Back in August, I wrote about my troubles with my Honda Accord. While I was on a road trip to speak at a missions conference, the transmission quit working, and I had to have the car hauled the two and a half hours back to Tulsa. A small repair was made, and I was back on the road.

Two months later, I was driving around one day and felt the familiar slipping of the gears. I knew what was coming next, so I pointed my car toward the transmission repair shop. Half a block away, my transmission went out completely, but I had enough speed to coast the last hundred feet into the mechanic’s shop. What are the odds?

The small repair was an attempt to keep me from having to spend a lot of money on a major repair, but sooner or later, as my granddad would say, “It gave up the ghost.” The transmission was pronounced dead upon arrival.

 Now, I have a problem. To rebuild the transmission would cost more than my car is worth, but without a transmission, my car is worth nothing. So my dilemma is whether to find a junkyard transmission and hope it will work or donate the car to a nonprofit organization.

I am not a mechanic, but I am the son of a mechanic. So I thought I would post my problem on Facebook and see if any of my mechanic-type friends might have another suggestion. Little did I know that my mechanic friends were comedians first and mechanics second.

These wise counselors suggested I needed to search the Scriptures. They even pointed out that if I wanted to keep in line with the New Testament, I should keep my Honda Accord. This was the vehicle the disciples used to carpool when they went to the temple and on Monday night visitation: “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house” (Acts 2:46a, NKJV).

And the disciples were able to do much ministry because of their Honda. “At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord …” (Acts 5:12, NASB).

Some biblical scholars insist that Jesus drove a Honda but didn’t like to talk about it. As proof, they cite a verse in John’s Gospel where Christ tells the crowd, “For I did not speak of my own accord”(John 12:49a, NIV 1984).

Even the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church suggesting they not let their Liberty Jeep get in the way of their witness. “But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak” (1 Cor. 8:9, NASB).

Some of my mechanic friends went on to suggest I search the Old Testament to find answers to my predicament. They first suggested that God favored Dodge pickup trucks because Moses’ followers were warned to go up a mountain “only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast” (Ex. 19:13b, NIV).

Joshua also drove a Dodge Ram pickup to bring down the walls of Jericho: “It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead” (Josh. 6:5, NASB).

But in Psalm 83:15 (NASB), the Almighty clearly owns a Pontiac Tempest and a Geo Storm. The passage urges the Lord, “So pursue them with Your tempest And terrify them with Your storm.”

I know that my friends had good intentions and wanted to bring a smile to me face during this difficult time, and they did. But their many suggestions give me an opportunity to remind you that from the very beginning, Satan took God’s Word and twisted it to fit his own needs. You can take Scriptures and make them say what you want them to say. That is why we need to carefully search, study and seek the truth, so we can know what God is saying to us. Romans 12:2 (NIV) tells us, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.” To all of my mechanic friends: I know you will find this disheartening, but WWJD does not stand for “What Would Jesus Drive.”  If you keep on misrepresenting the Scriptures, you might find yourself in John the Baptist’s Dodge. Remember? “I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist”(Mark 6:25b, KJV).