where have all the X-cars gone?

Within a twenty year period, GM had gone from bragging they were losing one of every two sales, they owned over 50% of the market and were faced with threats of being broken up, to redesigning the car, for both fuel economy and emissions, to save the company.  Where once Chevy sold over 25% of the new cars, now the gas crisis, and the Japanese invasion were cutting into them deep.  Where GM styling and engineering had always been the leader in the industry, now they were having to play follow a new leader, an off shore one, who only a few years before was the butt of jokes, but was now for real.  Their response for 1980 was the X car, aka the Chevy Citation, Buick Skylark, Olds Omega, and the Pontiac Phoenix.  The same platform with each division making it personal through styling.  Big on the inside and small on the outside, they were a long way from the lower, longer, wider styling of  decade ago, it was now mpg instead of horsepower, and metric sized engines, the famous Chevy 327 becoming a 5.3 liter before going away forever.  Based on the marketing, they sold well initially, but problems began surfacing almost immediately.  On the six cylinder you couldn’t reach the sixth plug without partially removing the engine.  There were brake and steering problems, assembly problems, and the traditional dealer problems.  Yet knowing this, we bought one, used, a 1981 Chevy Citation X-11, the high performance version of high performance at the time.  135hp that could chirp the tires if you listened loud enough.  Mag wheels with wide ovals, a cool exhaust and bucket seats with a console.  Even a raised hood scoop!  A pretty face if ever you saw one at the time, and I was suckered in passing by it on the used car lot.

Working a deal to trade straight across for our 1893 Ford Escort, after signing the papers, the sales manager came up, and told me in his good conscience, he had to tell me the car had been in an accident.  Not sure how bad it was damaged, but they had checked it out and it ran well, and looked good.  Which explained the repaint, the gaps in doors, and rattles at certain speeds.  In this pre-salvage title era, it was buyer beware....and I had been taken in by a pretty face.  But when taking it in for service at the Chevy store where we had moved, 50 miles away, when picking it up, the service writer told me the parts guy wanted to see me.  It seems it had been his wife’s car, and had been T-boned by a drunk driver. She had pulled off the road to avoid him, but still got hit, and the car was totaled.  But using his auto shop skills and parts at cost, they had rebuilt the car, and sold it at auction. He claimed it had been a good car before and his wife loved it, and even gave me pictures of the car after the crash.  But now it looked good, ran good, and if no one else knew, who cared.  Until it spun a crank bearing outside of Early, Texas and we traded it off.  Somehow it had weathered being totaled, but couldn’t overcome GM”s engineering at the time.  Today no one knows of the X-cars, and none are around.  Where did the millions of them that GM sold all go to?  And I read recently that the Citation X-11 is becoming a collector car.  And GM has gone bankrupt over 8 years ago....and I had one, if only I knew what I was getting, how would that have affected the sale and the trade in of it.

I get tired of hearing how we are all God’s children, especially from Christians who should know better.  But are we really, maybe if we read the scriptures we tell people we study so much we will be amazed.  John 1:12-13 outlines it differently.  It is a process, and a decision we make, a spiritual one, that cannot be inherited, cannot be gained philosophically or socially, and you cannot marry into.  John lists three ways we mistakenly think we have become a Christian.  First it is not of blood, it is not passed down to you because your parents were saved, or just attended church.  Attending a Christian school, carrying a big Bible, even being a Bible student is not it.  Even if you only hang out with other Christians, and do Christian things, until you are born again, you are not a Christian.  You may sit in a pew, but the stink comes from sitting in your own pew.

The second thing is not a choice of the will.  Today I decide to be a Christian, even it takes talking myself into it.  Or others doing it.  I can talk the talk, and maybe even look like I am walking the walk, I can have all my radio presets for Christian radio, know all the words, and have all the Christian externals, but you cannot become born again by the choice of your willpower.  Lastly it is not the will of  man, or others that you should be saved.  No religion, pastor, Pope, cardinal, reverend, or religious person can make you a Christian.  It can only be done by God through Jesus Christ by his spirit, it is not a ceremony, joining a church, or even going forward at an altar call.  None of those things make you a Christian.  It is what is happening in your heart, being accomplished by God alone, that goes beyond any human cleverness, manipulation, or or effort that makes you a Christian.  John makes this clear in his gospel.  You must be born again!  It goes beyond believing, it is receiving him into your heart and repenting.  Many believe in him, only true Christians believe him.  It is that personal. 

It is something only God can do, you cannot.  When your faith points to Jesus, and you make that decision, when he is invited into your life as Lord, then do you truly become a Christian, and earn the title of God’s children.  A new life begins in you, all the rules have changed, and you begin to grow in the image of Christ.  That is the mark of a new birth.  I shudder at the number who think they are saved by going to church, sitting under a good teacher, or having friends or family who are saved.  Just like the X-11 we bought, it looked good on the outside, but when I learned its history, the cracks and imperfections began to surface.  You can put on a happy face, but God knows the heart.  And the car.  And it s history.  He knows who are his own, and who play the game.  Whose hearts are after Christ, or after themselves.  John identifies this, and makes it plain. 

God doesn’t condemn us, he wants to save us.  To rescue us and have fellowship with him.  To be true sons and daughters of Christ.  He is calling to you now via his spirit.  Don’t make a foolish decision based on what looks or sounds good.  We loved the X-11, with all its creaks and groans.  But it let us down and it was time to trade it off. Jesus never lets you down, and won’t trade you for anything.  I often wonder where have all the X-cars gone, there were once millions of them.  Someday those left behind will wonder where did all the Christians go?  GM once bragged of market superiority, they only had 52% of the market.  The X-car could have saved them, but ended up almost ruining them.  Cars go in and out of style, Jesus never does.  If only GM knew what God knew, the question is, do you?  Jesus Christ, like the old Chevy ads say, “you’ve got to drive it to believe it!”

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

only in reruns will they be best remembered

“Good morning Beautiful,” was the way Paul Drake always greeted Della Street, not a sexual harassment, but a statement of truth between two friends.  Perry’s office officially closed with her passing this year.  The guilty until Perry can prove them innocent will have to find solace elsewhere.  Joe Mannix has also retired, someone else will have to take the beatings to find his clients innocent.  Fees variable, sometimes optional.  Robin will be going to the Batpole alone from now on, the Caped Crusader, made his last trip down it into eternity.  Wally’s Filling Station has gone to self serve now, both Gomer and Goober are gone, “shazzam!”  Say hey to Andy for me.  I hope that some were able to find something to laugh about at Mary Richard’s funeral, she did at Chuckle’s the Clown’s, after the last time Mr. Fe Fi Fo fell down on his fu fu.  Or maybe you remember her better as Laura Petry, “oh Rob....”  The Tate residence is now without a butler, as Benson has gone on, too.  Who will fix the Major’s meals now?  Joanie Cunningham leaves behind a brother or two, or was it three?  Do you remember the two Chucks?  Then Came Bronson rode off and now will never return....Jeff Spencer, leaves behind a beautiful widow, Ann-Margret, and a list of clients, the doors locked at 77 Sunset Strip forever.  Kookie will have to lend his comb to someone else.  No one will be around to keep Robin Master’s estate in line, as Higgins is gone, I just can’t see Magnum feeding the lads, can you?  “Hokey smoke,” the voice of Rocky will never be heard again.  And a whole new generation of movie goers will be introduced to Turner Classic Movies by a new host, I will miss “Hi, I’m Robert Osborn,” who brought some class to the old movies I love the most.  Finally the original Rhinestone Cowboy rides off into the sunset, the Wichita lineman no longer on the line.  Who will insult us and have us loving it no that CPO Sharkey has gone ashore for good? 

Characters that have become friends from watching them on TV for years, some for generations, now are gone.  We can only wish them Godspeed now, as behind each character portrayed, was a real person, many we never got to know, and many different than the one they played.  But thanks to reruns, Gomer will still be chasing after Barney yelling “citizens arrest, citizens arrest,” Bruce Wayne will still take care of a young Dick Grayson, Mary Richards will still be making a nothing day seem worthwhile.  They may be gone, but will live on as long as there are reruns, and an audience to watch them.  Maybe a better time capsule of history than the textbooks read now, a true look at the cars, the styles, the prices, and a way life left behind.  Something the disciples had to face when Jesus was crucified....

Without reruns, Netflix, or MeTV, they had to depend on the holy spirit to take the message of Jesus Christ to the next generation.  It was up to them to spread the gospel as they had heard it and seen it.  There were no made up for TV audience stories, no mini-series, or season ending cliff hangers, they lived a life that no drama could ever duplicate, that no screenwriter could express.  But we find it in scripture, as in Acts we see the church born and emerging.  We read Paul’s letters and see x-rated persecution, that would only be found on late night HBO.  Special effects may be able to duplicate a man walking with two men, then suddenly gone, or a voice from heaven giving Paul directions.  The manger would be a Holiday Inn, or Marriott, some would play Joe and Mary, but who would play Jesus?  You see there are those that act for a living, but Jesus was who he said he was, no one can ever play him.  No one would go to the cross for those that hated him, choose a bunch of losers socially and mold them into the team that would be responsible for spreading the gospel.  No curtain calls for Stephen, the 7 sons of Skeva, Titus, Timothy, or Dr. Luke.  They were real, and the story they tell today is from the best selling book of all times.  The first book to be printed, that has never had to go into reruns, the original cannot be replaced.

But we know these men and women of the Bible only as written, we never got to know what kind of home Job’s wife ran, what Martha and Mary did when not entertaining celebrities,  we never see Paul make a tent, or Peter catch fish.  We never sit in on with James and John as they plan to overthrow the government, never see Luke make a house call, or Matthew collect taxes.  We forget they were all people too, and had the same problems we face, and how Jesus changed their lives, and how he changes ours.  No script to read from, this was life, and living.  We never even get to see Jesus grow up, go to preschool, go out for any team, or have to do his homework.  Yet we think we know so much about him from what is written, yet we know so little.  Fortunately we will have heaven to get to know him perfectly....

So with the passing of this year, we have lost many in real life, but the legend of their characters live on.  Does the character of Jesus live in your life?  Or is he a Sunday drama or even a sitcom?  Is he a documentary, a mini-series, or a greatest hits album?  Did you miss him the first time around and are waiting for the sequel?  Or is he just a character in a book?  Get to know him today, and start living, don’t wait for the movie, get to know the author.  No signed editions, no DVD collection, he is alive via his spirit for all who are tuning in, his message going out all over the globe.  Are you tuned in?  Tuning in....if only we let Jesus into our lives as we did all these people every week.

This is my last posting of 2017, so I will say thanks for all the prayers and support.  But mostly to my editor and publisher, Jesus Christ, whom I write to everyday.  You get a glimpse of my letters to him, don’t miss out on the letters he has for you.  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and “say goodnight Gracie...”  his grace will be sufficient next year too.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

ps...and lest we forget, Princess Leia, Patty Lane, Martin Lane, Carol Brady, Napoleon Solo, Jason Seaver, Wilbur Post, Dennis Becker, Zacherle, Fish/Tessio, Schneider, and Grizzly Adams.  People we know best in character.  Whoever said there was nothing to watch on TV?

oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

Every once in a while, usually when things are going my way, I think I’ve got this thing called life figured out.  Then something happens, and derails my train of tranquility, and I am faced with the reality of how much I don’t know, and how much I depend on God.  One day I am excited about the new appliances we are getting-am I getting old and domesticated? The next minute contemplating having to replace my whole downstairs due to the water on the floor from the fridge leaking, it was hooked up wrong, and it flooded.  One minute enjoying the gifts of God the next minute wondering where he is, why did he let this happen?  I have this dream of living happily ever after, it seems the ever after part is farther off more often lately.  And after 24 days of hassling with vendors, installers, people who should be doing their job, insurance companies, and their estimators, today it is finally settled.  We will be getting a new floor, which should make any homeowner happy, but we didn’t want a new floor, we liked the old one.  If we had wanted a new floor, well, I think you get the picture.....

But being patient, or rather impatient, God has brought us through another chapter in our lives.  Because of our flood, I have been able to share the Lord and encourage two men.  One came to checkout the damage for my insurance company, and he poured his heart out about his family, a strong Catholic, he trusts God, but still hurts.  His wife left him and turned his two daughters against him, and it is Christmas time.....the other seeking God, just not knowing it, who serves the homeless, out of compassion, and doesn’t see how Jesus is changing his life, all without him knowing it.  It reunited us with an old friend, who gave us good advice on the floor, which we are taking, and we will have enough money to replace the old countertops.  A new kitchen, paid for by the insurance money, free and clear, all because our floor flooded, because a man didn’t check a valve and it leaked.  And who says the ways of God aren’t mysterious....

Last week I got a letter from a man who is in jail with a brother of mine, who is seeking God, but has a lot of pain in his life.  All he wants is to find peace, drugs and motorcycles didn’t do it, and now has PTSD.  I can associate with that, the PTSD.  Sharing his letter with the group I pastor, they are reaching out to him in love, first in prayer, and then by writing.  They want to encourage him in Christ, they too have a background in drugs, bad decisions, and loneliness.  Add being homeless and hungry without hope, they have been there, and want to reach out to him.  All because an inmate who knows Jesus Christ stood by him when he was hurting, and showed him the love of Jesus.  Heaven will be flooded with ex-sinners, some who did time, and I cannot wait to meet those I have never met, yet have been part of my prisoner ministry.  The letters they send are my paycheck, no amount of money could meet the love and support and encouragement they provide.  And my prisoner ministry all started when my son got arrested...the 2am phone call that shattered my life, but that God had control of all the time.  I don’t get it, but Jesus does, my only hope.  My prayer simple, “oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.”

Which is why the things of God are mysteries rather than mysterious, and I get excited when he reveals the answers to me.  Job in his testing, found that life is basically a mystery, that we don’t understand.  Oh we try, but our finite minds cannot grasp the infinite love and power of a loving God.  Job’s friends all offer him no prayer, but lay the blame for his situation on sin in his life.  If only he had listened to them, he might not be suffering now.  Yet it is they who suffer, for in Job’s suffering he begins to trust God.  To trust God for and with the answers, and how it will all work out for him.  He is teaching Job that he has purpose and a purpose, why are the most rewarding times with God after a tremendous battle?  If only we could get it before we get into trouble.

Over the years I have met many who have fallen away and paid a price.  But God never abandoned them, and graciously accepted them back.  You see when I pray that I don’t want to be misunderstood, I should be praying that I don’t misunderstand God.  Or the things of God.  That the spirit will guide me in truth, give me comfort, and provide a way when there seems to be no way.  Leaving us with a testimony that others need to hear, and we need to thank him for.  No one wants cancer, to be homeless, to be unemployed, to lose their family, bad choices will win out, or so it may seem.  But God has everything under control, and we win in the end.  He who began a good work in me, will be faithful to complete it.  It is the job of Jesus, not us.  We just need to trust and obey.  Then let God be God, without our help.  Looking back, we didn’t ask for the pain and turmoil, but when we come to the knowledge that it was God’s plan, and accept it as a way to give glory to him, we begin to trust, and we see the finish line getting closer, we see the checkered flag, not the red flag warning.  We are ready when the white flag signals the last lap, and we have the faith to finish.  Jesus hung on the cross for six hours before he proclaimed “it is finished.”  Sin had lost and he had won, and we win too.  That’s the gospel, so easy a sinner can get it. 

You know, somehow I just knew we would end up winning when our kitchen flooded, another mystery solved.  If only I could have understood it from the start.  All things, not just good things, work out for those who love the Lord, and are called to his purpose.  His purpose is knowing Jesus.  It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.  So why is God so misunderstood?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

it's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas, everywhere I go

During my tenure at Mercedes Benz I was to learn why they are designed like no other car in the world.  Attention to detail both in design and assembly, along with a rigid system of parts quality, all add up to make a Mercedes Benz motorcar.  From being engineered so that it can be worked on easier, notice I didn’t day easily, to a parts rejection system like no other, some will accept only a few rejects in 10,000,  to Mercedes Benz that will only pass if it is per million.  Built to go at high speeds and sustain them, and to stop from those speeds, too, their ride quality is like other.  Others try to imitate, and can come close, maybe even surpass in some small area, but none compare overall to the Mercedes Benz motorcar.  None.

But as a young service advisor, I noted on the newer cars, that each one had a distinct odor.   Now who doesn’t like to open the door of a new car for that new car smell, and if it has leather, all the better.  But each Mercedes Benz had its own odor, a signature of sorts, never mentioned it until reading about the woman in charge of interior odors in engineering.  They don’t miss a thing, and they had designed a certain fragrance for each model, you need to smell each one to see what I mean, but you could blindfold me and sit me in each car, and I could tell you what model it was, and in some cases what year.  They were that distinct!  Who else but those crafty, hard core, emotionless Germans would dare to do such a thing, and then pull it off.  Way beyond the new car smell, some cars may look like a Mercedes Benz, and some cars may drive like one, but no other car on the road will smell like one. 

Being Christmas time, many seasonal smells permeate the air.  From fresh cut Christmas tree, let your plastic not so fantastic tree do that, to turkey dinner on Christmas, to apple pies baking, and the smell of monkey bread and the cinnamon, it’s beginning to smell a lot like Christmas everywhere I go.  The sights and sounds are there, from the Salvation Army bell ringers, to the cash registers ringing up sales, from the sounds of Christmas caroles in stores, note they are not holiday caroles, to the sound of horns in the parking lot, we all know the sounds of Christmas, but I rather concentrate on the smells, the odors, the fragrance of pine, wood fires, and the smells from Theresa’s kitchen.  A certain time of the year that never seems to last long enough, and we never seem to fully realize how much we enjoy it until after it has passed.  It’s beginning to smell a lot like Christmas, everywhere I go....

I was thinking about God the other day, and how we are made in his image.  We read of how his eyes search the earth to and fro, how he hears our prayers, how he answers them, and how his hand is upon us, but I fail to think about the odor we give off to him.  Better than the smell of a new car leather interior, better than pies and cookies, better than riding past a golf course of fresh cut grass, and even better than the smell of racing castor, we, the saints give off a pleasing aroma to God.  The way we smell can please God who created the whole world, and how things in it smell.  We are a pleasing fragrance of God to those who are dying, our sacrifice can be a pleasing aroma to him, even our daily walk can be a pleasing aroma to God.  And if it pleases God, it should please us.  He accepts us as a pleasing aroma when we come to him, and seek Jesus.  His spirit fills the air, and a certain indescribable aroma captivates it.  Some are drawn to it, others ignore it, but just as the spirit is a pleasing aroma, there is also a smell of death for those that reject Jesus.

God also promises to those that turn against him that their cities will burn with an unholy odor.  That there is a second death, a spiritual one, that reeks of fire and brimstone, the smell of rotting flesh that has no life.  But he also promises us to be a pleasing aroma when we come out of our sin, and join him.  Even to Noah and his family, and us, his descendants, he hated the smell of death, of those he created in his own image and loved, and even though man’s heart is evil from youth, he will never destroy all the living things on the earth again.  So he sent Jesus to make the way....a pleasing aroma to him, to those that find him, yet a sentence of death to those who deny him.  Funny how one smell can be so heavenly, yet so deadly too.

Jesus gave up of himself to be that pleasing aroma, to atone for ours sins.  Maybe a thing to remember this Christmas, as we eat of all the goodies, as we gather together, as we get and give gifts, and as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Religion can give us that new car smell, bit it too wears off, and like the mask Moses wore, soon God’s glory will fade from us.  Only in Jesus will we find the provision of the pleasing aroma that brings heaven into our earthly lives, that is pleasing to God, and every time we open the door to his heart, we are greeted by that new God smell, made perfect in Christ.  Today we can enjoy the soothing aroma of Jesus if we turn to him, if we confess our sins, and proclaim him as savior.  Let the fragrance of life begin anew for those who fell away, a new smell for those that just believed, and a familiar aroma for older saints.  The perfume of God cost Jesus everything, he was engineered like no other man in the world.  Don’t wait until Christmas to eat of his goods, to enjoy the smells.  Eat and smell and enjoy today.  We are new in Christ only once, but his fragrance of life in us never dies. 

Excuse me, I smell something in the kitchen baking....Merry Christmas to you, and all you eat and enjoy.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com