Posts with the category “daily-devotions”

6 AM and the rain finally stopped. We walked over 7 miles yesterday and did not see a single fresh moose track. Bizarre. With 4 days left to hunt we'll need to break camp and move. We walked, we climbed, we sat still and glassed a big stretch of country. Though it's early, we may try calling moose today. Most often success requires perseverance. The same thing is true spiritually. After Jesus call...  Read More

5 AM- first morning in the woods in months. I am enjoying the gift of a 'dry camp.' Spending this time alone in the dark- reading my Bible by lantern light- is good for my soul. The quiet, is mesmerizing. Last night my son David commented that he couldn't believe how loud was the sound of a yellow leaf falling from a tree to the ground.We are so seldom "quiet' anymore. It's as though a whole new w...  Read More

Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Do you have a contentious spirit? Are you easily offended? Do you feel the need to argue and win? If any of those are true, you are missing out on a clearly stated blessing of God. Peacemakers do not insist on having their own way. Peacemakers are eager to compromise and are willing to surrender their rights. Peacemak...  Read More

Jesus wept. In a world that seems to become desperately more wicked by the day, so many things grieve the heart of our Savior. Christ-followers are mourning because of another mass shooting of Christian school children by another person who bought into the ridiculous 'boys can be girls and girls can be boys' ideology. It's simply another lie from the pit of hell intended to destroy people created ...  Read More

The Scripture says that "God disciplines those he loves." It also tells us that "no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful." Pain, though almost universally unpleasant, is a gift. It keeps us from resting our hand on a hot stove or further injuring a torn muscle. In that sense, pain protects us. When the Holy Spirit brings conviction about our sin, the emotional and spiritual pain and ...  Read More

God says in Jeremiah 29:13, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." There are many things in life that are worth 'finding.' At this very moment millions of people are seeking a good job, seeking a person to share life with, seeking the best medical care... and now... for the first time in many decades... an unprecedented number of young people are SEEKING a genuine rel...  Read More

Jesus said, "Come to ME all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Years ago I was coming off a mountain with a whole dall sheep in my pack- meat, hide and horns. I was side-hilling down a vertical slope- trying not to twist my ankles on rocks- attempting to get good footing with each step- but soon my muscles were so exhausted from the strain that my legs started...  Read More

Up at 4 AM and I feel a little bit like someone poured sand in my eyes. It's not unusual for me to be up this early, but last night I was up till after 1 AM doing things that needed to get done. Why? Because today we'll be driving about 500 miles round trip to check out a river. It might be a total bust, but then again, we might find a new place to hunt. We only have today. My friend flies out tom...  Read More

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is why there are 5 year-olds with greater wisdom than their grandparents. The ability to earn money is not wisdom. The ability to generate 'likes' and 'followers' is not wisdom. No person without Christ has ANY wisdom- none- zip- nada. Intelligence- yes. Great personalities- yes. Love for family- yes. Work ethic- yes. And yet, a rejection of Ch...  Read More

We call it 'instinct', but in truth, it's God-given patterns of behavior that are so miraculous that scientists simply apply a common term as the 'explanation'. Birds travel thousands of miles on their migration routes and often use the same nest year after year. Salmon travel those same thousands of miles to spawn in the exact river or stream where each individual fish came to life. Canadian scie...  Read More

For those who hunt off the road system in Alaska with ATV's, 'scouting' before the hunting season serves two main purposes. First, it tells you if there's any game in the area; and, second, it tells you the condition of the trail going in. In my experience, the trails most often fall into one of three categories: 'hard and occasionally dangerous', 'extremely hard and very dangerous', or, 'we can't...  Read More

Yesterday was a very typical from the standpoint of provision. I had salmon for lunch, moose for dinner and wild blueberries for dessert. Salmon and wild game has been my diet for decades. In fact, Laura and I never bought any kind of meat our first 11 years of marriage. We've been blessed to live on dall sheep, black bear, caribou, moose and salmon. For me, there is something intensely gratifying...  Read More

Rain turned me back again. Unless other people are counting on me, I seldom head out into the mountains when it's raining anymore. Don't misunderstond me- if I had a cabin or was coming back to my house, I would hunt all day in the rain. That doesn't bother me a bit. But to get drenching wet 'on my way' to hunt and then crawl into a tiny tent dripping wet (a small tent that got soaking wet when I ...  Read More

40° and rain- snow in the high mountains- welcome to August in Alaska. But when the sun comes out... oh, man... there is no more glorious place on Earth. Though God placed the life here, the battery- the engine that powers it all- is the sun. Yet even the sun has a power behind it. God created it. He spoke and the sun gave us light, He spoke and the sun was darkened, and He spoke and the sun stood...  Read More

Last time I forgot my rope and my saw and my shovel. Heading into Alaska's wilderness is not like hunting in any other place. Though it's August, you must be prepared for snow. You must be prepared for 40° and rain. You must be prepared to survive on your own in the wilderness, because you never know what you might encounter. Now- try to fit everything you'll need in a backpack, PUT ON the pack, a...  Read More

I am thankful for the opportunities God gives me to preach. But if my ONLY witness for him is preaching, I am missing out on what it means to truly be a follower of Christ. My goal is to be a witness EVERYWHERE to EVERYONE I encounter.'Religion' only meets on Sunday (and weddings and funerals). Relationships are the most vital part of daily life. In God we have a Father, Lord, Savior, Counselor, F...  Read More

Every muscle was taut- arms, shoulders, legs- as I continued to hold the machine 'almost' upright- 'almost' to the tipping point where it would land upright on its wheels. I was talking to God out loud the whole time. The machine was still idling, and I only had two options: 1) give up and let the machine settle back on its side under the mucky water; or, 2) gently feather the throttle in the hope...  Read More

If I relaxed for even a moment, the machine would be back on its side, half underwater, in a deep, ugly muckhole. My arms were stretched as high as I could reach and yet under the pressure of a significant amount of weight, but because I was standing nearly to my waist underwater in a deep rut, I wasn't quite tall enough to push it upright onto its wheels. What I needed was power outside of myself...  Read More

This was not life-or-death, but it was most definitely an emergency situation. My gun boot was under the sludgy water, my gas can was bobbing up-and-down in the water behind me,  and the only solution was for me to stand up a machine and gear that weighs well over 1,200 pounds. On my first attempt at lifting, the machine didn't even budge. I was asking, "Lord, help me. Help me. Help me, Jesus. Hel...  Read More

I was standing almost hip deep in the grey, muddy water- in the deepest part of the bog. My 1,200 pound ATV was laying on its side, half under water with the handlebars submerged somewhere around my knee level. My body was the only thing keeping it from rolling completely upside down. With 2 or 3 other guys to help, it would simply have been an ugly moment to laugh about, but by myself, it was a s...  Read More

I forgot rope and a tow strap. Hunting solo with an ATV requires thoughtful preparation. It is very common, especially when going through mucky terrain, to need far more than 50 feet of winch cable. Trees don't grow in the muckholes, and without another machine, trees are all you have for an 'anchor' to winch out. I usually have a tow strap and 100 feet of heavy rope. Because I didn't have those t...  Read More

The mountains are calling. Something about the wilderness stirs my soul. We were created to live in perfect harmony with the natural world. I'm already anticipating the mixture of scent coming from the. fireweed, spruce, and lush green. The stillness is only broken by songbirds, flowing water and the wind. Fall colors are full on at higher elevations- yellow, orange and red, with a massive carpet ...  Read More

During the summer a truck could drive on this trail, so I was leading the  heavy equipment in. We had to 'walk it in' (drive it) about 6 miles. Our piece of equipment was half off the trail with the right two wheels in a muckhole and perhaps 4 feet lower than the left two wheels (which were still on the trail). We brought along two heavy chains, but I did not believe that my truck could pull it ou...  Read More

It could have happened to anyone. It was just a tiny swerve to miss a pothole- to make the ride smoother- and two wheels of an 11,000 pound piece of heavy equipment were off the road and buried in a quagmire. 'Off the road' in a thousand other places wouldnt have been a problem. This was one of the very few 'soft spots' on a trail that was many miles long. The narrow strip of gravel was safe, but ...  Read More

I could clearly see two 'forks' on the young bull moose. This made him legal, and I almost pulled the trigger at 300 yards. I was calling him in by imitating a cow 'call' and a bull 'grunt.' I almost shot him at 200 yards. I almost shot him at 100 yards. It wasn't until he stepped out of the brush at 50 yards that I noticed a third tine on both antlers. This meant the bull was NOT legal. I almost ...  Read More

One of the differences between summer rain in Alaska and most other places is that our rain is cold. I don't mean 'refreshing' cold, I mean if you're out in the wilderness and are unprotected you could die of hypothermia. While the wild animals are seemingly comfortable in every kind of weather, you and I need to clothe ourselves properly. The same thing is true spiritually. Collossians 3:12 says,...  Read More

After three spectacular days, it's raining again. Water is life-giving. It's essential. There's nothing quite so peaceful as being next to a clear, trickling brook on a warm, sunny day. But water can also be dangerous, violent, contaminated- leading to death rather than to life. The Word of God is pure Living Water. It is both life-giving and life-sustaining. But if it is contaminated by false doc...  Read More

Alaska is a land of extremes. When I was younger I made many trips every summer down to the Russian River after working all day. It took several hours to get there so I would begin fishing a little before 10 PM, catch that day's limit, and then after midnight, catch the next day's limit and be back at work by 6 AM. We give time and energy to what we love, don't we? Like so many men, hunting and fi...  Read More

Though I was not yet excited about Alaska, I was thankful to finally be through with all of the continuous harassment and 'head games' that were part of basic training. I thought, "Now we'll finally be treated like men." Imagine my disappointment when at my first meeting with my Platoon Sergeant he lectured me for nearly 2 hours in what he called 'preventative counseling.' He had seen that I had a...  Read More

As I stood in formation at the end of Airborne School, the jumpmasters asked us if we wanted 'blood wings.' This is where they put your Airborne pin through your shirt with no back on the pin and then punch it into your chest. Obviously I said, "Yes," but those soldiers with a more delicate nature declined. Testosterone is a great thing. It's part of what it means to be 'man' created in the image ...  Read More

Jesus called out to some commercial fisherman, "Come! Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men!" At once they left their boats and nets and followed him. There is an important spiritual principle here. The very first time that these men encountered Jesus, they obeyed IMMEDIATELY. Isn't that interesting? They didn't say, "Talk to us when we're done with work." They didn't say, "We'll think abo...  Read More

The night before last, it rained like it doesn't rain in Alaska- literally 'buckets' of water falling from the sky. I thought, "We should have laid out the plan yesterday and painted parking lines at the new church." But two days ago the cars of our volunteers were in the way- the parking lot was full. Early yesterday morning the rain stopped and the parking lot dried off.True, it was a small thin...  Read More

It may not be true for you, but for me the hardest part about climbing a mountain is getting started. Just getting up early and putting on my climbing clothes is a victory, but it isn't a total victory. Many times I've dressed to climb and then not climbed. My second victory is simply getting TO the mountain. I must force my 'will' even when I don't feel like it. And then I have to start. Every si...  Read More

Crescendo is an interesting term. As the 'life' of something is being played out, it becomes more powerful, more energetic, more intense, more consuming... Fifteen years ago, the Lord laid it heavily upon my heart that we would one day plant a church in Anchorage- Alaska's largest and 'least churched' city. But I knew all along that this would not be a typical church plant. This would be a church ...  Read More

When I arrived at Airborne School, the first people I noticed were a soldier with one arm in a cast who was painting a building with his other hand, and a soldier with one leg in a cast who was hobbling along pushing a lawn mower. These men were 'recycles.' To graduate from Airborne School, you must complete five successful jumps in a row. If you are injured before jump five, you have two options:...  Read More

The first seven times that I ever flew on a large airplane I only landed twice. The other five times I jumped out of the open door of the plane. Airborne School was three weeks of highly intensive, highly professional training. Nearly 2 weeks was spent perfecting our 'PLF' (parachute landing fall). The objective was to get out of the plane quickly and to land safely. The infantry's small, round pa...  Read More

At the end of basic training, they were assigning us to our duty stations. We did not get to choose where we went, but were allowed to have a general 'wish' list. I was hoping to go somewhere in the south (where I could get a good tan) or overseas. They walked down the rows of soldiers, saying, "North Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas.... and then they came to me. They said,...  Read More

212 men lined up single file in front of the chow hall at meal times. The drill sergeants let in 10 soldiers at a time, and the rest had to do 15 push-ups before the next 10 entered. This was done very rapidly, but those at the end of the line had to do over 600 push-ups (after 2 hours of sit-ups and push-ups) before they got their breakfast. We were then given two minutes to eat and were required...  Read More

And just like that, my Montana life was over. I went to Minnesota to spend Christmas with family, and then headed to Fort Benning, Georgia, for infantry basic training. In those days, there was no separation between basic training and Advanced Infantry Training (AIT), so we had 13 continuous weeks of torture. At 25 years old, I was one of the oldest in my company of 212 soldiers. Life consisted of...  Read More

It was late November and the final day of the deer season. I never had filled my buck tag. I borrowed my friends .222 and went into the foothills of the Snowy Mountains to try to call in a fox or coyote. It was −23° and snowing. That temperature was extremely cold for late November, and it was even more unusual that it was snowing at the time. I was wearing insulated coverals over a heavy hooded p...  Read More