oh the fun we used to have

We were watching “Pickers” one night when on came a segment about Bushkill Park, in Easton, Pennsylvania.  “Hey, I used to go there as a kid with my grandparents,” and the door to the memory vault was opened.  Most of my memories were of Friday nights under the lights, swatting bugs while waiting our turn in line.  The one ride I ever had on the roller coaster that was supposed to cure me, really only made me want more.  The “Bar’l of Fun” was my favorite, one place had rollers for floor for stpes and you had to hang on going up or down.  A giant barrel of six feet in diameter kept rotating, while you tired to hang on and go around with it.  Wobbly steps you walked up to go down a wooden slide, being stopped at the bottom by huge canvas bags.  A ride taken over and over, the quickest way to go down one flight.  The Whip which I was told was for older kids, yanked you around and tried to make you sick, kids loved it, adults barfed.  The Tunnel of Love, gondolas going into the dark tunnel, accompanied by girls screaming and giggling, then a splash ending!  Most was free, some rides cost a dime, maybe a lot to this ten year old in 1964, but what a night of fun.  Something about the night lights, the smell of popcorn, and running from ride to ride just added to it.  Maybe only a few hours, but a night that would last for months.  But I’m saving the best for last...

The Dodgems!  Car powered electrically, controlled by you right foot, and designed to be slammed into each other.  You all started going the same way, and ended in chaos, ramming all you could at a top speed of walking, but crashing and enjoying it.  Always with my Grandpa at my side, until I was old enough to get my own, they we crashed into each other. Fun, safe, cheap, and all without all the rules we have today to prevent ourselves from hurting ourselves and having fun.  But Bushkill Park went away, and after three years of floods, wasn’t worth saving anymore, and is gone.  But being resurrected by a man who remembers it as I do, and wants the fun to begin again.  To take us back to when small parks meant fun, unlike the parks of today, waiting inline an hour or more for a two minute ride.  Take me back to wind in my face, to being unbalanced and challenged on steps, to slide all I want, to defy gravity in the barrel, and find true love in the tunnel.  I wonder if these old bones could endure one more ride on the Whip, but I am sure willing to give it a try. Oh the fun we used to have,  hours of enjoyment and anticipation, for what good is fun if we don’t enjoy it? 

The same may be asked about Christianity, what good is it if we don’t enjoy it?  We get heaven with Jesus, no matter how miserable or legalistic we are on earth.  But he promises heaven on earth, and if we think we will enjoy heaven, I ask “why wait?”  So what are you waiting for?  What’s your excuse?  Did you give up your freedom to choose after you chose Jesus?  When will you take that first ride trusting him without him holding your hand?  That hand may not be holding you back, but you afraid to let go and trust. 

Much has been said about “working out your own salvation daily by fear and trembling.”  Maybe solutions is a better word, applying what you have been taught to everyday life.  Knowing Jesus well enough you don’t have to ask WWJD, because you know.  When you quit studying to find an out for your sin, when the Bible is fun to read, not required.  God shows us often times an idea, then we try to figure it out and dictate how to do it ourselves, neglecting the spirit.  As if we have to do it without his guidance, when we should be able to do it with him guiding, and then letting go and going out and doing it.  Yet many are scared like on that first roller coater ride, or trying to walk in the barrel.  “What if I fall?”  What if you don’t?  As Christians we should enjoy life more than anyone on the planet.  We know where we are going, we should make the best of our time still here.  Too many spend all their lives planning and never do, maybe if we did more doing and less planning we would trust more?  What are the signs that God is at work in your life?  At play?

Faith without works is dead, the best definition of faith I ever heard was trusting God when there is no evidence of him.  Suppose you were on an island, no Bible, no study group, no music or worship, how would this affect your relationship with Jesus?  Church, take the money out of your services, how would this affect your ministry?  Yet we take Jesus out of our walk and try to go it alone.  Doing what we think he expects of us, rather than seeking and finding.  Maybe one ride into the tunnel of love is what we need one time spent with him, to just enjoy the time with him.  Are you so stoic and religious that you have forgotten how to have fun?  Does not the word blessings mean happinesses?  Is there a whole side to Jesus that religion has stolen from you, to enjoy life and love God?  Read Ecclesiastes, Solomon finally figured it out.  Love god and enjoy life.  ENJOY!  and watch your witness increase, as don’t we have enough trouble in the world without making a sullen God part of it?  We may think we ride alone, but God is always with us.  Even in the Dodgems. 

Stop studying and start doing.  It is time for Christians to get out and live, to live what we learned, I hope the way  you live is not all you learned.  To grow in Christ we need to apply the things of Christ, and one thing is enjoying life in him.  Life may be a roller coaster, try another ride.  That slide looks so big until you go down it, and wonder why you waited.  Have fun running into others in Dodgems, get rid of some hostility and laugh.  Ride the Whip instead of being hit with one.  Life can be a Bar’l of Fun when Jesus is in it, take the time to recreate, so we can live a life in him that others would desire.  And what better place to pray than going up that first incline on the roller coaster?  At the end of each ride, do you say “that was fun, let’s do it again?”  Do you say the same abut time spent with Jesus?

God is at work in you so you can work, and also play.  We are to come as children, and kids like to play, I still do.  Maybe that is why I enjoy Jesus so much, I trust and know he is always with me.  Get out and live.  Jesus is the secret to life.  Get out and show him off today.  Oh, the fun you’re gonna have....or you can be still waiting in line....wondering why...

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

 

feeling powerless is not the same as being powerless

I was talking with Nick yesterday about three different situations of dealing with people in our lives.  People that God has brought into our life to minster to, yet we feel so hollow and sad when they don’t respond, or at least not as we hope they do.  One is a single mother with four children from four different fathers, all absent from their lives.  She needed work, and after meeting her physical needs, and giving her good counsel, I got her two job offers, one she could start the same day.  I thought it strange I never heard back from her, and as expected, two weeks later, she called in trouble again.  Without a job, she showed up only one day after two weeks of applying, was in an accident, and now no better off.  But for two weeks, what were you doing?  What didn’t she do that affected now?  Sadly a recurring theme...just because it is my advice you don’t have to take it, or that it is good, this wasn’t taken, and the results show it.

Another single mother, with two kids, she lost custody of them to their real father, was working, producing more than kids, and her good attitude when I met her showed.  She needed some help, we offered, and she became missing in action, not showing up.  She got a tummy tuck, lost a ton of weight, looked good, and turned into a party animal.  Described as “maybe the worst mother ever,” she neglects the kids, parties until all the hours till dawn, doesn’t work, and is being evicted.  It seems every relationship she had she has ruined, yet calls me, seeking advice, then does the opposite.  I never find joy in being proved right by those kind of actions.  Sadly, it doesn’t have to be this way.

The third guy is a young man, raised in a home of alcoholics.  You can see the excuses being made already.  He got arrested by being stupid, he is a nice man, I love him and have counseled him also.  There have been signs of brilliance, but lately he has disappeared for days.  He had some court responsibilities he has neglected, and now faces doing jail time.  After watching his father receive his ten year clean and sober award, now he claims to be an alcoholic.  How convenient.  At 23 when he has his whole future ahead of him, and it looked bright and promising after the court showed him mercy, he is copping out, it sickens me to see him drowning in stupid, when he doesn’t have to.  Three distinct situations, that really are too common in today’s world....what advice would you give them?  What advice would you take if offered?

There are many times in my life that I feel powerless, financially, socially, but rarely spiritually.  Fortunately.  I have been given good advice over the years, and can brag on it when taken, also when not taken, and been faced with an alternative I hadn’t expected.  Some has sounded good, even had a scripture or two thrown in for good measure, but fell short, as the scripture didn’t exist.  A friend tells me of a Bible study he is in, and when questioning the source of the teaching, found it wasn’t in the Bible as the pastor had taught.  He too was surprised.  Yet we all fall prey to a power structure that isn’t there, if only we had sought the spirit and his guiding, rather than a self help book, or one of the “how to” books filling Christian book stores.  What may have worked for you is not for everyone, lest you think you have attained greatness.  I know I haven’t, learning something new every day, only to be reminded how much I don’t know.  But while some seek knowledge, which puffs up, I seek grace which humbles.  Note that humbling is better and different than being humiliated.  In Christ we all have the power to be overcomers, yet we seek other advice.   Sounds Biblical is not the same as scriptural.  Yet from the newest and most ignorant Christian to the most learned and senior saint, we all have the same Jesus.  40 years of knowing him has not absolved me from learning from younger or less mature saints.  But it can and has been a stumbling block.  If the only thing we share is sin, we neglect the power of Jesus in our lives, and never attain a level where we can love freely, forgive easily, and live gracefully.  Personally I was hurt at first by the above cases not taking my advice, I knew it came from God, but now it hurts more to see their outcome rather than my bruised ego for not having been obeyed.  Maybe I am learning still after all, and that includes loving those who disagree with me. 

Feeling powerless, you are in a great place, for God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.  He makes ways we cannot see, he gives great counsel to those seeking, and we may come out bruised and broken, but closer to him.  Which is our goal, isn’t it?  To know Jesus more and more, like we sing in church?  Jesus offers us resurrection power, the power of his spirit, but reminds us, that it is not by power we live, lest we boast.  Yet we try to exercise our power over situations, and find out that it is not by might, there is always someone tougher, not by power, someone is always more powerful, but by his spirit, for there is none other name under heaven that has such power and might.  The name of Jesus, revealed to us via his spirit.  Still fighting spiritual battles using physical tools and weapons, you will never win.  Your enemy has too many to use on you, but he cannot defeat those of us in Christ Jesus.  You may feel powerless, but the power found via the holy spirit will deal with any and all situations.  The people mentioned above still have a way out, if they seek Jesus and listen to what the spirit is saying.  When we see things in life through the eyes of Jesus, we see more clearly, we hear more clearly, and can proceed more clearly. 

Two men hung on a cross by Jesus, one as close to heaven as he would ever get, one as close to hell as he would ever get.  Don’t wait until the last minute to seek Jesus, both men had a past, only one a bright future.  The miracle on and of the cross takes on a new light when we see ourselves as those thieves, life is not a game we push the start over button on, real people die in wars, not all live to play again.  Wise men still seek him, saved men find him.  Who you see on the cross next to you makes all the difference, it did then, it does now.  Has it to you?

Some seek only advice, Jesus is the answer.  By example.  There is a difference.  Or you can utter the words you should have at first, “everything else has failed, I guess I need to pray.”

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

"will there be anything else?"

After a tough week of making decisions, you agree to go out to dinner with your wife.  “Where do you want to go?”  “I don’t know, what are you hungry for?”  And after ten minutes, you both agree on a dinner destination, and then it is are we riding or driving?  Off to dinner, hungrier than ever, you approach the hostess, “how many in your party? I have a table now, about 15 minutes for a booth.”  So tonight you table it, and the waitress arrives, “what will you have to drink?”  After both agreeing on water, she leaves you to peruse the menu, and returns ten minutes later, with your water, “are you ready to order?”  You have been, so grab at the chance, hungrier than ever.  Wifey decides, “do you want salad or soup?”  “What kind of soup?”  “No, I’ll have salad, what kind of dressing do you have?”  You’re next, so get ready.  “I’ll have the roast beef, with mashed and gravy, broccoli, salad with honey mustard, and a roll.”  “Brown or white gravy?”  And with your answer, she is off.....

After gorging on the salads, “do you want any crushed pepper?” “Do you need any more water?”  You push your plates away, full.  “Anyone for dessert?”  “No, we’re full, but what do you have.”  A list of pies and cakes follow, “is that apple or apple crisp?”  “Dutch apple,” and so you agree to split a piece.  “Do you want it ala mode?”  No, just pie thanks, and off she goes again.  After eating your pie, “any night cap or coffee?”  “No, just the check please,” and off she goes, still again.  The check arrives, and you go to pay, “cash or charge, we don’t accept checks.”  Does anyone any more?  As you wait for the credit card receipt, you start to figure a tip, add it in, sign and go.  Being greeted as you leave by the manager, “how was everything?  Will there be anything else?”  You restrain yourself from asking him “would you please get our car,” and two hours later, it’s “do you want to watch TV?”  “I don’t know, what’s on....”  Falling asleep, exhausted, only to admit later the next morning, all I really wanted was a burger and a milkshake.  “Do you want fires with that,”  ringing in your ears....

What you thought would be a simple evening out, turned into a major decision making process.  We go out to eat to relax, to let someone else wait on us, and usually have a pretty good idea of what we want, until we get there.  And the menu appears....to many in Christ, the same thing happens to us.  We come to Jesus, we don’t want to go to hell, and then hell on earth begins.  We aren’t told by the pastor with the pretty hair that to know Jesus is to know suffering, and that we will have tribulation.  We have enough problems in our life, we don’t need God adding more, or so we begin to think.  But as we suffer, from a minor inconvenience to a major catastrophe, we are told “be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world,” from Jesus, but now we have to choose, Jesus or or old ways.  Neither one may look promising, Jesus and suffer as he did, or like a dog returning to his vomit, our old ways.  The last thing we think of is heaven, maybe the reason we came to Christ in the first place, and when we cannot see heaven, we are willing to go to hell, just to get by for now.  Some well meaning person tells you to read God’s promises, the tribulation one is never mentioned, and soon your new life in Christ is slipping through your fingers. Not what you signed up for, but really exactly what you signed up for.  For in these situations, you get to see, a side of him that safe Christians never know, or even hear about.  We are overcomers in Jesus, yet many turn away, rather enjoying a good meal now, than a banquet later.  While some look to do good and impress God with medals, he will look to see the scars we received by serving him.  It is the trials that deepen us in him, the medals stay here when we go. 

In a world where wine and diamonds may be a girl’s best friends, we forget it takes pressure to turn the grapes into a wine.  And time.  A diamond is formed from coal under pressure, we want the end result, don’t think so, give your wife a piece of coal for her finger.  Or ask the waitress for a bunch of grapes, you’ll make your own juice.  You’ll see another side of pressure...But when it is all said and done, we need these forms of tribulation to grow in grace.  To be formed under pressure, to be turned into something, or someone of value.  But we are never to have fear, for it will alter our faith.  “We can do all things in Christ that strengthens me,”  not on our own, or by ourselves.  So he tells us to “cast our cares on him, because he cares for us.”  No magic formula, no magic teaching or prayer.  No book to read, course to take, or sermon to repeat.  Only Jesus.  Those of us who have seen adversity know this to be true.  If you haven’t, you will.  Remember, all you need is found in Jesus Christ.  And if someone asks “will you need anything else,” calmly remind them you have all you need in Jesus.  He only comes one way, ala mode.....it’s been a pleasure to serve you.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com