6/20/18 – Pastor Brian’s Blog
Judy and I both had a long day last Friday; she was helping a young lady in our church and I was working on my message for Father’s Day. We both arrived at home around 6:30 PM and decided it would be fun to jump on our motorcycle and ride over to Rochester, a couple of towns over from our home, and pick up a submarine sandwich for dinner.
If you have never been to Barnstead NH to visit us… why not??? If you have been to Barnstead, you know that to go to any other town of any size, it is at least a 20-25 minute ride. So, as we are riding our bike to get dinner, my mind started to wander, and it is amazing the things that come to your mind when you allow it to do its own thing.
My mind went back over 40 years, when I was much younger and not always making the wisest choices. My thoughts went to that time when I chose to race my buddy in his Corvette. I was on my motorcycle, Judy was on the back, we were racing on a winding back road, going at speeds of over 100 MPH. What was I thinking!?!? Once we stopped and Judy got off the bike, she said that she would never ride with me again. Well, let me just say, that I am glad that Judy is a forgiving person.
Then my mind took me just a few weeks after our racing incident, to the time I am riding my bike alone (at my age, I can’t remember if Judy had forgiven me yet or not) on a divided 4 lane highway. I was riding in the right lane, and the car in front of me was turning, so, I looked in my mirror to make sure no one was coming behind me, and then gave my bike the gas to go around the car in front of me. The only problem, I never looked to see if anyone was in the left lane in front of me.
A large telephone truck had stopped in the left-hand lane to make a left-hand turn and I ran right into the back of truck. I hit the truck sideways, still on the bike, I was forced under the truck, where the friction of the bike on the road ignited the gas in my gas tank and the bike was in flames. I crawled from under the truck to the side of the road, the ambulance arrived and took me to the hospital, where they would eventually use a wire brush to take out all the tar and debris that had embedded itself into my leg. At the thought of the wire brush, I knew that it was time for this memory to end!!
Did I mention that this ride to get a sub was 20-25 minutes in length? Long enough for my mind to work in one more story. This one was a more recent memory. Last fall a tree fell on my bike and did damage that needed to be repaired. My mechanic, who by the way we really like, stored my bike at his garage this winter for free and then repaired the bike this past May. Part of the repairs included a new front and rear tire. As Judy and I are riding, my mind says, “You never checked any of these repairs; how do you know that the tires are on tight? What would happen if your rear tire falls off as you and Judy are traveling 50 MPH? What would you do if your front tire goes down the road without you?” What was I thinking?!?! I had just jumped on the bike without checking or questioning any of the work he had done??? By this time, we arrived at our destination, purchased our sub, and sat down to eat.
Well it is also a 20-25 minute ride back home, and on the way home, the Holy Spirit thought it was time for Him to throw a thought in. And the thought came to my mind, “Why is it that I trust my mechanic without hesitation, but hesitate at times, when God tells me to trust Him?” As much as we like our mechanic, we know from experience that he is flawed. Yet when has God failed me? NEVER! When has God done anything to hurt me? NEVER! Try to think of just one time that God did not meet a need… NEVER!
And before you think too badly of me, how many people do you trust more than God? When is the last time you went to the cockpit to ask to see the pilot’s credentials before you chose to fly with him? What is the name of the last restaurant you went too and demanded to see the kitchen before you ate, to make sure the food was fresh? How much research do you do before taking the medicine your doctor just prescribed for you? When is the last time you went to church and checked out the chair to make sure that it would hold you? If we were all honest, there are people in our lives that we trust without hesitation, without question. We will even trust chairs; yet trust God that way? Trust God without hesitation, without question? Sadly, not so much.
Is God trustworthy? Well, consider how important you are to Him. You are important enough to have your name tattooed on His hand… See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. Isaiah 49:16
Why would God take such painstaking effort to create us, why would He use such words as, knit, wonderfully made, and woven to describe us, if we were not of upmost importance to Him?… For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Psalm 139:13-15
Have you ever forgotten someone you had previously met, or worse yet, someone forgot you? That will never happen with God… Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! Isaiah 49:15
Have you ever been misused or taken advantage of by someone you trusted? Never happens with God… 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. Jeremiah 29:11
Maybe you have been betrayed by a spouse after they made a vow to love you for better or worse, for richer or poorer. They committed to be yours until death separated you, and then, you found out, that they did not mean it.
If you know Christ as your Savior, God has made that committed to you. And please understand, from eternity past to the present, God has never broken that promise to anyone. And don’t think that He is going to start with you… God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So, we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6
It is amazing what goes through your mind when you are riding a bike. To think that there are people in my life that I will trust more than God… What was I thinking!?!? To trust anyone or anything more than God; well it is about as stupid as racing a Corvette down a back road with a whole bunch of turns going 100 MPH with your wife on the back seat. What was I thinking!?!?
