The gifts have been given, received and unwrapped. The first question many
people ask is; did you get what you wanted? Let me ask another question; did
you receive your gifts well? Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
As we look forward with hope for what the new year has in store for
us an important thing for us to realize is we have been given so much. Think
about racing and what makes it all possible, sponsor dollars. Sponsors make
it possible for many in racing to have an opportunity to do what we enjoy
doing.
How have we received the gifts that have been provided for us? How
have we expressed our appreciation? Have we expressed our gratitude? Some
would say giving is more rewarding and I agree, but some of us have to work
on the receiving part.
Have you ever seen the face of a child on Christmas morning? They
cannot hide their emotions, no matter what they say their real feelings are
written on their face.
Do you remember the movie A Christmas Story? Do you remember the
scene on Christmas Morning? The clothes, the bunny pjs, the missing bb gun,
Ralph wasn’t happy until that last present was opened. You can see the
approval or disapproval without the children saying a word. Their actions
speak louder than their words.
What about us? How good are we at giving and receiving? We need to
have a thankful attitude. Being thankful takes practice; it is not something
that comes naturally to us. Oh we can say the words, but our actions speak
volumes.
There is a book coming out soon about a man who decided to say
thank you to at least one person each day,
365 Thank You’s, The Year A Simple Act Of Daily Gratitude
Changed My Life
It is about a lawyer whose life was miserable. He was on his second
marriage and that was in divorce court, his kids from a previous marriage
were estranged, he was being sued, his firm was on teetering on the edge of
failure because clients weren’t paying the bills, he lived in a little
apartment while his ex-wife and wife enjoyed the larger homes they had
bought to build their life together, he was a mess, angry, depressed,
wondering what his life had become, even the thought of ending it all
crossed his mind from time to time.
He then realized one thing, he was focused on the wrong thing; he
focused on what went wrong. He decided to change that and focus on what went
right each day and write at least one thank you note to someone. This helped
change his attitude, perspective and life.
I ask again, how good are we at responding tho the gift we have
received? Do we even look at it as a gift? Do we even realize the blessing?
Life is what we decide to focus on; it can be a blessing or a curse. We have
the control over what we choose to focus on.
Believe it or not each way takes practice.
We train ourselves to see things a certain way, some of us always
see the negative and some of us always see the positive. That comes from
repeated action, practice; we just didn’t get this way by accident. We won’t
change by accident either. We need to learn how to receive and give the gift
we have been given.
1Thesolonians 1:2-3; We
always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We
continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith,
your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ.
As Paul writes to this Church
he reminds them of the things he is thankful for and what he sees in their
service to God. We can extract a few things from these verses to help us
learn how to be thankful for the gift God gave each one of us in the birth
of our Savior.
Three things we find in our passage that I want to take a closer
look at;
your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and
your endurance inspired by hope
Work, Labor and Endurance, three things that do not come naturally
to us, do they? We must motivate ourselves to do them. But what will
motivate us? To practice responding properly to the gift we have received in
Christ we must be motivated by, faith, love and hope. Those three will help
us overcome our natural tendencies to take things for granted.
To use the gift of life we have been given in the Lord Jesus Christ
we must have Faith, Love and Hope. There are blessings that come from our
practice, Peace, Joy and Eternal Life. From faith we receive peace, from
love we receive joy and our hope inspires us to receive eternal life. It all
fits together, but only if our actions match our words.
We need to practice being thankful. We need to appreciate what was
done for us. We need to focus on the right motivators, Faith, Hope and Love.
We need to remember Peace, Joy and Life.
We can only demonstrate our thanks to God for the gift of a Savior
when we act thankful. Then and only then is the gift worth it. Remember the
gift was given first; it was not given based on our actions. But our actions
need to be thankful for what was provided for us. Jesus wants to mold us and
shape us into His people. We need to submit and practice the activities of
being thankful.
Isaiah 9:6;
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be
on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
THOUGHTS FROM THE ROAD
HOLIDAYS A WELCOME TIME OF REST - I have been out of the
loop, so to speak, during the last few weeks. While I have touched base and
checked in a few times for the most part I tried to just take some time and
really focus on the holidays and spending time with at home.
The technology we have makes that a hard thing to do. I have
actually hid my cell phone on a few occasions so I would not be tempted.
That didn’t work out so well, with my advancing age I had difficulty
remembering where I put it. I have since reconsidered that strategy. I
wonder if there is an app for that, like the “find my car” one.
Anyway, we are looking forward to 2011 and all the new adventures
it will hold for us. We are excited about the new and different places we
will be visiting. We are also excited about returning to some of our
favorite places. With each new year comes new hope. We hope to have many
more life changing relationships with those we serve.
MOTORSPORTS 2011 COMING TOGETHER - We are looking
forward to the beginning of our racing calendar in Philadelphia in late
January. Three short weeks from now we will be a part of the largest
gathering of racing enthusiasts in the Northeast. We have a great lineup of
cars for you to get up close and personal with at our booth.
We will have the #4 Whelen Modified Tour Champion’s car along with
Rookie of the Year, #51. We have the Whelen All American Series Champion Car
along with the K&N Pro Series ride of Eddie MacDonald. As an added
attraction this year one of our racers from Virginia hopes to bring up his
mini cup dirt car. This is a new option for young racers, stop by and take a
look. And last but not least we will have one of our pace cars rounding out
the display.
We have Justin Bonsignore, ROTY on the Whelen Modified Tour, coming
to unveil his new 2011 car and also participate in autograph sessions all
weekend. We are trying to confirm some other drivers and hope to have a line
up soon. Check back here and see who we will have on board...
We are looking forward to getting back in the groove and seeing all
of you. Be a witness for our Lord with the ministry decals and apparel. See
them at the Show Your Faith Apparel Store at
www.rwjm.com. Send us
your prayer and counseling needs no matter what part of our racing family
you are in, or give us a call. Until next time, remember that God loves you,
we love you and
Jesus is Lord over Auto Racing. GOD BLESS.
 Mail reaches us at Racing with Jesus Ministries, PO Box 586,
Tolland, CT 06084.
Check our weekly printed pages in "Area Auto Racing
News",
the East Coast’s largest weekly racing paper.
See our on-line Apparel
Store for subscription information.
Check our home page
www.rwjm.org for past
articles.
We invite you to input your thoughts as you sign our Guest Book.
Please remember, we can only do what we do because of your prayerful
financial support.
Numbers 6:24-26 "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord
make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face
toward you and give you peace."
May God always Bless you, everyday in everyway. Rev. Don
CHECKERED CHEERS
***HAPPY BIRTHDAYS***
January 5
ED SPENCER, SR. - Retired Berwyck, PA LM/Mod driver, dad of the famous
racing family.
CHRIS BROWN - Charlotte, NC driver.
TROY BEEBE - Modesto, CA NASCAR driver.
EVA LING - In NJ, wife of Seargent Donnie, Don's son.
ANN TURNER - Wife of Maine driver Bobby.
SHARON MESERVEY - Wife of NASCAR WMT driver, Dan, Jr.
TRICIA ZYLA - A child of Shamokin, PA writer Greg.
January 6
ROBBY NIEUWENHUIS JR.- From Plainwell, MI, Crew Chief on brother Steve's
Late Model also Tammy's husband and father to daughter Erin and three sons
Colt, Carson and Kendall.
CHERYL BRODERICK - The oldest of the Brookfield, CT Mod driver Jim.
January 7
STEVE PAINE - "Hurricane", Waterloo, NY dirt Mod driver.
MARTY HOUSTON - Hickory, NC NASCAR Truck Series driver.
LANCE WADE - Victoria, British Columbia NASCAR West driver.
LINDA LARSEN- Official at Riverhead.
January 8
BOBBY HAMILTON, JR- NASCAR NNS/CTS/CWSE driver/owner.
JIM COURAGE - Fair Oaks, CA NASCAR West driver.
BETTY JO YARBOROUGH - Wife the NSC former great Cale.
DEBBIE HAYES - Norwich, CT Waterford Speedbowl fan
January 9
MARK MARTIN - Batesville, AK Hendricks NSCS driver.
SCOTT BOULEY- Thomaston, CT NASCAR KNPSE driver.
CHRIS WHITEHEAD - NY D.I.R.T. Mod driver.
ROBERT HENDRICKSON - NJ asphalt Mod driver.
MELISSA DIONNE - Street Stock driver; Daughter of RWJM's Gary and Debbie in
Acton, CA.
JANICE BRICE - Wife of Bill III.
FREDERICK, BRANDON & FRANCESCA RAHMER - The triplets of PA Sprint driver
Fred and Debbie.
January 10
HARRY GANT- Statesville, NC retired NSC great.
EDDIE CHEEVER- Phoenix, AZ born, now Tampa, FL IRL driver.
JOHN WINTER - S. Salem, NY retired to Palm Coast, FL Lebanon Valley SBM
driver.
TRUDY CHARETTE - The wife of Linwood, MA carpenter fan Walter.
January 11
BRETT BODINE - Chemung, NY former cup driver now in R&D for NASCAR.
PETE SILVA - Leicester, NC LMSC driver, a former Maine hotshoe.
BOB RANDALL - Maine LM driver.
GAVIN WILLIAM STAKEY- The son of Stafford LM driver Cliff and wife Lorna.
ERIC LONGACRE- Against All Odds Racing's Tammy's son.
SHARE YOUR SPECIAL OCCASIONS WITH YOUR RACING FAMILY.
SEND THEM TO:
RACING WITH JESUS MINISTRIES
PO Box 586
Tolland, CT, 06084
TheChromeHorn RWJM Archives
Racing With Jesus Ministries Website
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