Good Intentions

Here we are again, my last post was about two month ago. I always have good intentions to write more, but it just doesn't seem to happen. Have you ever been there? Good intentions just don't get it done. Now on something like this it is not really that big a deal. It is not a have to situation. But what about when it comes to important things? How many things do you have good intentions to accomplish and it just never seems to happen? I could make a list of things that get talked about but just never seem to get done. Are you like that? I think we all are in some areas of our life's. It is very hard to get past that, especially if it is something we don't like to do. So what do we do? I think we need to sit down and make a list and priorities. On things that have to get done that we are procrastinating we need to enlist help. Ask someone that can help us get motivated to give us a push (not to nag us - LOL). I listen to a gentleman named DR Randy Carlson. He has a Radio Show called Intentional Living. His suggestion is that when you get up in the morning you pick one thing that you will be intentional about today. Then you work on that one item. From there you move on. You can't fix it all in one day, you take just a little at a time.
Whatever way you choose to try to get better, it takes an effort, it will not fix itself. My prayers are that you can succeed and do better.

How do we get influenced?

Have you ever noticed a lot of Christians don't act like they are Christians at all? When you see them on Sunday in church they have on their church face. If you see them on a weekday they have on their "other" face.
This is not unusual. If we look in the mirror at ourselves most of us are no different. We too act different in different situations. Ever look at a person that thinks they are a Harley biker? They dress for the occasion (even if we smile at them). Runners dress for the occasion. Motocross people act and dress a certain way. Christians (at least on Sunday) dress and act a certain way. Everyone does it to a degree.

So what is my point? Everyone acts or plays their part. If you do it long enough you start actually thinking this is who you are.
The longer we act a certain way, the more we become that way. This is because we are influenced by what we do. So if you want to become a better Christian one thing you can do is spend time with other Christians.

It is late

Here it is almost 4 AM and I have been at work all night. This is not fun. I have been overseeing a critical installation to make sure nothing gets missed. Everything is going good, but I am getting tired. Oh well, not much longer and we will be done.
This reminds me of our Christian walk. We know that it is late. We are walking the walk and waiting for Jesus to come back. Is it as late as people say it is or will it be many more years before he comes back? Here at work I know when we will be done, when it comes to Jesus I don't know for sure. He told us in the Bible that no one knows the time of his return except for God. So do we get tired in our walk like we do at work? We can if we are not careful. It is important that we stay refreshed.
How do we do that? We make sure we stay in the word. We make sure we praise and worship Jesus and we stay around people that think and believe like we do to keep each other encouraged. If we do that we won't get tired, we will stay refreshed.

What does the New Year have in store for us?

Time sure flies. Here we are in February already. We pray that this year will be better then the last. We sure had a lot of obstacles to overcome last year. I do believe we are ready for the new year, all we need now is some warm weather. Another month or so it will be getting better (can't wait).
So what are we doing this year? In Mark 16:15 the Bible says: He (Jesus) said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation". God knows we can't be everywhere, so he uses different people in different places and we will do the best to do our part.
So what does he have in store for us this year? The only way we can totally experience what God has in store for us is to do what he asks us to do. Will that come with challenges? Always. Can we handle them? Always. Why? Because he will equip us and help us. When we are in his will we know that he will be right there with us. We can not loose.
What will God have in store for you this year? There is one way to find out.

Making more Plans

I have been talking about how things don't always work out the way they are planned. As you know this year definitely did not go as planned for me and my family. All that is now behind us. Now what do we do? Do we give up and just hide out from here on? Well some people may do that, but I am not one of them.
So how do I move forward? I start by seeking God's will. Most of us usually know what we think we should do, but we have to make sure it is God's will. How do I do that? I pray and read the Bible to look for answers. God answers prayers. He may not answer them as quick as we like sometime, but he will answer them. The second thing I do is talk to my wife. If I think go and she thinks no go, there must be a reason. We make sure we both agree on what we are going to do.
Okay now that we believe God and us are on the same page we move forward.
What if we are wrong? Can that happen? Yes it can, because sometimes we want something bad enough we don't listen to God real good. Does that mean we will crash and burn? Not necessarily. God has it in control and if we are wrong, he will point it out and you will know. It is just a matter of listening.

Here is what God told the Isrealites:
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 29:11 (NIV2011)
Do you think we can apply this verse to us? I think if we are living for God we can. If we are living like we want? Probably not so much.

Things don't always go as planned!

Last time I wrote I was talking about how sometimes we get ready for something and it doesn't happen. Well this has been quite the year so far. Remember how we got rained out first race? Well the following week didn't go so well either. The weather was great but on practice day I crashed and broke my leg. Talk about things that turn out different then planned. Because of this other then riding a couple of practices I have not done any racing this year. The good news is that I am almost totally healed and riding last week did not irritate my leg. Sweet.
We don't always know why things happen the way they do. I sure don't know why I had to get hurt again (this wasn't my first time). So what do we do? We have to trust that things happen for a reason. That is easier said then applied. How do you do in situations like that? Usually it isn't that hard for me, but this time I really struggled, because it really messed things up. So what do I do? I keep reminding myself of what God promises in his word and I hang on to those promises. Does that explain why some things happen? No, but it does help us deal with them. In the end we know that God has our best in mind. It could have just been an accident, because Motocross is dangerous. You just never know.

Getting ready for nothing

Have you ever gotten ready to do something and then when you get all ready it gets cancelled? That's where I am today. Tomorrow is supposed to be the first State Race for this year. I prepared my sermon for church last night, then today I got the trailer and everything ready. The bike just needed loaded, but of course on the golf cart the starter solenoid wire broke so I got to fix it. After some custom engineering it was fixed and I got everything ready to go. I did forget to mention that its been raining this week and the track owner was still trying to make a decision to see if it was sensible to try to have the race. Well I finished, I cleaned up and then I got online to see if the race was on and guess what? It's cancelled. Bummer.
Some of us may feel this way about Jesus coming back. You keep hearing people preach about it. And the Bible definitely talks a lot about it. We get ready and wait. We get ready and wait. We get ready and wait. But Jesus doesn't come. What do you think? Do you think it may have been cancelled like the race was cancelled?
Don't get bummed out. It has not been cancelled, we just have to have patience. Lets see what the Bible says:
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-9 (NIV2011)

So what do you think. Has it been cancelled? Praise God it hasn't. No chance of that. He is just waiting for our friends to come to know Jesus. Awesome.

Snow is not one of my favorite things

I am in Chicago today and it is snowing. Typical Winter storm. As I was driving along I was thinking (yes I do that at times), snow can really mess with your plans. For that matter, it can completely make you turn your entire schedule around. This has been a very mild Winter and we thought we were about through it. To our surprise the weather had other ideas. This is the 3rd snow storm I have been in in less then two weeks and yes it has turned my schedule around.
So what am I trying to say with all this? This is typically how things go, you never know for sure what is going to happen. In the same way we live our lives and if we are reasonably careful things go a long pretty smooth, just like our mild Winter we were just going through. Then without a warning something happens and everything gets turned upside down. All of a sudden we are scrambling to try to make it through what is coming at us. Well just like you deal with the snow, knowing it will go away, so are our other issues in our lives. They come and we deal with them and get through them. As my younger sister once told me, the Bible says "it came to pass" it did not come to stay. But even so knowing all that, there are times it is hard to make it through those times.
Over the last year, one of the things I have been working on is my trust in God. A lot of us talk about trusting God, but do we really do it? I used to say it, but a lot of times did not really do it. The thing I learned most this last year is that when you truly trust God you start seeing him work in your life like you have never seen before. So what is the point? Be it a snow storm or something bigger. Don't worry and live your faith. It truly does work. God has our best in mind.

Christmas

With Christmas right around the corner we are starting to see the things that go along with Christmas. We are starting to see the Christmas adds on TV again. We are seeing a lot of Santa Claus movies. A lot of people are decorating there houses with Christmas lights. This is all stuff we are used to seeing around Christmas time and it is okay. However there is a trend that seems to be getting stronger every year. The real reason for Christmas seems to be getting pushed further and further out of the picture. What is the real reason for Christmas? It is the celebration of Jesus' birthday. All of us older people all know who he is, even those that don't believe in him. But what about the current generation? People are becoming more and more Bible iliterat. That is a scary trend. WHY ARE WE CELEBRATING THE BIRTH OF JESUS? Jesus is the Son of God. He came to this earth as a person. He was born, grew up like we do and lived here just like we do. The only difference is that he lived a sin-free live. Something we are uncapable of doing. Then he allowed himself to be arrested and sentenced to death on a cross. The reason he did this is because someone had to pay for the sins that we committ. Because of him being the only one perfect, he was the the only one that could pay the price for our sins. But it did not end there. Three days later he rose and after showing himself to his disciples, went to heaven to be with God the Father. What else did he do? Before he left he promised that those of us that put our Faith in him and believe in him will get to spend eternity with him. So what are we celebrating? We are celebrating the greatest gift of all. Without his birth there could be no Resurrection. Without the Resurrection we wouldn't have a guaranteed future. SPREAD THE WORD! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The year is almost over!

Well it seems like the year just started and we are already three quarter of the way thru it (almost). When you are a kid people tell you that time goes faster when you get older. Well I am not old (compared to some people) but time is sure starting to speed up. So what do you do? Do you started slowing down to try to enjoy life more or do you keep on with the hectic pace that most of us have learned to go? Well myself, I would like to slow down a little and as they say, take time to smell the roses. It is pretty easy to focus on the negative parts of our life instead of the positive part. When we do that, we probably start looking forward to Jesus coming back or us going to see him. That is definitely good, but I for one still have some things I would like to see happen. For one I still have some friends that I would like to see come to know Jesus. I may just be the person that they will listen to. It is not my job to save them, God does that, but it is my job to spread the message. So to make things here a little more enjoyable, lets focus on the positive. That makes life a lot better. Second lets help others and spread the message while we are at it. There are not many things that will lift your spirit more then the satisfaction of knowing you helped someone. So between taking time to smell the roses, focusing on the good instead of the bad and taking a little time to help others, it may just not be all the horrible to be here for a few more years. Thank you God for all your blessings.

How is the year going?

As always the year is going by quickly. How is yours going? If you are like most of us the bad economy has probably cramped your activities some. I know it has ours. But we are still having fun. When times are like this it is important that our walk with God is where it should be. We can rely on him to see us through these tough seasons. I am sure you have heard people say God will meet your needs. He sure has taken care of us and when I look back, sometimes it is not very clear as to how we made it. When it gets like that I don't have to try to figure it out, because I know who was taking care of us. We don't deserve God's help but thanks to what Jesus did for us God is there to see us through. Trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you can not go wrong.

Will you be there?

It is almost time for the Missouri State Motocross Championship Series. Just like in the past few years it is our plan to be there to provide Sunday Morning Worship Service for those that want to participate. Round 1 will be in Moberly at HLR on 4/22. I sure hope to see you there. A little food for thought: You know exactly when and where this will be. You know how to prepare for it. You know what to bring and what not to bring. You know what time to leave your house to be there in time and you have a reasonable idea when you are going to be back home Sunday night. That is pretty cool. Now there is another event you have heard me talk about. This is the event when Jesus is going to come back for those of us who believe in him. Then there is also the event when the people that don't believe in Jesus will loose there chance to change there mind about what they want to believe. That is also pretty cool if you are in group 1. But what about if you are in group 2? If you are 100% sure you are right, then I guess it doesn't matter. But what if you are not sure? What if you have been ignoring that feeling that there is more? Or that somebody is calling you? It is dangerous to ignore this and to keep saying I will do it tomorrow. I sure hope you decide to become part of group 1. Don't wait until it is too late. The Bible says: "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. Matt 25:13 (NIV). I don't want to scare you, but it is risky business. This is not as simple as you win or loose a Motocross race, or you miss the MX event all together. This has eternal consequences, so it is important that you do what needs to be done.

Mild Winter

This has been probably one of the mildest Winters that I can remember. I like it. It was or I guess is, its not quite over, a good Winter for staying in practice riding MX. Staying in practice is going to really help when racing season gets on the way soon. The same way that helps, we also need to stay in touch with God. If you are a Christian and you don't practice what you are, your walk with Jesus is not going to be very smooth. Trouble seems to follow us around and keep us beat down. But if we "practice" our walk with Jesus, things will go a lot better. As the weather continues to get warmer and Spring is right around the corner, don't forgot about your walk with Jesus.

Almost Christmas

What is Christmas to you? Is it presents under the tree? Is it time with family? Time off work? Whatever it is to you, please remember what it really is. It is the rememberence of the birth of our Savior Jesus. Without him we would have no reason to celebrate Christmas. I hope you take the time to reflect on this. Merry Christmas

Another MX season

Well another racing season has come to an end. It was a good season for most of us, but as always a few people got hurt thru out the year.
It makes me wonder sometime why we do this to ourselves. Some of us claim because it is fun, some say it keeps us young and others like the competition. Whatever reason we do it for, we always keep coming back for more. It is amazing what we will do for something that we really want to do.
This brings up a question. What will we do for Jesus? To what extend will we follow him? Will we follow him even when it hurts? That is a good question.
Now there are of course people that don't follow him at all. I am not talking about them right now. I am talking about those of us that call ourselves Christians and have asked him to be our Lord and Savior. To what extend will you follow Jesus.
Sometimes it seems like everything is going against us. Are we ready to give up when that happens? I hope not. Just like getting past pain and injury in MX, these things will pass.

The Bible reminds us:
Ro 8:28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

This is a promise we need to remind ourselves of and remember in the times when things are tough.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

It is almost Christmas. A lot of you are busy with Christmas shopping and all the things that go along with it. There are many people doing this. It is all about celebrating Christmas.
But what are you celebrating? The Holiday? The presents? The family get together? I don't know what it is you are celebrating.
However I do know what I am celebrating. I am celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. The birth of the one and only person that was able to come to this earth and pay the price for our sins. Because of this we can be forgiven for our sins and some day spent eternity with him.
How?
He paid the price by being crucified and dying on a cross like a common criminal and then was buried. But it does not end there. Three days later he rose from the dead and then went to heaven to prepare a place for us. Who is the "us"? Did he die for everyone's sins? A lot of people say that he did. But if you think about it, that can't true. If he did die for everyone, everyone would be forgiven and someday go to heaven. So if that's not true, who did he die for? HE DIED FOR EVERYONE THAT IS WILLING TO RECEIVE HIM AS THEIR LORD AND SAVIOR. This is a free gift. You don't work for it or do anything for it. All you do is accept him. Where do you stand?

End of the season

Well as always it has been a while since I have posted anything. This has been an awesome year and the MX season has almost come to an end. The turnout has definitely went way down from past years due to the economy.
I hope things get better for everyone to allow the turn outs to get bigger again. This weekend will be the last State Race for this year at Legends in Half Way MO. I can't wait. Practice on Saturday, Church Sunday AM and then the races.
God has been good to us and has enabled us to make all the races again this year. I wasn't sure how we would do this year.
For anyone that has helped support our Ministry throughout this year a big Thank You and we pray God blesses you.
See ya soon.

Does God still heal people?

This is a subject that keeps coming up in our Bible study. One side says: God heals whom he chooses to heal. We can get sick because we are in a world where people get sick and sometimes God will heal us miraculously other times he does not . The other side says: Yes you can get sick, but God wants to heal all and the only reason you don't get healed is because of lack of faith.
I am not sure on what side you stand, but I do know where I stand. I know that God can heal everyone. I know there are scriptures in the Bible that mention sick people without mention of them being healed. There are many scriptures in the Bible that talk about people being healed. So do all get healed? NO.
Is it because of lack of faith? Could be. Is it because God in his sovereignty chose not to heal them for what ever reason? Could be. I believe that God guarantees us spiritual healing in the Bible, I do not believe he guarantees us physical healing here on this earth.
To tell a genuine believer that is trying to serve God with all his heart that he does not have enough faith to be healed I believe is cruel. It can destroy that individual.
Should we have more faith in God and trust in his healing touch? Yes. I think we do miss out many times.
But I also know that faith is a gift from God and it is nothing we can conger up. So as the Bible says, let us ask for more faith and God will give it to us as he sees fit. Then we can stand ready to receive it, be it more faith to trust in healing or whatever God has in store.
And if we do not see a healing, lets trust God that he knows what he is doing and lets not beat ourselves up over it.

Have faith in God, don't have faith in your faith.

God bless you.

P.S. If you want to discuss this feel free to let me know.

Racing Season

As I was updating my web site last weekend I was entering the dates of this years MO MX State Races. I started thinking whether I was ready for the new season or what I needed to do to get prepared for it. Of course there are still numerous items that I have not taken care of to get ready. But I know I will make sure that I am ready as always.
This made me think of another season. When looking at the world around us it sure seams that the season when Jesus will return is really getting close. Of course I don't know this for sure, but it appears that way. So my question is this: Am I ready for that season? I am in no way perfect, but I do know that because of the price Jesus paid, I can look forward to his coming. I am forgiven.
Are you ready for that season? Only you know the answer to this.
If you are not, are you okay with it? Or do you think it be a good idea to get ready? Only you can answer that question...........
I know God loves you and hopes you will get ready.

We have reached the Goal

Thanks to those of you that contributed to make the Donation to Uganda happen. They have received the money and Abraham has the job he needs to feed his family.
Thanks again.
God bless you all.