God’s Top Ten List

The Ten

  1. No other Gods before me.
    I’m to be your first priority.
  2. Nothing should be your idol.
    Keep your life pure.
  3. Don’t use my name when cussing.
    Understanding this can bring humility.
  4. Keep Sundays Holy.
    Resting one day a week is a wonderful thing.
  5. Honor your father and mother.
    Doing so will bless your life.
  6. Killing is not good.
    Love is a much better way.
  7. Committing adultery tears people apart.
    Learning intimacy will bring people together.
  8. Don’t take what isn’t yours.
    If you do, you’ll never learn to trust.
  9. Lying is a bad idea.
    Honesty is always the way to go.
  10. You shouldn’t want what isn’t yours.
    Contentment brings peace to your life.

God didn’t come up with these 10 commandments to make your life miserable.  He didn’t do it so we would become “religious”, and start a bunch of denominations with a list of “rules” to live by.  He gave us these principles, to live by, so we could relate to him better, and with each other.

Copyright © 2018 Mark Brady, All rights reserved

How Much Do You Charge for Your Love?

Cost of Love_FREEWhat do you charge for your LOVE?  Is that by the ounce, gallon, hour, or some other form of measurement?  Do people, or your family, feel you can’t be bothered?  Your friends never ask for a favor, because they know you won’t help for whatever convenient excuse you flip to in your “excuse Rolodex”?  LOVE is more than words.  It is action.  It does.  It does whatever it takes.  It does, whatever it can, for others.

Jesus, gave premium LOVE, free!  He didn’t require any form of payment, or reimbursement.  No one had to be “good” enough, or had to earn it.  They may not even have deserved it, but he LOVED anyway.  Jesus, only did what he saw his heavenly Father do.  We should do the same.  As Jesus has freely given LOVE to us, we should freely give LOVE to others.  LOVE can overcome anything when there are no limits put on it.

Real LOVE, is felt.  Authentic LOVE, saves people.  Mature LOVE, looks for opportunities to be expressed.  Premium LOVE fills you up!

Copyright © 2018 Mark Brady, All rights reserved

God’s Favorite Part

Torn011My favorite part, of Jesus’ death on the cross is this; the very moment he exhaled his last breath the thick, tall, heavy curtain that separated man, from the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom.  It’s my favorite part, because now, we have direct access to God’s presence.

Yes, I am so grateful to have my sins forgiven, but I love it when I sense God’s presence coming down, and lighting upon me.  When I sense the Holy Spirit enter me, I feel such a tremendous amount of love, peace, joy, and security.  Feeling God’s embrace is unbelievable.  I hope you know what I am talking about.  It is in those moments, I sometimes receive instruction, correction, words of knowledge, secrets, or my favorite, the keys to someone’s heart.  Jesus had the keys when he spoke to the woman at the well.  When you hold those keys, and unlock the secret chambers of one’s heart, real, authentic ministry can take place.

There are times when God just loves on me.  The other night, my Heavenly Father took me out for an ice cream cone.  While I was enjoying the ice cream, I all of a sudden had the realization that the curtain ripping into, in the temple, was God’s favorite part of the story as well.  Why?  Because now, when He enters the temple, He is entering us.  We, are the temple of God.

“Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.”  (1Co 6:19-20 AMP)

Copyright © 2018 Mark Brady, All rights reserved

Dump or Garden?

CtS21ft CamH3' 35mm 0001Mankind’s first address was inside Garden Grove Estates.  God gave Adam and Eve a home there, but they wanted more.  They wanted to know what God knew, even though he told them that kind of knowledge wasn’t for them.  They disobeyed, and got evicted.

Do you live in a garden?  I don’t live in a perfect one yet, but things are growing.  And I don’t even have a green thumb either!  My neighbor one day saw me trying to plant some flowers.  She said, “You don’t know what you are doing!”  I said, “I know, but I am having a great time.”  I desire, ache to live where God intended, meaning the kind of life, but since I don’t know what I am doing I need him.  I need him to design it.  I need him to remove the weeds, remove the trash, move boulders, and dig trenches for the living waters to flow in my garden.

I look around, and I see very few people living in gardens.  Instead, they have, like Adam and Eve, believed the lies of the devil, and have paid the consequences.  They have gotten hurt, down, defeated, or have settled.  Some have given up.  They act like “hope” is a four letter word, so they accept life in a dump.  It stinks!  It’s dirty, toxic, hazardous to your health, but they accept it.  More and more broken, ugly, bent, faded, rusty things of life, gets  dumped on them day after day, and they take it.  They call it life, and just assume, it can’t get any better.

This is not the kind of life God intended for you.  It hurts him to see pile after pile of trash dumped upon you.  Guess what?  You don’t have to live there!  You can move out of the dump, and into a garden, but you will need the help of the Gardner.  The One who loves you like you can’t even imagine.  Will you accept his invitation?  Will you change your address?  Come live in the garden God wanted you to live in.  Oh, and the cost?  Free, for his Son, Jesus paid it for you.

Copyright © 2018 Mark Brady, All rights reserved

The Day Stephen Hawking Accepted God

Free will, to do what you want, say what you want, is a great gift from God.  It does come with a lot of responsibility though.  God took a risk giving us such freedom, but it opens the door for us to, of our own will, accept Him, his son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

God didn’t want little robots, programmed to serve him, but a being, like him, to choose him, as He has chosen us.  Stephen Hawking chose not to.  Below are his own words:

“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

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)

Stephen Hawking died March 14, 2018.  March 14, 2018 is the day Stephen Hawking accepted God!  Oh how I would have preferred he had done it before he passed, but I do not know of the contrary.  I pray, all living men and women will accept God, and profess with their mouths that there is only one God.  That Jesus Christ is His son, and admit the Holy Spirit completes the Trinity.

So, that brings me to ask one question:  What day did you accept God?

Copyright © 2018 Mark Brady, All rights reserved

Heaven Won’t be the Same Without You, But Hell Will

healingAt the age of seven, I knew I was a convicted cookie thief!  I went to a church, where the anointed man of God, my pastor, scared the hell out of me!  He preached straight up sermons concerning what would happen if we died and had not accepted Jesus to forgive us of our sins.  As a result, out of fear of going to hell, I choose God, and heaven.

Today, I realize, some don’t chose God, because they don’t have firsthand knowledge of the Holy.  They don’t know God.  They don’t know what makes him smile, laugh, or hurt.  They don’t know He gets jealous when someone worships anything, or anyone other than him, and they obviously don’t know He is serious about only two places to spend eternity.  They haven’t felt his great love.  People then, believe more in themselves than they do him.

God created heaven for his followers.  He created hell for Satan, and the fallen angels that followed him.  When men started rejecting God, he had to expand hell to accommodate them.

“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).  “Therefore Hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it” (Isaiah 5:14).

Now, at my current age, I have experienced the love of God in such a way, there is no other place I would rather be, than in heaven with him.  Therefore I feel commissioned, everywhere I go, to make myself available as God leads to share his great love with those who don’t know.  I spoke the title of this blog to a very dear friend of mine, because it is absolutely true.  If my friend chooses God, heaven will be better, but hell won’t change at all without him.

Copyright © 2018 Mark Brady, All rights reserved

Check it out:  See helpful life keys. Beth Olsen

Call of Duty

A hurt soul needs a mender.
One rejected needs acceptance.
A depressed one needs to be encouraged.
One feeling like a waste needs to know their value.
A person struggling with an addiction needs a cheerleader.
Someone down and out needs a break.
One near the edge needs hope.
A person ill needs healing.
Someone lonely needs a friend.

peopleThe list, could go on.  The truth is, these individuals need Jesus.  Most do not think to turn to him, because they can’t see him, but they can see you.  In a time, when our world is in so much pain, those who know Jesus, and has the hope he provides, needs to answer the call of duty.

God has placed you where he needs you.  You’re the one, who can take the time, speak a word, or give a hug.  You may never know the impact of taking a risk of faith to say, go or do, but one day you will.  “Do not be afraid,” the angel of the Lord would say to you.  The more you reach out, the more you say, and the more you come along side someone, you will find it strengthens you, encourages you, and increases your faith to do more. God will lead you, as you are his servant, saving lives.

Keep one thing in mind; there was someone, just like you, who took the time to be there for you, and shared the love of Jesus with you.

Copyright © 2018 Mark Brady, All rights reserved

 

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Do You Know the Jesus of Christmas?

Christmas Card 1After Jesus was born to Mary, Satan used King Herod to kill all the boys in the land under the age of two.  It was a shotgun attempt to kill Jesus, the Son of God.  For Satan heard the same stories and rumors others did, but he didn’t know for sure who, or where Jesus was.

In the movie, The Young Messiah there is a line spoken by young Jesus.  Jesus looked at Satan and said, “You don’t know who I am do you?”  I’m sure Satan saw glimpses of Jesus, but probably too, couldn’t believe that God would send His son, to earth, as a child.

Satan didn’t know who Jesus was until Jesus was baptized.  For when Jesus came up out of the water there was a loud voice from heaven saying, “…this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mat. 3:17)  Afterwards, Jesus went into the dessert to fast and pray for 40 days, then Satan tried to tempt Him.  If Jesus had given in, God’s plan would have been killed.

Your whole life, God has been trying to reveal His Son to you.  Do you believe it?  Have you accepted God’s plan?  Your whole life Satan has been trying to kill God’s plan for you.  It’s true.

Please, take a moment this Christmas.  Get quiet, and look at the Christmas cards around you.  It’s more than a holiday.  It’s more than a story.  And it’s definitely more than a time to go into debt!  It’s the beginning of a love story.  God’s love for you.  Accept the Jesus of Christmas.

Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved

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Do You Trust Me?

Trust.  It’s hard to trust someone else, and sometimes even ourselves.  God, throughout the centuries has asked people to trust Him.  Some did, others didn’t, but most did so with some fear and trepidation.  Another thing that is difficult is change.  Either change a job, a living location, but the hardest thing to change is yourself.  Putting the two things together will just about overwhelm you!

Whenever God calls you to change an area of your life, take it from me, it is best to blindly believe, and then obey.  Will you know how it will all work out?  Probably not.  Will you know ahead of time how you will make it?  No!  But the point is; God does.  That is where the trust comes into play.

One thing I have learned, the hard way, is God loves obedience.  When you figure out a direction God wants you to go, and then you go when the time is right He blesses you like nothing you have experienced before.  So when God asks you that question, say, “Yes”.

copyright 2017 Mark Brady

 

Where Are You Going?

20170819_205542“Recalculating.”  Seems to be her favorite word.  I get frustrated with her at times.  Ladies, please don’t get mad, but a man doesn’t like to be told what to do by a woman.  It’s not our fault, it’s just the way we are wired.  So I recently put my GPS in the back seat, and it felt natural.  At times, I still try to get where I think I am supposed to be going, on my own.

That happened this year.  My plans were taking me in a completely different direction.  If I had not felt in my spirit “Recalculating”, I would not currently be going where God needs me to be.  Yes, God uses GPS.  “God’s Positioning System”

It’s important to seek God’s will for your life.  You were created for a reason and a purpose.  If you submit to God’s GPS you will be happy and not frustrated when you arrive at your final destination.  I hope and pray your final destination, is heaven.

Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved