Who’s Wrong?

August 23, 2015 / Mark Brady / 1 Comment

Do you ever get tired of running into people who do something wrong, but then act
like it is your fault? Who say something wrong, but then blame you? I am tired of it. I try hard to do right. I try to treat others the way I want to be treated, but I don’t always get the same courtesy.

This seems to be especially true on the road. Last night I was running an errand, and I went to turn left. The person in the oncoming lane had a stop sign, I did not. They ran the stop. I slammed on the stop_sign brakes to prevent an accident and I honked. They honked. Then as I was looking for a parking spot I happen to notice a vehicle close behind me with their bright lights on. What’s up with them? I thought. Then it occurred to me that could be the ones I honked at. I didn’t park. Instead I started driving. They followed. I got on the highway. They did too. So I decided to get off the highway and go to the local police department. In the mean time I dialed 911. 911 confirmed my plan. As I pulled into the police station they decided to book it out of there. Unfortunately they got away before the police arrived.

This event, and several others always make me wonder, what are these types of people going to do when they stand before God? These types being those, whom in their mind, never do anything wrong. Those whom truly believe the universe revolves around them. Will they argue with God? Will they honestly stand there and try to defend themselves, or try to lie to the one who created them?

No. They won’t be able to do any of that. They will most likely fall to their knees and not only worship the One True God, but they will have the sickening feeling of how wrong they are, they were, and of the countless people they hurt along the way.

Rom 14:11 Read it for yourself in Scripture: “As I live and breathe,” God says, “every knee will bow before me; Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I and only I am God.” (MSG)

I’m going to try to stop judging others, and try to stop commenting on other’s behavior with my car horn.

“We’re called to be witnesses, not lawyers or Judges.”

“God Himself doesn’t propose to judge a man until
he is dead. So why should you?”

Cleaning Out

August 16, 2015 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

This week Draino has had a particular theme to it. “Cleaning Out” At work I was tasked with cleaning out cubicles and cabinets once used by employees before they retired. At home going through every place one can put things and asking, “Do I really need this?” This is particularly hard for men who think they will use anything someday to fix something. Butt (typo intended) also personally cleaning out this week as I went for my first colonoscopy. Talk about things you really don’t need!

As I had lots of time to sit and think, and realizing this week’s theme, I begin to ponder what spiritual stuff am I hanging on to that I need to clean out? The list started growing. After one cleans out, gets rid of things they don’t need, like life style choices, habits, etc. they need to take one more step. If this one step is not taken one will only clutter their life again. That one step? Change the way you think, or nothing will change at all.

Romans 12:2 puts it like this, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (MSG)

Me? I plan on walking more, and changing my eating habits even if my lab results come back with a good report. I want to stop letting what other’s do and say bother me at all. This is going to take a lot of changing, but change for the better. If I can do this with God’s help my heart will be less cluttered and have more room for Him.

A Lot of Noise

August 9, 2015January 7, 2021 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

There are a lot of prophets (so called men of God) out there right now making a lot of noise. Have you ever considered where they get the stuff they are saying? Do they truly hear from God, or from themselves? I have been reading from the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament of the Bible. I came across some interesting verses I feel speak to us today.

A Message from GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies: “Don’t listen to the sermons of the prophets. It’s all hot air. Lies, lies, and more lies. They make it all up. Not a word they speak comes from me.
They preach their ‘Everything Will Turn Out Fine’ sermon to congregations with no taste for God, Their ‘Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen to You’ sermon to people who are set in their own ways.
“Have any of these prophets bothered to meet with me, the true GOD? Bothered to take in what I have to say? Listened to and then lived out my Word? (Jer. 23:16-18 MSG)

The only real way to know if a man of God is speaking truth from God’s word is to…are you ready for this? Know God’s word for yourself. Read it daily if you can. Your eternal life may depend on doing so. The truth is everything might not turn out okay. We live in a sin filled world, but I would rather go through pain and heart ache in life with God than without any day.

Jonathan Gainsbrugh once said, “Read your bible. It will scare the hell out of you!”

Love, Laughter, God, and 赞美上帝

August 2, 2015August 2, 2015 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Over the last two years I have gotten to know several Chinese people. One of these I had started dating. Her English was not that good when we first started getting to know each other, and my Mandarin, well forget it. We used our smart phones back then to translate a lot of our conversations, but three things didn’t need any translating. Those three things were love, laughter and God.

Today I went to a Chinese church to support a friend who wants to find a church community to belong to. I only understood four Chinese words spoken. During the worship part of the service though I knew the songs because I recognized the music. Then it hit me; when we the body of Christ get to heaven and we sing praise 052012_47.6 s to God every believer will sing in their native tongue, but collectively it will become a beautiful melody instead of being a chaotic mess. So I would have to add one more to the list of things not requiring translating: praise to God.

1 Thought Provoking Response

July 26, 2015July 28, 2015 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Last week’s blog post caused me to be reminded of the other side. Once again I became aware of the people who don’t worship God, but in fact worship Satan. They live for him, or to put it in another way, for themselves. Right from one responder’s, of last week’s blog own website “I wish you rapid progress in becoming your own god.” It reminded me of why Satan was removed from heaven. I have been praying for this blogger, and then I wondered, has he been praying to Satan for me? I know Satan tries to copy everything God has done. He even has his own bible, but would this guy pray for my soul to go to hell instead of heaven? Heavy thoughts have filled my mind this past week.

On his website was the mention of being an atheist. That title has always confounded me. Doesn’t the fact one considers themselves an atheist prove there is in fact a God? God has to exist before one can chose not to believe in Him. If He didn’t exist there would be no need for one to call themselves an atheist.

If there are people like this responder to my blog on the other side then I certainly need to, as Jesus commanded his disciples, “Let’s go to the other side.” (Mark 5:1-20) go to them, not to join them, but to set them free in the name of Jesus. In the portion of scripture noted Jesus delivered a man who had become possessed by demons. Even those demons knew who Jesus was, for you see they were once angels. Yes, there is a dark side to this world. It is very real, and very dangerous. Entering into it could cost you your life, for eternity, and as my cousin Doug once said, “That’s like a very long time.”

5 Reasons Satan Loves You

July 19, 2015July 19, 2015 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Okay, climb back into your seat and take a look at why Satan loves you.

Satan loves you, because as a “Christian” you judge those who have not accepted Jesus to be Lord of their life. You hurt them, and actually push them further away from the Truth who wants to set them free. A “disciple” of Christ would leave the judging to God, and love them as they are.

Satan loves you, because you take your freedom in Christ Jesus too far. Perhaps you are doing something that you don’t feel is hurting you, but it causes some others who see you, or hear you do this to stumble. They stumble because they think a person with your beliefs shouldn’t be doing this. Yes, they are judging you, but they don’t know it’s wrong to do so.

Satan loves you, because you allow him to distract you from spending time with God. You are not reading God’s words and you’re not spending enough time in communication with your Heavenly Father. Doing so might just reveal how or where Satan attacks you.

Satan loves you, because you think you are strong enough to do life without the ongoing support of fellow believers. You think you don’t need to take the time to be with the rest of the heard of your local church. Your alone, on the outside and become easy prey for him to pick off.

Satan loves you, because you don’t love enough those that are at risk of living eternity in hell to do something about it. Pastor Robert Morris of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas puts it this way, “You wouldn’t drive home and see that your neighbor’s house is on fire and pull into your garage and say, “Someone else will call the fire department.”” He goes on to say, “Your neighbor’s house isn’t on fire. Your neighbor is!”

Live the kind of life as a true disciple of Christ that causes Satan to hate you not love you. You should be his enemy, not his best buddy.

HONEST

July 12, 2015 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

The story you are about to read is true.

The name was changed to protect the Honest one. The time: Saturday, July 11, 2015, 8:43pm. The setting: Conversation after dinner at McDonalds.

Me: Do you ever feel as though God is telling you to go talk to someone sitting near you in church?
Honest: Yes
Me: What? Really? You do? Do you obey?
Honest: No.
Me: Why not?
Honest: Fear 051412_02.4JB
Me: Fear of what?
Honest: I’m afraid I won’t know what to say next that could help them.

This is probably a very common issue if everyone was Honest. The simple truth though is this: If God is prompting you to go do something, or say something He will give you the words to say, or guide you in what to do. Maybe it does take a couple of times to get this trust relationship working well, but once it is God can speak through you to encourage, to uplift, to motivate, to help someone who just needs to know that someone else cares and so does God.

Please, the next time you sense God speaking to you for a particular reason, obey. God delights in obedience.

Phi 2:9 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him (Jesus)… (MSG)

No Barriers

July 5, 2015 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

I work for a global company, and they force us to take training courses. These courses range from safety to customer information, to company standards. But last year they started making us listen to some motivational speeches. This past week I listened to one such speech that really moved me. It was given by Erik Weihnenmayer. It’s okay. I didn’t recognize his name either until he was introduced as the first blind man to climb Mt. Everest. I recalled hearing about him on the news.

Erik’s speech was truly amazing just as he and his life is. Here he is blind, but has adopted this mentality of “No Barriers”. In other words there really is nothing holding you back from obtaining your goals but you. He described being blind and climbing Mt. Everest as “reaching out into the darkness”.

We live in a very dark world. Perhaps you are facing a mountain in your life and you don’t see how you are going to get around it or through it. Has it dawned on you to go over it? Maybe you just lost your job, or you are now taking care of an ailing parent. Or maybe God has called you to do a certain task. The one thing Erik said about reaching the top of a mountain is this, “It takes a team.” Team up with others who are facing the same mountain as you. Do life together. Encouraging each other. Team up with God who can help you with any mountain, if only you believe there are no barriers.

Mat 17:20 “Because you’re not yet taking God seriously,” said Jesus. “The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.” (MSG)

God’s Man

June 28, 2015 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

I wait for the light to turn green. I just wanted to get home, so I could sit outside and write. Yesterday was one of those days Chicagoans dream of in the midst of winter. In front of me was a vehicle that had the license plate you see in the photo. Obviously placed there by a man, for few women would declare to the world that her husband is a man of God. How do I know he was married? It was on a minivan type of SUV.

As the day went on I could not get way from this man’s statement concerning hims Gods Man elf. Then I realized it’s not a statement of achievement, but of faith. For this isn’t who he is, but more of who he is striving to be. This takes guts to declare to the world: “This is who I am trying to be.” I don’t drive patient enough of others to dare put this on my vehicle. (Not yet I’m sad to say.) Not to mention the many times I fail those who know me.

Phi 1:6 There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears. (MSG)

I receive hope from this verse. Being God’s man is certainly a worthy goal to have. This world, but also those who know me, needs me to continue to strive to obtain this declaration as truth. I desire to be known by all (and that includes those closest to me) as “A Man of God”. Maybe one day my tombstone will read, “Here lies a man of God, but only till Jesus returns to take him home.” That even my death would proclaim the hope of eternal life we have in accepting Jesus. Whose man or woman are you? I hope God’s.

Who’s Your Daddy?

June 22, 2015 / Mark Brady / 1 Comment

With today being Father’s Day I naturally started thinking about my earthly father. He is very funny. He can be extremely generous, and he is absolutely the best fisherman I know. When he goes fishing at the lake he catches so many when he gets done the water level is lower. Seriously he has been known to catch 95 sand bass in one outing by himself. I am definitely like my earthly father in several ways.

Then my thoughts turned to my heavenly Father. I was made in His image, but am I like Him? I feel God has a sense of humor, but I know for sure He is loving, He is kind, He is longsuffering, He remembers no wrongs, and He is patient, as well as other perfect qualities. Out of my two fathers I desire mostly to be like my heavenly Father.

In Romans 8:15 it says we cry out to God by saying, “Abba Father”, which translates as “Daddy God”.

Some people have a pretty bad earthly father. In no way should our heavenly Father be compared to our earthly fathers. Earthly fathers, at least on this side of heaven, can let you down, say things that hurt, or do other things we don’t like. If you have been hurt by your earthly father you can certainly turn to your Daddy God. He can heal you, help you understand things. He is always there for you. On this day and everyday remember your heavenly Father.