Day 42 Rest Day Madison
Today was a much needed rest day. I got up at 530 as I could not sleep in and entered my blogs for 2 days. Yesterday had been a busy day biking here, getting bikes looked after, showering, and doing laundry. I wanted today to be a complete rest day, which it was.
This morning we had a celebration service here at Crossroads Community Church. Pastor Doug Van Essen gave a message about the fruit of the spirit faithfulness. Faithfulness is an essential component in a community such as us and any relationship such as marriage. Often we find faults and keep records and score on all the wrongs a person does. We let these get under our skins. If faithfulness does not exist in a relationship/community than the community/relationship falls apart. Pastor Doug gave us 3 points on being faithful.
Faithfulness is most needed when I am least able to give it. When our partner is unfaithful we are least able to be faithful in return.
Faithfulness is produced in me not by me. It is a fruit of the Spirit. Only God alone can produce it and I can only receive the gift of faithfulness when I am open to receiving it from God. If I do not have a healthy relationship with God than I can not receive God’s gifts of the Spirit and am unable to be faithful. If I give up, I can have justification to bail out of community/relationship. To be faithful I need to focus on what God has done for me and in my life. This helps me be faithful in all my relationships especially my marriage. If I can not give credit to God for what he has done for me, I can not give it to others. God is unconditional in his love and faithfulness. I also need to be unconditional in my love and faithfulness if I am to follow Christ’s example and let God’s love flow through me to others.
The rewards of Faithfulness are seldom experienced in positive circumstances. If we look at the Bible faithfulness got Joseph into prison, Paul was beaten, and Peter became a martyr. Until I learn faithfulness, I cannot fully experience the other gifts of the Spirit like love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, gentleness, and kindness. If I keep the scoreboard, I will never experience faithfulness and therefore the full blessings the Lord has in store for me. Keep focus on Jesus, who He is and what he has done, author and perfecter of the faith, and I will not grow faint and weary.
Bikers used their helmets as collection plates for the offering. Collected $3115.
This message was good for the cyclists to hear as being together for six weeks, others have gotten on people’s nerves and people are being irritated with little things. We need to remind ourselves that God is our focus and source of strength and power. Offering for the service was $3115. 50% goes to Sea to Sea and the other 50% goes to local charities addressing poverty.
Calvin DeWitt later spoke to us. He used the African Maasai Proverb “ If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” He challenged us to remember these words that the Christian Reformed World Missions brochure promoted. As cyclists we go farther and faster if we work together and share with the whole community. He also encouraged us to observe the landscape we would be biking through and all the wild flowers around us. We are leaving the great prairies where we saw the blazing star, black- eyed susans, and the cornflowers into the beech maple forest of Michigan.
The wild flower blazing star was right outside in the garden where we had lunch.
Black-eyed Susans and Cornflower in the garden outside the church
Bike with flowers Wisconsin and Sea to Sea plates in the garden just outside the church.
In the afternoon Hank and I and a number of other cyclists went swimming at a pool of one of the church members. It was relaxing and refreshing. Another great treat for us. Thanks to the Gabriels for opening their home to us.
Today was a much needed rest day. I got up at 530 as I could not sleep in and entered my blogs for 2 days. Yesterday had been a busy day biking here, getting bikes looked after, showering, and doing laundry. I wanted today to be a complete rest day, which it was.
This morning we had a celebration service here at Crossroads Community Church. Pastor Doug Van Essen gave a message about the fruit of the spirit faithfulness. Faithfulness is an essential component in a community such as us and any relationship such as marriage. Often we find faults and keep records and score on all the wrongs a person does. We let these get under our skins. If faithfulness does not exist in a relationship/community than the community/relationship falls apart. Pastor Doug gave us 3 points on being faithful.
Faithfulness is most needed when I am least able to give it. When our partner is unfaithful we are least able to be faithful in return.
Faithfulness is produced in me not by me. It is a fruit of the Spirit. Only God alone can produce it and I can only receive the gift of faithfulness when I am open to receiving it from God. If I do not have a healthy relationship with God than I can not receive God’s gifts of the Spirit and am unable to be faithful. If I give up, I can have justification to bail out of community/relationship. To be faithful I need to focus on what God has done for me and in my life. This helps me be faithful in all my relationships especially my marriage. If I can not give credit to God for what he has done for me, I can not give it to others. God is unconditional in his love and faithfulness. I also need to be unconditional in my love and faithfulness if I am to follow Christ’s example and let God’s love flow through me to others.
The rewards of Faithfulness are seldom experienced in positive circumstances. If we look at the Bible faithfulness got Joseph into prison, Paul was beaten, and Peter became a martyr. Until I learn faithfulness, I cannot fully experience the other gifts of the Spirit like love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, gentleness, and kindness. If I keep the scoreboard, I will never experience faithfulness and therefore the full blessings the Lord has in store for me. Keep focus on Jesus, who He is and what he has done, author and perfecter of the faith, and I will not grow faint and weary.
Bikers used their helmets as collection plates for the offering. Collected $3115.This message was good for the cyclists to hear as being together for six weeks, others have gotten on people’s nerves and people are being irritated with little things. We need to remind ourselves that God is our focus and source of strength and power. Offering for the service was $3115. 50% goes to Sea to Sea and the other 50% goes to local charities addressing poverty.
Calvin DeWitt later spoke to us. He used the African Maasai Proverb “ If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” He challenged us to remember these words that the Christian Reformed World Missions brochure promoted. As cyclists we go farther and faster if we work together and share with the whole community. He also encouraged us to observe the landscape we would be biking through and all the wild flowers around us. We are leaving the great prairies where we saw the blazing star, black- eyed susans, and the cornflowers into the beech maple forest of Michigan.
The wild flower blazing star was right outside in the garden where we had lunch. Black-eyed Susans and Cornflower in the garden outside the churchBike with flowers Wisconsin and Sea to Sea plates in the garden just outside the church.
In the afternoon Hank and I and a number of other cyclists went swimming at a pool of one of the church members. It was relaxing and refreshing. Another great treat for us. Thanks to the Gabriels for opening their home to us.
Picture of all the cyclists enjoying the pool. Note the bikers tans on the legs and arms
This is where we had a relaxing Sunday swim. Very enjoyable and refreshing.
Tomorrow we start our seventh week and will be going through four states. It will be a busy week passing by various CRC and RCA churches that will be serving us refreshments. We will also be traveling through Chicago a very high traffic area. Pray that we will go safely through with no accidents and our journey will be a blessing to each area we bike through. We do know God is with us, sustaining and protecting us. We know lots of people are praying for our safety. Pray too that our message continues to grow and have an impact on each community we bike through and that God's presence is evident to all.
1 comment:
Hi Claire, Janet and I enjoy reading your informative blog. Please pass on a message to Hank – Hey Hank, I never thought of you as a muscled Hercules, but after following your cross country odyssey, I'm beginning to think of you as quite the sportsman – good grief – crossing the Rocky Mountains and the prairies on a bicycle – well, I must say, you are doing our Seminary class proud, I don't think any one of the other "oldies by now" is participating; my hat off to you. Wishing you all the best for the remainder of the trip. Gerrit W. Sheeres.
Post a Comment