Hello all,

On Sunday October 16th, the Central PA Chapter of the Christian Sport bike Association will be having its final ride of the season. We may put together a ride in November temperatures allowing. This ride for October is on a Sunday so it will not conflict with the CSBA Fall Rally in Virginia on the 2nd Saturday of the month. We will meet for breakfast at the Marysville All American Diner around 8:00 am to eat and leave around 9:15 am to ride. We will be taking a ride up to Lewistown and back enjoying twisty roads, crisp air, and great scenery. If you want to come post up! The ride ends near Enola, PA. All bikes and beliefs are welcome. I hope to see you there,

I have off from work for this ride and will see if I can make it. I will let you know as we get closer.

Very cool. It would be neat to have you ride with us

I just noticed this ride is Sunday instead of tomorrow. I have plans Sunday, so won't be able to make it. Weather is looking good for you. Have fun.

I got up early to get a quick start so I wouldn't be late to the diner. I started riding when it was still dark, but the moon was full and the skies were clear. I got halfway to the diner and the sun was just coming up with the sky brightening but the sun not yet visible. As I looked in the western sky, the moon was gone, buried beneath a blanket of clouds. As the day brightened the clouds extended across the sky making the morning overcast. I got to the diner around 8:06 am and only saw a guy sitting by his Victory. I didn't think he was coming on this ride, but he was. A bigger bonus was that he was smoothbassman a guy I rode with 6 years ago when I rode with the Eastern PA CSBA chapter. It was good to see him again and his new ride, a very sharp looking bagger with metal flake paint and a bunch of options. We had a good breakfast catching up on bikes, work, and family. After eating we went out and there was no one parked near our bikes. There were four bikes, 3 cruisers and a KTM, parked at the other end of the lot, but we thought they were just some guys riding that stopped for breakfast. They instead were here to ride with us, but I didn't know it. I had checked the event page on FB around 8:30 and they asked about the ride on 8:41am. Doh! Next time, I have to check the page later. A serious bummer that we missed those guys, but I will put something up on the website to hopefully remedy this in the future. Smooth and I went north then cut west on some nice twisty roads. We saw loads of gorgeous scenery and had really good pavement most of the time. Our one notable exception was for a 3 mile stretch that was chipped and tarred a few days prior. Grrr! I really don't like when PennDOT does that! Neither of us had any issue with it, we took our time and arrived at our lunch stop safely. We had some appetizers since we were both still full from breakfast. I read the word and discussed the life and family of Joseph and we headed back out to the bikes. We back tracked a bit and then rode down a straight section of valley until carving up some corners and going up over a high ridge. While on this ridge we were riding above the birds of prey soaring beneath us, that was cool. We rode one more road back to our fuel stop and then shook hands and headed home. It was a great ride and I look forward to more rides next year. The Scripture and lesson is below:

Now as we look at Joseph we see that he is the "oddball" of the family. He treats everyone equally and he rarely lies or deceives. In fact, this point is especially irritating to his brothers when he tells them of his dreams. He mentions how sheaves of grain bow down to him and the moon and stars bow to him also. His brothers are infuriated and fake his death, sell Joseph into slavery, and lie to their father about it. Joseph is taken to the captain of Pharaoh's guard, Potiphar. He sees that Joseph is a man of integrity and soon puts him in charge of everything in his whole house. Even though Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him, Joseph remains a man of truth. He refuses her advances, she lies about it and he gets sent to prison for it. But, God was with him and soon he was seen by prison officials as a man who is in God's favor. Now, he is in charge of the prison and everything is going well until dreams start occurring. Two of Pharaoh's officials displease him and are sent to prison. Each has a dream that Joseph is able to interpret. One official will be restored, the other executed. Now Joseph could have told both men happy endings, but he was a man that told the truth, even when it hurt. Joseph asked the official that would be restored to remember him when he came before Pharaoh, but he did not. Two years later, Pharaoh had dreams and Joseph was called up to interpret them. He did so with truth and wisdom. This so impressed Pharaoh that he promote Joseph to second in command of all of Egypt. He did very well in that role eventually reuniting with his family and being restored to his brothers, but that's another lesson. The Scripture for us today is Proverbs 2:1-11 which says:

1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
11 Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

Here we see the Teacher in Proverbs admonish us to seek after wisdom, to store and accept His teachings, to cry out of understanding and insight. If we do this we will be happy and successful, right!?? Um no. But if we look and search for these things as a treasure hunter searches for silver and gold, then we will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Lofty and worthy treasures indeed! And having wisdom, discretion, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord will bring success to you. You will find favor with God by living a life of integrity and faithfulness. Let's look to Joseph's life and how he played such a pivotal part in his family and the nation of Israel. His life of integrity and faithfulness to God blessed and protected his family. And when that family left Egypt 400 years later, it had become a people and a nation. May we all live such lives for our God.