There are different ways of telling the truth. You can state a fact, “Drag boat racing is fast and furious,” or you can tell a story, “Dale Ishimaru ran 263.60 mph in Red Bluff.” A story at times can be a more powerful way of getting a point across rather than simply stating some facts. I love my wife, which is fact. There are stories of our more than forty years of marriage that are evidence of the facts.
Stories are the language of the human heart. It’s how we understand. Most people love listening to stories. Stories (our testimony) even help us understand our own life story. This publication is based on stories about racing and racers’ lives at the racetrack.
A story is the nature of reality. We live in a story. We all have leading and supporting roles in life’s story. There’s a beginning, middle, and ending. There is a plot. There is a villain. And there’s a hero. We’re told (and many believe) that there’s a “happily ever after.” For believers in Jesus Christ … the story does have a happy ending!
How many times have you heard that God loves you? If people have heard this enough times during their life, why aren’t Christians the happiest people on earth? It’s true, God does love you, but somehow that truth hasn’t reached deep down into the hearts of everyone. The “key” is to speak a love story to the heart … it’s the secret of the universe.
The Bible is a love story written to you and me. We must look at it with an open heart and believe every single word. We must believe it was inspired by God’s Holy Spirit and through God’s inspiration, human beings wrote what God told them to write.
We at Team RFC believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, and authoritative Word of God. We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (making up the Trinity).
This love letter “The Holy Bible” has been unchanged for centuries because God is unchanging. The Creator of the universe has been revealing Himself to billions of people during the existence of mankind … yes even through drag boat racing. If you don’t believe me, ask Him yourself? If you’re sincere, you’ll find out. He’ll tell you through a story, a testimony of a Christian, a message at a chapel service, or reveal Himself through R & D of the Scriptures.
“As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, first they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:10-11). Now here’s a true story for you.
It began on August 8, 1989, in Lucerne Valley, CA. Upon entering Lucerne Valley that evening around 7:00 pm, I was greeted by a huge rainbow in the beautiful desert sky. I was venturing out to our little cabin in the desert for a few days of R & R.
Early the next day I was into my usual morning devotionals, reading the Word, and prayer. That morning, I laid new plywood on the loft outside our cabin. Later on, I spent the afternoon with my mother-in-law, sharing the Lord. We went out to dinner, then to the market to buy some magnets to hold the shower curtain on our outside metal shower stall at the cabin.
I got back to the cabin around 8:00 pm and put the four magnets on the shower curtain. I read the Word, then went to bed around 10:30 pm. Lightening, thunder, and rain were approaching, so I decided to sleep inside instead of outside on the loft.
On August 10th, I got up around 7:00 am to take our Cocker Spaniel “Butch” outside. I’d heard the shower curtain blowing during the night, so I checked on it. Three of the magnets were gone, so I started looking for them. I looked around on the ground for a moment, spotting the first missing magnet. I looked again and found the second missing magnet. I spent another minute searching for the third missing magnet. As I glanced at the water pump motor, I spied something behind it.
Behind the curvature of the pump (between it and the cabin) was a coiled-up rattlesnake. It was barely visible from the angle that I was standing looking over the motor. I immediately put the dog in the house, grabbed my camera, and a garden hoe. As soon as I put the hoe close to the snake, he struck it, and then began rattling. I threw some pebbles at him and he got more upset, but would not move out from behind the pump.
I then got a long piece of bamboo (a rod so to speak) and poked him. He finally moved out into the open at the back of the cabin. I took a picture of him, then, I had to decide what to do with him … kill him or let him slither away?
I don’t like killing things, but after he moved away from the cabin he stopped and held his ground. Knowing the dog was with me, and that Linda and some friends were coming out for the weekend, I decided that I had to kill the snake. I took another picture, and knew what I had to do. I got the hoe again and cut off his head.
I dug a hole and buried the head and body. I went inside to get my reptile book to identify what kind of rattlesnake it was. Remembering the marks on the body and the head, I realized that I had just killed a Mohave Green (the most deadly rattlesnake).
I told God I was sorry I killed the snake, but I knew it was the right thing to do under the circumstances. I felt relieved after confessing what I did. By now it was about 8:00 am, so I went to do a couple of chores around the cabin.
Then it occurred to me, I should go back to where I discovered that snake to see if there was another rattlesnake. As I slowly peered over the pump motor, about six inches from where that snake had been laying coiled up, I spotted the last magnet.
I got goose bumps all over knowing that if I would have spotted that magnet before seeing the snake, I would have reached down and grabbed it as soon as I saw it. That snake would have bitten me—just like he struck the hoe when I put it near him. I thanked God that I did not see the missing magnet first. God was surely watching over me that morning. That angel was small, but he still looked after me.
Then I began thinking more about what had happened? A poisonous rattlesnake was invading my territory and I had to do the right thing with the enemy. The process was … I had been in the Word … I had been praying … I was being sensitive to what God wanted to show me … therefore, God was protecting me in an unusual way … He let me see the snake, not the magnet. I killed the serpent (sin) … and the enemy was defeated … at least for that day.
The first book of the Bible says; “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will bruise his heal.” Genesis 3:15 refers to Jesus Christ and Satan. Remember, the enemy of our souls is always out to get us.
To strike someone’s heal is not deadly, but a crushing blow to the head is. God was revealing His plan (early on in the Bible) to defeat Satan and offer salvation to the world through Jesus Christ.
I used a tool to kill the serpent; the Bible is our tool. I went to a book to identify it; the Bible identifies sin. I made a choice to not just brush it off on someone else; we must be ready to defend ourselves against the enemy every day of our life.
If need be, take it to the enemy. Being on the offence is in the playbook when you’re walking with God. The armor of God is always important to wear: The “Sword of the Spirit” is a weapon that must be in your hands daily even though we have victory in Jesus! You’ve just read a true story about how much God loves us.
Did you know that God loves drag boat racing? Because of His great love for you (He knows you love racing), His desires are for you to be happy in the life He’s given you. Keep in mind racing has inherent dangers that are just as real as the enemy of your soul. Use all of your tools wisely every day and be prepared to identify a miss-firing tune-up (physical or spiritual) that can be remedied with God’s anti-venom … the Word!
Drag boat racing is a story in itself, and I wouldn’t trade a single second or story about what I’ve seen and experienced. I know for a fact that you love and believe in drag boat racing, so please believe in what the Scriptures say about snakes, salvation and a sanctifying Savior.