Amoung the Giants

My friend Ken and I recently hunted deer in the Lightning Creek Drainage north of Clark Fork, Idaho. This area was just opened to vehicle travel after being closed for years due to heavy destruction to the landscape after torrential rains fell. Lightning Creek is the wettest drainage in Idaho and has experienced flooding and mass washouts in the past. This generous precipitation lets trees grow old and get very large.

Ken was amazed at the size of the cedar trees; many over six feet in diameter. It was like walking in a garden of giants and we were the ants. We were in awe and realized they had been created by a wondrous God. Looking up at these giant trees is like gazing at night into the heavens and sensing how small we are. We were created by a God who knows no boundaries; His universe is endless.

I believe God didn’t make us to think small, that comes from Satan. God created us to serve Him and help others. Ed Silvoso wrote a book called Transformation which challenges us to take the principles Jesus taught and change the world. I recommend people read it especially in a group so it can be discussed. The principles that Mr. Silvoso writes about could transform lives, wipe out poverty, and change the world. It would put Satan out of business in trade and nations economies. It is already happening around the world, we just don’t hear about it on the nightly news.

What if we let God run our businesses, schools, and government? It would have a profound difference in people’s lives. First we need to humble ourselves before God, make him our partner in all aspects of life. He can run things much better than we can ever imagine. God can grow us like the big cedar trees in Lightning Creek; strong, deep rooted, and reaching toward the heavens.

We only have four days left in the rifle deer season and so far the deer have won. Ardella nearly got run over last Sunday afternoon by a doe that came running down the trail and decided to veer off right by her. She is going shopping tomorrow with the daughters and grand daughters. I told her tonight that a bad day of hunting is better than a good day shopping.

Ardella and I hope you had a great Thanksgiving Day.

Kissing a Mule

Ardella was gone for three days to a sewing retreat with some friends so I explored the wild side on Friday with a gal that has big brown eyes with dark eye lashes named Blanche. Blanche also has long legs and large ears. I guess I forgot to say she is a mule that my friend Ken owns. Blanche was very pleasant to ride and taught me a few things. Ken rode his horse Firecracker and we spent the day looking for deer as a light snow fell on the mountains. I have hunted for about forty years but Friday was the first time I ever rode a mule to hunt. The deer were not cooperative but spending a day with a friend in God’s creation is always great.

Blanche taught me that God made mules quite intelligent. I tied her to a tree with a slip knot for two hours while we hunted a short distance away only to come back and discover that Blanche untied the knot. She was grazing about sixty yards away and I’m sure Firecracker tried to tell her to untie him too. Sometimes Blanche would stop and I could tell she was trying to figure something out. We were going up an old road with Ken and Firecracker in the lead when Blanche stopped suddenly. She would not move even though her friend Firecracker was leaving her. I looked around and could not see anything unusual but I knew Blanche wanted me to find something. I looked down by her feet to see a large foot print in the snow. It had been made by a wolf that morning. Even though Blanche has never encountered a wolf she knew danger had been there.

God placed the intelligence in animals to sense unseen danger yet we humans often miss it. We downplay Satan’s influence on our lives and many don’t even believe in him. We don’t need to fear him because of Jesus but we do need to recognize Satan is like a roaring lion trying to distance us from God. One of his biggest lies is that God doesn’t care about us. Like the wolf track that had just enough snow in it so the print was hard to see; Satan covers up things to trick us. He uses guilt, ways of the world, and compromise to make sin appealing. Only by putting our faith in Jesus and what He did on the cross can we destroy Satan’s power over us.

If you haven’t put your faith In Jesus, please do it today. Read Matthew 6:25 through 34 to find out how much God loves you. He will take care of you.

Thanks Blanche for teaching me an important lesson about God. When we got back to Ken’s place and were taking the saddles off the animals, Ken said I should give Blanche a kiss on the lips to show her how much I appreciated her hauling me around all day. I had a headlight on my cap and as I went to plant one on her brown muzzle she pulled back until I turned the light off. Then she let me kiss her. I didn’t know mules could be shy about a little kiss.

Roll Call

Last week the nation was stunned by the senseless shootings at Fort Hood that left thirteen dead and twenty nine wounded at the hands of a man derailed by a vicious ideology. My prayers are with those families that at this time they will turn to God for peace and closure. Some may be mad at God and He understands their anger through the grief of the loss they have experienced.

Ardella and I watched some of the memorial service which was very moving. At the end of the memorial a Sergeant Major gave a roll call. He would announce a name waiting for a response. A soldier would yell back, “Here Sergeant Major.” Then He would call out another name waiting for a response that never came; the name of a fallen patriot. This scenario repeated until all the names were announced. It was a reminder how fragile life is.

Christ will come back at the end of the age and announce a roll call. Not everyone will be called; only those who claim Jesus as Lord and Savoir. Many will not hear their name because they rejected Him. Will your name be called? This roll call could occur any moment or it could be years away but that doesn’t matter. Be prepared! Just leading a good life won’t get your name on the list. We all fall short of the Glory of God.

The process to hearing your name called is actually very simple. Go to God and ask forgiveness for your sins. Make Jesus your Lord and Savoir. You are washed clean by His blood spilled on the cross. He took on the sins of the whole world so Jesus is able to handle yours too. Find another devoted follower to help you grow. Read the Bible and ask God for His wisdom in your life. He will change you!

Don’t delay this life changing chance. Jesus could come back tomorrow and give a roll call. Will you hear your name?

Twice Blessed

We felt blessed when Ardella’s elk appeared out of no where; the first elk we saw in the clear cut all fall. On Sunday the 25th we were blessed twice. After leaving Ardella to watch an area that contained fresh deer tracks, I headed over the hill to explore a small part of the clear cut that we can’t see from where we normally stand. It over looks dark timber with a creek meandering along the border of the recent logged area. We have taken deer here before but never any elk. I just had a strong feeling that I was going to see an elk. I remember praying to God about several things and asking for an elk to come out; then I settled back to watch and listen to nature. Some wolves howled in the distance, squirrels busied themselves gathering food for winter, and a pileated woodpecker chattered as it pounded on a dead tree. About five o’clock a bull elk emerged from the creek bottom and ran like a race horse along the dark timber and disappeared. I moved about thirty yards and peered around a tree and could see him standing about two hundred yards away. Then just like that he was gone. I went back and got my pack and slowly started walking through the clear cut when I heard him calling about three hundred yards to my left. There he was on a hillside and I knew I had to shoot or the bull would be gone for good. I raised my Ruger 7mm magnum and fired and missed. The second shot missed but he still stood there. I shot a third and fourth time and the bull went down. On the third shot I asked God for some help. When I dressed the bull out I found out the third and fourth bullets were both killing shots.

I not only believe that God answered my prayer but helped with the shooting. Now why would He do that? Because God cares about every aspect of our lives; even the small ones. God wants to be involved in all of our life; He is a relationship God. He sent his Son to earth to die on a cross for all of our sins. We have the opportunity to bury all past sins with Jesus’ victory, yet too many people don’t believe in God’s redeeming grace.

When I include God in my life, things go much better. Satan likes us to go it alone and distance ourselves from God. He is the one who puts the thinking into our head that God doesn’t care. God does care about us; He calls us to fellowship with Him daily. Remember God is the awesome Creator of everything but He is also our Daddy.

So what would Ardella and I do with two elk? We had the family come over to help cut and wrap the meat and then divided it between Connie and Thane and Jolene and Vance. We thank God for the provision of food to feed our families this winter.