1 John 4:7-12

March 12, 2010 in 1 John with 0 Comments

7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

This Is Real Love

I’m sure the members of Bikers’ Church are getting a little sick of this whole “Love God and love others” thing. After all, we’ve been focusing on that statement for over a month on Thursday nights. In fact, last night, we talked about what it means to love others (you can view the video here once it’s available).

We just cant get away from the idea that God is calling us to love others. But loving others will require sacrifice on our part. It will cost us something. It will not be easy to do. And John drives home that point by telling his readers what real love is. He uses the perfect example of God loving us so much that he sends his son to die on our behalf.

I can’t imagine the depth of that kind of love. Sure, there are a small group of people for whom I would sacrifice my own life. It’s a very small group of people. However, I can’t think of anyone that I would sacrifice one of my girls for. I’m sorry, but if it’s your life or my daughter’s life? I hope it’s not a painful death for you.

And yet, God sacrifices his son for us. And John suggests that the depth of our love for others should be equal. That we should be willing to sacrifice everything we are for the sake of another. Wow.

I guess that’s why they call this a journey. Most of us readily admit we’re not at that level. We need to look at where we are and continue to allow ourselves to be challenged by real love. Do you love others? Can you love others more? I know I can. I know I must.

My prayer: Lord, I don’t know if I will ever be able to love others to the same degree that you love others. However, help me to continue to journey in loving others more. May I always see people the way you do: people needing love. And may I always be willing to give of myself in order to meet that need for love in their life. Amen.

Until tomorrow.

1 John 4:4-6

March 11, 2010 in 1 John with 0 Comments

4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.

He Is Greater

It’s easy to forget, isn’t it? God really is in control. He really is greater and more powerful than any force at work in this world. Sometimes we can look at all the evil, the wrong doing, the false teachings, the moral and ethical failures even among those who claim to know Christ, and we can wonder who really is “winning.”

He is greater. The Spirit of God … the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and lives inside of you … is greater. He overcomes. He stands true at the end of the age. No matter how it may seem or what is going on in the world around you or even in your life personally. God is greater than all of it.

When we see that, hope is discovered. We become confident in his ways. At least I do. I look out around me and I realize that my role is to simply continue to trust God. I am called to be his servant. I am called to love him and love others. The rest is his problem, his job, his duty.

Don’t lose sight of the one who lives inside of you. Don’t become discouraged because of your surroundings. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that evil will win. God is greater. He will lead us to victory.

My prayer: Lord, in the midst of my day, as I face all the challenges that may come my way, help me to keep my eyes fixed on the greatness of who you are. May I never lose sight of the one who is greater than anything in this world. Amen.

Until tomorrow.

A Special Announcement

March 10, 2010 in Uncategorized with 4 Comments

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.

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