lessons learned at lunch

On a recent ride to eat and eat to ride excursion, a diner known for its burgers was chosen.  I am not a designer food or burger person, skip the fluff and give me the meat, so I was greeted by surprise by a menu full of designer burgers.  Their famous deluxe burger with lettuce, tomato, special sauce, or an Ortega burger, veggie burger, pizza burger, pb and j burger, and a whole page of burgers.  Which caught me off guard when the waitress asked if I was ready to order.  All I wanted was a burger, and telling her so she pointed to the house special with all the trimmings.  When I asked if I could get it without all the  trimmings, she again pointed to the menu, where in big letters it read NO SUBSTITUTIONS!  I was at her mercy, so to speed up the process, and avoid the hungry, feed me glares of my friends, I went with it.  But we weren’t done yet....

What side did I want?  French fries, sweet potato fries, tater tots, cole slaw, potato salad, onion rings, or a garden salad for an extra buck?  Never has a burger and fries been so hard to order.  So fries it was, rather than have her repeat the menu over again, and soon my deluxe house special with fries arrived.  A plate of fries mostly, with the burger among them.  And I figured why they added on all the goodies, it left no room for the meat, so it was smaller, and with so many fries to eat, who would notice?  I kept wondering, “what if I had ordered only fries, would the burger come as a side?”  For my $8.99 I got a plate full of food, not what I had wanted, but what I was coerced to order.  And we aren’t done yet....

After numerous attempts at unsubscribing from a bulletin from a church I used to attend, I quit.  But reading the last one, I was reminded why I don’t go there.  I am old school and remember when the bulletin told of prayer needs, who to visit at home, testimonies of answered prayer, and a verse to study as a precursor for the next week’s sermon.  With a name and phone number at the bottom if you need anything.  This one is different, starting with the pastor’s ad to go to Israel again with him and his wife.  For a month.  Only $4995...time for Christmas, the youth will be selling wreaths and trees.  Lunches will be provided after service for only $5.00.  The worship leader has a new CD available, for $10, and the pastor’s new book is being released, he will sign copies you purchase in the foyer after the service.  With no names or info at the bottom for needs or prayer requests, sounds like Craigslist for the religious.  For sale...cheap.  With a warning to not reply to this message.  Seems the gospel isn’t free anymore in some churches. 

In Matthew 25 Jesus addressed the church saying he never knew them.  Why didn’t he know them?  No relationship with him.  They did all the right things required of the day, casting out demons, teaching in his name, even running a business in the church for profit.  Collecting tithes, and bragging on how great they were.  It was all about them, and just like the burger, or the bulletin, the meat, the only thing to feed you was missing.  Love, in the form of Jesus Christ.  Seems we always try to impress God by what we do, but not by doing what he wants us to do.  He answers them, simply by saying, “when I was hungry did you feed me, thirsty did you offer me drink, a stranger invite me in, alone did you visit, and sick did you care?”  Their answer proving they missed his message, for they asked, “when did you see you?”  His answer, when you did for the least of these, you were seeing me.  When you ministered to them, you were ministering to me, in my name.  They only did things in the name of he church, using the name of Jesus, they were the man course and Jesus the side.  Today we have book signings and trips while two blocks away God’s people starve.  And there are many approaches that sound good, may look good, and even provide a blessing, at least to the giver.  Many ministries give out care packages, tooth paste, a brush, soap, and other toiletries.  Include a Bible, and walk away feeling good.  But like the church bulletin, no number or name offered to call for help.  Just a “look what I did ,” to impress others.  As personal as the gospel is, it is made impersonal by not signing our name to it.  Jesus does, and wants us to also.

Long after the burger and fries are eaten, after the Israel trip is a memory, when the next season of goodies is up for sale, the gospel of Jesus Christ will still be here.  His spirit, left to guide us will still be here.  And all we need in him will still be here.  But where will you be?  Where are you now?  Are you following a designer based religion instead of the spirit?  Is it what you do as opposed to what Jesus did?  At each service do you have to invite the holy spirit in, as if he left?  How many mission trips have you taken while stepping over those in need, when God provided you to minister?  The rich man didn’t go to hell because he was rich, but because he denied Jesus.  His actions showed his true heart,  his denial of Matthew 25. He could brag on where and what he had done, and the crowd would listen, but God was never impressed.  Like the burger, there was no meat, but lots of filler.  Does your church bulletin reveal the love of Christ?  Does your personal bulletin, your testimony reveal the love of God tot those you meet?  Do you hand out packs signed anonymous, or put your name there, for all to see, including God?  Do you have to push one for Jesus in your prayer life? 

Jesus tells us that what comes out of a man is more important than what goes into him.  Like the warning on the menu, NO SUBSTITUTIONS when it comes to the things of God.  All I really want is Jesus, I can live without the entertainment values.  Sometimes you’re the customer, sometimes the waiter.  The service you provide will be what the tip is based on.  Caught in the web of church tithing, remember they only tell you 10%, the waitress gets 15.  Will that be cash or charge......

The problem with designer living is that styles change.  And can be expensive.  Jesus never goes out of style.  Designer religion always fails, don’t you become a victim.  The gospel is still free so we can afford it, and still simple so we can get it.  Now, would you rather walk with Jesus, or where he walked?  I hope I know your answer.....NO SUBSTITUTIONS!

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

 

store #1294 is no more

For more than 50 years it stood on the corner of Terrill Road and Route 22, once the busiest road in the US of A.  From an obscure corner in Plainfield, and moving to Route 22, it was the largest store in the New York Group, selling over $27 million in 1972 dollars, and it was where many of us worked after school and after graduation.  It was Sears, at the time the face of America in retailing, but today closing all its stores over a period of years because it cannot compete with online and cheaper Chinese made junk.  Sears was America, their flagship brands of J. C. Higgins, Kenmore and Craftsman known for quality.  It was Cheryl Tiegs, golfer Johnny Miller, and Ted Williams, it was America red, white, and blue. With service to back it up, while some were in college getting a degree, I was working there and earning one in life.  Working on the receiving platform, I learned about life from the drivers, mostly like Archie Bunker in this All in the Family era, 1972.  We were a cross section of ethnic groups, from my best boss ever, Dominic Iannucci, to Herman Reeder, the funniest black guy or any guy ever.  Hassan Hassan, “is that your first or last name?”  His answer, “yes.”  It was where I learned customer service, the importance of accuracy when checking in loads, the value of over time to the working man, and how life worked.  The first and last place we got paid by cash, how important you felt with all that $2.25/hour cash, and a big let down when they started with checks, and you had to make a trip to the bank, but still they would cash it for you there.  It was the first place I met people from other towns other than in sports, and opened up a whole new world for dating.  It was a job we liked to go to, we bragged on having, and where we got paid adult wages at teenager years.  Where a brotherhood of coworkers was formed, and even stopping in many years after I moved west, was still greeted, and introduced as “the ping pong table guy.”  An infamous story better told at another time.....

But when I got the news last week, oh boy, it made me feel bad.  To be replaced by yet another strip mall, I guess that is what it takes to replace this 150,000+ square foot store, but will not even come close to what Sears represented to us then, and I remember now.  To Dom, Basic, Herman, Hines, Busch, Big Fat Richie, PC, Zitsch Larson, Tiny, Small Change, Big and Little Karls, and Mike Naylor, you guys were friends, teachers, confidants, and role models to us Jersey guys.  So many who we spent so many working hours with, hanging at Charlie Browns, playing softball, or solving Jersey problems, thanks for the memories, but sadly when we tell the stories, when they look at yet another strip mall, who will ever appreciate what the store meant to us.  Or the stories we could tell.....but store #1294 is no more.

The Bible tells us that we walk by faith not by sight.  Seems we tell stories, and believe them by faith also.  We all know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but today there is no trace of them, for they are completely removed forever, just like God said.  Like the gate to the Garden of Eden, it is hidden, and no man can find it, what God hides he hides very well.  But what he reveals to man, he reveals even better.  His love for his creation so immense and unfathomable, that even centuries after Jesus, he still calls out to the lost in love.  The Bible although burned and banned in places like China, India, North Korea, and some African nations, still goes forth.  Very few reminders of where it was written and about who, yet when researched to prove or disprove, only reveals a loving God, whose truth cannot be denied.  He gives us faith to believe that we cannot see, to hear that which is inaudible, and to trust that which is not a secret.  Before printing he chose to write his words on our hearts, and still does today, try that technophobes.  He still provides a way to heaven for free,when the world offers self help course for big money.  He still deals in truth while so many deal in opinions, and he still loves and forgives, while others seek retribution, and intimidate.  All by faith...

So maybe when I tell the stories again of the ping pong table, of the blind customer in Customer Service, of Herman locking Phyllis in the candy lockup, some will doubt, some laugh, some be entertained, believing what they want.  But we, I was there, and know it to be true.  Just like the gospel today, God is still here, he never left, and he knows the truth, for he is truth.  Let all men be liars, he still is truth.  The only place to turn for the truth and the best advice.  And in the same faith we believe he raised Jesus from the dead, we know we will be resurrected too.  The stories of my times at Sears still resonate, but Jesus Christ in my life is even more real.  Like it was yesterday, except it is today, and every day.  

Some pay for an education, I got paid while getting mine.  Earn while you learn, or vice versa, it is only the application of our education that is important.  Applying God’s love to a lost and dying world is what he calls us to do. To love those unlovely, reach out to the less fortunate, and to tell the truth about him.  At work, play, and even at church.  I don’t go in for reunions, but the one in heaven I cannot wait to attend.  So many of my friends will be there, but many won’t.  It is to them I reach out daily, for if you had trouble with the first coming of Jesus, you really won’t like his next one.  But he is patient so that none shall perish.  Memories fade, photos are lost, buildings are torn down.  But God has prepared a special place in heaven for those that believe.  With the names of those saved written in the book of life.  Many sign yearbooks, we get to sign God’s.  We are in it.  What you remember will be based on what you do and know today.  Back then the tag line was “Sears has everything!”  Back then we thought they did, now we know they had everything except a future.  Don’t you go the same way.  Only in Christ will we have everything... and at prices you can afford.

No more Christmas Wishbook, but we still have the one of promise, the Bible.  Aren’t you glad God keeps his promises?  What does he mean to you?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

the last sleep out of summer

Although we still have another week to go until summer officially ends, growing up Labor Day meant the end of summer, and the beginning of fall, and the school year.  On our street many summer nights were spent sleeping out in each others tents, spending our 15 cents on candy to get us through the night, filling our canteens with water from the hose, and grabbing a comic book or two, that never got read.  It was Joey’s big four man tent  you could stand in, as opposed to the pup tent with no floor we started out in.  We graduated up to a tent with a floor and screens, but Joey’s was deluxe, with even a Coleman lantern to keep us lit up late at night.  A big deal for me sleeping with the older guys, all of three years older, but teenagers.  It was during these sleep outs that we would discuss important subjects such as who would you pick, Betty or Veronica?  Was the new Schwinn Varsity 10 speed worth $66.95?  The big guys talked of learning to shave, Beatle haircuts and which after shave had the best aroma.  What new TV shows would soon be on, we were tired of reruns, how that would change in later years, and did anyone notice the new girl Judy-WOW!  It was times like this that went far into the night many times, trying to stay up all night, but never quite making it.  But the last sleep out of summer meant that summer was coming to an end, somehow it didn’t work with a school schedule, football games on weekends, and the nights getting longer and colder, the days shorter and cooler.  That last night was going to have to last all through the next school year, with each year learning the next would be different as we were all growing older, just not up.  Girls and soon cars would occupy our conversations, but nothing would ever beat those summer nights, out of the house and on our own, sleeping in Joey’s backyard.  Looking back it was more fun being a kid than looking forward to becoming a grownup.  I wonder, do kids today still wonder who they would choose, Betty or Veronica?  Do they even know who they are?  Schwinn went out of business years ago, and 15 cents no longer buys three candy bars.  The stories of back then seem made up to our kids and grandkids today....what marks the end of their summer?

The transition to becoming a Christian can be a tough one.  Suddenly faced with a new set of rules to live by, a new set of friends to share them with, and a past you have to lave behind.  It is an exciting time, learning about Jesus, seeing the Bible come alive, and having our minds regenerated.  We are justified by faith, but not sure of what it means, our hearts are changing, but our minds seem to be slow adapting.  The temptations of the old life loom larger, things we enjoyed now we see as sin, and it seems other believers are quick to advise us how to live.  Pointing out our sin, while neglecting their own.  Scripture calls it being unable to see the log in your own eye while trying to remove a splinter from another.  We all mean well, but it doesn’t always come out that way.  But when something ends, with God it means a new beginning, and walking with him is exciting.  It goes far beyond the laws and rules of denominations, of the thou shalt not religion, it is based on freedom in the spirit.  Or as it was so aptly put, the only way to not break any laws is to have no laws.  We find that Abraham was a friend with God long before the law, and we can long after the law.  God calls it grace, which cannot be earned as it is a gift from him when saved.  But when we accept the peace he gives, and grow in his grace, we look ahead instead of behind.

Yet today I meet Christian men, some who have been so for many years, still clinging to their old lives.  Their summer of sin has ended, but they don’t embrace God in the new season he has given them.  Puffed up with knowledge, they carry on behind closed doors, the double minded man James refers to, one life at church, another at work, and still another at home.  Even for us older fast guys, it is difficult to be three places at once!  They neglect that the spirit has given them a new birth, they are new creatures, and the old one has passed away.  They are the ones going back for one last summer sleep out, thinking it will be just as it was, but finding it never can be.  With some even lying to themselves about how great the reunion was....but miserable inside.  Ever go through this, the way back is not more study, more prayer, or even more church.  We need to stop and go back to when we first met Jesus, when his peace filled us and we were excited about him.  Go back and remember the things God has promised and expect him to be faithful, when we aren’t.  Remember how we all once vowed we would never sin again, then did, and over and over again making excuses, but feeling miserable?  All the time looking at ourselves, failing to remember that it is not based on us, but on Jesus.  This where justification comes in, and we let God be God, my standing with God does not depend on me, but on him, and somehow he does it.  Love truly covers a multitude of sins, and we can live in freedom with Jesus.  Maybe a daily occurrence for some, sin will always be available, but so will the spirit to guide us, comfort us, and provide for us.  Just like the last sleep out of summer, we have a new season ahead of us, where the older guys go to junior high, and we go to fifth grade.  Where the horror stories of changing classes, multiple teachers and dressing for gym scare us, but when we look at who has gone ahead, we can have faith to also.  In Christ we have a reason to look ahead, and we aren’t alone.  For he who saved us will never abandon us, nor forsake us for another.  If only my old sleep over friends were so accommodating.  Justification sounds like so much work, yet it is all about Jesus doing it in us, we cannot do it ourselves. 

Paul reminds us that we are not to think like kids anymore, since we are to grow in God’s grace.  We are to put off childish thoughts, and I agree.  But for one last night before I get too old, I would like to pitch a tent in the backyard, maybe on Labor Day, and invite a few friends over for the night.  Remember childhoods, but focus on Jesus.  I’m sure the talk will be different, but one question will remain, Betty or Veronica?  Summer sleep outs don’t answer all the questions, they just prolong the answers.  No matter our age, there will always be a bit of Archie in us, I wonder what stories he tells his grandkids?  Oh for just one more night in the tent....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

the facts of faith

Years ago when facing a legal situation, I had two friends from opposite cultures providing insight and advice.  And both were right on.  One an ex-chief of police, the other an ex-Hells Angel president.  Talk about opposing cultures, but both were correct in their assessment, they just came at it from different angles, as one told me.  Seems a bit of insight mixed with experience never hurts, we were thankful for their input.  We valued it, but still weighed it based on what the spirit was guiding us to do.  And God performed a miracle only he could, one so evident that you knew it could only come from him.  We never wavered, maybe drug our feet a bit, but our trust in God was rewarded by him doing something no man could do.  Supernatural, compassionate, and forgiving, mercy at its height.  With faith reaching a new height as he result.  Answered prayer will do that, but praying “thy will be done” will give you access to the heart of the Lord, and an insight he shares. 

A key to faith is having faith in the object of your faith, Jesus Christ.  It is so stylish to say “prayer changes things,” but it is the only one who can answer prayer that affects the change.  Your words don’t, his actions do.  Credit God, not you.  Big faith, little faith, waning faith, all the same, it depends on the size of your God.  Abraham faced this with his inability to have children with Sarah, all the practice with the same results.  But two things about God were called into practice here, he gives life to the dead, resurrection of our souls, but also to the dead womb of Sarah.  Old and incapable, it was dead.  To all but God.  The second thing is the creativity of the Lord.  He created life, us out of nothing but dirt.  He is able to call into life the things that don’t exist, things way beyond our wildest comprehension or dreams.  He sees things that are not as if they were.  And gives us entrance to that kind of faith.  Just might change your prayer life and relationship with him.

As Paul was chained in prison, he had to deal with the fact of where he was, who was watching him, and what was the possible outcome.  Faith deals with facts.  Too many times we wander off into a spiritual dream world only to find reality staring us in the face.  We tend to look at the situation in our own eyes instead of those of Jesus.  When faced with how to feed the 5000, Philip offered the same answer as an atheist would have.  We have no food, we are far from town, Burger King closed at 6.  All facts, but in the midst of it, Jesus showed who he was, by providing for everyone with some left over, so they could be reminded at the next meal of the one he provided then.  Faith never evades the facts, it acknowledges them, and then trusts God to make the changes.  Again, not what, but who changes things?

And when God does deliver, do we give him all the glory?  Check your Facebook, so many brag about the numbers who prayed, as if when it hit a magic number God would answer.  Or that it was their prayer that made the difference.  It might have, taking the glory from God and leading a weaker one astray.  Get your millstone ready.  But sometimes we see God’s promise as the obstacle, doubting even he can do it, and when not immediately or on our schedule, we doubt.  Ye of little faith.  Jesus even asked his disciples “couldn’t you have stayed awake another hour?”  You slept through the bet part of the show, the miracles.  Just because it sounds too good to be true, do we doubt God?  When in a coma from heart disease and open heart surgery I should not have lived through, I saw Jesus, a glimpse of heaven, a peace I can only describe as I want to go back to.  “Am I dead,” I asked.  “No, you are very much alive.”  The doctors and nurses were in disbelief, even Peter my cardiologist told me “it was evident that God intervened.”  And yes I want to go back, and know I will someday.  Some might say I beat the odds, but with Jesus it was always 100% in my favor.  Alive on earth to tell about him, or alive in heaven with him.  You never lose when trusting Jesus.

Right now God is at work for us, allowing situations so that he can show himself to us as worthy.  Don’t stop praying, but start acknowledging him and who he is.  What he has done.  All things, good and bad, work together to those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.  All.  His purpose, knowing Jesus, and obtaining everlasting life.  Faith may be the evidence of things not seen but believed, but I have seen him.  He reveals himself daily, are we looking?  Are we listening?  Faith leads to obedience, that builds trust.  Ask Peter, he obeyed when Jesus called to him to walk on the water, it wasn’t faith, he saw Jesus and obeyed.  Read it.  That’s a fact.  Which he carried with him the rest of his life.  Do we have the faith to say “if that is really you Lord, bid me to come?”  Or are we too busy praying about it?  The facts of faith are it is the one who answers that is the important concept.  It takes faith, blind as it may be, to turn on the light switch, it takes real faith to trust British electrics.  We cannot see how it works, it just does.  Do you give God the same chance?  I have the scar and the records to prove my miracle, Jesus has scars to prove his.  Thomas believed without touching, we can believe only when Jesus touches our heart.  Like we learned, all things work together.  What part of all don’t you understand?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

one afternoon on the side of I-10

As many of you know and now all of you know, I ride press bikes for Triumph.  I get them out of the crate, with zero miles, and put on between 500-1500 miles.  A rough job , but someone has to do it.  I have also put miles on custom bikes such as the Carpenter head Rocket 3, with 220 hp on the dyno, and for celebrities such as Christine Aguilera, it seems the bike of choice to be cool in Hollywood is Triumph, so Triumph comes through for them.  Some years I have ridden over 25 bikes in a year, some as few as ten, but always a new adventure, as a new bike on the same road can be different.  I have put over 1000 miles on a Daytona 675 in 18 hours, only to have a magazine editor crash it, and have done many 500 mile days when deadlines must be met.  Quick trips to Monterey, Easter vacations, and other times off have been times to ride a press bike.  I have gone months without riding my own bikes, almost six months once, and have put so many miles on Tigers since their intro in 2011, I should have a high mileage award.  But when Triumph decided to bring out the new generation of Bonnevilles, Modern Classics, suddenly there was a rush to get them broken in and out to the magazines.  With the new Street Twin, needing 500 miles in two days in the dead of winter.  Yes, we do get winter here, and it can be cold.  So I just dress warm and go riding....

But with a cover shoot for Rider magazine in two days, the bike had arrived late and they had a date with the printer, I was off and riding in the 40’s, sun and 60 felt warm.  I usually take all kinds of roads to see how the bikes really operate, this time was freeways, away from cities.  So off I went east on I-10, with very few cars, and lots of headwind, which fortunately turned to tail wind on my return trip.  I have had police officers pace me, look at my rides, even stop me and ask questions, but today was to be different.  I was pulled over by the CHP for going 84 in a 65 zone, just him and me.  And the conversation began....

At first he couldn’t understand why I had a California license and the bike had Georgia plates that read DIST.  And no registration papers.  As I tried to explain who I was, what the bike was, and what I was doing, he got more confused.  I even gave him Triumph’s number to assure him, but too many details confused him.  Plus it turned out he rode, and had never heard of a Street Twin before, and when I tried to explain deadlines, a new model, and my speed, he got more confused.  So he started writing, still not fully comprehending, and them leaned over to me, “if someone goes by, pretend to look like you are signing a ticket.  This is just a warning.”  He was cool, I was without citation, and the cover story had an interesting story to go with it.  I made it back in in time, actually a day ear;y, swapped bikes, and the cover came out perfect.  Which Rider magazine named as their Bike of the Year, and I made a new friend in Mark Tuttle, Editor in Chief.  Plus one CHPpie who shall remain nameless.....

I have been blessed by being able to ride as much as I do, God has given me the desire to ride, and then provides bikes and situations that without him would not be possible.  I can boast, but I have no control over it, I can brag, but I have found it makes some others jealous.  I find that when crediting God with the gift, when thanking him for all I meet when I ride, I get to spend more time with him.  Time that a some may claim is all about riding, or all about the bike, maybe all about the road, but it is really time with God.  Peace and fellowship with Jesus in an Arai.  I could stop there and brag, but not to God who sees me as I am.  He sees the selfishness, the greed, the self righteousness, and how pride can show up when I least expect it.  He sees all my clever maneuvering and still loves me.  Therefore all these actions can be meaningless to God, and can get in the way of our relationship.  I felt completely different after pretending to sign a ticket than when I was first pulled over.  But God humbles me,and uses Abraham as an example.

One night he took Abraham out and showed him all the stars in the sky, promising him to number his descendants as the number of the stars, countless.  Paul writes Abraham believed God and it was found righteous, and God called him his friend.  We cannot be righteous on our own terms, in some circles I would be a big shot, along the side of the road, just another scofflaw.  When we base who we are on Jesus Christ, when we are spirit driven, when it is what he did and not what we do that is important, we see a glimpse of the righteousness that Abraham did.  But the key ingredient is that Abraham trusted God.  He was given a choice of roads to take, and he chose the lesser of the two, Sodom and Gemorrah being the most attractive, the rolling landscapes beautiful, but chose the desert instead, and in doing so chose Jesus.  He learned that righteousness that comes from performance is useless, but when it comes from God it is valuable and eternal.  When we truly seek Jesus first, he adds his righteousness, we cannot.  Lest we boast about ourselves.  We all want to be accepted by God, and many strive through acts of their own to gain it.  Fact is there is nothing you can do to make God love you more, or to gain his favor.  But you can bask in his glory, and spend time with him, and be found a friend as Abraham did.  Jesus even told us “you are my friends if you do the things I ask.”  What does he ask, to love him first with all your heart, and then all men after the same way.  You can either be religious or righteous, one based on man, the other based on Jesus.  God forgives, man doesn’t.  Religion binds, the spirit sets us free.

So I am blessed because I let God bless me.  I hope to give him the glory by telling you this story, there was nothing I do to get to ride like I do, for it too is based on a relationship with a friend, who is the National Service Manager for Triumph Motorcycles.  When we see it all comes down to relationships, we can see Jesus more clearly.  If only we could see him as clearly as Abraham saw the stars that night.  I tried to explain to the CHPpie, I don’t think he ever got it.  But showed me mercy.  Don’t wait to get pulled over to pray, inside your Arai, your half shell, or your jail cell will do.  Abraham is known as a man of great works, his greatest work was trusting God.  How great is your God, it will only show by how great your works are.  His works in you.  And may God credit them to you as righteousness...

Which sure beats explaining to the man on the side of the road.....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com