Today I Saw Jesus

September 17, 2014 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

I work in downtown Chicago. Just walking from the train station to my building I see a lot of humanity. The best and the worst of mankind, but today, today I saw Jesus.

I had run out of my house this morning to catch my train and did not take time to eat breakfast. As a result I stopped by a fast food establishment to pick something up. I saw a woman who appeared to be taking her time in ordering breakfast. The line was getting long. I didn’t know until later that she was ordering something that she usually doesn’t and she wanted to make sure the person behind the counter got it right. I got my order in, grabbed it, filled my drink and hurried out the door, and that is when I saw Jesus.

I saw the woman who had taken so much time ordering, who had held up the line, giving a homeless man his breakfast. She saw me watching, and the next thing I know we were talking. I told her that was very cool. She then said, “If a man is hungry how can you not feed him?” As she went on to share with me the words of Jesus, “Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me–you did it to me.” (Mat. 25:40 MSG), I sensed the Holy Spirit, the presence of God. If Yoda, from “Star Wars”, was a Christian he might say about her, “The Holy Spirit is strong with this one!” It is an awesome feeling to sense God’s presence oozing out of a person who is so filled up with God it can’t help but come out!

I know Jesus would have fed the homeless man too, and he would have also fed his soul. If you look around at humanity you will see there are a lot of people who need to be fed. Here I am talking about their soul’s need to be fed. They need to hear hope. They need to know there is One who knows them, sees them, and not only loves them, but gave his own son for them. They are starving. There is a spiritual famine in this world today. That is why there are so many conflicts going on all over the world. The worse thing is some don’t even know they are hungry. They have ignored the spiritual hunger pains so long they don’t even realize why they hurt inside. Be Jesus today. Be Jesus every day. Feed the multitudes.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

September 7, 2014 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

This is one of my favorite times of the year. You see I like to watch football. Last Thursday night was the kickoff of the 2014 professional football season. I have learned how to man the remote control with such proficiency I can actually watch two games at one time on one TV. You see it sort of works out that while one team is in a huddle on one channel on another channel they will be running a play. When that play is over you quickly switch back to the other channel. I usually start a regiment of exercises for my index finger in early August. I practice this move during preseason. I also have a backup finger just in case my starting finger gets knocked out of the game! I love football!

I have to be careful though not to spend 10 ½ hours on Sunday’s watching football. There are things that are way more important that need to be taken care of. With this realization I now limit myself to only watching one game. (And a few quick peeks in on the action.) What is more important than football? Well, a number of things, but for me touching lives. Today I have two letters to write to two different men who are “tenants” of their respective state. (Inmates) I will spend time praying for the week ahead that I will be aware of those that I encounter that may need a few more minutes of my time. In those few minutes they may express their hurts, their fears, or what they need prayer for. I want to be ready. I will also plan out how I can purposely touch the lives of the ones I care about. How I can surprise them with a word that lifts them up, put a smile on their face, lets them know they are loved, and thought of.

Touching someone’s life in a Godly manner takes time, takes practice, and takes opening your eyes to see the needs. It means not being so self-concerned about your own needs. You should already know your needs will be met. In a book I am currently writing I spend a whole chapter describing ways to touch lives. What is your favorite way to do this?

My church always considers this time of the year as the start of a new ministry season. I tend to think that way as well. So the question isn’t, “Am I ready for some football?” the question is, “Am I ready for some ministry?”

Wait

September 1, 2014September 1, 2014 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Waiting on God is hard. We ask, we seek, we pour out our hearts to him, and then we don’t see any change. When this happens it is easy to wonder, “Have I done something wrong? Is God trying to punish me? Is he even listening to me?” The longer we wait, the harder it becomes to have faith. Remember faith is: “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.” Heb. 11:1 (MSG)

So what is going on while we wait?

The longer you wait on God, if you will endure, your faith becomes stronger. It would be easy to believe in God and wait upon God if he delivered solutions faster than Amazon Prime! And aren’t you glad that there is no “prime” service with God to those who may appear to be more spiritual than us? I assure you Billy Graham, and Mother Theresa have waited on God just as much as we do.

When you do exit “God’s waiting room” (as Scott Cochrane puts it), and you will, you become assured that he did hear you, and he counted every one of those tears that poured out of your eyes. You see waiting on God builds character within us. Not only is your faith stronger when you get to the other side, but you have also developed Godly character. Please, no matter what, do not try to answer your own prayers, but wait on God to answer your prayers his way, in his timing. You will be glad you did.

Isa 40:31 But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired. (AMP)

I Just Met God

August 24, 2014 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Do you remember what it’s like to meet someone for the first time? Especially if that someone is of the opposite sex? You begin to talk to them. You find yourself wanting to know more and more about them. You start thinking about them almost every waking moment. You can’t wait to see them, and moments after you leave their presence you begin to immediately miss them. You long within yourself to hear their voice again, and see their face. This person has become important to you, and you to them. Your heart screams with excitement. When the phone rings you call out, “I hope it is them!”

As I have decided within the last year to start dating again, I have had this experience several times. At least up until that point when one or the other makes a determination that the other is not the “one” for them. That is not a good feeling. Feeling rejected, or having to say, “I no longer want to pursue a relationship with you.” Jerry Seinfeld so famously put it like this, “It’s not you it’s me!”

Couples who have been together a long time say things like, “Oh, we still love each other, but the fire is no longer there.” That’s a sad statement. Why can’t the fire be turned up year after year? It does take work. Hard work! Someone has to go out and cut down a tree, and haul the wood to the home, and then add another log to the fire. And then, and then there are times when the fire has to be stoked! I really don’t know what “stoking” a fire is, but in a marriage relationship it sounds like it could be fun.

Then there is God, our relationship with him. Is it new and exciting? Or has the fire almost gone out? Can you wait to see him again? Do you get excited and long to be in his presence? Or do you say, “I still love him, it’s just not the same as when I first got to know him.” I want to stay excited about God. I want my love and longing for him to grow year after year. I want the fire to be roaring in my heart when it comes to God and the things of God. I want to always act like I have just met God.

Today He Visited

August 17, 2014 / Mark Brady / 2 Comments

The subject of being in the very presence of God has always intrigued me. To think that God is in your midst; wow! In the Old Testament whenever the priest would go into the portion of the temple known as the Holy of Holies he would tie a rope around his waist, and wear a bell, so if he was found “unclean” by God and died then the other priest could pull his body out from behind the thick curtain. (By the way, the very moment that Jesus died on the cross that curtain was ripped from top to bottom! (See Mark 15:38) That means there is nothing separating us from God now.)

I have strived to live a life worthy of having God in my midst. I have accomplished that from time to time. Fortunately, now that Jesus has died for our sins, I don’t have to tie a rope around my waist, or wear a bell! Yesterday was one of those days. I felt God’s presence all day long as I went about my day taking care of the things in life. Each time I felt his presence I smiled, and prayed, and chatted with him. This isn’t saying I consider myself super spiritual, but I desire his presence. I seek it. It is in the presence of God I find comfort, strength, and direction. There is nothing like talking to the one who loves you more than anything else! The one big enough to create this earth, and everything in it, and then set it in order, but small enough to make you feel like you are the only one he has to talk to. I’m glad yesterday I could say, “Today he visited.”

Who’s Waiting On Whom?

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014 / Mark Brady / 1 Comment

Has God called you to live a particular life? Is He asking you to take a risk and do something for Him? Is there something you have been praying and asking God for? In either case have you begin to wonder, “When is it going to come about?”

In my life I want to be a full-time author. I would like to also be out there traveling and speaking to groups of people. Encouraging them, ministering to them, helping them to have a deeper relationship with God. Right now I have a blog, a couple of pen pals in prison, and I do my best to connect with people via emails, and other ways to be doing what I listed above. I have been doing things in a way so when the life I want comes about I will be ready. For instance yesterday I had a professional head shot taken to be used as a publicity photo. At lunch yesterday I told my friend, “I don’t know what God is waiting on, but it’s not me!” Then as our conversation turned to my friend’s life and what he wants I asked him, “Is God waiting on you?”

So what about you? Are you in the middle of God’s will right now? If not, what do you want God to do in your life? What does God want to do in your life? Is one of you waiting on the other?

“I love her”

July 27, 2014 / Mark Brady / 1 Comment

My daughter was telling me about a young woman who she works with in a Christian bookstore. My daughter informed me the young lady has been there long enough to start understanding the flow of the business. In other words, what needs to be done in the store and when those task should be completed.

Instead she continues to ask a lot of questions on things she has been told many times how to do and when to do it. She will approach my daughter and just interrupt even while my daughter is assisting a customer. My daughter had become very frustrated with this individual, and even beginning to wonder how she got through the interview process.

My daughter said she was so frustrated she decided to pray about it. After she had shared with God her frustrations she paused, and it was in that moment God gently spoke into my daughter’s spirit, and she heard God say, “I love her.” My daughter said she wept, apologized to God for her attitude, and renewed in her mind to accept the young lady s Unconditional love 2 he works with as she is. She determined to “love” her as God loves her.

Everyone was made in the image of God. Everyone has value. Sometimes it is hard to see this truth, but it is there. You may have to dig deeper, get to know them better, but you will find their worth. This kind of effort takes unconditional love, acceptance, and time.

For My Friend…For Me

July 20, 2014July 20, 2014 / Mark Brady / 1 Comment

My friend was expressing his concerns in an area of his life. The way he was talking it became clear that he was limiting God and not even realizing it. I said to my friend, “You are limiting God. You are putting him in a box, and theoretically saying, “God, in my mind, you can only do so much.”” My friend smiled and said to me, “You should write that down. That was good.” I told him, “I don’t have to, because God has been telling me that as well.” I said, “It is written down on my heart.”

It seems as if it is so easy for us to forget just how big God really is. Just how mighty and awesome is his power. In the way we think and talk to him we must make him feel like looking down at his name tag. To see if it still says, “Hello, my name is: God” I think it is in those times God wants to review with us his resume.

“Am I not the one who created the heavens and the earth? Am I not the one who said, “Let there be”, and there was? Am I not the one who flooded the whole earth to cleans it of sin, and yet I provided salvation for the few who believed? Am I not the one who divided the Red Sea and again provided salvation for my people? I have made water come from a rock, walls fall, the earth stand still, defeated a giant with a stone, and little boy, shut the mouths of hungry lions, allowed my servants to walk through fire, and yet not get burn, again and again delivered the children of Israel from the hand of their enemy, raised the dead, healed the sick and the lame, and so much more, and yet if all of that wasn’t enough I am the one who gave my only Son to die on a cross and then raised him from the dead so that anyone can have salvation from eternal death! Am I not also the one who can heal you, deliver you, provide for you, guide you, and keep you until the end? Or did you think you were talking to a lesser god?”

We limit God, because our minds have limits. For us there is only so much we can do, but not for God. He has no limits. Let him out of the box. Give him the time and freedom to do a work in us, on us, for us, and hopefully through us. Don’t be guilty of putting any kind of limits on God, especially a “time” limit. Remember to stay focused on his name tag, for HE IS GOD!

The Day Before

July 13, 2014July 14, 2014 / Mark Brady / 2 Comments

While talking to a co-worker this last week she said she was most excited about “the day before” her last day of work. I thought the phrase sounded odd until she explained. “The day before my last day will be the greatest, because on that day I will know that “tomorrow” is my last day to get up and go to work.”

After our conversation I begin to think about those three words: “The day before”. I seriously pondered what mine would be. It wouldn’t be before my last day at work, but it would have to be the day before my last day on earth. You see if I could know what my last day on earth would be then I would have the realization that the day before would be the last day I would have to fight the evil one, fight my flesh, and deal with people who have chosen not to accept Jesus Christ and live for Him. You see those things make one weary. I think that is why I will say and then hear, “I have fought the good fight of faith. I have finished the race”, and Jesus tell me, “Well done thy good and faithful servant.” (2TI 4:7, MAT. 25:32)

Of a similar thought, what would you do “the day before” if you knew? If you knew that tomorrow you get The Day Before 1 that pink slip, or that positive blood test back, or you’re going to die, or a natural disaster was going to hit. Who would you talk to? What would be so important to you that you just had to take care of it…the day before?

Today could be the day before. For me, if my day before was before leaving earth, the day before I am fighting, but the day after I am truly living the way God intended all along. Then I will be living life abundantly. With no more sin, no more hurts, and no more tears. I am looking forward to my day before!