lines of credit-all others pay cash

When going to work for Roger Penske, you are indoctrinated to his way of doing things.  And you find there is only one way, his, join in, follow the rules and reap the benefits, or going looking elsewhere for employment.  After learning his set of rules and morals, many of them very good and which set him apart, you are then told about the man, with the emphasis on his successes in racing, his car dealerships, and the fact he has a $1 billion line of personal credit.  This boy don’t have to worry if his American Express card will not be accepted, or if his check will bounce.  And within reason, as reasonable as a $1 billion line can afford you, he can see things and buy them that mere mortals cannot.  Who needs credit if you travel with Uncle Roger, his check is good anywhere.  Just like mine...in my wildest dreams.

We pay cash, and if we don’t have it, don’t buy it.  We keep a credit card for traveling, needed if you want to rent a car, and best when checking into a motel.  It has the lowest fee, zero, the highest interest rate, can gain points if you spend way too much, and we only use it if we have the cash to back it up and pay it off.  Just like Roger.  But while in the bank the other day, a rare occurrence in these ATM days, a sign advertised twice as many points, a higher credit limit, and a prestigious card to remind the world, or at least the kid taking your Big Mac order, you were somebody.  So talking with the manager, who is a friend, I asked her about it, and she explained all the benefits over the standard card.  I’m in, sign me up, and then she told me it had an $89/year fee, where mine had none.  Looking at me, she said “honestly Mike, the only difference in reality is you don’t pay a fee, being exclusive does.  Both cards need to be paid when the bill comes dues.”  So I stayed uncool, I’ll just have to impress the salesgirl with my humor and good looks if I want to impress her.  Maybe like F. Scott Fitzgerald noted, the rich are different.

Sin is like having a line of credit too, it must be paid off in full.  No monthly payments, no interest rate if you join the club, and the only grace period is when you come to Jesus.  Sin separates us from God and the things of God, his fruits will not grow in a sinner, although there may be plenty of fertilizer.  Sin requires a payment before you can enter heaven, and only Jesus can pay it.  Payable upon death, but you must have made the proper arrangements, being saved while still alive.  Sin keeps us from God, but also keeps God from us, as we reject his love and forgiveness.  And there is always some good Christian brother to remind us of our sin, and how we need to turn or burn.  How many are really interested in a salvation from someone who condemns us, when God never does?  There is no example of God’s condemnation, our refusal to acknowledge the holy spirit condemns us.  Yet these church folk go around condemning us, they are above it, and neglect to tell us there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.  He came to save, not condemn.  Even the bumper sticker says “Jesus saves,” yet they send out a message that he condemns.  They fail to see the shame, loneliness, agony, and misery of being condemned, they see God as the final judge, while they serve as the jury.  Yet they fail to see that if God didn’t love us, he never would have sent Jesus to die for us. 

Jesus treated the woman at the well with compassion, yet conveyed to her the payment sin was extracting from her.  Everywhere in scripture we see where he came to save, not condemn, that he came to set us free from the debt of sin, that we could not pay.  Yet forgotten in their message is the words of Jesus, form the Lord’s prayer, “forgive as you forgive others.”  We are the others.  When we see God with his arms outstretched, welcoming us, loving us, and forgiving us, it takes a hard heart to not accept his mercy.  Yet the message of condemnation continues, just like credit card balances coming due.  Only with credit cards, they will up your credit line, maybe reduce the interest, but you still owe it.  God says owe no man nothing, except to love him.  Ever been hugged by a credit card, feel safe and secure that your line of credit will save the day?  It may buy you time, but the bill will still come due. 

So we have no condemnation in Christ, we can come as we are, be accepted as we are, but don’t expect to leave that way.  Jesus changes things, and we are one of them.  In him we are joint heirs, when God’s will is read, our name is right there in the book of life, debt free, all sin paid in full.  As if it never happened, may your FICO score be as forgiving.  Uncle Roger may have earned his credit line, but when using it, still has to pay it back.  Like my friend Bill used to say about the Golden Rule, “he who has the gold rules.”  I rather have Jesus.  Whose line of forgiveness is not harsh, but loving.  He comes with open arms and hands, not with clenched fists or wagging a finger at us.  Can we be the same to those who commit sin against us?  Or are we so busy bragging about our line of credit that we forget the love shown to us?  Money may buy a fine dog, but only love will wag its tail.  You may have all the credit needed on earth, but you cannot spend it in heaven, where even the streets are paved in gold, asphalt to the saved, how different it is here.  So in my wildest dreams I can brag that I work for the world’s richest Jew, that he knows me first hand, he knows my name and calls me friend.  I only met Roger twice, I only needed to meet Jesus once.  I hope he does, and you do too.  Jesus, never leave home without him.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

looking back

We all know the story of Lot’s wife, who when instructed by God to “not look back,” did anyway, and turned into a pillar of salt.  Good advice from God, but even better when taken, a rule of thumb when you hear from God.  But looking back for some of us is really looking ahead, to looking ahead to our next ride, our next encounter with our new motorcycle, or one we have grown to love.  It has been said, and I think wisely so, if you don’t look back at your bike when you park it, you are riding the wrong bike.  Stop and think of your new bike, or one that was your favorite, how many times did you park it where you could see it from the diner’s window.  Or stopped a few times and kept looking back to see if it was OK.  Or just looked back in admiration, or disbelief that it was really yours.  It goes way beyond after the new wears off, and after many miles you have established a relationship.  For me it speaks of the road, of where I am, where I have been, and where I am going.  So when you look at the pictures I take on a trip, they include what I am riding.  For in me they bring back a time and a place I wish to remember, if only for that moment in time. 

Many times while on the road, thousands of miles from home, I have stopped and just gazed at what I was riding.  Amazed that everything I need is there, and how compact it really is.  How that bike has allowed me to ride all over America, travel at 80+ miles per hour, and be safe.  How it is everything I need, and nothing I don’t.  So when stopping for a Tootsie Roll, and I lean on it, and people always seem to come up and want to know about my bike and the ride, I get to share something precious to me, to encourage them to get out and see America, and to start living.  To enjoy life, to cherish the relationships you have, and if you ride, it all means that much more.  So when I look back, I am looking back in gratitude to God, with thanks for the ride, and of the ride to come.  And can’t wait to get back on the bike and ride.  Seems lately this looking back has been happening just looking at the bikes in my garage......could it be the road is calling?

There are no chance encounters, no such thing a luck, as God does have everything under control.  Just like when Jesus met Nicodemus that night.  Nick at night was not prepared to hear what he did from Jesus, he thought he was living the right life as dictated by his peer group, the Pharisees.  On the outside he was admirable, but Jesus saw something deeper, a longing and a loneliness.  NIcky had taken a chance even meeting Jesus, for fear of retribution from his peers, the spirit calling him and he didn’t realize it.  So Jesus told him simply “you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God.”  You cannot get in the way you are, you must change to gain entrance.  You are wasting your time if you think you can get in any other way.  You can look back on what you have done, but you must look ahead to what Jesus has done.  How often Nicky must have looked back to that evening in wonder, unsure of what Jesus meant, until we see him reappear some 20 chapters later at the grave of Jesus with Joseph to claim the body.  And finding Jesus gone, now he got it.  The missing body, resurrected, confirmed all the spirit had relayed to him, and now he knew.  He had been born again, and would enter the kingdom of God.  He once had risked everything to meet Jesus in the garden, now he was risking everything to claim his body.  He was looking ahead by looking back, and the future was bright for him.  No longer bound by laws, he had the spirit to guide him.  How many times he must have looked back to that night in the garden, how may times did he share that or wish he had.  He had found the right God to look back on and to, just like we look back at our rides.  Maybe a new way to look at your bike next time you park it.  A way to see Jesus, and  how he has set you free. 

Today many preachers seem hung up on being born again, and when asked “why is that always your message?” reply “because you must be born again.”  The gospel so simple we can get it, and free so we can afford it.  But priceless to those that receive it.  So maybe the next time you park your bike, and walk away and look back, think of your first encounter with Jesus.  Look how far you have come, and how far you want to go.  Look around at your surroundings, maybe glance at the windows.  And if you see a face looking at you and smiling, it just may be Jesus, looking at you with fondness.  Looking back at you the way he wants you to look at him.  To be part of the kingdom is to belong to God.  Whether in the garden, the parking lot, or alongside the road, Jesus is watching.  Looking out for you, so enjoy the ride a little more, take the time with him, and remember, you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God.  A ride with a destination like no other.  If you are not looking back at Jesus, maybe you are serving the wrong God.  And why Jesus spent his whole ministry on the road.....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

wanna get lost, trust a GPS

I wish to go on record as a low tech guy.  I am slowly adapting via Triumph to ride by wire, programmable traction control and engine mapping, and ABS.  Slowly.  In our 2015 Mustang you have more gauge info than anyone should be allowed to read while driving, more entertainment than info.  From heated grips, to cruise control on my newest bikes, I am adapting.  Seems now the latest point of contention is the size of the screen on your motorcycle, where the clocks in Britianese used to be.  Spending 2000 miles on new Street Triple RS with them, and a joy stick, they were actually easy to navigate with.  Seems the line I drew in the sand has moved, or is it me, but one line I refuse to cross is using a GPS.  I’m a map guy, and have even been known to stop under pressure and ask directions, but every time follow someone on a GPS. they get lost, or we do.  On one ride with four of us, after the same street looked familiar after the third trip past it, we headed down a side street and saw the diner, and were about to eat when our fearless leader on is GPS finally arrived.  On one trip in the Mustang using Theresa’s cell with GPS, we followed it into a neighborhood, telling us we had arrived, with no sign of at the country club in sight.  Backtracking and seeing fairways, within 30 seconds we were parked and ready to eat.  Even I know my right from my left without letters on each glove to remind me.  And last week, again following the GPS, we could see our destination, only the road it told us to take didn’t exist.  Some quick thinking, aka common sense, got us there in a few minutes.   Some swear by the GPS, I swear at it!

My first experience with the GPS was over 20 years ago in off road racing in Mexico, and it was cool.  You could keep tabs on where the race cars were, and dispatch a pit crew if needed.  But yet somehow those in a GPS-less ride still finished.  On a course that was pre-run, with directions given.  With GPS coordinates for the wealthy.  But it always comes down to one thing when you get lost, one question we ask when calling the place we want to be at, after telling them we are lost they ask “where are you?”  And my first thought is “if I knew where I was I wouldn’t be lost,” but maintaining cool, give an intersection, usually to find I am close, or within a time zone. 

The first question God asked Adam in the Bible was “where are you?”  He knew, he wanted Adam to see where he was and how he had fallen.  God saw him hiding in the bushes, he thought no one could see him or what he had done.  God could have asked him “how did you get there, what were you doing, what has happened to you?” but he chose to zero in on their relationship, and asked simply “where are you?”  And the excuses, and lies followed.  Sin had taken him on new course, and without God, he had no way of escape.  And today we all suffer from the sin of the first Adam.  But Jesus makes it all right, if we ask “where are you?”  Or in the words of Jesus, the first ones spoken in John, he asks the two future disciples, after being identified as the lamb of God, “what do you want?”  So, what do you want from Jesus? 

Remarkably the first words of Jesus come in the form of a question, so how would you answer, what do you want from God?  Before you answer, consider the answer you may give, and how Jesus will answer it.  Scripture tells us he will give us our hearts desire, and when he is our hearts desire, we are wide open to the leading of the spirit.  When it is all about us, we are following our own desires, and would you follow another lost person if you are lost?  Funny how when we panic, all buildings, all trees, and all roads look the same.  If only we stop and ask Jesus, it would make things a lot easier.  But then we need to follow his directions, I knew there would be a hard part.  But that is where faith comes in, and trust builds.  But when meeting the two men, he asked what, not who do you seek.  Today men seek a what, when they need a who, but Jesus asks differently, he makes them think, and he confronts them with what they really seek or want.  What do you really want, that is the most important question in life.  Which later was followed up by Jesus to Peter, brother of one of the two, when he asked “who do you say I am?”  And Peter answered rightly,”you are the Christ, the son of the living God.”  So what do you really want from life, and who do you say Jesus is?    Your answer may have eternal ramifications.

You see God knows just where you are, what you want, but most importantly what you need.  When Jesus said “I am the way,” he meant it.  No GPS religion needed, he knows, do we?  So the most important question we need to ask is where are we, Jesus isn’t lost, and he stuck right with us.  We need to see where he is and follow, remember he is the great shepherd, whose job is to lead his sheep.  And who else but the lamb of God would know best what sheep need, who else could be the great shepherd?  And their actions confirmed their words, they followed Jesus.  Before they met him, they knew the answer was him, and they followed, before they spoke, they went with him.  Just like today.....right?

They encountered Jesus on a spiritual level, today churches are filled with physical answers to prayer,and miss the point Jesus was asking about.  Concentrate on the physical, when Jesus warns us the things seen are temporal, the things not seen are eternal.  Do you really trust him who you haven’t seen, but know exists?  Where are you in Christ?  If you don’t know where you are going how will you know when you get there?  Could it be that when the holy spirit comes into your life you have the most high tech device that will ever be formed, at your disposal?  Yet too many settle for a 3x5 inch screen for direction in life. 

Even a broken clock is right twice a day, can you afford to take the chance?  Are you filled with information, memorized the word, but yet are lost?  Have you considered the application of what you know, based on who you know and who provided it?  Makes you wonder, if Moses had a GPS, how would it have affected him?  Yet God directed him where he wanted, fed him, and provided shoes that never wore out.  Leading him to where he wanted him to be.  Something to remember next time we ask in prayer, it doesn’t take a Big Mac to be supersized in God’s economy.  Trust Jesus, follow his spirit, and the road you are on just got a lot more exciting and interesting.  Where you are in Christ will tell us a lot about where you are going.  Maybe Jesus was such a low tech guy after all. 

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

just add more water?

Anyone who knows more than us can be considered a know it all.  My old co-worker Lenny falls right into that category, he was able to find some bit of information no one else knew about our products, and establish himself as one.  His key was, only talk about the things you know.  Now that secret is out.  But since we both sold industrial supplies including chemicals, he enlightened me one day how all cleaners start the same, then get watered down for each purpose.  Anyone who has mixed his own Simple Green knows the drill, full strength to degrease, 200-to-1 to make window cleaner, same base product, just add more water.  But that message doesn’t always get through to the end user, as I found out when walking into a bus account I serviced one day.  A competitor had worn down the buyer, and sold it based on its ability to be cut with water and still be an effective cleaner, so when the 55 gallon drum arrived, he hung a sign on it for the night crew, use this to clean the floors, with another saying see me first.  They only saw the use this one, the see me first sign had disappeared.  And following orders, they used the new cleaner, didn’t know it was concentrated, and used the entire 55 gallons on the floor.  When Ii showed up, they were trying to shovel the muck that was soap off the floor, I some places it was inches thick, and it had holding power like mud, step in it and it tried to suck your shoes off.  They had done as directed, who knows what they were thinking, “just following orders,” and Paco, their boss had gained a new nickname, “El Rey Del Jabon,” or the King of Soap.  Which no one ever repeated in front of him.  We never talked floor cleaners again.

Since the dawn of man, people are seeking for righteousness and holiness, longing to be better than they are, trying to break free from the evil that is within, and wishing somehow they could get hold of that selfish evil from within, and not be so self centered, to somehow eliminate their problems and become a better person.  Throughout the Bible people cry out for this righteousness, with some going as far as to cover their face like Moses did to hide the fact that the glory of God had faded in him.  Some act holy, some live a legalistic Christian life, and some are just double minded, a much different person outside of church than in it.  We all want to be better, but fail to realize it takes God and his spirit to do it.  Yet we find a movement in the church today, one based on what is on the external, and is much different than that which God places on the internal.  All men look at the external, only God sees our heart, the rest of us show a façade.  Not to our advantage either.

The liberal idea that we are all God’s children is wrong as John states.  Some denominations welcome sinners in just to grow the numbers, telling them their lifestyle is OK, Jesus loves you anyway.  Sin is never mentioned, except by troublemakers, no form of repentance is offered, just play nice and the world will play nice with you.  If you are succeeding in the things of life, you must be OK with God, if struggling you the are out of favor and need to change your ways.  False teachings like those that permeate Sunday TV and radio promise a better life, beg for money, seems that is the one common denominator we all understand, and promise a better day, ending where we all sing Kumbyah.  Such teaching and its belief system are false, and they will go down in flames literally, denying Jesus as Lord and savior, while they amass riches on earth at others expense.  Never preparing their listeners for the after life we all will face, denying sin and its cost, and only bringing up Jesus once in a while.  “See, he mentions Jesus,” their comeback when questioned.  Living well on the outside, but rotting and going to hell on the inside.  A watered down gospel, one that is not offensive, that doesn’t make you make a choice, that denies the truth of Jesus, and leads many to hell.  Our churches are filled with this doctrine, and not one cannot fall prey to it.  We all want to get along, remember Rodney King’s plea after his beating?  He just didn’t want Jesus....

If you think or know that you are part of a watered down gospel, turn to Jesus,and ask him.  Don’t trust your leaders, or even my writings, ask God directly.  Listen to his still small voice, then have him show it to you in the word.  Just because you may sound like a great teacher, and have a large following doesn’t mean you are telling the truth.  We are all looking for that better way and Jesus is it.  And when we as Christians, who make up the church fail, those searching go elsewhere and become an easy target.  Seems the Joel Osteen’s of the world can find the weak ones, and lead them astray.  We each need to ask “where is Jesus in this?  Do the teachings match up with what the Bible says, not just choosing a verse to satisfy our sin.”  Lately I have been getting blank stares from many older Christians who only study the word, really only following a teacher and his teachings, and missing out on the full message of Jesus Christ.  They tell me they are studying to find themselves approved, really they are studying to find themselves excused.  When Jesus is reduced to a good feeling, they fail to note that the heart can be deceptive, and they are above deception.  Sounds cultic doesn’t it?

The record of scripture is it takes God to change us, and that it is the holy spirit that does the good work.  John baptized the outer man, Jesus the entire man.  And then the dove appeared, the symbol of the holy spirit, making us as free as a dove in Christ.  If your whole Christian experience is church and their ways, you need Jesus.  And note, you have to be a Christian to get the holy spirit, it is a gift from him, and only for true believers.  You choose the gospel you want to believe, and if you fail to read the instructions left by Jesus, you end up with too much soap on your floor, when it could be clean and shiny.  Jesus is the only way to remove the dirt of sin from your life.  In the right proportions he will show in your life, watered down may keep your outside clean, but as any mechanic knows, it is what is on the inside the engine that counts.  It is the built up sludge that finally will clog it up, it may run for years, but not as designed.  Ask yourself, are you running as God planned?  Do you feel good after church, or challenged by God to grow in him? 

I once worked in a shop where after any service, they washed the windshield.  If it looked clean, the car must be clean too.  Just one talk with the King of Soap will tell you different, and maybe all you need to know about following instructions.  The night crew did as they were told, never questioning the results.  It is time we need to, is our inside as clean as the outside we portray?  Only Jesus can cleanse you from sin, for he truly is the King of Clean, El Rey del Jabon.  In any language, Jesus saves.  Just add water, his spirit and see.  Jesus is the baptizer of the holy spirit.  Lenny sounded good, now you know the truth.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com