Substack Is Up

Posted on May 14, 2025 by ehurst

Alright, folks — Okie Bikepacker is the address for my new Substack. The emphasis is tourism via bicycle. You’ll see chatter about biking and my experiences cycling across the state and visiting campgrounds and other places cyclists and hikers can stay. The Substack includes pictures germane to that aim, but here I’ll post the leftover shots that didn’t fit into the posts there.

First up is the River Run Ranch just north of Jones, OK. It caught my eye just as I began the first of several hills on Hogback Road.

I stopped at Wild Horse Creek for an early lunch, since I left home at 0700. If you strain your eyes a bit, you’ll see a sort of green tunnel from which the water emerges, from way back into the foliage a ways. Although the sound of water was nice, I didn’t stay too long because the sun was already starting to get hot and the only shade was in the water itself. I had been on this stretch of Highway 66 several times before, so very little of this trip was actually new until I turned off toward the lake.

This is more or less the center of town for Wellston, OK. There is a good bit more heading back down toward the current main route of Highway 66, but I wanted to see the old original route. It added some distance to the detour around construction, but I thought it was worth it. There were several really old houses, but not all of them were placed for easy photography.

This is the old downtown of Chandler, OK. I would not have seen it had I taken the shortcut both ways. I needed food, so I decided to roll through the old route and see what I could find there. It turned out to be a restaurant with no place to park my bike and a doughnut shop. Since I was burning so many calories, I opted for the latter. It wasn’t too bad, but I kept burping the cinnamon flavoring of the apple fritter for a couple of hours, since I don’t eat that kind of stuff very often.

Not all of the old store fronts are in use. This pair were at the bottom of the hill running out of town, and it’s no longer a good business location. I can see why no one puts a business here. Still, at least the city does what it can to preserve historical structures, even if that doesn’t amount to much. At the very bottom of that hill, there is a sharp turn to the right, and it’s pretty chewed up pavement. I had to swerve my bike out to the center edge of the lane to avoid it. Fortunately, there was no one behind me. Just a couple more businesses and the town fades out.

Last up is this old railroad overpass near Warwick. A handful of other shots didn’t turn out well. I’m really ready for a good camera so I can get better shots of stuff.

Apology: Substack instituted a new default to have people pay some kind of subscription to receive updates. It took me digging awhile to turn that off. You should be able to subscribe now for free.

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Recalibrating after the First

Posted on May 13, 2025 by ehurst

My experience has taught me several lessons. I need to recalibrate how I approach the task.

1. Allergens: Here in the OKC Metro there aren’t that many allergens that affect me. Sleeping in my own home also provides some protection. Out in the country in places like the Chandler area, where there are large number of low lying swampy areas growing allergens, things were quite different. By the time I arrived at the campsite, I could smell something whacking my sinuses. It was pretty bad. After the shower, it was reduced, but then plagued me all night long. Turns out that my beard and hair were allergen collectors. You can look it up online, but it’s a known medical issue. Yes, the beard and hair must go if I continue this mission. As I write this, I am now back to my default look from past years.

2. The load: That trailer was the smartest move I could make. No regrets. However, I should have brought the hammock, not the tent with the air mattress. I would have been far more comfortable in a hammock, going from previous experience. I did sleep well enough, better than I expected, but there was no place to sit and the tent is a real hassle getting in and out. In the future, I’ll work harder at ascertaining whether a hammock can work.

3. Saddle: Leather saddles are great, but I’m having an issue with this particular one. For the time being, I’ll switch to the Zizzo Comfort Saddle and see if things improve.

4. Food: There are several complications with this issue. The biggest one is that my appetite doesn’t match the calories I burned. My digestion feels like it goes to sleep on long rides, and I more-or-less have to make myself eat. My food choices for this trip were just an extension of what I’ve always done, but I need to study different options. Trail food and daily eating habits are not the same stuff.

5. Too hard: I went out hard like I always do, heading out at 0700, and arrived at the campsite about 1300 hours local time. On the ride back today, I didn’t have my usual strength. It took a lot longer and I ended up stopping quite frequently out of breath. I need to pay more attention to the load and what it demands of me heading out. I should break more often and simply sit for a while. And it may turn out that 40 miles may be my sane limit for one day’s ride. I’ll keep an eye on that as I resume local training rides.

Everything else will be covered in my review of the ride and campsite. That and photos should show up tomorrow; I’m taking the day off riding (for obvious reasons) and I’ll initiate a Substack blog which will be linked here.

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First Trip 2025

Posted on May 12, 2025 by ehurst

I’m asking you to pray with me today. By the time you read this, I will likely be on the bike heading to Bell Cow Lake in Chandler, OK. It’s about forty miles from home. This will be a first test of the equipment. Some of you may recall I made a first trip like that several years ago and didn’t reach my goal because of surprise weather changes. I got as far as El Reno, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience as the temperatures dropped and I slept poorly. I’m better prepared this time, having tracked the weather predictions more closely.

Of course, what really matters is that I am prepared to testify of my faith. That’s the whole point. Part of what I’m doing it testing and developing a message that will meet people where they are. I’ll make mistakes because I’m human, but I’ll learn because my Father is the trainer.

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Training Rides 03

Posted on May 11, 2025 by ehurst

Today I have some random images from various training rides in the past week. First up is the backside of the OKANA Resort, showing the new pedestrian bridge almost finished. The bridge would have been there without the resort, but you can bet the First Nations folks will capitalize on anything that brings attention to their expensive facilities. The other day I encountered a fellow walking away from the facility asking me if I knew where there was a casino in the city; he was hoping OKANA included one (it doesn’t — yet). For someone who wasn’t from this area, it was a good guess, since the majority of all gaming facilities are owned by tribes in our state.

I went down to take a look at the state of construction on the new bridge across Crutcho Creek on Midwest Boulevard. It’s about half done. Odd thing: It was a weekday and no one was on the site, so I had the place to myself. I looked around at what they had done to modify the creek’s flow. They had smoothed the turns and added a lot of rip-rap to prevent erosion. They widened the channel because the state mandates that all bridges built after some date be built to much higher standards than in previous decades. Thus, instead of a simple reinforced span, it has pylons and the works.

Yesterday I visited another major project finished not so long ago. The interchange between Interstate 235 and our Northeast Expressway was a bottleneck and traffic had increased massively in a short time, so they rebuilt the whole thing and it took a couple of years. The thing that caught my eye was how they managed to preserve this catchment basin for storm drainage while increasing the road capacity. They cleaned it up a bit; previously it wasn’t so easy to see. Now it actually looks pretty nice. You wouldn’t want to wade in that water, but at least they spruced it up a bit.

One of the major “section lines” running through the OKC Metro is 23rd Street, both NE and NW. It slips under the State Capitol buildings, and here it slips under a railroad track and Interstate 235. All of this was part of a very long and substantial project to clean up the 23rd Street corridor. Just east of where this image was taken was once a high crime area. It’s also quite near our central hospital district, and when medical specialists began buying up housing between the hospitals and the Capitol buildings, there was a lot of pressure to beautify and pacify the area. This double overpass got some of that money; it used to be ugly and industrial looking.

From a quiet and little used park bench, I shot this image of the Oklahoma State Capitol Building. I can assure you that this thing is very high maintenance. Every few years we hear on the local news about some kind of repair or renovation to the stonework, because it wasn’t the smartest design or construction in the first place. A couple of times the government came close to taking off that fancy dome, but for now, it survives. If you look closely, you might just make out a symbolic oil derrick almost centered in front of the building.

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Distinctions in Leviticus 1-3

Posted on May 10, 2025 by ehurst

I previously referenced the idea that there were two kinds of sin in the Old Testament, particularly if you are looking in the Book of Leviticus.

Unintentional or inadvertent sins were not precisely what those words imply in English. The meaning of the Hebrew terminology has more to do with what it is not: a defiant sin. In other words, the sins covered by the ritual offerings and sacrifices were more than simply accidents. It could cover a host of things that were simply natural events, but which caused you to be ritually unclean.

The concept for several types of rituals were bound up in something that would never occur to modern western minds. There was a broadly defined sense of ritual impurity attached to things naturally exuded from a living organism. It could be blood and semen, of course, but it could be applied to honey from bees. Thus, for a grain offering, honey was not a permitted ingredient. On the other hand, it didn’t include something that sweat that was of no consequence in terms of what you lost or what it could do, such as blood or semen, which had the force of life in them.

Another distinction not obvious to us is the difference between offering and sacrifice. The latter term applies only to an animal that is slaughtered as part of a participatory meal set before God, whereas offering is anything you bring to God as a gift. Not every English translation will render these words faithfully, but in the Hebrew mind, there was a difference.

Another issue is the inclusion of salt in the grain offerings. It was flatly commanded in Leviticus 2:13. In that same passage, you will discover that God refers to the “salt of the Covenant”. It shows up again in Numbers 8:19 and 2 Chronicles 13:5, referring to a “covenant of salt”. It is a figure of speech referring to a covenant that has grave consequences.

You may be familiar with how the covenant God made with Abraham included animals cut in half and bled into a trough — a blood covenant. Among humans, such a ritual would see the two parties to the covenant/treaty wading through the blood to symbolize their recognition that if either of them violates the covenant, they deserve the same fate as the animals sacrificed in that way. In the case of a salt covenant, the reference is to having your cities destroyed and the land sowed with salt so nothing would grow there again. In human experience, you won’t live long enough to see the salt leeched down deep enough for the soil to become fertile again, so it might as well be forever.

Adding salt to offerings is a reminder that you have voluntarily signed onto this. It also gives new meaning to Jesus’ admonition that His followers should have salt in themselves (Mark 9:50) — be at peace with one another.

The English term “peace offering” in Leviticus would be better translated as “offering of well-being” for reasons we already understand. Peace with God — shalom — refers to stability, prosperity and safety. This offering is not to cover any kind of sin, but to give thanks for God keeping His promises. Notice that God gets the fatty portions of animals for those offerings. This is also the only offering we’ve encountered so far that includes the person making the offering sharing in the meal. It’s a fellowship meal; you already have peace with God.

Finally, let us note that there was never any hope of reconciliation for intentional sins under Moses and you would have to pay the consequences, but in Christ there is a sacrifice for all sins. This is why the Book of Hebrews lavishes so much attention on the superiority of the Covenant of Christ. There is always a way back to the Father through the Son.

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What Drives Me to This Crazy Mission

Posted on May 9, 2025 by ehurst

So, if we are going to join Jesus in going out after the lost sheep of the Covenant, what would that mean for us today? How do we restore what has been destroyed by previous generations? Where is the new opportunity to rescue some of them?

This is how I understand it; this is where my convictions lead me…

Once again, the West is destroying itself. It’s not coming from outside; the rot is internal. Western Civilization was designed by the Devil and his allies to entrap as many as possible in a worldview that militates against the gospel of Jesus Christ. All the while, it claims that its perverted view of Christ is the real deal. As you might expect, Creation itself is not benign about this. God has revealed how Creation works and the whole fabric of the West is contrary to that revelation.

As it comes apart, it’s not a question of predicting where it’s going. Western society is scattering in many different directions. What matters most is that what identified Western Civilization is evaporating. I realize that feminism seems to hold a tight grip on things, but what you may not see is that the youngest generation is not in that grip directly. It’s not a question of what replaces it; the thing is dying. No one can say for sure what will replace it because “replacement” is the wrong idea. What is taking its place is a vacuum.

My point is that we need to look at where the kids are going once they get free from the grip of their elders. It will be a radical break with all kinds of things being tested until something surges ahead. All I can suggest for now is that it will remain centered on electronic networking and what that enables. This is why I call it the rise of the Networked Civilization. Whatever comes out of this, it will be constrained by the boundaries of what networking can provide — and what it cannot.

A critical element in all of this will be the collapse of mainstream church religion. It’s already dying, but in the next decade or so, it will see a massive scattering. The church leadership belong too much to their previous generations, and the very core of organization itself is all wrong for the newer generations. It will no longer be tied to human cultural identity. This is a part of tribulation.

Instead, there will be a rise in independent spirituality. It will be “formless and void” for awhile. My mission has been to get out in front of that and offer at least one point of sanity. I’m seeking to identify a path that preserves what really matters without the clutter of western church traditions. We must be a witness to that core of truth that does not depend on mere human culture.

Yes, this is what lies behind my new mission effort through bicycle touring. It’s the platform on which I stand to draw attention to what the Lord has given me. I’ll be promoting this independent spirituality every time I encounter someone who wants to hear about what drives me to do these crazy things.

———-

Side Note: I’m once again dealing with electronic censorship. I now use a VPN to login to this blog, for example. Otherwise, I may never get a response from the server.

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Obedience Right Now

Posted on May 8, 2025 by ehurst

It’s all about God and His Covenant.

God calls His Elect into the Covenant. Sadly, a great many of them don’t even understand this, so they miss out on some of what the Covenant offers. Election makes you God’s family; the Covenant gives you a purpose for living in this world. You are in a position to see clearly the bigger picture of what the Covenant means. You live in communion with the Creator and Creation.

Sinners have a random life. God’s purpose is not involved, despite what they may believe about such things. The only purpose they have is whatever lies Satan and his allies tell them.

Most Americans have no clue what’s going on with the Covenant and divine promises. They tend to see life from a western point of view. Everything is about themselves as individuals. They have a false view of God and Creation and don’t really understand the Scripture. They read their needs and wants back into the Bible, their solipsistic orientation. They think God’s wrath is just like the American justice system, based on punitive retribution. God was never like that.

His wrath on sinners is first and foremost no Holy Spirit. They have no clue on anything that matters. They cannot make sense of their lives because they don’t have divine revelation to clear up things. They may feel like they prosper or may not; it’s random and subjective. If you view their lives in light of American justice, maybe it looks like they get away with murder. If they do, it means God isn’t the least bit concerned about them in terms of how He cares for His family. He disciplines His own children, not strangers. They belong to the Devil.

Eventually, they’ll end up in Hell — Satan’s Abyss, Sheol, the grave. They’ll suffer there until Christ returns, and then they’ll be judged and cease to exist. Whether or not they appear to suffer in this life for their sins is not the point. They don’t know God. Divine justice is eternal, not temporal. There can be nothing worse than being a stranger to God; that’s punishment enough.

This common focus on “getting what’s coming to you” in this life is not from the Bible. It’s a lie from Satan built into American culture. Humans cannot do justice without the Presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Under the divine Presence, people don’t worry about retribution in this life. This world is a delusion in the first place. You suffer because you are in this world; it’s a big lie and so is the suffering. If you have peace with God, nothing else matters.

Let the sinners take all they want of this world, because it’s all they will ever get.

Meanwhile, you have the Covenant. A critical part of the Covenant is understanding that it’s not about you. It’s about God and His glory. That’s part of the Old Testament Hebrew mindset that we try to teach. Furthermore, it’s very much about His glory when viewed over multiple generations. Understanding that is part of the Covenant; it’s fundamental to peace with God. It’s bigger than you and your life. His revelation calls you to build from the ashes of previous generations’ mistakes and testify to what God does across centuries.

But if your head isn’t there, you can’t do it. If all your mental calculus is short-term, then you cannot obey Him. Your brief passage through time is not important unless you can seize the eternal viewpoint and work for future generations to see your legacy of faith. Don’t look for an impact on this world during your own lifetime; the bulk of what God wants from you will have its greatest effects after you are gone.

That’s not the whole thing, but it should be your focus. On the way to that legacy, you will surely see some difference in the near term, but that’s not the main goal. Keep your eye on the eternal consequences of your obedience here and now.

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Where Is the Focus?

Posted on May 7, 2025 by ehurst

Several years ago I rode my mountain bike around the shores of Lake Stanley Draper. It’s an artificial reservoir enclosed by a dam and fed by a pair of creeks (East and West Elm Creeks) and several smaller run-offs from higher ground. Underlying the whole area is a thick layer of red sandstone. On that previous series of rides exploring the shoreline, I noted quite a few places where some of that sandstone remained fairly solid, standing up out of the water. It was all quite lovely to me.

Several years passed while the water level remained mostly high. Further, because Oklahoma is so windy, that water was relentlessly whipped into waves from all directions over the course of each year. When I went back out on my new bike, I was struck by how many of those sandstone projections had simply washed away. The shoreline is now quite boring.

Just so, time itself wears away our human awareness of some things. This is both good and bad. Trauma is a lot easier handle as it recedes into the past. But good things can also be forgotten. This is the reason so much of what we read in the Law of Moses. Woven into the code is a whole raft of things intended solely to keep fresh an awareness of God and His relationship to the nation.

Nothing can stop the indolent souls from losing track of the miracles of the Exodus. But for those who were Elect, the rituals could really help keep alive the sense of His power and their humility as they stood before the Lord. I can still feel those jagged rocky formations I walked on at Draper Lake, even if I can’t see them any more.

This is behind Heiser’s first lesson in Leviticus. He explains what would have been the mindset of conscious believers in Israel when the ritual law was revealed through Moses.

As always, I would say Heiser left out some important stuff. Biblical feudalism pervades Creation itself. As those who had been redeemed by great acts of power, they were the property of their Redeemer. His actions in rescuing them made them accountable to Him for as long their nation existed. They had a duty to report in to Him on a regular basis; that’s what the annual holy days were all about. It didn’t matter how busy they were all year long, even if they served Him quite willingly and conscientiously. And it didn’t matter that He saw everything, including what was in their hearts. They were obliged to show up at a minimum number of festivals, if physically possible, to renew their sense of duty.

Heiser explains how this remained nonetheless risky in their minds. You cannot simply walk in and dirty the carpet for nothing. You had to ensure He would let you in the door without striking you down on the threshold. In the minds of the Hebrew believers, they dare not arrive empty-handed nor sloppy. This was not just any old guy that walked among them; this was the highest God of all Creation. You must come and accept the risk of His displeasure. Will God accept you?

This was what stood behind the burnt offerings. You may very well need to conduct some other business with other offerings, but this one thing you must get out of the way first: ensure that He would let you in the door. Visiting any important and powerful person, even today, should provoke thoughts of bringing a gift for the host/hostess. It is not transactional any more than that burnt offering. It sweetens your presence in their home; it’s the polar opposite of a sense of entitlement.

Learn the distinction between a sense of high privilege versus entitlement. It’s not about the person who carries the privilege, but the One who grants it.

Think about all the New Testament references to how Jesus reduced that barrier. When a Hebrew came to faith in Christ, he didn’t have to worry about what kind of offering to bring to the church meeting. He was the offering, and he was acceptable. We are His sanctuary. It also makes sense of Paul’s warnings about coming together for a solemn Lord’s Supper observance, and how too many people come before the Lord thinking it’s about them. How often have you attended a church gathering these days and it was clear the subconscious focus was entirely on the needs of the people there, instead of giving obeisance to Christ.

In our western church heritage, we don’t distinguish between the two kinds of sin as noted in the Old Testament. That initial burnt offering in Leviticus 1 was not about the worshiper, but about God. The blood was not applied to the worshiper. Maybe some of it was applied to the priest, but it was all about cleansing the place, calling attention to the blood price of human fallen nature. How dare you act entitled in God’s Presence!

It’s not how special we are, but how unique and holy He is. While we come before Him boldly in Christ, it is not with entitlement, but with a sense of high privilege.

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Two Types of OT Law

Posted on May 6, 2025 by ehurst

Heiser said that we need to understand the Hebrew mindset about the Law of Moses.

There are two types of law: serious moral concerns and mere ritual mistakes. Most of Leviticus is consumed in dealing with the latter. Rituals don’t have to be empty. I’ve written in the past that rituals teach us to take things seriously; it’s part of human nature. They are designed to answer the human need for a focal point in behavior. Also, the ritual law helps the Elect deal with all those who haven’t yet found themselves in feudal submission to the Lord.

A ritual mistake can be fixed; that’s what the sacrifices were meant to do. If you committed a serious moral error, there was no sacrifice for that. The latter was a major defilement of yourself, making you odious to God. Coming back from that was a whole different matter. A ritual mistake was a simple matter of following the prescribed rules to clean the slate. It was a matter of proper respect, a routine protocol.

Ritual uncleanness was communicable; moral sin was not. If you touch a woman in menstruation, you are ritually unclean. If you touch an adulteress, you don’t become ritually unclean. Ritual mistakes are a hassle; grave sins are a threat to everything, defiling the land and people. Grave sins may require capital punishment to keep peace with God.

What was a grave sin in the Old Testament is still a grave sin in the New. Ritual mistakes are generally not an issue in the New Covenant, though we do have equivalent rituals in Christ. We don’t require ritual offerings to restore balance; Christ took care of that part on the Cross. Gentiles can approach God in worship now.

I would add that it’s not as simple was calling the Ten Commandments “grave sins”. Paul made a major issue of things that are not listed in the Decalogue. You need to pay attention to the pattern of Jesus and His apostles to get a clue for what constitutes grave moral errors. You can repent and cleanse yourself from them, but it’s not a simple matter of ritual.

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Bike Ministry Stuff

Posted on May 5, 2025 by ehurst

Unless you’ve experienced it, I seriously doubt you could possibly get excited about leather stuff for cycling. I’ve had a leather saddle in the past. Others have said it better: Once you have it broke in, if you trash the bike, you’ll pull that saddle off and take it with you. I have no idea what kind of magic is involved, but nothing of man-made materials can match it. I did okay with so-called “comfort saddles” of various designs, but nothing comes close to leather. I’ll be breaking this in over the next couple of weeks.

As for the riding gloves, it’s simply a matter of getting old. My hands go to sleep on long rides when wearing other types of gloves, but these have already proved to save me a lot of misery. It’s not just the leather, but the properly placed gel pads in the palms. Leather means durability.

This is a cove on Hefner Lake, showing how high the water level is after days and days of rain here in the OKC area. I have rain gear, and I’ve already treated the new saddle with mink oil, but the problem is a matter of safety. If I am ever at risk from motorists, it’s when rain dims their view of the world. I’ve been waiting, watching weather reports and looking for a stretch of clearing for my first camping trip. The current plan is Bell Cow Lake in Chandler. It should be a nice ride up the old US Highway 66, which has become the first major bicycle route in this state.

My needs are small. I still hope to get a better camera than my cellphone. I’m a cheapskate; I’d be happy with “good enough”. Pray with me about a Minolta MNB10Z. I found it on Best Buy’s site for about $200; I’m guessing it’s an older version of the current model, which costs a lot more. I’ll have to wait a few weeks before I can buy it. If it’s as good as I think it is, I won’t need a separate video camera.

Another issue related to our prolonged heavy rains is trail damage. This is a spot on our Eagle Lake Trail. Riders can still get across on that narrow neck where the pavement is still solid, but this image represents similar damage to little country backroads that I favor for cross country travel. Some of you may remember some years ago the pictures I posted of places where those country roads were completely washed away. That’s when I lived out in a rural area and such vulnerable roads were all I had. Most of those were put back better, but there are plenty of water crossings that have become weak since then. As I start riding out farther on a regular basis, I’m sure I’ll run across a few here and there.

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