Just Singin' for Jesus...

"While I live I will praise the LORD; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being." (Psalm 146:2)

Hear me each Saturday and Sunday Afternoon at 4:00 "Discovering the Word"

Christian Motorcyclists Association

        King Solomon was a wise king; the wisest man to ever live aside from Jesus himself.  King Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs which contains many wise and truthful sayings.  There is one in particular that has really been brought home to me in the last few years.  And in a way I never would have dreamed.  Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”

     Now as a child, I always had a love for music.  While I never really got the training, encouragement or support one would think necessary to be considered “trained up”, God was constantly putting me in situations where I had to sing; family gatherings, parks, while babysitting, trying to get my little sister to sleep, sharing a new song with a friend on the bus or at school, things like that.  Not exactly the traditional ‘training’, but training all the same.

     And Alan, well, from the time he was 6 or 7 years old he had had some kind of motorcycle.  It started with a red 1970 Honda QA-50 and by the time I met him he had a Honda 450 Custom.  Time and a baby changed things and the bike was eventually sold.  But the love for riding never went away.  Now you’ve got to wonder what this has to do with training up a child in the way he should go.  Well, long before either one of us knew what God had in mind for our lives, He had a plan.  A plan that involved both music and motorcycles!  He had a ministry in place that would allow us to use our God given talents and abilities to their fullest.  That ministry is CMA, The Christian Motorcyclists Association.

 This association has been around for 35 years and reaches around the world.  People of all denominations and walks of life share their love of motorcycles to reach out to others to share the love of Jesus Christ.  CMA can be found at bike nights, biker church services, motorcycle events of all kinds, and (as I quickly learned) at just about any local ice cream shop!  CMA’s mission is to reach the world, one heart at a time.  They do this by being willing to go where God leads and by just ‘being there’.  Living and loving everyone the way Jesus would.  They do this through prayer and bike blessings, by helping someone work on their bikes, through children’s ministry, through ladies ministry, prison ministry, missions, whatever God puts on their hearts to do or use to reach others for Christ.

Our friends Jeff and Jamie tried for several years to get us to join CMA.  But we didn’t have a bike. They assured us that wasn’t a problem.  They needed support people too.  And we just happened to have a trailer that could be used to haul things… even a bike or two. Still, it didn’t feel right.  But, ‘train up a child in the way he should go’; God had trained us up in his own way for the plan he had for us.  We eventually joined, anxious to see just how we could fit in without having a bike of our own. Needless to say it was not long after that Alan started getting that ‘itch’ that he got every spring. So it really was no surprise when we finally did get our bike.  The big surprise though, and this is how I know it was a God thing, was that the bike we ended up with didn’t ‘speak’ to Alan, it spoke to me!  While I had fallen in love with motorcycle riding when Alan took me for that first ride on his 450 it had been a long time-over twenty years, since I had been on the back of a bike.  Every spring when he would get the itch, it wouldn’t matter to me one way or another.  Secretly a part of me hoped he wouldn’t get one.  But the spring we got our bike was different. I got the ‘itch’ for one too!  I was excited for him as he searched for a bike. But not only that, there was a sense of something…an anxiousness, a feeling of expectancy like something big and wonderful was just around the corner.  I really believed God would give Alan a bike.  I knew it.  But never in my life did I ever imagine he would do it the way he did.  And never in my life did I ever imagine being part of something as amazing as CMA. To us they are much more than just an ‘association’ of motorcycle enthusiasts trying to spread the gospel. To us they quickly became family. If you love motorcycles (whether you have one or not) and you love Jesus Christ, there’s a job for you in CMA.  Check out their website, www.cmausa.org.  Find a chapter close to where you live and visit one of their chapter meetings.  Find out more about this awesome ministry.  Look for their back patches and encourage the wearers to keep reaching the lost for Christ.  They are truly reaching the world one heart at a time.  And while one heart may not seem like much, it was one heart that began this ministry that now spans the globe… and it’s continuing to grow!  If nothing else, please be in prayer for all the men and women who use their bikes to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.  Pray for their safety, for God to wrap them in his angel’s wings as they travel the highways and byways.  Pray that God will bless their efforts and that lost people will come to know Christ.