Traveling with Bikers and...

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

@#$%

Traveling with Knowledge and Wisdom

(Proverbs 3:21-26)

@#$%

“We get disturbed because we have not been considering Him…The

only impression left by a Christian is that of the strong calm sanity

that our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him…When the

crisis arises, you realize that things cannot touch you as before.”

Oswald Chambers

(excerpts from My Utmost for His Highest)

@#$%

          Just like I Just Wanna Ride that you can still buy via www.amazon.com with no royalties headed my way and trailing anything written by the toothy guy in Texas by about a trillion to one in among the

most humiliating realities of my life and ministry, this inspiration or indigestion according to your indiscretion from the road avec my biker buddies is a metaphor for matters much more important than, for example, wondering if Taylor Swift and Katy Perry will ever patch things up.

          If you think that paragraph was cumbersome and complicated, just wait until…

@#$%

August 26 – September 3, 2017

@#$%

          Thinking of Ghostrider and missing Wingman with an always open invitation to Deadeye and other authentics, Audio, BC, Packman, Pastor Paul aka Digger, Judge, and Daktari aka Sheepdog – road names for Rainmakers MC that is a notch above Wild Hogs and thusly named because it always rains when we ride except this time – rode 3007 miles through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and New York on the cited date above.

          Highlights included life’s best and worst day for everybody as Daktari/Sheepdog hosted a pizza party at Serpico’s in Wilkes-Barre to prove what he’s boasted foruhever, the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania, Green Mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont, Niagara Falls where no one held hands for a group photo, Maine’s Cadillac Mountain, close-ups of the Zumwalt Destroyer Series at BIW, and Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame despite Mountain missing and Tupac Shakur polluting the culture.

@#$%

          After the first day’s hard ride of nearly 700 miles, the breakfast table at the inn was transformed into His table for worship avec sacrament.

          Noticing some folks listening in to an abbreviated exposition of Proverbs 3:21-26, Daktari/Sheepdog asked, “Hey, do you guys love Jesus?”  They said they did and joined Rainmakers MC for worship; reminding everyone that God doesn’t like denominations and other clubby Christians who discriminate, segregate, degradate, quarrel, and divide over everyone and everything for Christ’s sake.

          Catch the pointed sarcasm?

          Though sermonettes most often produce Christianettes – like people who devote three minutes or less to Our Daily Bread expecting increased intimacy with God because it’s better than nothing while forgetting it’s next to nothing - the little homily on Proverbs 3:21-26 provided counsel for the trek and a metaphor for traveling through life.

@#$%

          While there’s a lot of thematic/theological/spiritual overlapping in these verses that inhibit a neat outline, Solomon tells us about the knowledge and wisdom that will help us to survive even thrive when we travel through life.

@#$%

          Parenthetically, I really like Peterson’s paraphrased translation of this text in The Message.

@#$%

God through Solomon: “Dear friend, guard clear thinking and common sense with your life; don’t for a minute lose sight of them.”

          When “clear thinking” or knowledge (education and experience) is coupled with “common sense” or wisdom (enlightenment produced by intimacy with God), safety, serenity, and security are enhanced.

          You’ve heard/read it before: “Know God.  Know peace.  No God.  No peace.”

          Solomon lists the results of coupling knowledge and wisdom while traveling: “They’ll keep your soul alive and well, they’ll keep you fit and attractive.  You’ll travel safely, you’ll neither tire nor trip.  You’ll take afternoon naps without a worry, you’ll enjoy a good night’s sleep.”

@#$%

          Echoing his daddy David who often wrote/spoke/sang about intimacy with God enabling us to overcome the meanness, madness, misery, and miscreance that inevitably challenge everyone – recalling how Jesus said it rains on everyone and how bikers echo the desert fathers who spoke about life as being in a challenge and coming out of a challenge before moving into the next challenge ad nauseam by saying we’re either in rain or coming out of rain before going back into rain – Solomon says there is “No need to panic over alarms or surprises or predictions that doomsday’s around the corner, because God will be right there with you; He’ll keep you safe and sound.”

          No matter what rude road being traveled with so many bumps and potholes and careless/reckless cagers on cell phones and mugs doing make-up in their mirrors, God will deliver or safe us sooner or later and usually sooner than later and definitely in the end.

@#$%

          I’ve always liked the story about the little boy on a ship during a horrific storm.

          He was sitting calmly on a deckchair.

          Another frantic passenger asked, “How can you be so cool and calm during such an awfully life-threatening storm?”

          The boy answered, “My father is the captain of this ship.”

@#$%

          I think of Bert Atwood who often urged mush-brained seminarians like me, “Trust Jesus and, in everything else, hang loose!”

          He got it from Jesus who said, “I am with you always.”

@#$%

          Traveling with my biker buddies around the nation has taught many lessons; like the ones that you haven’t read in I Just Wanna Ride.

          Actually, here’s what I’ve learned in a sentence.

          Traveling is often treacherous but everyone can make it home safely sooner or later and usually sooner than later and definitely in the end by staying close to Jesus.

@#$%

          Now read Proverbs 3:21-26 again.

          Add Matthew 7:24-29.

          Or as we sum up every Sunday at the beginning of worship on the corner of Lincoln and Main to remind ourselves why we worship: “Before you were born, God knew you.  Then God made you.  He knit you together in your mother’s womb.  God loves you very much.  So He sent His Son Jesus to save you.  And now God wants you to be His.  Let us worship God!”

@#$%

Blessings and Love!

@#$%

Shatter the sound of silence!

Wake up!  Look up!  Stand up!  Speak up!  Act up for Jesus!

Salt!  Shine!  Leavenate!

@#$%



@#$%