The lady in room 18...

She's a 50-something woman who, while out enjoying a ride on her bike, was struck by a car. Her home, temporarily, is Room 18. Nurses and doctors will patch her up and put her back together as best they can. Then, hopefully, she'll go back home. That's my prayer for the lady in Room 18.

When you see a bicyclist, please slow down and give them space! Four feet is the law! A whole lane is better!

From 'Forgotten God'...

The benchmark of success in church services has become more about attendance than the movement of the Holy Spirit. The "entertainment" model of church was largely adopted in the 1980s and '90s, and while it alleviated some of our boredom for a couple of hours a week, it filled our churches with self-focused consumers rather than self-sacrificing servants attuned to the Holy Spirit.

From Forgotten God, by Francis Chan (p.15-16)

Team Type 1 wins RAAM...

Annapolis, Md. – Team Type 1 rolled onto the Annapolis, Md., City Dock early Friday morning as champions of the eight-person team division of the Race Across America (RAAM).

The athletes on Team Type 1 – all of whom have Type 1 diabetes – won the non-stop, transcontinental race in record time. They completed the 3,021-mile (4,861 km) distance in five days, nine hours and five minutes after starting Saturday afternoon in Oceanside, Calif.

Their average speed of 23.41 mph bettered the 23.24 mph of last year's winner, the Norwegian Byggkjøp presented by BMC Cycling Team, which completed nearly the same distance in five days, nine hours and 43 minutes.

At 2:38 a.m. EDT, Team Type 1 riders Jeff Bannink, Simon Bennett, Alex Bowden, Matt Brooks, Tom Kingery, Lonny Knabe, Bob Schrank and Mark Suprenant were recognized on the victory podium to the cheers of a large crowd of supporters that included the team’s founder, Phil Southerland.

Schrank, the RAAM team director, teamed with Southerland and Team Type 1 co-founder Joe Eldridge in 2007 when Team Type 1 won its second straight eight-rider RAAM team title. Last year, Bowden, Brooks and Suprenant joined Schrank on the squad that finished as runners-up.

“This is the biggest one for me by far of the three years I’ve done this,” Schrank said. “It seemed to have all the right pieces seemed to fall together. What was great was how well the team conducted itself in the face adversity.”

That bad luck included a grass fire in the Arizona desert that destroyed a minivan, an RV that had its transmission go out in Utah and a crew car that ran out of gas – all within a 24-hour span early in the race. The team is also on the lookout for Suprenant's Orbea Ordu bicycle, which went missing Thursday night.

RAAM Manager Dave Eldridge said overcoming those challenges was a testament to the focus and diligence of the team and nearly two dozen volunteer crew members.

“Once we physically removed the riders from the environment to fight the challenges, they went back to the task at hand, which was to push the pedals as hard as they could and go east,” Eldridge said. “The crew also did a great job. We made some decisions to keep people back and move people forward with the team and they came through with the support that was necessary. That’s really consistent of the message of Team Type 1. You have to manage the disease, just like you manage things in real life.”

Another remarkable story to emerge was the perseverance of Kingery, a member of the new Team Type 1 triathlon squad. The 33-year-old, Delaware, Ohio, resident broke his hand a month before the race.

“I came into this knowing I wasn’t the strongest climber and my cast limited my climbing training,” Kingery said. “So that made it even more of a challenge. I knew my strong suit would be on the flats.”

The team's quest to better the existing RAAM team record hung in the balance until the final hours of the race. Two of the Team Type 1's three slowest legs of the 53 time stations along the route came in the final 300 miles. The toll of pedaling for 10 or 15 minutes at a time for more than five days caught up to the riders, RAAM Coach Nate Keck said.

“I knew that getting the record was not a given,” Keck said. “But I also knew that we had a shot. So coming down to the finish, I basically just told the guys what we had to achieve to get it and they went out and knocked it down. We were fortunate to only get one time penalty. If we had received any more, we definitely would have been out of luck.”

Team Type 1 was created in 2004 to inspire people living with diabetes to take a proactive approach to managing their health and overcoming the obstacles often associated with the condition. Type 1 diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to properly control blood sugar levels.

From TeamType1 Blog

Real bicyclists can't be put back together...

Found another treasure on the Brothers Brick blog today. A bicycling safety PSA done Lego-style. Enjoy! (And please watch out for bicyclists on the road!)

This is the way...

A little over five years ago, my eldest entered junior high. Because she decided to play sports and I wanted to support her in her athletic endeavors, I began traveling to places I’d never been before. Dexter. Cedar Vale. Burden. Sedan. Kiowa.

Since I didn’t even know some of these places existed until I was called upon to go there for a volleyball match, I would pull out a map and find out where I was going and how to get there. I’d study the highways I needed to follow and commit them, as best I could, to memory. I didn’t want to be looking at a map while careening down the road at 65mph. It’s not especially safe to do so.

I usually had no problem whatsoever finding the town in question, but finding the school buildings was another thing. I’d pass the city limits sign and begin wondering where in the world I needed to turn next. Was the school north or south of the highway? Was it east or west of Main? Was it straight ahead? Had I passed it? Was this the right town?

I hate being lost. It makes me feel all jittery inside. So if I didn’t see the school right off, I committed the cardinal sin against my manhood. I’m not ashamed to admit it: I stopped and asked directions of a local, someone who’d likely been to the school. Doing so saved me time, got me where I was wanted to be in the most efficient manner.

That was five years ago. Now I’m the seasoned veteran. I’ve been there, done that. Most places I’ve been to multiple times. Most seasons, with both junior high and high school athletes now, I travel to the same places more than once. So now I’m the one telling the newbies how to get to the schools in our league for ball games.

Dexter is west from the highway. Just turn right onto the road at the first intersection and follow it around all the twists and turns. Cedar Vale High School gym is to the east of the run down convenience store at the west edge of town. The parking lot is on the north side of the building. Central of Burden is three blocks north of 160. Turn on the street before Main. In Sedan, turn left when the highway turns right part way through town. It’s not far north to the high school. Oh, and Kiowa’s right on the highway. You can’t miss it.

It’s always best to ask someone who knows how to get to where you’re going the way to get there, isn’t it? If your direction-giver has been to where you’re wanting to go, it’s that much better. Someone who’s never been there is just as much in the dark as you are. They might give suggestions based on what little they know, but their uninformed ideas are just as likely as not to set you adrift.

Being lost isn’t pleasant in any circumstances, but even less so when you are forever lost. That’s why Jesus came from Heaven to Earth. As the song has it: he came to show the way. He’d been there. He was (and still is) the best person to get directions to Heaven from.

And what did he say about the way there? Quite a lot really, but one of the better known things he said is really quite amazing. Listen to his words as John records them.

In John 14:6 Jesus speaks. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (NIV)

Where is the Father? He’s our Father in Heaven, right? So the way to the Father and the way to Heaven are one in the same. And the way is Jesus. Jesus is the way to Heaven. There is no other way.

Contrary to popular opinion, all paths do not lead to God. All religions are not basically the same. One points you toward Jesus, the way to the Father. All others point you away from the Savior.

Listen to me. No one gets eternal life unless they come to the Father through Jesus. If you don’t go through Jesus, you will be lost for eternity. I don’t think I’m oversimplifying the message here. I’m not overstating the truth, am I?

“I am the way and the truth and the life,” means Jesus is the way to Heaven, doesn’t it? “No one comes to the Father except through me,” means there’s no other way, right? It’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it? I’m not reading anything into his words, am I? You must come to God through Jesus! There are no other paths.

Most people miss the way to Heaven. Jesus said this would be true. Listen to what he says.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 6:13-14, NIV)

Why do so many miss the way? Why do they reject Jesus? Do you know? It’s because they do not want to follow God’s instructions. They’d rather go their own way even if that way leads to death. It sounds crazy, but it’s true.

So what does God say to the lost, the dying, those living in darkness?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (John 3:16-21, NIV)

Jesus cries out to everyone who will hear his voice: Believe on me! Do not die in your sin! Leave the darkness behind! Come into the light! Receive eternal life!

Those are the words of God to you. They are the words of the One who came from Heaven to be the way to the Father. They are his instructions to all who want salvation.

Will you obey? All who believe on Jesus receive the gift of eternal life. All who trust him escape the death in Hell they deserve.

Listen to Jesus again. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NIV)

Are you ready to come to the Father? You must believe. Will you?

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Follow His instructions...

There is a math test that I took in eighth grade that I’ve never forgotten. My teacher handed out this particular exam with verbal instructions to carefully read the directions at the top of the page before beginning. I paid as much attention to this suggestion as I usually did. I ignored it.

When my copy of the test was in my hands, I immediately put my pencil to question number one. I hurried through question one and two and three and four and then I began to get nervous. People who normally did poorly in the class were already handing in their papers. I wasn’t even half way through! The problems were hard. Some of work was new stuff, stuff I wasn’t sure we’d covered in class. Still they kept getting up and turning in their papers. Something wasn’t right!

I kept working, but I became more and more distracted as every student around me finished and walked to the teacher’s desk. I was so confused. This made no sense. I was the best student in the class. (I was an arrogant young man.) What was going on?

As I was sweating it out on a particularly difficult problem, I suddenly remembered the teacher’s pre-exam directives. He’d said plainly enough: “Read the directions at the top of the page before beginning.”

I stopped what I was doing and read. “This is a test of your ability to follow instructions as given by the teacher. You do not need to complete any of the problems on this exam. Write your name at the top of the page and turn it in immediately.”

I was so embarrassed. I wrote “Mike Neifert” on the line provided and walked to the front of the room. I vaguely remember a Cheshire cat grin on my instructor’s face as I sheepishly handed him my paper.

I paid a lot closer attention to his words at the beginning of assignments in the days that followed. His aim I’m sure.

Any of you ever have a teacher pull a dirty trick like that on you? Surely mine wasn’t the only devious trickster in the world. What class were you in when you learned to pay attention to the teacher’s words? Kindergarten? Fourth grade? Tenth?

Whether you figured it out early or late, you learned a valuable lesson. Listening to those over you, those who are in charge, is important. They set the rules. Your obedience to their guidelines sets you on the path to success. Refusing to follow their instructions almost always leads to failure. Sometimes the results are disastrous.

So who’s in charge of this universe? Who sets the rules for how we live? It has to be God, doesn’t it? If Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” – is true, then God is over all. He who made us is the rule maker. No one can override his instructions. What he says about how we’re to live or how we’re to speak or how we’re to approach him matters more than what anyone else says about any of these things. He knows more than anyone else about all things.
So God, in the Old Testament, laid down the law. After man rebelled against him in the Garden of Eden, he had to define evil in more specific ways. He defined evil so that man might know two things. Man needed to know just how holy God was and he needed to know, by comparison, just how unholy he was. The law with all of its “dos and don’ts” points out both things pretty well. Read through Leviticus or even just the ten and you’ll see that God expects a lot, his standards are high. But remember: he’s the Creator. His instructions matter. You can’t ignore what he says.

Keep reading long enough and you’ll eventually have to admit, if your honest, that you don’t measure up. God is holy. I am not. I cannot follow his instructions. I am powerless to do so. His standards are too high. My sinful nature causes me to rebel.

And you’re no better. We’re all in the same boat. We are unholy and, on our own, we can do nothing to escape God’s wrath against our sin.

“‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’

“‘Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.’

“‘The poison of vipers is on their lips.’

“‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’

“‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.’

“‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.” (Romans 3:10-19, NIV)

You are accountable to God and you do not follow his instructions. Why should you escape his wrath? Why should you be allowed into Heaven? You don’t deserve salvation. You are a rebel. God has passed sentence on you. You are condemned.

But you are not without hope. God has made a way for you to gain salvation. He made that way because he loves you. It is through faith in Jesus, His Son, whom he sent to die in your place.

God is holy, but He is love too.

To receive my once or twice weekly message via email, send a blank email to webmessage-subscribe@associate.com. Past messages are available at freegroups.net/groups/webmessage.