earning a giving

Archie Manning was a Saint, a New Orleans Saint.  He happened to play on some of the worst teams in NFL history until the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers came along.  A very good quarterback, he just never had much of team around him, and no matter of talent, combined with guts and determination would change that.  But to call him a loser based on his teams records, would be misleading, he was a winner, the record just doesn’t tell the story.  But he had two sons, who were and are winners, Peyton and Eli, with more talent, better teams, although Eli was drafted by the Chargers, he refused to play for them-smart guy, and both went on to win numerous games, and 4 times the ultimate trophy, the Super Bowl.  But it is teams that win games, as this last Super Bowl showed, as Peyton’s performance was average at best, sub par for him.  But they won!  Which is why we play the game isn’t it? 

Having the name Manning, and a dad who played NFL football, gave them an inside track to the game.  It got them noticed, coached better, doors would open because of the name, but any benefits they were given, still had to be earned.  And both sons being tireless in their preparation earned the gift they were given, a direct reflection on their parents, and their dad.  They might not have won every game, but they took the attitude “we never lost” and went on to the next confrontation.  Learning from their mistakes, using them to prepare for the next game.  Dedication to an objective, and like Peyton said at his retirement announcement, “many played better, but none prepared better.” 

As saints of heaven, we need to deal more with preparation.  I see attitudes of “I’m saved, I got it made,” and live like hell still.  Taking a dim view of Jesus Christ in their lives, and how he earned what was given to  him.  It is hard to think of Jesus having to earn the title of Lord, but he did just that, in his life style and in his life choices.  Regardless of being born the only begotten son of God, he still earned the right of the title Lord.  When we hear the scripture “every knee will bow and every tongue confess,” we see only the saints, but need to realize it means everyone, under the earth and in heaven.  Even the unsaved will bow down and worship him, we get to do it as worship, they do it in agony, and of knowing how they blew it.  For the evidence is there, and is still, that Jesus Christ is Lord, by the things that he did and are written about.  But also the things he continues to do in our daily lives still today.  Jesus committed himself to our salvation, unhesitatingly knowing what laid ahead, his crucifixion, but still loving those who hated him, to the end.  Calling Judas friend the night before he would betray him.  He gave himself over to being persecuted, prosecuted, belittled and finally hung on the cross to die, all for a civilization of people who knew nothing of him, those who thought they knew, and those who were with him.  He earned the title given by his heavenly father by being who he was, love.  He could have turned his back and shied away from his duty, but he fulfilled it as he knew he had to do.  As he wanted to do.  He was prepared, but still needed his father to help him make it through.  That’s love.

God gave us the trinity to show how much he loves us.  He is love, he sent his son to die for us, to reunite us with him, and the spirit to guide us to him.  Without all three we will never be complete, for Jesus is the only way to the father, and the spirit directs us to Jesus.  The result for us is peace, for worthy is the lamb that was slain, both by who he was and what he did.  He loved us first, so that we could have a way to love him back.  Every knee will someday know that in bowing, we can enjoy all the benefits right now if we turn to him.  We have been given the spirit, the mind of Christ, what are you doing with it?  Are you using the name of Jesus for your benefit, or as worship to the only one who could and did die for our sins?

We are told to seek and we will find, but we have been given the spirit, so why do we act like we are still seeking?  The spirit of God is living within us, the search is over.  Yet many still seek, or never find the full grace and peace of the Lord.  A title he earned to prove who he was, and who wants to prove it everyday in our lives.  Today may be game day for all of us, how prepared are we, how well are we living in the spirit.  When the song “It is Well With My Soul” was written, the author had lost all, including his family in a shipwreck.  Yet while floating among the waves, hoping to be rescued, he was given the song that reflected his heart to God, for when everything else had been taken from him, he still had Jesus, the only one who could make it well with his soul.  How deep is your love for Christ?  Will you bow in heaven or in hell?  You still have a chance to make the choice. 

Jesus went out a winner, we just didn’t realize it at the time.  It took his resurrection, as he promised for us to see the victory.  In the midst of our problems today we can have the peace he won on the cross, if we let him give it to us.  We still are working out our salvation daily with fear and trembling, life is a test, but with Christ an open book test.  He has the answers for us, are you willing to let him be Lord of your life?  Or is he still a mystery to you?  Let the spirit reveal him to you, and unravel the mysteries of him.  Making it personal, where you just have to show it to someone.  Like he did.  Pick up your cross and follow him today.  He was given the name above all names before the beginning, and went out and proved who he was, so we wouldn’t doubt.  So we have the evidence, enough to convict him of who he was. He earned the title of Lord, quit resisting and start living.  Take advantage of all the blessings God has for us, so we can truly say in our time of tragedy, “it is well with my soul.” 

Can we say we just love Jesus for who he is?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

practicing medicine

Before I made medical history almost 4 years ago with open heart surgery, combined with a staph infection and my aorta disintegrating, I used to spend a lot of time in hospitals as a chaplain.  I even took some time to go through a class, where the head chaplain told me “why are you here, you get it,” and explained if I came on staff, as a volunteer, I had to obey the rules, but if I just came on my own, I could do as God led me.  Ever the rebel, and still, I liked his idea, and used it effectively in many hospitals over the years.  I saw the dead or near dead come to life, I saw two men who were given less than 5% chance to live, both recover, one still fathering children, the other playing a piano concerto for the nurses before leaving the hospital.  Through encouraging others, I saw them share and counsel with others, one particular couple who had to make the decision to take their son off life support.  When she prayed with them, they decided to wait, and later that day he sat up.  I saw him the next day, eating in bed.....maybe patience is a virtue.  I know it is a fruit of the spirit.  One morning in a hospital ICU we saw a young girl in a coma.  Holding her hand, we joked with her, and you could see the heart monitor jump as she listened.  The next thing we knew she was trying to pull out her tube so she could speak, awake and full of joy.  Scripture, and Reader’s Digest tells us laughter is the bet medicine, we got to prove it.  But the hardest part was getting past the doctors in our leathers, we looked suspicious, but when her aunt recognized me, all was well. 

Last Sunday would have been Laiken’s 21st birthday.  A precious little girl she went to heaven at age 13, like a daughter to me, I have bragging rights on her sweet heart.  But even sick, she had a sense of humor.  One afternoon I dropped in to visit at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, a short 125 miles away.  She was in a clean room, and we put our hands up on the glass.  Then she waved me in, and not knowing any better in I went.  Until Nurse Judy saw me, and raised the roof-I wasn’t allowed in, only family, and no one in leather.  For sterile purposes, and as Judy read me the riot act, quietly for we were in the hospital, Laiken was laughing out loud on the joke she pulled on me.  A precious little girl, who the last time I saw alive, was throwing up in a huge yellow bucket, but when saw me looked up and smiled that Laiken smile, and waved.  She died of an infection, the leukemia couldn’t take her.  And we wonder who is really blessed when we minister.

But one afternoon while visiting Shirl Girl, she was about to go into surgery, and we were praying with her.  Along with the doctors and nurses.  She was on oxygen, and having a hard time breathing, and as I leaned over to pray with her, she kept gasping for breath, and and alarm went off.  After the third time, she grabbed me by the shirt, and drug me down to her face level.  “You’re standing on my oxygen line!”  And we all laughed, for I hadn’t noticed her lifeline of air under my feet. 

But now I cannot, for I am not allowed to visit hospitals any more, for I am ripe for infection still.  And even after spending 30 days in one, 20 days in Cardiac Critical Care, I miss the ministering in them.  But doctor’s orders prevail, as I never want me or my family to endure what I/we ever did again.  But not all hospital visits end on a happy note.  Not all patients go home, some die there.  But God in his infinite wisdom has heaven for those who chose Jesus, and they will never die, but live forever.  I have been there and I cannot wait to go back.  But until then I must be patient, a patient of earth, until God’s final healing, death takes me home.  Jesus tells us of the place, and if it wasn’t so would have told us.  But as much as I desire heaven, and I do, we must be patient as he is, if I had died before being saved, hell would have been my final destination.  But God is patient that none should perish, so maybe we need to be too.  For truly our lives are not our own, and he holds them in the balance.  We have no control over the day we were born, and we don’t over the day we will die.  But we have a lot to say about how we live in between, and I am glad I chose life in Jesus.  And for his loyalty to never leaving me, despite my circumstances.  We can choose the promise of heaven, or choose the promise of hell, what do you choose?

I have been on life support, in cardiac care, but my whole life in Christ has been his support of my life.  When my aorta was rebuilt, and my heart out of my body for 5 1/2 hours, you can do a transplant in 4, I know that Jesus held my heart in his hands. If you could see a handprint on it, it would have his nail pierced hand print on it.  So when I hear how he holds our lives in his hands, my take is more personal.  When I hear how he changes hearts, mine is physical and spiritual.  When I hear how he gives life, I have mine.  And when I hear how life is worth the living just because he lives, I know first hand.  For he is the great physician, all others just practice it.  Jesus saves...but why aren’t we all healed?

Maybe Laiken’s example tells it best.  She walked with God, and when they would return to her room, she was home.  Her earthly home, a hospital room.  But on one of her walks, Jesus told her “let’s go to my house, it’s closer, it’s time.”  And he took her home.  No more tears, no more cancer, no more infection.  Healed and home at last.  When God heals it is forever, so don’t discount heaven, or God taking us there.  Man plans, God laughs, but still loves us, laughing with us, not at us.  It is that personal, and if anyone could return, the words to describe heaven would probably be like mine, “I want to go back.”  And in God’s timing I will, but for now I am a patient, sometimes man on earth.  Waiting for the day when I change addresses for good.

Trust Jesus with your life, let him make something out of it.  The short time here on earth is nothing compared to eternity.  Laiken knows, and so do so many others.  Somewhere over the rainbow, there is no place like home.  It is called heaven.....be it ever so humble.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

lessons from the back row of life

Shopping for a new car?  Or just another car?  Ponder that, for your decision will make all the difference in where and how you shop.  First the ads on TV get you hooked, and going out to the garage, suddenly your old car, no matter how old, looks just that-old.  And so you begin to look via the internet, Sunday car ads soon dominate your reading schedule, and you start by cruising car lots.  Then you drive in one, just to look.  A salesman approaches, and you reply “just looking,” because you are.  But really you are a buyer, you just don’t know it yet.  But you look, maybe sit in a few, then look at the window sticker.  “Hey, I bought my first house for less than that 35 years ago...” and reality begins to set in.  Getting back into your old car, you leave disenchanted, OK bummed, for what you desire, and what you can afford are two different things.  That new car sure looks good, I can swing the payments OK, but doubt has set in.  With every pot hole, every squeak, and every crack in the dash, your old car gets older, and suddenly it isn’t about price anymore, I need a new car!  Or at least a different one.

So summoning up all your car buying skills, you approach the lot on a sunny day.  Sales banners telling you “today is the time to buy!” and you want to, but still the bill seems to high.  So you ask “what do you have used?” and are taken to the back row.  Older cars, used and maybe abused, but still functional within certain limits, and these are what you can afford.  Cars that when they were new you wanted, but couldn’t afford then, just as the new ones are beyond your reach now.  You take a couple for a ride, the salesman thinks he has a sale, but keeps pushing you to a new car.  “You deserve a new car, then all the miles you put on it are yours.  Think how it will impress your neighbors,” and it would.  But they don’t make the payments, and suddenly a paid off old car has renewed value.  But one last trip through the back row, and the one you saw, sat in, and drove, the one you couldn’t afford then, but can now, seems right.  After looking at other cars, you keep going back to it.  And suddenly you gotta have that car.  It isn’t about impressing the neighbors, or affording the payment.  It is about the right car, and this one is it.  Found on the back row with the other rejects, too many miles, too many years, or too many whatevers, something about this car says it is the right one.  They take your trade, you sign the papers, and arriving home, no one understands your purchase. 

“I thought you were buying a new car?” and you try to explain this is new to you.  But they don’t get it.  They look at your neighbors new ride, and think you are crazy.  And maybe you are, but you found what you were really looking for in the back row.  Away from the glitz and glamour, away from the new models, and almost hidden, something was calling out to you.  And you are happy, you got what you wanted, just not what you thought you wanted or were looking for.  And no one can understand why you bought it, or why you enjoy it.  But you aren’t trying to please them, this is personal.  And you made the right choice.

We are all looking for that something in life that seems to be missing.  Success in a career, so we can buy the cars we dream of, a house that anyone would be proud to own, and the perfect vacation.  Some do, but with a cost they find they may not be able to afford.  New car payments go on after the car isn’t new anymore.  The house needs work, and the big house you thought you needed is so expensive to cool and heat, you don’t enjoy it.  The perfect job, based on income level, now has drained you, and when younger, less talented men get promoted and you don’t, you become bitter.  All the things you thought were important, the measures of success you lived for, are leaving you empty.  And you may not know it, but your life has moved from the shiny life in the front row, to the back row, with others used up and tired.  Something is missing, and you cannot figure it out.  Where did you go wrong?  What is that something you are missing?  The answer is that something is really a someone, Jesus Christ.  Who resides in the back row, not bringing attention to himself, but draws you to him.  The spirit telling you how much you need Jesus, but allowing you to shop first, to drive a newer model, but not satisfying you with it.  The spirit reveals the intangibles we seek, and makes them available to us in Christ.  And when we come to him, we get the satisfaction, the joy of a relationship with God. Personally.  And God is not impressed with us, but loves us as we are. He just doesn’t want to leave us like that, and as the wear and tear of a new car shows, he takes the car you were in the back row of life, and turns you into something beautiful.  Where there are no words to describe it, you have to experience it.  It’s your decision, and no one is forcing you. 

Now driving a new car doesn’t mean you are lost, just as driving an old means you are saved.  It is in the attitude and person of Jesus where our decisions make the difference.  He wants to bless us, and often we don’t know what we want.  God does.  And provides it in ways that seem weird to the outsiders, and may be humbling to us.   But when Jesus comes into our life, we change, we see things differently, and where someone sees and old care with high miles and faded paint, you see the potential.  A good detailing that will clean it up, a tune up, and soon you find you made the right choice.  The best choice, and the only choice. And it was there all the time, you just chose to look elsewhere.  Following Christ will do that to you, suddenly you find self value, you realize you don’t have to impress anyone to be accepted, because Jesus just loves you.  And as you grow, your outside reflects the inner heart of you, and that inner heart reflects Jesus.  Your desires will always be there and usually placed above your needs.  Get over it, but when you find Jesus, he gives you  the desires of your heart, and when he is the desire, the blessings flow freely.  Your worn out exterior has a new healthy glow to it.  You are walking in Christ, free in the spirit.  And life is worth the living, now that your priorities are right.  Your back row find is what you really needed.  You just never realized your life was there too.

Jesus meets us where we are. Go for the real deal, the only deal that may not make any sense, but makes all the sense.  Turn to Jesus, he specializes in taking back row people and turning them into front row lives.  He goes beyond the façade of success, and gives us peace.  Money can buy a fine dog, but only love will make it wag its tail.  Jesus is the love we need, to make our tails wag.  Instead of our tongues.  And at prices you can afford.  Speed, comfort, luxury, and a retirement plan better than any 401k.  Just waiting for you in the back row.  The last place you thought to look, the first place you know now to head to.  Years after your new car is old, Jesus will still be fresh and new.  Something the ads don’t tell you, you need to find out for yourself.  A lesson from the back row of life, that belongs in the front row of your heart.  And no one will understand why, they just have to find out for themselves. 

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

what's my price?

The love of money, not just money is the root of all evil.  Read that again, the LOVE of money, not money, is the root of all ego.  Yet we all strive to make more money, so we can live a better live, via better toys, bigger homes, nicer cars, and longer vacations.  Normal, but the attitude we do it with is the most important aspect.  Watching a TV show recently, the 5 minute spot was about a couple who won millions, over $300 of them, and declared on TV, “we’re not quitting our jobs, this won’t change our lives.”  The first lie, because the fact you won, and are on TV have already changed you.  As far as going to work, now you will have the time to live your dreams, or do you enjoy the long hours of low pay?  If the money isn’t going to change you, can you send me some, it will change me?  And suddenly people come out of the woodwork with deals, relatives you hated and avoided for years try to reunite with you, and you have lost your privacy.  The IRS has already taken its share, and will be a constant companion the rest of your life.  And you are keeping your job and it won’t change your life?

I don’t care for the term bucket list, but we all have dreams and desires.  And money not only pays the bills, but is the only thing accepted at my grocery store, cash or debit or credit.  Try trading some live chickens for some fried ones at KFC-or a bag of potatoes for fries at Mickey D’s, I think you get the idea.  It is money that is a universal trading staple, no matter how rich or how poor, winner or not.  Money talks, %^&*& walks. 

Now we all want to get the best deal, so we negotiate when we can.  We brag of when we got a good deal, “look what I bought,” versus when we got a bad deal, “look how they sold me that car.”  Seems it is never our fault, but yet everyone has his price.  When I shop for motorcycle parts, I know the guys at the shops, and ask “what’s my price?”  I like dealer cost, cost plus 10% is still good, but I try to avoid paying retail when I can.  And it always seems there is someone who tells you “I could have gotten it cheaper,” after you make your best deal. Thanks a lot pal, where were you when I called prior to buying?  But we all have a price we pay, and we all have a price that we will sell out for.  You may be being tested, or will be tested, but it will happen.  Mine came a few years ago when working the best paying job I ever had.  I was accused of proseletyzing, which I wasn’t, but my boss told me to leave God at home.  “It only makes sense not to bring god to work,” he told me in a group of managers, the same guy who often had me pray for his family.  And it resulted in my losing my job, I was not going to renounce God for him or anyone.  But the loss of money hurt...so I decided to sue, and had a great case.  They even admitted to breaking the law by telling me that, and we had it from their corporate attorney on paper.  But my heart had been unsettled, the money would have been nice, all 7 figures of it, but the Lord showed me the importance of my witness.  And how suing, and winning would jaundice any words I once said in love.  My last thought was if I ever run into that person,can I tell them about Jesus in love after winning the law suit?  Would they listen?  What was my price for my soul?  Was I in it for the money, or to minister?  And so I did the hard thing, but the right thing, and called off the lawsuit, the day before we were to settle.  I cold face them if I ever saw them, but more importantly I could face God, who I seem to see a lot of.  And I could face myself....what would you have done?

The mercy I had shown my ex-employer, has been shown to me many times over.  The Golden Rule, do unto others as you would have them do to you.  I almost succumbed to another golden rule, he who has the gold rules.  And although winning, it would have cost me dearly.  Victory comes to us in strange ways when we serve the Lord.  It turns out my heart and witness was being tested, I almost threw it away for a million dollars.  And yes, it would have changed my life.  But then I remembered it was Jesus Christ who changed my life, and no amount of money can compare to that.  Or the peace he brings. Given the chance, who do you serve, God or mammon?  Is it all about Jesus, or all about you?

If I was in prison, or dying in a hospital, how would I have spent it?  How could I?  Certain conditions follow winning, and do with Christ.  He is with you in jail, and I know he was with me in the hospital.  No walls except the ones we build around our heart can keep him out.  So let me close with my favorite Mother Teresa quote.  When being interviewed in an Indian hospital, dysentery everywhere, flies, bugs, and high heat.  Lovely.  The interviewer, from the US of A looked at her and said “I wouldn’t do this for a million dollars.”  “I wouldn’t either,” she replied.  You see there are values more valuable than valuables.  Things that cannot be taken from us.  For the things seen are temporal, the things not seen are eternal.  What’s you price?  And how does it compare to the price Jesus paid? What if you won the lottery and lost your soul?  Keep your day job....of being a witness of and for Jesus Christ.  The biggest payoff is yet to come, and you will win.  You just won’t want to come back to tell anyone.  That’s their job.  There are winners, and there are winners, what’s your price?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

why do they call it a glove box when there are no gloves in it?

A ride to the store the other day, with Theresa driving, had us sitting at a red light, that seemed like it took forever.  So rather than letting the radio scan for the over a million stations, with nothing on, a variation of cable, 200 stations with nothing to watch, I opened up the glove box.  Now it had been awhile since I was in it, the truck and glove box.  Now these handy catchalls were designed for gloves, obviously in winter climes, as we don’t need them here.  But after finding no gloves, big surprise, the search was on.  An owners manual, that only I have opened to read.  All others who need something refer to me rather than opening the book.  Too much energy I guess.  A few years of expired registrations, fortunately the current one was there.  Same with insurance cards, hope I never need either one.  A few pens, of which none would write, seems they didn’t last time I looked, so I just threw them back in, again.  Napkins, for an occasional nose emergency, we don’t eat in our cars, which is why they look like our cars instead of yours.  A tire warranty that had expired, put it back too, never know if I might need it.  An old race day ticket, still on the necklace.  Save it for later too.  An empty CD case, not mine, back it went too.  And with that the light turned green, and away we go.

At the next light, it was the center console.  Which is designed so you cannot access it comfortably from the driver’s side.  I guess you need a co-driver for this one.  This one had about 8 CD’s in, I wondered where my The Wild One soundtrack had gone.  Again some empty cases, where did the CD’s go?  And some with a different CD than the cover suggested, and one that held 3, packed tightly against each other, careful not to scratch them.  And another green light and we were off.  And while driving checking the pockets behind the front seats, nothing of mine, and the door pockets holding some books, “I read them,” I was told, although she couldn’t tell me the titles.  And similiar dust as found in center console and glove box.  All this space, and nothing really needed, unless you have an accident, and use your cell phone, by-passing the insurance and registration in the glove box.  And no gloves found anywhere!  And a quick look through the owners manual, reveled no glove boxes on any vehicle, they are now referred to as “vehicle storage compartments.”  Tell that to the guy stuck in a cubicle! 

I sit with a guy in Bible study, and he lets me share his Bible with him.  I never take notes, I listen and my mind wanders with the spirit while the teacher is teaching.  Making it personal.  But in this particular Bible, with numerous highlighted verse, maybe it is the non-highlighted verses that have meaning, as the blue and yellow verse, some a strange tone of red verse of Jesus’ words and yellow, but how can he find anything?  The third from the top yellow verse, above the second blue one, and how does he find anything?  Now he isn’t so trendy to have a Bible cover on his book, the girl next to me does.  And as she opens it, the pages of notes fall out, and then put back.  So thick it is causing the binding to stretch and crack, and when asked if she ever reads them, her smile tells me no.  She is a note taker, and then stores them away for future use.  Or to be used as refuse and thrown away.  All those notes, at once they were personal....I used to sit by an older couple, she had the tabs for each book attached, and always found it easier to ask the person next to her “where is the book of....?”  And the person next to her usually finding the correct tab and turning the page for her.  Now the above examples may be extreme, are they?  But they may describe people who study the Bible, even read it, but it never becomes personal.  Like my glove box, no gloves but all kinds of things stored, but never used.  But never thrown out, “just in case I ever need a pen that doesn’t write.” 

Now I was a lousy student, particularly at taking notes, and like most of you, studied to pass the test, with the side benefit of occasionally learning something.  Study habits, both good and bad, but that should not be tied to a relationship with Christ.  As Christians we are citizens of heaven, and the Bible should mean more to us than a study tool.  We have the holy spirit, and rather than memorize a verse for testing, God will write it on our hearts.  So it is never far from us.  It is the spirit that reveals the mysteries of Christ to us, we may have read the Bible many times over, but has it changed us?  Do we study to find ourselves approved by a pastor, teacher, or class, do we get to know all about Jesus, but never know him?  The Christian life should be lived by a different set of processes, it should be from the spirit, to the heart, resulting in the renewing of the mind.  Christianity is Jesus in you, driven by the spirit, not trends or study habits.  Some days a verse will do, some days a chapter.  God is all about quality over quantity, ever wonder why people are more concerned about how much you care rather than how much you know? 

There may be times you cannot recall the scripture, but know the concept or application.  Why Jesus spoke in parables, and quoted “it is written.”  No canonized scripture yet.  He gave us his spirit, in just the right size, shape, and container, our heart, so we can always have him with us.  So if you are asked “are you in the word?” the correct answer is “is the word in you?” and now you know it always is.  for he will never leave you nor forsake you.  Much different than the items in my vehicle compartments.  Jesus is always with us via his spirit!

So never stray from complete dependency on the Lord.  Rote prayers, rote answers, and rote memorization of verse may be impressive in church, but when needed most, you always have Jesus.  His spirit will give you the words you need, sometimes before you ask.  Still worrying about what to say, try listening instead of talking or asking.  Application of your education is ministry.  Both to you and the ones you meet.  Paul tells us conduct ourselves in a worthy manner, worthy of the gospel.  Which is good news!  Maybe it is time to clear out your spiritual storage compartments and get personal with Jesus.  Let him grow your relationship, and increase your wisdom.  Somewhere in all your notes and highlighting his love is trying to reach out and touch you.  Maybe that cluttered Bible explains your cluttered life?  Clean it out today, file it for later.  Ask Jesus to guide your studies, approved by him.  When the spirit moves on you, the Bible comes alive personally, and the notes are written on your heart.  Maybe a more worthwhile activity than cleaning out your glove box, ‘er vehicle compartment.  Somewhere among the notes is Jesus, just wanting to change your life, will you let him?

We may not be able to find it in print sometimes, let the spirit give you the words.  Then back it up in scripture later.  You will be tested, and if along the side of the road, last years expired registration won’t cut it.  If you ask me to get something out of your glove box, what will I find?  Depend on God and forego discouragement.  Trust the spirit of truth given by Jesus, and if pulled over by a cop, and he asks for papers, say “scissors, I win.”  An open book test of life, I hope you pass.  Only Jesus forgives, that’s one I am glad is written on my heart!  Some things are so hard to understand, it is much easier just to trust.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com