August 2006 CSBA Newsletter
From the Servant’s Desk
2 Corinthians 6:14-17 Do not be unequally yoked
together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with
lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or
what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
And what agreement has the
“ I will dwell in them and walk among them.
I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Therefore “Come out from among them and
be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.
I had the opportunity to stand in for my pastor last Sunday while he and his
family were on vacation. Accepting the
responsibility of addressing the fellowship of one’s church, demands that you
have something relevant and meaningful to present them. I thought about a topic for a few days and
God laid 2nd Corinthians on my heart. I’ve always felt drawn to the “equally yoked”
analogy. Paul asks us not to be yoked
with unbelievers; but we live in the world.
We have to deal with all types of people every day, believers in
disguise and non-believers. What Paul is
saying, I feel, is that we should be cautious about how close we
become with those non-believers.
An example of how not to act is the guy who spent most of his free time in
bars. One day God softens his heart and
he accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord. The
day after that he’s back in the bar, having a cold one telling his bar room
associates about his conversion. They
aren’t impressed because our new believer is still behaving the way he did
before the conversion….if he indeed had a sincere acceptance of Christ.
When we accept Christ, we’re
born again (John 3:7). We’re new men in Christ; the old person is
dead. We’re different, not so much by
how we want people to perceive us, rather we’re different because
we now have that difference through faith and surrender within
us.
As Christians, we’ve changed
our social habits not because we feel we might be perceived as
unholy, but because we know in our hearts the path of Christ and we attempt to
walk in His shadow.
One way to keep the “dead guy” comatose is to associate with other
Christians. Nine years after accepting
Jesus Christ, I don’t think I have one friend who is a non-believer. I have lots of non-believer “acquaintances”,
but they’re not friends. I wouldn’t take
any problem to them or share my heart about anything. I have Christian friends for that.
Being yoked with the world is
a hard walk. You have trouble putting
things into perspective. There’s always
something getting in the way with your having a deep relationship with Jesus
Christ.
Here are some “World-Yoked”
tips that have helped me:
Get
a home church
Get
involved in a Bible study
Have
prayer time with God every day
Act
on God’s direction for you
Seek
out others who are doing 1 through 4
If
you don’t have a home church, you’re missing needed Christian fellowship. If you aren’t involved in a Bible study,
you’re behind the curve in understanding God’s Word, His plan for you, and
accountability for your daily walk. If
you’re not involved in daily prayer, how can you ever know God’s direction for
you?
I
work for a Christian men’s shelter and I talk with new believers daily. I’ve developed a self-administered test for
the men to use in gauging their growth in Christ.
Do
you still have the same friends you had when you were unsaved?
Do
people who knew you before you were saved find you a little odd?
Do
your relatives find you hard to take?
Is
your girlfriend acting aloof and distant?
Do
you find that you have less desire for things that used to REALLY turn you on?
Do
you look forward to your lunch break because you anticipate reading your Bible?
Has
your taste in music changed?
Do
you wake up in the morning anticipating what God has in store for you?
I’d
like to add a few questions for CSBA members:
Do
you consider your bike your most valuable possession?
Do
you ever walk out to the garage just to admire your bike?
What
percent of your disposable income is used for bike accessories?
Is a
bike function (track day / rally / weekend ride) more important than a church
function, family function, or a job function?
Tough
questions, eh? How you’ve answered is
between you and God. We should all be
striving to move to the next level of Christian maturity. Some of the questions listed may help
determine your current “World-Yoked” status.
I
read a post on the CSBA message board a few weeks ago from Art Lohman in
Maryland. It seems he had a situation
put in front of him that tested his Christian walk:
“There I was, minding my own business
getting toothpaste and deodorant, when a big, burly, Harley type walks up to me
and says those dreaded 4 words you never want to hear in a store..."you
riding the Suzuki?" It is always one of three things: 1. You royally
torqued someone out on the highway and they have caught up with you. 2. Your
bike just got run over on the parking lot. 3. A fellow sport biker is admiring
your machine.
Obviously from his appearance, I mentally eliminated option #3, and I
couldn’t think of any recent bad behavior, eliminating option #1. Sure enough,
it was option #2. We walked out of Sam’s Club and there she was lying on the
ground with a big Ford pickup truck looming over the tail.
Just as I was mentally pricing out the broken under- tail and cracked
fairings, I felt that tug on my heart, and I knew what the Lord wanted me to
do.
I told the guy
we’d call it even if you take the time today to consider what it means to have
eternal life through Jesus Christ.
We talked for a
few minutes, shared the hope of Christ, and he left with some scripture and I
left with some battle scars on the GSXR. Please pray for the salvation of Mike.
Your Bro, Art.”
Next time you’re writing in your journal (you journal, don’t you?) about a witness opportunity after they’ve run over your bike in a parking lot, rest assured that you’re growing as a Christian. When the need to share Jesus Christ is more important than plastic and chrome, the concept of being equally yoked is illuminated: Living one’s life in the world and walking Jesus Christ.
God bless.
Brian Phillips
CSBA Servant
brianp@christiansportbike.com
2006 CSBA Rallies
CSBA “Day at the Races” –
8/19/06 Virginia International Raceway
By Bill Allen:
CSBA Day At The Races!
Saturday August 19, 2006
Formally the "VIR RALLY"
Featuring all of the same exciting AMA Superbike action
of our past VIR Rallies.
(Rain date Aug. 20 , 2006)
Ride the track, meet the stars, see of the best motorcycle
racing action anywhere.
"The fastest and most exotic road
racing motorcycles in America will return to VIR for a sixth time over the
weekend of August 18-20, as AMA Pro Racing’s wildly popular Suzuki Big Kahuna
Nationals brings the best in the business to do battle on VIR’s challenging
2.25-mile North Course. The doubleheader format will give fans two feature
races for the headlining AMA Superbike Championship. During these races,
presented by Parts Unlimited, the factory teams and world’s best riders compete
for corporate bragging rights, while utilizing staggering budgets to produce
some of the most technologically advanced bikes on the planet. Rounding out the
program will be AMA’s other pro series, the Pro Honda Oils Supersport
Championship, presented by Shoei, AMA Repsol Lubricants Superstock Serie, and
Lockhart Phillips USA Formula Xtreme Series."
Info and Sign up HERE!!!
"Seneca Rocks Prayer Retreat Weekend” Seneca Rocks,
WV – Sept. 15-17, 2006.
By
Bill Allen:
Yokum's Vacationland in Seneca Rocks, West Virginia http://www.yokum.com/
Motel, Cabins, Campground and Teepee's available.
Our emphasis will be on a time of Prayer and
fellowship. Friday will be arrival day...get there early enough to squeeze in a
little
local riding if you can!
Saturday is ride day!
Ice Cream Ride Friday night!! Great Ice cream and huge gift shop at Smoke
Hole Caverns. (Maybe again Saturday depending on how long we are at the
restaurant for the...Saturday night "big eating”). The whole group gathers
at a nice restaurant.
There will be Meetings Fri. Night, Saturday Night, and a brief service before
we dismiss on Sunday morning.
We'll be talking about prayer and what the Bible has to say about prayer, as
well as spending time in group prayer.
Those who are not comfortable praying in public; please don’t feel like anyone
expects you to make a public display.
We realize that God did not bless us all with the same talents and did not
design everyone to be a public speaker.
We'd love to have you attend and join along with us silently in prayer!
Expect a blessing and an uplifting weekend of prayer, and lots of Christian
fellowship...both on the bikes and off.
When you get a group of people together seriously praying...anything can
happen!
Sign up, & reservation info Here: http://csbadg.homestead.com/WV.html
CSBA Fall Rally – Sept. 29th – Oct 1st, 2006
headquartered in Wellsboro, PA. Ride
some of the best, yet least known,
country roads, in the northeast. This
rally just keeps getting better.
Contact: Bob Brown bob@EmpireGP.com
or Jon Treese jt1189@messiah.edu
2006 RUN FOR THE WORD
If you and your group held a Run For The Word event and collected any donations to the CSBA Free Bible Fund, please forward the check/s to:
Marvin Gurganus
PO Box 511
Jamesville, NC 27846
Make sure you keep track of your donors who have contributed $25.00 or
more. Send their names, addresses and
T-shirt sizes emailed to brianp@christiansportbike.com
Sarah &
Jon Tie the Knot!
Sarah Taylor and Jon Treese
were married on July 29, 2006 in Wallingford, PA.
I think Sarah summed up the
blessed event in her post on the CSBA message board:
“Well it’s finally here!!! After 6 years Jon and I are
going to be getting married!!! This is praise and prayer!!! We are going to be
taking our bikes down to Deals Gap, NC for our honeymoon and hope to be meeting
up with some of you. We are going to Road Atlanta speedway for Jon to do a
track day as well. WWHOOO HOOO FINALLY!!!”
Getting married, honeymooning
at Deal’s Gap, track day at Road Atlanta.
“Whoo Hooo” indeed!
Best wishes and
congratulations from the members and board of the CSBA.
*** NEWSFLASH ***
The
Australian team who visited during this month bought the soccer team a
complete outfit. The guys were beaming from ear to ear as they are now part of
the elite few who owns their own color-
coordinated
outfits.
The soccer team has brought new faces to show up at the Care Center and it is awesome to see how many of these guys have changed from looking in from the outside, to taking an interest in what we do and actually helping out around the Center out of their own.
Leratong
will never be the same again! The two visiting teams we had here this month
rocked this village! The first team of nine workaholics from Dubo in Australia
did wonders with the children, applying lots of initiative and doing a lot for
the daily running of the preschool; teaching them songs and games and having
stacks of fun with the children! Also applying their skills to the in creating
gardens and making child’s play of digging the foundation to the third house!
The second them was the family Yates
from Los Angeles, they were able to give some good individual attention to the
preschool children, building on the foundation that was laid since the
beginning of June. With some very good artists in both teams, the house where
we stayed in and have the preschool in, now looks like a regular kindergarten!
Well-done guys!
Thank you very much to our volunteers; Anna, Ester and Isaac who is forming the backbone of the daily running of the Care Centre / Preschool! You guys are the best!
They make sure the kids brush their teeth every morning,
wash their hands before eating, 
and
are teaching them to count, the ABC and conversational English. It is really stunning to see how God ads
people with skills to make things work.
Please pray with us for:
* A really good God plan for job creation. We need something that will bring in profit for the ladies with good long term prospect. Something that do not need special skills and do not need a lot of start up capital.
* We need someone with a heart for winning souls, who can speak Sotho and has a passion for what we are doing to head up our outreach program.
God Bless
Wim & Hylien
Prayers
also for our Nigerian member, Evsboto Godstime.
Roberta
Peart