The Spirit of Man vs the Spirit of God

 

Proverb of the Week

The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all his innermost parts.              - Proverbs 20:27 (ESV)

The spirit of man, as spoken of here, may be understood as that aspect of living creatures which separates humans from animals; a self-awareness which transcends the physical body. When this spirit of man searches his own heart to recognize good and evil we might refer to it as his conscience, which is a gift from God given to every man, but not to be confused with the Spirit of God which dwells only within believers. When an unbeliever’s will overrules his conscience to surrender to his wicked desires repeatedly and consistently, that lamp will become little more than a flickering ember that is swallowed up by the darkness. In contrast, God has promised that his Spirit, once dwelling within us, will never leave us, and it is this Holy Spirit who provides the light which can never be extinguished. As John 14:16-17 tells  us: And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

As further support for this understanding of the Proverb, I would cite 1 Corinthians 2:11-12 which says: For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

Who Can Say That?

 

Proverb of the Week

Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?                           – Proverbs 20:9 (ESV)

 

To most of us this is a rhetorical question; a question that needs no reply because the answer is so obvious. Scriptures come to mind such as “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10) or “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), or even “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” (Isaiah 64:6)

However, there is one man who had no need to make his heart pure because it was never impure.  The same who has no need of being made clean from sin because he never sinned; Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, in whom lies all our hope. “For our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)  It is that act of Jesus in taking our sin and bearing the punishment for it onto himself, while giving us a share in his righteousness in its place, that delivers us from justice and allows God to see us as though we have a clean heart, pure from sin, when we are in Christ.

 

Who's Really in Charge Here?

 

Vintage Drag Bike Ressurection at Wheels Through Time

 I'm not sure just how this escaped my attention for so long, but I recently noticed a post on the FakeBook group for Mark Wang's True Vintage Dragbike Racing with part three of this story.

As it turns out, even part 3 of the series is labeled "3 years ago" so if this is old news to you, I'm not surprised. However I thought it might be worthwhile to put links to all three of the videos here in one place for those who, like me, have been living under a rock and missed it.  

It seems that Matt Walksler is carrying on his father's legacy by making sure that the vintage motorcycles displayed in the Wheels Through Time museum are all in running condition. In this case, Matt has gone a couple steps beyond by researching, finding and piecing together a vintage drag bike with some history to it.  In other words, a man after my own heart. 

Les Myers with his '58 Pan dragbike

In part one Matt tells about some of the history of the bike and the odds defying story of how the project came to be, part two shows some of the work involved in getting the bike back into one piece, and part three shows the finished bike and initial start-up. Hats off to Matt and his crew for bringing this very cool piece of drag racing history back from oblivion.

Pants on Fire

 

A Tale of Two Cities

 

After That Short Break, Here Is Another ...

 

 

 

And A Cruel Messenger It Is

 

Which Way Are YOU Going?

 

This May Not Be What You Thought

 

A little deeper ...

 

Better With

 

Take From This What You Will ...

 

No One Ever Said It Would Not Get Messy

 

An Artist's Touch

 

A big THANK YOU to Cliff Anderson for the lettering on the rear fender of “the Beast”.  It far surpassed my expectations, which is what happens when give a true artist free reign.  But a word of explanation is in order.  The annual Donnie Smith Bike Show at Saint Paul RiverCentre is coming up fast: March 23-24 (this weekend). As part of it, I was invited to be one of 20 builders to display the bike of our choice in a new part of the show called the “Midwest Showcase”. And while it’s an honor to be invited, I am NOT really a bike builder – I’m an engine builder. But I thought this would be a great opportunity to promote vintage drag bike racing, so what better bike to display than the version of the dragbike I raced back in 1986 & 87. However, rather than leave the attendees wondering what an old dragbike that is far from show quality is dong next to 19 bikes that I am quite sure will be real works of mechanical art, I decided to have the lettering done as a bit of an explanation for its presence. 

BTW, if you look closely at the "T" in NATIONAL, you might notice that Cliff took the initiative to make it into a cross.  I certainly did not expect that, but it is a really nice touch and I very much appreciate it.

Who You Hang With ...

 

Whoever Despises the Word ...

 

Understanding Righteousness

 

And For Example ...

 

What You Earn ...

 

Not So Fast There...

 

A Fool's Joke

 

 

A Righteous Man

 A couple of things about a righteous man, and a wicked one, ...all from a simple Proverb.

From Proverbs Chapter Nine

 This one is more obvious if you read the entire chapter in the wording used in the ESV, but its there no matter the translation.