Faith Family & Racing

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You got to nip it in the bud. Good morning and welcome to the Christian Car Guy Radio Show this morning. I'm Jerry Mathis, the Christian Body Shop Guy, filling in for Robbie, who is not with us this morning. We're going to have a great morning.

I want to start with, I got Tim Bowman, who is in here with us. We're going to talk a little bit about racing and racing season getting started and I'm going to kind of surprise him with a couple questions I'm going to throw out as far as, is there anyone with any that is willing to share the gospel at the racetrack and stuff? And we're going to talk a little bit about that, but before we even get opened up this morning, I tell you what, after watching the news over, you know, last night and what's going on in this world and what's going on in this country, this morning on my way in I said, I'm going to open us up, I'm going to open up Christian Car Guy Radio Show this morning with prayer and I just feel like it's something we need to do, we need to do more of with the unrest that we're seeing, you know, and it's not just a global unrest, there's also a lot of unrest inside this country. And so I'm going to open this up in prayer and then we're going to dive right in.

Let's pray. Dear God, I thank you for this opportunity but also, Lord, kind of humbling just watching TV and seeing the war and the threats of war and all the conflict and all the loss of life that's going on. Lord, I know none of this surprises you and none of it should surprise us. I mean, if we sit there and we know your word and your word tells us that these are kind of things that's going to unfold before us but also it tells us that we need to make sure we put our faith in you and look for you for strength and just be grateful for your grace. Lord, I just hope that you put a hedge of protection around all of our soldiers who are fighting abroad and also local for our police officers and firefighters and those that are putting their life on the line every day for each and every one of us.

God, we kind of overlook those and we take so much stuff for granted. Lord, also, we do know the answer. We know the answer to all of these hardships and all of this pain and all this sin and that's Jesus Christ and that's what we just hope that, Lord, people can see that and, Lord, just again, just be with our nation. Be with us as soldiers and warriors for you. Lord, be with the church and may Jesus Christ shine through it all and may everything we do as Christians point people to Jesus Christ. In your son's name I pray, amen.

Tim, good having you this morning. I want to just first of all kick off with some racing stuff. I know that locally here in Winston and there's tracks all throughout the country.

Everybody we talk about that people automatically think about the big scale racing that they say on Sundays and stuff but there's so many local tracks and local opportunities for people to get plugged in and I think one thing that people don't realize and this is something that I really have a passion for and it kind of hurts me that I don't see where families don't do things together and the local track is a great opportunity for that and I know you're involved and kind of give us a rundown. First of all, give me a little bit of a background of your faith walk and then we're going to talk a little bit about Bowman Gray and the history there. Well my faith walk is, back when I was seven years old, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and it's been a bed of roses. It's an up and down thing that you have but you got to have faith.

That's the main thing. That's faith and once you have your faith, everything works in place and it takes a while to do it. It's not an overnight deal and it's not but you have got to just trust in the Lord and that's the main thing.

You put him first in your life and things go great and again sometimes he's on the back burner but you know he pushes you up and on the back burner but you put him first and everything works out great and it really does and I have people pray for me every day because again we need prayer and without prayer we are nothing and I'm just thankful that I'm in the business that I am that I'm in over at Bowman Gray. I've been over there for going on 35 years now. It's been a long time.

Time flies when you're having fun doesn't it? Yeah and I started out there as somebody that got underneath cars and checking things out as a tech and now I'm up in the big tower and we score the races and I have other people that's helping me and because I'm not the main person I'm just someone that I'd run the scoreboard I also do the big races and I do the 10 lap run downs and believe me at Bowman Gray Stadium that is a job because I had other people say how can you do that? Well I've done it so much because I used to do the big tracks. I did 25 years for the cup series and used to do the big tracks, do the same thing. I was out on Pitt Road and I had to learn the car numbers but the thing about it is I learned the car numbers more than I learned the sponsors and once I saw the sponsors I knew what the car number was. So again that's something that you gotta be trained for and I've done it for a long time and I enjoy what I'm doing.

It's just something to do and I decided to do it. Nobody else would but I have some good people over there that I work with and they put up with me so again we just scored races. We do every lap, every race and that's the way it's done at Bowman Gray and that's where it done the big tracks also so things are different now that you got computers, things like that.

We don't use computers, we just use our brains and our hands and a lot of tracks. We're the oldest race car track that there is in America now because the second one used to be Greenville Pickens Speedway and they closed down but again now Bowman Gray is the oldest of all the short tracks. We're going to talk a little bit about the year Bowman Gray got started and how many years they've been continuously racing on Saturday nights during the race season but also this is a calling show so I encourage you to if you got a question about racing also just have something you want to share and one thing if you as I said I like about racing because I grew up at Bowman Gray and small tracks caraway and stuff and doing it as a family is just something that gives you an opportunity to spend time as a family and I think that's sort of something that we've kind of lost and got out of touch with is how we need to do things with the family. So if you got just a story of doing something with your family give us a call or anything that may come to mind the call-in number is 866-348-7884.

Again 866-348-7884 would love to hear your story or also your question. So Tim Bowman Gray like I said it's the longest running series in NASCAR. It is. And you know that date I know it's I have said I should know it I know I've known it as one point or another but it's a lot of years. 1949 that's that's the year and now we're getting ready to start our 70 76 year. We just celebrated our 75th so now 76 so we're the oldest NASCAR track there is and a lot of people can't wait till race season we start on the April the 20th this year a little since the grand hog saw his shadow he actually saw the race car.

So now we started early which again that's the way the schedule was April the 20th so again we're going to start out with that we have a Hayes-George 200 lap modified race and also we have a 40 lap sportsman race and we have some street stock and stadium stock races because again it's a full night of racing and you're talking about family. You know Bowman Gray is just like church when you when you go to church you've got a special place you got to go to you sit down the same booth you sit there at the same pew. Bowman Gray is the same thing because again there's families that sit that put put down their their their towels or whatever they want to sit on and they do that first then they go out and then they come back in because we have to we have to have everybody out at a certain time they get everybody back in but again they sit at the same place all the time and it's just like church.

Well that's yeah and speaking of church I mean a lot of people don't realize and not because you were Winston Cup official at one time and you can speak on this a lot of people don't don't realize that behind the scenes because there is church yes there is church people that are very very dedicated and faithful to their faith that are in NASCAR and that includes big-time don't you know the the cup series and also the small track so you can speak on that I know they have and I was told over you you know more on this than I do but don't they have like a Bible study at the well basically is and the big races they have a tent or they have a building they go into and they'll do their little little church deal and you know they're always praying because again 200 miles an hour behind a racetrack right a race car you would have to pray. We're gonna have a break again it's a calling show give us a call be back in a moment. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Tim are you ready?

That's the question this morning. I am ready. Before we go any further in as I said this morning when I kicked off is just having prayer for what's going on in this country. I'm gonna read back a devotion from a couple days ago from Sarah Young's Jesus Calling. I love this devotion book and I'm gonna do a do a plug for it. If you're out there and you don't have a daily devotion this is just a great book to get and to do the daily devotions it doesn't take much time you can spend as much time as you want to on it with the scripture and stuff but I'm gonna just read first of all I'm gonna read a passage in 2 Corinthians and it kind of just hits dead center on what's going on in the world. 2 Corinthians 4 18 so we fix our eyes on not what is seen but what is unseen what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal and then in Psalms when I am afraid I will trust in you in God whose word I praise in God I trust I will not be afraid what can mortal man do to me and that's in Psalms 56 3 & 4 you know the question is what you know what we see is what can mortal man do to us as we have enough faith and know that we walk with the creator of it all well on February the 1st this devotion just sort of hit me is what this world and what we're facing and it's follow me one step at a time this is all I require of you in fact it is the only way to move through this space and time world you see huge mountains looming and you start wondering how you're going to scale those heights meanwhile because you're not looking where you're going you stumble on an easy path where I am laying out for you now as I help you get back on your feet you tell me how worried you are about the cliffs up ahead but you don't know what will happen today much less tomorrow our path may take turns leading us away from those mountains there may be an easier way up a mountain than the visible one from a distance if I do lead you up cliffs I will equip you thoroughly for that strenuous climb I will always give you my angels charge over you to preserve you in all your ways keep your mind on the present journey enjoy my presence walk by faith not by sight trusting me and open up and trust in trusting me to open up the way before you Tim when I read that I just because it is so easy to to get discouraged and just think you know what what's going on what what's tomorrow gonna gonna hold because we start you know we get attacked and lose three brave service individuals men and women who are serving this country whose families are devastated for losing a loved one and then we start bombing you just think what what's what's tomorrow what what what is this gonna bring but we have to know that you know God is in charge and we have to we just have to put our faith in in that and it is tough sometimes yes it is that best thing to do is just we need to pray every single day for this country because again there's there's people out there that are fighting for our country but again we got to take care of Israel Israel is the Holy Land and a lot of people don't understand that I mean and again it's when when they attacked Israel you know it just just kind of hurt it broke my heart because again that is the Holy Land and again we don't know what's gone going on I mean we've got some people in office that need to be out and other people coming in this is election year and again you if you don't vote there's nothing you can say yeah not and I'll say one thing that that's that's a privilege that we have and I know I talked to Derek Masha Monday and Yvonne who are from Zimbabwe and you know and elections come up and it's so it's not really election that is forced back into office and stuff and we have a privilege that most people don't have and so many people don't even don't even use it or don't don't take advantage of we all if we should be out voting and I'm not gonna tell anybody a political candidate or something on the air but I will say what we should do is look at our beliefs look at a platform because everybody has a platform they they're running on which one mirrors more of what I believe what I believe is a Christian that's that's how I think we all should vote if we were you know all these packs are out there and we hear all of this stuff out there look at which one mirrors what our faith would tell us we need to do and what God's Word tells us direction we should go use that use that as your guy you don't need to we don't need to get the the Wall Street Journal and see their guide we don't need to get that the political opinion from all the what does God tell us what what should what is our platform as a Christian which one of those mirrors at the best you know the best flagger that I have that I've seen is that one that says Jesus Christ 2024 and that's all it says and that that's just you know we put him first like I said before you put God first and things will be go right together and that's what you got to do yep absolutely and and we will go back to go back to the race a little bit we were talking about how you know there's there's more people of faith in racing than people realize I mean because you get you know also the media like everything else they want to show the that wild side of things everything but you know they never really want to show the that that that that fact that there's a lot of guys are walking walking a pretty darn good and I love it when they come out of the car when winners come out of the car and the first thing they say is I want to thank Jesus Christ my personal savior and that right there just it that's that's the interview right there and I even even people in other other sports venues and sports characters that they come out and they say Jesus Christ you know we think we thank Jesus Christ first and again if it wasn't for him you wouldn't be out there doing what you're doing yeah absolutely and you know what it gives us an opportunity and gives other people a different opportunity with their platform they have to be able to share the gospel okay again it is calling show 866-348-7884 we'll be back in a moment and I hope to hear your call you're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com good morning and welcome back to Christian Car Guy Radio I'm Jerry Mathis the Christian Body Shop guy from Ray's Body Shop and record service here in Winston I'm here with Tim Bowman NASCAR official Bowman Gray official and I'm gonna may in a few moments reveal another hat that he wears okay but Tim just mentioned one of the things that brings him joy and just just proud to see when a driver steps out of the car and first thing to do is thank Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior right and he said other sports do it and I'm gonna I have a cousin that was on the PGA Tour and he won the BMW classic I believe it was a few years back and I was watching because he was looked like he was gonna have a good finish because he was playing strong and first thing after he won it they come up to him and and and he says his words were before I say anything I want to thank Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior and he just gave a spill for about 30 seconds about his faith and afterwards I text him and I said you know what I was proud of you winning but I was really proud of the way you represented the gospel of Jesus Christ and that and it came from his heart and other people have that we talk about people having opportunities and have platforms to be able to share because we all come in contact with different people and different circumstances I mean think about a good buddy of mine is Nikita Koloff I mean who you know what I mean he's he touches people that you never think about and stuff and you know it's if you do if you get a chance to go see Nikita if he's in the area you need to go see him the most powerful person that I've ever really got to meet and I love his message and and he's getting he's great and he was over at Pinedale and I tell you one thing I enjoyed that and I told him I says I want you to come back you know and if he's in the area again he's on Facebook and and he's he's got probably schedule 1230 I think he has a man up show this on the the truth network that you probably be able to hear it on a lot of these stations yeah he powerful man Jesus bubbles out of him oh yeah I'm gonna tell you but uh as I said you get different hats to wear and different opportunities and and and one of the things you know I'm in the body shop and toe in business that raised body shop and record service so I come in contact with other people I'm the elder at Pinedale Christian Church and those give me avenues to be able to a platform to share the gospel right Tim you're involved in racing at Bowman Gray and have been at Winston Cup racing and and also Tim is in part of my Wednesday morning group we have a group of men that's been meeting for goes back 25 years 25 at least 25 at least and I'm trying to think it with with RWN some of the guys and Chip Reckless and and Keith Gardner guys that we all started it with and Jerry Dorsett and it's probably I'm thinking it may be closer in the 30 you save your range something like that I know I was I've been in for about 25 yeah and it's and and and it's just a group of guys get together on Wednesday morning and and sharing and quick quick devotion and and and just just just sharing and giving each other some encouragement for the week yeah it's a great midday time with the Lord and I wish more men would do that because I need that opportunity need other men to walk alongside I mean that's pretty pretty powerful but as I said we all have different hats and different platforms and different opportunities real quick I'm not gonna spend much time on this but Tim also has another hat that he puts on about I guess it's about seven days a week it seems just about a lot of people may not recognize the Tim Bowman besides being in racing and through the Pinedale Christian Church and stuff but also Rick O'Neill and who is Rick O'Neill well he's a he's a guy that I a name I came up with back in 1979 and been using it ever since and again you cannot hide the voice and again I have the voice and I'm on another radio station here at the Triad and again I I love what I do and I've always been a disc jockey I'm always running my mouth but when when my mother told me later on in life and she said either you're going to be an attorney or I'm going to be a preacher well I came to be a disc jockey so you were just dead in the middle of disc jockey right in the middle of those two well you know my mom and dad always had a radio in in our living room dining room area and and I said you know one day I said you know these guys make money and they used to listen to WSJS a lot and and and I said well they make money and I said let's get into it so I decided to get in and fit in off and on about ever since but I I like being Rick O'Neill I'm known as the radio guy and again you can't hide the voice and but again I'm on at nighttime now they put me on nighttime which is that's fine I mean it doesn't matter I I play 50 60 70s ages rock and roll and always I always end my show with the best part I always say God bless you I'll put God first because without God I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing absolutely and a quick thing I mean you can hear Rick O'Neill on wtob yeah but I when you just want to listen music flip over there but keep it on this station I mean truth network I mean that's a and I'm gonna go back to a little bit about where but I'm gonna bring family back into this because of I think we don't understand the power of the influence of radio with our youth and stuff and and I'm gonna say something that as my daughter Taylor was growing up that she I don't know that she really enjoyed it but there's there's very few I couldn't ask for a better kid Taylor Mathis is I mean just been unbelievable just I've been blessed me and my are both have been blessed but one of the rules was if I get in your car and there are some stations that I told her that better never be on the be playing in your car because if I get in there and they're playing I'm taking your keys for a while and she knew that I was dead serious on that because I think we also need to know what our kids are doing and need to know what they're listening to and what they're watching because you turn the TV on now and you may think it's just an innocent show and stuff but you need to have conversation with our kids and stuff what because there's stuff that's being introduced to them that that is anything other than then then evil and and I hate to say that but but you have to really watch everything what they hear what they listen what they read we're not involved with them then we all of a sudden when they're you know get old enough to to be out from under the the home umbrella where 24-7 you have them throughout making choices and and we where did that come from and I never would have thought that but at a young age we need to make sure that we're part of their lives sort of as Christ wants to walk with us we need to walk with Christ and walk with our kids at well in my younger life I had two daughters and I their mother took them away from me and you know I didn't get a chance to see him grow up and I heard now they're married and and but again and they got their own kids and I got grandkids that I hadn't even seen but again you know the only thing we can do is pray for and and that's all I do is pray every day for my kids and because again I don't know what they're doing I didn't get in their life when they were growing up but I just hope that that again they change and and they know what I'm doing and again since I'm all over the world and over the web they can listen to me you know if they want to and I hope that that they're you know have a Christian life I mean they need Jesus everybody needs Jesus you know everybody that's that's a fact and and you know everyone for him and be nothing and going back to family well okay I do have some family that race at Bowman Gray and they're local here and when he wins what does he do he has a he pulls out his his racing uniform and he's got a big S on his chest because he's Superman that's what he is but when he gets out of the car the first thing he says he thanks the Lord Jesus Christ for being his personal Savior that's what he says first and it makes me so proud of him and you know when he got in the race that I said man you got when he come to Bowman grass you go out there and you show everybody that you can race and he does he's been doing it for a long time and about one day he's going to be a champion at Bowman Gray I mean if you if you are champion at Bowman Gray that's that's a big thing but again he always says thank you for my Lord and Savior and that is by makes me so proud yeah God doesn't want us to put them in a box he wants to be part of our experience our life with us but there's a lot of race race cars drivers that's that's that's the first thing they say when they get out of the car I mean it either they they they point up to heaven and again they they know and we got a couple of them that has had surgeries and things like that and and yeah they need they need to say thank you to their God yep we'll be back in just a moment again this is a calling show coming up on just uh you know winding down so I hope you give us a call at eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four I'm Jerry Mathis raised body shop and record service with Tim Bowman we'll be back in a moment you're listening to the truth network and truth network.com I'm ready I tell you what we better be ready we better be ready better be ready yes welcome back Christian car guy radio show I'm Jerry Mathis raised body shop and record service the Christian body shop guy with Tim Bowman real quick before we kind of go into the last segment I want to make mention one thing and I don't know if Tim you're familiar something that ministry that we started that Robbie started years back was Jesus labor of love and that ministry started out helping widows and single moms and providing that's just just either repairing the vehicles and also now we've branched out where even getting vehicles donated to Christian car I mean to the Jesus labor of love and we're able to give cars to people without transportation and and you know that's something that I think we all take for granted a couple of things we take for granted is transportation we live in a world now that that in the country now that you just about can't function without transportation so it's true as I say that I hope that that people you can go in and look on the Christian car guy radio and go down and you'll see a link to Jesus labor of love opportunity to first thing pray for that ministry because the lives that has changed over the years has been amazing we were able to get service centers are helping us so if you're a service center and listening audience out there and want to look for a way to help your community and help those in need hey go ahead give us your information online and we'll be able to get back with you I never want somebody to take money from the local church but if you're looking like I got a few extra dollars I want to donate somewhere that I know that it's going to go to a good cause and to help somebody Jesus labor of love is a great opportunity because every penny of that there's no there's no cost as far as administration goes or anything else every penny that's donated goes into that ministry to help somebody and the lives that have been changed has been amazed it has amazed me in so many ways and to be able to hear those stories if you have a car out there that you're sitting has been in your driveway for two years you've been saying I need to get rid of that thing and it's a great opportunity to do that also so I just wanted to mention that this morning Jesus labor of love great opportunity go to Christian car guy radio scroll down see the link and just look and see if there's a way you can help and that is a way to definitely change some people's lives yes it would well Tim as we were talking a little bit about just you know I said one thing about that about racing it is an opportunity that we have to bring people together and stuff and especially families because I think that's something that's kind of missing we need to make sure that you know I think speaking as a man and a father and a husband and and just a male we get we let our drive kind of get in the way of our main thing that God put us here is as if we have a family is to to stay in touch and be doing activities with them be involved with our family and so many times we've we got away from that another thing is not just going to the races but you know you can look and hey as you said the groundhog didn't see a shadow so Springs coming early and what another thing besides racing season is that car show season oh yes I tell you people kind of chuckle because when my daughter was younger we would go to car shows and stuff and everyone you know she really I'm sure she'd rather be doing something else but really it was more about the time we spent together than it was looking at the cars I enjoyed it and I think she somewhat did but we were able to spend time together and and that's just an opportunity that that I think that that we let slip by because time we have I mean we can't we're not gonna get any of it back and those opportunities are there and as we get ready to kind of wrap things up a little bit Tim I just want you to just share one and I asked you about your your faith your walk faith and stuff how is God using you now oh he's using me every day every day I have I've been very blessed with what I do I might not be the best to shock you on the radio but I have he's he's helped me he's helped me through through the years and again everybody has a mouth and they need to use it and I like using mine because again I'll be glad to well I'm gonna say one thing a lot of people have a mouth and they shouldn't be using it that's true that's how we use it that's how we use it yes and again I don't mind with with not telling anybody my personal experience with God because again you know I had a young age and again I'm still walk with the Lord and and without him there is nothing and I keep saying that because that is the most one of my big saints without God there is nothing and I mean nothing you don't have nothing you know you just let God if you want God to come in your life all you got to do is pray the sinner's prayer that's all you got to do and find you a good church that's that's the key I think a lot of times we see movements of people accept Christ and you think you know that they don't get plugged into a church to kind of fill that void of that the life they're trying to walk away from it's usually going to fail you get around a lot of believers and believe me it will it will help your walk in and the walk of life and with God because again you just got to communicate with people and again you get the right person and again there's there's churches there's too many churches and it's crazy but thing about it is find one that you like well find one that you like but not necessarily one that fits right well when I say when it when I say fit I mean it needs to fit yeah but too many times we try to find a church that accepts too much and and tries and fits the right you know we need to find a church that is believes in God's Word yes that's preaching God's Word all 66 books not just few not just a little bit all 66 books because again that the Lord again the Bible was inspired by God not written inspired had he had he had people that that wrote this Bible and again there's different sure different translations and whatever but again you find something that is it's good and read it yeah my Bible is one size and it it's not a Bible that has pages tore out of it and I think too many churches do that where they try to water down the gospel and stuff all in the in the name of bringing people in you know one thing churches can I think we need to make sure that we change the packaging I always use the Wheaties commercial I mean how it is yeah you know over the years I mean the person on a Wheaties box from from from you know from Michael Jordan to Wilt Chamberlain to LeBron James to the latest athlete in football to Patrick Mahone whoever it may be that pack has changed because that makes people reach up there and take that box off the shelf right one thing that never changes is what's the content inside that box right now it has got less of it in there but the content doesn't change and that's sort of what what you know we need to make sure that you know we need to be entertaining and and inviting to people that don't know Jesus Christ to get him to come in and feel comfortable but never should we ever ever water down the gospel or change it to fit and then worry about numbers that point because the you know we need to make sure that we're we're firm in what God's Word says it's sort of like this Christian car guy radio so I'm going to use a Christian car a car out analogy right now okay back years ago when airbags got popular on cars and became mandated and stuff and airbags have always been very expensive well there was people who were rebuilding cars and stuff and putting them back on the market after accidents and stuff and they used to be able to buy a airbag that was not loaded and so you were driving around think you were protected in an accident you weren't protected sort of when you go to a church you're not hearing God's Word you think you're a protector think you're a Christian you're not protected the main thing is being in God's Word being firm knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and living it amen to that Jerry all right again great having you this morning Christian car guy radio and glad Tim was with us tomorrow morning get up find a church yeah and go to and before you go pray about it yeah pray about the church this is the truth network