As I shared last week I didn’t make the trip to the west coast, God had
other plans for me. Those plans included helping someone get bailed out.
Isn’t it wonderful that God has a plan that is greater than ours? Rev. Dan
shared in the chapel service at Irwindale what it means to get bailed out.
Here are his thoughts. Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
I am not a big college basketball fan, but March Madness is coming
up and I do enjoy watching some of the games in the NCAA tournament. My son
and I usually like to fill out the brackets after the teams are announced
and he usually ends up winning a lunch from me.
I do remember a game not too long ago between Villanova and
Pittsburg. Villanova was in control with a few seconds left - all they had
to do was inbound the ball, get fouled, and make a couple of free throws to
win the game. Reggie Redding inbounded, but he threw a bad pass. A Pitt
player took the ball and drove to the hoop and was fouled. He hit both free
throws and Pitt took the lead by 1 point with about 5 seconds left. Redding
probably felt pretty bad - he just let his team, the coach and the fans down
- he made a mistake and now he has to pay for it.
Fortunately for Redding, after an amazing inbounds play Villanova
guard Scottie Reynolds dribbled the ball down the court and hit a fade away
jumper with less than 1 second left to give Villanova the win. Can you
imagine the relief on Redding's face?
He was bailed out - he made a mistake, but didn't have to pay the
price.
Did this ever happen to you? Did you ever forget to tighten a lug
nut or radiator cap before a race? Maybe a teammate or crew chief caught a
mistake you made before the car went out on the track and bailed you out.
I know I was bailed out like this. I was playing a game that I was
going to lose - that game was life. It was my fault - I was a sinner bound
for hell, but just like Redding, who was just about to accept the
consequences of his mistake and was bailed out by a teammate, I was bailed
out by Jesus Christ.
Colossians 2:13-15;
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful
nature,
God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled
the written code, with its regulations,
that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing
it to the cross. And having disarmed
the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing
over them by the cross.”
Paul
writes that Jesus took our sins and nailed them to the cross so that we can
be forgiven. Now I can walk around with relief on my face - I am no longer
in danger of paying for my sins by going to hell.
It's interesting that the Bible says Jesus nailed our sins to the
cross - I want to take a quick look at that. I want to find out what Jesus
actually nailed to the cross.
First, the Bible says he nailed our sins to the cross - the big
ones and the small ones. Do you remember when you were young and you stole
that candy? How about when you told that little white lie to stay out of
trouble? These are sins that are punishable by death.
How about when you bent the rules a bit when you were building the
race car? Again,
Jesus says that this is a sin and the punishment is to spend
eternity in hell. I am so glad that Jesus took those sins and nailed them to
the cross.
Secondly, he nailed fear to the cross. Man has always been afraid
of the judgement of God. It has always been so severe - any little sin means
that you will spend eternity in hell. We don't have to worry about that now
because Jesus took that away.
Thirdly, he nailed death to the cross - the cross is where death
was defeated. Our earthly bodies will still die, but our souls will live
forever in eternity if we have accepted what Christ did for us.
Fourthly, he nailed all of our defeats, faults and failures to the
cross. Is anyone perfect? Even the most successful people have had failures.
I know I am not perfect and make many mistakes - many of these punishable by
death. I constantly fail Jesus, but he is always there to help me back on my
feet and get on track with him. We crash, and it our fault. He took all of
these mistakes and failures from us and nailed them to the cross.
Finally, he nailed Satan’s dominion and authority to the cross. It
was a real dumb move by Satan to have Jesus die. Jesus was doing many great
things on earth and Satan was getting mad. He had to stop this so he schemed
to have him die. Little did he know that this was God's plan all along. God
sent his son to die on that cross and pay the price for our sins so we did
not have to. Things kind of back fired and turned around on Satan.
As you can see, that cross is pretty neat - that is where the power
and wisdom of God is. The next time you are driving down the road to a race
and see a cross on a church steeple, or see it hanging on a chain around
someone's neck, remember what that cross means. It means that if we accept
Christ as our Savior and believe that God sent his son to die for our sins,
that we have been bailed out and can spend eternity in heaven.
Thanks for sharing Dan, It is encouraging to know that someone has
your back. I know that we couldn’t minister the way we do if there weren’t
others out there covering us.
THOUGHTS FROM THE ROAD
THE COFFEE CUP - Who would believe that in this cold,
snowy winter the weather would let up enough to allow us to get the race in
at Providence. We didn’t see clear skies but we did have warm enough
temperatures that only rain fell throughout Southern New England making the
trip possible for many. It was good to hang out at the track.
I was surprised to see Dave Baker there. Dave is the former Busch
North Series Race Director. Dave shared how having some racing action to go
to in the middle of winter was sufficient enough to drive down from Vermont
for. It was good to see him and be able to catch up a little. That is the
greatest thing about this racing business, the people you meet.
Dave was not the only Northerner to come down. DJ Shaw was there to
compete in his champ cart. DJ looked as if he was going home with the big
check but as the leaders battled lapped traffic and each other in a very
close finish DJ would have to settle for third.
In the TQ’s it was TC who put on the show. Making the double
complete he backed up his win in Atlantic City with one on Providence.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a few more races to run?
CHAPEL ON TV - Who knows, you may see glimpses of it from
Irwindale. Dan shared with me that one of the chapel attendees was Travis
Pastrana and with him comes his crew, camera crew that is. Travis has a high
profile and there isn’t much that he does that isn’t captured on camera. Dan
shared that he was taken back a little as he had never had a chapel service
televised before. Welcome to Hollywood.
It would be neat to see if we actually make the cut, keep your eyes
peeled for the video, if you see it let me know and we’ll put up a link. In
the meantime you’ll have to catch us live and in person. Next opportunity
will be at the Ice Breaker.
HEADING SOUTH - Next week has me headed to Florida to take
in some action at New Smyrna, Volusia and Daytona. It will be great to be
with Ed Harkins again. Ed travels with the Super Dirt Racing Series for
Finish Line Chaplains. It will also be great to catch up with some of our
folks down in central Florida and hear what is going on with them. If you
see me around come over and say hello..
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",
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Please remember, we can only do what we do because of your prayerful
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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
***WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES***
February 9
TERENCE & CHRISTINE FITZGERALD- From Rocky Point, Long Island, this
Riverhead Raceway enduro driver and wife share their 10th.
February 11
WENDELL & DELORIS MINTER- The Martinsville, VA WODY Gospel Music host and
wife from Ridgeway, VA celebrate their 34th anniversary. Congratulations and
Praise the Lord!
*** February 14 VALENTINE'S DAY ***
ROY & DORIS DEALL- Riverhead Raceway's Neal Fiola Crew Chief and wife
celebrate.
WAYNE & MARY BLAKE- Of Norwich, CT, the Ass't Infield Coordinator at
Waterford Speedbowl and wife celebrate their 13th anniversary.
KIRK & PAM WISE-Kirk and his wife share their 29th wedding anniversary.
February 15
RICH CAOUETTE & NANCY LaBONNE-CAOUETTE- These East Hartford, CT fans share
their 20th..
***HAPPY BIRTHDAYS***
February 9
BILLY PENFOLD- Yarmouth, ME NASCAR KNPSE/LM driver.
STEVE SELLERS- Sacramento, CA KNPSW driver.
DUNK RUDOLPH- NH based Modified driver.
LAURA SAVERY- Wife of Plymouth, MA Seekonk Speedway Street Stock driver
Dana.
EARLINE WAGNER- Schwenksville, PA Leonard's wife, both Grandview Speedway
and NSCS fans.
February 10
DAVID OLIVER- Riverhead Raceway's Steve Tooker LM/NASCAR KNPSE Crew Chief.
February 11
WADE HENDRICKSON- Lawrenceville, NJ Modified driver/owner.
KEN KUHLMAN- Veteran AARN columnist/ Bridgeport, NJ Speedway scorer.
KRISTI CAMERON- Alfred, ME Jeff Gordon fan.
"DAKOTA" RAY KOHLER- Son of Micro Sprint driver Jason from Fleetwwod, PA.
REID GRODSKI - Son of TheChromeHorn.com's webmaster Richie Grodski
February 12
JIMMY CHESTER- Newfield, NJ Bridgeport driver.
RICK HOCTOR- D.I.R.T. Modified driver.
HARMON "BEAVER" DRAGON- Milton, VT Thunder Road based LM driver.
STEVE BIRD- NNS Crew Chief from Massachusetts.
LORI BEERS- Sister/Team member of Eric Beers Northampton, PA Modified team.
February 13
FRANK VIGLIAROLO, JR.- Medford,NY driver.
February 14 *** VALENTINE'S DAY ***
JERRY MARQUIS- Karen's Valentine husband, Enfield, CT KNPSE and WMT driver,
2000 WMT Champion.
BILL VENTURINI- Wife Kathy's Valentine, Chicago, IL ARCA driver.
SCOTT SHARP- Norwalk, CT born, now Jupiter, FL IRL driver.
JESSICA WATTS- Daughter of Riverhead/NASCAR WMT Mod driver Danny and wife
Vivian.
JOHN PAUL TEMCHAK- This son of NHIS Victory Lane Staff Member John and wife
Kathy from Canterbury, NH.
February 15
BAILEY DOUST, Jamesville, NY - Son of sportsman driver Gregory Doust
JIM SPENCER- Berwick, PA NSCS driver and PA hero.
PAUL KOTTER- No. Attleboro, MA racing publications sales rep, now retired to
Florida.
JEANNINE NEGRI- Danbury, CT Jeff Fuller fan.
GLEN KONK- Jackson, NJ fan. .
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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