Posts with the category “daily-devotions”

The high plateau that borders Montana's Missouri Breaks looks flat and lifeless. Sagebrush and tired looking soil called 'gumbo' go on for mile after mile. That's at first glance. In truth, the country is rich with game. Antelope herds thrive on the plains and small draws called 'coulees' offer shade to deer and elk during the heat of the day. I was hunting deer by myself, walking those draws and ...  Read More

And so we passed on the buck of a lifetime and made our way in silence down to the truck. I was not a Christian then, and I said in a moment of honesty, "Doug, if you hadn't been here I would have shot that buck." He grinned and said, "If you hadn't been here, I would've shot that buck." Though we would never have gotten caught, accountability kept us legal. Face it, we are all sinners. Having bro...  Read More

We stood motionless on the steep, snowy mountainside, senses on high alert. We were hunting elk, and a deep, musky scent told us that an animal was very close. The sun was just going down as we saw the tips of very large antlers not 30 yards beneath us. The animal was still hidden by a small knoll, but as he moved our way, we saw long tines and a wide spread. We already had our rifles up when he s...  Read More

I couldn't get my frozen fingers to work. My partner loaded my rifle and zipped up my coat. There was a foot of fresh snow on the ground, and we were at the bottom of a steep ridge. I started climbing immediately. Ten minutes later, part way up the ridge, I was warm and toasty and felt fine for the first time in many hours. We walked all day and saw nothing but an occasional track in the snow. We ...  Read More

My body hurt. I was in significant pain and could not stop shivering. My hunting partner was breathing peacefully beside me in his goose down sleeping bag. I simply suffered minute after minute as the hours slowly dragged into morning. When we ran out of propane for the heater, we closed the side windows of the topper on my pickup to try to retain heat, but we could not keep out the bitter cold. D...  Read More

It was my first hunt in Montana's Crazy Mountains. My 'guide' and hunting partner was Doug Bingeman, the science teacher in Moore, Montana. I taught elementary school there. We decided to take my truck because I had a topper on it and had cut out a foam pad and carpet so that I could sleep in the back. It was mid-November, long after dark and bitterly cold as we opened the side windows of the topp...  Read More

The cold snap continues with the temperature in the single digits. I saw a crew working on a metal building yesterday. I've worked construction in these temperatures. It's impossible to keep your fingers warm. You lose dexterity- even the ability to pick up a nail or a screw. Everything becomes more difficult. This same truth applies to those who are spiritually cold. Believe me, I've been there. ...  Read More

"Are you guys awake?" My hunting partner and I had taken an older teen on a hunting excursion up the Snow River past the glacier. We had three small 'solo' tents pitched about 20 yards apart. As some of you know, camping out in country that is full of bears can be interesting. At times your imagination can run wild. My buddy and I were used to this and did not realize that our teenage companion wa...  Read More

Clear skies, stars and a quarter moon. My phone says 11 degrees but it's colder than that here. Something inside me has been rebelling against climbing. Perhaps it's jet lag or recovering from two busy weeks of work and travel. Sometimes I need to remind myself that Jesus rested. I often feel guilty when I'm not busy. God created our bodies to be very active, but think of this: He created us to ne...  Read More

I had this trip planned for months. Even so, 3 of my 4 flights were canceled. They swapped my aisle seat in row 7 for 31F. My 5 hour drive to Atlanta included coming to a complete stop three times on the Interstate. I learned long ago that if I am doing all that I can to move forward, then I just need to let the day unfold. Impatience solves nothing. It's like the person who said, "If you allow th...  Read More

I had taken my first two bears in the same week, but I had never yet eaten bear. Laura did not even want me to cook it in her kitchen. I was working for minimum wage and she was working part-time, so we were living on an extremely tight budget. I put a roast in the crock pot on Sunday morning, which she only allowed on the condition that if we didn't like it I would take her out to lunch. We were ...  Read More

By the time I skinned my bear, boned out the meat and packed it out of the mountains, it was after midnight. As I pulled into our apartment in Chugiak, I was excited to show Laura my bear. We had been married 8 months and she did not grow up in a hunting family. We lived upstairs in a 4-plex with thin walls, so I was being as quiet as I could. It turns out that Laura was sleeping. When I turned on...  Read More

I followed the bear into the heavy brush- bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. There was no blood. Again and again I circled, but there was no sign of any kind. Finally, I went back to my tree. I thought, "Where would I have run if I was a bear?" The answer was the exact opposite of where I had seen him run. It was up a narrow draw into the mountains. As a last resort I decided to simply wal...  Read More

I didn't see anything in my bear stand again that night. When I call it a tree 'stand' understand something- there was no seat, only a platform for my feet. I had to literally stand all of those hours every night I hunted. For weeks the only animals I had seen were squirrels. I headed out again the next night and climbed up my tree. After several hours I caught a glimpse of movement, and then I sa...  Read More

When I got back home with my cinnamon colored black bear I immediately grabbed my bow and went into the mountains to hunt from my stand. In over 3 weeks nothing had come in, but I remained hopeful. As I drew near I was shocked to discover someone up my tree and in my stand. This stand was hidden and far off trail. I could not imagine anyone 'stumbling' upon it. Then my shock increased. It was one ...  Read More

Though this was my first bear, I had been sure it was a black bear when I shot it. I decided to take it to Fish and Game in Glennallen. Either bear was legal for me to take, but I was only allowed one grizzly bear every 4 years, so I needed to know for sure. When I explained to the 2 wildlife biologists that I shot a bear and wasn't sure if it was a black bear or a grizzly bear, they both rolled t...  Read More

Though nothing was coming into my bear stand, I made the drive and hike into the mountains night after night for several weeks. I continued practicing with my bow and was confident that if I was given the opportunity I could make a good shot. I had been out of the army for about 4 months, and Laura and I had the opportunity to go to Glennallen and Kenny Lake to officially accept our first teaching...  Read More

When Laura and I were first married I decided I was going to hunt black bear with a bow and arrow. My Hoyt compound bow was the first quality piece of hunting gear I'd ever purchased. I had met 2 guys at the archery club who also wanted to hunt. We made a good plan. We decided to set up 3 stands in different locations and then we would take turns hunting whichever stand had bears coming in. In tho...  Read More

For many years I have found that 'getting' in shape and 'staying' in shape do not come automatically. More than that, both are in many ways unpleasant. What I want NOW is a terrible master. What I want NOW is to eat more than I should and exercise less than I should. Our physical bodies make wonderful servants, but when allowed to lead, they soon become tyrants and dictators, don't they? So here i...  Read More

All of humanity once had one language. For any kind of relationship to exist, there must be communication. For people to work effectively and in unity, there must be communication. So why did God confuse mankind's language? Why did he- in a moment in time- separate people by language groups? Ultimately, it was because of the sin of PRIDE. It was not by mistake that Satan named one of his great mov...  Read More

Did you know that God has called you to LEAD others? Too often Christians feel almost as though they need to apologize for their faith and convictions rather than using those opportunities to encourage others and point them to Christ. As literal sons and daughters of the King (not some temporary earthly king, but the TRUE KING), we need to embrace our position- our standing- in this world. When Ki...  Read More

I didn't have a deadline. There was no pressing matter involved. I was a little impatient, but it wasn't directed toward anyone or causing me to have a bad attitude. But it impacted my judgement. It caused me to move forward when wisdom would have waited. And it cost me. Not in a life-changing way, but certainly in a way that I could feel the pain. Have you ever moved forward when you knew that yo...  Read More

I saw 2 photographs yesterday- one of Laura's dad when he was 3 or 4 years old, and another of her mom and dad when they just started dating. We live in the present. God is not constrained by time. When he looks at you, he sees that little girl who loved to twirl, that little boy who dressed up like a cowboy. He sees you as you were learning to read and to write. He remembers every accomplishment-...  Read More

The complexity and beauty of the created world never ceases to amaze me. The Great Smoky Mountains were bursting with fall colors as we drove narrow, winding roads to Gatlinburg. We had the added pleasure of seeing a black bear and two wild turkeys on the drive. The 6 kids (ages 3-9) were mesmerized at a beautiful aquarium for more than 2 hours. Even at my age I saw a number of creatures I could n...  Read More

Our luggage came off the carousel one piece every 10 to 15 seconds. We stood for almost an hour and a half, and when we left probably 3/4 of the plane had not yet received theirs. Two very long phone calls during our layover held my rent a car reservation for 24 hours... they said. But that was not the case. Somehow the message never made it from Thrifty corporate offices to the desk in Atlanta. A...  Read More

Mmmm. Morning again. What did I say about travel? Sixteen to twenty hours one way? We're 28 hours and counting. If all goes well, about four more should do it. But- I shared Jesus with a server from Mexico, with a couple on their way to Kona for vacation., and with a man standing in line next to me. I shared my testimony and the gospel with a gold miner on his way home to Nevada, and got to know a...  Read More

Travel' means something different for those in Alaska. Airplanes are a necessity, but even then travel is often long, difficult  and expensive.  When you add weather delays and 'bad service' delays we often have 12 to 20 hours on a single one way trip. But... it's a lot faster than a ship or a horse or a covered wagon. I need to remind myself that travel is not simply about the destination, it's a...  Read More

Snow. It had to come sooner or later. I look out my window and see a covering of white. Everything is fresh and clean and beautiful. Isaiah 1:18 says, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Snow is a beautiful reminder that God forgives- that he's always willing to make us clean- to give us a fresh start, a new beginning. Come to him with your sins- be open and honest...  Read More

In Matthew 7:15 Jesus said, "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves." 2 Peter 2 warns us that there will be false teachers among us. There are Christians with whom I strongly disagree on points of doctrine yet I know they are brothers in Christ. Being a 'wrong' teacher is very different from being a 'false' teacher. To be a 'false ...  Read More

Jesus once said to the disciples, "I have food to eat that you know nothing of," and then, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." There was a 'food' that his disciples didn't understand- a filling that nourished the soul. Jesus was giving hope to a foreign woman who  was in the middle of a tragically disappointing life. Some things are not only more important than o...  Read More

Even though I had a cast on my leg, I had a 12 gauge and a 30.06 in my truck, with my bird dog 'Tucker' sitting on the front seat beside me. It was winter, the temperature was below zero, and there was at least 3 feet of a soft snow on the ground. I was driving the road looking for ptarmigan, grouse, fox or wolves north of Paxson, Alaska. I parked my truck at the base of a high ridge, looked up, a...  Read More

As a young man I was utterly directionless. I lived as though the world revolved around me. I was concerned with my immediate pleasure and honestly never even considered a future responsibility to earn a living or care for a family. When you live that way (as though everything is about you) it's impossible to move forward. You stand still- the world is spinning- and eventually you begin to sink. M...  Read More

I once read that Mark Twain said, "The boy who picks up a cat by the tail learns a lesson he can learn in no other way." As funny as the thought is, it would actually benefit us if all of life's lessons could be learned that quickly. That boy would go from mischief to an immediate and overwhelming FEAR along with PAIN and perhaps a few SCARS. From this moment forward, that boy will have a reverent...  Read More

We'd spent long, hard days with little sleep. Our feet and bodies were battered and sore. The hunt was over, but we still had a lot of work to do. Gear had to be cleaned and dried, the tents needed to be pitched so they could dry out before storing, and bloody backpacks needed to be disassembled and washed. Our sheep meat needed to be cut up, wrapped and put in the freezer. Rifles needed to be cle...  Read More

The next morning, we followed the small stream down until we found our packs. By the time we broke down our spike camp and carried that and our sheep up to our main camp, hours of hard labor were behind us. But we weren't finished yet. We were on a brutal, bone-jarring trail with the ATV's heavily loaded- often off-balance and in danger of tipping. There was a good deal of winching, lifting, pushi...  Read More

We had a good idea of where to find our tent. But by the time we stumbled across it in the dark, it was 1:20 AM. This had been a very long day. We were soaked with rain on the outside and drenched with sweat underneath. My feet were raw, and as I crouched to get into my tent I wasn't sure if my shoulders, hips or legs hurt worse.But on the inside I was smiling. We had two rams. This had been a gre...  Read More

By the time we spotted our rams, climbed up to them, and finally had all the meat and horns and capes packed, it was somewhere between 10 and 11 PM. By the time we got off the mountain and then down the valley to the end of the ridge, it was after midnight. It was dark, we had no flashlight or headlamps, and we knew that we might have problems finding our tent in the next valley. We dropped our pa...  Read More

There were two big rams. We took careful aim, quietly counted to three and fired. We cringed as we watched the rams fall through the air for perhaps a 100 feet, land, tumble and freefall again. Everything happened so quickly that we didn't even consider the cliffs beneath us. Believe me, we considered them now. We had no way to drop off this ridgeline to our sheep at any point. We would have to fo...  Read More

As we continued to sidehill in the shale just beneath the clouds, the ridgeline above us got closer and closer as it 'ramped' lower and lower in elevation. While there was zero visibility in the clouds, there was perfect visibility just beneath them. We hated walking in this direction because the eight rams we were after had disappeared over the saddle behind us the day before. We finally reached ...  Read More

We stood in the deep fog having a quiet conversation. If we moved forward and the rams were near us, there was a good chance we'd scare them completely out of the country. It was a chance we weren't willing to take. We decided to lose elevation to get under the fog, so we side-hilled through rock and shale to a lower ridgeline. We were literally walking just under a thick canopy of clouds. Sometim...  Read More