Emma Loughridge
My name is Emma and I’m married to Peter, who’s the pastor of North Edinburgh Reformed Presbyterian Church. Here’s a little bit about my upbringing and what God has done in my life.
When I was born both my parents were alcoholics. We grew up in a housing scheme much like the one our church is in now. I have 3 sisters, but when I was young my parents split up and mum raised us for a number of years on her own. When I was young, my mum met a lady who invited her to church and offered to study the Bible with her. Mum agreed, started going to church and became a Christian. She’s now married to a great Christian man who was brave enough to take on 5 women!
Mum took us with her to church every Sunday, but I knew both from her and from what I heard in church that just because she was a Christian, it didn’t automatically make me one. I started to learn that being a Christian was about a relationship with God, which I knew mum now had but I didn’t. Because God is perfect and I sin, this puts me at a distance from Him. So there was a big gap between us that I couldn’t fill on my own. I couldn’t have a relationship with Him until this gap was filled.
Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14 verse 6) This is how that gap between God and me was filled. When Jesus died on the cross, He took the punishment for my sins because He loved me and knew that someone had to pay the price for all the times I had rejected and disobeyed God. That could either be me or Him. Even though that should have been me, His death had the power to make me right with God and stop me from going to hell. Now I know with total certainty that I’m going to Heaven because this is what He has promised me.
Lots of people know that they are missing something, even if they aren’t sure what it is. They try to fill this hole with drugs, sex, relationships, a good career etc. I know, because I was one of them too and so was my entire family at one point. Don’t get me wrong, being a Christian doesn’t mean you won’t have problems or hard days. I still have the same issues that everyone else has, but I know now that I’m rooted in something that won’t ever move. I know these words that Jesus said to be totally true for me – “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10 verse 10)
