helping Dad

One of my most memorable memories of growing up was spending time with my Dad.  Some of the earliest recollections are when my parents bought a new house, with an unfinished upstairs.  On Saturday morning, he would meet Henry who built the house to finish it, and I would go along.  I was probably more in the way than helpful at age 5, but I can remember picking nails, sweeping, and handing things to my Dad he asked me for.  I may not have been an intricate part of the construction, but I was helping my Dad, and that has stuck with me all these years.  I cannot remember individual events except for meeting early at the Flying A truck stop and having a 7 Up for breakfast, but it made me feel wanted and excited when I got home tired and dirty from a day’s work.  Telling my Mother all the things I did.  It was a day spent with my Father, and I think he enjoyed it just as much.

Raising my sons they were shown how to wash cars, cut yards, and the one they joke about the most, and remind me of the most, picking up turds in the yard.  They did all the little things, then worked up to bigger things.  As they got older, it was a joy to see them wash the car, to take care of the details, to wash the motorcycles, and help out around the house.  Often without being asked, they saw something that needed to be done, and wanted to please us, doing it to the standards we had shown them.  We were blessed and still are to have the help out, and remembered how much an encouraging word of thanks means to them.  An acknowledgment of  job well done, a blessing to us, and a blessing to them by blessing us. We tried to encourage our sons to help, sometimes reluctantly, sometimes willingly, and sometimes being coerced by a reward or promise, but they generally did.  And still do....but they now have their own lives.  And it is a blessing to see the good things we are passing on to them, they are passing on.  Seems the words get forgotten, but the actions don’t.  Probably a lesson in there for all of us....

Personally I am tired of hearing about the woman accused of adultery by her accusers.  So much is said about her and her accusers, as to what Jesus wrote in the dirt, and how they fled one by one.  Leaving her face to face with Jesus, one to one.  His famous words “go and sin no more” have echoed in churches for years, but how could he say that?  What did he know the others didn’t?  What had really happened here that we aren’t told of?  How could he tell this woman supposedly caught in sin to just go and sin no more?

The same way he tells us when we are saved.  Something happens where we take on a new nature, we become new creatures in Christ.  Behold the old is passed away, and in this meeting, among her accusers and enemies, her heart changed.  So did the accusers, who couldn’t stand in the righteousness, but she could.  She had become that new creature, she saw Jesus for who he was, and repented.  Maybe not the words, but God looks on the heart, and he saw the change.  Maybe written in the dirt was the gospel, you must be born again.  Whatever it was, it caused all there to turn to Jesus, or to turn away.  Just like when the spirit confronts us and asks us to make a decision on who Jesus really is.  But how can he say to her go and sin no more?  Maybe the same way he says to us....

He know we will sin again, but our heart has been changed, and the willingness is gone.  We are a work in process, not perfect yet, and will stumble and fall, make bad decisions, and go astray.  We still need the great shepherd to guide us, protect us, and reunite us after our latest sins get between us.  There is no way on her own she can keep from sinning, it takes the spirit to guide, and our willingness to obey and follow.  He doesn’t forgive us so we can return to our sinful past, but so we can go ahead with him, in his spirit.  When our sins are forgiven we change, go and live differently, start a new life, and spend more time with our Dad in heaven.  Abba Father, Jesus tells us, just call him Dad.  And now she could because she was part of the family and had all the rights and blessings of the kingdom.  While her accusers left, she stayed with Jesus.  Forgiveness is designed to set us free, to allow us to have a hope and a new future.  Jesus is not foolish enough to think she would never sin again, just as we will too.  But now we know like she did how sin is replaced by forgiveness and grace, when seeing Jesus for who he is.  Not a set of rules to follow, but an actual person.  A person who is set free to be all we can be in Christ.  We remember the words Jesus spoke to her, do we fail to see the action? 

And God doesn’t need our help, only our participation.  Just like my Dad probably could get more done without a 5 year old’s help, he included me, and it was time well spent.  A new part of our relationship was formed and I was able to see and say what my Dad and I had done together.  As a team, no matter how little I helped, still part of the team.  You can become the part of God’s team today, just like the woman caught sin, or walk away, coming face to face with Jesus, but rejecting his message.  Simply written in the same dirt he created us from, showing us the way back to his father.  Helping Dad as he was instructed to do, obeying what his father told him, but doing it willingly so we can be reunited to him in heaven.  We pray that by his hand we must be fed, give us Lord our daily bread.  But how many only hear the words, but never see the writing?  One accused, and many accusers did, only one changed.  Go and sin no more.  If only the men had reacted to the message in the dirt, they too would  have been set free.  To go and sin no more.  They missed out on the real message, for God doesn’t condemn, Jesus came to save.  Doing it right in front of all to see.  He wrote the message in the dirt, but really it was transferred to the woman’s heart.  Nothing is mentioned about what happened to the writing, was it erased or left for others to see.  Did any of the men go back and view it again?  What did they do the next time they saw Jesus on the street?  The woman?  One woman was saved, how many seeds thrown that day we’ll never know.  Jesus never passed them up, but what he passed on made them make a decision.  Time well spent with him, and his dad.  Abba Father, how many of us have an unfinished upstairs and don’t know it?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

customer service

I always knew him as Lew, and either he or his wife would drop off their SL500.  But when it needed brakes, I called the number he left, and his wife answered.  “Can I speak to Lew please?”  “He’s in surgery Mike, can I take a message?”  “Is he OK, he looked fine this morning...” and she started to laugh.  “Mike, he’s a neurosurgeon...” and from then on we all laughed about it.  At least they did.  Ted was a Hollywood producer, which I didn’t know.  He was funny and very demure personality, so when he complained about a shake at 140 mph in his C43, I was a bit surprised.  After being warned it was my ticket if I got stopped, and I didn’t have to test it at that speed, I found a road and a time to test it.  Sure enough, it had a faint wobble at 140, felt like the tires were a bit worn.  So going back, I called him, and let him know I confirmed his complaint.  “You need new tires to drive fast,” and he replied “are you crazy Mike?  Sandra would kill me if I ever drove that fast.  I just read an article about that, and wondered if it were true.”  We never told Sandra.

But the funniest was one afternoon when the deep bass tones echoed in our driveway.  I had dealt with drug dealers, rock stars, and we had found some interesting contraband in some cars.  But looking up I saw it was a Maybach, a short run on the ultimate Mercedes Benz, that started at $375,000 big ones.  It was filled with teenagers, who I identified, I knew them.  Their dad was a very wealthy TV station owner, supposedly owned over 50 of them in the US and Mexico, I had serviced all his other cars, he gave one to each of his long time employees.  But here his kids were dropping of his Maybach for service, windows down, music cranked, and removing all the soda cans and chip bags before leaving the car.  Not at all what I had expected....I guess maybe the rich are different! 

Another phone call got me wondering my morning.  “Mike I just was passed by my car on the I-5 going over 100 mph.”  I looked over, and saw his car in the bay, hood up, and asked him “were you sure it was your car?”  Yes he was sure, he saw the hat number blow off ahead of him, the ones we put on the roof to identify them, and stopped to pick it up.  “I’m sure, do you want your hat back?”  And finally Dr. Crick, he who discovered DNA, was a customer.  Picking up his car one was evening with his wife, I proceeded to tell him we replaced the brakes, and did the required service, everything was OK.  “Oh Mike, tell my wife, I don’t understand such things.”  And I’m thinking “Dude, you discovered DNA and you didn’t know the light meant you needed brakes.  Mrs. Crick smiled, as if she had read my mind.  Déjà vu all over again for her.....

So with each customer a certain level of service must be provided.  Same complaint, but a unique answer being the solution.  We used to joke “we fix people, not just their cars,” proving humor to be the purest form of the truth.  So to whom do you go when your car breaks?  Do you have someone you can trust, who listens to your complaints?  Jesus in one meeting with his disciples, when Peter asked him “if you are not here, to whom shall we go?”  We may have someone who cuts our hair, who fixes our food, and takes care of our vehicles, and we trust them, but who do you trust with spiritual matters?  Do you trust Jesus as you say you do?  Being a Christian can be difficult, you get strange answers to prayer, you can be seemingly difficult to live with, and sometimes the answers to prayers can be scary and misunderstood.  But Peter knew, as we should, that despite all these things, there was no one else, no other way to go to whom he could trust.  Only Jesus.  The disciples had never met anyone who could take care of them like he did, who knew their deepest needs, their greatest fears, who saw their sins and yet forgave them and loved them.  His customer service was unsurpassed, he knew the problem, the cause, and the solution.  Now do you want the problem fixed or not?  It is then up to us.  But it went deeper than the words he spoke that made them trust him, it was an intimacy unknown to them before.  Something that keeps us coming back, again and again.

But it was also the character of Jesus, whom they could depend on.  They had believed and come to know him.  They saw the sinless one being tested and approved, standing firm in love, with a devotion to them.  Although they may not have understood, they could not leave him.  They never quit, which I find in very few professing believers today.  True Christians don’t quit, they don’t give up, but give into the holy spirit.  They listen and act, sometimes warily, but the longer you do, the more you trust.  The disciples had seen and heard enough already, where else could they turn?  Where else would they find the resources needed for daily life, to meet their needs, to take them to heaven?  Peter would deny Jesus three times to a little girl, but he never rejected him or who he was.  Can we say the same?  Do we weep bitterly like Peter does when we see our sin and turn back to him whom we have denied?  Just not obeying is sin....of course you knew that already.

Customer service, or bedside manner can sometimes be the solution.  How you react to sin will tell us about your Jesus, and more about you than the words you share when telling everyone how great your God is.  How many times did I have a customer tell me they hated their car, yet when after I fixed it they loved it again.  Best car they ever had.  Frustrated, they thought abandonment was the answer.  How many abandon Jesus when the times are tough, blaming him?  Thinking it was he who didn’t understand and was busy elsewhere?  And staying miserable.  Jesus fixes people, he is the solution, but first you must realize you are the problem.  Oops....how dare you?  No how dare you?

So who ya gonna call?  Who do you spend time with daily, thinking of him?  Listening to him as the spirit dwells within you?  Do you recognize his presence or do you have to be hauled before the elders, who are only men, and poor judges of you and your situation?  Peter’s answer was simple when Jesus asked “to whom will you turn?”  Simply put, he answered “you are the Christ, the son of God.  We know you are the holy one in which we believe.”  Life can be tough, the answers simple.  He won’t pass you by at 100, he may not drive the classiest car, and have the title of respect he should.  But to those of us who know him personally, he calls us friend.  We know him as Lord and Savior, yet we call him by name, Jesus.  And he just smiles in the background, déjà vu all over again...

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

 

the urge to merge

“After the race in 1975, I said they didn’t pay me enough to ride that thing and this year will be no different,” said Roberts about being reunited with his machine for this year’s event.

Considered unrideable by anyone but Roberts in his prime, the bike built by Kel Carruthers is powered by the 125bhp, 750cc four-cylinder two-stroke engine from the Yamaha TZ750 road racer. Like all trackers, it has no front brake, but can reach speeds of 250km/h (150mph) on the Mile’s straights.

In fact, it was considered so dangerous that the AMA banned it from competition. Roberts agreed with the ban although it caused a huge outcry in the bike press, most notably from Cycle World editor D. Randy Riggs who rode Steve Baker’s TZ dirt tracker, and argued that if it was okay for Harley dominate flat-track, why couldn’t Yamaha?

“You had to throw it sideways to get it slowed for the corners,” said Roberts looking back on the 1975 race. “There weren’t a lot of riders who could throw it sideways at 150mph.”

“They don’t pay me enough to ride that thing!” Kenny Roberts one exclaimed about the TZ750 of Yamaha.  In a sport where Harley dominated, flat track, and in particular the mile, Kenny was cashing in and winning.  But when the AMA stepped in and banned it, Yamaha was only left with a less powerful, but easier to ride motorcycle, that wasn’t competitive.  But they still had Kenny, and the Grand National Champion, and future World Champion would go on and continue his winning ways.  And in 1976, on the 4th of July, at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds, I saw him ride his new bike, and why he was a true champion.  No he didn’t win the mile race that day, I don’t even think it was a podium finish for him, but the way he rode made him a hero in front of all who watched.

If you never saw flat track racing, it is very basic.  Go fast down the straight, hitting over 120 mph, throw the bike sideways having no front brake, cross it up and the accelerate down the straight and repeat for 25 laps.  Hank Scott won that day on a Harley, but the action was with Kenny putting on a riding clinic for all to see.  While all the others took the lower groove, Kenny rode up high in the corners in the soft dirt, never slowing down, and passing them all on the high side.  But then losing them again on the straights due to being underpowered.  Even going down once in the first corner at speed, getting up and still challenging.  He didn’t follow the tried and true path, he blazed his own.  Watching him ride that way was a day I will never forget.  Using the tools provided, and making an uncompetitive bike competitive.  The true mark of a champion....

While others learn to race the traditional way, Kenny went looking for new ways to win.  Bound by the same rules and regulations, he used his talent and drive to overcome obstacles.  He may not have won every race, but back then to win the #1 plate you raced both dirt and street, today it is broken up into different series, more racers, more races, more TV time, which means more money for all.  The urge to merge all the forms of racing in one championship made a rider specialize in all forms, not just one.  One week sideways at 120 in the dirt, the next week knee dragging on pavement on the track.  Where Kenny used to slide his rear tire, much to the amazement of the competition, who had never seen it done on asphalt before.  Now they all do it, but back then.....maybe you see why he was called King Kenny!

Being part of the human race, God desires us to have an urge to merge with him.  He wants us to be part of his family, to have personal fellowship with him, to rise above religious practices and to become a part of our life.  He created us as a physical being with physical urges, emotional with emotional urges, and also a spiritual being with spiritual urges.  Each one different and each one separate.  But when the three come together in Christ, something happens, and no words can describe it.  From sexual urges to bond with a mate, to the emotion of knowing you are loved and love in return, and finally having the holy spirit in your life, each bring us closer to God and a relationship unique to us.  If God was just a physical thing, we would never know the great feelings of his forgiveness, if only emotional, the knowing of the depths of his spirit, it would all be an up or down emotional ride.  But when under the spirit, we blossom both physically and emotionally, we see Jesus in a way that those who only study the Bible miss.  We go beyond the feelings that dominate us and have the same spirit that Jesus has, and access to the inner workings of the kingdom.  We become one and a part of the family of God, with all the right and blessings that go with it.  We see ways to live, just like Kenny did to win, when we live in the spirit.  We enjoy true worship in the spirit, more than the music and prayers, more than a good sermon, we are invited into the pit area with Jesus, to go where only the religious cannot, and get a front row seat.  We are there, while others wonder what is going on.  I’m sure the view from the stands that day and our conversations were much different than the pit musings, or the urges on the track.  Being part of the team allows us access to all the things of the team, and we look at things differently when on the inside.  The way God wants us to, from his point of view, not the world’s.

Jesus lived by the means of the father, and we are to live by all the same means in Jesus Christ.  In everything we do, just as he and the father were one, we too can enjoy the same fellowship.  It is an intimacy that goes beyond words, for if it were finite, then you could define it, but how do you define an intimate God using finite words? I will never know how Kenny felt riding the highest berms at speed, but I can know the highest God and experience true Christianity.  Seminaries can teach, we can study, but we never truly know Jesus until we give it over to his spirit, and let him drive us.  Simply put, it is the will of God that we know Jesus, and since God is a spirit and must be worshipped as such, he left his spirit to comfort, counsel, and guide us.  All the tools we ever need are provided.  And despite the governing bodies of denominations and religion, we are guaranteed a podium finish when the race of life is over.  In it to win it, or just to say you competed?

And in Christ Jesus we win it all, without bending or breaking the rules.  Smoky Yunick may have had the best damn race shop in town, and almost fooled them with his 7/8th’s Chevelle, In Jesus we already won, we just have to compete and complete the vision given us.  No judge to qualify us, we go in welcomed and rewarded.  Something we could never pay Jesus enough to do for us.  So hang on for the ride, and if you are close to the action, can smell the castor, feel the grit of the dirt, and wipe the burnt rubber from your eyes, you have the right seat.  All others spectate, the rest of us have our urge to merge satisfied.  We all were created from the dirt of the earth, maybe that is why dirt track racing is so basic and appealing....it take us back.  In Jesus, we go ahead.  All without being told what to do by anyone....sign me up!  I’m glad I did!

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

 

Considered unrideable by anyone but Roberts in his prime, the bike built by Kel Carruthers is powered by the 125bhp, 750cc four-cylinder two-stroke engine from the Yamaha TZ750 road racer. Like all trackers, it has no front brake, but can reach speeds of 250km/h (150mph) on the Mile’s straights.

In fact, it was considered so dangerous that the AMA banned it from competition. Roberts agreed with the ban although it caused a huge outcry in the bike press, most notably from Cycle World editor D. Randy Riggs who rode Steve Baker’s TZ dirt tracker, and argued that if it was okay for Harley dominate flat-track, why couldn’t Yamaha?

“You had to throw it sideways to get it slowed for the corners,” said Roberts looking back on the 1975 race. “There weren’t a lot of riders who could throw it sideways at 150mph.

the shape of things to come

You didn’t have to be at Woodstock to remember the Fish cheer, when Country Joe and the Fish sang “what are we fightin’ for, I don’t give damn...” and followed up with the famous
give me an...”  But everyday we are in a battle, even if we don’t see it.  If you remember the British car industry before it quit importing to the Colonies over 35 years ago, you may think Aston Martin, become a bit of a sports car elitist and say TVR, maybe think Austin Healey, but usually MG comes to mind.  But how many think Triumph, who also built cars, a different company than the motorcycle one who almost succumbed earlier in the decade?  Just a decade before we saw Spitfires everywhere, little 2-seaters with light weight that handled great.  How about the GT6+, the hatchback version, a low budget alternative to an XKE, can we say road trip?  But while the American automobile was being recreated via emission and safety laws, so were the cars of Britain, and Triumph was on life support.

They were sharp enough to see the future, but fell short in execution, the TR7 being the last gasp.  “The shape of things to come,” wedge shaped, an early attempt at aerodynamics, and they failed miserably.  Mention to a girl “do you want to go for a ride in my new Triumph?” and the date was on, show up in a TR7 and she suddenly had to wash her hair.  The shape of things to come had become the shape of things to avoid, even a TR8 with a V-8 failed, and no matter how many stripes, special editions, and reminders that this may be the last of the British sports cars-1980 was the last MGB, they faded away, just like Lucas high beams, off into the night unnoticed.  Seeing one today is rare, the plaid seats in bright colors, the stripes and exterior colors still look a bit eighties, sharp edged, but somehow contemporary.  And in an age of shades of gray and no true sports cars left, sporty cars are different, RIP the TR7, TR8, and any future Triumphs.  Will the last person out of the Canley plant please turn off the light?

The auto world does not live by sports cars alone, but by everything that proceedeth out of the mouth of GM, Ford, FCA, Toyota, and BMW.  Jaguar has made a tremendous comeback with some great cars, Land Rover still exists if you need an overweight SUV that will spend most of its time in the shop, and Aston Martins still require a payment the size of a mortgage to own one.  There truly is nothing like a late evening drive in a true British sports car, top down and loved one by your side.  Just in case something fails, so you don’t have to walk home alone.  But bread alone is not what man needs, Jesus tells us, just as MGB’s and other cars need more than gas and oil.  They require a relationship, getting personal with them, from oil changes to tune ups, from washing and waxing to checking the tyres, cars do not live by gas and oil alone.  Nor does man....

You eat and get hungry again.  You drink and get thirsty again.  We think physically, but Jesus refers to the things of the spirit.  He warns not to work for food that perishes, but for an eternal food.  You need Jesus to enter the right side of eternity, all else is no gain, except for weight.  Jesus tells us he is the bread of life, go anywhere and bread is universal, a perfect analogy that anyone can understand.  He offers the bread of life, yet we miss the understanding and application.  His desire for us to eat and drink of him is more than a misplaced comma in “let’s eat, Grandpa,” it goes deeper than a physical nourishment required for life.  He is telling us that if we desire the shape of things to come, we must be prepared.  And his is the only offer that works. 

So what do you do when hungry, you eat.  Thirsty, you drink.  Do these things and you should never be hungry or thirsty.  But he tells us to come to him, expecting something, and that eating of him is feeding on his spirit.  Being fed spiritually, to be prepared for what is coming now or tomorrow.  Drinking is listening to what he has to say then doing it.  In other words come and believe, feast on the things of God, and you will never thirst again.  Keep on coming, keep on believing, and never be hungry again.  The bread from heaven, fresh and new every morning.  Providing life that is real indeed...

Unlike car designs and trends that change, Jesus never does.  He is the shape of today, the shape of yesterday, and the shape of things to come.  Heaven never goes out of style, although religion may try to regulate it, churches try to change the flavor, and denominations feed us only one thing, the bread of life never changes, and is just what we need.  Long before car companies tried to figure out what we would buy next year, Jesus knew what would need and has it prepared for us.  With a spot at his table to sit and enjoy with him. So “give me a J...” the original Fish cheer went out over 2000 year ago, he was the shape of things to come even then.  Eat and drink of him and never thirst again.  Walk with him and never walk alone.  Especially on those foggy English nights when Joseph Lucas, the Prince of Darkness lets you down.  Jesus never will.  Just remember which side of the road to drive on.  Bloody Colonists!

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

the little piggie who stayed home

Last week I passed a milestone in my writing, publishing number 1800 on this blog.  In just a bit under ten years, who would ever have guessed where God would take me when he gave me this vision.  But here I am and here we are, and I hope that the spirit has made you think and consider the claims of Jesus as you read.  And gone out and shared Jesus with others, equipping them to equip others, that’s discipleship.  But it would surprise many to know I haven’t been to church but once in the last six years, yet grow in the Lord.  Like the little piggie who went to market, I have gone out and lived a Christian life outside of the church, much to the chagrin of many church folks,and their regulations, living under the guise of being a Christian.  When Jesus gave me Matthew 25, he wanted me, us to be different from those mentioned whom he never knew, the same ones who made him sick in Revelation 3, he wants us to get out and live and serve among the masses.  Yet I was taught in church that evangelism was inviting a lost friend to church, missions was giving more, tithing was required, even if it made me bitter, and the safety I need was found within the church body, if only I went with them. But where was Jesus and his love? Like minded Christians they are called, who never see how they are like the Pharisees that hated Jesus, yet were so religious and pious no one liked them.  A rigorous exterior of God, but rotting inside from the lack of the spirit.  Saved but not cashing in on the blessings, on earth as it is in heaven, as Jesus put it.  Whose claim of godliness is no problems, yet crater at the first sign of distress.  They’re in the word, sadly the word never appears in them.  And Jesus told about them in the parable of the prodigal son.  You may know the story....

Jesus taught in parables so we would relate to them and see our weakness, and repent and turn to him.  So much time is spent condemning the younger brother who wanted his inheritance and then wasted it foolishly and on sin.  A great evangelistic message of turning to Christ, but few neglect to see the older brother, the little piggie who stayed home was really the wasteful, useless, and prodigal son.  His true colors being revealed when his younger brother returns and is celebrated.  A bitterness within him overflowing, bragging how he never left, he always took care of his father’s business, but failed to see how much of a Pharisee he was.  Do you rejoice when someone is saved?  When someone is healed?  When one who has gone astray returns?  The older brother didn’t.  But his father did.  Jesus was showing here how the Jews thought they had heaven based on Abraham being their father, nothing else was necessary, but nothing else was farther from the truth.  They needed to be forgiven and saved also, he was just like those who are self righteous, bragging on what they have done for God, seeking reward in it.  But God sees their hearts, and their likemindedness doesn’t include Jesus.  Like the Pharisees, and many churches today, they don’t want to deal with sinners in the body, it offends their reputation to find sinners in their church, and forget the joy of rejoicing when one comes to Christ.  No wonder Jesus got sick from them, and hung with the sinners, they knew they needed him, and acknowledged it.  While the church was too self righteous.

So the father comforts him with three things, “son you are always with me,” the word son meaning child.  You never lost your place in the family, I know you and what you are doing, don’t let sin get between us.  Second he says “all that I have is yours.”  The younger son spent his third, you have 2/3’s as your inheritance.  More.  The division, the will has already been signed into action.  And thirdly,  “it is fitting to celebrate your brother’s return, for he was lost and now is found.  He was dead and now lives.”  Jesus is reminding us that we should not find fault when others are saved, but rejoice as the angels in heaven do when one is.  And that his place was secure no matter what the younger one did, he loved both of them equally.  It is God’s grace, the holy spirit that saves and changes things, not going to church, having family who are saved, or kids on the worship team.  Gee, if only they could be like us, is the message they send.  It is not good works you boast in, but Jesus who saves.  If only the older brother had gotten it, he would be at the party instead of outside whining and complaining. 

One little piggie went to market, and came to Christ.  He knew his father’s love.  One little piggie stayed home and was miserable.  Both had the same father, only one repented.  One worshipped his father for accepting him back, the other miserable because he never left, but had checked out years ago.  From a father he never really knew.  He was so selfish and worrying about himself he missed the blessings.  Blinded by bitterness he is like the Pharisees, and many in churches today, sharing the same father with the little piggies who went to market, but never enjoying the fruits of the spirit.  He tried to please his father by his works, the younger one by his changed heart.  Which piggie are you....

The church has left the building, it is active on the street, among hookers and bikers, in prisons, and even in churches.  Spirit driven, and joyful, the true test is how we react, not how we act.  The Pharisees were all about the external, Jesus is all about the internal.  The piggie that went to market was glad he didn’t get what he deserved, the one who stayed home was upset he didn’t get what he thought he deserved.  Same father, different brothers.  And after the younger had squandered all he had been given, his father still had more to give.  Just like the Jesus I know.....do you? 

The law kills, the spirit gives life.  So get out and live.  Give and don’t tithe under compulsion becoming bitter.  Don’t waste an hour on Sunday and go home and back to who you really are.  Don’t be bitter that no one matches up to you, but realize you never can match up to Jesus.  One little piggie went to market, one stayed home.  Which piggie was the prodigal?  One little piggie was a whiner, going wee, wee, wee, wee all the way home.  Remember one little piggie ate roast beef, the fatted calf.  While one little piggie had none.  How fitting that piggies are pork, and the Jews were forbidden to eat them....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com