This past weekend I did something totally unspiritual. Or so it seemed. I went to Lake George. A town my parents once wrote off as touristy and cheap.
So, Tina and I went over to the American National Car Show. The show itself is probably 3,000 cars. But the real action is on the streets. Cars line both sides of the street, hotel and restaurant parking lots and any other nook and cranny available. They drive, tow and truck these cars in. Dressed in my denim jacket I have had since I was 12 replete with my Ford Cobra insignia(Of the same year.) and my Jesus Freak Racing Hat and Shirt("Spreading the gospel at over 100 miles per hour"-Thanks Jim and Lu...), I fit right in with the thousands who set up chairs on both sides of the street. Folks we are talking tens of thousands of people. All with one goal. To have fun.
As we walked down the streets and admired the vehicles, the road is shut off. Now it is a cruise night. Just like American Graffiti these cars cruise up in down Main Street, lighting up tires, decibels of horsepower rattling windows and smoke pouring off tires and the occasional engine. This is one of the things that made America great. Ingenuity, guts and the "senseless" pursuit of fun.
Now my reason for going away has been the stress of many things required some time away. Health, finances, vehicles, children and ministry. I just needed some "mindless" play time. So I wandered about a car show for 4 or 5 hours and sat on the street watching cars and God began to speak to me.
The psychic needed someone to speak to her heart. The young driver in front of me with an unhappy wife needed someone to "father" him. The old man who had his street rod for 43 years was looking pretty lonely.
Now you may not be into cars and that is ok. But I am and I spent hours admiring beautiful Chevy's and Fords from ages gone by. (Remember this is the American Car Show.) So, we were looking at cars from the 1920's and price tags in the hundreds of thousands. Sure, I thought about the victims of Katrina and so did they. Money was being collected all over the place.
And the Spirit of God spoke to me. AS I wandered about vehicles that were stock and nonstock, standard motors and supercharged, original paint and paint that can only have originated in the eyes of someone tapped into heaven, I began to see something.
You might like a stock 1955 Chevy or a 1965 Mustang, but I would probably go for one of the supercharged vehicles equipped with tires 24" across, wheelie bars, pushing 1,000 horsepower and exhaust that sounds like a jet taking off. (Yeah-some things never change-I was a drag racer, through and through.)
But here is the deal. What I like and what you like are still cars. And my idea of a paint job and yours may differ. And we can argue about what models and makes are the best but when it is all over, said and done-they are cars (And trucks.)
And whether you believe in apostles and prophets, tongues or no tongues, healing or no healing, we are all children of the Most High God. My own children do not look alike so why do you feel that I must walk or talk like you, or vice versa?
The beauty of this show was the diversity in makes and models, paints and interiors, motors and tires. And this was pretty cool. In so many shows, they group makes and models together. This show they do not do that. Diversity.
Church, we need to look at that and begin to cross pollinate. The world did it in this show. And we can do it as well. Why? For the sake of the Gospel.
As I wandered this show, I saw he word ministry all over it. Evangelism-the carrying of the Go(o)d News to people who most likely won't be setting in the pew next to you. (Or the chair.)
It is time for us to begin to go where they are as they aren't racing to where we are. Will you and I leave our comfort zone and begin to walk out the responsibility of our relationship.
I am already planning for the next one. And there is a blues and jazz concert in between that I will try and get to.
In many people's eyes I have checked out of Christianity, what with stepping down and all. Sorry folks-I am hoping I have checked in to the ministry of Jesus.
So, Tina and I went over to the American National Car Show. The show itself is probably 3,000 cars. But the real action is on the streets. Cars line both sides of the street, hotel and restaurant parking lots and any other nook and cranny available. They drive, tow and truck these cars in. Dressed in my denim jacket I have had since I was 12 replete with my Ford Cobra insignia(Of the same year.) and my Jesus Freak Racing Hat and Shirt("Spreading the gospel at over 100 miles per hour"-Thanks Jim and Lu...), I fit right in with the thousands who set up chairs on both sides of the street. Folks we are talking tens of thousands of people. All with one goal. To have fun.
As we walked down the streets and admired the vehicles, the road is shut off. Now it is a cruise night. Just like American Graffiti these cars cruise up in down Main Street, lighting up tires, decibels of horsepower rattling windows and smoke pouring off tires and the occasional engine. This is one of the things that made America great. Ingenuity, guts and the "senseless" pursuit of fun.
Now my reason for going away has been the stress of many things required some time away. Health, finances, vehicles, children and ministry. I just needed some "mindless" play time. So I wandered about a car show for 4 or 5 hours and sat on the street watching cars and God began to speak to me.
The psychic needed someone to speak to her heart. The young driver in front of me with an unhappy wife needed someone to "father" him. The old man who had his street rod for 43 years was looking pretty lonely.
Now you may not be into cars and that is ok. But I am and I spent hours admiring beautiful Chevy's and Fords from ages gone by. (Remember this is the American Car Show.) So, we were looking at cars from the 1920's and price tags in the hundreds of thousands. Sure, I thought about the victims of Katrina and so did they. Money was being collected all over the place.
And the Spirit of God spoke to me. AS I wandered about vehicles that were stock and nonstock, standard motors and supercharged, original paint and paint that can only have originated in the eyes of someone tapped into heaven, I began to see something.
You might like a stock 1955 Chevy or a 1965 Mustang, but I would probably go for one of the supercharged vehicles equipped with tires 24" across, wheelie bars, pushing 1,000 horsepower and exhaust that sounds like a jet taking off. (Yeah-some things never change-I was a drag racer, through and through.)
But here is the deal. What I like and what you like are still cars. And my idea of a paint job and yours may differ. And we can argue about what models and makes are the best but when it is all over, said and done-they are cars (And trucks.)
And whether you believe in apostles and prophets, tongues or no tongues, healing or no healing, we are all children of the Most High God. My own children do not look alike so why do you feel that I must walk or talk like you, or vice versa?
The beauty of this show was the diversity in makes and models, paints and interiors, motors and tires. And this was pretty cool. In so many shows, they group makes and models together. This show they do not do that. Diversity.
Church, we need to look at that and begin to cross pollinate. The world did it in this show. And we can do it as well. Why? For the sake of the Gospel.
As I wandered this show, I saw he word ministry all over it. Evangelism-the carrying of the Go(o)d News to people who most likely won't be setting in the pew next to you. (Or the chair.)
It is time for us to begin to go where they are as they aren't racing to where we are. Will you and I leave our comfort zone and begin to walk out the responsibility of our relationship.
I am already planning for the next one. And there is a blues and jazz concert in between that I will try and get to.
In many people's eyes I have checked out of Christianity, what with stepping down and all. Sorry folks-I am hoping I have checked in to the ministry of Jesus.
posted by Servant Communications at 5:19 PM
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