Headline: Harleys Cause Cancer

I think.
Its the only Explanation.Yesterday I performed a memorial for one of my best friends who died of cancer at 50 and he rode a Harley. In a strange coincidence, today I am doing a wedding for the daughter of one of my best friends who died several years ago from cancer in his mid fifties, and he rode a Harley.

The only connection I can make is it must be the bikes. There must be something about freedom, clean air, and loud pipes that takes the best friends I have, too early.

Or................
Maybe its the bugs, yea the bugs are conspiring to kill us through their carrying of cancer and then upon impact at high speeds imparting that cancer through our faces.

Maybe the cancer comes through the air, just random cancer cells floating aimlessly that enter our body's through our leather. Yes maybe its revenge from all of the cows that have died to cover our bodies with protective equipment.

Or maybe its a conspiracy by Harley Davidson themselves and that low loud sound actually awakens normally quiet cells in our bodies and makes them go bad. Why would they do that? so that there would be more bikes sold as the old riders die off.

Or maybe its me. No that would be stupid. No maybe being friends with me causes Harley riders to develop cancer.

Or maybe its just that cancer sucks and it has nothing to do with Harley riders being a little crazy and friends of mine.

Yea, its just that Cancer Sucks and both of these amazing men just died too early and happened to be my friends.

Yea, that's it, Cancer Sucks but Jesus Saves and because of Jesus I'll see both of them again one day. So I'll keep riding as its not Harley's Fault.

The Means can be very Mean

For a period of time, I was a Christian who held tightly to What a believer believed and How that believer believed. Hard Doctrine and Holy Direction was what I clung too. Christianity was more about being RIGHT with my view of a Christian than being right with God. (these two often got confused). In fact the Method or Means of the faith was more important than the men.

Jesus taught about this in Luke chapter 7. He was invited into the home of a Pharisee and was given a place at the mans table. But a woman of the city, a sinner heard Jesus was there, she entered into this mans home and began to pour out love on Jesus. To which the Pharisee began to judge not only the woman but the Lord himself.

So Jesus asks this question about who would love more, a person forgiven of much or a person forgiven of little. Simon supposed that it would be the person who had the larger debt. And He was right.

Jesus then turned to the woman and speaking to Simon still and begins to explain the difference between this point. The woman who needed much forgiveness Loved Jesus much, but Simon who loved Jesus little didn't need much forgiveness.

Great truth. Simple truth. But not the truth that I think is the most important truth.

Jesus then forgives the woman of her sins that were great, but all the Pharisee’s were concerned with was the means of forgiveness. Who is Jesus to do this?

They were not concerned with the Woman who needed forgiveness; they were concerned with the way she was forgiven. Their Hard Doctrine and Holy Direction did not provide for Supernatural Forgiveness. Their View of the Faith did not fit in with the Values of the Father. Rather than Rejoice over what ever means or methods this woman came to know forgiveness, they Judged and ridiculed how it was done.

The Apostle Paul spoke to this point in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 summarizing it by saying 1 Corinthians 9:22-23 (ESV) ²² To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
²³ I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

That by all means or different methods I might save some. I was asked yesterday why our church doesn’t have more doctors or lawyers and my thought was, because they don't think that they need as much forgiveness as the adulteresses and the drunkards and the addicts do. And I no longer fish for the full, but the Hungry.

 

Distance makes the Heart (of the Christian) more Fake not Fonder

I know that this sounds strange, but as I was crawling out of my comfortable bed and into my nice warm shower and then putting on my nice clean clothes the thought (from the Lord or not) came to me of how good most of us live. I have a place to lay my head every night, a way to feel clean every day, and a way to stay warm and comfortable. Every Day. I have eaten a semi healthy breakfast after sleeping 6 1/2 hours uninterrupted and not been bothered by people needed help.

And I thought of my wife. She is getting about two hours a sleep a night on the floor of a hospital waiting room, using wipes to stay clean, wearing the same clothes every day, eating a banana, and surrounded by suffering people from the moment she is awake to the moment she gets a little rest.

and Today...................
I will do ministry to comfortable people
She will be ministering to comfort people

I will speak to suburban kids whose parents can afford Christian school
She will speak to suffering kids whose parents can't afford medical care

I will celebrate our daughters 25th Birthday
She will celebrate a successful lung transplant

I will gather to play Christianity with spoiled saints
She will gather to pray with soiled aints.

I am the Pastor of a Church with Critics
She is a Missionary to the Critical Care

I am concerned with how much of a pain people will be
She is concerned with the pain of her family

Tonight I will climb back in my comfortable bed, she will fight for a space on the floor

Not sure how I am feeling about all of this

Thank you for getting into my business

Last night at encounter I was minding my own business. Literally my mind was heavy on my own business. and then he comes by with a note...About My Business

How did he know about my business? Who told him what I was thinking? I was talking to God. We alone were having a deep discussion. I don't think it showed on my face and I know I never said a word to any mortal man.

But that was part of what makes encounter so awesome. Sometimes the encounter with God comes through an encounter with a friend. Someone who is open to the voice of God and cares enough to share the word of God with you. My business became his business because he was about my fathers business. I love having friends like that.

Proverbs 17:17 (ESV) A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

No Black Cats

What do you think?
This morning I was riding the Harley to breakfast which is normally an uneventful ride but 4 miles into it a truck beside me, Right Beside Me, decided he wanted my lane and with catlike reflexes I swerved only to miss him by an inch...or a little more. Fresh from my brush with death a 1/4 mile later a tourist backed out of a coffee shop into my lane and decided to park there..... facing me....in my lane....again with the cat like reflexes I maneuvered masterfully to miss this messed up man by an inch...or a little more.

A little nervous but still excited to ride, I enjoyed my coffee (in a real cup) and left again on my journey. This time, feeling a little nostalgic I drove towards my boyhood home and the home I raised my little ones. But one mile into this journey a Dog....yes a Dog ran out right in front of me. He was a Black Dog. Grabbing a hold of my brakes and fearing for the worst I missed him by an inch....or a little more.

and I came Home...by an inch.....or a little more

I never saw a black cat but I get it. I'm staying home and reading. Pray that I don't get a paper cut but if it comes close, that I miss it by an inch....or a little more.

Deep Cries Out

There is something very special about a Christian who Loves God. Not one who claims to love Him, but one that leaves no doubt. 

They Love Him ~ and it Shows

They Live for Him ~ and it Shows

They Long for Him ~ and it Shows

In the way they Love what He Loves

In the way that they Live as He Lived

In the way of their Longing, wanting what He wants

I was speaking to one of those this morning who was at the church before work to worship.

I spoke to another yesterday who was at the church on her day off to make sure her ministry was prepared.

I spoke to another last week who heard what God said to her and repented.

I spoke to another whose heart is broken over selfishness

They are so different who Long to Love the Lord

Psalm 42:1-11 (ESV)
¹ As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
³ My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.
⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation
⁶ and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.
⁸ By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
⁹ I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
¹⁰ As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”
¹¹ Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Work is Work

Talking with a young man last night I noticed that He, like many others, struggles with discontentedness. He has a great wife, a good Church, and a decent life to which he is not denying. But he’s looking for happiness through an avenue that will never happen. That avenue is his job. Work is a result of Gods curse upon man for rebellion against Him.

Genesis 3:17-19 (ESV)
¹⁷ And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; ¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹ By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

“in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life”

“thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you”

“By the sweat of your face you shall eat”

Contentment was not part of the “job”. But notice the solution to the curse? The Cross.

Galatians 3:13-14 (ESV) ¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
¹⁴ so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Contentment then would come not through what we do but what He did. He took on the penalty of sin for us. The hardness of life was taken for us by Him and so our contentedness is always found in Him. Our Happiness is not found in what we do (work is still a curse) but what He did.

Yet for many that is not enough. We want our Jobs, something God cursed, to make us content. And it makes me wonder, If a man is content with His job that God cursed, will he need the Cross?

1 Timothy 6:6-11 (ESV)
⁶ Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment,
⁷ for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
⁸ But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
⁹ But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
¹¹ But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

Discontentedness is a disease that will seep into every aspect of your life. A man who has everything and is discontent with anything can soon be overwhelmed by sadness.

Seek a life of happiness in the Cross and contentedness will come no matter what you do for a living.