God Won't Be Blessing This America

It's really sick that I even have to write these words.

God won't be blessing this America.

We can sing it every seventh inning until the Lord returns, but it's just a nice sounding chorus at this point. Yea, we just celebrated another 4th of July a few weeks ago, but take a look at what's going on around us.

Sex changes given courage awards. Homosexuality celebrated by the Courts and the White House. Islam being embraced by our leaders. Christians being targeted left and right.

And now babies arms, legs, hearts, and skin being sold - over dinner?! Really?!?! And even more for a fully intact body; meaning it wasn't shredded by the vacuum that in most cases rips the baby a part while it screams in the womb? Yea, lots more for those apparently. So much so that the seller can get her own high dollar sports car one day.

Only God can help us when we kill babies by the millions and then turn even more profits by selling them in bags. Hitler was bad, but this is much, much worse.

This is your America. This is my America. And it's our fault that it has come to this.

For decades weak Christians have stood by the political wayside and watched our nation be torn to shreds by evil, ungodly intentions of progressive liberalism. Many don't even vote, much less care. They live their own little lives claiming they will simply "show others around them love and grace", yet few really do and church goers are dwindling by the millions a year. Fewer are getting saved and American Christians have become less involved and more apathetic to it all.

No, we can't legislate morality or Christianity for that matter, but we certainly can do our part and stand against immortality and anti-Christianity can't we?

Well, we better. Because when God asks each of us what we did with the good thing He entrusted us with called America, it will be us standing there saying..."we didn't care, didn't want to get involved, didn't want to make a stink, didn't want to hurt any feelings and didn't want to deal with it."

Remember the parable of the talents? Don't doubt that applies to all good things He gives us to care for and watch over.

God won't be blessing America until America gets back to being what He set it out to be.

And that means we are on the clock.

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance."

Psalm 33:12

 © 2015, J. Brady

 

"I say it how I see it and I make no bones about it."

Brady Speers is a father of four that lives with his wife Julie in the Dallas Metroplex. He is a retirement income planner, an avid part time photographer and writer and loves all things Dallas Cowboys. He and his wife are also passionate supporters of adoption and are in the process of adopting their second son. 

This World Doesn't Need Christmas

Have to admit, there is no doubt the holidays are my favorite six weeks of the year with Christmas being the centerpiece of it all. From Thanksgiving all the way through New Year's Day, it’s a busy, fast paced, memory filled, fun time. Santa, music, lights, plays, movies, time with friends and family, football, gifts, food, a little chill in the air. I love it.

Thank you baby Jesus for making Christmas possible. It’s one cool deal you started.

Every year at this time the world embraces the story of the manager and little baby Jesus by heading out to the malls, getting with Santa, jumping online to shop, putting up lights and all kinds of décor, and ending it with big family extravaganzas.

The story is told by some that Jesus was born to be the “savior of the world”. Matter of fact, later as an adult he himself said he was the “light of the world”. Really?  If He is the light of the world, then why is it getting darker and darker each and every day?

In just the last few months here have been some of the headline news stories:

- ISIS leader kills more than 150 children
- North Korea threatens the U.S.…again
- Man kills two cops point blank range in a revenge killing
- Racism abounds with the likes of two different stories involving police officers followed by violent protests all over the country
- Radical Islam terrorist attacks occur in Australia and France
- 9 People shot in a drive by shooting in Miami

This time of year might give us a break from reality for a few weeks, but let’s face it -this world is one crazy, cruel place these days. No wonder most people just cast Jesus into this role of the neat little Christmas baby.  He doesn’t seem to be changing anything.

And that’s where the story takes a turn…

See Jesus wasn’t born to give us Christmas and God surely wasn’t thinking about all the lights, Santa, presents, and profitable retail revenue his birth would one day create.

No, he didn’t intend to save the world. He intended to save me. He intended to save you.

This world as we know it is doomed. It isn’t going to get better. People will get meaner, the world will get darker and evil will reign. Headlines will get crazier, scarier and fear will grow in the eyes of many. The Bible itself told us this would all happen thousands of years ago and here we are living right in the middle of it. 

There will be no “peace on earth, good will towards men”….as we know it.

But peace on earth for me and peace on earth for you? Now, that’s the real Christmas story.

Let’s be honest. Life can take a bite out of us sometimes. Peace is hard to come by – financially, socially, relationally, professionally. There is always “something” right? No matter how hard we try we can’t seem to help but take two steps back.

Some say believing in God is just a crutch. Well, unless you’re perfect - never have fears, never stress out, never do anything wrong, never get lonely, or never doubt your purpose – please stop the arrogance. We all need something to help us deal with sadness, death, evil, and tragedy. God knew that when He sent his son into this crazy world. He knew what we needed and gave us the best Christmas present of all and all we have to do is believe to receive it.  

This world doesn’t need Christmas. I do. And so do you.

Thank you baby Jesus.

Now we get it. 

"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." 1 John 5:11

 © 2014, J. Brady

"I say it how I see it and I make no bones about it."

Look Out...Here's My Response to "Look Up"

Facebook. Remember life without it? Yea, me either and that’s the scary part.

After watching this video earlier this week (almost 33m views now), I honestly was totally convicted and awakened to the reality of the situation; a situation that belongs to you and to me - all of us.

Social media has taken over our lives. Period. End of story. Look around you. I mean, really? This is how it’s all supposed to be? Tweets? For real? Get a life…(oh wait…that mirror I am holding is pointing right back at me and I’m sure my tweeting niece will be glad to call me out on that one…she’s one of my few followers). Some I know have built an entire persona and “life” online with thousands of followers.  Talk about empty. Yet it makes them feel good so I get it...after all I tweet too.

I remember when we traveled to South Korea back in 2008 and riding in the subway. Not one person talked yet everyone was on their phone. I could have been standing there in my Yeti costume (now how many hits would that video get? and yes I do have one) and not one person would have likely even noticed. The silence made the UT library sound like a rave (do they still have those??). 

Our world has gone silent and the irony of it is that it’s all because of our phones. Yea, those things. You, know...the ones we used to use by manually dialing a number that we had memorized (can you imagine?) in order to actually speak directly to, in real time, our close friend. Back then, yea, pre February 4, 2004, the only way to catch up with someone was to actually talk to them or see them face-to-face. Now we don’t even bother using FaceTime to chat on our phones much less call or stop by. Heck, we don’t even spend the three minutes it takes to email anymore. Texting is even becoming rarer as Facebook posts and tweets rule the day.

You can ask my wife. During the NFL season my phone blows up. Not with calls mind you, but with texts, tweets and posts about the game. Really? Yea, that’s way more fun than sitting in a sports bar all together screaming at the TV while nachos fly off our plates. Seriously…stop the madness.  

Facebook. It’s our great, late addiction. One hit and you’re zapped like Josh Hamilton pre IamSecond and like him only Jesus can get you unhooked. Our dependent use of it has happened in just a matter of 10 years and it has taken some deep, long-time, great friendships and made them shallow, infrequent and solely based on apps and technology. Almost pointless if you ask me. If you don’t think so, you’re fooling yourself and will quickly prove me right when you post a comment on this to disagree. Without the drug you wouldn’t even be reading this. Yea, I caught you, looking down right now as you read this didn’t I? Truth hurts, huh? I’ll still give you a warm Olaf like hug though. Just let me go here and give you one real quick... 

Don’t tell me you’re too busy either. I don’t recall the world operating in slow motion before the techno-twins of Facebook and Twitter were shot putted into our world. That’s just an excuse and frankly Facebook gives it to you, just as it has me. Why call when you can skim the latest newsfeed and catch up sitting in your undies? “I don’t need to see or hang out with ____ . I just read their update earlier today. We’re good. Closer than a brother from another mother.”

Truth is for me I am caught in a dilemma. I like Facebook for the most part. I do. I have re-acquainted with old (in my case, I do mean OLD), friends and people from years past and if not for Facebook I might not even know those people still existed. It’s cool to see someone I haven’t physically seen in 10-20 years and watch their lives from afar, keeping up with goings on in nearly all 50 states and various countries around the world.

The opposite truth has a sad reality to it however and that’s what’s been bugging me since I saw that video earlier this week and it’s why I have been oddly silent.  See there are true friends (people I have actually shared some deep aspect of life with in recent times) that I now rarely hear from or actually see. Some just a few miles away but all just 10 digits away. I have some close friends who haven’t hugged or tussled the hair of my kids in long time, years even. Heck I have a few that I have known for decades that haven’t even met my son yet. Yea, the one that’s about to be 7. I could have arranged for that but no need when my Facebook post makes it as if they were right there with me, right?

Too many of our relationships exist for the most part between two screens; theirs and mine. Yea, screens on smart phones. Phones we never use anymore to actually call and say “hey, what you doing right now? Want some coffee? Can we talk? You guys wanna come over? Wanna hit Waffle House  before Fallon?” Smart phones being used by dumb people. Frankly, I wonder if some of my friends would react with caution of a new Amway presentation if I actually called and said any of these things to them. Sadly, just as I have many times myself, they’d probably text me, tweet me or message me “can’t right now but let’s touch base later”. Yea, well…

I almost wished I could relegate Facebook to just news, events and people I just wanna to stay current with, leaving the others to the way it used to be. Sure I like to see the photos of the kids, trips and such, but look at what we have exchange all of that for?Not to mention what we are teaching our kids and the next generation. Holy cow...can you even imagine 20 years from now?

But I can’t say any of this without saying first this: I’m sorry. You know who I am talking to and if you’re in that group and I haven’t called, dropped by, or done my part…my bad. Yea, I suck. I’ve let the Facebook  juju take me down with the rest of society.

In the end it’s about balance people…but apparently we haven’t downloaded Balanced yet, a smart phone app designed to help us with that. Idiocracy is alive and well, isn’t it?

(By the way….Yea, I still blog. Remember those from way back in 2004?)

I’m not even sure the narrow road of fraternal intimacy exists at all anymore but I’m gonna try and find it and if you want to come with me…come on. Sure, we will post about it. Why not? But we will be sharing the juju together when we do and that’s what matters.

Look for my call peeps. I hope you will return it. If not, just don’t comment when I post about you failing to. You’re an addict remember?

"A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." Proverbs 18:24

(c) 2014 J. Brady Speers

I Say It How I See It and I Make No Bones About It

Thanks BJ - For Being My Man in the Mirror

Truth be told, it could have been any one of us.

Any one of us could have been the person with the blowout. Any one of us could have been the people living close by that came out to help. Any one of us could have been the man that stopped his truck to help. And any one of us could have been the reckless teens that ran into them all.

In the blink of a moment, on a Saturday night, evil had its moment - 4 dead, many injured and hundreds of lives changed forever.

Brian Jennings, aka BJ, was an old college friend of mine that died that night. He was the one that stopped to help. He was hilarious, fun loving and a white version of Michael Jackson. He had moves like Jaggar – and now he is gone.

At one time, BJ was a crazy young man like the teens that killed him. He lived it up and was the life of the party. The center of attention and always putting on a show for anyone and everyone that dared to watch.  I remember that BJ too. He was cool – even taught me a few moves I’ve long forgot.

Then he got real with Christ and years later he was dedicated to a life that was centered on loving teens just like him. They were his man in the mirror.

This has weighed heavy on me. Any number of times I could have been those teens that night. I’ve done my share of real dumb, selfish things. Yet other times I’ve just “been standing there” to watch my life flash before my eyes only to be spared in the end. Happened to me the very day this happened to him.

There by the grace of God go I.

Still. In the wake of such a loss our humanness cries out for justice. We are angry. We are hurt. We mourn. Yet, we all know too well, that if Brian had lived through it all, he would have likely been the first to forgive them and find a way to help those kids “get right with Christ”.  

Every one reading this has been “those kids” at one time or another. Now we get the chance to be like BJ for BJ’s sake.

BJ died at the hands of the very type of people he lived to love on.  

So did Jesus…

Talk about the man in the mirror.

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." I Corinthians 13:12

 

© 2013, J. Brady Speers

“I say it how I see it and I make no bones about it."

 

for details on this tragedy - click here.

 

One Question Everyone Will Answer

There’s just one question every human on the planet, regardless of beliefs, backgrounds, lifestyle or upbringing will have to answer.

What will you do with Jesus?

Every one of us will either have to reject or deny him. He is either a Savior or he was merely a fool. He is either the truth or he is a lie. He was raised from the dead on Easter Sunday morning and seen by more than 500 historical witnesses or neither of those occurred and billions have falsely believed this for 2000 years.  

But everyone will answer the question. What will you do with Jesus?

A “no answer” means you have in fact answered. An “I don’t believe in God” response means you too have given an answer as well. There is no way around it and God designed it to work just like this, way before your cells came together and formed your being.

This is the central key to our celebration of Easter. Every 12 months all of man is once again faced with this age old question. It is God’s way to remind each of us that we will answer this question and he designed it that way on purpose.

See Jesus wasn’t crucified on Good Friday to force us into lives based on various do’s and don’ts. Going to church on Sundays, not drinking, avoiding sexual immorality, or being a good person, have nothing to do with being a Christian. True Christianity demands first that we decide what we are to do with Jesus. Once we believe God, will work on the rest and show us who he wants us to be and that’s where the Bible comes into play.

But first we must believe.

I have chatted with many who have made the decision to reject him and that saddens me. They truly have no idea the eternal path they have laid out for themselves as a result. But what bothers me even more is when a parent has basically made their own children answer in the same way by keeping them away from and keeping them unexposed to God.  These same people are usually the ones that also say they want their child to make their own decisions about such things and want them to be exposed to a variety of aspects of life. Yet, they refuse to even take them to a church service here and there. Even if it is just once a year, take your family to an Easter service and let them make their own decision to believe or not. Your disbelief should not be a default answer for everyone around you. Your answer very well could be wrong and if it is, you will be responsible for their eternal fate.

My own Easter story is a great example. My journey of belief started when I was 11 years old and my family attended a small Baptist church in south Houston.  I walked up front one Sunday morning and told our pastor that I wanted to get baptised and I did. A few years later at a camp called Super Summer my personal answer to this question became real.

Since then I have done my best to center my life on this belief. I do my best to be a giver, work hard, love others around me, help anyone I can, be a great friend, father and spouse and stand up for what’s right. Yet those that really know me know that I can still be mean, hard headed, indulgent, lustful, doubtful, worrisome, and selfish. In many ways I’m the same failure many that reject him are.

But I believe and for that simple belief I get the security of knowing God is always with me, I will spend eternity with those I love who also believe, and there is nothing I will face in life that I won’t have the strength to handle.

God’s love doesn’t make sense to the human mind. I wonder every day how it is he loves me because I can do so many stupid things and be so selfish. Yet he does. It’s called grace and underserved mercy.

Now all we have to do is decide our answer to the question he has put before us.

I know mine.

You?


“It is written: 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.'” Romans 14:11


© 2013, J. Brady Speers

“I say it how I see it and I make no bones about it."