Still Looking?

April 24, 2019April 23, 2019 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Charlie 75 Do you know the first thing Jesus said, when he exited the tomb? “Ta-Da!” Answered a third grader in a Sunday school class one Easter. He probably didn’t, but should have. Perhaps he said, “I told you!” I don’t really know, but it doesn’t matter. What does count is what he did for you and me by dying, being the perfect sacrifice for our wrong doing, and then defeating death at its own game.

Something I had never thought of before; the word “tombstone” probably came from Jesus’ tomb stone. Although his never got engraved with something like:

Here lies Jesus Christ
Son of God, and Mary
0 – 33

Luke 24 ^1-3At the crack of dawn on Sunday, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared. They found the entrance stone rolled back from the tomb, so they walked in. But once inside, they couldn’t find the body of the Master Jesus.

^4-8They were puzzled, wondering what to make of this. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, two men, light cascading over them, stood there. The women were awestruck and bowed down in worship. The men said, “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery? He is not here, but raised up. Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?” Then they remembered Jesus’ words.

^9-11They left the tomb and broke the news of all this to the Eleven and the rest. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them kept telling these things to the apostles, but the apostles didn’t believe a word of it, thought they were making it all up.

¹²But Peter jumped to his feet and ran to the tomb. He stooped to look in and saw a few grave clothes, that’s all. He walked away puzzled, shaking his head. (MSG)

I love when the angel said, “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery?” Are you still looking for answers to your life? Are you looking for them in a cemetery? Why? Jesus, is the One you are searching for, or for more of, even if you don’t realize it. Your spirit is crying out to be reunited with God and that is only possible through accepting Jesus.

So where is Jesus then? He is right there with you now. Waiting for you to turn to him either for the first time, or again. Everything else in life, and every other place will be empty. As empty as the tomb Jesus borrowed for three days. Stop looking, and start accepting that Jesus Christ has risen, and is alive, and he’s been pursuing you, waiting for you to believe.

Cleaning up Life

December 12, 2018November 30, 2018 / Mark Brady / 1 Comment

20181130_231402 I was going through my father’s papers the other day. I had to keep some of them, but most of them were old records about his life that were no longer of value, so I shredded them. While going through that process I thought about a man’s life, and the summation of it all. Is the end result a bag of shredded documents? I hope not.

Our lives, our legacies should live on after we are said and done. The love we showed others should still be echoing off the walls of their hearts. The kind deeds we expressed should still be bringing smiles to the ones who received them. Love, is the only thing that will endure to the end. Knowing this, it becomes paramount that we learn how to love unconditionally. The only way to do that is to fall in love with the One who is love, and that is God.

“The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love–so you can’t know him if you don’t love.” (1Jo 4:8 MSG)

Three Days of Darkness

October 17, 2018October 15, 2018 / Mark Brady / 2 Comments

dispel There is nothing like the fear that comes from physical, or emotional darkness. When you can’t see your way, and you have no clue on when and where light will come. Your heart can pound like a concert bass drum.

Exo 10:21-23 MSG GOD said to Moses: “Stretch your hand to the skies. Let darkness descend on the land of Egypt–a darkness so dark you can touch it.” Moses stretched out his hand to the skies. Thick darkness descended on the land of Egypt for three days. Nobody could see anybody. For three days no one could so much as move. Except for the Israelites: they had light where they were living.

Another time, when there was darkness on the earth, for three days, was when the Son of God, Jesus died. You talk about your only ray of light going out and sickness settling in, to the very depths of your being. Jesus had once said, “I am Light that has come into the world so that all who believe in me won’t have to stay any longer in the dark.” (Joh 12:46 MSG) Three days of darkness, until Jesus was resurrected from the dead, then Light once again walked on the earth.

Are you stumbling around in life desperately running your hand along the wall, panicking as you look for the switch? Has your darkness lasted much longer than three days? Don’t get angry, as Pharaoh did. Don’t let your heart be hardened, as his did, and definitely don’t shake your fist at God. He may be allowing the darkness, to move you toward Him, who is Light. Accept Light. Accept God. Try living in a way, where you can see your way, by believing in God’s way.

Your View

August 18, 2018August 17, 2018 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

“Jesus” by Titus (age 6)

Your view of Jesus has a lot to do with how close you are to him. Is your knowledge of the Son of God first hand, or secondary? Do you look at him from above, therefore looking down on him? Or is your perspective from his side, as if equal? Perhaps one should look at Jesus from the foot of the cross. Feeling crimson forgiveness of sin drip on you. Hearing deep gasps of air as he spoke his last words. Smelling the stench of death waiting in the wings to take him. Watching the Savior of the world, arms opened, exhibiting love, even in death.

He pressed them, “And how about you? Who do you say I am?” (Mat 16:15 MSG)

This is the truth about who Jesus is; He is the Son of God, the only one born of a virgin, who fulfilled 400 prophesies concerning the Messiah, who healed the sick, the lame, the hurting, who spoke truth, and was without sin, therefore being the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin, who died and was resurrected three days later whether this is your view or not.

We will all stand before Jesus one of these days, and he will ask us the same question, “And how about you? Who do you say I am?”

Dump or Garden?

March 31, 2018March 30, 2018 / Mark Brady / 2 Comments

CtS21ft CamH3' 35mm 0001 Mankind’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.

Mark Brady 1962 – 2018

March 24, 2018March 23, 2018 / Mark Brady / 1 Comment

my tomb stone 2 We are gathered here today to pay our respects to Mark Brady. In this grave, six feet below us, lies his body, his flesh. Living by his flesh caused him to hurt a lot of people. Wife, children, friends, sibling, coworkers, and even his mother and father. Being led by his flesh opened the door to enter into a sin, where the result cast him out of the will of God.

Mark wondered around his own Mt. Sinai for 30 years. After getting tired of the heat, of the desert, and the sand, he said, “oh the gritty, annoying sand got everywhere”, he begin looking for the exit ramp.

The act of dying doesn’t hurt, but killing your flesh does. It goes against everything you know. We’re afraid, if we do, we won’t be comfortable with ourselves, or others won’t, but is that more important than having Jesus comfortable with us? It’s completely living the way Jesus showed us how to live. Meaning, how to respond to others in our world. An old man once said, “Life isn’t hard. It’s all the freakin people that make it hard.”

Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also]. (Mat 16:24 AMP)

Jesus told us to take up “our” cross and follow him. The cross being an instrument of death. So why would one want to? It’s hard to describe unless you begin to experience it, but there is such joy in becoming intimate with God. Becoming a son, like Jesus is. God loves his Son, Jesus so much! With that said, when you begin to walk in son ship with God, there is more peace, more joy, more faith, and definitely, more love than you could ever imagine! It’s living life more abundantly!

Is This It?

November 25, 2017November 24, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

The church, where I first learned about a better life.

Have you ever asked yourself is this it? What’s next? Is there more?

As I was giving thanks to God this week for His many blessings upon my life, a thought hit me. One I don’t recall having before. For those who have never accepted Jesus as their savior, and had their sins, wrongs forgiven, then this is it! This life is the best they will ever have. For them, there is no hope for an even better life.

This life, with its hardships, struggles, and pain. This life with its sickness and diseases. With its final blow, death!

But we don’t have to settle for just this life. We can choose to have the hope of a better life. A life with no hurt, sickness, and no death. Think of it this way; if those who believe and have accepted God are wrong then we have only gotten the same as you. This life. But, if we are right, if our faith delivers the hope God’s word says is waiting for us then we have so much more. So much more than just this life. And on the way to that better life, is God.

Act 2:26-28 I’m glad from the inside out, ecstatic; I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope. I know you’ll never dump me in Hades (Hell); I’ll never even smell the stench of death. You’ve got my feet on the life-path, with your face shining sun-joy all around. (MSG)

Evicting Spiders

November 4, 2017 / Mark Brady / 3 Comments

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Warm sunny morning. As I opened the curtains I see the shadow of a large spider projected onto my roller shade. I slowly raised the shade to revel an ugly spider. I hate spiders, so when it comes to sharing earth with them I have one rule: “I get the inside of the house and they can have the entire outside”. I think it’s a fair deal.

I had never seen a spider like this one before, so as creeped out as I was I wanted to get a closer look. I leaned in toward the window, extending my index finger and wondered what he would do if I tapped on the glass. As my finger was about to reach the glass I had the horrifying realization He’s on the inside! Now I wish I had grabbed my phone and taken a picture, but I went for the kill. I didn’t want him packing up and leaving Dodge alive.

Sin is like spiders; creepy, stealth like, and can be very harmful. As is with spiders, some sin seems harmless, while other sins can lead to death, but sin, like spiders on the inside of the house, must be evicted. There is no place for sin. Mankind rates sin, but God doesn’t. He knows that sin is sin, and all of it is harmful and can even kill you. Rom 6:23 Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. (MSG) Evict sin. Don’t allow any wrong doing in your life. Always do the right thing at any cost. Doing so might just save your life.

Note: I was working on a project titled “What was God Thinking…” and one chapter was “When He Created Spiders?” In my research I learned spiders are necessary. They control the population of other insects. So we need them, but God, really, did you have to make them so creepy? Oh, and one last thing, only one was spider was actually harmed in the making of this post!

One Man’s Sin

October 7, 2017October 7, 2017 / Mark Brady / 2 Comments

As we saw this past week, in a very visual way, one man’s sin, hurts another human being. It doesn’t have to be a mass killing either. It can be a lie, but when found out another is hurt for they got deceived. A cheating spouse, a wayward leader. Someone else will get hurt.

Unfortunately, as long as there is sin in this world, there will be hurt. There is sin in the world because of evil spirits that rule over this world. When Adam and Eve sinned (disobeyed God) it opened up the door for evil to come over us.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

But there is hope! For those who have accepted God’s free gift of having their sin’s forgiven, by accepting that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. There will come a day when God’s Spirit rules over a new earth, and that will cause peace, and no more pain, and no more tears.

My heart ache’s for those that were affected this week by one’s man sin, but I do not get discouraged, or want to give up, because I know, without a doubt, God’s word is true, and one day there will be peace.

The Key to Your Life

September 30, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Keys Currently, I only use two keys. It feels good. It means I am not responsible for much. I do not unlock a church anymore or even a desk. So, in a way, the keys on your key ring tell others about you, about your life.

Most will have a house key, but you could also have a key to a cabin. A car key, or two. A key to your company’s building, company’s vehicle, your office door, or just your desk. You could have a boat key. One for your gym locker, gun locker, school locker, or even a foot locker. But what if your key ring had one to your lover’s apartment, or to a lock box that no one else knew about? Are there secrets to your life that require a hidden key?

Jesus knows about every key you poses. Hidden or otherwise. Jesus has keys too. Rev 1:18 “I’m Alive. I died, but I came to life, and my life is now forever. See these keys in my hand? They open and lock Death’s doors, they open and lock Hell’s gates.” (MSG) The only key that really matters in this life is the one that unlocks your heart. Who, or what, have you given that key to? I hope you have given it to Jesus. Doing so, says you trust him with everything that is important to you. Everything you value, even your very life.