war of the worlds

I loved the original movie “War of the Worlds,” where Gene Barry as a handsome Cal Tech professor seeks to find the solution to stopping the invaders.  A movie, like many of the other good ones that each time I see it, I see something new.  But with special effects that are believable, a pretty heroine, and the townsfolk who come face to face with them, it is all believable.  Just like it was on the radio with Orson Wells a few years earlier.  So I enjoy it, and will again.  But one part that always has us laughing is the weaponry used on the invaders.  Guns, dynamite, bombs, and other heavy duty artillery have no effect on them, yet when invading a farmhouse, a broom is taken against them and they flee, damaged and confused.  Maybe we need to arm our police and Armed Forces with brooms!  But in the end, it seems the invaders could not live here on Earth, as our atmosphere has little germs in it, that were deadly to them.  And the moral at the end was about the least of God’s creation winning the battle.  A great movie, a far cry from the Tom Cruise remake....talk about the least of God’s creatures....

I learned years ago that too many people who are admitted into hospitals and die there, don’t die from what they were admitted for.  Infection is a deadly device, and having almost succumbed to it, I can tell you I never want to go through that again, nor my family.  Like in WotW, it was and is the little things that can be most deadly.  And so many can be prevented, if we only pay attention.  Over the years I have ministered to many who didn’t take care of their body, who abused it with drugs or alcohol.  So many times the talk of death comes up, and I reassure that there are consequences more deadly than death.  I know too many who have had feet amputated from diabetes brought on by alcoholism. Who cannot get out, and must be attended to 24 hours in some cases.  I know others on breathing machines, who cannot go to the bathroom without help.  Those who have gone blind, lost teeth, or even gone mad, reduced to a childlike state.  Left on the street to die.  And so often I hear from those who are warned, that they will be different, they will know when to stop.  They are different, not stupid like the others.  When it is only a matter of time....

Jesus warns us there is no little sin, and that sin, like leaven, will soon go through the whole loaf.  Whether we like it or not, it is uncontrollable from a certain point.  But yet they espouse excuses, lying to themselves more than to their audience, as even junkies know from first hand experience.  It seems misery loves company, no one wants to get high alone, so they need an accomplice, so often found in a so called friend.  An old friend Frank used to buy us hard liquor to get drunk with him, as he mainlined vodka into his stomach.  A scene I can never forget.  The little sin became a big one, an appetite that could not be suppressed, and soon he was without friends, wife, job, and soon disappearing from sight.  If only we had had a broom to beat some sense into him with.

An article I read this morning tells how with the decriminalization of marijuana, that it has adversely effected Mexico, so they have gone to smuggling women, children, and heroine.  Seems some 70% of the women attempting to cross the border illegally have been sexually abused, some many times. Something to consider with the next toke you take, or needle you inject in your arm.  There is no isolated sin, collateral damage is frequent, nobody was ever a nobody and became a somebody by doing drugs.  That little sin, the little white lie spreads like wildflower, there is no isolated sin anymore.

But in Jesus Christ we have an advocate, one who deals with the infinite, both large and small.  Who provides for the the birds of the air, but cares for you more.  We once had some nasty birds who used to swoop down at out dog and us, so one day I took a hose to their nest, totally destroying it.  Hoping they would leave.  Only to find them playing in the puddles I had made.  And so the battles continue, a war of two worlds, good and evil, but with a promise from God, wherever sin abounds, grace does even more.  And in Christ we can be assured of two things, one this too shall pass, and when Jesus is in it, your boat will not sink.  In our darkest moments, when we are at our weakest, God’s strength is made perfect.  My nurses told me that I was strong and it helped me survive, but I know different.  Comatose is no way to do battle, and can be worse than death for a believer.  People fear because they have no faith, what are you afraid of?

Fear is normal, how we handle it tells a lot about who Jesus is in our life.  I was quite content to die, I know where I am going, but God has his timetable set differently.  There are only two things in your life you have no control over, the day you were born, and the day you die.  But in between you have a lot of say....don’t waste it fighting God when you can be on his side and winning.  Like War of the Worlds reminds us, “the things seen are temporal, the things not seen eternal.”  Unless you are an invader....life is for the living, even Gene Barry has to admit that! Sin was the original invasion entering through the first man Adam, it was overcome and destroyed by the last Adam, Jesus Christ.  Like the movie poster says, “at this moment ships from beyond are on their way to destroy our planet.”  Aren’t you glad you know Jesus?  For only he saves...and he has everything under control.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

the first supper

Back in the days when San Diego had a stadium and a team to play in it, I was new to the area and trying to make my mark in it, read survive with my family.  I was involved in a Bible study at ORW with Howard Hughes the owner, and a few other businessmen.  It was just after Christmas, and the topic of the Super Bowl playing at Jack Murphy Stadium was discussed.  With the leader, Don, thoroughly disgusted with the local treatment of it, at least to the poor.  To make America’s Finest City appear as such, the homeless were pawns, moved and hidden from public view, and those he worked with were suffering even more while the rich got richer.  Because he was known within downtown circles as a mover and shaker, really a truth talking troublemaker, he was invited to the Mayor’s Super Bowl breakfast.  Big money, and big risks at stake, as the Super Bowl brings in big bucks to the sponsoring city.  And San Diego was ready, or so they thought.  They hadn’t dealt with Don.....

It upset him so that he used his political connections to lease for a nominal sum, a major hall in Balboa Park to show the Super Bowl on TV.  For free to the homeless and downtrodden, and those moved by A’sFC for political purposes.  Setting up 28 foot screens, he invited everyone, and fed over 3000 people a spaghetti dinner made from scratch.  Which my family and I attended, meeting many who were on the street, some new in town and lonely, and some just trying to get by.  A room of hookers, bikes, junkies, homeless, vagrants, pushers, and all colors, red and yellow black and white.  All precious in God’s sight, and we had a blast!  My young sons playing with homeless kids, and eating with a guy from Texas living in his car, unable to find work.  I guess a license plate number is not an address.  Somehow Don had pulled it off, and somehow no one was arrested, no police presence, and all had a good time.  It seems homeless people like football too, they like spaghetti, they like a safe environment, and they like to be loved.  Not my first Super Bowl dinner, but the one I remember best.  A Super Bowl Sunday I know Jesus would have attended......

When Matthew met Jesus he was hiding in a tree.  Being a tax collector he was among the most hated in society, yet Jesus sees him, and calls him down, and into ministry.  No seminary, no license to preach, no denominational backing, just get down here and start a new life.  So he did, and Jesus even attended the farewell party for him.  Imagine all the other tax collectors, all their peer group, other social outcasts, sinners, homeless, all right in front of God and everybody.  Wine and beer flowing freely, and there the Pharisees found Jesus.  We are never told if they were invited or were just curious, or even wondering how they missed being invited, but they used the opportunity to chastise Jesus.  This man who represents God creating scandal, and from all indications it was obvious he was their friend.  So being the caring men they are, they approach the disciples, avoiding Jesus.  “Doesn’t he know who these people are?  Doesn’t he know what he is doing?  Doesn’t he care what people might think?”

So ever the truth teller, and master negotiator, Jesus agrees with them.  These are the lowest in society, the scum of the earth.  They are leading immoral lives, and are filled with evil.  The are mentally, physically, and spiritually sick.  But where else would you put a doctor except for where people are sick?  Reminding them he came to call the sinners, not the righteous.  He had called out the self righteous Pharisees, ministered to the sick and hurting, and no preaching, no collection plate passed, and all were welcome.  For all suffer from the disease of sin....he reminded them that people are more important than prejudice, how the sick need a physician, and how foolish a righteous attitude can be, when revealed to God and his standards.  The sick knew they were sick, they had no illusions about themselves.  Do you?  Whose table would you be found at?  And would you be welcomed, or even welcoming?

It took God years later to remind me, on a trip to Ogden, Utah, deep in LDS country on my way to a Christian rally to see his point.  With not a cloud in sight, nor an exit, it started to pour, and I got mad.  “God what are you thinking putting a Christian rally in the heart of LDS land?  What’s going on?”  And his answer, was the same as Jesus to the Pharisees, “can you think of a better place to build a hospital than where people are sick and dying?”  You see, we all have a bit of the Pharisees in us, at the first dinner spoke of that Jesus attended, he made it clear why he was here.  Would Jesus be found at your dinner table, would he even be welcomed?  What if he asked to bring a friend?  What if you were that friend?  At the Last Supper Jesus asked “to do this in remembrance of me.”  I wonder how many remembered that night with Matthew and his friends?  Better yet, what do you remember?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

sheep, goats, Harleys, and selfies

Normally I wouldn’t have gone, but it was my friend Nick’s first time.  After doing crowd rides and biker based charities for years, I have seen how they have evolved into an “all about me” ride for too many, and this final ride confirmed it.  The flyers boasted a projected attendance of over 500, real count out of the driveway at Bigg’s was 197.  Still a lot of noise, but not even close.  Oh, and the ride I am talking of is the Bigg’s Toy Invasion ride, done yearly in December to get toys for kids in Rady’s Children’s Hospital, done thoughtfully, allowing the kids to pick their own gift.  While mixing with the bikes and bikers, making for a good time for all.  Sadly Nick’s comment to me when we arrived said it all, “now I know why you ride alone.”  He had hit it.

I had warned him to keep distance between you and others, back, front, and side, and as the lesser poser types revved their motors, weaved in and out of traffic, generally breaking rank, it can be scary.  Three women riders ahead of me kept me praying, anticipating the crash as one kept stalling, her apes taller than her, another missing shifts and almost running up the back of those ahead of her.  Sadly to many in the HOG groups and others, who cannot ride alone, this is normal.  This is not why I ride!  But this year was the year of the selfie, as we were held up many times while well wishers had to take their own picture, so proud of the cause they were riding for.  Sadly one turned on me when I told her about the stickers on the kids saying no photos.  And no she didn’t offer to take a selfie with me.  But the one thing that made this my last crowd ride was at the hospital, where in the past the kids were all around the bikes in the drive.  This year they had us all park in the street, some 200 feet of driveway between us and the kids.  With only the last selfie of the organizers taken on the driveway.....

So an event that used to take over two hours was done in less than 45 minutes, with many leaving early.  After mingling with some kids and their families, we took off, with Richard another veteran of many Rady’s rides with us for lunch.  Shaking our heads as to what happened......he had seen the same as we did, the HOG Group standing by themselves, CMA dusting off a guy who had been invited, he ended up talking to me, wrong guy, no make that right guy to ask about them.  Confirming what he saw.  The women riders stayed in a group, and it seemed all the groups left together.  With us stragglers left to our own schedule.  Keeping in mind the free lunch back at Bigg’s some 45 minutes away.  For some 45 minutes was too long, too much to ask of them, for a worthy cause.  I’m sure their take is different than mine......

It is no secret that Jesus drew a crowd.  From over 10,000 the day he fed the 5000, forcing him to preach from a boat, to the many lined up receiving him on Palm Sunday, he drew a crowd, and many lives were changed.  By him, not the crowd, or its organizers.  I wonder if a poll taken at the Rady’s ride would have told us more of why those who showed up did, but I have found actions are long remembered after the words fade.  Nothing new, as Jesus confronted the crowd in Matthew 25, the church, asking them why were they there.  He talks of separating the sheep and the goats, believers vs. non, or posers.  They brag how they cast out demons, and brought glory to themselves, all for him, but somehow circumnavigating Jesus.  So he tells them the story, and they don’t know they are the goats, the poor, who really need a savior.  The ask “when did we see you naked, thirsty, hungry, or cold?”  They too were the selfie crowd, the scions of the church who looked holy, but were rotting inside.  Eaten up by their own form of Christianity, Jesus was not part of it, and like the Pharisees ended up calling to “crucify him.”  But his answer is telling, and one we need to consider about us.  He says whenever you see someone hungry, thirsty, naked, in jail or sick, and minister to them, you are doing it unto me.  And ministry is more than a ride pin, more than showing up for the cameras, it goes on daily, mostly unseen by the world.  But God sees all....which ought to make a few of us sick to our stomachs.  Revving your engine says nothing about Jesus, nor does taking selfies.  No vest of run pins matter to God, for he sees the heart underneath.  His key words to the crowd, you didn’t help me.  Them.  And find themselves condemning themselves to hell forever.  They have made themselves their God of choice, stepping over the needy for a selfie shot, then heading off for a free lunch.  Feeling good about themselves.....never knowing what the rest of us see.  Or what God sees, that really matters.....

So I went, saw some old friends, introduced Nick around.  But it was on the way to lunch we saw Jeff, one of my flock, and took him to lunch.  Living on less than $800/month, this Christmas lunch would have been impossible, but God brought us together.  You see Jeff is medicated for a mental condition, but still sought God’s love and was saved.  He understands what Jesus meant to the crowd that day, as he needs ministering too.  And of all those I saw and visited with that day, it took him, to remind me.  Us.  And no selfies were taken, although we will remember this tender moment for a long time.  Ministry, seeing a need then meeting it.  No preaching, no tracts to hand out, no club to join or dues to pay.  No colors to wear telling the world you are a Christian, they are deceived by themselves, not knowing what God and others see in them.  With a harsh reality, the goats go to hell.  The sheep to heaven, God not impressed by their actions on behalf of themselves.  No follow up meeting telling themselves “oh what a good boy am I.”  If only a selfie of their hearts cold be seen.....

Crowds don’t get saved, but crowds of people do.  Individually, one on one with the spirit.  On the way to your next crowd ride, ask yourself how any Lazaruses you step over, gotta get there before it starts.  I am done with crowd rides, I got more blessings at lunch and with Jeff.  Ask yourself, “when do you see Jesus?’  Knowing he sees you.  Just might change the way you ride....forever.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthw25biker.blogspot.com

another choice at the fork in the road

It was the summer of 1973, and the aroma of Woodstock was still in the air.  So a mini-Woodstock, a big event today was planned, and BH and I decided to ride up to it after work.  Billed as the Summer Jam, it was to take place in Watkins Glen, New York, home of the fabled and famed auto racing.  A beautiful area to ride, the show was to consist of The Dead, The Band, and The Allman Brothers, all for $10.  I still have my Ticketron ticket to prove it, as we got close, but never quite made it.  But that is another story.  The story today is about a man on a BMW like mine who we met at the fork in the road.  And we decided to take it, to stop and help a fellow rider who had a flat tire.  But first  let’s set the scene...

The small and windy two lane roads perfect for gentle riding are jammed for miles.  Dozens of miles, and the sun is setting.  Coming upon a fork in the road, we see a blue BMW motorcycle parked under a tree in the fork.  Others more fortunate than he were hanging out, taking a respite from the crowd, so we stopped.  His rear tire was flat, and had no idea how to use the excellent BMW tire patch kit and pump.  So being experienced, I helped him get the tire off, broke it down, patched the tube, and we took a breather.  Hot, in the nineties both heat and humidity, we sat under a tree and talked.  No hurry, as the traffic was saying “you ain’t going nowhere fast tonight,” when suddenly a big car came rushing towards us.  As we watched in shock, it swerved to avoid us, narrowly missing everybody, but running over the rear tire I had just repaired.  Bending it into a V shape, and unusable.  As fast as the car had appeared, it vanished into the night.  How I still cannot figure, but it was here and gone that quick, our new found friend would not be so fortunate.  His ride was over, and we parted relieved and sad, we had stopped to help, only to be eventually disappointed by an errant and careless driver.  It seems when you come to a fork in the road, you have more than two choices, and this time the driver chose the road less travelled.  And with apologies to the poet, “the BMW rider’s life has never been the same.”

Yes and no answers are often hidden by a maybe, requiring no commitment, or action.  Wait for the other guy to make his move, and when he fails, sweep in and claim victory.  For us that night it was the fork in the road, but for one Samaritan, it was coming upon a wounded man on a dangerous highway.  It seemed the two religious men found plausible excuses within their religion to not stop and provide assistance, turning a blind eye and even crossing the road to avoid him, hoping they wouldn’t be seen in their sin, a far cry from the worship they demanded when walking the streets.  But we see a hated Samaritan, a half breed, not only pick him up, but put him on his donkey while he walks, and sets him up at an inn.  Having such a good reputation that the innkeeper trusts him to pay any moneys owed when he returns on behalf of the injured man.  A man of questionable heritage, but not one of questionable morals, and today his actions still speak louder than words, as does the two religious men.

In the Samaritan we see a heart after Jesus, willing to stop and assist when no one else will.  Ministering to the hurt and less fortunate can be demanding, but Jesus never lets us down.  As I watch fine men of religion brag hiding from behind a pulpit, I see the down and out just outside, some even within view, who are neglected.  Society can be cruel, but when the church turns it back on the needy, they neglect the words of Jesus, “anyone who helps the lesser ones is really doing it to me.”  Maybe put a better way, how many Lazaruses did you step over today?  We don’t have to go looking for people to minister to, God puts them in our way, yet we see them as in our way.  Jesus sees it different, and yet we claim to be like him?  Keeping a safe distance, never taking into account we were once like the ones, maybe not in social appearance, but lost and without God.  When you come to a fork in the road, do you choose Jesus or the easy way out for yourself?  Don’t lie, we may know you better than you want us to.

And so that night after doing all we could, we left the BMW rider.  We had gone as far as we could, and we felt bad leaving him, but knew it was the right thing to do.  Someone else would come along with the truck needed, maybe a better way to see it is in Paul’s advice to the Corinthians.  “Paul planted, Apollos watered, but it was God who provided the growth.”  Simply put, just do what the spirit shows you to do in the situation.  You may not be a doctor, but can provide first aid.  You may not be an evangelist, but you can show the love of Christ.  You may not be a mechanic, but can help by not helping.  Or knowing who to call.  Some 45 years later I still feel bad about leaving the guy, we did all we could, and it was time to go on.  There were two men who came to the fork in the road that night, one stopped and helped, the other damaged and sped off.  You see in between the fork is the area we spend most of our lives, the in between times.  And where your life in Christ is witnessed.  Jesus will always leave the choice up to us, the rich man chose to step over Lazarus.  But later begged him from hell for a drink.  Maybe God said it best, when David wept over Absalom whom he loved.  When Absalom was found dead, he acknowledged God by saying, “I can go to him, but he cannot come back to me.”  Jesus came for us so we can go back with him.  You reap what you sew, but also what you don’t sew.  Some are still learning to eat with a fork, some coming to one.  Only God still provides the growth.  Only by his spirit will you know for sure.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com