Day 70 - The end of another week

Week 11 ended with a real flourish. Today I rode 44.3 miles in 2 hours and 2 minutes for an average of 21.6 mph. Going into this trip I could never have even dreamed about that kind of speed. Lord willing we will be done with our trip by this next Thursday. I am not sure I am looking forward to the trip being done but I am looking forward to the trip being accomplished. I look forward to getting off the bike that final day; on the map being over 2400 miles away from where I started. I am looking forward to the feeling that something was accomplished. Next week I will spend much of the blog sharing many of the things I learned along the way. Today was a beautiful but very hot day as I rode through the towns of Albany, Acree, Gammage, Sylvester, and Poulan and am just west of TyTy. I would ask you to think about Psalm 100 one last time. Verse 5 simply makes 3 statements about God that each of us should be very thankful for. In giving us that information about the Lord the psalmist is giving us 3 more reasons why we should make, serve, come, know, enter, give, and bless. The verse says, "For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations." If you looked at just the first statement, "For the Lord is good," there would be people who would ask the question, "Prove it!" So the Psalmist does. We should all be thankful that His steadfast love endures forever. But even more, that statement is an unbelievable proof of how good the Lord is. That cannot be said about anyone else. The the psalmist goes on to say, "His faithfulness to all generations." What if God would have only been faithful up to the point of His Son hanging on a cross? He just decided that He was not going to allow His Son to go through that terrible agaony. He could not even think about His Son being separated from Him even just for a short time. There would be no sacrifice for our sin. None could be saved. Oh but wait, He is faithful to all generations. Throughout eternity, He loves. To every generation, He is faithful. That absolutely proves He is good. Have a great Lord's Day. Talk to you on Monday.

Day 69 - Another Beautiful Day

Well, today was a beautiful day in southern Georgia, sunny and hot. On the map we went through little towns today like Arlington, Williamsburg, and Leary and am 5 days of riding away from the Atlantic Ocean, Lord willing. It has been a challenging trip but I feel good about what was accomplished. Today I rode 43.5 miles in 2 hours and 6 minutes for an average of 20.6 mph. Each day I feel an exhilerating feeling, just knowing I am now so close to the goal. I would like to make one more appeal for each of you to consider helping us financially. All donations from this trip, 100% goes directly to the purchase of a fishing lodge in Canada in which Northern Light Ministries would use to reach hundreds of youth for Jesus Christ. But we need your help to make this happen. Won't you please help. You can look on our website how you can give. No amount is too large or too small. northernlightministries.org In Psalm 100; verses 1, 2, 3a, and 4 tells each of his children, his sheep what they should be doing in their daily lives. Verses 3 and 5 tell us why his sheep should live that life. A verse that we used earlier in this study was Psalm 34:8, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." The conclusion for a person who tastes and sees. In Psalm 100:5, the psalmist is definitive, "The Lord is good." There is no question to him. "The Lord is good." For him to be so certain, he had to experience the Lord in a close relationship. That is what we should want. See, the closer the relationship, the more we will come to the same conclusion, "The Lord is good." That is the problem, unsaved people don't have a clue how good God is. But how professed Christians realize how good He is. Why? Because they never get close enough to the Lord, never have a close relationship to Him to really discover how good the Lord is. It is easy to say, "Try Him, you'll like Him." But hey, I like things the way they are. I don't want to make any changes. See, to get closer to the Lord is to let go of the things in this world that you put ahead of the Lord Himself and so never get close enough to the Lord to find out - "The Lord is Good." Talk to you tomorrow.

Day 68 -- Finally in Georgia

Well today was a great day. I went over 2000 miles for the trip and made it to Georgia. Lord willing this same time next week I will be dipping my foot in Atlantic Ocean water and end this trip of a lifetime for me. This next week I would like this blog to discuss what I have learned during this trip. It is much and I have learned so much about myself that I did not realize I would learn. Even at the age of 59 to learn what I have will make me a better man and better yet I believe it will make me a better man of God. I look forward to sharing it starting on Monday. Today I rode 43.1 miles in 2 hours and 5 minutes for an average of 20.6 mph. We ended 10.4 miles into Georgia, just 4 miles to the west of Blakely. The last line of Psalm 100:4 says, Give thanks to Him; bless His name." This verse gives us the last two things we should do because we are His people; the sheep of His pasture. So here it is, along with all the other things verses 1 - 3 tells us we should do. Now the last line of verse 4 gives us the last two things we should do because we are His. First it says we should "Give thanks to Him." Our day, our prayers, our worship, and our times of relationship with the Lord should begin with our thanks to Him, If we geninely thought about all the things He gives us or the things he does for us, we could spend a huge amount of time just giving Him thanks. Then he says we should bless His name. Don't those two things go hand-in-hand. I mean, once we realize how much we have to be thankful for, then the natural response should be to bless His name. I also think these two things should just be what we do every time we come to Him in prayer or in worship. So, here it is, we are to make, serve, come, know, enter, give, and bless. If we live our lives as "His people" doing this list found in Psalm 100, He is pleased with us and He is greatly honored and glorified in our lives. Talk to you tomorrow.

Day 67 - Just one more day in Alabama

On the map, I am just 13 miles west of Dothan, Alabama and by the end of the ride tomorrow we will be in Georgia. Wow, it seems like a long time that I have been walking down the steps into my basement, getting on my bike which is on a bike trainer and riding any where from 30 to 45 miles. At an average of 70 revolutions per minute and 3 minute a mile; that is 210 revolutions a mile or 8,400 for a 40 mile day. I don't even want to know how many that is for the entire trip. Today I rode 43.2 miles in 2 hours and 2 minutes for an average of 21.1 mph. I felt a whole lot better today at the end of my ride than I did at the beginning. I definitely feel stronger now than I did 2 1/2 months ago. Thinking again about Psalm 100:4. The psalmist tells us that we are not only suppose to enter his gates with thanksgiving; but we are also suppose to enter his courts with praise. Psalm 96:8 says, "Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come into his courts." there is no doubt we are to come into His courts. In the temple there was a court area that all Jews were allowed to come into. There was even a gentile court that all non-Jews could enter. But there is definitely a right way to come into the court. In the church today it would equated with the sanctuary. The place where many Christians would say they really come to worship in the church building. These verses give us three ways and attitudes we are to come with. First we are to come acribing to the Lord the glory due Him. I would like to just ask you, "How much glory should we give to the King of kings and the Lord of lords?" Can it even be measured? I do not think so. We are also told we are to bring an offering. That could be financial, or time, or talents, or gifts, or whatever. Romans 12:1 says to "Offer ourselves as a living sacrifice." Lord I want to give myself to you to use as you see fit. But when we enter His courts we bring the offering with us and need to be prepared to give it to Him. Then we are to enter his courts praising Him. We should be praising Him as we enter, while we are there, at the beginning of the service, when we are dropping money in the plate, while the pastor is preaching, when we sing the closing song, and as we walk out to face the world, we are to praise the Lord." PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!! Talk to you tomorrow!

Day 66 - One Beautiful Day

In central Alabama it was a beautiful sun shiny day in the mid to high 80's. In two more days we will be in our last state - Georgia. Today I rode 44 miles in 2 hours and 7 minutes for an average of 20.7 mph. I feel good at that speed. Yesterday I looked at verse 3 of Psalm 100. That verse looks back at verses 1 and 2 and explains why; why we should "Make a joyful noise, serve the lord with gladness, come into his presence, and why we know that the Lord - he is God." Those are things we should do and verse 3 explains why - because He made us, we are His, we are His people, and we are the sheep of His pasture. But verse three also looks forward to verse 4. Because in verse 4, the psalmist gives us three more things we are to do because we belong to Him. First, he says to enter His gates with thanksgiving. So many times I have heard people, and even Christians say, "I don't have anything to be thanksful for." Really? Is the fact that He made us enough to thank Him? Is the fact that we are His enough to thank Him? Is the fact that we are His people and the sheep of His pasture enough of a reason to thank Him. As a Christian, I just gave you four reasons to thank Him and to be thankful. See, those are all descriptions of having a relationship with the Lord that we know is God. Oh how we say we want that relationship. We like the fact that the Lord loves us, and gives us what we need, and that he is with us. But we only focus on that, then we have a very one-sided relationship. He has put His all into it but what do we put into it? While there are yet a couple more things that he wants from us, we have now looked at 5 things that He can expect from us. To just think about the verbs. We are to make, serve, come, know, and enter. All of those things are a part of having a relationship with almighty God. Talk to you tomorrow.

Day 65 - A New Week

Well, today we start week 11 of our trip and while I had a few days that I missed because of a heart cath and traveling, I have kept going just about every day except Sundays since March 6. I have averaged riding 2 hours a day during that time and averaged just under 40 miles a day. Today I rode 42.2 miles in 2 hours and 1 minute for an average of 20.8 mph. The ride went well and I felt good on the bike. On the map, I ended the day almost half way across the state of Alabama on my way to the finish of the Atlantic Ocean. I now have my bottle of Atlantic Ocean water and am looking forward to the day I dip my foot into it to end my trip. Psalm 100:3 is an amazing verse. This verse answers the "why" question as to why we should all do verses 1 and 2. It also gives us one more thing that we should do. In the first portion of the verse it says this, "Know that the Lord, He is God!" The word "know" has the idea of experiencing and completely assured of the fact that the Lord is God. If I am not mistaken I think the Lord is the word Jehovah and God is the word Yahweh. But I cannot forget that Jesus is called the Lord. I think sometimes that this is what this verse is saying. Jesus as Lord is God. And we are called on to know that - to experience and to be completely assured that He is God. When we come to that point it becomes so much easier to acknowledge what the rest of verse 3 says, "It is He who made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture." Everything that is said puts us in a place of realizing our position compared with the Lord. The Lord is God. Let me say that again. He is God! We are not. The people don't own Him. He is God, He made us and we belong to Him. We are His. We will look more at this tomorrow night. Talk to you then.