Ring in the New Year Right!

The new year is right around the corner! Do you set goals make resolutions? You should, it is always a good thing to try and improve yourself. I am going to try and lose a little weight as well as do some volunteering in the community. Did you know that there are many people (adults and children) that are hungry in your community? There are many kids around you all the time that would love for someone to take them fishing or hunting. Why not start there? Contact your local boys and girls club, or your local mission and give back something to your community. We desire to live in a neighborhood that is loving and safe, but yet so many of us do nothing to make it that way. Johnny Hunt said it best by saying, "The future of America doesn't depend on the right man in the White House, it depends on the right men in our homes." Are you sitting back and waiting for the government to clean up your community or are you willing to get your hands dirty and make a difference your self. We as Christians have responsibilities to make a difference in this world, to an example in our work place, in our homes, and in our community. Are you a good example? This means that you don't just go to Sunday morning church service and then live like the world the rest of the week. Knowing God demands a reaction, it demands that you are different. Christ Jesus says " You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit." (Matt 7:16-17) Do people know you to be a Christian by the way you act (your fruit) or do they just know you go to church somewhere? Get involved in your community this year, make a difference! May the Lord strengthen you and guide you through this new year!

Charlie Brown Christmas

Charlie Brown Christmas

Keep CHRIST in CHRISTmas

Well it is that time of the year once more, a time filled with wrapping presents, cooking ham, spending time with family and friends, and of course celebrating the birth of our King, Jesus Christ. As I prepare to face the hustle and bustle of holiday crowds, over priced toys and complaining family I remind myself the true meaning of CHRISTmas. My boys are all growing up and enjoy watching the cartoon "Christmas Specials" and most of them are classics that I watched as a boy, and one of those cartoons was the holiday classic "Charlie Browns Christmas." I hope you all realize the true meaning of Christmas. Enjoy and God Bless.

Thank You Lord

It's that time of year again, a time to gather with family and friends and enjoy good food and great fellowship. I have been in the woods a lot lately chasing that big deer, and I have realized that it does not matter if I kill that big deer but what does matter is what God gives me. Do I thank Him enough for all the blessing that he continues to pour out on my life? My wife is pregnant with our 4th child, our 4th boy! What a blessing! Psalm 100:3-5 says "Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his, we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, bless his name! For the Lord is good his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
This holiday season thank God for the gifts in your life, your spouse, your kids, your friends, health, job, home, everything you have been blessed with. Keep chasin that big one but remember to enjoy the woods and time God has given you. Thank you Lord for the memories made in the woods!

Missed Opportunity

The alarm clock rang off at 5:30am and I quickly turned it off, before I woke up the wife and kids. I got dressed into my camo and walked outside, it was the opening week of muzzle loader season and the temp and dropped. I got settled into my deer stand and before long I heard the sound of a buck "grunting" in the woods beside me. Well I never did see any deer, but my wife sent me a message saying "there are three deer in the back yard" (go figure). Well that evening in was still very cool and rainy so I decided to go back to the stand early. After settling in and plugging a few holes in the leaky roof, I spotted to deer walking my way. I decided to let them go on because it was early and I had the feeling that a "big boy" may show up. Well an hour or so later I saw two more big does coming down. After the deer had feed and left to woods got very still. As the sun went down and the woods turned that grayish dark I noticed a deer heading my way! I got the gun up and looked down the scope and it was a good buck! I guess I got "buck fever" and missed the shot. Oh I was and am so depressed about the missed opportunity I had. It reminded me of Galatians 6:9-10 Paul says " let us not grow weary while doing good for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith." You see we all have opportunities to do good things for people, helping a neighbor pay a light bill, letting someone in front of us at the grocery store, telling a coworker about Christ. Paul ends his letter to the Galatians with this "And as many walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen." (6:16-18)

A light in the darkness!

What a time it is to search for a tree stand in the total darkness! I have struggled so many times in the dark, looking for stuff! Do you know that this world is darkness? If you do not have the light of Jesus Christ you are struggling in the darkness. John writes and says "God is light; in him there is no darkness, at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:5b-7).

Missing the Mark!

As bow season slowly approaches I have been busy shooting my bow and making sure it is shooting smoothly. After missing two different deer last year I needed to rebuild my confidence, and over the last couple of weeks I have realized that I am not always going to hit the bulls eye. So it is the same in our spiritual life! As we go about our daily life we will "miss the mark", none of us can live up to God's standards but we can try. The Apostle Paul says in Romans that "we all fall short of the glory of God" and later in Philippians he adds "Not that I have already attained or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3:12-16) Paul is basically saying "hey I know that I sin, and I know that I will always miss the mark, but I will not lay in my self pity looking at my past sins, I am going to press forward because I live for Christ." So as I said earlier I am not always going to hit the bulls eye, but I will keep shooting! The grace of our risen King Jesus be with you all!