a life in the day-or the first time I heard Sgt. Pepper

My first boy/girl party, and we had waited and talked about it all week.  My friend Guy was having some of his classmates over on a Saturday night until 11 pm, a big deal in our town for an eighth grade boy.  Or girl for that matter.  I had been eying a girl, Chris, and she was eying me back, and we spent the whole night talking, while being chided by friends.  13 is still immature, and we all were.  But Guy was a bit more mature, he had an older sister who was very cool, and that night he invited us over for Sunday afternoon, to spend with him and his girlfriend.  I had gone from geeky kid to Mr. Sophisticated in less than 24 hours, and so we both got the OK from our parents, and Guy’s basement it was.  Curtains drawn, dark and almost scary, my first time alone with a girl, and he put on an album.  The Beatles, and instead of a 45 with just one song, it was an album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  And between my new found social status, a girl who would be my girlfriend, and Sgt. Pepper, I had a life in a day that afternoon.  One song after another while embracing, I was overwhelmed, where were all emotions coming from?  Was it her or the Beatles?  But song after song after song captivated me, I was of the 45 rpm generation, and had a good supply, but not an entire album, and the few I had were composed of one hit song with the rest fillers.  But this album, every song was great...and it flowed.  It created a mood, or enhanced it, or whatever, but Sgt. Pepper’s Band may be for the lonely hearts, mine was anything but.  When side one ended, Guy flipped it over, and it continued.  I was all hands and glands, combined with ears and fears, and when the end of A Day in the Life ended with the 28 second piano note, I was overwhelmed again.  No music had ever embraced me before like this, when I got my newspaper money from my route the next week, it was off to Korvette’s to buy it.  I sang the songs all week in my head, and as exciting as my first make out session was, I hardly remember the day ending and her mother picking her up.  But don’t tell her...

Everything I knew about music changed that afternoon.  Sgt. Pepper would go on to be one of the top 100 albums of all time, just voted the best album ever, but somehow the Beatles that year were outsold by the Monkees.  It was to be the Summer of Love that 1967 year, with so many songs to remember, but one album did it for me.  Which when waiting for Theresa the other day, it came on the radio, an Orange County station that plays albums, complete sides, and suddenly it was 1967 again, and the quality of the music took me back to that afternoon.  A relationship had been born that day, and 50 years later, yeah 50 years later, it sounded fresh as ever.  An intimacy that only music can provide, a tone and mood it can set, and whoever said that music is the language of love, play on.

Intimacy is a word we talk about but don’t understand.  It goes beyond a physical one to one, and transponds even sight and sound.  It is deeper than emotions, although it can be revealed or influence them.  We hear or may know of someone who has a big heart, who cares and shows compassion for others.  Who somehow gets involved in people’s lives, and does what is needed, despite the outcome.  They care and it shows, the concern is evident, and certain emotional risks go with it.  It involves making yourself vulnerable, a target to others, but the opposite is a cold heart, with no care or concern.  It is something we cannot do ourselves, although we try, it can only come from God.  A heart after him...

Jesus set the example of this boldness of love.  Rather than bask in the safety of a small heart, he gave of himself, unto death on a cross, so we might have heaven, and be reunited with our father in heaven.  He assumed all the risks we avoid, we tell others “if you want to avoid trouble, don’t care too much, don’t let yourself be vulnerable, keep it inside.”  Just the opposite of what scripture requires.  For when we truly give ourselves over, we are emptied of all pride and sin, leaving ourselves vulnerable.  You may be giving up a lot, but your shrinking cold  heart will suddenly become anew, a new spirit now lives within you, a holy one, providing care and wisdom, security and comfort, all based on the love of Jesus Christ.  You will find yourself becoming more like Jesus, opening yourself open to other’s concerns, and you will care more than you want.  The spirit is at work, but be warned, you will leave yourself open to sorrows, pain and suffering because of it.  A burden that only Jesus can carry.  Things that a hard heart have no insight to, you are becoming more like Jesus, taking on the man of sorrows part of him, opening the door to compassion.  Love and forgiveness.  Just like Sgt. Pepper changed my music that afternoon, you will never look at life the same, words become verses, verses become songs, and songs become albums.  Affecting the mood, setting it, and taking you places your heart didn’t know existed.  All in one afternoon...or...

You could live like dating Lovely Rita, had a date and tried to win her, sitting on the sofa with a sister or two, no intimacy in that.  Only Jesus makes it personal. 

To experience all Sgt. Pepper had to offer, you need to listen to the whole album.  The songs will stand by themselves, but will not be complete until you listen to the whole album.  And on June 1st, you can celebrate 50 years to the day it was released.  But today you can celebrate an intimacy with God promised in Jesus Christ.  Opening a door to a love you never knew existed, an intimacy that defies words, for infinity cannot be contained by finite words.  Sgt. Pepper opened the door to an orchestra playing in harmony, Jesus opens the door to an orchestra based in heaven, played only on a heavenly station.  When did you first hear Sgt. Pepper and how did it effect you?  Better yet, when did you first turn to Jesus and know life would never be the same?  The Beatles experimented with an album, are you still experimenting with life looking for that thing that is missing?  It is a someone, not a something, the someone of Jesus Christ.  If you were to have one song, one afternoon, one event define your life, would it be Jesus?  A day in the life that will last forever.  Can it really be 50 years ago, that would make it 70 years ago that Sgt. Pepper began to play!  Maybe all you truly need is love!

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

so you think you know what you are doing

Ed Hertfelder wrote long ago about having the shift linkage freeze up in his van.  Remember those old vans, we carried our dirt bikes, slept in them, dated in them if you could find a girl who could handle the smell of racing fuel, and most were basic, three on the tree tied to a six cylinder. Or as he described it, three on the tree and one in the grill.  Basic and cheap, they were ours.  But when the linkage would bind up, he had to climb out, reach into the grill, and shake it lose himself.  After numerous cuts from the sharp edges on the grill, he dropped it by a friend’s shop and told him the problem, showing him his cut arm.  Later when he got the call to pick it up, it was fixed, he drove away happily until the linkage bound up again.  Cussing his friend, he called him up, “I thought you had fixed it?”  To which came the reply, “I put duct tape over the sharp edge so you won’t cut you arm anymore.” 

I had a friend who could jury rig anything, or so he thought.  He complained of his trans not shifting right, and how the gear indicator didn’t match up with what gear he was in.  His solution was to put a piece of tape over the indicator, moving the numbers to match what gear he was in.  Which worked for awhile, until his car quit shifting altogether, and wouldn’t go into any gear.  When taken to someone who knew what to do, he found the shifter bushings worn, and so the indicator would not line up with, could not line up with what gear it was in.  A simple fix, he had tried to remedy a symptom, and had not fixed the problem.  And like Ed’s van, the symptom was not the solution. 

Jesus’ words from the cross can be applied here, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  We so often refer to this as the one who sins is not aware of his problem, but it can also be applied as a warning to seeking help from those who know not what they do.  From time to time I am called after someone has gotten in over their head from taking advice that sounded good, but only made things worse.  Well meaning advice, maybe even tied into scripture in a perverse way, and the problem got worse, and sometimes the symptom went away.  Like I’m supposed to know what to do.  Like both the shifting problems above, what was not seen was the problem, it was an internal or unseen problem, yet both so called solutions dealt with the physical only.  What was seen and what was felt.  So many times our problems are spiritual in nature, but are revealed physically, so we only deal with what is seen.  And end up on the side of the road. 

Good advice, godly advice only works if applied.  To may of our problems, the answer is not simple or easy.  It takes a tough decision, then a tough fix to repair the damage, in today’s replaceable society we throw it out and replace it with another, new and improved.  The deeper the sin, the worse the problem, the more the cost to fix it.  Where Jesus again warns how the man who builds his house without concern for counting the costs ends up surprised and in trouble.  Yes, some solutions are simple, just say no, some require blood, sweat, and tears.  To Christians Jesus has already supplied the blood, the sweat, and the tears to overcome sin, we fail to see the price he paid.  So change is slow, and less meaningful.  “Jesus paid it all,” the song says, but we are the change back from what he has purchased.  We are the change the world is supposed to see when we are saved.  While some get hung up on John 3:16, John in 1 John 3:16 sneaks in another bit for us. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”  We need to go beyond the obvious and deal with the problem, not the symptom.  The simplicity of salvation and redemption is made difficult when it should be easy.  So when seeking advice, God has given us his spirit to guide, then his word to back up what he has told us.  Seek him first, then all things will be added.  How often do we apply a scripture to a problem, or reword it to excuse our sin?  With the problem getting worse.  And additional lessons learned about forgiveness.

When God sends the fix, it will always be the right one, even if it seems wrong, or difficult.  Beware of easy solutions that don’t seem right, they mask the real solution, which may not be God’s. Just because it sounds right doesn’t make it right.  It’s possible you didn’t know the real problem in the first place!  When giving godly advice, do you really know what you are doing?  Or just repeating something you heard somewhere? 

So much of life is we know not what we do.  Every time I learn something, I realize how much I don’t know.  And how much more I need the spirit to guide.  How much more do I know?  My aorta before it exploded was diagnosed as a pinched nerve in my back.  My family doctor went by what I told him, he didn’t get inside to where the real problem was that required surgery and a miracle from God.  Which is why doctor’s still practice, while Jesus gets it right.  From shifting gears to back pains to changing the symbols to meet the situation, we need Jesus.  More than ever.  When we finally come to the point of laying down our lives for another, then the gospel is alive in us and will bear fruit.  When Jesus is the answer, it doesn’t matter what the question is.  Jesus is the answer.  Or you can have someone supply the duct tape....

So you think you know what you are doing?  Be prepared for a test today to show you don’t. And if you come across someone who has all the answers, remember he probably hasn’t heard all the questions!  Some problems cannot be fixed with duct tape....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

don't forget to kiss the cook

Ride to eat and eat to ride is the moniker of many bikers.  At least for me and my friends it is, and many times of good fellowship were found after a great ride. With food found to be a key ingredient to good fellowship.  The Jewish people put a special note on eating together, to spending time around the table, and bikers are no different.  But what about when you haven’t been out riding, and cannot get out and fellowship?  In one case for me, the wife of a biker came to the rescue...

I was in rehab following my open heart surgery, not a pleasant place to be.  Lots of sick people in rehab, and I was one.  Somehow the word got to the cook I rode, and she came out and introduced herself.  We talked riding, places we had been, and why I was here.  Then she took control of my ordering, making up a special menu for me, with bigger portions, yet still within my dietary constraints.  While others craved snacks after a meal, I was full, she even helped me make up my menu, and marked it special.  All because I rode, or we rode, brand of bike didn’t matter.  She was the head of the kitchen, and in her kitchen bikers never left hungry.  It was the highlight, after being released, of my stay there.  We underestimate the brotherhood sometimes, some talk it, she lived it.  Amazing how God puts bikers where and when you need them, I always say “if you need something done, call a biker.”  This time one called on me.

So in a world classified as rider and non, I am glad to be among the rider group.  There are owners who think they ride, some who used to ride, and others who will someday when their wife or mother says “OK.”  But either you ride or you don’t, and if you really ride you know the difference.  Same with Christians too, outside of the JW’s and other cults who outwardly deny Jesus, all so-called Christian religions claim to be Christian. But God sees it different, breaking it down into two classes, saved or unsaved, or righteous or unrighteous.  There is no middle ground, no training period, no gray area.  God calls them as he sees them.  We do different, to our own destruction.  While some well meaning but wrong groups claim we are all children of God, Jesus states different in the gospel.  He accused certain Pharisees of being children of the devil, not created by him, but with the characteristics not of a Christian.  Romans tells us we are all born into sin and fall short of the glory of God, but reassures us that at the right time Jesus died for us.  So we could become children of God.  Which is why he explained to Nicodemus why he must be born again.  Born into sin, forgiven and born again into the kingdom of God.  Which can make it hard to tell the real from the fake sometimes.

I have known many church folk over the years, who live like Christians, but do not claim Jesus.  They fulfill their church or social obligations, but deny Jesus.  They do great things in society, but never know God.  He tells them, “be gone, I never knew you.”  While to others, that are lukewarm, he throws up because they make him sick.  Too many live in that gray area that doesn’t exist in scripture, which means that they are unrighteous or lost.  They have denied their advocate, Jesus Christ and have doomed themselves by their choice.  No wannabes, coulda beens, shoulda beens, or might have beens in heaven.  Only those who receive Jesus Christ.  All of your knowledge, morality, service, heritage, culture, denomination, or church affiliation will not help you here.  Those may not be bad things, but do not lead to salvation.  Only knowing Jesus is the way to be saved.

So while I didn’t take time to kiss the cook, I hope she knew how much she helped me out.  How welcome she made me feel in a strange situation.  But knowing bikers, we do it because of who we are, not because of our audience.  A lesson from Jesus, that we need to reflect in our lives.  He loved us first, so we can love others.  Not because of who we are or what we did, but because of who he is.  He is love, no darkness at all.  So if bikers know the fellowship, and can tell the riders from the posers, don’t you think God can too?  Are you for real about Jesus, or filling a pew?  Do you have the knowledge but not the love?  Do you know it all but not know him personally?  Nicodemus one night left confused, but returned 20 some chapters later claiming the body of Jesus.  A rich and powerful man, he risked it all for who he knew, not what he had known. So don’t forget to kiss the cook, or to tell the truth.  Nice people don’t necessarily go to heaven, only saved ones do. It is time to stop looking and start riding, to turn to Jesus and join the family of God.  An honor he places among his children only.  But wishes all to become part of. 

We underestimate brotherhood sometimes, to fully know it we need to become brothers and sisters.  The cook reminded me of that, that she served all, but the brotherhood allowed me into her kitchen for special meals not on the menu.  God has things on his menu for us, if only we come to him.  But yet comes to us when we are down and out.  Only a loving father would do that.  Only a loving God would reach down to us.  Enjoy a special meal with him today, be warmed by the hearth, and enjoy a fellowship reserved only for family.  All are welcome, many are called, only a few chosen.  God has set a place for you at his table today, sit a spell, take your shoes off, y’all come back, hear!

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

advice before accepting your next ride

In between having two BMW’s totaled from underneath me, a 1972 R60/5 and a new with only 400 miles R90/6, I had to get around somehow.  Among other things my left wrist was broken in a few places, so It made pulling in a clutch difficult, also with a shoulder separated and a broken collarbone, I went with the doctor on this one and no riding.  Having only motorcycles, if I wanted to get around I learned to hitchhike, which 40 years ago was an accepted way of travel in South Florida.  And I actually got pretty good at it, it seems there is a way or style to get picked up, and once mastering it, which I never did in the few short months, but got good enough I could get a ride pretty easily.  But as with anything free, or any handout, you took what was offered, and it wasn’t always what you wanted.  Besides some weirdoes, you didn’t necessarily get door to door service, and I learned where to be dropped to best get my next ride.  Like some ride bus routes, we hitch hiked that way, and I never had a bad time, bad ride, or bad experience. Some actually turned out pretty good, but you also learned to be a quick character study, and to learn to pass on some.  You asked first “how far you going,” and if you felt like they were a bad choice, turned the down.  Which I am sure worked in reverse, when I was asked first “how far you going?”

But times and people have changed, and hitching a ride is not what it used to be.  Only in an emergency would I consider it anymore, and with cell phones, you really don’t need to, call a taxi or Uber.  But yet nothing beat free when broke, or broken as I was, which only made the healing time drag on.  I have picked up hitch hikers in my time, but since I ride most of the time, I get a thumbs up from them and a free pass.  But one night, in desperation, his, not mine, I gave a guy a ride.  On I-80 in western Pennsylvania, it is barren, and getting gas on my way to Ohio, this guy approached me.  It was pouring, he needed to get where I was headed, and was willing to ride without rain gear.  At least to the next stop, which came none to soon for him, and for me also.  He was soaked, but further down the road, I had picked up someone who didn’t know to ride. Which is dangerous, and I couldn’t wait to get rid of him.  Fro my own selfish reasons....

For some seeking God is like hitch hiking, you take your chances with what comes along.  Too many cults out to get you for their own good, to misdirect you and mislead.  How many times was I invited to a I Ching meeting, a so-called Bible study, or a wealth building club draped around religion.  Only to find myself short of where I needed to be or wanted to go.  Some wanted to add rules to my life to control me.  Some wanted to take advantage of my money, via dues in the name of giving.  Anytime I accepted an invitation, I was at their mercy to go where they were taking me.  Finding out that all that come in the name of Lord are not of the Lord.  At least the Jesus the Bible speaks of....

1 John tells of no one abiding in Jesus Christ sins anymore.  But when we do we have an advocate in him when we confess our iniquities.  But in him, we won’t want to, because we are guided by his spirit.  That our life in inter twined with his in the spirit.  Yet for the wolfs seeking whom they may devour, twisted scripture can lead to disaster.  Like getting in a car you know you shouldn’t, you can be taken for a ride.  But abiding in Christ works two ways, his spirit comes to live in us, and we come to live in him.  Our lives are intertwined like vines, not being able to tell where one starts and the other ends.  Both clinging to each other, but seeking from Jesus the strength we need, the love we need, and the forgiveness we desire.  Sheep who need a shepherd, a person needing a ride, but with someone they can trust.  When we are picked up hitching, both parties have an obligation, the hitcher to respect the driver, the driver to do what he says he will do.  Too often the signals get mixed, and never to our advantage.  In the spirit, the signal is clear, the choice is always ours, and forgiveness is provided for any wrong doing.  But the choice is ours, do we get in the car or not?  Do we stop to pick up the hitcher?  Or are you talked into it like I was that rainy night?  Jesus never forces himself upon you.....do you force him on others?

Abiding in Christ frees us from the bondage of sin, and from being sinned against.  We can make better decisions when we walk continuously with Christ, which abiding is.  Continually, continuous.  Always, all the time.  Like right now.  Living in him frees us from the bondage of sin right now, so we can live godly lives.  Looking back, I was a fair target for the wolf type looking for whom it might kill.  They go after the weakest ones in the pack, and I was damaged.  I was at risk, and vulnerable.  God watched over me even though I didn’t know it or wasn’t saved yet, that is his love.  But the choice to abide in him was mine and always will be.  So beware of those who appear as sheep but inside are ravenous wolves.  The devil is out to seek and destroy, hitching on wherever he can, offering a ride, but not the one you want or need.  Say no to the cults, to a religion that isn’t all about Jesus, that denies his deity.  They may appear friendly, but are out to get  you.  God has given us his spirit to discern, for in this life you will have trials and tribulation.  By abiding in Christ you will know what to do, and who to do it with.  Long before you ask or know, he has provided the way.  Jesus is the way, anything else is a detour meant to destroy.  Jesus looks out for us, are we out looking for him?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com