sprung from cages on Highway 9

A cartoon caught my attention the other day, about the Rolling Stones.  Never one of my favorites, but I like some of their music, the stuff from 65-71.  Years not their ages.  But the cartoon asked “do you want to hear the Stones from the sixties, or in their sixties?”  To those of us who were there, a big difference from the tribute bands and old names with new faces in the band.  I can remember the first time I saw the Eagles, in Asbury Park, a warm up band for Robin Trower.  Introduced as “a band you never heard of before, but will from now on.”  Playing Take it Easy twice.  Watching The Kinks rock the crowd at Trenton Speedway.  Going to see Chicago, with Springsteen the opening act, his first song “Born to Run,” before the album was out, so wasted from listening we left after a few Chicago songs. Exhausted.  How many times I saw The Beach Boys, meeting Mike Love off stage before one show.  Even then earning the title of biggest @#$%^&*( in rock and roll.  We were there hearing Dennis on the cover shot of Beach Boys Concert.  Santana at the Felt Forum, a 10 pm concert playing way into the morning hours.  Or a show just before Christmas, J. Geils and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, whose encore was loud, until the lights broke through the darkness, and they broke into an acoustic Silent Night, with a huge red robed choir, and it began to snow on stage.  You had to be there....Seeing Peter Frampton in three different bands, being on stage with Alice Cooper and riding out with the band in his limo.  The night at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic yelling at Frankie Valli  and The Four Seasons “ play Rag Doll,” joining in with some not so teenage girls.  He finally relented, “would you please stop interrupting if we play it?”  Sharing a dinner at a concert with a guy named Joe, talking motorcycles, who I later found out was Joe Walsh of The James Gang, pre-Eagles.  Mountain, Looking Glass, Ike and Tina Turner, Gordon Lightfoot at the Garden Arts Center, outside singing Rainy Day People and it starts to poor.  Only in Jersey....  Black Oak Arkansas, Gary Wright, and being invited by his manager to the party afterwards.  Jay and the Americans-Cara Mia!  And The National Lampoon Radio Dinner, done as a theater in the round, a few weeks before it became Saturday Night Live!  Iron Butterfly at Union Catholic High School in the gym, all 21+ minutes of In a Gadda DaVita!  So many more that I forget, but will never forget.  Even have the ticket to Summer Jam in 1973, The Dead, The Band, and The Allman Brothers, best ten dollar ticket ever.  Just missed the show, but that’s another story...

Today I have heard Layla on the radio more than I ever did when it was new.  So called Classic rock, when it was just rock.  None of us were classics yet.  We used to enjoy the oldies, from the fifties and early sixties, they were classic.  And for a few short miles when I could pick up an oldie station outside of Kingman, I was young again listening to the oldies.  Songs asking “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?”  Like Springer sang “sprung from cages n Highway 9,” you just had to be there.  And I was, in the sixties, and now in my sixties, it is tribute bands, yuk, The Beach Boys with all unfamiliar faces, and a whole new generation who want to hear the classics.  Where are my oldies when I really need them?

As I grow older but not getting old, I appreciate the songs of my youth and growing up more.  Songs that you waited for on the radio, that you stood in line at Korvettes for the newest album, and songs that you could sing to.  My relationship with  Jesus is much like that, I appreciate all he is and has done in my life.  I have changed, and so has my musical taste, but he never has.  I escaped religion early in my walk with him, finding a freedom in the spirit that denominations tried to curtail, a love that the songs sang about but couldn’t deliver, and a friend who was more than friendly.  I have sat under some incredible teaching, but also some blasphemous preaching, as one evangelist promised to “have the wrath of God upon us if we didn’t agree with him.”  I have sat through worship music where it is just like it is written, and also where the musicians, there is a difference, go off in worship, in the spirit.  I saw Parable in 1976, and other Maranatha Music groups when they were new.  Daniel Amos, 2nd Chapter of Acts.  I enjoy Phil Wickham when not playing to the crowd, but in true worship.  And maybe that is what I really found in Jesus, that makes a difference.  The truth.  Not some philosophy, some seminary taught gospel not found in scripture, and not a watered down Bible meant not to offend.  As I watch and listen today I see Jesus separating the sheep from the goats, with many surprises.  Lots of goats in sheep clothing, who like tribute bands sound the same, know all the words, but don’t know the band.  Who know all about Jesus, but never heard the beautiful song he sings to the heart of a believer.  A song only sung in the spirit, not from behind a pulpit, but wherever you happen to be.  Tribute Christians, Bored Again Christians, and CEO Christians, who like an old album have scratches and skip the songs they don’t like.  Who have every preset to KWVE, but don’t wave to Jesus.  Or his friends.  I want all the Jesus I can get, and fake or religious substitutes offend me, as they should you.  Are you paying tribute to Jesus, your church, your pastor, a denomination, or to yourself?  What kind of song does Jesus sing to your heart?

Classic rock and classic Jesus both play to a select audience.  Really of listeners, as the gospel goes forth as we speak in every language, every venue,and in every situation.  The question is are you listening?  Or set in a venue of only listening to what you like.  Some day the sheep will be separated from the goats, and the goats will finally see the truth in Jesus.  Why wait, get up and dance in his love and joy in the spirit now, don’t wait for the album.  Long before vinyl became tape became disc became i-pod, Jesus was singing to us in the most beautiful song ever.  The original love song, one of salvation, and the joy and peace found in it.  Some go to tribute concerts to remember, just like they do for church.  If your Jesus is an oldie, or a classic, meet the real Jesus today.  Sing along with the words, and even with the radio off hear the message.  Joy to the World means something different to Christians than it does in the Three Dog Night version.  So does the gospel.  Jesus Christ, LIVE and IN THE SPIRIT!  Playing in hearts everywhere. Advance tickets to heaven.

And the reason we really fall in love is Jesus Christ.  Fools included.  And like Frankie Valli sings, in Christ “can’t take my eyes off of you.”  He never does of you.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthw25biker.blogspot.com

2002-the car, not the year

Google BMW 2002 on Craiglist and what you get is 2002 BMW’s, not what you asked for.  So many of the yuppie influenced car groupies who fawn over BMW’s don’t know that it was the 2002, the car, not the year that put BMW on the map.  Yes many know of the famous 507, the motorcycles that preceded the cars, and maybe the airplanes that preceded the motorcycles-banned from manufacture after WW I, but ask around, who knows what a BMW 2002 was, or is? 

BMW was just another obscure imported brand in the fifties and sixties by Max Hoffman.  But in 1967 BMW put out a sedan with a 2000 cc motor, and when reviewed by David E. Davis of Car and Driver, “BMW blows my  mind,” and named as one of the Ten Best Cars in the World by Road and Track, America took notice.  It was a powerful small sedan with a willing engine, used for SCCA races and like for my Dad, going to work.  Who was never a car guy, I grew up in a household of Ramblers, but when he was told about it being a Ten Best, and priced at $2500 for the 1600 version, bought a 1969.  Which he sold to me in 1972 for trade in value, $1900 when buying a 1972 2002.  For $4000, as with demand the price went up.  Purchased at Markham Motors in Bernardsville, NJ, where the cars were referred to by their owners, the salesman being Herman Van Putten.  Oh the days of a German car being sold to German man by a German salesman.  Who smoked his cigarette like the European he was.  And when Mr. Mohn’s BMW was called for, the lot boy even knew just which car.  Try that today at any mega dealer, where even with numbers they get lost.  It was personal back then, even to the point of how we flashed our high beams at each other like bikers wave.  They were then and are now a remarkable automobile, funny how we overlook the poor quality control, the German rubber disintegrating, the turn signal on the right of the steering wheel, and poor heat and ventilation. The ignition key that had the bending head, and being able only to unlock it from the driver’s door. A huge trunk that could be left unlocked, and at 25 mpg for premium, uniquely German.  Welcomed and admired among sports car groups, even though since the top didn’t fold down, it could never be a true sports car like an MGB or a FIAT Spider. But just one pedal to the medal and all was forgotten, as many a Corvette or other Muscle Car would beat it off the line, but end up chasing them after the first curve.  They handled, and long before becoming the ultimate driving machine, we were a small group of enthusiasts, who knew what we were driving.  Constantly reminding the unitiated that BMW didn’t stand for “British what?”  And today they build SUV’s...and now you know the rest of the story.

1968 BMW 2002

TURN YOUR HYMNALS TO 2002–DAVID E. DAVIS JR. BLOWS HIS MIND ON THE LATEST FROM BMW.

 

Like many things in history, when passed on from generation to generation, they get edited for personal use.  From cars to God, it seems we want to set the pace and influence the attitude.  Hence the BMW 2002 being forgotten, and scripture being misinterpreted.  With so much babbling going on about interpretation the truth gets lost, rewritten, or forgotten.  Some blame it on God starting at the Tower of Babel, thinking God chose to confuse man so he wouldn’t and couldn’t take over.  We had become a proud race at the time, but God in his love for us saw it different, and in changing how we communicate with each other, was really protecting ourselves from ourselves.  Remember it was God who said “let us go down,” Jesus was there along with the spirit.  In the scheme of humanity, we value things instead of a relationship with God, and when they fail, we blame him, or turn on him, if we even trusted him in the first place.  But as they created one thing another problem arose, and things were getting beyond their control.  Which put them at odds, and being unable to fix the new problems, created more problems. Unlike Ronald Reagan’s famous scary words, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” God was there to help, just his way not theirs.  And a people who where in control were really out of control.  And God fixed them....which made them spread out and wander, another Genesis instance of when his people faced opposition, the gospel spread out, much like today.  Yes they complained to each other, but no one understood, so they went out, something not part of their plan, but part of God’s.  And the gospel went forth.  How many times was Jesus forced to flee, the disciples didn’t get it, but he did, and they ended up places they didn’t know of, didn’t want to go, or wouldn’t have gone.  And it still occurs today....

The truth is we are not God enough still to handle our own problems.  So we pray, devise our own ways, learn to cheat and steal, and soon end up worse than we were to start.  With confusion of the language, no one could tell if the other was lying or not, and so had to turn to God.  Sound familiar?  In our confusion he was really trying to save us.  Just like the Jews refused Jesus, and like he is today, his love for us overcomes any misunderstanding, where sin abounds his love even more abounds, and by his spirit we can come to Jesus and be saved.  Knowing the language of love, the Bible, as he inspired it, not as men see it.  When we see that our lives are not about us, but all about Jesus, the language of his love becomes real.  It takes the spirit to reveal the mysteries of Jesus, not man to misinterpret them.  Jesus came to rescue us from man made religion, lest we forget.  Man is incapable of being God, but still tries to be a god.  And the need for Jesus is revealed in each foolish attempt.

So let me leave you with a question, one all Christians should know.  But yet the story gets twisted on Easter Sunday.  So much emphasis is put on the cross on Easter, how many truly know it was Jesus’ resurrection that made him unique?  How many wear crosses trying to be Christian, when it was an empty cave that guarantees resurrection for us also?  How many wear an empty cave on a chain around their neck?  So what is Easter really all about?  Got you thinking...and of course you cannot have an Easter without Good Friday.

And you cannot have the Ultimate Driving Machine without the BMW 2002.  Real car guys know this, headlines proclaimed it, and those of us there lived it.  But we still get confused, so try Googling BMW 2002 and see how many 2002 BMW’s come up for sale.  People still babble today, they still cannot communicate properly.  It takes the spirit to unite us in unity.  2002 the car, not the year, Jesus Christ, the son of God, not religion.  Sadly few know that the 2002 started it all, even sadder that Jesus started it all.  Of course if you drive a Honda you know nothing of what I speak, but you will still be in one Accord....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

under the influence

Turning 65, years that is later this week, I have spent some time talking with friends about riding.  “Will you keep riding? For how long?”  Next stupid question, please.  But my riding resume looks pretty good, at least I think.  Working on my second million miles, ridden over 100 miles in one hour twice, coast to coast in under 70 hours, and over thirty motorcycles owned, plus the 250+ ridden for the Triumph’s press fleet, I’m satisfied.  And adding another 2100 miles last week riding in New Mexico and Arizona, I still feel the most comfortable behind bars, handlebars that is.  The freedom of riding has not gotten old as I have gotten older, and I still list my motorcycles as my first form of transportation.  To which a friend quoted “motorcycles have been a great influence in your life.”  To which I corrected him, “they are my life.  Not has been, will be, might be.  Not riding under the influence, they are my life.”  And I am so blessed beyond words.  Only a ride will express it best.

In life we can come under the influence of many things.  Drugs and alcohol, no one ever got better from them.  I know people under the influence of their jobs, their cars, even their motorcycles, where these things influence their lives.  But they are not a part of their lives, changing with jobs, divorces, adding kids, wives in control, and in too many cases religion playing a part.  Now to the unitiated that might seem harsh, religion, I thought going to church was good, reading the Bible good, praying for others good.  And they are, but when they are only influences, and Jesus is not the life in you, but only a part of your life, they can become a problem.  We have created a society of situational Christians, who treat life like just another 12 step program.  This happens, do this.  A scripture for every event, learned and rehearsed, but rarely from the heart.  Let a tough time interfere, and many times their religion is the first to suffer.  The God who blessed now is the God who is causing them to suffer, or at least they think so.  Church dogma, denominational diatribe, and following a pastor instead of the spirit have become influences, maybe the next book they read about how to be a Christian will change all that.  Yeah, right.  They live under the influence of Jesus, but not in Jesus.  Laws and rules, too many thou shalt nots, and the spirit is absent.  He is welcome, but not their Lord, leaning on other things than Jesus.  Sadly too many have found that going to church and owning a big Bible does not make you a Christian, just like owning a motorcycle does not make you a rider.  It takes Jesus to be a Christian, and his spirit to call him Lord.  And like a billboard in New Mexico, “real Christians obey all of Jesus’ sayings.”  Not pick and choose....the first being love above all things.

Maybe a quick review of your Christian resume is in order.  It may get rough, but we are supposed to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  Not to be saved, but like two weeks without riding can make you rusty, the same life without Jesus will change you.  The fear and trembling verse had been taught to me incorrectly, Jesus is not out to get you.  Nor to punish.  The fear is reverence of God for who he is, shouldn’t that be enough?  Add what Jesus did on the cross, shouldn’t that be enough?  Just getting you through the day, despite all our help, shouldn’t that be enough?  Can we say we love God because he loved us first, just because he is God?  And is love?  And the trembling, even Toto ran when he met the great and terrible Oz, while the others trembled.  Are you truly in awe of who Jesus is?  Do you get excited and tremble with anticipation about him?  Think of the last tight corner you just endured, scraping pegs, and dragging a knee, and looking for the next one with the same anticipation.  Do you approach Jesus the same way?  All these things influence you, but once you live in the spirit, they will influence others.  Jesus taught it is not what goes into a man that is important, but what comes out of him.  Do we find his love coming out of our lives before we even speak?  Or act?  Or think?  Are we living in Christ or just under the influence of him?  So to answer the question, I have no plans to stop riding.  My riding style has changed, but the love of it hasn’t.  There may come a day when I physically cannot, so may call on a few of you to help me sit on my bikes and make motor sounds.  To duck in the wind that is gone, and lean in the curves no longer there.  But motorcycling has been my life, and will always be the greatest part of it.  Except for Jesus, where I don’t plan on bagging on him because I am getting older.  Because I need larger print in my Bible.  My hearing may be bad, but God’s isn’t, I don’t have to yell, nor does he for me to hear.  Jesus is the same today as he was in the beginning, and will be forever.  I cannot imagine ever not knowing him.  The influences in my life may change, he never does.  He is the passion that has given me the passion to ride.  Maybe a quote from this morning’s devotional says it best.

“The great question we must raise is, Are you listening? Are you getting the message God wants you to get? He writes it large upon the landscape of history, and also He writes it small in the incidents of your daily life. But in every case it is the same truth pressing through to us. God is essential to us. We cannot live without God. You cannot fulfill yourself, you cannot find yourself without Him. He loves you, is seeking you, wants you, and is drawing you to Himself.”

Coca Cola adds life, Jesus Christ is life.  Until our next ride together, may you never ride without him.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

 

 

2001-a road trip odyssey

When asked to give directions, I can get you there, I just have trouble with the names of the streets.  Still not sure about all the names in my own neighborhood after 17 years, but it seems I always get to where I want to go.  Sometimes in an imaginative road trip.  I am definitely not a GPS guy, I can get lost without their help, and being spied upon.  And after passing the same diner for the third time following its directions, even I can see there is something wrong.  But I have taken many rides with only a destination, aka a place for the night, and turned a 200 mile ride into a 500 mile odyssey.  After making reservations in El Paso, riding from San Antonio, after seeing it, we kept going, to Tucson.  Only an 800+ mile ride on the Sprint ST, but closer to home the next day.  So we can take a longer route, and ride a road we wondered where it went.  See?  But maybe even worse than the horror of GPS, is the person who means well when giving directions, and including so much info you cannot absorb it all.  “Take the 15, get off at Little Curvy Road, not sure of the exit number, go about 1.5 miles, past the red house which is being painted blue, an old gas station used to be across the street, go four, or is it five stop signs, look for out of order sign on diner on right.  If you miss it, go back and take the y you passed, and your destination is on the right, about a half mile.  I think.”  The real version is “ get off at exit 25, go right 2.5 miles, your address is on the left.  You cannot miss it.”  Leaving El Paso was so easy.....

On one trip through Wisconsin, a detour closed the highway, but some local cars ignored it, so did I.  No big deal, but it did allow me to go through a farmer’s yard.  He waved, wonder what he thought of the motorcycle from Cali that day?  Or the time outside of KC on a 100 degree day, “if you don’t mind a gravel road, I can save you an hour.”  Gravel, on a Tiger?  Save an hour?  Show me, and we followed him.  While others sat in traffic, we sat in the pool at the motel.  But not all roads or road trips are so lucky, as in the rain one night I got off the freeway in Ohio, don’t ask me how, and ended up at a dead end in some heavy woods, in a downpour.  When a sheriff pulled up and warned me “this is a place people go into and are never heard from again.”  And guided me back to I-70.  Or the old state trooper in Indiana, who spread his map out over the trunk of his car and showed me lightly patrolled roads great for riding.  What is an extra hour on a cross country trip?  A friendly restaurant manager seeing our helmets, offers to take off the next day and guide us through Texas Hill Country, and comped the desserts!  Seems on a motorcycle even those who don’t ride see you different....like the farmer and his son eating lunch at Joy Lunch in Corydon, Indiana, who wanted to trade places, it was haying day, and please honk and wave to his wife as we pass.  The pastor and his wife in Hillsboro, Wisconsin, who tells he was to fill in for the old pastor, temporarily, and has for 35 years.  But my favorite is taking our bikes into our motel room in Monterey for the races.  Cool waking up next to an FJ100 and a Ninja 750, but yuk, the smell of gas.  But oh the memories....

With so much emphasis on going to church, we forget Jesus tells us we are the church.  Read you Bible, so much of time Jesus was on the road.  And so many things happened on the road.  From Paul’s conversion, the good Samaritan, Philip meeting the eunuch, and note Joseph and Mary were where when Jesus was born, on the road.  How did he enter Jerusalem, on the road.  Even crucified along the road.  From Genesis to Revelation you can find examples of God’s blessings on the road.  Abraham choosing which road to take.  Moses leading the Jews on a road.  Even Jonah taking a water road if you will.  All trips that someone set out on, not knowing what the day would bring, but the blessings abounding when traveling with God.  Adam and Eve, maybe the first road, walking with God, I cannot see them trampling flowers, it must have been a path.  See how many you can think of, then ask yourself, “am I on the road I am supposed to be on?”  A detour to us is not to God, how many of us are assured of the road we are on in Christ?

Jesus taught in the temple, but told his flock, “as you go, spread the gospel.”  All the time, not just among those who believe like you do.  His love extended all over the known world, and extended to a world far beyond that which we know.  Why even in heaven the roads are paved with gold, must mean we will be going somewhere when we get there.  So much for angels floating on clouds.....today as you go, follow the lead of the good shepherd, who knows the roads, knows where the dangers are, and goes ahead so we can travel in safety.  So when an El Paso comes into your life, you have the energy to go on.  And he gives us he instructions via his spirit, simple so we can get it, free so we can afford it.  No GPS can guide like the spirit, and God has no back up route, only the perfect route, with a way back when we fail to listen.  He knew, long before you did.  Or get lost in the woods.  The road you are on is more important than you think. 

So go where the blessings are, get out and live.  God’s neighborhood extends to the heavens, and to heaven.  A block away may be all he wants of you today, or maybe a time zone or two.  But know you never travel alone, for he never leaves you nor forsakes you.

Or you can bee like the woman who brought her Mercedes Benz to us, check it over for a trip up north from La Jolla.  I thought LA, San Fran, maybe Monterey, so her answer surprised me.  “Delmar.”  All seven miles of it.  From what I understand she made it...I hope you do too.  A road trip odyssey is awaiting us all in Christ Jesus, did you know the seven churches mentioned in Revelation are a postal route?  Now how important is the road in your life?

And did I mention road food?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com