Tag: Christianity

What kind of message have you heard?


Many churches teach a gospel that doesn’t conform to the one preached in the early years of the church. In fact, their message is so different that you would think that it is an entirely different gospel altogether. One that doesn’t even teach that you must be convicted before you can be set free. How can you be set free from something that you don’t even realize that you are guilty of? When the clergy began teaching and preaching “positive thinking” and prosperity gospels, the church began to slide down a slope that it wasn’t meant to be on at all.

Jesus did not teach or preach about prosperity or positive thinking, He taught that we are all sinners saved by the grace of God, period. There is no way of thinking your way into Heaven, your own opinion of yourself or of others should be the same as God’s but your opinion and the work that you do here don’t get you into Heaven! Belief in and an intimate walk with Christ daily are the paths that will take you to Heaven’s gate. The first is a strict requirement, belief in Christ and His death which paid the debt for your sins. The second, an intimate walk with Jesus daily, is essential to your growth and maturity in your faith. Your walk and intimacy with Jesus is not necessary for you to get into Heaven, but it may have an effect on those around you that may need what you have, a relationship with Jesus.

The message being taught and preached in many churches has changed over the centuries, some changes were good some, not so much. The best that we can do today is to bring the gospel to those who are hurting, even if they don’t think that they need it. We may have to get in their faces with the fact that God loves them, but He doesn’t like what they are doing. Whether it is their lifestyle or the drugs or alcohol or whatever it may be that they are using, if their heart doesn’t belong to Him then they are on the wrong path and may not even know it!

It is our job, whether you may be a pastor or a member of a church or a believer who hasn’t found a church, to tell others of the grace and goodness of Jesus. He is the only One who can heal the hurt, the pain, the agony of their lives. He is the cure for their heartaches when life throws them a curve ball, He can strengthen you in ways that you can’t and He will! All that you have to do is accept Him as your Savior and believe in His grace for you, all of the other things will come in time.

In our instant society mindset, we have a problem with the idea of waiting for God to get around to taking care of things, but in order to be an effective follower of Jesus we have to learn to be more patient because He can see things which we can’t. We have “microwave mentalities” because of the stuff that most of us grew up with or grew into as we got older. If something isn’t done now, or at the latest by tomorrow, we don’t want to wait. So, we take the problem back from God and tell Him that we can do it better and faster. The problem is that He lets us do it and He knows what will happen because we didn’t let Him take care of it. We will grow through it, but we may not like it! This is something which I am struggling with now, because I want my problems, financial and otherwise, fixed today not next week or next month or even next year. I struggle with patience or the lack of it, waiting for Him and learning His ways is not easy but it is necessary to your Christian life and mine.

The mind is a terrible thing to…..


I know that you have heard or possibly seen the commercial that went along with that opening or ending, but what about all of the other times that your mind becomes more or sometimes less than it should be. Many times it is because of different issues that we have to go through every day such as the stress of commuting, the bills, school, tuition, etc. This is just the stuff that people go through that have a job to go to every day. What about those of us who are disabled? We live on far less than most do, but the bills and the phone calls don’t go away. We just have to pay the ones that we can, and skip the ones that we can’t pay. Like it or not, the bill collectors will just have to get in line and if or when the money is there, they might be paid if something else doesn’t come up.

We all live in stressful times, regardless of your income level. Stress, like death and taxes, is not a respecter of persons. It comes to us all in one form or another. So, how do you deal with your stressful situations in your life? Jesus dealt with them too and did so without sin by relying on God‘s strength and His provision for Him. Here is a quote from the Word which might make it a bit plainer than this:

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8)

Jesus came humbly and willingly so that we would have access to God’s strength any day and every day that we need Him and truly, we need Him daily. Those of us who deal with depression and loneliness, fear and uncertainty, whether it is clinical or temporary, it is real. Sometimes it is only for a day or two, but sometimes it hangs around for weeks in the background, waiting to bring you to your knees and put you in the bed. Such is the way of this state of mind.

So, how can we defeat it? Well, giving your life and your heart to Jesus is the best way that I know of. I don’t mean that depression will never bother you again if you are a Christian, because it will, but through prayer and studying the Word of God you will have enough strength from God to make it through those times. You are loved by the Creator of the universe and He will not allow you to go through anything without His strength and His presence in your life, if you have allowed Him into your heart.

For those who may not have asked Him into their lives, you don’t have much to fall back on except your own strength and many times, that is NOT enough! I have lived through times without Christ and I would not want to do it in today’s environment. So many people are in need of assurance regarding the future, their future.

Do you know that you have a future? Truly, God did not create mankind for only the life that we have here. He gave us a soul that is eternal and whether you believe in eternity or not doesn’t have any effect on whether it is real or not. Jesus talked about it, and it is mentioned all over the Word, but especially in the New Testament. Give Jesus a chance in your life because the strength and the compassion that you get from a relationship with Him is more than you can get from anyone or anything else.

 

The Season’s Reason


edited atheistThere is an organization which is trying to push their agenda into the spotlight. Well it is time that some of us pushed back! The image to the left is an edited version of their billboard, the one that they are using to try to trash Christmas.

The Truth is in God‘s Word and the Living Word came to Earth as a baby, although he wasn’t born in December but that is not the point. The point is that the few people who deny His existence are really the ones who need Him the most! Where I edited the words a bit changing it to the Truth, underneath it says to celebrate reason, I would rather people celebrate the Reason for the Season!

Why? Because Jesus is the reason for the Season and because He came to pay the penalty for us who were sinners, who still are sinners but we are saved by His grace and the love of God through Jesus. Whether you believe it or not doesn’t matter, the truth is in the Bible and the One who came to save us is in it from the beginning to the end. If you read it, think about what you are reading, pray about the words that you read and ask God to show you the truth in it.

Don’t look at it or read it with a closed mind and heart, ask God to show you His Truth because it is contained in His Word. There is no mythology or false words in God’s Word, because a book with over forty authors could not write these words and all of them point to the same Truth, the Savior of all of us, Jesus if those words were not inspired by God.

Old questions, new ways of looking at the answers


We have always asked the questions and usually get the same or slightly different answers to them. For example: Can God make a rock big enough that He can’t lift? That is like asking someone if He (God) could make a square circle? It is contradictory in nature and any physics or geometry student knows that you can’t make a square circle. Regardless of the age of the student, they would know that it can’t be done. The same logic goes with the first question. God, being the Creator of the entire universe, can make a rock as big as He wishes to make it but He would still be bigger and would be able to move it.

Besides, what would be the point?

God’s Home is outside of our universe and yet He stretched out the heavens and placed the stars in their places. He is as big as He is and yet He cares for sparrows as well as each of us. It is a hard concept to think on or imagine because our minds just can’t fathom Someone having all of that power and glory and majesty, yet care for animals and people on this speck of dust! In all of the cosmos, our planet is the one that God is interested in. It is hard to believe, but it is true.

The moon is our unique satellite because He wanted it that way. It has nothing to do with “planetary evolution’ or a rogue planetoid that slammed into a primordial Earth and created the Moon from the debris blasted from it. Those are the theories of some astronomers, but I believe the creation events found in Genesis unless and until Jesus or God tells me different (and I don’t think that He would contradict something written in His Word).

We can imagine many things, many possibilities for how things work and why but our imagination is tiny and finite compared to His thoughts and His purposes. I know that many people will not accept any of these words, but the fact is that my words come from His inspiration. I can’t possibly think up all of this nearly every day by myself! He uses me as a pastor at my church and on this site and my other site too, in order to tell people about Him. This is not about me at all!! I don’t care one bit about fame or anything that goes with it. All that I was called to do was to preach the gospel, the news about Jesus and salvation through Him!

I do try to do that, and sometimes I get up on a soap-box about some issues, but the main point of my message is salvation through Jesus so that you can take Him out to wherever you may go and then tell someone else. I pray that you will tell someone about this site or maybe re-blog it so that it might be seen by more people. Thank you!

Rev. Gordon T. Eldridge

Without God, what’s the point!?


A quote that I read a while back said that men in the twentieth century have forgotten God. I know that many have tried to say that He is dead and that He doesn’t exist, but how can you forget God? With everything around you in the world and in the universe itself, how can you possibly forget God!?

I know that all of everything is supposed to have come about by some cosmic accident. Something went “Boom!” and then billions and billions of years later everything just put us and everything else into the place where we are and that is that, right?

NO! Explosions involving trillions of tons of matter and chemicals don’t just form up into planets and people and trees and fish. It just doesn’t work that way! Entropy and all of the thermodynamic forces will devolve into less organized bits and pieces given time, but it doesn’t go the other way! Some of the bits and pieces may clump together and become planetesimal bodies, but belief in all of this coming together into living biomasses by accident is by definition insane.

God is the Creator and Designer of everything and everyone in the universe. His place is outside of time because He designed it as well. He can see the beginning and the end and all that is in between them. God is not taken by surprise because He can see those things which are happening and the ones which are going to happen. Life is precious to Him, all of life is precious to Him. From the fish in the sea to the sparrows in the field to a newborn baby in a hospital, each life is precious to God and to push Him out of our lives or try to legislate Him out of our children’s lives is wrong!

We need Him and the moral compass that He gives to each of us because without it we really do act like animals. Humans are selfish and immoral by nature. There are some who are taught right from wrong at an early age, and they will take that with them, but there are many who are not and it is those, regardless of the country or racial strata that they come from, that we hear about on the news. It is the part of society that shouldn’t be getting the exposure but it is. The good part of society, the people who are doing good things usually are not heard about unless they try to help someone who doesn’t want their help and kills them. Then, we don’t hear about he good thing but the bad.

Why are we this way? Because mankind has forgotten God! Some might turn that around and say that God  has forgotten us, but He can’t and He won’t! We are created by Him to be special, to be something which most don’t realize until they get much older. I didn’t realize that I had a purpose that God had given me until I was in my forties. Some may not “get it” until later than that, but the point it that there is one! God doesn’t turn His back on you until you have turned away from Him, if He has been calling you. If He has not, then you have to make the move toward Him and realize that you need Him in your life. This is not an easy thing to do for us because we want to do everything like children, “I can do it myself!”.

That kind of thinking can get you and each person in the world into some places that we can’t get out of. There is no real point to life without God because if you aren’t His or don’t have Him in your life, then you are only working for yourself. Some may think that that’s the point of life, to work for yourself and your family and don’t worry about anyone else. If that is how you feel, then that is a very selfish way of looking at life! Who gave you your life, your family and your job? You didn’t create any of these, God is the One that provided them. They are the blessings of God toward you, each of you and if you can’t see that then your eyes aren’t open at all.

 

Why not Jesus?


Do you believe in Him? Does He offend you?

Is belief in Him too hard or offensive to you?

Why?

What is so offensive about Jesus? Is it because Christianity believes that He is the Son of God or because He died on the cross and rose from the grave alive to ascend to the Father?

He is the only Savior that we have, all of us, and yet few people claim to be true Christians. Many do claim to be Christians but they say they only attend church when they feel like it or they only go to church once or twice a month. How is that being a follower of Christ? Peter, James and John didn’t follow Him on Monday and Wednesday only and let the other disciples take over during the rest of the week! Being a “sometimes” Christian is like being a sometimes husband or wife, how long would that last? Not long at all!

The price that you are willing to pay for hope and strength in any situation, depending on the severity of the situation, is also dependent upon your desire to find hope and salvation in that situation. Your life, whether it is this one or the one for eternity, is precious to God whether you believe it or not. Nothing that God has done or will do is dependent upon you or your input or opinion, it is up to Him and what He desires for you and your life! Belief in that is good but it is not necessary because He will cause things to work in such a way that His will and purpose will be fulfilled.

Sometimes or part-time relationships don’t work or last for long, whether it is a friendship, a committed relationship or one that is supposed to be one that is for your own salvation! Part-time commitments just don’t last. The one who is doing things part-time is you! Jesus is all in, He has loved you since before the world began and it was His love for each of us that held Him to the cross, not those nails.

If you have ever felt a tug or a pull on your heart, inside while you were reading something inspirational or maybe at a service of some kind, that was the Holy Spirit knocking at the door to your heart. The only thing that you need to do is to invite Him in. You don’t have to clean up your act or get to be a better person, that will happen when He comes to live with you. He will clean up your heart and your mind and make you a new creation. Your belief in Jesus and asking Him into your life is all that is required on your part and as long as your change is real, you will never lose it.

If you just have a feeling, all fuzzy and warm inside, but no change in your life. No real relationship change between you and Jesus, then maybe you need to check again. Pray and talk to God, read the Word and ask Him to make Himself real to you. He will hear your prayer if you mean it, but He knows whether you do or not. You can’t fool Him and you can’t hide from Him either. Remember Jonah? He tried to run from God and His call too, and look where he ended up? Once you truly decide to let Jesus into your life, you are never alone again. It is your choice and yours alone which will decide your eternal destiny, but if God has called you and you have felt it please don’t ignore it because He has something great in store for you!

The Love of God in your life!


Do you believe that God loves you? Have you felt it in your life this week or this year? Has someone from a Christian church ever showed the love of God to you or to someone that you know? Is there a church nearby that teaches from the Bible as God’s Word in truth and in love? All of these questions are things that shouldn’t be needed in our society, the commandment which was given by Jesus was that we should “love our neighbor as ourselves” along with loving God! The problem with this idea is that you can’t love God or anyone else until you decide to love yourself!

I am not speaking of selfish love, believing that everything and everyone should love you and revolve around you, but about caring about yourself and your soul in the way that Christ does. You also need to care about others too, especially those who may be less fortunate than you are. Those who are homeless or without a job for one reason or another (not just because they don’t want to work) or even someone who is elderly need to feel the love of God through us. Something that you can do or your church can do would be a great demonstration of God’s love. It doesn’t have to be much, just a meal that you take to someone or even helping them to get their groceries by taking them to the store.

In this world that we live in, little things mean a lot to someone who is in need. The need may not be financial, they just may need to have someone to visit them a couple of times a week. Many elderly people rarely see friends or family unless it is on a holiday or at church. Some have trouble driving and have a hard time getting someone to help them get to the doctor or the grocery store. These are just ideas, and they are small things that we can do but they mean a lot. So, how can you feel the love of God in your life?

If you are not a Christian, then you truly need to know the love of God. So, I ask you have you given your life to Christ? Do you believe in God and His Son, Jesus? There are many people in the world today that don’t claim to have a belief in Jesus or in religion in general. How can I show you the love of Christ? I know that He loved those of us in this world before we were born because He said so in His Word and He doesn’t lie.

The love of God is eternal for His Creation, all of it which includes each one of you. Satan cannot love anyone except himself, he doesn’t reward anyone with anything except the same punishment that he will receive for eternity. God cannot be different and He doesn’t change, we are the ones who change, we are the ones who move in the relationship and it is usually away from the One that we should cling to! The problems in our world today are the result of rebellion.

Rebellion against God, rebellion against the laws of God, rebellion against the wisdom of God, these are the reasons for the problems in our world today. If we spent our lives trying to be like Jonah, then sooner or later you will find that escape from God and running away from Him does not work. Why? Because God knows where you are, even if you don’t! He can see you regardless of the darkness that you try to hide in, especially if He has plans for you to accomplish! Like Jonah, He will make certain that sooner or later you will accomplish His purpose in your life and for Him!

When bad things are happening….


What do most folks do when bad things are happening in their lives or in the world around them? Some resort to destructive behavior like smoking more or drinking alcohol, so just go out and do what I used to do and get drunk enough that they can’t remember why they did it. Others will call a friend or visit a friend and talk about their problem and together they can feel better about the situation. Then, there are those that really get crazy and get down on their knees and pray!

Why does the world and many people in it think that it is useless or crazy to pray when things are getting bad or when bad news comes. Prayer is one of the most powerful things that we can do, because God is the One who can do all things and He hears us when we pray. If you are not a Christian, the only prayer that will make a difference will be the one to ask Him to come into your life. He always hears that prayer.

The stuff that I used to do nearly killed me when I was a teenager, thankfully due to my mother and grandmother praying for me God was watching over me. The power of prayer is one that cannot be denied because many people use it in love. Prayer is the most useful tool that Christians have because God listens to it when it is done in love.

When you care about the condition of others lives as much or more than your own, then the prayers that you can pray will have an awesome effect in their lives but it will also have a great effect on you! Your life will be changed by the way that God will move in their lives, because when you see that prayer does work it will increase your faith and that will also have an effect on your life in Christ.

The way that things are going in our world, the tough times have not gotten here yet but they are coming. We cannot change this or stop it, it is going to happen and we have to depend on God and our faith in Him to get us through it. It is not something which some pastors will even tell you about, which is why many don’t preach from the book of Revelation, but it needs to be told and with God’s help, it needs to be explained to the best of our ability. We are approaching this time and after two thousand years some people have stopped thinking about it.

“It hasn’t happened and its not going to happen because it has been too long since it was foretold”; these are the words that you hear from skeptics and those who just don’t know better. The facts are, since the Son of God said that it would come, then it will. It will only happen when it is His time for it to happen, it could be in the next three to five years or it may be forty or fifty years but it will happen. Personally, I don’t think it will be more than ten to fifteen years away but that is just my opinion.

Your faith is what can and will sustain you during a crisis in your life, whether it was caused by a disease or an accident or even if you had a hand in its cause. The point to take away from this is that we should never count God out of a situation because He is in the situation with you. He never leaves you and is always there, all that you have to do is call on Him and ask that He come into your life. He won’t make all of your troubles go away, but He will enable you to bear them when they come.

Are you for real?


Is your form of Christianity the real thing or is it more like what is seen outside of the church? Don’t mistake my remark for an accusation, it is not, but there are many in the world who have a “form of Christianity but deny its power” which is why there are people who claim that there are hypocrites in the church.

There are many in the world, about two billion or so, that claim to be Christians but if we all were doing the things which Jesus commanded us to do (like love our neighbors as ourselves) the world would be very different from the way it is today. Evangelism by a quarter of the world would have a tremendous impact, especially if it did not involve bombs or killing in any way. How much good could be accomplished this way?

Here in America, some over-the-counter allergy medication has been changed so that you have to have a prescription for the “real” thing. The stuff that you buy OTC just doesn’t work like the real thing and that is what I am referencing about Christians here. Are you for real or are you a Christian in name only?

Being real about your faith and the hope that you have is necessary because fakes can be seen by all. Anyone who knows a real Christian, one that lives their faith every day whether they are at church or at home or at the grocery store, can tell the difference. Your friends can tell the difference too, because when you claim Christianity and don’t live it then it is evident that you are a hypocrite.

2 Timothy 3:5 mentions people who “look like they are religious but deny God’s power.” (It also says, “Avoid people like this.”) Being religious and appearing to be a Christian doesn’t cut it, just like putting on a uniform and giving the appearance of being a police person doesn’t cut it either (and is illegal). True, you won’t go to jail for impersonating a Christian, but if you try to get by with it for long enough you will pay a price.

What do I mean by “pay a price”? Your appearance to others and to the outside world of being a Christian my help your reputation, it may allow you to do many good things for people. But if your heart has not been changed by the presence of Jesus then when your time comes to meet God at the end of your life, then all of the things that you did and the time you spent in church will convict you before Him.

Why will it convict you at that point? Because if you have never asked Jesus into your heart and allowed Him to change you, then all of the truth that you have heard in church washed over you but never penetrated your heart. Like being baptized but not really being saved, you just got wet. I went through these motions a few times and it makes you feel good for a while, but if the commitment to follow Jesus is not present then it doesn’t last long. A Christian that has never accepted Jesus as their Savior is not a Christian. They were just present in church in body not soul and they occupied a seat. Some may even have been deacons or teachers in Sunday school.

I have even read about some pastors or bishops who had been filling their positions for many years and yet became convicted at some point of the emptiness in their life and their heart and finally came to the point of asking Jesus into their lives. It was at this point that their ministry truly became effective and real to them and to their congregations. It was hard for me to understand how someone that had been teaching from God’s word and performing the duties of a preacher and yet they had never really given their heart to Jesus!

Make sure for yourself and for those who come in contact with you, because they are watching you to see if you are for real. If you claim Christian ideals and beliefs then people are really going to watch and listen to every word and deed, to make sure that you are real. So make sure for your sake now and for eternity.

Can you reconcile Jesus’ limitations?


There are many who deny that Jesus was the Christ because He seems to be limited in His ability as the Son of Man. But, did you ever consider that He limited Himself because of His love for us? Think of this: the question has often been posed about whether God could create something which He could not move, but this question sets up a paradox which doesn’t exist. Since God created the whole universe, as expansive as it is, the answer to the question is “no, He would not”, not that He could not. There would be no point in creating something so large because He already has created something which we cannot comprehend, limitless time and space. We cannot see the edge of the universe because our limited instruments can’t penetrate any distance past which time allows and time is controlled by God Himself.

Jesus’ limitations while living as a man, were the same limitations that we have except when He asked the Father to glorify Himself for a reason, such as bringing Lazarus back after four days in the grave. He proved His control of the elements when He came to the disciples by walking on the water, man cannot do this without the aid of some trickery or manipulation of the video by computers. Yes, Jesus had limitations but they were limitations that allowed Him to be the Son of Man. He could’ve done far more, but if it did not serve the purpose for which He came then why bother?

Just as someone who has a fast car doesn’t exercise that speed every time they are on the highway, Jesus did not use His power as Creator unless it suited His purpose for being here, unless it actually punctuated Who He was and why He came! There is no need nor reason for using power when you have it unless it is needed for a reason, specifically to glorify God!

Yes, He could’ve forced Israel to see Him as Who He was, He could’ve made it abundantly clear but that would not have taken His message to the rest of us. He came to bring the good news of the Kingdom of God to all people and that wouldn’t have happened if He had done things the way that we might have done them! We think small in most areas, God thinks in terms of eternity, which we can’t even imagine.

Our lifespan is tiny in comparison to even one billion years and that is small compared to eternity! God sees all because He is outside the limitations of time. He sees your life from your physical birth all the way to the day you die and everything in between. Yet, the most important decision in your life has nothing to do with your job or your family or your finances, it involves your relationship with Jesus and the decision that you make about Him. Will you believe in Him and follow Him so that others can see His work in your life and want that in their lives? Or will you decide that you can do it on your own, without Him? Your way may be a life filled with helping others, giving of your time and energy so that others can have a better life, doing things for those who may not be able to do for themselves but if you are doing this without the love of Jesus in your life it will gain you praise from men but it will avail you nothing when you come to God and present your life to Him.

The question at that point is, “What did you do with Jesus?”

If your life was spent in your own strength and your own ability to do good things for people, then it may have gained you praise from them but your reward perished with you!

The lasting legacy of a life lived through Christ is that you will live into eternity and so will those who have benefited from His love that was expressed in your life toward them. Jesus lived His life in service to the Father’s will and also in service to those that He came to bring the message of life to. He did this without being arrogant, but by being a humble servant to all. Power flowed from Him into their lives and enriched them, it did not corrupt Him or those who learned the lessons that He taught. This is the legacy that we are to bring to our world and those around us while we are able to do so, this is the message of a life lived through Christ and His life lived through yours!