I recently read this devotion by Max Lucado, and was moved by the truth and power of the words. I decided the best thing to do was to share it with others.
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To read more from Max, or to sign up for his devotions click on the link below:
Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved
Jesus warned Peter (Simon) Satan wanted to get inside him and tempt him. Satan wanted to see if Peter’s life was rattled, shaken would his belief in God remain.
Luke 22:31 “Simon, stay on your toes. Satan has tried his best to separate all of you from me, like chaff from wheat.” (MSG)
So how does Satan get inside our hearts in the first place?
Perhaps when a family member hurts us. – Resentment
Maybe when a neighbor gets a new car. – Jealousy
Could be when difficult financial times fall upon us. – Fear
When your boss rides you, even though you work very hard. – Hatred
It could be after the loss of a loved one. – Grief, or sorrow
Through a battle with a serious illness. – Desperation
If a child goes astray with their life, or departs from God – Hopelessness
You feel there is no one out there who really loves you, understands you. – Loneliness
A situation or person ticks you off – Anger
These are only a few examples of how our lives can be shaken, sifted. If this is happening to you will God remain? I hope so. One way to make sure is to do an evaluation of what is in your heart. Clean it out and then keep the door to your heart and soul SHUT! And it wouldn’t hurt to lock it either.
Recognize quickly when Satan tries to sneak into your heart, because he will, even if the door is barely cracked.
Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved
Ya know, sometimes God words things just right. Good enough to convey His point clearly, so I give you God. He will be quoting His original writing from Amos chapter 5, verses 7 – 14.
7) Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar and stomp righteousness into the mud.
8) Do you realize where you are? You’re in a cosmos star-flung with constellations by God, A world God wakes up each morning and puts to bed each night. God dips water from the ocean and gives the land a drink. GOD, God-revealed, does all this.
9) And he can destroy it as easily as make it. He can turn this vast wonder into total waste
10) People hate this kind of talk. Raw truth is never popular.
11) But here it is, bluntly spoken: Because you run roughshod over the poor and take the bread right out of their mouths, You’re never going to move into the luxury homes you have built. You’re never going to drink wine from the expensive vineyards you’ve planted.
12) I know precisely the extent of your violations, the enormity of your sins. Appalling! You bully right-living people, taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.
13) Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic. Decent people throw up their hands. Protest and rebuke are useless, a waste of breath.
14) Seek good and not evil– and live! You talk about GOD, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, being your best friend. Well, live like it, and maybe it will happen.
Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved
I created a beautiful place for you to live.
I wrote instructions, on how to live.
I gave you my Son who lived perfectly,
I allowed him to die, as a sacrifice, for your wrong doing.
I prepared a place for you……..to live eternally.
Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved
Our founding fathers didn’t declare this, but congress did in 1956. They could have declared a lot of things when they were deciding what to inscribe on our currency. Something that would be used around the world. I’m sure after a lot of thought, it became obvious, the only thing to say was who they trusted in. Those men knew God and His word. After all, men came to this land for the “pursuit of religious freedom.” It just makes cents!
2Sa 22:31 As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried. He is a Shield to all those who trust and take refuge in Him. (AMP)
There is an old hymn my church sang when I was young, that had the following line; “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way.” I know, it’s hard to do. You can’t see God, but if you trust Him, you might just see His hand move about your life. You might hear His voice calm you in the midst of life’s storms. By the way, you can’t see the wind either, but what fool would dare deny its existence?
Whats inscribed upon your heart? What do you declare to the world to trust or believe in?
Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved
If I was to call you right now, and started speaking without first telling you who I was, you wouldn’t know it was me. I would start talking and you would say, “Who is this?” but the more often we talked, you would become familiar with the sound of my voice. The same goes for learning what it sounds like when God speaks to you. Joh 10:27 My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. (MSG), and we are God’s sheep.
Here is how to begin distinguishing what it sounds like when God speaks to you. There are 3 places a thought in your head can come from. Those are: Satan, you, and God. When a thought comes into your mind, analyze its source. If the thought goes against God’s word (hint: a good reason to read the Bible) then the thought probably came from Satan, or even you. If the thought seems smarter than you then rule out yourself as the source. So that leaves God if the thought lines up with His Word, and is full of wisdom. Keep in mind, God will use your vocabulary.
Hearing God, takes time and practice. Ask Him to speak to you, and also be aware that at times He will use something someone else says to speak to you. At other times, you may be reading His word, and a scripture will resonate with you. There will come a day, when you’ll appreciate knowing, in a moment, who it is speaking to you.
Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved
It would be so much easier if you could see God, touch Him, and hear Him audibly. But if all that was possible don’t you think it would cheapen your faith? I mean faith’s value goes through the roof when you chose to believe in who you can’t see, touch, or hear, and yet the things you have been talking to God about, happen.
If you asked God for His will for your life and the next morning you found an email in your inbox from God telling you to do something that you didn’t like you probably would label it as “Spam”. Or, you might be tempted to click on “unsubscribe”. You see God has a way of taking His desires for our lives and developing them in us to the point we start asking Him for the same thing. Thinking it was our idea.
One thing about God’s will is the timing. Maybe you do know His will, but do you know His timing? A good way to discover His timing is by moving. It’s hard to steer a car when it is parked. When you are moving in the direction you think is God’s will He can steer you, but you have to prayerfully watch the road signs. It’s like this, just because someone offers you a job out of the blue, doesn’t mean it is God’s will for you to work there.
Another way to find His will and timing is to talk to mature Christians who have been there and have done that. They can counsel you in the ways of God, and also be praying with you. Remember this verse: Isa 55:9 “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think.” (MSG) Trusting, believing, and obeying provides you the greatest adventures you will ever have and the most rewarding, and satisfied life.
Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved
“I’m looking for the next party!” One recently shared with me. The next day I read the following scriptures from the Old Testament book of Hosea 9: 1-6 (MSG).
Don’t waste your life in wild orgies, Israel. Don’t party away your life with the heathen. You walk away from your God at the drop of a hat and like a whore sell yourself promiscuously at every sex-and-religion party on the street. All that party food won’t fill you up. You’ll end up hungrier than ever. At this rate you’ll not last long in GOD’s land: Some of you are going to end up bankrupt in Egypt. Some of you will be disillusioned in Assyria. As refugees in Egypt and Assyria, you won’t have much chance to worship GOD– Sentenced to rations of bread and water, and your souls polluted by the spirit-dirty air. You’ll be starved for GOD, exiled from GOD’s own country. Will you be homesick for the old Holy Days? Will you miss festival worship of GOD? Be warned! When you escape from the frying pan of disaster, you’ll fall into the fire of Egypt. Egypt will give you a fine funeral! What use will all your god-inspired silver be then as you eke out a living in a field of weeds?
I feel sorry for the one who spoke those words to me. Their soul will always be starving for God. They will continue striving to feed their soul with the things of this world. I did my best to share this with them, but they didn’t want to hear the message, the Truth, and we know the Truth will set them free, and satisfy their soul.
Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved
I gave up on life altogether. I’ve forgotten what the good life is like.
I said to myself, “This is it. I’m finished. GOD is a lost cause.”
I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.
I remember it all–oh, how well I remember– the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:
GOD’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with GOD (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.
SO THEN:
When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear.
Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face. The “worst” is never the worst.
Why? Because the Master won’t ever walk out and fail to return.
Now read only what is in yellow.
Lamentations 3:17-24, 28-31 (MSG)
Italics mine.
Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved
I just wanted people to love me first. To make that choice, and live by it. I gave them free will, and I always hoped they would use theirs to put nothing else as a god before me. Was that asking too much? In turn, I would be their God. I would lead, guide, protect, and bless them if they served me, and kept my commandments.
You know, I came up with those 10 things, believe it or not, to make life easier, not harder. But that free will thing gets in the way and it sometimes gets people hurt. It’s the only way this whole God and the people I made relationship would really work, and have true meaning to it.
I made these people, and then gave them free will. Well, as you know, it didn’t take long for them to screw it up, so I taught them how to offer up a sacrifice for their sins, and it needed perfecting. Yes, that is when I gave my people my Son. Perfection. His death bought back the people that belonged to me in the first place, because I made them. It was out of pure love I gave them their free will again. All I wanted was their perfect love given back to me freely of their own will.
What do you do with your free will?
Copyright © 2017 Mark Brady, All rights reserved
brady, mark a. 