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

just add water

The process begins with a formula called 7-X, of which the legend goes only two people know in the entire world.  A written copy is placed in a vault for safe keeping, of which only these two men know the combination.  They are never seen together, never fly together, and are trusted with the formula for the most popular and famous soft drink in the history of the world, Coca Cola.  Such was the story as told to us years ago.  From there it is made into a concentrate, again guarded, and distributed to the bottlers in 55 gallon drums.  Then the bottler adds bottling sugar, filtered water, making syrup, and it goes into the packaging to the end user, the one who hoists the cold Coke.  From 6.5 ounce bottles, the one time standard, to being sold as post mix to be mixed with water at a 5-to-1 ratio, there simply is how the Coke you drink is made.  From that 55 gallon drum of concentrate, you can end up with over 300 gallons of syrup, or almost 8000 Big Gulps.  The original formula still intact, the major difference is water.  Just add water to the concentrate and mix it into syrup, which some old time pharmacies still sell over the counter as a stomach remedy, to a different old time fountain adding a few squirts into a paper cup in its holder, then adding carbonated water, stirring and you have the old time fountain Coke.  Things are much different today, as the syrup is no longer in 5 gallon tanks, but in boxes of 5 gallons called Bag in the Box, with one quick connect hooking it up to the dispenser.  Just so we can be refreshed....

I can remember grabbing a newly bottled Coke from the bottling line on a hot day, bottled at a perfect 34 degrees, and having it burn all the way down.  Refreshed, but still thirsty, caffeine makes you thirsty, and also gives the cola nut flavor, then grabbing a cold bottle of water.  Coca Cola even sang that “Coke refreshes you best,” and it does, but nothing beats cold water to quench your thirst.  The procedure for us was always grab the Coke, or two, then head for the water fountain.  It seems that a body made up of almost 70% water can only be satisfied with water, but Coke comes close.  But we’re still thirsty.

In scripture, water often refers to the holy spirit.  How it is refreshing water, and Jesus told us of how the woman at the well would thirst again for water, but once she had the spirit of the Lord, she would thirst no more.  The holy spirit, the third part of the trinity, the third person who points us to Jesus, who told us we needed him when we were lost, and who comforts us and guides us today.  The most evident in our lives today, but also the most misunderstood and credited.  We know God is the father, Jesus his son saves, but we forget to credit the spirit for giving us life.  Equal but different, whose presence you can sense spiritually, but who  you will never see, he was there at the beginning with Jesus, who gave life and form to a world formed by God when it was void and without form.  Just as the spirit gave  life to the world back then, he still gives life to us and our world today.  Maybe best expressed from a chorus in a Keith Greene song, “thank you oh my father, for giving us your son, and leaving your spirit till your work on earth is done.”  The same spirit who Jesus said he would leave with us until he returns.  And yet we hardly know him, or of him.

So it only makes sense that the one who comforts and refreshes is referred to as living water in the Bible.  The one who can only satisfy our spiritual needs, who acts in our behalf, who is given to us at salvation.  Who lives in us, but is rarely called upon.  The one we ask to enter into us in corporate prayer, neglecting the fact he is already and always with us, we left him, he never leaves us.  Religion got that one turned around.  But unlike Coke claiming to be the real thing, he is the real thing, there is none like him in the world.  All the things we attribute to God and Jesus he is.  Jesus saves, by no other name can we be saved, but who was it that told us we needed Jesus?  Who stood with us, still does, guides and comforts us?  Who counsels us, who shines in our life and gives us life?  Yet remains as big a secret among believers as 7-X.  Don’t you think maybe we should introduce ourselves to him and get to know him better?

God is a spirit and must be worshipped as such scripture declares.  No man has ever seen God, very few men have seen Jesus.  To be an apostle, one criteria is you must have seen Jesus.  But to all upon salvation, we are given his spirit.  Who allows us to worship the father, be forgiven by the son, and never thirst.  Don’t you think we need to spend more time in the spirit, and with him?  For he too, never leaves us or forsakes us. Yet so few know him, and even less know about him, and we call ourselves Christians.  Right now you can experience the spirit first hand, up front and personal.  That still, small voice described in the Word is him, he never forces himself on you, but is always listening and talking, intervening on our behalf.  Thirsting for more of the things of God, just add water, his spirit.  And thirst no more.  With no side effects.  He is the beginning, and the end product, and all our in-betweens.  Just by adding the spirit to our lives, we can drink of everlasting water and be refreshed.  A secret that has never been hidden from us by God, and who unlike the two men who are trusted with the formula for 7-X, travels with us always.  Something to consider while ordering a cold Coke on a hot day, or any day.  Who knows just what to order for you, and has prepared it already.  If he can give a new world form, who can give life to something devoid of it, imagine what he can do for just one person, you, when you just add water.  In the beginning was the word, so next time when asked “are you in the word?” reply “is the word in you?”  As a true Christian, it should show, do we really need to ask?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com