Well, this is it. We say goodbye to this season of writing. At least for now.

I have thought about what to say in this final Oil Change for some time now. Some of you have been on this journey with me since the very first devotional went out on September 1st, 2007. Others of you joined us more recently.

While writing these devotionals has demanded an enormous amount of my time, I don’t regret the decision to start doing them at all. It has been pure joy. Over the years I have received so many emails and comments from people around the world. You have no idea how your comments have blessed me. Even last week, when I sent out the special announcement, I was amazed at how many replied back.

Again, thank you.

Let me be clear: I’m not going anywhere. I will still be writing over at my personal blog. In fact, I will be dedicating much more of the content at that site to the things I’m learning on this spiritual journey. I really do hope you’ll choose to join me over there. Like this site, you can choose to subscribe by email and you’ll get any posts I sent in your inbox (just look for the envelope icon and click on it).

For those who continue to stay connected over at robdale.ca, I’ll chat with you soon. For those who decide not to move over, I pray God’s blessing on all you accomplish for him. Again, there are a number of devotional blogs that I recommended in the special announcement email. You can find it here.

Let me close by quoting from Jude’s closing statements in that letter.

²⁴ Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. ²⁵ All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.

Amen.

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.

¹⁸ This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.²⁰ As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25

God With Us

It is the day we celebrate the birth of Christ. The day “God moved into the neighbourhood.” (see John 1:14 in The Message). The story of Jesus began in Genesis 3, when God promised that a Messiah would break the curse of sin. And now, the Messiah has been born.

Everything we’ve written about since we started looking at the book of Romans finds it’s hope in this celebration. Jesus fulfills the Law and releases the era of Grace.

Take time today to reflect on what this day truly means.

Merry Christmas.