The Right Response
The gifts have been given, received and unwrapped. The first question many people ask is; did you get what you wanted? Let me ask another question; did you receive your gifts well? Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
As we look forward with hope for what the new year has in store for us an important thing for us to realize is we have been given so much. Think about racing and what makes it all possible, sponsor dollars. Sponsors make it possible for many in racing to have an opportunity to do what we enjoy doing.
How have we received the gifts that have been provided for us? How have we expressed our appreciation? Have we expressed our gratitude? Some would say giving is more rewarding and I agree, but some of us have to work on the receiving part.
Have you ever seen the face of a child on Christmas morning? They cannot hide their emotions, no matter what they say their real feelings are written on their face.
Do you remember the movie A Christmas Story? Do you remember the scene on Christmas Morning? The clothes, the bunny pjs, the missing bb gun, Ralph wasn’t happy until that last present was opened. You can see the approval or disapproval without the children saying a word. Their actions speak louder than their words.
What about us? How good are we at giving and receiving? We need to have a thankful attitude. Being thankful takes practice; it is not something that comes naturally to us. Oh we can say the words, but our actions speak volumes.
There is a book coming out soon about a man who decided to say thank you to at least one person each day,
365 Thank You’s, The Year A Simple Act Of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life
It is about a lawyer whose life was miserable. He was on his second marriage and that was in divorce court, his kids from a previous marriage were estranged, he was being sued, his firm was on teetering on the edge of failure because clients weren’t paying the bills, he lived in a little apartment while his ex-wife and wife enjoyed the larger homes they had bought to build their life together, he was a mess, angry, depressed, wondering what his life had become, even the thought of ending it all crossed his mind from time to time.
He then realized one thing, he was focused on the wrong thing; he focused on what went wrong. He decided to change that and focus on what went right each day and write at least one thank you note to someone. This helped change his attitude, perspective and life.
I ask again, how good are we at responding tho the gift we have received? Do we even look at it as a gift? Do we even realize the blessing? Life is what we decide to focus on; it can be a blessing or a curse. We have the control over what we choose to focus on.
Believe it or not each way takes practice.
We train ourselves to see things a certain way, some of us always see the negative and some of us always see the positive. That comes from repeated action, practice; we just didn’t get this way by accident. We won’t change by accident either. We need to learn how to receive and give the gift we have been given.
1Thesolonians 1:2-3; We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
As Paul writes to this Church he reminds them of the things he is thankful for and what he sees in their service to God. We can extract a few things from these verses to help us learn how to be thankful for the gift God gave each one of us in the birth of our Savior.
Three things we find in our passage that I want to take a closer look at;
your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope
Work, Labor and Endurance, three things that do not come naturally to us, do they? We must motivate ourselves to do them. But what will motivate us? To practice responding properly to the gift we have received in Christ we must be motivated by, faith, love and hope. Those three will help us overcome our natural tendencies to take things for granted.
To use the gift of life we have been given in the Lord Jesus Christ we must have Faith, Love and Hope. There are blessings that come from our practice, Peace, Joy and Eternal Life. From faith we receive peace, from love we receive joy and our hope inspires us to receive eternal life. It all fits together, but only if our actions match our words.
We need to practice being thankful. We need to appreciate what was done for us. We need to focus on the right motivators, Faith, Hope and Love. We need to remember Peace, Joy and Life.
We can only demonstrate our thanks to God for the gift of a Savior when we act thankful. Then and only then is the gift worth it. Remember the gift was given first; it was not given based on our actions. But our actions need to be thankful for what was provided for us. Jesus wants to mold us and shape us into His people. We need to submit and practice the activities of being thankful.
Isaiah 9:6; For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
THOUGHTS FROM THE ROAD
HOLIDAYS A WELCOME TIME OF REST – I have been out of the loop, so to speak, during the last few weeks. While I have touched base and checked in a few times for the most part I tried to just take some time and really focus on the holidays and spending time with at home.
The technology we have makes that a hard thing to do. I have actually hid my cell phone on a few occasions so I would not be tempted. That didn’t work out so well, with my advancing age I had difficulty remembering where I put it. I have since reconsidered that strategy. I wonder if there is an app for that, like the “find my car” one.
Anyway, we are looking forward to 2011 and all the new adventures it will hold for us. We are excited about the new and different places we will be visiting. We are also excited about returning to some of our favorite places. With each new year comes new hope. We hope to have many more life changing relationships with those we serve.
MOTORSPORTS 2011 COMING TOGETHER – We are looking forward to the beginning of our racing calendar in Philadelphia in late January. Three short weeks from now we will be a part of the largest gathering of racing enthusiasts in the Northeast. We have a great lineup of cars for you to get up close and personal with at our booth.
We will have the #4 Whelen Modified Tour Champion’s car along with Rookie of the Year, #51. We have the Whelen All American Series Champion Car along with the K&N Pro Series ride of Eddie MacDonald. As an added attraction this year one of our racers from Virginia hopes to bring up his mini cup dirt car. This is a new option for young racers, stop by and take a look. And last but not least we will have one of our pace cars rounding out the display.
We have Justin Bonsignore, ROTY on the Whelen Modified Tour, coming to unveil his new 2011 car and also participate in autograph sessions all weekend. We are trying to confirm some other drivers and hope to have a line up soon. Check back here and see who we will have on board.
We are looking forward to getting back in the groove and seeing all of you. Be a witness for our Lord with the ministry decals and apparel. See them at the Show Your Faith Apparel Store at www.rwjm.com. Send us your prayer and counseling needs no matter what part of our racing family you are in, or give us a call. Until next time, remember that God loves you, we love you and
Jesus is Lord over Auto Racing. GOD BLESS.
Mail reaches us at Racing with Jesus Ministries, PO Box 586, Tolland, CT 06084. Check our weekly printed pages in “Area Auto Racing News”, the East Coast’s largest weekly racing paper” Check our home page www.rwjm.com for past articles. Drop us a note and share your input and thoughts. Please remember, we can only do what we do because of your prayerful financial support.
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”
May God always Bless you, everyday in everyway. Rev. Don
CHECKERED CHEERS
***HAPPY BIRTHDAYS***
January 5
ED SPENCER, SR. – Retired Berwyck, PA LM/Mod driver, dad of the famous racing family.
CHRIS BROWN – Charlotte, NC driver.
TROY BEEBE – Modesto, CA NASCAR driver.
EVA LING – In NJ, wife of Seargent Donnie, Don’s son.
ANN TURNER – Wife of Maine driver Bobby.
SHARON MESERVEY – Wife of NASCAR WMT driver, Dan, Jr.
TRICIA ZYLA – A child of Shamokin, PA writer Greg.
January 6
ROBBY NIEUWENHUIS JR.- From Plainwell, MI, Crew Chief on brother Steve’s Late Model also Tammy’s husband and father to daughter Erin and three sons Colt, Carson and Kendall.
CHERYL BRODERICK – The oldest of the Brookfield, CT Mod driver Jim.
January 7
STEVE PAINE – “Hurricane”, Waterloo, NY dirt Mod driver.
MARTY HOUSTON – Hickory, NC NASCAR Truck Series driver.
LANCE WADE – Victoria, British Columbia NASCAR West driver.
LINDA LARSEN- Official at Riverhead.
January 8
BOBBY HAMILTON, JR- NASCAR NNS/CTS/CWSE driver/owner.
JIM COURAGE – Fair Oaks, CA NASCAR West driver.
BETTY JO YARBOROUGH – Wife the NSC former great Cale.
DEBBIE HAYES – Norwich, CT Waterford Speedbowl fan
January 9
MARK MARTIN – Batesville, AK Hendricks NSCS driver.
SCOTT BOULEY- Thomaston, CT NASCAR KNPSE driver.
CHRIS WHITEHEAD – NY D.I.R.T. Mod driver.
ROBERT HENDRICKSON – NJ asphalt Mod driver.
MELISSA DIONNE – Street Stock driver; Daughter of RWJM’s Gary and Debbie in Acton, CA.
JANICE BRICE – Wife of Bill III.
FREDERICK, BRANDON & FRANCESCA RAHMER – The triplets of PA Sprint driver Fred and Debbie.
January 10
HARRY GANT- Statesville, NC retired NSC great.
EDDIE CHEEVER- Phoenix, AZ born, now Tampa, FL IRL driver.
JOHN WINTER – S. Salem, NY retired to Palm Coast, FL Lebanon Valley SBM driver.
TRUDY CHARETTE – The wife of Linwood, MA carpenter fan Walter.
January 11
BRETT BODINE – Chemung, NY former cup driver now in R&D for NASCAR.
PETE SILVA – Leicester, NC LMSC driver, a former Maine hotshoe.
BOB RANDALL – Maine LM driver.
GAVIN WILLIAM STAKEY- The son of Stafford LM driver Cliff and wife Lorna.
ERIC LONGACRE- Against All Odds Racing’s Tammy’s son.