It's Not Just the Bicycle...

Most summer days I get out and ride anywhere from 12 - 20 miles along rolling, country highways. I love these rides that meander through farmland and past nearby creeks and rivers. It's relaxing and soothing, challenging and strenuous.

While it seems second nature to me now, it's been a learning process.

When I bought a bike back in 2006, the salesman asked me what I intended to do. Fitness? Distance?  I didn't know. I just wanted to get some exercise and enjoy the outdoors. Running had lost its luster. I wanted to cover more ground, see more variety when I exercised.

He asked questions meant to help me find a starting point for cycling. He realized that I might become the frequent rider that I am now, but didn't push it. 

So, after starting out on a heavier, slower "hybrid" bike, I now have a lighter, faster "road bike." While I first biked only in warm/hot weather, I now have some wind resistant clothing that helps to extend my biking season by adding cold days to the mix. Insulated covers for my bike shoes stopped the 'numbing' that resulted from brisk spring or autumn winds. 

A bright light on the front and red flashers on the back of the seat keep me safe when I'm returning at dusk. I've also learned the value of good maintenance, keeping tires up to pressure and the chain cleaned and lubricated. And the speedometer/odometer helps me plan my routes and manage my time. I'm surprised that some of the hardest routes and hills no longer seem so daunting, so I can ride a little farther, a little faster. 

At it's core, bike riding is simple, but you can go much deeper into the experience if you want to.

At its core, Christianity is a simple - and liberating - concept of unmerited grace from a loving God, promised for eternity. You can choose a basic Bible and attend church on 1 of the available 7 days each week. But as you dig deeper into it, it becomes helpful to search for certain topics and passages with a concordance or commentary. Bible studies go that one better when you can share your questions and insights with fellow sojourners. Prayer extends your 1 day a week visit with God to every hour of every day if you'd like. And I'm constantly learning that the steepest hills of selfishness, pride and resentment are easier to conquer with God's special Believer's accessory...the Holy Spirit. (Still available for a limited time.)

You can cover equal distances with a heavy bike or a lighter bike. You can freeze in the wind, or protect yourself with effective gear. Either way you might blow a tire and have to fix it on the side of the road. But before complaining about the ride you're having, make sure you're not overlooking any of the available help, or Helpers.

What do you believe?  

Fictions Books - Revisited

Update: I never did find out whodunnit in that fiction book I stopped reading. The Lord's name was habitually used in vain, and it just didn't seem right to keep reading.

And now I've gone and read another that throws in "Jesus" and "Christ" amidst the dialog.

However, the characters of this fiction author, Teri Blackstock, are speaking with reverence and thanksgiving. They acknowledge the Savior of the world and Son of God as one and the same with "Jesus" and "Christ" (the 'anointed one' in Greek). Along the way, Teri's book Double Minds fits the bill for a good summer read. Together with Ted Dekker, Randy Alcorn and Frank Perreti, she is a dependable Christian fiction author. Enjoy!

What do you believe?

6th on the List

The tenth commandment (Exodus 20:13) is simple and clear:

"You shall not murder."

But it seems natural for people to equivocate on matters of clarity.

Here's a hypothetical example of this:

Let's say one man kills another and it is not a situation of self defense.

Without any other background information, this sounds like murder, and referring back to the commandment, it is sinful and unacceptable to God (and therefore, us)

Now let's say that the one man murdered the other because the slain man had himself been murdering other people, but it was still not self defense (nor in the sense that war is self defense).

Well, I naturally want the original murderer stopped, but it's still murder to kill him in kind. Morever, societies put in place authorities to deal with that - these are God given, or modeled after, rules of law. People universally expect to be protected against murder. So, no, you can't just act on your own to murder someone else. It's morally and legally wrong.

Ok, but what if the one man was killing innocent children?

It's still murder to kill him, and wrong. Tell the authorities and count on the rule of law to deal with the first murderer.

But, what if this first man systematically murdered as many as 60,000 innocent babies right in your midst, and took money for it (millions), and even used that same blood money to corrupt the very gov't authorities who should be prosecuting him? What if the second man, seeing this, murdered the first murderer just to make him stop?

No, even then, it is not right to murder him. 

Both men are now murderers and guilty - both in need of repentance according to God's words.

And both, as murderers, are not worthy of any adulation or equivocation. They are heroes to no one. Worse. You could try to argue from a moral equivalency that the one was at best 60,000 times worse than the other and has at least been stopped. But even in the hypothetical sense that is clearly, unambiguously flawed! 

Sin is sin, and wrong is wrong. Hopefully, the society in this hypothetical case would themselves step forward and apply the God-given rule of law to stop the paid murderer of children, and refuse to let him prey on other desperate people, or to prosper in their midst.

What do you believe?