garden

There is More Than This

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment

How much effort does it take to “hope”?  Hoping for a life that is better than your current one.  I think most don’t say, “I hope I …” but instead, they say, “I wish I …”.

Hope definition is – to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true

Wish definition is – feel or express a strong desire for something that is not easily attainable; want something that cannot or probably will not happen.

Do you see it?  Do you see the difference between “wishing” and “hoping”?  “Hoping” comes with anticipation because it can actually happen!  This is why “hope” is so powerful.  Hope can restore a
marriage.  Hope can lead to someone getting their health back.  Hope can get you a better job.  Hope causes things to happen. 

God’s word says,
“These three remain: faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:13)  I like what “The Message,” translation says, “Trust steadily in God (that’s faith), hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.”

Hope can help you go from where you are to the kind of life God intended for you all along.  I mean, seriously, he started man and woman out living in a garden.  It’s a lie from hell to accept, “Well, this is as good as it’s ever going to get.”  NO!  You can have what God wants for you. How?  Ask for it.  Ask God to help you achieve that life.


Believe it can happen.  Start renewing the way you think today, for what you think is what you believe, and what you believe is what you say, and what you say comes to pass, for words have a lot of power.

Every time you speak, generally, you are speaking life or death.  Start listening to how you talk, and pay attention to the kind of words you use the most.  Especially those words you say to other people.  Those words matter, but also what you say to yourself in your mind.  Changing those words can change your life.

God loves you and wants you to have his best.  He doesn’t want you living in a dump but in a garden.  He wants you to live above your current situation.  He wants you looking up for something better, for there is
more than this, and when you are looking up, he can see you smile.  God wants so much love, happiness, and joy for his children, who love him, and He does work “all” things out for good for those who love him. (Rom. 8:28)

Copyright © 2023 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.

As the World Turns

/ Mark Brady / 3 Comments

My mother claims she started watching the above “soap opera” when it debuted when she was only 16 years old. As my sister and I grew up, we knew not to interrupt mom’s “program”! In fact, the story goes that when I was only 4, I would hear the theme song play and start heading to my bedroom saying, “Time to go to bed!”

The program was about people and their lives, the drama they experienced. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I have never heard, or understood why they called these types of programs, “soaps”. Well the other day, I was talking to an old friend after a few years of losing contact with them. As they shared with me their family’s “drama” I started feeling dirty, if you will. When I began to figure out why I felt that way I realized it was because “God” was not involved in their lives!

Now there is no way I would say that I have lived a perfect, or spotless life, but it has all been washed by the blood of Jesus and my sins are gone. Plus, life is good these days. Yes, things still breakdown occasionally and we have some struggles and challenges with finances, but knowing that God is right here with me makes me feel better about the things of life. I feel clean. Also, I know He protects us from the evil one, who wants to kill steal, and destroy!

Many people know how they should be living, and some were even raised up in the church, but for one reason or another, they choose not to live according to God’s words. He gave us those very words, not to make our lives boring, or a drudgery, but on the contrary to give us real life.  Abundant life! When He made man and woman, He placed them in a garden.  That’s the kind of life He wants us to have, but out of freewill, many choose to live in the city dump. It breaks my heart that they are missing out now, and will miss out for eternity unless they accept Jesus and ask him to be Lord of their life. To cleanse them by washing their sins away through his death on the cross and making them white as snow.

Copyright © 2022 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.

The Other Tree

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment

071420 3Most people recall Adam and Eve ate of the, Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil, but there was another tree.  It was the Tree-of-Life.

“God said, “The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never—this cannot happen!”

So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they’d been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.” Genesis 22-24 (MSG)

The garden disappeared, and so did the Tree-of-Life, but because mankind disobeyed God, and sinned when he dies he would be dead for eternity.  This was never what God intended, so He knew a sacrifice needed to be provided, so man could live for ever with him.

Because of this, Jesus is now, The Tree of Life, and we can partake of him after accepting his free gift of salvation.  His love for us lead him to the cross and because he was without sin, his death became the sacrifice, or payment for our sins.

So what God wouldn’t let us have in a sinful state, eternal life, he now freely gives us through his son, who became the Tree of Life.

Copyright © 2020 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.

I’m Not a Gardener

/ Mark Brady / 4 Comments

Charlie 021220 1You might not be a gardener if you purchase annuals thinking it will save you money by not having to buy more flowers next year.  Yes, that really happened.  As I was planting them, my neighbor watched for a moment and then she said, “You don’t know what you’re doing!”  “I know,” I replied, “but I’m having a great time!”

A few months ago I heard, “Every relationship has a gardener and a flower.”  In some of my relationships I know I’m the gardener.  Just like planting those flowers, I don’t always know what I am doing.  I do know one thing though, flowers are fragile and when around them, one must be very careful.  As the gardener, you should show love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  The fruit of the Spirit of God. (Gal. 5:22-23)

The most common way to water a relationship is with words, but the ones chosen should be selected with wisdom.  Do not speak to someone about issues in their life with a heart half listening.  You like them, don’t you?  Listen with intent.  Pay attention.  Be focused on them and please, I repeat, please do not look at your phone.

Realizing time is a valuable gift, giving it to someone can cost you so much.  We, ourselves have so much to do and to get done.  It seems as if there just isn’t enough time.

Don’t let them see the price tag attached to your time, and be extravagant!

Whenever I don’t know how to do something, or what to say to someone, I turn to God and ask him to give me words, or instructions.  God loves us so much and is always available to talk to us.  He gives you all the time you want, and he knows what to say.

God waters you enough to allow you to grow at the right speed.

He also knows how much to shine upon you.  God, is a good, good gardener.  Oh, and as for the price, his son, Jesus paid it for you.

Trust the master gardener to show you how to feed, and nourish someone else.  I have come to recognize I enjoy gardening, in the spiritual sense.  So I guess I would have to change the title now to, “I’m a Gardener”.

Copyright © 2020 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.

Dump or Garden?

/ Mark Brady / 2 Comments

CtS21ft CamH3' 35mm 0001Mankind’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.

Copyright © 2018 Mark Brady, All rights reserved