Hope

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment

seedlingI just watched the movie, “The Martian”. Well written movies usually inspire me to write, so here I go. I am on my way to Zambia. Right now I am somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. 41,000 feet up in the air. The outside temperature is -85.0F. At least that is what flight status is telling me. Just watching the movie makes me aware there is a lot that could go wrong, but I have hope that we will arrive at our final destination.

Back home, the people in my church will be packing seeds next weekend into small envelopes. Some of those small envelopes will make this same trip over the ocean and one of the places they will arrive is where I am going. Those seeds provide more than just needed food and income, those seeds provide hope. So those same people are packing hope.

God knew after he made man that he would soon sin. He knew his hand made being would be in need of hope. So God too packed a seed… but he placed his seed into a virgin. The seed sprouted and slowly grew. The seed became strong, and grew in wisdom and knowledge of the One he was fashioned after.

After many years of growing it was time for the seed to produce good fruit, and so it did. After three years of producing the local farmers decided they had enough of its fruit, so they killed it.   They thought that was the end of it. Three days later the seed came back to life, and shared with its seedlings. The seed had become the vine. Those seedlings learned if they wanted to grow they would have to stay connected to the vine.

The moral of the story is this; the Seed was Hope, and Hope was Jesus. Hope can never die again. If you believe in Jesus then no matter what, you have hope… and Hope will get you there to ‘’your’’ final destination.

Who’s Remembered?

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“If I hear you died, I would only cry one hour”, says my ex-girlfriend.  Gees, was I that bad?  I can’t explain it, but going on a big trip makes me think of death.  It makes me think of the people who are, or have been in my life.  If the worst happens how will I be remembered?  Will the thought of me bring a smile or a few “choice” words?

What about you?  If you left the lives of those you do life with today, how would you be remembered tomorrow?

Those that did life with Jesus never forgot him.  Never stopped being a witness of his love, his mercy, his grace and his power.

The truth is, one isn’t likely to die on a big trip, but can just as easily die during the process of living life in a very predictable way.  The point here then is to live that predictable life in an unpredictable manner.

Live it in a way that causes those around you and those who encounter you toth
sit up and take notice that there is something indeed different about you.  So strikingly different they inquire of what sets you apart from the rest of humanity they live with.  Then you will have the incredible opportunity to be a witness of Jesus and his love, his mercy, his grace and his power.

The main goal of my life is this:  It’s okay if people don’t remember me when I die, but I hope they never forget the One (Jesus) I tried my best to live for, and smile.

The Final Curtain

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Torn011The story of Jesus’ death is not a new story to most of us.  We’ve heard it so many times in so many ways.  Whether you first heard it at a church, or saw a version of it at the movies, or heard someone tell you the story through your television.  Perhaps you just heard it again this week as Christians, Disciples of Christ, celebrated Easter.  I’m not going to retell it here, but I would like to share the part of His story that means the most to me.

You see, at that moment, after all the beatings, the ridicule, the mocking’s, the crown, the nails, and His last breath had been drawn He died, and the veil that separated man from God in the temple was ripped from top to bottom.  In the book of Matthew chapter 27, verse 51 it says, “At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom…” (MSG)

The veil, or the Temple curtain, was just no ordinary curtain that perhaps covers the windows of your house, but this curtain was at least forty-five feet tall, and four inches thick.  It was there because God cannot look at sin, or at those who have sinned.  Only the high priest, and only once a year, could go through a long list of rituals that would consider him clean could go around the curtain into the “Holy of Holies” into the presence of God, and offer a sacrifice to God for the forgiveness of sin.

I don’t know about you, but I would hate to walk around all year with unforgiven sin.  Knowing me the very day my sins were forgiven I would probably sin again, and say, “Oh man!  Now I have to wait another year?”  At that moment when the curtain was torn from top to bottom, by God, it now meant that Jesus, who was without sin, became my high priest, and through His death on the cross I now can enter the presence of God any moment I want to, or knowing me, need to.

That’s my favorite part of the story of Jesus’ death, but when the curtain ripped that wasn’t the end of Jesus’ story…three days later He made a curtain call.

 

Looking For God

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P1020216This past week, during a team meeting for my trip to Zambia, one of the members shared that she keeps a journal, but not just any journal.  She went on to share how at the end of every day she writes down in this journal where and how God showed up.  The name of this journal is, “Only God”.

Isaiah 40:26 says, “Look at the night skies: Who do you think made all this?…”  Oswald Chambers writes in his book, My Utmost for His Highest “The people of God in Isaiah’s time had blinded their mind’s ability to see God by looking on the face of idols.”  I certainly think in our day people are looking at their idols as well.  An idol can be anyone or anything you put in place of God.

When you look for God every day, everything changes.  Your vision of people and events, your conversations, and even your reactions to the annoyances of each day can change.  What a great discipline to look for where God showed up in your day, and then to take the time to record it.  I guarantee you in a moment’s weakness where she might not think that God cares about her or hears her prayers all she has to do is open up her “Only God” journal and read a page or two in order to be assured that each and every day God is there with her.

I challenge you this week to look for God in your life, and to go one step further to record where you saw God and what you saw Him doing in your life, or in someone else’s.

Helping Without Hurting

/ Mark Brady / 1 Comment

hwhstm-lg-coverI have mentioned this philosophy in a couple of blogs of “helping without hurting”.  I wanted to share a little more about it.

One person on a recent mission trip came back and reported the locals despised the Americans who came to build them a church.  Instead of working with the locals they took over and sure enough built a church building in one week.  So why were the locals upset?  Because the week the Americans were there, they were unemployed.  This is a great example of “help that hurts.”

There is a way of helping without hurting, but first you should understand some principles.

  1. Recognize that we are all poor.  When Adam and Eve sinned mankind fell out with God, with each other, with themselves, and with their world.  We all became poor.
  1. We in America, a lot of times, will describe poverty as not having material possessions. Someone in real poverty will likely describe poverty as embarrassing, failure, shame, and hopelessness.
  1. Know that we here in America are not superior to anyone else. Wealth is not measured in the things you own (or paying the bank for each month).  Not in the size of your house or the cost of your car.  True wealth is measured in the strength of your relationships with God, yourself, others, and with your world.
  1. You can actually make someone feel worse when you give them, or someone in their household something they cannot provide themselves.
  1. You help someone else by building a relationship with them. Once that is established you can encourage them, show you believe in them.  This gives them hope, and self-esteem.  This will help give them the confidence they need to find their own way out of poverty.  Jesus modeled this for us.  He didn’t come to give material things to people, but instead He said things like “I came to you”, “I accept you” which are relationship building words.

If you want to get your hands on the same resources I am learning from you can go to:  https://www.chalmers.org/

When you begin to understand what real poverty is you will begin to see it everywhere, and not just think of poverty as something in 3rd world countries.  It is time we start helping without hurting.

My Suitcase

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DSC_4957When I travel somewhere, seldom will you ever hear the words come out of my mouth, “Oh gees, I forgot something.”  I was never in the Boy Scouts, but my parents taught me well how to be prepared, how to be resourceful, and how to improvise.  On one camping trip the truck’s fuel pump went out.  Dad poured gas from the boat into a can and climbed above the truck’s engine so he could pour gas manually into the carburetor.  He told my mother, “If it runs, step on it and keep it moving.”  Something he said later he regretted as it was the scariest ride of his life.

I started three weeks ago packing my suitcase for my upcoming trip to Africa.  I want to be prepared, yet pack light.  After all, there isn’t going to be a Walgreens on the “corner of happy & healthy” where I can conveniently go.  My teammates have started teasing me, and one said, “I will just throw some stuff in a backpack the night before.”

As I stood over the top of my suitcase the other day I began to think about how people prepare for heaven.  Are they packing light, or heavy?  What do I mean by that you might ask?  Well it seems as if there are a lot of people that feel, believe, are convicted in thinking that if they “DO” enough, in the name of God of course, that God will see this, be pleased and let them into heaven.  Or if they faithfully follow a set of “RULES”, observe Holy Days and traditions, or be a “GOOD CHRISTIAN” that they will “EARN” the right to enter heaven.  The truth is they are over packing.  Their suitcase for their journey to heaven becomes heavy, weighted down, hard to bear.  Causing many to fall by the wayside, along the road of life to be robbed of their joy, their strength, perhaps their eternal life.

This is one journey where I want to pack light.  In fact so light that I don’t pack anything at all.  It is so hard for us as “doers” to do nothing.  I’m not saying that we should accept Christ into our lives and then just sit back and wait to die, or for the rapture to take place.  There is nothing wrong with sharing God’s love to others, and doing what you can for them.  Sometimes others need you, your time, or your ear more then they need tangible possessions.  The simple truth is; Jesus has already done everything for us that we need in order to enter heaven.  All we have to do is accept His death, and resurrection, His FREE gift of salvation, so I end this week by asking you, “What’s in your suitcase?”

Powerful Words

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I often use “The Message” Bible translation in my blogs when I include a scripture. This week I decided to simply post chapter 19 from the book of Psalms. Read it slow, and let the proper weight of each word’s meaning sink in.

Psa 19:1  A David psalm. God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.

Psa 19:2  Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening.

Psa 19:3  Their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded,

Psa 19:4  But their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere. God makes a huge dome for the sun–a superdome!

Psa 19:5  The morning sun’s a new husband leaping from his honeymoon bed, The daybreaking sun an athlete racing to the tape.

Psa 19:6  That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies from sunrise to sunset, Melting ice, scorching deserts, warming hearts to faith.

Psa 19:7  The revelation of GOD is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of GOD are clear and point out the right road.

Psa 19:8  The life-maps of GOD are right, showing the way to joy. The directions of GOD are plain and easy on the eyes.

Psa 19:9  GOD’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee. The decisions of GOD are accurate down to the nth degree.

Psa 19:10  God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds. You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.

Psa 19:11  There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure.

Psa 19:12  Otherwise how will we find our way? Or know when we play the fool?

Psa 19:13  Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work; Then I can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.

Psa 19:14  These are the words in my mouth; these are what I chew on and pray. Accept them when I place them on the morning altar, O God, my Altar-Rock, God, Priest-of-My-Altar.

43 Years to Africa

/ Mark Brady / 1 Comment

I grew up in Carbondale Assembly of God church. I didn’t live there, but at times it felt like it, as we were there every time the doors were open, plus for many years my mother was the secretary. Our church seemed to produce a lot of pastors, evangelist, and missionaries. From time to time a missionary would speak at one of the services and talk about what they were doing in “Timbuktu”.

As I listened to these men I decided I never wanted to be a missionary, so at the age of ten I made a deal with God. I told God if he wanted I would be a pastor, or even an evangelist, but please don’t ever ask me to be a missionary, and for sure, never tell me to go to Africa. The way I saw it this was a great deal for God. He could pick either of the remaining two.

Let me tell you something about God you may not know, or have never realized; God is a gentleman. He never forces his way, never knocks the door down to barge in, but rather as is stated in Rev. 3:20 he stands at the door and knocks. So God has never asked me to be a missionary, and he has never told me to go to Africa.

When I was approached about being a team member on a serving trip to Ndola, Zambia I did what every good Christian does, I replied, “I’ll pray about it.”  The next day while in a local grocery store I was looking for some lunchmeat, I started crying. I started thinking about what someone in a village in Africa would have to do if they wanted lunchmeat made out of a chicken breast. In that moment my heart changed, I begin to have a burden for people in Africa, and not because they can’t run to the corner grocery store to buy lunchmeat, but rather for their souls, and in some cases the generational poverty they live with.

Ndola_Zambia

Ndola, Zambia – Africa

After getting home from the store that night, I got on my knees and asked, “God, can I go to Africa?” Later I imagined in the moment I asked God that question he laughed, and said, “What took you so long?” God is so good to us. He has a way of taking his desires for our lives and working them into our hearts, and then he sits back and waits for us to catch up to accomplishing his plan, for our lives, for our world. Later. I gotta
go pack!

 

What is Love?

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment

032115_12Love, to me, is like riding a roller coaster.  When you first encounter a roller coaster you have never been on before you are filled with excitement, wonder, amazement, and even a little scared.  You agree to get on the ride, and the attendant helps you with the restraining device.  The ride starts moving and you get a half smile on your face simply because you really don’t know what you are in for, and then comes the first hill.

At the top of the first hill is the least scary moment of a ride, but seconds later you will be screaming your head off, hanging on to that restraining device as if your life depends on it, and in reality, it does.  There are twist and turns and ups and downs and tunnels of darkness, and even loops that can change your perspective, and it is about then you say to yourself, what was I thinking?  You ride, you hang on, you go through all that commotion and then you are back into the station.  The ride stops.  It is time to get off.  You stager to the exit, the contents in your stomach have been shaken, not stirred, and you certainly feel it, yet what do you proclaim out loud, “I want to ride it again!”

In a dating relationship one can certainly get off the ride, but there are some coasters you ride till death do you part.  Now that would make an interesting sign above the entrance to a coaster.  My kids and I love coasters.  There was one Saturday at Six Flags Great America the park wasn’t too busy and we rode 40 times on roller coasters.  The last coaster of the day we stayed on continuously for 16 times.  We, as humans, are addicted to love.  We like it, we want it, we crave it, and we need it.

The past couple of days I have listened to people on TV try to say what love is.  None of them, even the ones with “PHD” after their names even came close.  Real love is as described in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and it takes this kind of love to stay in any relationship, from friends, to coworker, to family, and to spouse.  Let me list a few here:

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. (NIV)

The real test to see if you are love is to replace the word “love” in the above section and insert your name.  You can certainly insert the name of Jesus in there, for we know He is love.  So if you are currently in any relationship let love be your restraint, and hang on.

Did You See What I Did There?

/ Mark Brady / 1 Comment

sunsetMy son absolutely hates it when I mention something early in our conversation and then bring it back into the conversation moments later, and say, “Did you see what I did there?”  I was sharing this with a coworker and in the span of our conversation he did it to me.  We both laughed enthusiastically.   I thought it was great and didn’t mind at all.

I recently got totally out of a long dating relationship which is always difficult for me, because I don’t usually have hope of being in another one, so I tend to stay in a bad one.  I know, pretty pathetic but true.  (In a later blog I will share my views of being in love, and what in our lives I compare that to.)  So after leaving this relationship and determined this time to never go back into it I was down.  Sad feelings set in.

Six days later I received an email from my section leader, where I attend church, and he invited me to go on a serving trip to Zambia.  In a matter of hours my mood, my outlook, my focus in life had totally changed.  It took me though a few days to realize this change in my attitude.  Once I did I was thanking God for bringing this opportunity to me.  There’s no time to think about another relationship, I’m going to Zambia.  I have never been to another continent before and I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through the small team of us going.  As I was talking to God the other day about all of this, and thanking Him for His mercy and goodness I sensed God say to me, “Did you see what I did there?”

Proof once again God does see me and you, love us, and cares so deeply about us.  He never wants to see you hurting, down, or even depressed, but instead wants to lead you into an abundant life. (John 10:10)  One of the best ways for God to do that is for you to be around His people instead of isolating yourself which can lead to further sinking into despair.  Never give away the Hope that He has provided to you through His son Jesus, and then watch for what He will do for you.