Work has been pretty busy as we have had weekend retreats here at the camp since the new year, but this week I speak at our first dinner of the year finally. We have been anticipating this for quite awhile. On Wednesday we are at Sister Lakes Community Church in Dowagiac, MI. and we will have the opportunity to share our story and challenge men to take a stand for God.
As I have been reviewing my "message" for these guys I am reminded of my first challenge…"Stay in the Stand". These were some of the instructions my father game me on my first deer hunt. He knew the elements were going to get bad. He knew this young boy was going to get tired and cold. He knew I was going to want to get down and walk around to get warm. He also knew that climbing down may mean a missed opportunity.
Life Tip: It is getting harder and harder for Christians in our culture today. The opposition of our faith grows stronger and stronger. Christians are being labeled prejudice and haters simply for teaching the truth of the Bible. Yet, we MUST stay in the stand! We cannot water down the truth in an attempt to make sure we are known as love. If I am sharing the truth of someones current situation in sin as an attempt for them to recognize it and repent but they think I hate them, who is truly showing love here? Am I not showing love even though they don't percieve it as such? I fear that in an attempt to " be peaceful", to "love the sinner hate the sin", we are being bulldozed by the sinful "culture" and Satan who even today is seeking to destroy the Name of Jesus.
John 15:18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
Stay in the Stand!
Field Tip: Some of the best time to stay in the stand is when you feel like getting out. If you know you are hunting an area that has other hunting pressure on it that particular day this is especially true. When that lunch bell is ringing in your mind in the late hours of the morning it's doing the same thing in the minds of other hunters. This is a great time to stay in the stand because as other hunter work their way out of the woods for lunch the deer can be pushed to you. If I don't plan to hunt all day I will stay put at least till 1pm or 2pm.
