What If?

May 4, 2019May 3, 2019 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Charlie 106 I almost blew it! What if I hadn’t of done what I had committed to God to do? I had told him a few years ago I would do my best to never miss a deadline to writing a blog. If I had what would have happened? I know one thing, the end result wouldn’t have been the same.

So why didn’t I want to write the blog? I enjoy writing the blogs twice a week, even though I don’t always know the results of the words I type. We had been swimming all day in the hot sun and I was tired. The blog was already three hours late in posting. I thought, it will be okay to miss just one blog post. While I was making ice, we found the recipe again, I sensed the Holy Spirit tugging at my heart to write something.

I asked God, “Do you want to love on your people, or encourage them?” I sat at my desk, and the blog seemed to have written itself. Those usually turn out to be the best ones, but don’t tell anybody.

About forty minutes after I had posted the blog I received a phone call. It was then I knew why the Holy Spirit impressed upon me to write and what to write. A person was discouraged, but God used the blog to encourage. It’s not me, or about me. I’m not special, just obedient, most of the time. I have learned, God can do everything himself, but He delights in using his people to accomplish his will. Is, or has the Holy Spirit been whispering to you to do something?

“Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God…” (Psa. 143:10 NASB)

The Confession

July 7, 2018July 5, 2018 / Mark Brady / 2 Comments

20180618_161958 Confession: I have never been inside a confessional booth. I grew up in a church where doing so was not part of our spiritual practice. I am at a temple where there is one. I am writing this blog post while sitting inside it. Not intended, but in order to see I brought a small, but bright LED light. It is casting such a white glow I think it scared a couple checking out the temple.

Here I sit, in this small, wooden structure. It smells old, musty, perhaps from tears soaking the carpeted board beneath my feet. There is carpet on the walls as well. I guess to absorb the sound, but aren’t confessions meant to be heard?

I think there is also supposed to be a man in the booth next door. A man to hear my sins? My wrong doing? What if he is actually a newspaper reporter? Wait, when Jesus died on the cross, didn’t his selfless act of love cut out the middle man? After all, the veil in the temple was ripped from top to bottom. The veil that once separated man from God. Now Jesus is our High Priest.

I guess while I am in here I might as well start talking. Heavenly Father bless me. It has been 23 minutes since my last confession. You remember. Oh, you don’t? Then maybe I should choose to forget it also.

Now, I confess all my sins. The ones that denied you, dissatisfied you, destroyed me and demolished others. The sins that dishonored you, discomforted you. The ones that would disqualify me from your presence, if it were not for your Son. The sins that diminished others, disgruntled my employers, and devalued my wife and children. And don’t forget the one that deflowered me before I was with the proper one at the proper time. The ones that delayed me from being obedient unto you and your plans. I also confess the times I digested things that defiled my body, your temple. The words I spoke that derailed others on track to finding you. The times my actions denounced you. The sins that I allowed that wound up discouraging me and damaging my faith.

Forgive me Father. I ask for your mercy and grace. Thank you for not deleting my name from your Book of Life. Thank you for forgiveness, and for your Son, Jesus who gives life through his death.

Now what do I do Lord God? “Go and sin no more.”

Have You Considered?

June 2, 2018June 1, 2018 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Covering of protection

Have you ever considered what your breaking point would be in life? How much you could take? What could you handle, but what is too much? Severe sickness of you, or of the ones you love the most? Losing your entire net worth? Being abandoned by the very ones you thought cared the most about you?

“And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered My servant Job?” Satan replied, “Have You not put a hedge (a covering) about him and his house and all that he has, on every side?” (Job 1:8 & 10 AMP)

God, because of Job’s relationship with him, had put a covering over him, or had his hand over him, so the results of a fallen, sinful, world could not affect Job, his family, or his possessions. Once I got really angry at one of my neighbors. I was so mad, I wanted to harm her, but I didn’t. Instead I prayed and asked God to take revenge on her for hurting me, After all, “Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.” (Rom. 12:19 MSG) One day I asked God what happens when he gets vengeance on someone. He whispered back, “I slowly remove my hand from their life.”

I shuttered! As time went on, I witnessed my neighbor losing her job, experiencing vandalism, and worst yet, the death of her oldest daughter. I prayed for her. I know God was hoping she would stop resisting him, and in turn, run to him. She finally did.

Job resisted the temptation to blame God for his troubles and die, but eventually repented of his prideful way of thinking. Then God restored everything back to him and doubled what he had lost. Could you have handled such loss? Or perhaps the better question is this, would God ever say to Satan, “Have you considered my servant: __________?“ (fill in blank with your name)

God’s Top Ten List

May 5, 2018May 4, 2018 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

The Ten

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

FLOW

March 10, 2018March 10, 2018 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

080412 335 A river flows downstream. Life in a boat, doing nothing, on that stream, comes easy, natural. It takes no effort, but to go upstream is another story. The mightier the current, the harder one must paddle, or use external power. You stop for one instance, or turn off the engine, and you begin going back down.

We can’t get to our destination upstream on our own. We must have the power from the One who has been in the boat. From the One, who has walked on the water. From the One who has made it to the other side. From the One who said, “It is finished!”

I desire to FLOW with God. I will do my part, but I will rely on Him for the power I don’t have in and of myself. Following His FLOW will take me where He wants me. The more I make this my life practice it will get easier, and become more natural.

Keith Hector, recently preached a message at my church on FLOW. He said flow is:

F aith
L ove
O bedience
W isdom

Flowing with God, and in God takes all of the above. It requires trusting Jesus. It demands following the Holy Spirit. God asks us to do things that are not natural to our flesh, so we cannot boast in and of ourselves. He also knows the joy we experience when we FLOW with Him. He knows the confidence we experience, and He knows it encourages us to go further.

Check it out: “My main attempt in this short life is to deeply love humankind. I long to love like Jesus: intentionally, authentically, and with no boundaries. So here I am, a messy 14 year old making art, learning to love, and writing.” Click: ~ ava lucia ~

“In God We Trust”

May 21, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

US coin Our founding fathers didn’t declare this, but congress did in 1956. They could have declared a lot of things when they were deciding what to inscribe on our currency. Something that would be used around the world. I’m sure after a lot of thought, it became obvious, the only thing to say was who they trusted in. Those men knew God and His word. After all, men came to this land for the “pursuit of religious freedom.” It just makes cents!

2Sa 22:31 As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried. He is a Shield to all those who trust and take refuge in Him. (AMP)

There is an old hymn my church sang when I was young, that had the following line; “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way.” I know, it’s hard to do. You can’t see God, but if you trust Him, you might just see His hand move about your life. You might hear His voice calm you in the midst of life’s storms. By the way, you can’t see the wind either, but what fool would dare deny its existence?

Whats inscribed upon your heart? What do you declare to the world to trust or believe in?

God?

April 30, 2017 / Mark Brady / 2 Comments

It would be so much easier if you could see God, touch Him, and hear Him audibly. But if all that was possible don’t you think it would cheapen your faith? I mean faith’s value goes through the roof when you chose to believe in who you can’t see, touch, or hear, and yet the things you have been talking to God about, happen.

If you asked God for His will for your life and the next morning you found an email in your inbox from God telling you to do something that you didn’t like you probably would label it as “Spam”. Or, you might be tempted to click on “unsubscribe”. You see God has a way of taking His desires for our lives and developing them in us to the point we start asking Him for the same thing. Thinking it was our idea. Steering wheel isolated on a white background

One thing about God’s will is the timing. Maybe you do know His will, but do you know His timing? A good way to discover His timing is by moving. It’s hard to steer a car when it is parked. When you are moving in the direction you think is God’s will He can steer you, but you have to prayerfully watch the road signs. It’s like this, just because someone offers you a job out of the blue, doesn’t mean it is God’s will for you to work there.

Another way to find His will and timing is to talk to mature Christians who have been there and have done that. They can counsel you in the ways of God, and also be praying with you. Remember this verse: Isa 55:9 “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think.” (MSG) Trusting, believing, and obeying provides you the greatest adventures you will ever have and the most rewarding, and satisfied life.

You Want Me to do What?

April 2, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Trust Obey.jpg What would you do, if one day God asked you to do something, well, crazy? Would you say, “Let me pray about that.”? Or would you obey, no questions asked? I am reading from the book of Hosea, in the Old Testament. God asked him to marry a prostitute. Can you imagine?

Some time ago a friend asked me to take her to have an abortion. She hadn’t even told her husband she was pregnant. Can you imagine a “pro-life” believer in an abortion clinic? But I felt if I said, “No.” she would try to drive home after the procedure by herself. I told her I would take her, but then I started praying like crazy. I asked God what to do. I sensed His Spirit whisper, “Humanize the baby.” After some thought, I understood, and I did. I started asking her, “You want a boy or a girl?” “What would you name her?” A few days later she called. “Mark, I heard the baby’s heart today. I can’t kill the baby.” I cried, and gave thanks to God.

The point here is being obedient. You may not be asked to do something crazy, but every day God is asking you to reflect Him, His nature, His love, His grace and mercy. Also to share His plan to forgive sin with those around you. That’s what God is asking you to do.

Mat 28:19 Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Mat 28:20 Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” (MSG)

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?”

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.