CMA Rockford, IL - Steel Witness

CMA Rockford, IL - Steel Witness A Christian ministry where we incorporate our love for Jesus Christ, and our love for people with our love for riding motorcycles.

STEEL WITNESS #578
Rockford, Illinois

The basic purpose of a CMA Chapter is to support the National CMA effort of “sharing and showing the love of Jesus Christ to motorcyclists,” and supporting this ministry through regular financial support to National. In this, there is a three-fold purpose:

Provide and encourage members to be active in testimony and Christian witnessing to all motorcyclists.

Provide a Christian fellowship ride group. Provide an evangelistic association for motorcycling. As a member of this ministry each member will agree to live and act under biblical principles of conduct. These principles should be effective in your daily life, but must be followed whenever a member is wearing the CMA back patch. Many scriptures can be presented to support a godly lifestyle, but use the following scripture passages as an overview: Titus 3:1-11; Gal. 5:13; Matt. 18:15-19; 1 Cor. 6; James 4:1-10. Each chapter works under the leadership of their State Coordinator and Area Reps to further the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God delights in showing mercy; He takes no pride in anger or wrath. This is why He chose to sacrifice His son, for us, i...
06/08/2026

God delights in showing mercy; He takes no pride in anger or wrath. This is why He chose to sacrifice His son, for us, instead of pouring His wrath of our sin, on us. Even in His anger, God would come to the Israelites' rescue when they called on Him for help – no matter what they had done. God has always intended on being gracious – from the very beginning – and He will never change.

Many had come to find Elisha and bring him to Syria. With God's help, they were captured and brought to the king of Israel. But instead of killing them as he wanted to do, Elisha convinced him to feed them and then release them. The result was that Syria stopped raiding Israel. We will never end violence with violence. Whether it is a war of words, a war between two individuals, or a war between countries, violence does not bring peace. Love has always been stronger than hate, even though hate is louder! The problem is that someone needs to walk away if the fighting is to stop. We have an idea that walking away is a sign of weakness, but it is really a sign of strength. It takes a big person to walk away. People who walk away are often ridiculed, especially if they are in a position of leadership. There are always people who are willing to encourage violence.

John chapter 8 is a very unusual and startling chapter. Here in verse 30, many are said to have "believed on him. " But yet, he immediately says that only if they continue in his word are they truly his disciples. (verse 31) By the end of the chapter, Jesus has called many of them children of the Devil and they have taken up stones to stone him, but could not because his hour had not yet come.

It can become very easy to point out other people's flaws and shortcomings, instead of focusing on the areas in our live...
06/07/2026

It can become very easy to point out other people's flaws and shortcomings, instead of focusing on the areas in our lives that require improvement. Jesus spoke against this behavior, adamantly. As Christians, we aren't to be self-righteous, seeking to point out other people's mistakes and becoming blind to our own. We are to be humble – even when correcting people – and realize that just as someone has made a mistake, we are very capable of doing the same thing.

Paul states very clearly that there is one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all. He also lets us know that there are distinct roles that each of us plays but we are called to be one in love for all. We are one family, all calling God, Father; we are saved by the actions of the Son who became one of us so that we could be "joint heirs with Christ" and filled with the Holy Spirit so that we may go forth and tell others of this great mystery. The early Christians were well known for the love that they showed one another. I often try to imagine what the world would look like if all Christians came together in a single body of love as Jesus prayed that we would be. What a difference we could make! Today is a great day to decide to become an example of the great Community of Love that is the Trinity.

Paul knew more than anyone what it meant to suffer as a Christian. And yet, he did not think the sufferings of this life and of this age were anything remotely comparable to the glorification of God's saints that awaited the age to come. The sufferings of life are but momentary, like a blip on a radar screen, compared to the endless days of eternity.

After a long, hard struggle, the walls of Jerusalem had finally been rebuilt by Nehemiah and the remnant of Judah. But b...
06/06/2026

After a long, hard struggle, the walls of Jerusalem had finally been rebuilt by Nehemiah and the remnant of Judah. But before the dedication ceremony for the wall, the priests and Levites who would lead in it made themselves ceremonially pure. And they also purified the people who attended, and the walls, and all the gates of the wall.

I have used this reading many times when a loved one has died. Most of the time it was used for an elderly person who had literally fought the good fight of faith for many years. I hope that the same can be said of me when I die. Paul often referred to his ministry as "the race" which is one of the translations for "the course." Paul had served the Lord from the time of his conversion to the time of his death. He is encouraging Timothy and letting him know that he is confident in the promises of Jesus as he approaches the end of his life, and that he is also confident that all those who follow Jesus will receive the same reward of eternal life in heaven. This confidence gives us all hope, and that is why I chose it for those funerals. This is encouragement for Timothy to remain faithful to the truth and warns him that there will be those who will fall away from the true teachings. He even warns that teachers will rise up that will twist the teachings to their own purposes. This happened in Paul's time and it has happened in every generation since. I have always liked the prologue to Luke's Gospel to respond to false teachings – use the Bible as a yardstick for finding the truth. We too are encouraged to fight the good fight by doing the right thing, to keep the faith and not let others lead us away from God, so we will finish the course of our lifetime still loving Jesus and believing in his promises.

This woman taken in the act of adultery was guilty, but they did not bring the man involved in the adultery to be stoned. And all those gathered around were sinners themselves. Jesus had mercy on her, but he told her in verse 11, "Go and sin no more. "O Lord, when we think of our own failings, of how much we ourselves have sinned, how can we think ourselves better than others? how can we look down on them when we are as guilty as they? We all need your forgiveness. We all need your grace. Teach us to love others, and help us to turn from sin more and more day by day. Amen.

After the people of Israel had sinned and asked for a king that they might be like all the other nations, instead of rej...
06/05/2026

After the people of Israel had sinned and asked for a king that they might be like all the other nations, instead of rejoicing that Jehovah-God was their king, the Lord sent a thunderstorm that made them afraid. And they feared because they had asked for a king. But Samuel assured them they must continue to follow the Lord even now that he had given a king to be over them.

If we want to know how to act; if we want to grow in our knowledge of God and of Jesus; if we want to be ready to live our faith, we need to read the Bible. Some of us have been fortunate to know the Bible from your youth. Others have come to know God later in life, and have turned to Scripture to get to know him better. In the Bible we learn who God is. We come to know his goodness, his love for us, his faithfulness to his people and his promises. We learn how to God wants us to live by being faithful to the commandments. We realize that he is faithful even when we are not. God has promised us a Savior to make up for the sin of Adam and Eve and by extension, our sins. We come to know Jesus as our Savior who came so that we would understand how we are supposed to live and gave us a new commandment which sums up all the commandments, to love one another as he has loved us. It is this law which lets us know how well we are doing in following him. The more Scripture we read, the better we know the Father and the Son, and through Jesus and his command to go forth, make disciples and baptize, we know the power of the Holy Spirit. It is common practice to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us as we read Scripture so that we can better understand what God is trying to tell us. After all, the Bible is the living Word of God, meant to be read throughout time and in each generation. We learn something new each time we open it. Jesus told the apostles at the Last Supper that he had more to tell them but they couldn't bear it all then, but he would send the Spirit to reveal more to them. We can't take it all in at once either, and need to read it frequently so that we can come to know him better.

Some of the Jews of Jesus' day thought they had good reasons for rejecting Him. They thought they knew he was from Nazareth and the mere natural son of Mary and Joseph. The Bible prophesied the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judah, and though Jesus had been, they did not know it. He came from the Father, but they truly in that regard "did not know from where he came. "

There is an old distinction between "profession" and "confession" which seems to apply here. To profess is to simply mak...
06/04/2026

There is an old distinction between "profession" and "confession" which seems to apply here. To profess is to simply make a claim with your mouth to be a Christian; to confess is to give witness from the heart of what you know to be true. Those who confess Christ and are not afraid to do so before other men, will have their reward from Him.

The scribes and Pharisees were always testing Jesus. This time, in order to trap him, the scribe asked which was the greatest commandment? At that time, there were hundreds of commands that the Pharisees imposed on the Jews. Jesus did not fall into the trap, but quoted the two great commandments. Unlike the story in Luke's Gospel, the scribe does not try to justify his question. The scribe's answer in Mark's Gospel differs from the answer in Matthew and Luke by saying that keeping these two commandments is more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices one might offer to please God. No matter what we "give up" or do as penance for sins, or to earn favor with God, if we are not putting God first and loving our neighbor, then we are failing. We can't earn God's favor and we can't earn heaven. Jesus is our Savior, we can't save ourselves. Salvation is a pure gift from God. In the letter of James, we read that faith and good works go together. Because we believe in Jesus and want to spend eternity with him, we choose to follow him and live a life based on loving others. This love of neighbor then encourages us to do good works as God wants us to do. If the only reason we do good works is to "earn" heaven, we are the same as

those who offered sacrifices to please God without keeping the commandments. God knows what is in our hearts; he knows why we choose to act the way we do. He knows if we are acting out of love or not. If our intentions are pure, as the scribe described, then we too will not be far from the Kingdom of God.

Jesus lived his life for humanity. He was completely selfless. He gave up his life for sinners. Yet, we are selfish. When we are envious and want what someone else has for ourselves, we are coveting. This is a sin – do not be fooled! Envy and selfishness are evil – they are opposite to the heart of Jesus. When we are tempted by our selfish desires and envious heart, may we repent and ask God to change our spirit.

Jesus lived his life for humanity. He was completely selfless. He gave up his life for sinners. Yet, we are selfish. When we are envious and want what someone else has for ourselves, we are coveting. This is a sin – do not be fooled! Envy and selfishness are evil – they are opposite to the heart of Jesus. When we are tempted by our selfish desires and envious heart, may we repent and ask God to change our spirit.

To whom does Jesus give "rest?" To those who are burdened down with their load of sin and who, however much they may lab...
06/03/2026

To whom does Jesus give "rest?" To those who are burdened down with their load of sin and who, however much they may labor to keep God's Law, cannot do so. Jesus gives rest to the sinful soul, even the most vile of all men, if only it rests in Him.

It's been many years now but I remember a young man who was a member of my church. He was a senior in high school at the time and he was very interested in learning more about the Bible and so attended a Bible study after school. He usually carried his Bible with him so that he could read it during his study periods or on his lunch hour. He once told me how the other boys in his class made fun of him for this, but that he cared more about what God thought than what his classmates thought. I was both surprised and proud that he had such a deep faith and commitment to Christ. I often wondered what happened to him as he moved on after high school and I lost track of him. I'm sure that there are instances of young men in a religious high school who read the Bible in school, but I'm not sure about those in a public high school such as this young man. He was not ashamed of his faith and I'm sure that he suffered many hardships as a result. I hope he continued his journey as an adult and continued to both profess his faith and bring that faith to others. It is as if he was a modern day Timothy. We too need to be proud of our relationship with God and not ashamed to live as he wants us to live, continuing to deepen our relationship with him by prayer and meditating on the Bible, and letting others know the joy of the Good News.

It is hard to imagine how our Jesus, holy and perfect in every way, came to live on earth amongst men. In our world full of sin and everything that opposes the light, he was birthed as a baby and lived his life among men. He became man so that he may take on man's sin on the cross. Without living as man, Jesus would not have been able to reconcile mankind to our Lord. And, Jesus did it all knowing he would have to suffer for us. It is amazing love.

Here and in verse 16 just before, we see God giving Israel over to the rule of a careless shepherd (king). This shepherd...
06/02/2026

Here and in verse 16 just before, we see God giving Israel over to the rule of a careless shepherd (king). This shepherd would do them harm and not good. They had rejected Jehovah-God as their Shepherd-king, and now they were given another shepherd whom they would chafe under.

Have you ever tried to imagine the new heavens and new earth? I know that I have. I see myself surrounded by all my friends and relatives including the ones who died when I was a small child or before I was born, listening to their stories and sharing mine. I picture a peaceful atmosphere full of the smell of flowers and the glow of the sun, and all around me the feeling of being loved. Of course, there's a catch in this passage – being found without defect and blameless in the sight of God. None of us is without defect or blameless under our own power. Therefore, we need God's help to achieve this, and even with God's help, we have a lot of work to do! Peter believed, as did all the early Christians, that Jesus would be coming back soon. They would have been surprised to know that two thousand years later, we would still be waiting. But the challenge is still the same. We need to do our best to live our lives following the way that Jesus showed us just as they did. I once heard someone say that it is easier to die once for Christ than to live each day for Christ. The first is a decision made once; the second is the decision to live for Christ every day. Every day we need to make choices to love, to forgive, to be truthful, and to be faithful, in our dealings with ourselves and with all those we meet. The older I get, the closer to that "new heavens and new earth" I get. Although my children might like me to live forever, I know that that is unrealistic! Because of my faith in the promise of Jesus, death holds no fear.

We know that God saved us from the power of darkness through his son's death and resurrection. We have been delivered from Satan's clutches. But, we have not simply been delivered, we have been invited into his son's kingdom. We have been invited in to a place we do not deserve. It's like offering a beggar from the street a seat at the head of the table. We not only are free from sin on earth, we get to celebrate alongside our King in Heaven for eternity.

The hope of the righteous man will be fulfilled, and he will rejoice. But the wicked's hope shall be cut off forever. Th...
06/01/2026

The hope of the righteous man will be fulfilled, and he will rejoice. But the wicked's hope shall be cut off forever. Those whose hope is in the Lord shall not be disappointed, but hopes founded on our own will or desires apart from the Lord's will, cannot ultimately endure.

It is now fifty days since the resurrection and ten days since they saw Jesus ascend into the sky. They had spent some of this time back in Galilee where the saw Jesus, and they spent some choosing a successor to replace Judas. Now they were gathered praying for the Advocate that Jesus had promised. The coming of the Holy Spirit in such a fashion must have surprised them as would the ability to speak in languages that they, themselves, didn't understand. Those who were in Jerusalem for the celebration of Pentecost, the harvest festival, were surprised when they heard them praising God in their languages and not the Aramaic or Hebrew that they would have expected. So many were convinced by Peter's preaching that they were baptized signaling the beginning of what would become the Christian church. Many of us probably don't remember our "Pentecost" when we received the Holy Spirit at our baptisms. But the time comes for each of us when we do become aware of the Spirit of God living within us. We most likely were not able to speak in foreign languages praising God, but hopefully it made a difference in our lives. You have no idea how often I call upon the Holy Spirit to guide me. When I am facing a difficult decision; when I need to know the right words to say; when the going gets hard and I need to keep on going; these are but a few of the situations when I ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen me, and inform me so that I do what is best for all concerned. The Holy Spirit is there for us all, just as it was for the apostles. We may not be speaking in tongues, but we will receive the gifts we need.

When we ponder all the things God has done and created, we are left standing in awe. We simply cannot comprehend his ways. This is because God's ways are not like our ways. Humans are not capable of speaking and making the storms cease, but God is capable and he has done so. It's amazing that with his voice he spoke darkness into light.

If we are lazy and do not make needful repairs on a building, it will decay and fall apart over time. In the same way, t...
05/30/2026

If we are lazy and do not make needful repairs on a building, it will decay and fall apart over time. In the same way, the Church cannot stand still doing nothing and expect spiritual progress, nor can an individual Christian. We must be striving after godliness every day.

Have you noticed? Today it seems that all problems need to be settled with violence. I don't get it! Violence breeds violence. Nothing is solved by it. It doesn't matter if it is a family issue, a neighborhood issue or an international issue. Talking it out seems to have gone out the window. I don't know about where you live, but the papers and the news are filled with the deaths of innocent people who were caught in the middle of a fight. If a person cuts another person off while driving, it can end with death as the person who was cut off gets so angry that they either beat the other driver, stab him or her or shoot him or her. The world is nuts! It used to be that people would engage in a shouting match if they were angry. Now, it can turn into shooting, stabbing or worse. Even leaders of nations get into the act by threatening "action" against those who don't do what they want. This is not the world that God envisioned. This is not righteousness; this is the work of the devil. There is an expression, "Live by the sword; die by the sword." This tells us that violence begets violence and those who live that way are more apt to die a violent death. God want us to be happy and live in peace. It seems that we have lost the way to a place of happiness and peace. To find it, we need to follow Jesus. We need to relearn forgiveness and compassion. We need to relearn how to deal with one another in a civilized manner. God will show us the way to righteousness if we only ask. Then we can be counted among the upright who will see the face of God.

Judas has become one of the most despised figures in all of the Bible, betraying Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Apparently, some of us have our price, whilst one would hope for all true believers this is unthinkable. One may imagine that in time, Judas came to despise his thirty pieces of silver overcome with feel guilt. Famously, he returned his money, knowing that after Christ' condemnation they had become worthless. Be not a slave to ones greed then, God will provide what cannot be purchased in this life!

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Rockford, IL

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+18155431554

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