Are you sure you know what brand of car you are driving? What it says on
the grill may be different from what is inside, or who actually makes it. Maybe
a short course in American automobile history will enlighten or maybe even
confuse you. We’ll start with a building in the New York City skyline, for a
few months the highest in the world. The Chrysler Building was built by Walter
P. Chrysler, an auto pioneer. Its art deco styling is beautiful, and only the
Empire State Building surpassed it for years. You know the name of Chrysler,
one of the Big 3 in Detroit, but who are they? In the beginning, Walter P.
started at Buick, part of GM, reviving them, then buying Maxwell, what was left
of Maxwell-Chalmers in 1924. Renaming it after himself, it set standards for
engineering. In 1928 he brought out Plymouth as a low end offering, DeSoto the
same year as a mid priced car, and later bought what was left of Dodge Brothers,
who had made money building engines and transmissions for Henry Ford’s Model
T’s, who both died in the same year, and when bankers took it over, eventually
sold it to Chrysler. All in less than 10 years. DeSoto left us in 1961,
Plymouth in 2000, with Imperial designed as a luxury car in the thirties hanging
on as a model, and sometimes a make. And all was well for awhile.
Then...
In 1987 Chrysler Corporation bought American Motors. Which was formed in
1954 by the merging of Nash and Hudson. Hudson a great make lasted a few years,
both cars badge engineered and nicknamed “Hash.” Nash was started by Charles
Nash who was a GM executive, in 1916 when he bought the Thomas B. Jeffery
Company, whose car was called Rambler. Hudson was Detroit born, and named after
the Hudson Department Stores, whose owner was the principal capital at start
up. After merging they bought Kaiser Jeep in 1970, who they bought from Henry
Kaiser, as in Kaiser Permanente, who bought it from Willys-Overland, who had
designed it with American Bantam for the US of A during WWII. Adding it to his
Kaiser-Frasier short lived cars after WWII. Who all met together in 1987, when
Chrysler bought American Motors, and kept only Jeep. After another merger with
Renault that didn’t work. AMC was always short on cash, but not merger
potential. Which later had a disastrous merging, which some describe as a
fiscal rape by Daimler Benz, of the Mercedes Benz automobile. Who later spun
them off, in 2007, leaving them wounded, and bailed out again, first time when
Lee Iococca saved Chrysler the first time, then bought by Cerberus, an
investment group, then by the government. Who peddled them to FIAT, in another
questionable deal, no one else wanted them, and today the company is known as
FCA,LLC. FIAT which actually owns such brands as Alfa Romeo and Ferrari, but is
remembered for its horrible, but beautiful sports cars of 50 years ago. So if
after 2009, if you bought a Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, or RAM truck-you bought a
FIAT! Did you know you were driving a FIAT? The Dodge Dart is actually an Alfa
based car? Ferrari is still hands off. But Chrysler is a long way from where
Walter P. started it. Think of all the great MOPAR racer cars, and who drove
them, Richard Petty driving for FIAT? A FIAT Daytona? A FIAT Jeep that for
awhile was a Daimler Jeep? And somehow along the way, I have never owned
anything Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Imperial, AMC, or Mercedes Benz. Somehow I have
evaded the MOPAR curse, which now is a FIAT curse, may God have mercy on your
cars.
Jesus told his disciples that he will make all things known to them. How
deep does that go? Well...since everything the Father had was also Jesus’, he
meant all when he made it known to them. Some just study the Word, forgetting
it is all about him, basing their relationship on knowledge. Some follow
denominational teaching, sometimes even including Jesus. But it is important to
know that without the spirit, left by Jesus when he was resurrected, always
points all things to Jesus. Who always gives all credit to his Father in
heaven, our Father in heaven. But without the spirit, who reveals all the
mysteries of the gospels, we cannot know Jesus. And hence we cannot know God.
Jesus is the way, it is that simple. Which is why we need to be spirit led,
pray in the spirit, and remember that the Trinity is Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Some place so much emphasis on the word that it takes the place of the
spirit in the trinity, but it is always the spirit that guides. Backed up by
the word, study to find yourself approved, not to be saved. It is the spirit,
who guides us to Christ, the word verifies it. And since God is a spirit, and
must be worshipped as such, the importance of the person of the Holy Spirit is
magnified. Without the spirit we wouldn’t know Jesus, and we wouldn’t know
God. Which separates us from cults, religion, clubs, philosophies, and others
telling you how to find God. When God tells us “not by might, not by power, but
by my spirit, says the Lord” he means his spirit, the Holy Spirit. Three in
one remarkably intertwined, distinctive alone and together, but to never be
separated. And when the spirit comes upon you, your life will change. Jesus is
in you, and you become a child of God.
Grafted into the vine as Jesus tells us, family as he is our inheritance,
and paid for in full, his dying for our sin on the cross, for with sin we were
separated, only in Jesus are we reunited. How do we know, the spirit tells us,
and gives us words when we don’t have them. A desire for Jesus, and comfort as
we go. The spirit going all the way back to Genesis, in the beginning God’s
spirit moving over the waters. The three have always been inseparable...and
always will be.
So if you are a Christian, you came to Jesus via the spirit,who gave you
entry to heaven where God resides, Jesus at his right hand, sitting. His job
done, the spirit hard at work still. Do not discount the Holy Spirit, he is
fully God, just as Jesus is. You cannot be a Christian without him. Even if
you didn’t know you were driving a FIAT. Certain mergers over time have led to
many successful corporations, and also to many failures. Merging with the
spirit will not guarantee a smooth ride to heaven, but will guarantee you of
your destination. It is like two cars, one is fast with no brakes, and is known
for getting close, but not being able to stop, the other is slow, has a great
suspension, great brakes, and stops where you want it to. One reaches its
destination, the other, well it may still be going. Looking for a place to
stop, to rest. Which would you choose? Make Jesus that destination, guided by
the spirit, and arrive. Without the spirit, you just go, and go, and go.
Seeking, but not arriving. Passing Jesus along the way. You may have the
knowledge, the spirit gives wisdom.
FIAT Chrysler America, LLC. RIP MOPAR. Goodbye Plymouth, we miss you
DeSoto. So long Dependable Dodge. Sorry Walter P. America, if only you had
been led by the spirit, so many would not be driving FIATS today. Fix It Again
Tony. It only took Jesus once. By his spirit....where we find freedom at
last. At one time GM, Ford, and Chrysler were the Big 3. Fathers, Son, and
Holy Spirit were long before and will be long after. Merge with them today and
insure tomorrow. So much for your father’s Oldsmobile....
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com