Stripped Away

Sometimes God will let our hearts get shattered so we can grow 

Mines been broken and tattered, but it’s not cold like the snow 

I’ve learned compassion through all of the hurt 

A sample of the passion being drug through the dirt 

Without the valley, I’d never know the beauty of the peak 

In the wilderness, we learn to be quiet and listen to You speak 

When it’s all stripped away, we hone in on that one single sound 

And without any delay, we learn it’s OK to drown 

Drown in Your Love not in the pain or being broken  

How could we doubt the One Whose words are the sweetest we’ve ever heard spoken? 

I would love nothing more than to say it’s really that simple 

I’ve heard Your voice at home, felt You move in the temple 

But that doesn’t stop this fickle heart from claiming it knows best 

When things go wrong, it’s easy to forget how we’re blessed! 

At the end of the day, I’m just an imperfect man 

Who finds it easy to sway and stray from Your plan 

So, here I am down on my knees crying out for help 

Thankful Your Grace isn’t just out of reach like the top shelf 

Mercies are new and the greatest Love I’ve ever known 

Yet, somehow I’m rewarded for every good seed I’ve sown 

I know I don’t deserve it, I’m just a broken jar of clay 

And no matter how many times I fall, I will praise You the rest of my days! 

                         +Hope Abounds+ 

                                   JMB

The Weeping Willow

The Weeping Willow

Heart hurts, invisible tears on my pillow

Flowers bloom right next to the weeping willow

Losses chip away at me like I’m made of granite

So many regrets, wish i could do it all over again— damn it

But don’t misunderstand it, the whole play wasn’t bad

Just certain acts hurt, the regret makes me mad

Why couldn’t see what I so clearly see now?

Wish I tended to the garden, now all I can do is plow

I’ve screwed up more times than my name got written on the board

But my name is on the hand of the Most High Lord

I’m His affection the apple of His eye

Like a balloon that inflates me when I find it hard to get by!

Sigh . . . Life is a roller coaster full of twists and how it can suddenly turn

How do You make beauty from ashes when all I do is burn?

Say, “I’m fine” with a smile on my face

Sometimes I wish life was softer like lace

But GRACE means regardless of how much I’ve failed and tried

His song over me is Truth no matter how much life lied!

Whispers pierce my heart like nails through His wrists

Try to hold onto life as it slips away like a midst.

+Hope Abounds+ JMB ✍️

+ Part of being an artist, a creator, is to express emotions you’ve felt, or maybe people close to you are feeling, even if you’re not feeling them when you write it . . . So, please don’t ask me if I’m fine.

Where is God?!?

Are you WAITING? Does your life, or maybe just an area or two, feel like one gigantic holding pattern? ✈️

Are you FRUSTRATED? Are you SAD? Are you DISCOURAGED? Do you feel like what’s the point? Is the thing you’ve prayed about never seeming to come to pass? Do your invisible tears soak your pillow, while your shiny smile says you’re fine?

BE ENCOURAGED! That’s what today is ALL ABOUT!! The Messiah’s body is in the tomb, His followers scattered and in mourning, as the devil and all of hell rejoices! God seems to be ABSENT.

There are times when we feel like God has forgotten us like we’ve somehow slipped through the cracks of His Sovereign hand. That would be HARD to deal with if it was just us, in a vacuum, but when you’re constantly surrounded by people who have what you desire . . . Man, it can be TOUGH! But like Catherine Mullins said, “Do we want the DREAM or King more?

The litmus text of GRATITUDE is being CONTENT with what you have where you are and genuinely rejoicing for others who pass you in line.

But, remember the teacher is ALWAYS silent during the test. He/she wants to see what his beloved pupils, and prized students, have learned. I believe God is the same way! He wants to see not only what we’ve learned, but more importantly how much we TRUST . . . not just His plans but how much we trust Him!

So, MMOG Mighty Man of God/Grace

DOGG Daughter of God/Grace . . .

Know this— the Creator of the Universe is working on YOUR behalf! In the waiting, in the darkness, when it seems He is nowhere to be found— He is working ALL things together for Your GOOD and His Glory! 🙏🤷🏼‍♂️

It’s like when we go see a play, maybe when we were children on a field-trip or as adults . . .

Something TRULY magical happens— in between scenes and acts . . . The production crew is working frantically behind the scenes!

God is TOO!! And just like when the new scene starts, the work is completed and the result is BEAUTIFUL . . . He is faithful, and just, in our lives no matter what as well and the result will be BEAUTIFUL! We won’t be able to believe our eyes! God don’t make JUNK.

When the enemy whispers lies, saying God has forgotten us . . We can REST in His Promises!! Like Spurgeon said, “All of God’s promises are ours if we just REST in/on them and believe.”

The silence can be the Great Revelator and Reminder or the Ultimate Liar. The choice, my friends, is ours!

I have no wife, no kids, no career . . . yet, I ALREADY have EVERYTHING I’ve ever wanted and NEVER DESERVED—

JESUS . . .

I know the Lord is faithful, so I will continue to praise Him in the hallway— not so He will open the door, but because He is WORTHY!!

In the furnace . . . I will worship!

From the bottom of the pit . . . I will praise!

When the Red Sea doesn’t split and I am captured by the army . . . I will glorify His Name!!

When He doesn’t shut the mouth of the lions 🦁 and they devour me . . . With my last breath I will say, “Thank You!”

I believe, no I know, ALL my biggest dreams, and deepest desires of my heart, will come to pass— He told me they will!

But in the meantime, I know what Jesus lived, and was reminded of in the Garden of Gethsemane, that our Father is FAITHFUL . . .

He is LOVING . . .

And He can be TRUSTED . . .

Even in the SILENCE!

+So, hold on friends— Just a little bit longer! Let the people who love you, love you and go to the table where Love is being served and you are excitedly-welcomed instead of the table where you beg for acceptance and to be tolerated.

Your life will be SO much FULLER if you do!

Grace and Peace ✌️
#SilentSaturday

+Hope Abounds+
JM

Easter IS

Easter is everlasting VICTORY!!Death snatched out of the hands of a DEFEATED enemy!|Unbreakable HOPE renewed|The Dunamis Power of Heaven displayed|INDESCRIBABLE Beauty from tragic ashes|Love keeping His PROMISE|Undeserved redemption|unworthy PARDONUnfathomable FREEDOM in exchange for chains|God stepping into the impossible and making it reality|The Temple rebuilt in all its GLORY|A Prophecy fulfilled|Not the establishment of God’s LOVE, but a beautiful continuation of it|the exclamation point on a PERFECT life lived|a layover on the way back to Heaven and a comma saying our KING Jesus our Champion will one day come again!! 

+Hope Abounds+ 

John Mark Brooks 

The Prodigal Returns

Sitting here in tears. Regarding the Prodigal Son 

“There was a time when I didn’t know if the Father would EVER want me back!!”

Mike Devine

I won’t showcase my talent of writing by adding onto that except to say for ANYBODY who feels this way— it’s a LIE straight from hell. 

God is head-over-heels, has your picture In His wallet, you as the wallpaper on His phone, pictures you drew on His fridge, no matter how bad they are, doodling YOUR name on His cosmic notebook, texting you ALL the time, can’t wait to see you at lunch, or catch a glimpse of you between third and fourth period, hold your hand at the movies, IN LOVE with YOU! That’s the case . . . No matter what you’ve done, no matter who you’ve been and no matter what you STILL struggle with! The cross didn’t establish God’s Love; it simply, and BEAUTIFULLY continued it . . . FOREVER! 

                               +HOPE ABOUNDS+
                                John Mark Brooks 
                                    @JMBrooks17

The devil doesn’t want you back Home with the Father because he knows what WHO He is, what He gives us, that his candy can NEVER bring lasting fulfillment and that we will never want to leave the Father again! 

The Father, MEANWHILE, RUNS to US! We don’t have to run to the Father (although I love the song) as much as He runs to us! The Bible says when the father saw the son, IN THE DISTANCE, He ran to Him was FILLED with Compassion and kissed him! Got the robe, brought the ring and killed a calf— it was time to CELEBRATE the son was Home! 

Luke 15:11-32. 

It didn’t matter where he had been.

                                      +Hope Abounds+ JM

Entering the Throne Room

There is GREAT BEAUTY that happens in the midst of brokenness, great bravery when we dare to be vulnerable— in front of God and in front of each other— His Presence surrounds us, His humility and gratitude envelop us and His Nature goes with us when we seek His Face! His Love fills us like an endless Well of Living Water when we— like Mary— pour out our Love and Adoration on Him in all our IMperfect frailty and humanity! 

Those who enter the Throne Room, with empty hands, not wanting blessings but to use those empty hands to continually cast their crowns before the King are the ones He blesses with His favor, anointing and charisma and those who enter the Throne Room come to dive in the Ocean and swim to the place where deep cries out to deep . . . They know His blessings— spiritual, family, financial, power, status, respect etc. are NOTHING more than mud puddles compared to Him— the One Who sits on the throne— an endless, beautiful, beautiful Ocean 🌊. . . One we have unlimited access to! 

So, would we truly be foolish enough to desire mud puddles when an Ocean of Living Water awaits?!? I should think NOT!! Yet, as fools . . . We still do! 

In these uncertain days, let us seek the OCEAN, Who satisfies FOREVER, gives us PURPOSE and FULFILLMENT instead of mud puddles, which will only bring temporary happiness, satisfy us but for a moment and, like a bucket with a hole in it, will only stay full for just as long as the pour lasts 🙏🙌🏼👑 

+Hope Abounds+ JMB

NOW is the Time

I was writing to my friend Valerie and God just poured this message into me— I wrote it in 10 minutes. Wow!!

Over the past 5 years, I’ve had so many vivid, hopeful, powerful visions of Jesus coming back— I saw Him riding on the clouds (just like the song says) and I heard the trumpet and felt ALL the emotions of that unbelievably AWESOME moment!!

Time is getting short! We must NO longer tarry!!

We must be WHO God made us and who He called us to be regardless of our current thorns in our sides or struggles . . . We must not delay! Our IMperfections must NO longer weigh us down like an albatross! We must do TODAY— in this moment because this moment may be ALL we have!

More so, it may be someone’s (who is lost) last moment! So, the questions are— do we love them? Do we want them to have what we have? Do we care about their souls?!?

Do we care where they will spend ETERNITY?!?

If so, we just go FORTH as mighty soldiers for the Kingdom in our beaten-up, Raggedy-Ann doll-like armor no matter how ill-equipped, unworthy, scared or insufficent we feel!

We have the flaming Sword 🗡 of the Word of God in our right hands! We have the shield 🛡 of fai✝️h in our left and does not the Lord God Almighty— the Creator of the Universe, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Alpha and Omega— go before us into battle?!? Has He not trained our hands for war and our fingers for battle?!?

Is He not WORTHY of our love? Does He not deserve to be shared with as many hearts as possible? We certainly do not determine whose soil is fertile!! The Farmer does. We are the workers!

If not us . . . Who?!?

If not now . . . When?!?

Do we not care about their souls?

NO more EXCUSES!!!! NOW is the time MIGHTY soldier! Did not God find Gideon hiding behind a rock, paralyzed by fear with cowardice draped over him like a cloak, and STILL called him a MIGHTY warrior?!?

It’s because God sees something in each ONE of us we don’t! It’s also because He sees Himself the Holy Spirit living inside us Who can do ALL things!

If we don’t share, and give them Christ Jesus . . . They will settle for a CHEAP, FALSE substitute— just like we have the tendency to do! We weren’t made for COUNTERFEIT! We were made by REAL for REAL. If this time in our lives tells us NOTHING else, or does nothing else, it’s this—

Now is the TIME! We are being called forth! We just MARCH.

We must go forth— NOW— and share Jesus! The ONLY Hope for the hopeless!! The One Who makes BEAUTY from ASHES! The One who steps into the IMpossible and makes it a REALITY! The mountain-Mover, sea-Splitter, the One Who shuts the mouths of lions, cares enough to step into the furnace with us and the One Who gives us the COURAGE to slay any GIANT bold enough, foolish enough, to dare step in front of us! The One who LOVES us enough to HEAL us 🙏🙌🏼👑✝️

Jesus our King and Champion!

+Hope Abounds+ JM