It was in August of 2007 when the idea of writing a daily devotional came to me. I figured it would be a lot of fun and a great way of helping those who were a part of Bikers’ Church learn about the Bible is a simple, non-threatening way. The first Oil Change was sent out on September 1st of that year, and little did I know that the thirty or so people receiving it would grow to literally hundreds of people from around the world.

By the time the study on 1 John is completed, I will have written 813 pages and 257,456 words. Incredible. I didn’t know I had so much to say!

However, I believe it is time to take a break from doing these devotionals.

During my road trip, God challenged me about all the things I was doing. I felt in my heart that I needed to focus on the “main thing.” What was it that he had called me to do? I believe that “main thing” is Bikers’ Church. He has called me to shepherd this amazing group of people and journey with them into discovering more and more of what it means to love God and love others.

As some of you can imagine, writing The Oil Change takes a lot of time and effort. I spend a full day each week in order to stay ahead. By the time I’ve written six or seven devotionals, my creativity and ability to focus on other deeper stuff (like sermon preparation) is limited. A pastor friend pointed out to me this past week that I spend approximately 20% of my work time writing The Oil Change. It’s simply too much.

At the same time, I’ve neglected my personal blog. www.robdale.ca was intended to be a place where I could tie together my love for riding and my passion of God and share thoughts along the journey. However, by the time I’ve finished writing The Oil Change, there is little left for me to put into that blog. I want to change that. I want to enjoy sharing random thoughts on my personal blog that will still impact and touch the lives of others.

And so, once our study of 1 John is complete (it is scheduled to be done on Wed., March 17th) I will stop publishing new devotionals. I hope that many of you will log in at www.robdale.ca and subscribe to my personal blog (you can also get that blog via email) and continue to follow me on this journey.

I recognize that some would still like to have a daily devotional, and so I began following a few in order to find some that I can recommend to you. These three in particular stand out:

Power To Change has two excellent devotionals. One is geared to men, the other to women. Click here for more info.

Rick Warren has a great devotional based on Purpose Driven Life that you can find here.

So, thank you for allowing me to connect with you each day through this simple Oil Change. I hope you understand why I feel I need to move on from writing it and trust that we will continue to journey together over at www.robdale.ca

By the way, I am working on putting the existing Oil Changes into booklets. Once they are available, I will send out a notification through this site. If you currently subscribe to the Oil Change by email, I would suggest you leave the subscription alone so that you can receive any notifications I may send out.

Until some day.