Muscle Cars

How many of you grew up in the era of “Muscle cars”, the days when gas was cheap?.  In 1962, gas cost 32 cents per gallon.  The base price of a 1966 SS 396 Chevelle was $2776.  In the summer of 1966, I worked as a construction laborer, putting in 11 hours a day making $6.00 per hour.  A McDonald hamburger cost 15 cents.  I was dating Linda who was 16 at the time and I had just turned 19.  That fall I bought a black Chevelle, not a SS, and not with a 396, just a 327.  It did have 3 on the floor and bucket seats which were optional at the time. 

Today, gas is $4.00 per gallon.  A McDonald hamburger cost 89 cents and a SS Camaro cost about $40,000.  A construction laborer makes around $14.00 per hour, if he can find a job.

A 1967 Camaro SS would do 0-60 mph in 7.9 sec and a quarter mile in 15.2 sec.  A 2011 Camaro  SS will do 0-60 in 4.8 sec and a quarter mile in 13 seconds. 

That’s a muscle car.  Can you imagine having one and never driving it on the expressway, never going over 35mph?  I can’t!  But, then I will never own one either.

But you know what, as Christians we have access to something, actually someone, much more powerful than any muscle car. 

AND

We act like we are driving one of those little “Smart” cars.  I call them dumb cars.

Paul tells the Ephesians that he does not stop praying that:

“the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, ¹⁸your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians, ¹⁹oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!

²⁰All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, ²¹in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. ²²He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. ²³The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.”  The Message, Ephesians 1: 17-23

Paul prays constantly that they will grasp what it means to be the body of Christ, to be doing the work of Christ, to be engaging in the spiritual warfare Christ is calling us to.  Unless or until we grasp what we have at our disposal, we will never be able to do the work to which we are called.  We are driving a spiritual muscle car!

WE NEED TO START ACTING LIKE IT!