home cookin' and not a microwwave in sight

With a few exceptions, very few, I try to avoid chain restaurants.  I like to eat fresh prepared food from family recipes.  Taste the different spices that make one carne asada different from another, but look forward to both.  No premade hamburger patty, but one made by hand, not quite round, but thick and juicy.  Local delicacies that make you detour to an area just to eat.  When traveling through New England breakfast means a muffin, grilled.  A few seconds on the flat top giving it a whole new flavor.  Recently in Tulare I had my wrap grilled, and what a difference a few seconds made.  Personal touches that separate the ordinary from the exceptional, and make even the mundane flavorful.  No secret ingredients, just the right proportions....made by loving hands where a dash of this and a pinch of that make all the difference.  No written recipe to work from except from the heart.  Years ago when traveling it was looking for signs that offered home cooking, which I never understood, don’t you go out to eat because you don’t want to eat at home?  Didn’t you want a Big Mac to taste better than your mom’s burgers on the stove?  No matter how much I tried, I could never make a sub like Duke’s, and my salads never have the same something they do when eating out.  Same ingredients, but something is different...maybe it is the atmosphere, being waited on, or drinking a Coke at the table, but home cookin’ today is much different than even a few years ago. 

For me home cookin’ means roast beef, with mashed potatoes, from real potatoes, corn on the cob, and gravy on everything, except the corn.  Fresh biscuits, and apple pie for dessert.  Ice cream on top, all made fresh except for the ice cream, unless it was at Grandma’s, where we made it with the old hand crank.  A meal that took hours to prepare and was gone in minutes, with conversation uninterrupted by cell phones.  A meal, that was home cookin’.  Today home cookin’ has a totally different meaning, as for breakfast it is a microwave breakfast sandwich, or Pop Tarts.  Lunch is fast food, or a salad made yesterday, kept fresh by the wonder of refrigeration.  Dinner for many is microwaved lasagna, reheated left overs from last night, renuked to the point of hardness, and gravy comes in a can from the store.  Add water to make potatoes from a bag, salad from a bag, at least it was in the produce section once, and a Klondike bar.  At least the ice cream is the same.  Or better.  So when home cookin’ is seen by today’s generation, it means something completely different.  And I can’t blame them for not wanting home cooking, they want something different than a microwaved surprise...and so restaurants with home cookin’ are fading away with the generation that once was invited in by them.  Today 7-11 sells breakfast sandwiches, AM-PM sells lunch, and any drive in is a drive through any more.  Giving a new meaning to the old signs “eat here, get gas.”  And fading from our society are waitresses and waiters, once professionals, now replaced by starving students.  Who stand behind a counter and take your order by number, “give me a number 3 to go,”  even the old stand by “do you want fries with that?” is passe any longer. 

Seconds are a thing of the past too, or thirds as there was always some potatoes left, an extra piece of corn, or an extra roll.  To sop up the left over gravy.  Home cookin’, cookin’ from the heart.  Another thing that my generation will not pass on to future ones.  I can see the displays in museums, “people really ate like that?”  Clean your plate having a different meaning than pickup your wrappers and throw them away.  Last night’s feast is today’s lunch special, leftovers, but still tasty when reheated, not renuked.  Remember when Mom made enough so you could have the rest for lunch?  Try that with you fast food burger, or salad sweepings.  And yet one store tells us “have it your way.”  Another tells us “you need a break today.”  As long as we like the way they prepare it.  So I will hang onto the last vestiges of home cookin’ as long as I can...until I can only eat the memories.

“Give me that old time religion, it was good enough for me...” goes the chorus of an old song.  A personal relationship with a loving caring God. Who was a real person, and still is.  Yet today many are satisfied with a fast food god, one they can text to, spend time while streaming, and avoid all contact with others.  With the advent of satellite services, some churches today are beamed to other locations, with a few staff members there to assist.  Make the hour go by as fast as possible so we can get onto the next hurry up and wait event.  Some think that is church, and sadly it can be.  But even worse is when they confuse Jesus for the church, and think that knowing God is a fast food experience.  Eating was a personal and almost spiritual event for the Jews.  It was personal when you ate, a time to share, to fellowship, and to get to know others.  Jesus made it even more personal at the last supper, and maybe the best example of home cookin’ was feeding the 5000.  With leftovers for later, for just as spending time with God fills you, Jesus knows you will get hungry again, and need food.  And more time with him.  Home cookin’.  Feeding the body, but also the soul.  Something one quick church buffet on Sunday morning cannot do.  We get hungry everyday, and we need to be fed, every day.  Real meals, not fillers, not a quickie snack.  We need real food, soul food if you will, that feeds the soul and our spirit.  How many times do you leave church full?  Or wanting more?  The 5000 left full, with more for later, a good example of feeding by the holy spirit.  Scripture tells us that we re filled to overflowing, pressed down and shaken, like you do for your Slurpee, to get all you can.  But unlike after downing the Slurpee, and you are still thirsty, the spirit satisfies.  And at the same time has you desiring more.  Do you desire more of Jesus?  Is a daily feeding even enough anymore?  Do you snack on the spirit, looking forward to that special meal time with him?  Or do you settle for a fast food relationship with God, when he offers home cookin’?  Cookin’ from the heart and soul.  His recipe written on our hearts.  He knows just what it takes to fill us up, but also to make us hunger again.  And he can feed one just as much as he did the 5000, personally.  Your food cooked just the way you like it, and not a microwave in sight.  And you find you can have it your way, because you find you want it his way. 

Jesus is home cookin’, sadly religion is fast food.  Both fill you up, one leaves you hungry.  Never satisfied, only in Jesus will you be.  Religion served family style, we are part of the family of God, and as he passes the blessings, we pass the plates.  Each one with a promise of love, to not just meet the need, but to be part of a relationship we look forward to.  How many used to make fun of Sunday pot roast, but would travel 100 miles to eat that meal again?  If Jesus is missing from your church experience, if it is not personal, seek him now,  wherever you are. You plus him equals church.  Enjoy the fellowship, let him feed you, and watch as you grow in him.  Home cookin’ never tasted so good as cookin’ from the heart.  It takes longer like any good relationship does, and always ends with dessert.  Even after a big meal, we always find room for dessert.  Do you always find time for Jesus? 

Love is a recipe that must have the ingredient of Jesus in it.  God is love, more than an experience, he is with us always.  Full but yet hungry after religion?  You need Jesus.  Why leave the table still hungry, when you can leave full, and with dessert to come.  Heaven awaits us, and we will all get our just desserts.  Only Jesus offers and delivers heaven.  All else is hell, and you cannot have it your way.  Jesus allows you to have it your way today, make your ways his, and enjoy home cookin’.  And not a microwave in sight.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthw25biker.blogspot.com

it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission

We never quite know what lies ahead on the road we are traveling.  When in a hurry, whether it be for a time on our schedule, hunger driven by where to eat, or looking for gas before we go into the push mode, we can always look back, look ahead with great expectation, but realize that we spend most of our time in the right now.  How many conversations are of roads passed by wondering where they wander, or of places we wished we would have stopped.  Old drive ins where the smell of cheeseburgers draws us in, but we ride on.  Cycle shops that caught our eye, but not our brand.  Or worse yet, our brand, and we miss the chance for just the t-shirt we were looking for.  All have happened to us, and it seems many of our best road side interludes are not planned, but based on a split second decision when they catch our attention.  One of of our unofficial riding rules is never go back the way we came, and in doing so miss the second chance to correct our first bad decision.  So over the miles we now stop when something catches our eye, or someone on the road tells us about it.  We plan days crammed with lesser miles, and end up riding more, while seeing more as we go.  All because we follow our instinct of what, where, why is that catching our attention.  But it really comes down to one simple premise, we don’t know if we will ever get back that way again.

Sometimes it a simple thing like the day we rode over 400 miles in Florida, only to arrive 135 miles from where we started.  Getting caught in rain, but finding a Honda store just closing, but had enough time to sell us a $10 “Stupid Hurts” shirt I had been looking for. Made my day.  Another time it was taking the wrong Y when we came to it, and finding Vallecito Lake, and ending up moving there.  Sure beat the Jaycee picnic I was invited to.  Or wandering into the Jackson Inn, out of gas, but not out of hunger, and needing a place to stay.  The hotel part was closed, still renovating, but we could stay if we didn’t mind unpacking the mattresses.  We did and it turned out to be their 100th birthday that night, celebrated over the best pan fried steak I ever had.  Sometimes the middle of nowhere is exactly where you need to be.  Or the desk clerk at the motel in Victoria, giving me the key the closed pool and spa, we had it to ourselves, after she called ahead for the restaurant to stay open after we arrived late, and without a reservation.   All unplanned, but all welcome on the ride.

So we ride alone, no group or crowd rides as I refer to them, for in a group you need to get the crowd’s permission.  They travel like Goldilocks, food must satisfy all, motels the same, and they ride a homogenized ride, filled with Denny’s and Holiday Inns.  I have been told I ride too fast, too far, or to too out of the way places.  So we ride alone, and our stories of where we ate, rode, slept, and what we saw are always the topic of conversation.  As expressed by Bruce on a Canadian ride, “how do you find these places?”  He spent the morning looking for a landmark he had read about, we spent it at the Trev Deeley Museum.  Upstairs in an old warehouse, since moved, we saw the original, and upon arriving we sat in the President’s office, he wanted to here about our trip and our rides.  And gave us access to the limited access museum.  But the highlight which should been the museum, could have been the trade magazine doing an article, ended up when a man in a wheelchair showed up, and they had no elevator.  And with his permission, used a fork lift to lift him into freight door just like they had for the 50+ motor cycles upstairs.  His smile later told more than words, he had seen something many others had never even heard of.  Trev Deeley is the Harley Davidson importer for almost 100 years.  Talk about history....And as our travels go, finding it easier to ask forgiveness when we see something and stop, than ask for permission.  Best expressed by the desk clerk at the Cedar Grove Inn.  Our AC had quit in the middle of the night, so we found another room, it just happened to be where General Grant had slept when he won Vicksburg.  Even his bed, the most expensive room in the place.  When we told her when checking out, her response was simple, “I’m glad someone had the sense to do the right thing.”  Ah, Southern hospitality...

Prayer may have had something to do with all these, but we seldom ask God about every move we make.  Not the relationship that brags of trusting him.  Some will take a fatalistic attitude, of why pray, God is going to do his will anyway.  Some just ask foolishly, or non-specific.  Some add if its your will...we find it is easier to just ride.  When God travels with you, you just know when and where to stop.  More than a feeling, beyond words, it comes from knowing him, and being in fellowship with him.  Meditating as Psalm 1 says, we prefer to think of it as hanging out with Jesus.  So why ask God?  Because prayer is more than asking, because it involves listening.  Which is more important, why ask if you don’t want an answer?  And so we go down many roads not planned, maybe not even prayed for, but trusting God to bless us.  Some are timid in asking, I prefer the personal approach.  Knowing Jesus, and living in the spirit.  Not just asking, but doing, knowing that if I am wrong I can ask forgiveness and receive it.  While some still seek permission, and do nothing.  The only things you really fail at are the ones you never try.  Which is why so many never leave the four walls of church, never get out among the people like Jesus advised us, and see where the blessings and action are.  They live in a homogenized world, only know Christians, only use Christians for work, and only hang out with others who believe as they do.  Raising their kids the same way, and wondering why they fail when out in the world.  Never reaching beyond what they think God has for them...not knowing they are not trusting God.  Never really sharing the gospel, and missing out on seeing the Bible come alive when you spend time with God-alone.  Or riding.  Outside the safety of the church.  Where did Jesus spend most of his time?  Not in church...on the road.  Do we see a theme here?  He was out among the people, imagine if he had to ask the Pharisees permission to be out among the poor, homeless, hookers, bikers, and others who didn’t measure up?  Where would you be?  Where would he find you now?

So we ride places, see things, stop and check things out when we are on the road.  We may never return there, why miss a blessing?  Or a memory, a testimony?  You may be called upon by God to minister, and be blessed.  It can happen anywhere, at any time.  On a tour of the Ephrata Cloisters, a religious village in Pennsylvania, after the tour the guide asked the group if there were any questions.  The Cloisters were a village where people waited for the return of Jesus, and they wanted to be ready.  So the guide mentioned the rapture many times, and when asked about it, didn’t really know.  So I did, to a room full of people, I shared the gospel.  Not asking permission, the spirit gave me words, and many were interested.  The guide was relieved, and our day was made.  If we had asked, I might have been turned down, but God had a different ending.  So it is easier to trust God, and maybe have to ask forgiveness, than to ask permission and be refused.  Life is not a safe, secure ride, it is the detours that often make it exciting.  Interesting, and worth it.  Dare to trust God, follow his spirit, and see where he guides.  And never ride alone.  Jesus offers forgiveness, you don’t need his permission to be saved.  Accept his invitation today and start living.  His will be done, but only if you know him personally.  What would Jesus do?  You have to ask?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

did you know you're driving a FIAT?

Are you sure you know what brand of car you are driving?  What it says on the grill may be different from what is inside, or who actually makes it.  Maybe a short course in American automobile history will enlighten or maybe even confuse you.  We’ll start with a building in the New York City skyline, for a few months the highest in the world.  The Chrysler Building was built by Walter P. Chrysler, an auto pioneer.  Its art deco styling is beautiful, and only the Empire State Building surpassed it for years.  You know the name of Chrysler, one of the Big 3 in Detroit, but who are they?  In the beginning, Walter P. started at Buick, part of GM, reviving them, then buying Maxwell, what was left of Maxwell-Chalmers in 1924.  Renaming it after himself, it set standards for engineering.  In 1928 he brought out Plymouth as a low end offering, DeSoto the same year as a mid priced car, and later bought what was left of Dodge Brothers, who had made money building engines and transmissions for Henry Ford’s Model T’s, who both died in the same year, and when bankers took it over, eventually sold it to Chrysler.  All in less than 10 years.  DeSoto left us in 1961, Plymouth in 2000, with Imperial designed as a luxury car in the thirties hanging on as a model, and sometimes a make.  And all was well for awhile.  Then...

In 1987 Chrysler Corporation bought American Motors.  Which was formed in 1954 by the merging of Nash and Hudson.  Hudson a great make lasted a few years, both cars badge engineered and nicknamed “Hash.”  Nash was started by Charles Nash who was a GM executive, in 1916 when he bought the Thomas B. Jeffery Company, whose car was called Rambler.  Hudson was Detroit born, and named after the Hudson Department Stores, whose owner was the principal capital at start up.  After merging they bought Kaiser Jeep in 1970, who they bought from Henry Kaiser, as in Kaiser Permanente, who bought it from Willys-Overland, who had designed it with American Bantam for the US of A during WWII.  Adding it to his Kaiser-Frasier short lived cars after WWII.  Who all met together in 1987, when Chrysler bought American Motors, and kept only Jeep.  After another merger with Renault that didn’t work.  AMC was always short on cash, but not merger potential.  Which later had a disastrous merging, which some describe as a fiscal rape by Daimler Benz, of the Mercedes Benz automobile.  Who later spun them off, in 2007, leaving them wounded, and bailed out again, first time when Lee Iococca saved Chrysler the first time, then bought by Cerberus, an investment group, then by the government.  Who peddled them to FIAT, in another questionable deal, no one else wanted them, and today the company is known as FCA,LLC.  FIAT which actually owns such brands as Alfa Romeo and Ferrari, but is remembered for its horrible, but beautiful sports cars of 50 years ago.  So if after 2009, if you bought a Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, or RAM truck-you bought a FIAT!  Did you know you were driving a FIAT?  The Dodge Dart is actually an Alfa based car?  Ferrari is still hands off.  But Chrysler is a long way from where Walter P. started it.  Think of all the great MOPAR racer cars, and who drove them, Richard Petty driving for FIAT?  A FIAT Daytona?  A FIAT Jeep that for awhile was a Daimler Jeep?  And somehow along the way, I have never owned anything Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Imperial, AMC, or Mercedes Benz.  Somehow I have evaded the MOPAR curse, which now is a FIAT curse, may God have mercy on your cars.

Jesus told his disciples that he will make all things known to them.  How deep does that go?  Well...since everything the Father had was also Jesus’, he meant all when he made it known to them.  Some just study the Word, forgetting it is all about him, basing their relationship on knowledge.  Some follow denominational teaching, sometimes even including Jesus.  But it is important to know that without the spirit, left by Jesus when he was resurrected, always points all things to Jesus.  Who always gives all credit to his Father in heaven, our Father in heaven.  But without the spirit, who reveals all the mysteries of the gospels, we cannot know Jesus.  And hence we cannot know God.  Jesus is the way, it is that simple.  Which is why we need to be spirit led, pray in the spirit, and remember that the Trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Some place so much emphasis on the word that it takes the place of the spirit in the trinity, but it is always the spirit that guides.  Backed up by the word, study to find yourself approved, not to be saved.  It is the spirit, who guides us to Christ, the word verifies it. And since God is a spirit, and must be worshipped as such, the importance of the person of the Holy Spirit is magnified.  Without the spirit we wouldn’t know Jesus, and we wouldn’t know God.  Which separates us from cults, religion, clubs, philosophies, and others telling you how to find God.  When God tells us “not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord”  he means his spirit, the Holy Spirit.  Three in one remarkably intertwined, distinctive alone and together, but to never be separated.  And when the spirit comes upon you, your life will change.  Jesus is in you, and you become a child of God.

Grafted into the vine as Jesus tells us, family as he is our inheritance, and paid for in full, his dying for our sin on the cross, for with sin we were separated, only in Jesus are we reunited.  How do we know, the spirit tells us, and gives us words when we don’t have them.  A desire for Jesus, and comfort as we go.  The spirit going all the way back to Genesis, in the beginning God’s spirit moving over the waters.  The three have always been inseparable...and always will be.

So if you are a Christian, you came to Jesus via the spirit,who gave you entry to heaven where God resides, Jesus at his right hand, sitting.  His job done, the spirit hard at work still.  Do not discount the Holy Spirit, he is fully God, just as Jesus is.  You cannot be a Christian without him.  Even if you didn’t know you were driving a FIAT.  Certain mergers over time have led to many successful corporations, and also to many failures.  Merging with the spirit will not guarantee a smooth ride to heaven, but will guarantee you of your destination.  It is like two cars, one is fast with no brakes, and is known for getting close, but not being able to stop, the other is slow, has a great suspension, great brakes, and stops where you want it to.  One reaches its destination, the other, well it may still be going.  Looking for a place to stop, to rest.  Which would you choose?  Make Jesus that destination, guided by the spirit, and arrive.  Without the spirit, you just go, and go, and go.  Seeking, but not arriving.  Passing Jesus along the way.  You may have the knowledge, the spirit gives wisdom. 

FIAT Chrysler America, LLC.  RIP MOPAR.  Goodbye Plymouth, we miss you DeSoto.  So long Dependable Dodge.  Sorry Walter P.  America, if only you had been led by the spirit, so many would not be driving FIATS today.  Fix It Again Tony.  It only took Jesus once.  By his spirit....where we find freedom at last.  At one time GM, Ford, and Chrysler were the Big 3.  Fathers, Son, and Holy Spirit were long before and will be long after.  Merge with them today and insure tomorrow.  So much for your father’s Oldsmobile.... 

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

 

lost, not misplaced

Why is it when you cannot find something it is always in the last place you look?  And if you looked there initially, think of all the aggravation you would have avoided.  But really the reason it is found in the last place you look is because you quit looking.  The quest is over, you bagged your limit, and now you go on to other important chores of the day.  Like, where should I ride today?  I took some time yesterday to look at new cars-sticker shock magnified.  For the price of my first house I could buy any number of cars, extend my payments out 72-84 months, 6-7 years, and keep my payments under $800/month.  The salesman had no problem showing me lesser priced cars, in the $30,000 range, which still exceeded my pocketbook, by about $30,000.  But I found it interesting what you could buy in the $20-25,000 range.  Closer to my budget of none.  A Volkswagen Beetle stickered at $26,000.  But so did a Mustang with a turbo.  So did a Mazda Miata-stripped.  Various 4 door sedans that are best suited for rental service.  So in that price range you could be trendy, a Beetle, cool-a Mustang, or drive a rental car with your name on the title-after it’s paid off.  So much to choose from, so I took the free brochures, and filed them away, Mustang on top, my first choice.  I stopped looking at cars because I found one I liked, even if I am not a buyer-yet.  Why didn’t I just go there first and avoid all the lecherous sales force?  Strangely I ended up looking at Mustangs last.  Do I see a trend here? 

But unlike my keys, or glasses routinely found on top of my head, they were not lost, just misplaced.   And from VW’s made in Mexico, Nissans and Toyotas made in Tennessee, and Mercedes Benz made in Alabama, let’s not forget BMW’s made in South Carolina, it may have looked like I was lost, but was only misplaced about their country of origin vs. their country of manufacture.  Only the Mustang was an American car made in America, Michigan, which I hear is still a leisure activity of the Democratic party.  The whole state is either union or on welfare.  So although not lost, just looking, I found out a lot that afternoon-I’ll keep my motorcycles.  My thoughts were only momentarily misplaced, not lost.

It is said and rightfully so that God has placed a God shaped hole in our souls that only he can fill.  And those who haven’t found him yet, note-he isn’t lost, we are, are still looking.  Misplaced emotions and ideas about God, confusing him with religion.  Most I talk with are looking for a good church, one they can fit into, that they are not threatened at, and can feel comfortable.  Really they are looking for God, and he is only found in Jesus.  Some go the cult route, or fall into cultic religions, and are barred from seeking.  They find they are not fulfilled, but the religion will not let them free.  And I know families where it has become generational, passing on the captivity from parents to children.  But I have a freedom in Christ found no where else.  It is my freedom to choose.  Religion, no matter the denomination, has a set of rules for you to follow.  Jesus loves, tells us to love, shows us how by example, and sets us free to make our own decisions.  Guided by the holy spirit, so we don’t wander off into some cult.  When we come to Christ we stop looking because we have found it all.  Love, joy, peace, and forgiveness.  All in one man, who leaves the choice up to us.  True love, because true love demands a decision, for God not a church or institution.  And saying nothing to Jesus is the same as saying no.  Yet until our dying day, the spirit calls us.  We are lost, not misplaced, God knows just who we are, and where we are, and is seeking us because he loves us.  Religion can replace, but not fulfill the need for God, it can misplace our loyalties, and separate from the one who loves us.  But we still seek, and if you find yourself seeking God today, why not give it up to Jesus.  Make him your final destination, and insure your final destination-heaven.  Not based on performance, not based on who we are, but based on who he is, and what he has done-died in our place.  The final one we turn to should be the first one-if not, make him the last one.  The only one, the begotten one.  Look no further.  The ads may promise many things, like the new cars do, but only one will fill the need. The desire, and the hope.  Only Jesus.  Church can’t do it, a new car can’t do it, sadly even a motorcycle can’t do it-lots of joy, just no salvation.  It takes knowing Jesus.   A new car may be exciting to show all your friends, but after the first payment, first scratch, and all have seen it, the new wears off and is gone.  Only in Jesus does the new not wear off, in fact it drives a desire in us to get to know him better.  To be more like him.  All driven by his spirit instead of ours.  So why drive an old God when you can have a fresh and exciting one?  Who loved you when you are lost and misplaced?

For those of us who have stopped looking it is because we have found, and been found.  Nothing else will do.  Only Jesus fulfills.  Don’t let your life be misplaced by false gods of deception.  Come to Jesus and stop looking, and start living.  Like my afternoon car exercise, I was only looking.  But when I saw the Mustang, I stopped.  And started to make excuses to get one.  Fortunately one look back at what I was riding brought me back to reality.  Jesus is looking for you and won’t quit until you come to him.  Make him your last stop today, and look no further.  I did and haven’t looked for 40 years.  It was fun looking at cars yesterday, only to find I already have everything I want.  Oh, and it works when looking for cars too. 

Did I tell you the Mustang was Race Red?  Now if I can only find where I left the brochure.  Misplaced of course, not lost.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

and when I die...

People tend to avoid the subject of death when it comes up. But death is real, we all face it someday, maybe today, and most are afraid of it. Due to religious, societal, or denominational preferences, most like to believe that when they die, they are good, and go to heaven, based on who they are, not on what they have done. They may act like hell, but don’t want to go there, and reject or make sport of those who espouse heaven and the only way to get there, Jesus Christ. They want all the benefits, they just don’t want the one who gains them access. Years ago while discussing death, we agreed we are not afraid of death, we know Jesus and are saved, but we are not sure about the process. Having been as close to death as you can come without dying, I can tell you part of the process is falling asleep. And like being asleep, you don’t realize you were until you wake up. And you cannot choose the day of your death, although some try, just as you could not have a voice on the day you were born. And scripture plainly tells us “the day of our death is better than the day we were born,” if you are saved. Two deaths, not my own, have particularly touched me, let me explain.

While watching TV the other day, during my surfing exercise I came upon a documentary about death. It was filmed live, about a man serving a life sentence in prison, and his slow death. Not sure where he was with Christ, but even the guards felt sorry for him in his slow death process. No family, only guards, he was so lonely, and I thought of my friends in prison, and their loneliness in life, and now death. It must be horrible to live in prison, but worse to die there. How horrible to die alone. No friends, no family, no one to care. But this death was different, as a group of black men who knew Jesus had formed an hospice group, and ministered to him unto death. They gathered around this dying white man, and gave him comfort. No preaching, but loved on him. Sharing Jesus in action, backing it up with words. And being there when he died. When he fell asleep. Comforting him being led by the spirit, the one Jesus sent to comfort us while alive. How sad it took death for this man to be part of it. He may have rejected Jesus his whole life, but these men stayed with him to the end, even moving the guards and warden to compassion. Lonely in jail, lonely in life, lonely in death. And when no one came to claim his body, off to a free field where the poor prisoners were buried. With only an ID number to remember him by. I was touched by his death, he fell asleep as I did, but more touched by the hospice men. They showed love and compassion for him until the end. Showing him heaven, yet it was his decision of his final destination. Despite his choice, which was never told, they loved him. I wonder, could we do the same?

I worked with Kevin’s dad, and never got to know him until we moved west. When we were over for dinner, we got to see Kevin at home, not the hospital. He had lost one leg to cancer, and was in and out of the hospital. He pushed my sons around in his wheelchair, and was known for knocking on his hollow leg, and watch his teacher go to his classroom door to see who was there. He was filled with life, but sadly also filled with cancer. Some would claim it was his youth, but Kevin knew Jesus, and had no problem telling about him. He was going to die, he knew, as the cancer was spreading throughout his body, but he faced each day, even the last ones, with a smile. I was awoken one morning with a phone call from his father, telling me Kevin had died. He was only 13. He told me how in his last days Kevin was hospitalized, and kept insisting he was going home. Emphatic about it. Yet his parents and doctors knew he never would. He was too sick. Yet when he died, peacefully and joyfully it was only then that his father knew what Kevin meant when he kept exclaiming “I’m going home.” He meant heaven, he was so close to God he knew. Up until his final breath he testified about Jesus. His body may be dying, but his spirit was alive, and he was excited abut going home. One final note, his mother was stricken with blindness just before he had his leg amputated, and just after Kevin died she got it back. God had spared her the pain and agony of seeing her son less than whole. A miracle within the miracle. And the next time they meet they all will be perfect in heaven....and I want to go back. Which is the best way I can describe what I saw, what I experienced. I want to go back.

So in death we receive life in Christ. Born twice, die once, or born once, die twice as the saying goes. But you don’t have to die or live in loneliness. Jesus sent the spirit, the comforter, his spirit to guide and be with us. We are never alone. It took a show about death in prison to remind me, and I still feel the loneliness that man felt. Don’t go through life alone, or worse yet lonely. Jesus wants to be your friend, turn to him now. The best friend you will ever have, he will not abandon you unto hell, yet will guide you into heaven. And heavenly things on earth. Kevin knew and couldn’t wait to get home, he knew where he was from and where he was going. He comforted others in his final days, a reverse hospice if you will. And I will think on those prison hospice men for some time, and how Jesus showed through them. No bars could contain them from their freedom in Christ. They may be incarcerated, but where the spirit of the Lord is, they enjoyed his freedom. And will share the same heaven with Kevin someday. As I will....and I hope you will too. Jesus makes the difference between life and death. Don’t wait until you are facing death to know him, know him today and know life. Be excited about going home. We will all have a release date from earth, don’t leave here with out Jesus. Meanwhile we are all serving a life term here, who you share it with is up to you. Everyone’s last ride will be in the same kind of car, a hearse. Where your soul goes is up to you. Meanwhile, love one another as if it were their last day. It may be yours. Know Jesus and face the day of your death with eagerness and great expectation. Someone once loved you enough to share him with you...pass it on. See you at the Homecoming....until then love one another as Jesus loved us. And loves us. And remember life is a process too. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

http://www.gracebeforedying.org/intro.html