“This world is not our home, we are just passing through”
Hi there!
First of all thank you all and thank God for this opportunity to share with you.
I’d like to introduce myself a bit, my name is Tina Bergen I’m married to Jake Bergen, the most amazing husband and father of my 4 precious children. I’m so very blessed to have my children in my life, I’ve prayed very earnestly for them, there was a time in our first years of marriage were we came to think that maybe there wouldn’t be any possibility for me to be a mother ever and that was a very dark and hard time for me but I knew if I would pray for children God wouldn’t let me down, Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it shall be given you… " I am a strong believer in prayer because my own children are an answer to my prayers! My oldest child is a boy he’s 11 years now, the second, the one and only daughter I have is 9 years, and then my last one I've always felt like the answer was even stronger because they are twins who are 5 years old already and we are so so very grateful to have them in our lives. We’ve been married for 13 years and 8 months. God has brought us through very difficult times, but he had to do that so he could draw us closer to him again, we stopped going to church soon after we got married, a lot of time we have spent in vain watching movies and doing perishable things, what was God’s purpose on sending me in this place?! I don’t think that it was to just sit there and watch some nonsense movies or do whatever the world offers us, we so easily get distracted by anything Satan tries to put in between us and God…
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” Matthew 26:41
Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17
A little bit of how I got saved, in my younger years I don’t remember the exact age but between 10-12 years somewhere I opened my heart and asked God to come but Satan was ready there to distract me from the narrow way and after that I always knew God was calling and waiting on me to come back… I was just 14 years when we went mountain climbing, something what we often did, and on the way down I fell and rolled a few meters but God saved me there, I often felt it was a miracle I wasn’t dead.
In my youth I lived as if my life would never come to an end. At 18 I got baptized but I wasn’t saved by then, I had only confessed my sins to the preacher and that’s how I got baptized. At 20 I married but I still often felt so alone and deep inside of me I was longing for the peace I had once had but the years went by… Many times during those years God’s hand was hard on me trying to make me turn to him again, finally in February of 2011 something happened, by then my Husband had already accepted Jesus as his Saviour and after long talks finally and years I felt that immense peace in me again. I could write and write for a long time but I won’t go into too many details... to name a few my second and the last pregnancies were very difficult, I have been in deep depression and oppression by Satan, I often felt I just had to sunk in the sinking sand and there was no hope and no way out for me, but you know what that’s only a lie from Satan, and of course there is HOPE AND LIGHT IN FRONT OF US, we just have to look at Calvary, just as the Israelites had to look at the snake and they had life… "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" James 4:7 we don’t have to believe Satan’s lies! We all know so well he is trying to destroy every Christian’s life… This world is not our home. It’s a battlefield where the devil is trying to steal, kill and destroy anyone and everyone so he can keep them from knowing God…
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12
Our accomplishments are nothing that we’ve earned or collected here on earth, and our purpose in life should not be focused on getting them. Our eyes, our hearts, and our values should all be on Jesus and what HE has done for us, and our goal and focus should be on Him and on our home in eternity with Him. The rewards that we look forward to are not earthly, but will be given to us by Jesus when we get to Heaven and they will last forever.
We so often seem to forget the reason why God has us here, so often Christians fall into the confines of this world’s values and strive toward earthly goals. We endeavour to reach the peak of our careers; we budget our money and invest a chunk of every pay cheque into various funds for our retirement; and we even collect valuable possessions to feel the status of success. We believe that these accomplishments are the things that fulfill our purpose in life, and so they are worth the struggle and the endurance. But this thinking is wrong…
The pressures to meet the material goals of this world have caused many Christians to believe that they need to struggle to achieve them in order to be successful, but this is not a prerequisite set out by God. He tells us to keep our eyes on Heaven and to not make earth our treasure…. We can enjoy the good things that this world has to offer, but we CANNOT be attached to them; they CANNOT be our reason for living or our goals for this life. Why? Because when we are attached and when we live to collect these possessions, they become a gods to us, and what does the Bible say about that?
“You shall have no other gods before me.” … Deuteronomy 5:7
"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2 15-17
While we’re still here we have a purpose to fulfill as Christians, and that is to encourage and support each other and to be witnesses to the world of God’s grace through Jesus our Saviour. Our lives should reflect God so when people see us they see the character and the Spirit of God in us. How do we do that? By the way we act and react to situations; by the way we give God all the praise and glory for being our Lord and our help in time of need (Psalm 9:9); and by the way we live our lives and show that Jesus is our reason for living and that our wealth is not in earthly possessions, but in the eternal life He has prepared for us.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” … Matthew 24:5
We shouldn’t spend our time, money or thoughts on making this world our permanent home, but while we’re here God promises to supply all of our needs. He says in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” When we put Him first, He blesses us.
“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:1-3
Our commission as Christians is to arm ourselves in the Word and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can share the gospel with people and win souls for Christ. And we can do this because Heaven is our home; Heaven is our goal; and Heaven is where Jesus is and where we want to be.
We need no mansion here below
For Jesus said that we could go
To a home beyond the clouds not made with hands.
Won't you come and go along?
