Free at The Cross

Fishing was good I think we caught 8 or 10. All three kids are now tying flies and doing great.
Have you ever felt over whelmed? I am there. The world is going at break neck speed and I am standing still. There are folks losing their jobs, trucks with blown motors, kids that are in the hospital and folks that won’t take responsibility. I often feel caught in the middle. I find it interesting that the world and more so your own world tends to get roiled up by the wake of sin. All of the sudden you look around and where you are fishing in your own stream the water is all muddy and it was clear just a moment before. You look around and notice that someone else in the past has made a bad decision or maybe a lifetime of bad decisions and it has finally made it into your stream. Now the fishing is lousy and the rivers eco-system and the watershed down stream are in jeopardy. How do we combat this? I don’t know other than to get help. Forget the past and I mean forget it. Don’t repeat it. Your help should come from those around you, a friend, your spouse, your pastor or a counselor. The past has left a wake in all of our lives but Christ has called us to a new life, a more abundant life. It is our choice. We can pick up our cross and carry it into a more abundant life or we can sit there and continue to look behind us at the cross and wonder why we never move forward. Moreover we must put ourselves in the proper place with Christ. As I sit here writing this I realize that I have fallen short of this, I have not picked up the cross and moved forward. Christ is first and I am not. I have for years either buried the past hurts or allowed them to creep in and pop up at the most inopportune times. The past is put to death on the cross just as Christ was, that is why he died. He died that we may be free of the past and free of future sin. I encourage you tomorrow to nail the past to the cross and set your self free just like He set you free 2000 years ago. You are free and that freedom is yours to claim. I will claim it tomorrow. I know that this is a convoluted mess in some ways, but it the best I can do to explain all that is happening in my world.

“Ferocious Love” & "Dad this has been the best day ever"

Fishing report; we will fish this week hopefully the weather is warming up. I checked out a new stretch of water yesterday with the family (see pics with this post).
Here are some random things for you to think about, because this is what I have been thinking about lately. First off, a friend of mine loaned me his truck this week he is out of town and my truck (from here forward referred to as the Schooner) is in the shop, a bad manifold gasket is a bad thing. This is such a blessing to my family and helps us to better handle the week. God’s provision is great. Anyway back to the story, I climb into the truck this morning to drive to work and the CD player popped on. The CD in the player was from another friend of mine Nathan Shaver, what a powerful CD. One song in particular stands out in my mind. The open lyric contains the words “Ferocious Love” describing how God loves us, never have truer words been spoken, He loves us with and unending jealous love and he defends us to the end. Thanks Nathan for reminding me of this and by the way what a great album. Second thought as of late, yesterday my family and I check out a stretch of water in Western Indiana. After hiking and exploring this particular drainage we walked back to the car set the coolers out and popped the back door on the wagon and had a picnic dinner. My daughter looked at me and said “Dad this has been the best day ever, we got to go to church this morning, I got to do my homework and then we went on a hike and picnic”. Man it doesn’t get better than that. No screens, beeps or ear buds, just creation in its entire splendor. God tells us in Thessalonians we should live a quiet life and I tasted that yesterday. Thanks to a loving family we wiped Saturday off the books (Saturday did not go as planned just busy and not very relaxing for me). It reminded me of a scene from “A River Runs through It” when the brothers take Neal the future brother-in-law fishing and they only catch 1 small trout. Paul looks at Norman and says lets fish with dad this weekend and wipe this day off the books. By God’s grace I was able to experience the wiping away of a bad day and it being replaced with a day full of memories and smiles. I guess that is just a picture of God’s grace in a small way. This is the big picture of grace my sins were wiped away and replace with purity and life, what a great relief it is to have a life of shame and sin wiped off the books. That is it for now but there is more to come in the near future like why bees are a good example of the life we should lead. See ya.

Get Ready

Fishing Report: things are looking up it is 70 out and the bees are flying. I better hit the water.
Not a lot to write about today other than God is good! We have resolution to a 10 and a half-year issue with our property. Wow what a blessing. There are so many blessing I have experienced lately or maybe I am just noticing them more. I am as a friend put it a salmon swimming up stream. God is providing for us in ways I never imagined, our marriage is new and fresh almost as if it woke from a deep sleep. Much like the spring is starting so is the next volume of our life on the Big Walnut. We are gearing up for a huge garden, chickens, and a summer of camping and fishing.
I find that we are acting much like my great-grandparents must have acted in the late 20s and 30s. We are being prepared for what life may bring. We will garden, and keep chickens to start. We are concentrating on the family and those that are close around us building our relationships deeper and getting to know those who we are living life with. This time in our lives that everything seems to be in upheaval is I believe God’s way of bringing us back to where we should be. We have gotten derailed along the way by every form of diversion. No diversions here at least not to the extent that it is hurting our relationship.
So get prepared and get to know those you love and those that are around you. The times are changing you better be ready. You will need those that are near and they will need you.