“Now This Will Preach!”

March 18, 2017March 18, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

I gave up on life altogether. I’ve forgotten what the good life is like.
I said to myself, “This is it. I’m finished. GOD is a lost cause.”
I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.
I remember it all–oh, how well I remember– the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:
GOD’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with GOD (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.

SO THEN:

When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear.
Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face. The “worst” is never the worst.
Why? Because the Master won’t ever walk out and fail to return.

Now read only what is in yellow.

Lamentations 3:17-24, 28-31 (MSG)
Italics mine.

That’s All I Wanted

March 12, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Holding His people

I just wanted people to love me first. To make that choice, and live by it. I gave them free will, and I always hoped they would use theirs to put nothing else as a god before me. Was that asking too much? In turn, I would be their God. I would lead, guide, protect, and bless them if they served me, and kept my commandments.

You know, I came up with those 10 things, believe it or not, to make life easier, not harder. But that free will thing gets in the way and it sometimes gets people hurt. It’s the only way this whole God and the people I made relationship would really work, and have true meaning to it.

I made these people, and then gave them free will. Well, as you know, it didn’t take long for them to screw it up, so I taught them how to offer up a sacrifice for their sins, and it needed perfecting. Yes, that is when I gave my people my Son. Perfection. His death bought back the people that belonged to me in the first place, because I made them. It was out of pure love I gave them their free will again. All I wanted was their perfect love given back to me freely of their own will.

What do you do with your free will?

Are You Wrong?

March 5, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

wrong Everybody has an opinion on what happens after they die. Some of those opinions are: nothing happens, reincarnation, you go to heaven, and various other beliefs. I personally believe that if one has accepted Jesus Christ as God’s Son, and have asked him to forgive their sins then they go to heaven. If they haven’t then they go to hell. Either way, it’s for eternity!

I was talking about this subject with a coworker several years ago, and he believed then in reincarnation. Our conversation ended by me saying, “John (not his name), if your belief is right then neither one of us have anything to worry about, BUT, if I am right then you may find yourself in an uncomfortable situation while you are standing before God giving an account as to how you lived.” He walked away concerned.

Also, keep in mind, just because one claims to know Jesus, doesn’t mean they have accepted him, or obeyed his commandments. Consider these verses from the Bible:

Mat 7:21 – 23 Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name? And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly. (AMP)

So the question then is this: “Are you okay being wrong?”

Allergic to God

February 5, 2017February 5, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

end-times-2 Don’t be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they’re animals. Stay clear of these people.

Sound familiar? Like something right out of the news? Or remind you of people you know, work with, or even in your family? The above is a description of end times from 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1-5. (MSG) Those words were written over 2000 years ago.

GOD KNOWS WHAT WOULD, IS, AND WILL HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE.

Flat and Colorless as a Shadow

January 28, 2017 / Mark Brady / 1 Comment

Ecc 8:12 Even though a person sins and gets by with it hundreds of times throughout a long life, I’m still convinced that the good life is reserved for the person who fears God, who lives reverently in his presence,

Ecc 8:13 and that the evil person will not experience a “good” life. No matter how many days he lives, they’ll all be as flat and colorless as a shadow–because he doesn’t fear God. (MSG) shadow

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my days to be as flat and colorless as a shadow. I want them to be in full living color and have substance to them, to have meaning. Whether I always know and understand that meaning or not. I do that by giving my life back to the Life Giver. To go, do, and say as He leads. To fear God, meaning respect Him, and His words written in His book the Bible. (All of them.)

Time for God?

January 16, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

You sleep, you wake, usually before you are ready.
You don’t want to be late, for this job is steady.
Your spouse deals with the kids, their lunches and more.
The kids go to school, do homework and then their chores.

The goal is to all meet back home and try together to eat,
but there are athletic games, practices, and people to meet.
There’s the business of living, and paying the bills,
of finding repairmen to fix the houses’ ills.

And on that rare evening when home you are found,
there are shows to catch up on with, or without others around.
Then weekends arrive, and you work around the house during the day,
so you can make it to the party invitations that come your way.

Sunday morning is here, to church do you go?
You’re so tired from your week, it’s too easy to rollover and say, “No.”
Shouldn’t God get your tithe, your worship and time? Your call.
But without Him there’s no life worth living, at all!

Looking Your Best for God

January 8, 2017January 9, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

big-hat There was an emphasis on wearing your “Sunday best” when I was growing up. Every week at church most would be decked out in the nicest piece of wardrobe in their closet. “You should look your best when going to church,” was often heard. Believe it or not, in some churches, the hats worn on Easter are so large one cannot see the pastor when sitting behind such monstrosities.

Now there is certainly nothing wrong with looking nice when one attends a church service, but note that wearing your best is on the outside. God probably appreciates the effort, but what is likely more important is someone coming into God’s house looking nice on the inside. In other words, having a contrite heart, or a heart after God’s heart. A heart that is concerned for others, and where they will spend eternity.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.” Psa. 51:10 (AMP)

Knowing this, perhaps here at the beginning of a new year, it is time to clean out your “spiritual” closet. Get rid of all of the things that make you look good only on the outside. Let God examine your heart, and guide you in where changes need to be made.

What Living is Meant to Be

January 1, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

dirty-shirt-500 It’s December 31, 2016 as I am actually writing this. In a few minutes, 2016 will end, die, and the “new” year will begin. Some like new. New opportunities, new hope, a fresh start, but there are those who hang on to the old. It’s kind of like someone continuing to wear an old, worn out, dirty shirt, instead of putting on a new, clean shirt. They probably are not comfortable with something they don’t know how it will fit, or feel, so they continue to wear the old worn one. The same can go for when people accept Jesus. They know He has replaced their old rags (life) with something new, and that they “should” let go of the old life, but they struggle in doing so.

Have you ever realized if Jesus hadn’t of died there would be no new? Without his death, there would be no resurrection. God’s plan of salvation would have been nothing more than a nice gesture, or a generous thought.

2Co 5:17 “Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!” (MSG, italics mine)

It can be very difficult, but in order to truly live, our old flesh has to die. All of it. So as this new year begins, make a fresh commitment to let God work on you, inside and out. Let the old things pass away, and let new things in. May you learn to get comfortable in how God dresses you. Who knows? You may finally realize what living is meant to be.

To: You

December 25, 2016 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

jesus-gift-tag My child, know that on this Christmas morning, I have given you my greatest gift. It may not be what you wanted, but I know, it is what you need. I have given my all to you. I have not held back anything for myself.

Oh how I desire that you could see, or measure how much I love you, but even infinity is not big enough to contain it. My hope is that you will accept my gift. Please don’t put it away and forget about it, or never read the instruction book that I provided, and please don’t try to return it!

Know that if you accept my gift then we can be together forever. Also know that everything required to be with me for eternity I have provided. There is nothing you need to do, or can do. No rules to follow, no level of goodness required, and it doesn’t matter what you have done in the past. I made you. I know you. I want more than anything to have a relationship with you, and I can, if you will simply unwrap the gift I have given you and accept it.

What is this gift? My son. My only son. It’s the gift that reads, “To: you From: God”

The Greatest Plan…Ever!

December 18, 2016 / Mark Brady / 1 Comment

gods-plan The greatest love story. The greatest gift. The greatest promise…kept.

Who, but God could have come up with a plan to place his son Jesus, in a young virgin. Very few looked there. The politicians didn’t, the religious leaders didn’t, and most of the people didn’t either.

God, through his word, told what He was planning on doing, so it wasn’t a secret, but people have a tendency of not knowing God, or his word. This causes them to take God’s plans and play them out as they understand, or worse, want.

How all of this life on earth ends is also part of God’s plan. It’s not a secret, or mystery. Yet people still do not get to know God, and believe how they want to. Read God’s word. All of it. Even Revelation. Though you may not understand, believe it will happen…according to God’s plan. So far, God’s plan has worked out perfectly. Remember this, “faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1) Faith…use it.