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.

Hope

April 9, 2016 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

seedling I just watched the movie, “The Martian”. Well written movies usually inspire me to write, so here I go. I am on my way to Zambia. Right now I am somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. 41,000 feet up in the air. The outside temperature is -85.0F. At least that is what flight status is telling me. Just watching the movie makes me aware there is a lot that could go wrong, but I have hope that we will arrive at our final destination.

Back home, the people in my church will be packing seeds next weekend into small envelopes. Some of those small envelopes will make this same trip over the ocean and one of the places they will arrive is where I am going. Those seeds provide more than just needed food and income, those seeds provide hope. So those same people are packing hope.

God knew after he made man that he would soon sin. He knew his hand made being would be in need of hope. So God too packed a seed… but he placed his seed into a virgin. The seed sprouted and slowly grew. The seed became strong, and grew in wisdom and knowledge of the One he was fashioned after.

After many years of growing it was time for the seed to produce good fruit, and so it did. After three years of producing the local farmers decided they had enough of its fruit, so they killed it. They thought that was the end of it. Three days later the seed came back to life, and shared with its seedlings. The seed had become the vine. Those seedlings learned if they wanted to grow they would have to stay connected to the vine.

The moral of the story is this; the Seed was Hope, and Hope was Jesus. Hope can never die again. If you believe in Jesus then no matter what, you have hope… and Hope will get you there to ‘’your’’ final destination.