free will

I’m Not a Robot

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According to Isaac Asimov, there are three laws of robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Would you want to be a robot? Life might be easier if you were. You would be programmed, so there would be no decisions to make. You would have no soul and, therefore, not be responsible for your actions. Robots do not have free will. God didn’t make robots because He wanted a group of people to choose to love him back freely.

If humans were robots, according to the First Law, there would be no murders, and everyone would watch out for others and do whatever they could to help or protect them. A robot would never “sin” because of the Second Law. And there would be healthy robots who would never get depressed and commit suicide.

When God made mankind, He, too, established some Laws for us to live by. We know them as the Ten Commandments:

You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall make no idols.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Keep the Sabbath day holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet.

These commandments weren’t established to make your life miserable but, in reality, to make all of our lives good. Living according to the above list is a great way to live. “No. I am not a robot.” I have accepted God and His Son, Jesus. I believe in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. I do my best to live by these commandments. I worship God and praise His Holy name. I do all of this of my own free will, out of love for the one true God who first loved me.

Copyright © 2024 Mark Brady. All rights reserved.

It is Finished

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Endings can evoke a variety of emotions. For example, when you finish a good book, a good movie, maybe a bad movie, or when someone’s life ends. Sometimes, April will ask after we finish a movie, “Now what?” It’s a good question.

When Jesus died on the cross, his last words as a man were, “It is finished!” His thirty-three-year mission to boldly go where no God had gone before was over. “Now what?”

The very moment he died, here comes my favorite part: the curtain that hung in the temple was ripped from top to bottom. Now, there was no more separation between God and man. It meant that if we accept Jesus and ask him to forgive us of our sins, we now have access to God Himself. We can actually enter the throne room of heaven and have an audience with the Creator of the universe!

When man dies on Earth, it’s over. The end. It is finished. “Then what?” The very next thing he will see is God as he stands before him. God will look in the “Lamb’s Book of Life” to see if his name is written in it. If not, God will have no choice but to send him to hell. By the way, in the beginning, every name was written in the “Lamb’s Book of Life.” The only person that can remove your name – is you!

God wants people to love him freely of their free will. So, He gave man the right to choose to live for Him or to live for Satan. That’s it. There are no other sides to life. You will not be reincarnated. You won’t simply die and wind up in nothingness. You will live for eternity, either in heaven or hell. Choose life in heaven. Accept Jesus. Have your sins forgiven. The reason you must have your sins paid for by Jesus is because God is Holy and cannot be in the presence of sin. The End!

At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces. Mat. 27:51 (MSG)

Nothing dirty or defiled will get into the City (heaven), and no one who defiles or deceives. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will get in.
Rev. 21:27 (MSG)  In parentheses mine.

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
Heb. 9:27 (NIV)

Copyright © 2024 Mark Brady  All Rights Reserved

When You Don’t do Life God’s Way

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Image by 51581 from Pixabay

If people aren’t living their life according to God’s word, the Bible, then they are living life their way. God is okay with that because He gives us free will. The reason He gives us that is He desires to have a people who choose to love him back. Of course, God knows that living life his way is better.

I have a friend who says they love God and have accepted him but fails to attend church services, tithe, or other “religious” activities that would grow their relationship with God. Because of this, I think they do not fully understand how much God loves them! They post a lot about their life on Facebook. It’s usually bad news. Things are happening to them, their children, and other aspects of their lives. They’re a good person, so witnessing this breaks my heart.

This has bothered me for a while. Then, this week, a verse came to my mind that explains at least part of the problem.

10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.

11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, Mal. 3:10-11a (NKJV)

Notice verse 11a. “Rebuke the devourer for your sakes.” It’s as if the devourer, Satan, has his way with my friend’s life. They take a step forward, and he eats away ground they had just gained. In other words, they are getting nowhere! Then, another verse came to my mind.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 (NIV)

Jesus taught that Satan comes to hurt you, and one way he does that is hurting your life. His intention is for you to blame God and keep you from accepting Him. Jesus continued his teaching to share that He comes to give you real life and lots of it!

This is what happens when you don’t live life God’s way. You will struggle in life, and most likely, you won’t be happy. Give up and give in. Accept God and His Son, Jesus, and start living life abundantly.

Copyright © 2024 Mark Brady  All Rights Reserved

Faultlines

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I read a poem today, and I was not too fond of it. The person who penned the words claimed that because the world is “flawed,” the one at “fault” is the Creator. I see this as a huge problem today. Nobody wants to take responsibility when they are wrong. Even an extremely popular, major online shopping company won’t admit it and do something about it. I decided to stop ordering from them. If I can’t find it somewhere else, then do I really need it?

Someone cuts you off on the road. You honk. Yet you get the finger! Oh, maybe they’re showing me they are my number one fan! It can be very frustrating, to say the least. Knowing someone is wrong, but they won’t admit it. And the truth is, they know they were wrong, too.

Below is one person’s comment to the poem:

“Interesting perception, I have made products that work perfectly well until the people who buy them get their hands on them. It’s worth reading the historical records of all the creation accounts they point to a perfect creation and interference.

Your final analysis is also flawed because if I don’t read the instructions and follow direction how is it the manufacturers fault that the product doesn’t work.

The Creator is perfect, the creation was perfect but decided it didn’t need the creator it exercised freewill and the flaws are the product of thousands of years of poor decision making by the product. But thanks for sharing the poem.”

What they are saying is true.

God created the world. He made man and gave him free will. Man decided not to live life according to God’s commands. As a result, sin entered the world. Then sickness, disease, anger, pride, and so on bringing down mankind and, thus, the world.

Today, we have God’s instruction manual, the Bible. Yet mankind still wants to exercise his free will and drive, I mean live life his way, contributing to the downfall of the world. But if asked, they would probably say, “It’s not my fault!” They would instead place the blame on anyone or anything else. The problem with that is this: they are still wrong and will pay the price ultimately for their wrong or sin.

The ONLY solution is to accept Jesus into your life and ask Him for forgiveness of your sins. Then, get a Bible and read how God says we should live. The book of Proverbs is a great place to start. I am wrong a lot! But I admit it and ask God and, if needed, an individual to forgive me. It is so freeing!

Proverbs 11:17-31 (MSG)

17 When you’re kind to others, you help yourself;
    when you’re cruel to others, you hurt yourself.
18 Bad work gets paid with a bad check;
    good work gets solid pay.
19 Take your stand with God’s loyal community and live,
    or chase after phantoms of evil and die.
20 God can’t stand deceivers,
    but oh how he relishes integrity.
21 Count on this: The wicked won’t get off scot-free,
    and God’s loyal people will triumph.
22 Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout
    is a beautiful face on an empty head.
23 The desires of good people lead straight to the best,
    but wicked ambition ends in angry frustration.
24 The world of the generous gets larger and larger;
    the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
25 The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed;
    those who help others are helped.
26 Curses on those who drive a hard bargain!
    Blessings on all who play fair and square!
27 The one who seeks good finds delight;
    the student of evil becomes evil.
28 A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump;
    a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.
29 Exploit or abuse your family, and end up with a fistful of air;
    common sense tells you it’s a stupid way to live.
30 A good life is a fruit-bearing tree;
    a violent life destroys souls.
31 If good people barely make it,
    what’s in store for the bad!

Copyright © 2024 Mark Brady  All Rights Reserved

Who is it For?

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061920Oswald Chambers wrote, “It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God.”  Truth, if ever spoken.  Yet, Jesus, the Son of God did both.  He always stated he only did what he saw his Father do.  That meant, every day!  Then, at the end, he laid his life down for us as well.  He did it for you, and me.

You know, I can’t recall any other so called spiritualist that was killed, or they laid down their life voluntarily for what they believed, taught, or lived.

Surrendering your free will is hard to do, yet if done for God, it brings satisfaction, true life.  So I have to ask, “Are you laying down your life?  If so, for whom?”

Copyright © 2020 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.

Identity Thief

/ Mark Brady / 2 Comments

WIYTGIG 1I have a theory that human spirits are in heaven, with God, and then, the moment a child is conceived a human spirit is installed.  It’s just a thought, okay?  One reason I believe this is I was in a grocery store and I saw a small child in their mother’s arms.  When the child saw me I smiled, and without hesitation the child tried to leap out of the arms of their mother into mine.  The child’s spirit wanted to be reunited with God’s Spirit, which dwells in me.

the child saw God

I didn’t encourage the child at all.  I simply smiled.  I have thought about that moment and I came to realize the child sensed God’s Spirit within me.  That led to the question, “how did the child know God?”

I have been reading “Translating God” by Shawn Bolz.  He talks about seeing people as the original version of them God intended.  This will help you relate to them better when you begin to see them as God does.

So what happens then?  How do we get so off course from being the image of God he designed?  Life, temptation, sin, and free will.  Those are the things that steal our true identity.  I know a man, who had a dream about his son before he was ever born.  In the dream he got his name and his destiny from God.  Sure enough a son was born, but today that son is not living a life anything close to what God intended.  The man continues to love his son anyway, and continues to pray for him, and believe that one day the real version will emerge, and his son will be a mighty, spiritual warrior.

It’s like when we are born, our life is perfect, and wrinkled free.  Then, as life happens we get wrinkled, but the moment we accept Jesus we go to the cleaners and there, the Holy Spirit, as steam, gets all of the wrinkles out.  He restores us to our original design, and purpose.  Yes, it takes discipleship, healing of the heart, and spending a lot of time with God getting to know him fully and his nature, but it can be done.

Jeremiah 1:5 (The Message)

 “Before I shaped you in the womb,
I knew all about you.
Before you saw the light of day,
I had holy plans for you:
A prophet to the nations—
that’s what I had in mind for you.”

I encourage you to be hungry to be the person God intended you to be.  Ask God to show you his plan, design, and purpose for your life.  Then, I encourage you to live it.  If you choose to do this you will never be happier!

Copyright © 2020 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.

I Do My Best

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Charlie 777bIf Adam had stopped Eve from exercising her free will, and disobeying God.  If Eve had not listened to the devil in the form of a serpent.  Somebody, somewhere, in the ages of time still would have sinned requiring a perfect sacrifice to reunite us with God.  Jesus would still have found himself hanging on a cross.

Even if no one had disobeyed God, by the time I was born, I’m sure I would have been the one to mess things up.  Like the apostle Paul once said, “… My own behaviour baffles me. For I find myself not doing what I really want to do but doing what I really loathe. Yet surely if I do things that I really don’t want to do, I am admitting that I really agree with the Law.

… I often find that I have the will to do good, but not the power. That is, I don’t accomplish the good I set out to do, and the evil I don’t really want to do I find I am always doing. Yet if I do things that I don’t really want to do then it is not, I repeat, “I” who do them, but the sin which has made its home within me.” Romans 7:15-20 J.B. Phillips New Testament

Even if I was the only sinner on earth, God still would have sent his son, Jesus to die for me.  That’s how much he loves me, and ya know what? He loves you that much too.  2 Peter 3:9 (NET)  because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

You know the bottom line is this:  God simply wants us to choose to be in a loving relationship with him.  I do my best, for that’s my heart’s desire as well.

Copyright © 2019 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.

Inside the Lines

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Charlie 62I bet they flunked out of Kindergarten for not coloring inside the lines!  Are they important?  Do they love their car that much?  I bet they live life outside the lines too.  I mean, they can’t even park their car inside the straight lines provided free of charge.

There seems to be a lot of people these days who only care about themselves.  In fact, I think there is a whole generation of people called, “Me llennials.”  Just kidding, sort of.  These people do what they want, when they want, with little thought of anyone else, as if they are entitled or something.

The only problem with this lifestyle choice is they will have to give account of how they lived.  Yes, it’s true, we have free will, but when we all stand before God, will we say, “But God, I…”  Some may try, but I have this funny feeling when we see him in all his Glory, we will fall to our knees, and weep, for the words we chose to say, and the things we decided it was okay to do.

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.  Romans 14:12 (AMP)

I have a funny feeling, in that moment, before God, we will have all truth, and it will be in that moment, we will know.  I can imagine, for the ones who rejected God, and didn’t choose to live within the lines He provided, free of charge, He will not say a word, but point to a door that will be an exit out of heaven and an entrance into hell.  But for the ones who did their best to live a pleasing life to him, accepting his Son, Jesus, He will offer his hand to help us up, and say the most loving words we will ever here.

Copyright © 2019 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.

Jesus on Facebook

/ Mark Brady / 3 Comments

Charlie 333I read something this past week, and well, it bothered me.

It is becoming increasingly clear that one is being forced to stand up for the One they believe in, or for what they believe in.  Moral issues are being thrown in our faces.  There is open talk about what some call right, and what others call wrong.  Used to, you could stay quiet and say, “What they do behind closed doors is their business.”  Today, the doors are being ripped off their hinges and the whole world can now see what individuals believe.

What bothered me was some people’s response to this “In your face” attitude, and so I pondered, what would Jesus’ response to this be?  You don’t have to look very long in the word of God to find the answer:

Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?”  Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.” Mat. 9:10-13 (MSG)

The truth is; God gives man freewill, so who are we not to?  Are we greater than God?  If you see something on TV or on Facebook, you don’t agree with or like, and can’t find something “graceful” to say then just scroll on.  I do that whenever I see post about dogs and cats.  “Change the channel” if you will.

Is Jesus on Facebook?  No, but we who claim to be His followers are.

Copyright © 2019 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.

Whew!  Sundays Over!

/ Mark Brady / 2 Comments

Church 1 (2)

Photo by Michael Wall of Wall2Wall Foto

A girl in my 11th grade English class once said, “I love being Catholic!  I can have my sins forgiven Saturday night, and then live like hell the rest of the week.”  Now, I’m just quoting her and not saying a thing about the Catholic faith, so please, no emails.  I’m not Catholic, but being honest, have had similar thoughts.  Only mine are more like, “Ok.  I got the Sunday thing done.  Now, I can indulge my flesh.”

A fight, a struggle.  I want to do the right thing.  I want to please and obey God, but I find no matter how long I have been doing this, I still struggle with thoughts of wanting to do what I want to do.  Some are just down right thoughts of being lazy.

The great apostle Paul struggled as well.

Rom 7:18  I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it.
Rom 7:19  I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. (MSG)

So how, or what are we to do then?  1) Of course ask God to help us.  We will never be able to do it on our own.  2) Bring every thought into captivity.  Be honest about the thought, and if it is a bad thought then start looking for the door that has a sign above it that reads, “EXIT”.  God promises to make a way of escape.  Sometimes that exit may be praying.  Have you ever sinned while praying?  I haven’t.  Leave the room.  See what your family is doing, or call a friend.  And if they are a trusted friend, tell them you are struggling.

My classmate, I mentioned in the beginning, was married.  Her husband shoved a shotgun in her mouth and pulled the trigger before that school year was over.  I have often wondered what God thinks when people live like she did on a regular basis.  I yield my opinions to God.  This one thing I know for sure:  I can overcome, because Jesus overcame first, and so can you.

Copyright © 2018 Mark Brady, All rights reserved