where we know that we need Jesus, the rest is simple…ask Him to come into our heart and forgive us for waiting so long so that we can be made whole through Him. That’s it! We can’t add one drop to it at all and what we do add to it, can only be done through Jesus and by Him and His glory.
Give Jesus a chance in your everyday life from your rising up in the morning to going to sleep at night. Your day won’t slow down any, but you will be able to get more done and it will be done for Him and through Him as well which will make it much more worthwhile too.
There is no punishment
It doesn’t matter what you do or how you live there is no punishment…at least that is what some spiritual leaders are telling their followers.
Whether you believe in a moral code or in God or Satan, the part about there being “no punishment” is a complete lie! If you want to believe that, go ahead and be my guest, but just as you can’t get away with breaking the law regardless of which country you live in there will be a day when you have to pay up in one way or another.
There are scientific methods which are used in the laboratory, research or medical, that can show all of the ways which a cell can be attacked by a virus or a bacterial organism and even these have laws and consequences. For instance, if the pH is off by a few hundredths of a percent, then some medicines won’t work. On the other hand, if the pH of a cell is off (toward the alkaline state) even a little, then cancer cells cannot grow, bacteria cannot reproduce, etc.
It is not something that the medical community wants you to know, because you can eat certain foods which will keep cancer cells from growing. This is not a “crack science” column, it is just a chemical fact that acid or alkaline environments won’t allow bacteria, viruses and cancer cells to continue to grow. Any variation from normal pH of 7.0 above or below will stop the run-away growth of bacteria or viruses or even cancer cells. This is a chemical law, and if you don’t believe it when you are sick ask them to check your body’s pH and you will see why.
The laws that we live by have, at their core, God’s law as a guide and model. Whether you like it or not doesn’t really matter, the moral law, the one that most people base their ideas of right and wrong on came from God. Many people call them “natural laws”, but since He established them it stands to reason that He brought these laws into being in the first place.
Then, there are people in our world today that don’t want anything to do with religion or God or any moral absolute and the rules and laws that go along with those beliefs. If you feel this way, then I am happy for you. I am glad to know that there is a perfect person that needs absolutely no help in any area of their life. If you can tell the rest of us how to do this, feel free to open up a blog or a store or something because I am sure that the whole world would buy what you have to sell.
The fact is that there are no perfect people! Nobody has the ability to do things perfectly all of the time or live their lives without any problems at all, no matter what your “claim” is! It doesn’t matter what religion you follow or even if you follow one at all, there is no person on Earth today that is or can claim to be perfect!
The only One that lived a sinless life, I did not say a perfect life, was Jesus. In appearance and the station of life that He lived in, Jesus would not have been considered perfect. He was and is the Son of God and as such He could do things which no other person could, but He came to the people of Israel first as a carpenter’s apprentice and then as a teacher. He was of the lineage of David and is the prophesied Messiah, yet at the time of His coming they did not receive Him. They will when He comes again. All who are drawn by God to become children through regeneration of their spirit in Christ will receive Him and see Him when He come in glory.
Looking for the good life this year?
In our quest to discover the good life this year, we must be careful that we do not drift into an aimless life. The worst thing that could happen to us this coming year is that we just let the year happen to us rather than charting a course and getting into God‘s appointed harbor and His will for us.
More than likely, you won’t drift. It may just happen. You’ll be coasting along at a good clip, and then before you know it you’re drifting away. . . that is, unless you have an anchor. That anchor is Jesus and faith in Him.
Reflect on this past year. What were some things you did right… what were some things you would do differently this new year? We have today to work for the Lord and there is no guarantee of tomorrow so live and give your faith away today. If tomorrow comes, then begin it with the power of God in your life and give away your faith and your hope to someone. Keep doing this until the year is over or until you go to be with Jesus, then you will have done your part and fought the good fight.
Consider this quote:
“No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.”
–George Bernard Shaw
Your life and mine are worth more to God than they are to the world because this world and the ruler of it care nothing for us. Satan has exactly zero tolerance for you or me, especially if we truly belong to Christ. He absolutely loves it if you decide that God doesn’t exist or that you will turn your back on Jesus, because if he can cause more trouble and heartache for you then he will do it, and keeping you from being effective for Jesus or keeping you away from Jesus is his goal!
It is true that Satan took the Earth from Adam in the garden and it won’t be taken back until Jesus comes again, even though the battle is already won! When you are part of the world and have not given your life to Jesus, you are part of Satan’s kingdom. But, when you make the decision that you want a future and a real life, then give your heart to Christ and follow Him. From that point on, even Satan will hate it when you speak to others about Jesus and he will hate it when you get up every day and pray for a great day.
Update: The good life is something that we all strive for, but what defines the so-called “good life”? That depends on you, really. The good life for some is being out of debt, for others it may be having fame and fortune from being a movie star or Broadway actor or actress. Some people may get their satisfaction by serving people as a police-person or firefighter or maybe as a paramedic or ambulance driver.
The point of your life is yours and yours alone, good or not. Jesus did not tell His followers that they had to give up any pretense of wealth or prosperity, even though when He spoke to the “rich young ruler” He did ask him to sell his belongings and follow Him. The reason for this was not to make him poor or to get rid of his “stuff”, it was to show that his priorities were in the wrong place. The “rich, young ruler” placed more faith in his wealth than he did in religious areas of his life. We don’t have to give up our wealth or fame or power, as long as we keep the priority of our Christian life centered on Jesus.
For many people, especially those who are wealthy or those who have all that they need, dependence on Jesus and following Him is not really a priority. That is why there is a huge gap in church attendance in places where people have money enough to take care of their wants and needs as opposed to areas where lack of money is more rampant. God loves each and every person on this world, but there are some who place their faith in “stuff” more than they do anything else.
Just as someone who may have cancer but doesn’t know it yet, people who depend upon their money and position in society tend toward being “self-reliant” until something takes their cushion away. When the person with cancer goes to the doctor for something minor and then finds out about the real problem, then they will usually go to almost any length necessary to get better. It is the same with someone who has never realized that they need Jesus, when they do come to that point they will find out all that they can from many sources if necessary in order to make faith in Him possible for them. “Seek and ye shall find, knock and it will be opened to you”, that is what is needed today more than ever!
2013 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 28 trips to carry that many people.
Click here to see the complete report.
I just want to thank you all for visiting and I hope that you will be back in the next year. God bless you all and Happy New Year!
A new beginning in the new year!
In the new year, we will all have wonderful days and some which are not so great. So, what are we to do about those days which are not so great? In many ways, we really can’t do much about those days which don’t go the way that we think it is supposed to.
Your daily life can be great but only if you are following the author of life Who is Jesus! Why does He have to be in your life for it to be great? Because you need Him! I know, there are many of you who are so independent and able to do anything that you don’t think that you need Jesus in your life, but…you do. Oh, we can make it through some tough times and taking our child to the doctor’s office is no big deal, we can even take ourselves to see the doctor once in a while. But, what happens when you or your spouse or your child gets really sick and the doctor gives you the “Sit down” look or speech?
What happens when you hear words like “There’s nothing that I can do” or “It has progressed too far”? Your independence from belief in God is going to go into hyper-space mode trying to get back to Him! Why? Because, at this point He is the only One Who can help! He can help and He will, but it may not be in the way that you are expecting. Sometimes God’s help seems to come too late or not at all and people wonder why.
Have you ever considered that your blessings in this life, including your family and your finances, may have been given to you temporarily so that the life you have after it is taken will be better and greater than before? Like Job, whom no Christian ever wants to emulate, people in this situation have two choices, curse God for taking your “stuff” which He gave you or to bless Him for being in control in the first place.
Our lives are supposed to be living testimonies to the world regardless of our situation in life and yet many don’t see it that way. Most of us seem to think that we were born to try to get as much as we can before we reach our expiration date, whenever that may be but…that is not why God put us here. It is very likely that is why this site doesn’t have many visitors on a daily or monthly basis, because I don’t “fluff up the truth”, I don’t cover things with flowery words and phrases. I give you the total, unvarnished message as it is given to me period.
I don’t mean to offend anyone with that statement but it is the truth. I have written some poems on this site and no one seems to notice. I have told a few stories and it seems that they aren’t good enough. I am ranting right now because that seems to be what gets people’s attention. The truth is that ….. Jesus is the only answer that you will ever need for your depression or your finances or your life! He is the only One that can help and make sure that you are a child of God.
He is not going to make your life rosy and rich, unless you were on the road to that already. Don’t give up on His blessings in your life but also don’t think for a minute that you and you alone were responsible for what you have because it is not true!
God gave you your talents and abilities and He gave them to you for a reason. That reason is to be a servant of His, not a slave as one who is dragged against his will and sold, but as one who has been bought with the precious blood of Jesus! Your sins were paid for with His blood and He wishes for you to tell others of the bondage that you were released from not a bondage that you were put into. I am a bond-slave of Christ, one who is willing to live for and serve my Master until the day when He comes back or He calls me home.
Give your life to Jesus and He will give His life, strength and purpose for living to you so that you can show it to others and bring them into the family too. 🙂
A Father’s place
In our culture, a father is needed in the home today more than ever before. But, there are many who are growing up without one present. Oh, some men are there in the home but they are so caught up in their careers that they don’t have time for the kids and their spouse. But, the sad fact is that for many families there is no father figure around at all. There are too many single parent homes today and the men that are around are not giving the children that are around them the support that a father is supposed to give.
I mean, what can you do about being a father or a Dad if you weren’t raised by one yourself? Did you have a role model like a grandfather or an uncle to teach you the things that your father should have? Boys need a father, a Dad that will be there when they want or need to ask questions, they don’t need a gang or some schoolyard “friend” who may teach them things that they really don’t need.
Our country is reeling from a lack of fathers…of Dads, who need to step up and be the Dad that their children need, even if the child in your family is not yours, they still need a father figure to show them the path that they need to be on! God‘s Word says that we, as fathers, should train a child in the way that they should go and when they are old, they will not depart from it; that is exactly what needs to be done but in the last fifty years there have been many who did not or would not do this! So, why do we seem to be surprised when there are so many men in prison and so many crimes committed by men? They didn’t have someone to look up to or anyone to teach them, so where did they get their example? Who showed them the “ropes” of being a man?
Life is hard enough with a Dad to help you, to show you how to do things and the right way to do them, let alone going through life without an example from a man, especially a Godly man!
Hear, my children, the instruction of a father,
And give attention to know understanding;
2 For I give you good doctrine:
Do not forsake my law. (Proverbs 4:1-2)
Time enough to grieve
When the holidays are over we tend to be saddened by the passing of the feelings of togetherness and love that we experience during the holiday. The gifts, the joy that getting a present brings, the look on children’s faces as they open their gifts, these are all precious and will never be repeated exactly the same way again. For those who may have lost a loved one during this time of year, it is especially hard because the joy of the season is tamped down by the grief and sadness.
Unfortunately, those feelings don’t really go away with time like everyone says, they become a little less bothersome but that is all. The good news is that God knows exactly how you feel and is there with you to carry you through it, no matter how deep the sadness goes or how long it lasts. He never leaves you and He won’t forsake the friendship that you have.
If you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then the sadness will be terrible and deep and you may feel that you can’t bear it. For some, this is a reason to “get off the wagon” and get back into a bottle or go back to their habit of taking drugs to ease the pain. This is a really bad idea! Jesus can strengthen you and help you through this, if you will let Him!
He told us in His Word that we would never be alone, if we have accepted Him into our lives. He loves us much more than we can ever imagine or believe and if we will just trust in Him, we can gain the strength that we need to make it through the days and weeks ahead. The death of a marriage or a family member is a hard lesson in life and it is one that many of us have gone through, especially me, but Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace and He will be with you through this if you will ask Him into your heart and life.
Grief is a natural part of life and death and there are many stages to it, but the most devastating is the depression and anger. We feel anger because we weren’t ready for our loved one to leave or for the marriage to end or whatever it may have been. We are depressed because of the loss of our loved one by whatever means that has taken them away and we know that we may never see them again. Cheer up, if you have Christ in your life and they did too then it is only a temporary separation. They are in a more wonderful place than you can imagine and they are with Jesus!
Their salvation could lead you in that direction if you will allow it to. Grief and loss for a Christian are not permanent but temporary because Jesus conquered death and the grave! You will see them again if you decide to give your heart to Jesus and ask Him to come into your life. Once you have done this, your life and that of those around you will never be the same because of the change in you that they can see.
What is on your mind?
In the times that we live in today, many of us have so much on our minds until we can’t isolate exactly what is on our mind at any one time. Isn’t that strange? I have days like that even though I don’t work at a regular job anymore. How about you? Do you have days that have many things running into each other trying to get them done? You probably feel like you will run into yourself one day trying to finish everything, don’t you?
It is a day like that that this is dedicated to. For one thing, we all need to s–l–o–w d-o-w-n. Not only in our working lives, but at home as well. We tend to have so much for our family to do until we seem to forget that we are really, first and foremost, a family! If your workday ends on Friday, but you hardly have any time to spend with each other over the weekend, then it doesn’t really qualify as a “week-end” does it?
Even Jesus spent time with His friends and His disciples when all of the healings were finished and the bread was broken. He didn’t just walk away and not tell people that He didn’t have time for them. He created time so He could have as much as He needed. The problem was that He took the time to take the time with them, regardless of the amount of time that He had. Now, we can’t create time and He didn’t either while He was on Earth, but the point is that we need to control our time.
I know that time management is a course that is taught in college and it is usually found to be useless once you finish it, but your most important relationship here is your family and they should come first, behind God, but our jobs and obligations usually get in the way. But they don’t get in the way unless we allow it to happen, do they? I know, there are some obligations which come with our jobs, whatever they may be, that can’t be put on hold or put off until after the game or other family get together, but we should at least try to put family and Jesus first in our everyday lives.
Ask God to help because believe me, He can and will do it! Many of the reasons for people not seeing God at work in their lives is because they didn’t ask for His help in the first place! Then, after we do ask for His help we don’t or can’t wait for God to act! I have said it before and I am going to say it again because I have heard this advice from other Christians and other pastors as well: don’t ever ask God for patience! You will learn it, not get it, but you won’t enjoy the wait at all!
That being said, don’t hesitate to ask God for help in any area of your life. He is always there and always ready to help in His way and His time. Jesus is always there, waiting for people to call on Him to come into their lives and change them for the better, because when you become a Christian you are not the same as you were, you are forgiven and whole in Christ. You are not better than the person beside you, but you are forgiven which makes a difference! You are not sinless, yet you are forgiven through His blood and His sacrifice for you and everyone that you know! God sent Jesus to do this so that we could all come to Him through the atonement found only in Jesus. Come to Him and let Him show you how to order your life on a daily basis toward Him and His Word, to learn from Him one book at a time so that you can take it with you wherever you go.
Think about it during the next few weeks and give your life to Jesus. It is the most important and life changing decision that you will ever make!
Live, love and persue happiness
The life that we have been given and the love that has been shown to us through Jesus’ sacrifice for all of us, is a gift of immense proportions. Unfortunately, many people miss this gift and don’t realize just what they have been given until some trial comes along and shows them what they have and what they could’ve had. Also, we tend to miss it because we don’t want to believe any of this because of Who He is! Many people don’t want to know Jesus because Christianity and Jesus Himself said that He was and is the Son of God.
God is love and this is part of the message that Jesus brought to the world and to His disciples. But, we should be trying to live like Jesus did and love the way that He did and if we did that then happiness would follow. We also should be letting Jesus live through us so that others will see Him and not us, so that they will see the love of Jesus in our words and our deeds. That is the gift that we need to be giving to others during our time here.
It is true that during this time of year, we are looking for gifts from our family and friends, our boss, our wife or husband, our parents, but you have already been given the most valuable gift that could be given…that of the Christ, your Messiah, Jesus. He made the sacrifice that could not be done by anyone or anything other than the perfect Son of God. Why do people reject Him and His gift? Because they don’t believe in Him or in Who He is, plain and simple.
Most just think that He is a prophet or he was and he was crucified and died, and that is it! Many don’t think that the story of His resurrection is true or that He is the Son of God, but He is! Jesus is the only Man of God that is almost always spoken of in the present tense, not in the past tense. “Why is that?” you might say; because He sits at the right hand of God right now! He is not dead, but alive and waiting for you to ask Him into your life. He will not force you to accept Him, neither will He ask you to kill someone who doesn’t accept Him. That is not His way.
He was born to a virgin, by the will and actions of God through the Holy Spirit to become the Son of Man Who is the Son of God. No contradiction exists in this and He is the only One that could fulfill all of the prophecies concerning Himself from the Old Testament, which He did at His birth, through His life and with His death on the cross and His resurrection! He fulfilled them all, no mere man, prophet or not, could accomplish that!
Give Jesus a chance in your life and in your heart. You won’t regret it and others will see Him through your actions as well and may turn their life over to Him because of the changes they see in you. Wouldn’t that be wonderful! To know that even one person came to Christ because of something that you said or did, although you may not even find it out until you get to Heaven, won’t that be a great blessing?
Think about it!
