Now What?

January 15, 2020January 14, 2020 / Mark Brady / 2 Comments

Charlie 011520 1 You finally drop off to sleep, and when you wake up the next morning you have a few seconds of peace before the pain of your current life situation comes crashing back into your mind like a tsunami. You lay there and say to yourself, “Oh yeah”. You force yourself to get out of bed, but if it wasn’t for having to go to the bathroom you would more likely pull the covers over your head and try to go back to sleep.

If this is you, what do you do? You may feel your only options are; runaway, become a hermit, seek revenge on those that have hurt you, drown your sorrow in alcohol, over eat, pop pills, or even worse bring physical harm to yourself. For those who have a relationship with God, the only thing you can do is lean into him even more. Anything else is of the flesh, and it will not ease the pain like God can. It may take all you have left inside you to even ask him to help you trust him more, but He will. If you don’t have a relationship with God, now is the perfect time to ask for him to forgive you and come into your life.

The words of old hymns can be comforting, reminders of God’s reality, which is more true than our own. Read the words of the song below. Let the melodic words soak into your soul. Be encouraged with the truth of knowing that this too will pass. May God bless you, and comfort you. Jesus is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. He will never leave you, nor forsake you.

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GOD IS BIGGER

July 24, 2019July 17, 2019 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

God is

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 First Thought

April 14, 2018April 13, 2018 / Mark Brady / 4 Comments

20180412_200110 It happened again. The explosive temper from one I am supposed to love, and I do, but the pain. I left their presence, but I was a “walking wounded”. I kept rewinding the scene and playing it over and over in my mind. Why? This didn’t need to happen. I begin seeking comfort.

I went to one of my favorite pizza places and ordered a pizza. Sad, I know, but I tend to turn to favorite foods for comforting. Later in the evening God whispered, “Why didn’t you turn to me for comfort?” I searched for the truth and then had the realization, so my reply was, “It wasn’t my first thought. God… (tears) I’m so sorry! Help me loving Father to make you my first thought.”

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement) 2Co 1:3-6 (AMP)

But I turned to pizza instead of God. The very pizza pictured in the photo. It was extremely windy, and as I was taking my second step out of the restaurant a gust of wind blew the box right out of my hand. I went back in, ordered another one, and then cleaned up the parking lot. To be honest I looked both ways to see if anyone was watching. You know, that five second rule. I decided it didn’t apply to asphalt! My turning to food first, instead of God, made for a very expensive medium pizza. Lesson learned, I hope!

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.

The Other Side of Pain

February 10, 2018February 9, 2018 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

PAIN P ersonal
A nguish
I ntense
N umbness

N eeds
I llustrated
A wareness
P rovided

Beautiful songs are composed out of PAIN. Books, cards, and letters as well. When one hears, or reads words that were birthed in PAIN, it resonates, it feels familiar, and it comforts. It lets you know, “You’re not the only one who has felt this way.”

Respect PAIN, but don’t hang on to it too long. Place it in the hands of the One who has felt the very same thing. Jesus is there, waiting, loving, comforting. Saying to you, “You’re not alone in this.”

Then, look around you. There are people, who are a part of your world, who are hanging on to PAIN. You can see it in their eyes. For you saw it in yours, every time you looked in the mirror. Get beside them. Be Jesus in that moment to them, and say, “You’re not alone. Let me show you how to give it to Jesus.”

Check it out: Inspired, rich words: believemiraclesblog.wordpress.com

It Hurts!

May 27, 2017 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

HURT You listen as they describe their current pain, despair, nightmare of a life. They go on and on without the slightest glimmer of hope on their face, or in their voice. They want relief, they want out, they want something so different then what they have. Like a blind man looking for his glasses, their searching is in vain.

You’ve heard it before, from them and from others you care so much about. Will this be the time they listen to you? Have they reached the end of their rope? Have they had enough? Maybe, maybe this will be the time they here you share the life they could have if they would only accept the free gift of Jesus Christ. How His death provides life. How His taking on the whole worlds sin and sorrow deliveres eternal joy, happiness, and peace, if we just say, “Yes” to His offer.

It hurts, when we hear them say, “Thanks, but it’s not for me.” It doesn’t make sense. It’s hard for us to understand. Irwin McManis put it like this, “People would rather live a bad life “they” purchased, than a great life that is free.”

Keep praying and trusting God for those you care about.

Choose to Live

November 20, 2016November 20, 2016 / Mark Brady / 1 Comment

20161119_112851 A young man hid in the bushes. When he judged the train was too close to stop in time he ran out and dove onto the tracks.

I was riding that train on my way to work this past week. I have been commuting in and out of Chicago for 23 years, but this was the first time I have actually been on the train that struck a pedestrian. They ruled it a suicide immediately.

While the investigation was proceeding I thought about this person and wondered, how bad was his life that he decided he had no more hope? What was going on? Satan won a victory that morning. John 10:10 tells us, “Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy.” Anything God has created, or made, including mankind, Satan wants to get rid of it.

Pastor Robert Morris, of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas once said, “As long as you are alive, you have hope.” If you are hurting, if the pain is more than you think you can bare, then please talk to someone. Please, I beg you. There are numerous organizations that are set up to help in all kinds of ways, but you must contact them. Depression, and mental illness is not something that shows up on the outside. Most people may not ever know, until you speak up. And if someone speaks up to you, I pray you will love and care about them enough to listen intently, and help them. Life, can be a beautiful thing. Choose it.

The Life You Should Really Want

May 3, 2015May 3, 2015 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

I was talking this past week with someone and it didn’t take long before I realized they were depressed. I asked them why, and they responded they weren’t sure. I asked them if they were happy with their current situation concerning life. They replied, “No.” Then the question of all questions came to me, so I asked, “If your world looked like you wanted it to what would it look like?” I mean this is the kind of question my friend Steve usually comes up with, but not me, so it had to come from God! The person I was talking to said that was a really good question, but wasn’t sure how to answer it.

What if you were asked that question? Would you be able to answer it? Would you have a different job? Live somewhere else? I hate to ask, but would you be in a relationship with someone else? If your world could look like you wanted it to would that world be the result of making better decisions? Have you really learned from the life you have lived in the past?

You can’t live in the past, and you shouldn’t live with regret. Whatever it was, it happened. Okay? So get over it with God’s love, help, and power. Learn from it. Give it to God, and allow him to use it to help someone else who is about to do the same thing. Paul tells us:

(Phi 4:11) Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances.

Contentment is a powerful thing to say, but even a more powerful thing to practice in your own life! I think once you learn to accept and relax in your current situation it is then that God can begin to lead you to the life He wants for you, and I assure you, this is the life you should really want.