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

Do you know Jesus?


There are many in the world today who have either turned their back on Christ or they have never invited Him into their life in the first place. Many people live in areas where belief in Him would mean their death or imprisonment, but there are still followers of Christ there anyway. In my home country of the United States, there are many who are turning their back on religion, Christianity in particular and yet in other places in the world there are many who are embracing Jesus and the love that He offers them.

Why are there such divisions, so many who just turn away from Christ and from the way of life that He offers? It seems that there are so many choices, so many “ways” to serve a god and so many “gods”, how can this be? The trees and the fish cannot save you from going to hell. Your job, your spouse, your children or grand-children cannot save you, your grand-parents or your ancestors cannot save you either. What is the attraction to everything that is created, the creation instead of the Creator? Why can’t we realize that the One who Created it all is the One that we are to humble ourselves before?

The life that you have, and everything that is yours was given to each of us by God. We have these things because of Him, not because of something that we have done. Your job, your pay, your home, your family was given and provided for you by God because everything belongs to Him and always has. God’s Son, Jesus, came to give us a chance at being adopted into God’s family. All that we have to do is believe that He died for us and ask Him to come into our hearts.

When that happens, we change from the sinful people that we are into children of God. The transformation doesn’t give us the ability to be “gods”, it gives us the ability to come before Him and serve Him. I know that there are some people, in fact there are many people, who don’t like the idea of serving or being a servant. But, consider this, you and all of us were born as rebellious children. Our nature is that way from the time that we are small and only gets more so as we get older. Notice, I did not say “as we mature”, because we don’t mature until that side of our nature is either under the control of Jesus or by some force of our own will through meditation, martial arts or some other “mind over self” control.

When you have given your heart to Christ, He will come in and begin to clean things up, but this process is not immediate. Just as polishing a piece of brass takes time, so does our “clean up” take time. It may not be enjoyable and it likely won’t be fun but it is necessary. When you see an artist or a sculptor working on something whether it is a painting or a bowl, it doesn’t show up as a finished product immediately. It takes time. Just as when we pray for something like a healing in our family or a job, the answer doesn’t come the next day. It may not come for a week or two or maybe even a few months, but it will come in God’s time.

We have to understand this and at the beginning of our walk through life with Him, it is difficult. It is the most difficult lesson that we have to learn, but until we learn patience enough to wait on God and His answer, in His time, we will be frustrated and sometimes angry with Him. Asking for patience from God is a prayer which will be answered but you may not like the answer. Because in the cultivation of patience, God will try yours to the point of breaking. As the adage goes,”be careful what you ask for”!

God loves each of us far more than we can understand because He knew us before the foundation of the world. He could see into the future because He is outside of time itself and knows the beginning from the end. He knew then and knows now what you are doing and what you will do in the next second, the next minute, or hour or week or even the next decade if you have that long. He knows when you are going to die and the cause of your death, but He also when you will decide to give your life to Him or not. Nothing is a surprise to God!

The time and place of your birth, your life and your death are all known to God and have been known by Him since before the world began. Adam‘s sin the the Garden was known, Satan‘s rebellion against God was also known before it happened. God would not be God if He did not know these things, but He does. Give Him a chance in your heart and in your life before your life is over, because once you are before Him at your judgement it is too late. Your chance to come to Him is now during your life here, once the door to this life has closed and you stand before Him there is no second chance. Salvation is only a prayer away, just a few seconds of time to change your life forever. Think about it.

Is atheism better?


 

Is is possible to believe in nothing or no one but yourself? It seems that it is in the culture that we live in today.

The number of books on the rejection of religion and God has exploded in the past few years. Is this something which could have been foreseen? Yes and it was foretold but there are many who have refused to teach or preach on this subject.

Your life and mine would never have happened if God did not exist. Chance and accidental combinations of chemicals can produce nothing. If that were possible, Europe and all of the countries and towns that were bombed during WWII would have never had to rebuild. The pieces would have flown apart and rearranged themselves and all would have been as it was.

Chaos does not create order, it destroys it by rearranging order into disorder. It seems that it would take an awful lot of faith in accidental order causing what we see in the universe. Is it possible that all of the whole cosmos came from an explosion with no intelligence directing it? According to scientists in our day and time, it is possible because natural forces would take all the matter from that explosion and arrange it where it needed to be. But..what about you, the fish in the ocean, the bacteria that live in total darkness at the scalding vents in the ocean, the redwood trees? These did not come about by accident and they did not evolve over millions or billions of years. The Creator, God, created those and many more. He is the “director” of the universe.

He is the one who put you together in your mother’s womb to be the person that He knows that you can be. Not what society says or dictates but what God knows you can do and be in His kingdom! Since the world that we live in is part of His kingdom and everything in it belongs to Him, why not accept it? A belief in the existence of something does not dictate whether it exists or not. If it exists then your belief in it or not has no effect on its existence. We can’t change the way the universe is or the order of things just by our thoughts and feelings.

If that were the way that things worked, then we could choose not to believe in the tax code and just not pay our taxes and everything would be fine, right? No, because as rational people we have to go along with the laws in the country that we live in and belief in those laws has nothing to do with the consequences or whether we think they may be right or not.

The world that we live in was created by God and the laws of the universe were too. Regardless of your belief or unbelief in the existence of God, He is there and always has been. His love for each of us has been there from the beginning as well and your belief or not doesn’t change that. God did not trouble Himself when He created you or this universe because it was no trouble for Him at all! He spoke and the universe and most everything in it came into being. The only created being that He took time with was man and He didn’t have to do that, but He did. God used His hands and formed mankind out of the clay of the earth and blew into his nostrils the breath of Life. We hold a special place in creation because of that.

Belief or not doesn’t change it and never will. God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to take the sins and the punishment for them on Himself so that we could find grace in Him and put on His righteousness. He died and then rose again so that we will be able to have eternal life through Him, if we will just ask Him into our lives. Being saved by God’s grace through Jesus is our choice, just as believing in God or Jesus is a choice. The choice that you make will determine your place in eternity. Which choice will you make?

 

Jesus feeds us today


Feeding the five thousand

Matt. 14: 13 through 21

(paraphrased in my own words)

When Jesus heard of John the Baptist being beheaded, he departed into a deserted place. John was his cousin so naturally, it bothered Jesus that this should happen to him. While He was there, many people found out where He had gone and followed him on foot to be near him. When he became aware of them he had compassion on them because they were far from home and he healed the sick that they had brought with them.

Afterward, toward evening, his disciples came to him saying for him to send them away so that they could get something to eat. Jesus said “they need not depart; give them something to eat”. What do you think Jesus was trying to do at this point? Have you any idea?

He was trying to get them to exercise their faith in Him. They told him that they had five loaves and two fishes. The multitude numbered about five thousand men not counting women and children and yet he told them to sit in groups of fifty and an hundred. Then He blessed the food and brake the loaves and fishes and gave them to his disciples to distribute. They all ate their fill and had twelve baskets left over.

What was shown during this feast? The power of God and His Son to be sure but what else? The power of faith in Him. If the disciples had not had faith in Jesus when He gave them the pieces of fish and bread, would they have distributed it as he had told them to? I don’t think so. Their faith was rewarded with substance, just as ours is today. When we have faith in the prayers that we pray and the outcome of those prayers, then the result with be answered prayers.

When Jesus came into history and chose His disciples we began to learn about Him and the Father because they wrote down their experiences with Him and what He said and did. Jesus and His Father worked together and that they loved all of us, not just one people. We learned by Jesus’ words and His work that He wants all of us to come to Him. Many people look at this and say that we are to be slaves to Jesus. Is that actually so bad? Considering that He will reward us with eternity in Heaven, is that so bad?

Granted, God may not answer our prayers in the way that we want Him to but they will be answered.

Can we have faith as they did when they were with Jesus? Yes, we can because we have the testimony of the Bible to bolster our faith. Many people today think that the bible is outdated and useless for the twenty-first century but God can see the time we live in and beyond so His Word and the promises contained within it is never outdated.

We, on the other hand, have our own agenda. We gravitate toward discounting the Word of God and not give it the power that it actually has. Is it possible that we don’t look at God the way that He is portrayed in the Bible? Why would we do such a thing? God created all that is around us, for our benefit and for His Glory. He created us the way we are, warts and all, to reflect His glory so that others will see what we have in Christ and want it too.

Do you look at the bible as being an old book full of children’s stories but not something that we should not pay attention to today? God revealed Himself to Israel through His prophets and they wrote down the words that He gave them to say and to write down. In those writings, we can learn who He is and we can learn about Him. We can learn what He wants of us today, not just Israel. How we are to treat others, how He will treat us, how much He loves us.

Some religions today say that we can be gods. Can you, by willing it, be any taller or slimmer than you are? I know we wish we could at times, but we can’t. Our Creator, Jesus, loves and cares for each of us. Right down to the last hair on our heads. How can you possibly understand a love like that? It is hard for anyone to understand it, but He does. He and the Father have loved all of us since the beginning, long before we were born because God sees the end from the beginning. Time was created by Him and yet He is outside of time. We cannot understand the concept of this, but it is true.

The universe was put together by Him for us so that we could see His majesty and power, even if we never heard a sermon preached. Nature cries out that the Creator is here! He has been from the beginning. The smallest life-form is perfect in its ways because He made it so, not because of some accident.

We cannot make it without Him. He is the One who sustains us, protects us, gives us our faith and our courage for everyday living. Oh, we can pridefully do it on our own for a while but what happens when the really bad stuff happens and our way just doesn’t cut it anymore?

What about the times that we have lost someone dear to us or they have been diagnosed with cancer that is inoperable? Can you hold up to that on your own strength? Maybe for a while, but eventually your strength will fail, then where will you turn? To what or who will you turn to? If you don’t know Jesus, will you blame Him or God for all the bad things? Many people do, which is exactly what Satan wants us to do.

The provision that Christ showed to the five thousand, He will give to us if we only turn to Him. Whether we turn in our hour of greatest need or we turn because we are drawn to Him by the Spirit. He loves us, which is why we are all still here to begin with. If it were not for the love that God has for us and the mercy that He bestows on us daily, the world would have ended years ago. We might never have been born, but God knew that we would because He has a purpose for each of us. That is why the mouth of hell is not yawning beneath us, because of His pleasure and His mercy toward us and those who have not accepted Jesus yet.

We are loved by the Creator! The One Who put all of this together perfectly so that we could see its majesty and His Glory! Can we comprehend a love like that? I can’t and I would imagine that you can’t either! Almighty God, His Son and the Holy Spirit did an awesome work in this universe and man cannot fathom why we are special enough to be the only life here. In reality, we may not be or God may have something else in mind, who knows? Only God Himself knows why He did what He did.

The love and mercy of Jesus, His compassion toward the people that He fed and healed and toward us, is what is keeping hell and the end of the world at bay and Satan too. What will you do when the time comes that Satan’s wrath comes to earth? If you are still here, who will you turn to?

Jesus is the only way to eternity, regardless of the promises you may hear from any “false Christ”. The end of our life is only a heart beat away or one more breath away, what will you do about Jesus? You don’t know when your life could end. It might end tonight or tomorrow. I may not make it home, but I will be with Jesus. Some might ask me: “How do you know that you will go to heaven?” Because the Spirit within my heart gives me peace in the knowledge that I am His. Are you?

Why all the hostility toward the Bible?


The main reason for all of the hostility toward God‘s Word is because of its claims to the Truth. The Bible is an old book and today, many people look at it as such. Why should I read something which was written over two thousand years ago? It was written as our hand-book for life, that is why. True, it was written for the Jewish people to begin with, but when Jesus came and the New Covenant was established in His sacrifice for all of mankind it became everyone’s book!

Jesus said that “I am the way, the truth and the life. He that comes to Me will have everlasting life“; I paraphrased that but those words were spoken by Him for us today, now! The time is growing short, much shorter than it has been since He went to His Father and He said that He would return and He will, soon. No one knows the day or the hour but with the world on the brink of what the Bible calls the end times.

There is hope for each of us if we will give our lives to Christ and ask Him to come into our hearts. This web address is very helpful in answering your questions and pointing you in the direction that you need to go: http://peacewithgod.jesus.net/.

The world and those who are in the world, at times, cannot see or understand God’s Word. If you have not given your life to Jesus, think about it, pray about it. It is not a weakness to ask Him into your life because being a Christian is sometimes one of the hardest things to do.

I know that many people see it as being weak and some even view Christians as people who have their screws loose. That is not the case but the secular world doesn’t recognize the wisdom which is contained in God’s Word. Even the Bible says that the world sees God’s wisdom as foolishness.

Regardless of the message that other religions give, Jesus is the only way to heaven and eternal life. Can you come to Him by any other way than accepting Jesus as your Savior? No, the only way to know that you are saved from your sins is by repenting (turning around/away from) of them and asking Jesus for forgiveness and asking Him to come into your heart and change you into the person that you were meant to be.

The ruler of this world, Satan, doesn’t want you to come to Jesus or the knowledge that you can change your life by coming to Him. He will do anything to keep you from this because he hates you and God! Pride can get in the way of your salvation too. There are many things of this world that can keep us from turning to God, but your heart knows where to turn when there is nowhere else to go. Give your life to Jesus and your life will never be the same, it will be better!

What do you go to church for?


Matthew 21:12-13

21:12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, (13) and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

There are many reasons people come to church, some out of habit, and some to see and be seen.  Some come for the four reasons below. Whatever the reason that you come for, come expecting to meet the One who can truly change your life in more ways than one.

We come to worship

This was why God put the church here. We, each of us, make up a part of the body of Christ which is the church. It doesn’t matter what denomination you claim or have been all of your life because if you belong to Christ, you are part of His church, His bride and that is all that matters. There are many so-called “churches” which claim to be the “true church” but the only one that is true is the body of Christ and that is made up of believers! We don’t need a denomination or rules to govern by as long as we are faithful to Jesus and the calling that He came and died for. He rose from that grave so that He can come again to receive us unto Himself and to give us the hope of resurrection. No other religion in the world claims anything like this and not one of them can because Christ is the only One who could.

Christ said to assemble ourselves. We are to do this for encouragement, for support of each other, for many reasons but mostly to praise and honor God. We also come to lend our voices to God in prayer because God’s house is a house of prayer. Each church is a house of prayer. We offer up prayers for praise, for thanksgiving, for our infirmities, for exhortation, for forgiveness and for strength. All of these we need if…

We come to grow

There are people in churches that have never grown as Christians. Why is that? Could it be that we don’t know how? Is it possible that we wait for our preacher to give us all that we need to grow in God’s kingdom? Preachers, Sunday school teachers and other ministers can only give us a certain amount that we need; we have to dive into God’s Word in order to truly grow. Grow in grace toward God and be thankful for the grace given to us. Growing in grace is realizing who we are in Christ and being thankful for the position of grace that we have in Him.

Grow in love toward each other and our love for Christ because He loved us first. Not only that, but love Him because of the forgiveness that we have in Him. When we grow in that kind of love we will love others the way Christ does, not in our human hearts but with His heart and His power.

Grow in the word. We must grow in the knowledge of God’s Word so that we will know Christ more intimately. He is the Word made flesh so if you know God’s Word, you know Jesus even better than you did before. You may even, eventually know Him better than you know yourself. Many of the passages in the Word, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, directly complement each other. To put it another way, the Old testifies of the New and the New fulfills the Old.

We come to serve

God has work we need to do. The work that He asks us to do is not hard work, most of the time and yet it is vital to His kingdom. God wants all men to come to know Him but if we don’t do the work that we have been called to do, how will they know? We perceive this as hard work, but it is only hard because our “old nature” is against it, we have to do it in love and by the power of Jesus because we can’t do it on our own strength and power.

By the way we are his servants. Jesus called the disciples to be servants to others and He calls us to do the same. Working as Christians for Him is a job that others look at and say that they want someone else to do it. That is the “old you” talking, not the new you that came alive when Jesus entered your heart.

We are his witnesses to win souls. This is a subject that many new Christians, and some who have been in the church for years, never get around to doing. We are supposed to be Jesus’ witnesses just as those that He healed went away and told others about what He had done for them. We are to do the same in order for others to see that what Jesus has to offer, they need in their life. Our “old self” doesn’t want to do this, but we must and we will when we have given our life to Him. Christ is the answer to life’s problems, not drugs or alcohol or money or power.

We come to give of our:

Time, Service, Money, Talents

But most of all we are to give honor to God, with yourself and all that comes with you. A Christian must fulfill God’s will in their life. But, how can you know His will for your life if you don’t read and study His Word so you will know what that will is? Your time is valuable so God honors you when you give any amount to Him and you honor Him as well. When you give your time, you are also giving of a service to God in one way or another whether it is cooking or cleaning the church or anything that you do in His name and for the right reasons.

When we give our money to the church or to worthy causes, we are giving back to Him a part of the blessings that He has given us. When we use our talents, whatever they may be, in a church setting or in our daily lives we are using what God gave us. If we use those talents to praise and worship Him then He gets the glory and honor from it as long as we aren’t being prideful about what we are doing.

All of these things from our time and talents to our service and our money have come from God. They are only ours on loan from Him and yet if we give of them from our heart we are honoring Him and giving Him the glory. Doesn’t Christ deserve at least that much from each of us? We are given a world to live in and the air to breathe so as to learn from Him how we are to serve and be His witnesses to those who may not know Him. God has given us our children and grand-children and friends and all the other people that we know in our community and that we work with and they are blessings to each of us.

They are also the “field” that we are sent into to bring them into God’s family because if we don’t tell them about Him and what He has done for us and will do for them, who will?

Are you a child of God? Have you given your heart and your life to Jesus and asked Him to come into your life and truly make you whole? If you have not, do so today because we are not guaranteed even our next breath, let alone tonight or tomorrow. You may not have a chance at accepting Christ on your “death-bed” because your life could end unexpectedly. I am not saying this to scare you into accepting Jesus but truly we all need Him and if you don’t know Him, you need Him most of all!

Your life’s purpose


Did you know that just twenty-one days elapse from conception to the first heartbeat when you are still in your mother’s womb? From that point on your life is begun and your parent’s lives will never be the same. The things that you desire in life that give you a purpose or worth, make you feel significant or accepted, give you security or cause you to feel loved or allow you to experience the beauty of God’s creation. These are the things which you will follow after and crave  most of your life. Can they be found in one place or person?

The answer is yes, they can be found in one person and His name is Jesus. The creation, of which we are a part of, is His doing. We are special to Him and to God, so why don’t we feel special? Did we do something wrong? Can we fix it if we did?

Some of us do feel special because our parents and grand-parents reinforced that feeling. But are we special? To God we are special because He created each of us for a purpose and we are made for that purpose especially by Him.

The second question: Did we do something wrong? No, not exactly. We all do or say things that we regret later, it is just our human nature. That is the problem but we can’t blame everything that we say or do on that. We cannot abrogate or refuse to acknowledge our responsibility in life because of “human nature”. It is that nature that we have been handed down from antiquity that we must take control of but we cannot do it on our own strength. We have to allow Jesus into our life and our heart so that we can become someone better than we can become ourselves.

We can’t do it on our own. Regardless of the science-fiction stories of a utopian future where we all get along and disease and poverty don’t exist. That world is not possible without the rule of Christ in our lives and even then it would not work unless He was the ruler of the world as He will be.

But, the most important decision that you will make is whether to accept Him as Lord and Savior in your life and your heart. When you give your life to Him and give up your way of doing things in favor of His way, your life and the influence that it has on others will be changed dramatically. God loves you far more than you or I can possibly imagine and He wants the best for you. That does not mean that you will have millions of dollars or houses or anything that the world recognizes as “success”, but you will be successful in other ways, eternal ways.

The life that we have does not end when our physical body dies because God created us with an eternal spirit which will live on. Eternity makes this life seem like a puff of smoke so the influence that you have here needs to be based on following and loving Jesus, not on following what the world wants you to do.
Think about it. Pray about it and seek the wisdom that only God can provide through His Word, the Bible. Don’t just read it like a book, because it is the Creator‘s conversation with us and His people. Pray and ask Him to show you the wisdom that is intended for you and your situation. He will open your eyes and your heart so that you can see and understand that which you need.

This post is for Aurora, Colorado


I am praying for all the families and the victims of the horrific shooting that occurred last Friday morning. God‘s grace and mercy was shown in one young woman’s recovery though and I am posting the link to her story below. I pray that you will join me in donating whatever you can to help and send a prayer for God’s healing in her life and her family’s lives as well.

http://igg.me/p/177903

There have been so many tragedies in this, I pray that we, as a nation, will not allow this kind of violence to be used by the media.

Can my religion save me?


There are many thousands of religions or “movements” claiming to be religions today, but what do they offer us? Do the atheists who claim to have no god or belief in a god have it right, that we are our own god and that we are the ultimate authority in our lives? What about Hindi or Buddhists with all of their gods? Then there is Islam, the Mormons, Judaism, the list goes on and on. We have been inventing religions of one sort or another for thousands of years but is any one of them right?

There are some who think that the earth itself is a goddess and there are many different religions which go along with this view. However, you cannot possibly think that the earth is going to bring about peace in the world when it is the population of the world that is fighting each other. People are not inherently good, we only have to listen to the news to find that out. Our goodness comes from something or someone other than our own thoughts and feelings. Is it possible that we can’t get it right on our own. We have had many thousands of years to attempt just that and yet peace never reigns for very long regardless of where you live. There is always civil unrest of one sort or another, whether it is violent or not makes no difference.

The animal called mankind is incapable of peace on his own. Religion and religious people have actually caused much bloodshed in our world and its history, mainly due to one thinking that their way is superior to others. In these writings that I have left here over the past few years I have pointed to Christianity and its teachings and I will continue to do so. However, men have used the claim of being Christians to do many terrible things in the past and I will not deny that. Yet, following Christ and His teachings is the only way to be assured of a place in Heaven.

I am not claiming that Christians are perfect, far from it actually. We all make mistakes, we all screw up, regardless of which religion we claim to follow. Christians have a living Savior who is our model that we attempt to follow, but we cannot do it on our own or with our own strength. When we, as sinners, accept Jesus as our Savior the Holy Spirit fills a place in our hearts and if we listen to His voice, He will guide us in doing His work on earth so that others will see that it is not us doing it, but Him.

Yes, churches are full of hypocrites, and drunks and all sorts of sinners but they are supposed to be! Jesus told the religious leaders of His day that “people who are well need not a physician, but those who are sick”. If you believe that you and your life are doing fine, how can I possibly convince you otherwise? By showing you that I have something that you need. Not by beating you with it or berating you for your lifestyle, but by showing you my life and the One that I follow. If you decide that you want Him too, great! If my witness, however feeble it is, does not convince you that you need Jesus then I have done what I had to do and I will leave you to your life.

No one can force you to believe in Jesus or any other religion, even though some try. The one question I would like to leave you with is this: What if following Jesus is the right path? How will you answer God when He asks you “What did you do with My Son?” If your answer is nothing, that is the wrong answer!

Jesus is the answer. I know that it seems to be a cliché’ but it is the truth. We all have a place in our hearts, in our being that feels empty and we attempt to fill it with something. Yet, nothing fits because the only thing that fits is Jesus and until we ask Him into our lives and our hearts that space will always feel empty. Ask Him into your life and into your heart because until you do your life will always be less than it could be. After He comes to live there, your life will be more than you can imagine!

Oh, and to answer the question that I started with in the title of this entry…the answer is no, religion cannot save your soul or make you righteous in any way. Religion only points you to the One who can do those things and that is…Jesus!

The Hands that Pray


When you pray, do not do as the pagans do. With their many words they seek to impress; yet when you pray, do so in secret as your Father is in secret. (Paraphrase of Matthew 6)

 

Your hands were made by God as you were so when you pray take note of them.

Your thumb is the nearest finger to you when you pray. So, begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember.

The next finger on your hand is the pointing finger. Pray for those who are teachers or who instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need our support, and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction, so keep them in your prayers.

Next is your tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the president regardless of who you voted for, and then pray for leaders in business and industry and administrators. All of these people shape our nation and guide public opinion and they need God’s guidance.

The fourth finger is your ring finger. It is usually the weakest finger as most piano teachers will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need our prayers day and night. You can’t pray enough for them.

Last is your little finger, it is the smallest finger of all which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. The Bible says, “The least shall be the greatest among you.” Your pinkie finger should remind you to pray for yourself because by the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your needs will be in their proper perspective and you will be able to pray more effectively.

This is just a prayer suggestion which came to me through email and I thought I would share it with you.

Trying to be the best will not get you into Heaven


It is a fact that we try all of our lives to be the best at whatever we do or who we are. Some of us succeed, many of us fail, but being the “best you can be” will NOT get your foot into the gates of Heaven!

Your salvation is not based on works, it is based on belief in Jesus and the penalty that He paid for your sins. There are works that we should do for God and His Kingdom, but our works alone cannot save us. Anything that we do in our own strength and of our own wisdom will not have any impact on our salvation.

As Jesus said to His disciples, “Apart from me, you can do nothing”. We can try but we will fail by ourselves and on our own. We may be able to do things for and in the “world”, and we may be successful at some things, but if  by our own efforts we are striving for eternity they will fail without Christ in our life and without Him in those plans.

Our best is not good enough unless God is involved in all aspects of our lives. Christ is our strength and our reliance on Him for that strength is mandatory to be a successful Christian. There are many religions which point people to their strengths, their self-reliance to be successful in life and in their spiritual lives, but these endeavors will not produce eternal rewards because they are from man’s point of view and in man-made religions.

Religions that have been started by men only confuse and deny the issues that are real in our world. This is exactly what Satan wants because it takes away from the Truth of God’s Word and the gospel of Jesus. If we do not get any message out to the people in the world, in our congregations, in our home or workplace, we must get them to know Christ!

We are not the ones who save, but the message about His grace and the work that He did for us must be told to all who will listen. Once that is accomplished, the seed is planted in their hearts and the Spirit takes over the watering and nurturing of their conscience toward being saved and sanctified in Christ.

The blessing that we have been given through the blood of Christ that allows us to come to a saving knowledge of Him is not to be held unto ourselves but is to be given to others. Once we have that blessing, we are to give it away to others. How could we keep this knowledge and the gift of eternity from others? Knowing of the eternal consequences for those who have not accepted Jesus should make us want to tell anyone who will listen.

Yet, the wisdom of God is foolishness to those who won’t accept it and to the world as well. Believe in Jesus, search the scriptures, find the truth and don’t believe the lies that are told in the world. Satan knows these things are true but he has been and is leading the world astray and when the age comes to a close, it will be too late.