Author Archives: oneminuteministry

Matthew 6:But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Sit a bit

Stay a while

I will turn those tears

Into a smile

I know what’s going on

I know the struggles you face

You must be patient my son

Not all of life is a race.

It took years to get here

For you to sit here today

You chased so many things

Before you truly found the Way.

This is our time you see

You will come to know

Of how much I love you

And of how you will grow.

You will pray and seek me 

And I will be found

You will learn new things

Your love will abound.

The scriptures will come alive

I will reveal truth to you

Writing will be your gift

From love that you will do.

I will give you ministries

Places to teach and preach

You will tell others of Me

No idea how many you reach.

This is our secret place

So much I have to give

I just ask for obedience

From the scriptures to live.

Worry not when places change

I have another set for you

From my sermon in Matthew you will

Sit down with just Me and you.

It has been awhile…..

This season of life (mid 50’s) has brought way too much reflection, most of that has brought pain and regret. The Bible calls our bodies tents, and I think mine is leaking and torn. I truly would have done life much differently given the opportunity. I am not doing well with this getting old thing, from the mentally just described to the pains that have come from an active lifestyle of hard work and harder play. I am reaping what I have sown, but I have no regrets in being known as a hard worker or an adrenaline junkie instead of an armchair quarterback getting fat in front of a TV. God has blessed me with a high tolerance of pain, much of today’s society would milk what I deal with for a free ride. I have learned to live with the shoulders, I do believe God was in them to keep me from letting racing become my god again when he called me back there for Trackside Ministries. Racing is in your blood, and I do miss it badly for the competition and stress relief. My feet the last couple of years have changed my lifestyle, the daily pain so bad walking is hard, and many times that shortens my days with it. My back injury a couple of months ago from the crash is really worrying me, back pain is debilitating in many ways, and it just doesn’t seem to be getting better as I had hoped time would heal. The combination of those two has forced me to slow down and unable to physically do things I used to do. That realization is a hard one to swallow for any aging man, I even remember my dad saying the same thing to me many years ago……it makes me sad.

Mentally……I can’t type out what is going on there…..way too much to unpack.

But God.

He has given me ministries in this aging season of life, ways to share about him at work, social media, and the racing community. I truly believe that when God is stirring in your life, when you are experiencing him in prayer, his Word, and the revelations of himself around you each day, you simply cannot keep it to yourself. (Matthew 10:27) Whenever I get down, he places an encourager in my path from one of those outlets. I am blown away at God working through the sharing of Bibles on FB, so much I want to share about that. I was blown away at the one on one talks and prayers at the last National Enduro this weekend, seeing God at work in our off-road community. I am trying to make a really big decision about ordination so as to help, not hurt, that ministry going forward. (I have been asked to marry couples and can’t.) God has allowed all these aging and painful things, but been at work in all of these good things, and that is how he does his work. (Romans 8:28) His ways are not our ways. (Isiah 55:8) I trust God, through all my physical pains, mental strains, and aging tent, may it all be used for his glory. (11 Corinthians 5:4) #glorytoGod

Ecclesiastes 7:14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

I think most of my peers, most of us in this season of life find ourselves in reflection, where we have spent our energies, and where we are in life as a result, if you will. Lord willing, we may consider ourselves about the two thirds mark, what will this last season of life bring? This reflection could fill a novel for me, introspection can be both healthy and tormenting, but it also always brings about the questions of “what if” in countless scenarios. We look back at the big picture, the directions that life’s decisions or circumstance may have taken us. We may even delve much deeper into the paths of each of those, the little things of life that may have resulted in big changes. Personally I have so many regrets, so many things big and small that I wish I had made better choices in life. Sometimes I wonder if I was to write about them would it help the burdens I bare, but I am no different from your life’s story, we all have our novels to write.

BUT GOD, has designed or allowed all these highs and lows of my life. Our limited minds will never understand the complexity of our free will and the blend of God’s sovereignty. We will never understand in this life how God allows us to wander down countless paths we will regret, and yet somehow recenter us to himself through his mercy and undeserving grace. James wrote of how God humbles us many times, and “gives more grace.” (James 4) I listened to a blend of sermons this week on a road trip, and God tied them together for me beautifully. I heard of God’s sovereignty, of the biggest topics such as predestination, and listened to a rebuke of pastors who had lost their focus. That sermon from second Timothy impacted me as I listened three times, it made me question deeply my personal struggles and mis-guided focus many times, the world and lusts of it take so many of our focuses off our relationships with God.

Another message was one of spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6), the unseen but felt battle of good and evil that rages all around us each day. The pastor told of how God protects us from seeing it for we could not handle it if we knew how real it was. I am keenly aware to this war, I can attest to it’s power in cycles of sin and spiritual highs, encounters both good and bad, of how Satan’s attacks are many times predictable with both of them. I laughed and told one of my best friends this week, the Godliest man I know, “If people don’t believe in spiritual warfare they need to hang around with me a couple of days and present their argument.” God allows these days, he has allowed this different seasons of your entire life, both the good and the bad, all to draw you closer to himself. All we must do is to humble ourselves and realize God’s sovereign control over the good and bad days. All we must do is to seek to draw closer to him through it all. All we must do, is to do one day at a time, and give thanks for the breath of each day to walk through it by faith in that knowledge of it all.

Their names?

My brain is really jelly

Kinda numb is how I feel

My parent’s future on my mind

Looks like time to take the wheel.

Dementia is so awfully cruel

It is impossible to understand

How parents become such toddlers

Needing such guiding hands

My sister has the mom gene

I have the tough dad one

She was the princess daughter

Me as the rebellious son.

How is it that our minds

Can fade away to black

A lifetime of memories

To never really get back

How is it that our minds

Can’t remember simple things

LIke 50 years of marriage

Wearing their wedding rings

How is it that our minds

Forgets the love we had

Spouses and children lost

How incredibly unbelievably sad.

I know how they will hate me

I know it will never be the same

I said I would be the bad cop

And that will be my name.

My only hope is in heaven

And there Jesus will explain

His plans and how he still loves us

While we can’t remember their names.

2nd Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

Here I am God

Lying in the floor,

From the shelf I have fallen

I am needing you more.

I am just that old clay pot

You placed up there to rest

We did much together

I gave you my best.

Then busyness came in

I was placed to the side

Distractions took my attention

From you I could not hide.

Our time together seemed less

From your hands care I miss

I was placed on a shelf

Still in your presence in this.

From the shelf I still see you

Working all together for good

I sit here patiently waiting

On this shelf made of wood.

Life slams it’s door of troubles

From the wood shelf I do fall

My clay vessel is broken

Only you can repair my all.

You give me life’s Word

You speak to my heart

You begin to restore

All the broken parts.

I trust your plans for my life

I am yours to mend

For any means to share my faith

I pray you will just send.

I am a broken clay pot

I am still yours today

You are the one who gave me life

When you molded me from clay.

Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.

Do you have big plans for the day, are you trying to keep your New Year’s resolution for a least a week? What is it about the start of the new year that we find that desire within us to make a change? Something inside of us places a marker, a line in the sand that says “this will be different.” We have countless plans, many towards improving our physical health. I kind of started my resolution at my 55th Bday, by cutting out any soft drinks, rolling into 23′ by adding no juices. My goal is working my way to no sugar, which basically means I won’t eat – LOL. What about our mental and spiritual health, which is honestly more important because they both directly relate the our physical condition. Mental health is directly related to spiritual health, because without an understanding of God’s sovereignty, you will always wonder the “why” of everything. Spiritual health is the most important component of our being, the pinnacle of what matters in life, and what we should desire with all our heart, mind, body, and strength.

The prophet Jeremiah was young when God called him to be a spokesman for Himself. We still to this day have tendencies to not listen to the younger generations, much less take advice from them. This was a very real struggle for Jeremiah, he knew what people would think of him, but he was obedient to God as he wrote this letter and had it delivered to the captives that had been taken away by Nebuchadnezzar. Not only in this letter did he warn them not to listen to other prophets, but that God himself had orchestrated their captivity. 29:4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon.” Jeremiah reminds them God was judging their sins, but also in this letter he tells them of the blessings to come, of their freedom to come from God in 70 years. God clearly lays out his plans for his people, and uses a young man as his spokesman to remind them of God’s love. Their spiritual health in this letter is the most important thing to their livelihood and well being as they figure out how to do daily life in their new environment.

I grew up in religion, then I ran from God for 20 years. God called me back to a church where he taught me about grace, and he placed in my heart a desire for more of him, I wanted to begin reading my Bible. That is where my life changed, it changed with a heart that desired more of God than just saying I believed, checking the box and moving on in life. When you begin to seek God as Jeremiah wrote, as Matthew wrote, as so many wrote in the Bible, your life changes. Only Jesus can produce the change you desire, only the gospel and the Bible can alter your life eternally, beginning with today. Why not seek God with your heart, much deeper than a NYE resolution, but responding to that tug within God has placed there from the beginning of time. That will truly make a difference in your life, and likely those around you too.

Year Review/blog/reflection…..the WHY. I was asleep at 9 last night, no revelry or partying, just glad to hit the sack for a good nights rest. I can honestly say 22′ was a year for the books in so many ways, some good, some bad, but it seemingly it is a blur as a type. We traveled so much, made so many new friends, had so many laughs and memories along the journeys. I have seen God work around our little NeedPrayer? Race team, doing what God does in peoples hearts. I have had SO many talks and prayers with racers and families this year, I have seen God soften hard hearts, seen God stir questions in others, drawing others to himself. I cannot believe God called me back to a ministry that I love, to a place where I served an idol before him, to a way that I can share of the One True God. I get to go make memories with my family, get to preach the gospel, get to give away free Bibles and see the smiles on kids faces. I get to pray with people who need to hear a word from God. I am blessed and undserving of of such grace from God.

I live my life on social media, my year could easily be reviewed by scrolling my timeline and forming your own opinion. What is so strange is the psychological complexity (sure someone has a name for me) that I am. I honestly don’t care what people think of me, I never did what would make people like me, but always what I wanted to do that made me happy. I have become an introvert as I have gotten older, and hermit may not be in the too distant future. My body from years of abuse is aging rapidly, I cannot believe how much I have declined in the last five years. The battles of anxiety and depression have gotten much worse the last year, and my pride keeps me fighting that war mentally and spiritually. My mind is the scariest of them all as I see both my parents disappearing before my very eyes and I feel the loose connections in my head’s wiring impossible to articulate. I am not going to do this getting old thing gracefully.

BUT GOD chose me, rescued me from damnation and died to save my very soul. He put something inside of me, a part of himself, and I cannot keep him to myself. The tug to share my faith is unstoppable, I honestly don’t care about so many other things in life that matter to so many of us, I want to point you to Jesus. The why of how I share on social mead it simply two fold. One, to share a Bible verse that I hope God will speak to you with, to encourage or convict you in some way to draw closer to him. Two, to share both my highs and lows of life, filtered through my faith, how I go to God for help through life, to build that relationship we were created by him to have. I still have daily struggles, doubt and fears just like you, BUT GOD gives me daily strength and encouragement to get through them. If it were not for my faith, I think my story would be much different.

I love busyness, fast paced crisis control, I work well under pressure. Sadly I believe that changed this year also, I think I found my limit when I surpassed it at some point these last couple of months. This year’s pace caught up with me, and I am exhausted mentally and physically. Raced 39 weekends / over 17,000 miles / 17 states and worked almost every Monday, it has been a seven day a week pace. But if the Lord calls me home today, the memories that I made with these two boys were worth every, single, sacrifice and penny I have. The Bible tells us “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, and not for men.” God knows I have given it my all.

1 Corinthians 2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.

I am an unedjumicated guy, graduated high school on straight D’s, never wanted to go to college, and pretty much hated school from turning to drugs around sixteen. A friend of mine told me “if you are high all the time, nobody will know when you are.” Sadly I lived by that motto for probably 20 years, wasting away so much of my life. Pot was my biggest mistake EVER, and all that resulted from it. God got ahold of my heart in my late thirties, and I began to study God’s Word more than anything ever in school. I do believe I was saved as a child, because I knew I was turning my back on God for all those years in sin, I just wanted to sin more than I wanted God. Sadly so many of us still fall into Satan’s traps these days, giving into sin on countless struggles we have. That conviction you feel is healthy, it is God still loving you, and desiring you to repent and draw closer to him.

This chapter in 1st Corinthians 2 is all about the wisdom of God, wrapped up in the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul was very highly educated, taught by the best Jewish scholars at the highest level, calling himself “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee.” (Philippians 3:5) Paul had been likely taught sales, the power of the tongue, the ability to lead a person to “buy” whatever you are selling; Paul could sell an Eskimo ice. However when Jesus got ahold of Paul, his heart was softened and he came to declare only the gospel of Jesus Christ, the simplicity of it against the stringent, unobtainable requirements of the Law, the religion that he had been so deeply taught.

You will never know the deep things of God until you believe in the simplicity of the Gospel. You must humble yourself, you must see your need for Jesus as a sinner, and when God begins to show you that in many ways, the response determines your eternity and wisdom from God. God gives you a part of himself, he gives you the Holy Spirit to live within you, and the Spirit is who helps you to become wise, to understand more of God through his Word and prayer. 1 Corinthians 2:10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. Believe me when I tell you this, their ain’t nothing special about me, all I want to tell you about is Jesus, and the rest is up to God. That is why any sermon I preach at Trackside is about Christ, not 10 step programs about stress, depression, parenting, blessings, finances, etc…….all that matters is your understanding of the Gospel, and the wisdom that flows from that is a gift from God.