Crumbs of Rumors

February 25, 2022February 20, 2022 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

“I admit I once lived by rumors of you;
now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears!
I’m sorry—forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise!
I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.”
Job 43:5-6 (MSG)

There are a lot of people who only hear about God, but they have never “experienced” God for themselves! They “go” to church thinking that He takes attendance, or something. He doesn’t! As if their “going to church” is the only thing required of them in order to go to heaven. I would think after hearing how great God is, how marvelous, how wonderful, and how loving they would want to spend time getting to know him. You know, reading his number one, bestselling, book, and talk to him on a regular basis.

I find it difficult to understand why they only want to “hear” about God. Perhaps they attend a church service that is lifeless, an hour of following the same rules week after week, therefore thinking that knowing God is not life at all? On the contrary, knowing God is really living! The most exciting adventure you will ever experience!

I have heard others say their priest or minister has told them the Bible is too difficult to understand. The truth is, the gospel of Jesus Christ is so simplistic that even a child can understand and accept it. Don’t over complicate the Word of God, or his plan of salvation. It’s all about an “invitation of the dying love”. That sounds like a book’s subtitle I once heard of.

Heaven or Hell?

October 13, 2020October 13, 2020 / Mark Brady / 2 Comments

My friend and I were riding the commuter train, from Chicago, home after a long day. Somehow, the conversation turned to God and each of us shared our beliefs on what happens to us when we die.

He said he was convinced, after we die, we are reincarnated.

Then I shared my belief that if we have accepted Jesus Christ, as God’s son, and have invited him to forgive us of our sin, wrong doing, then when we die we spend eternity in heaven. If we don’t accept Jesus Christ, then we spend eternity in hell.

We were able to listen to each other, with respect, but then I told my friend this; “If you are right, then I have nothing to be concerned about. If I am correct, you may have a long time to regret it.

We exited the train, and before heading to our cars, he said, “You sure have given me something to think about.” I hope and pray he has now accepted Jesus, but on that day, he wasn’t ready.

You have to choose one or the other. There is no way around it. There are no excuses for not selecting. You can’t say it is impossible to know, for God reveals himself to everyone.

Romans 1:19-25 (TPT)

¹⁹In reality, the truth of God is known instinctively, for God has embedded this knowledge inside every human heart. ²⁰Opposition to truth cannot be excused on the basis of ignorance because from the creation of the world, the invisible qualities of God’s nature have been made visible, such as his eternal power and transcendence. He has made his wonderful attributes easily perceived, for seeing the visible makes us understand the invisible. So then, this leaves everyone without excuse.

²¹Throughout human history the fingerprints of God were upon them,yet they refused to honor him as God or even be thankful for his kindness. Instead, they entertained corrupt and foolish thoughts about what God was like. This left them with nothing but misguided hearts, steeped in moral darkness. ²²Although claiming to be super-intelligent, they were in fact shallow fools. ²³For only a fool would trade the unfading splendor of the immortal God to worship the fading image of other humans, idols made to look like people, animals, birds, and even creeping reptiles!

²⁴This is why God lifted off his restraining hand and let them have full expression of their sinful and shameful desires. They were given over to moral depravity, dishonoring their bodies by sexual perversion among themselves— ²⁵all because they traded the truth of God for a lie. They worshiped and served the things God made rather than the God who made all things—glory and praises to him for eternity of eternities! Amen!

Choose God before it is too late. He has already chosen you, and He loves you more than you will ever know.

Because He Went Looking

May 1, 2020May 25, 2020 / Mark Brady / Leave a comment

050120 4 I had a conversation with one of my neighbors today. He conveyed a story of one of his, and his wife’s travels back to the U.S. from Uganda. He shared how the plane developed some trouble and they landed safely in the middle of the night un-expectantly.

After a few hours of mass confusion and people cutting to get in front of him and his wife, they finally got to their hotel room the airlines placed them in. Ironically, by being one of the last to be taken care of, they found themselves in a five star hotel, and in a plush room. The airlines does not give out the expensive rooms first!

“Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.” (Mat. 20:16 MSG)

But my neighbor’s story got even better. They expected to have reached their destination, instead they found themselves delayed, and hungry. He said he set out to find some food. When he went back to the main floor of the hotel, he found in a room an impressive spread of food.

The next day they got word the plane was ready. While in line boarding, a passenger who had spent the night at the same hotel he was at, mentioned how they starved, and how she had to beg a maid for some crackers. The difference? My neighbor went looking.

You may be delayed in life, and not sure what the problem is. You may even be hungry, not for food, but for something that truly satisfies. I write about it a lot in this blog, but knowing God better than anyone else does satisfy. God is so loving, funny, comforting, and caring. You won’t be able to understand my claims unless you go looking for him. But the truth is this, God has already found you.

Right there where you are, you can make his acquaintance by recognizing Jesus is his Son, realizing he died on a cross to forgive you of your mistakes, and then inviting him into your life. Afterwards, hang out with God. Talk to him like he is right beside you, because he is. A good way of getting to know God is to read the Bible. I suggest a translation to start with like, “The Message” or “The Passion Translation”.

God already loves you, if you do your part to get to know him, you will fall in love with him. You will, become satisfied.

350, 1 Hour, Serve

March 25, 2020March 25, 2020 / Mark Brady / 5 Comments

Charlie 0320 8 You go to a friend’s house and they serve a wonderful dinner. You go on and on over the entree and you even ask for the recipe so you can imitate it, or duplicate it at home. Then the day comes when you make the item, and you have great anticipation of it melting in your mouth the way it did when you first tried it, but it doesn’t. You go over the recipe line by line and you swear to yourself you followed it 100 percent. Disappointment sets in, perhaps even anger.

I have noticed whenever there is a guest speaker, people will flock to the church and sit there with pen and paper taking notes. The speaker may be sharing their testimony of what God did in their life. The people listen with intent. Then when they go home they start doing the things in their life, just like the guest speaker, but they don’t get the same results. Disappointment with God sets in, and perhaps even anger.

There are two reasons why:

1) You aren’t them. God worked in the guest speaker’s life in a unique way knowing the best process to minister to and through them. Now, with that said, there certainly are some principles based on the word of God that can be applied to every believer.

2) God is creative. I think he likes doing things differently for each person.

Is it the guest speaker’s fault?

No. There is nothing wrong with them sharing their experiences with God, because their victory can increase your faith. Just don’t expect God to do the same thing as he did for them at least in the same way.

A better way:

Instead of trying to duplicate someone else’s success with God try getting to know him. I mean know him so well you don’t ever second guess his commandments, or instructions. There are no shortcuts in this process. It takes time, lots of time hanging out with the creator of the universe. Did you know God had a great sense of humor? There is nothing like talking to God and then having a belly laugh moment with him! Get to know his nature, his love, and then imitate him.