“1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God, 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”

- Psalm 42:1-2 NKJV

As I was sit here this morning  the Lord brought this question to my mind, “Are you thirsting after me as the deer pant for the water?”

Boy this was a question that gave me the dead deer in the headlights look. Why? Because I had to answer this question that the Lord asked me in a truthful manner. “Yes, Lord I do thirst after you. But I have to be honest I could thirst some more.”

Then the next question came to my mind. “Are we thirsty for Jesus?”

Just as our physical bodies need water to keep us hydrated we also need to thirst after righteousness and truth to keep our spiritual being hydrated.

Judah sought after the Lord with all their hearts and their desire was to live for Him. The result was that they found the Lord and the Lord gave them rest. “And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest all around.”(2 Chr. 15:15 NKJV)

Many of us have seen a Deer drink at the waters edge and there is something magical about that seen that our creator has aloud us to witness.

Can you imagine the smile that our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ have when they see their us standing at the fountain of living water drinking.

We are truly blessed with the very Word of the God at our fingertips. We need to keep nourished and be able to be aware around us as that poacher, the Devil tries to take us down. Whether it be by a direct vital hit with an arrow or by snare.   We need to flee from the danger of the poacher when alerted to his presence.

We as Christian hunters need to make sure that the grass of our fields does not wither and the deer move on. “Yes, the deer also gave birth in the field, But left because there was no grass.” (Jer. 14:5)

The prime example of this is if the Lord gives us the opportunity to witness to unbelievers and we don’t then the field will wither up and die. Then the deer will move to another field where they may find the “Great Poacher” in a blind ready to ambush them.
We must encourage one another and uplift one another. To keep our fields healthy and green or as deer we will lose interest and move on.

“As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after thee
You alone are my hearts desire
And I long to worship thee

I want You more than gold or silver,
Only You can satisfy.
You alone are the real joy Giver,
And the apple of my eye.”

This deer season has been very interesting.  As many of us I headed out early opening morning.  My first spot to “check out” was an old clearing behind my house.  I sat on the edge of this for a little over an hour.  I only had a couple hours to sit as my friend was going to meet me at my house around 9:30 so we could hunt the remainder of the day.  I wanted to scout the swamp area in order to put my friend in a place that would be productive for him.  Between the clear cut and the swamp is a small section of smaller fir trees.  After standing up and scanning the area I made a few steps down the property line headed for the swamp.  I heard a small noise and stopped to further investigate.  When I did this I saw a deer turn and run away from me.  Other then the quick flash of brown and the famous whitetail that’s all I saw of the deer.  I then heard the deer stop and give me a “blow”.  I immediately sat down in hopes that he would circle back in a little while.  I sat there for a little over an hour with no luck.  Then it was time to go meet up with my buddy.  After meeting up with him we searched the area through the swamp and found some good sign.  Both sides of the swamp seemed to be a great area for deer movement.  Two days later was Monday and again we headed into the woods early in the morning.  My friend wanted to sit on the edge of the clearcut and I headed into the edge of the swamp.  It was still dark as we headed into the woods.  As I approached my stand I heard some footprints running off.  I quickly set up in my stand and waited for legal time.  Sat for a few hours with no luck yet again.  Although, I am excited now.  The two mornings I had been out I had seen deer or been close to them.  I remember thinking to myself this seems like a great spot to come and sit and should turn out productive.  Well, here we are in the last week and that’s the last of the deer sign I have seen.  There’s plenty of deer movement in the area just not when it’s legal shooting time, is my guess.  I believe due to the warmer weather and the absence of “rut” activity they are moving at night and bedding down during the day time “big time”.

Then after a couple days into hunting season my wife woke me up early in the morning and told me that she was not feeling well and needed to go to the hospital.  She said she was having extreme stomach pains.  So, off to the hospital we went.  After several hours and test the conclusion was my wife needed to have her appendix out.  Needless to say after my wife had surgery and could not lift anything my time to get out in the woods would certainly be effected.  Especially with our active two year old.  So, now I had to use my vacation time to stay home and take care of my wife and two year old son.  Which was great, due to our busy and opposite schedules my wife and I usually pass each other as one is arriving and leaving the house.  The bad part was it would cut into my vacation time and I would need to work the week of hunting camp.  So as all the other boys were at the “annual” hunting camp week, I was working, working, working.

I have Wednesday until about noon to hunt before I work at one.  Then I will have Thanksgiving day other then the couple hours mid day for lunch break to hunt.  I will hopefully manage to have a deer cross my path in those hours I will spend in the woods.  Word has it the rut activity is starting up so putting hours in the woods will hopefully turn out to be a success.

Good luck with your hunting season and I wish everyone luck!!!

Hello again all. I am back with the Skinny Moose gang blogging again. I am excited and glad to be back and things here at the homefront have settled down, which will allow me sometime to get on here and devote the time needed to blog again.

There has been a lot happening that I will catch everyone up on over the next few days/weeks. I am in the midst of deer season right now and have not had much luck. I guess due to the warm weather and late rut activity.

Check back as I will be  filling you in on what’s been going on and current news as well.

This is a question that was recently asked to me.  My response was, “why would I be scared of him?”

Come to find out this person was in complete fear that Jesus was out to get him.  The Bible does teach us to “fear”, which to me means “reverence” God.  That is “religion” coming through when people are scared of Jesus.  Jesus is my best friend.  Jesus left Heaven to come to earth to suffer and die for me.  With that said, why would I be scared of someone that did that for me.

The problem is we look at Jesus through “religious” eyes.  My challenge today is for you to get to know Jesus on a personal level.  He wants to be your savior and friend.

Romans 8:16-17
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ . . .” (NIV)

For the past couple years, I have been searching for information about upland bird dogs. I have researched types, traits, pedigrees, anything and everything that has to do with bird dogs. Through my search, I decided that my pup must be AKC and/or NAVHDA registered. On top of that, I wanted my pup’s pedigree to have several SH (seniors hunters) or MH (master hunters) with the AKC. For NAVHDA, I wanted the VC (versatile champion). When we come into the saving knowledge of Christ, we become part of a special pedigree. Romans tells us that we become “heirs” of God. Once we accept Christ into our lives on a personal level, we are part of His pedigree. This pedigree is full of MH, SH, and VC titles. (NS)

If you need encouragement today, remember you are part of God’s pedigree. You are part of something great. You have been chosen to do only what He has designed you to do. You were hand-picked by God to be part of this lineage.

Hello, let me start by saying sorry for being away a few days.  Things have been super crazy with graduations, kids getting done school, work, etc….

Today I want to focus on my favorite scripture.

Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” 

I have used this scripture in many areas of my life including outdoor activities.  No matter what you are facing quote this scripture.  Say it out loud.  Whatever life throws your way you can do it as long as you are focused on Christ and letting him lead and guide you.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

As I sit here I think back to so many times faith has come into play in my life.  The biggest situation was when my son was born.  Shortly after arriving in this world things started to go bad for him in a hurry.  After being cleaned up the nurses brought him in for my wife to hold him and feed him.  This took place for less then a minute when my sister realized that Kolten was turning a funny shade.  The nurses came in and rushed him out of the room and into the nurses station.  Of course I was directly behind as I had planned on NEVER letting my son out of my sight in the hospital.  With my wife in the room recovering from just giving birth and now worried to death about her new baby I stood around listening to the doctor and nurses talk.  After some discussion they told me that he had low blood sugar.  He was born in Blue Hill hospital which is a small coastal hospital.  After doing a few tricks of the trade on him they decided it would be best to transport him to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine.  This would mean EMMC would need to send a special five person team down to transport him.  Then they told me I would not be able to ride with him in the vehicle.  After spending a bunch of time with him trying to comfort this new guy it was the dreaded time to go in and tell my wife our baby was needing more attention then the hospital could give him and he was going to be transported to Bangor.  So, I went in and told her in those exact words.  She cried and had a look on her face that will always be vivid in my mind.  I told her that I would need to go to the hospital and be with him, even though this would mean leaving her alone.  It took some time for the team to show up.  They put him in an incubator and wheeled him in for my wife to see him again.  This was a quick visit and they wheeled him out.  They told me I would need to give them a half hour lead as they did not want me to follow them because they would need to move around a lot in the vehicle and this would be dangerous for me.  Well, I did listen to their commands for the most part.  From Blue Hill to Bangor there are two main routes.  I knew they was talking one way so immediately after they left, I kissed my wife and my mother and I was out the door.  It was a super foggy night and very hard to see.  I did not rush to the hospital but was not taking my sweet time either.  I arrived at EMMC and checked in at the nursing station.  I asked about Kolten Sargent and was told he was not there yet.  What?  How did I beat an ambulance?  Then the million things go through your mind…is something wrong? What is taking them so long?  Shortly after that I was told he had arrived and I would be able to go in and see him once he was set up.

I was lead into the Neonatal Intensive Care room and showed how to scrub up.  Then led to a bed where my son was lying.  He had wires and different things hooked up to him.  He needed a breathing tube, they was testing his blood sugar level every half hour which required a prick to his foot.(by the time they was done his foot looked like hamburg)  I asked the nurse how long he would be in there.  She told me it could be three days or more depending on if he eats on his own.  She then added boys usually have a hard time in this area.  I sat with him for majority of the night only taking a couple breaks to go into the waiting room.

Throughout the night and the next morning not much changed.  They was still testing him, he was still requiring a feeding and breathing tube.  About noon my dad showed up with my wife.  I showed my wife how to check in and brought her to see Kolten.  We spent the next several hours with Kolten.  About 8 p.m. we decided to travel the half hour home so my wife and I could rest(at this point I had been up for 40 straight hours).  Throughout the night we called several times to check on him.  Early the next morning we was back in Bangor to spend the entire day with our son.  On this day we was able to remove him from his bed and sit in a chair and hold him.  He was still hooked up to all kinds of machines but to me this was progress.

On Sunday things were looking really good for him.  He was moved out of the room with the really sick babies down to a room that had regular cribs and some of the bigger babies.  We held him and talked with him, fed him, and bathed him that day.  We were told he is doing really good and should be able to go home on Tuesday.  Wow! This was great news.  Again on Sunday night we came home.  Monday morning up and at it again early.  It was January in Maine and super cold on this morning.  EMMC has a road leading up to the main entrance.  The road is surrounded by buildings making this like a wind tunnel.  Due to being so cold, I decided to drop my wife off at the door and I would park out in the lot and walk in.  My wife told me she would meet me in the NICU.  After parking the truck I went up to the NICU and peeked in the room where he was the previous night.  I did not see Kolten or my wife, Michelle.  I thought that is kind of funny but maybe they are doing a bath or something.

In the NICU there are five rooms.  The fourth room had a space age looking table and was the only one in the room.  I saw several people standing around the table working on a baby.  I thought to myself, oh that poor baby.  My thoughts and prayers immediately went out to the family of that baby.  To be in the room by himself that was not a good sign.  Then all of a sudden I realized one of the people standing around the table was my wife.  I scrubbed up and entered the room.  There was literally six medical people working on him.  I was told they didn’t know what was going on but they would be doing test to find out.  After what seemed like an eternity they told us he had spinal meningitis.  This would require them to treat him with anti-biotics for 21 days.  This would mean putting a pic line in him.  Which is a long tube that goes in his arm, head, or leg into his stomach area.

The day before we had what appeared to be a healthy kid that would be going home in two days to a very sick kid that may not live.  The doctors as they have to told us what could happen.  Of course the worse being he could easily die.  He could be blind, deaf, mentally impaired, have learning disabilities, and several other areas of risk.

Over the next several days nothing changed.  His pic line stopped working a couple times, one time he ripped it out, and they needed to put it back in each time.  After about a week of this it appeared as though he was kicking it and he started to come around.  He was moved into the furthest room again with a regular crib about 10 days after.  He was now eating good and was getting stronger and healthier each day.

Finally on Superbowl Sunday a little over a month later he was able to come home.  We would still need to take him back for developmental testing for two years as we was instructed.  We did this for a year and they told us, he’s fine.  Unless you have concerns in the future don’t come back to see us.

Now, Kolten is 2.5 years old and is doing great.  There are no developmental concerns and he is the typical two year old.

As I think back to this event the only thing that got me through was faith.  I remember crying and telling God not to take my son from me.  I remember going through the feeling sorry for myself.  Asking God “Why me”?  The great thing was God was telling and teaching both my wife and I to “trust me”.  Here we had what was the most precious gift to us, I could not do anything.  I was helpless.  That is not a good feeling for me.  One time riding home in the truck it was real clear to me, God was telling me to “trust him” completely.  So, from that day on that’s what I did.  This at times meant trusting him even if it meant he was taking Kolten home to Heaven.

God has everything in control.  We need to learn to let go of the reins sometimes and trust him.  Now that this is a distant memory I can say thank you  God for teaching me this lesson.  Thank you for letting Kolten remain in my life and thank you for having him on par in every aspect of his life.

Faith in God will lead you to great places.

Here is today’s devotion from the Sportsmens Devotional.

This past weekend I had my step son graduate high school. I think about all the horror stories I hear about teenagers. Then I think about my step son. I am truly lucky to have a kid that I never had to worry about doing something stupid. I never had to worry about if he was drunk, stoned, or out doing other things he shouldn’t be doing. Of course he did the typical boy stuff like, driving to fast, going down roads that his car was not meant to be and ripping the exhaust system off and tearing his oil pan.

Although all in all he was a great kid. He taught his mom and myself with great respect. He has grown into a fine young man that loves the Lord. This devotion reminded me of my experiences and life with my step son over the past six years. Without the Lord helping his mother and I this would not have been possible.

Ephesians 6:1-3
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”– which is the first commandment with a promise–”that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on earth.” (NIV)

Have you ever watched a wild animal with its young, maybe in person or on an outdoors show on TV? There is no question that the young do what momma says; they do it, or very probably die. And when mother speaks, the young obey right now! So, let’s apply that to mankind. God said to honor our parents, that we’ll be blessed for doing so. Notice, it doesn’t say anything about obedience. It’s just a given–if you honor your parents you’ll also obey them. Now, let’s talk about our relationship with our heavenly Father. If we’re to honor our earthly parents, isn’t it much more important to honor our heavenly Father, God, with our absolute love and obedience? And, isn’t it also true, that if we don’t honor God, if we don’t obey Him, and accept His gift of forgiveness for our sins, that we’ll die? God loves us as no other parent can, even those of us whose parents loved us more than anything else. He loved us enough to send His Son to die in our place. He deserves complete honor!

Godly parents are a gift. Honor them every day of your life. Honor God, as He is our heavenly Father, and gave us the greatest gift of all–eternal life through Jesus Christ, His one and only Son!
If you want your children to treat you with honor, you need to be honorable. Follow your personal “hunter’s code of ethics”, and set an example for your kids to follow.

Tomorrow is my step sons graduation from high school.  This has been a long hard road through high school for him and us.  The kid just needs a lot of motivation because he doesn’t have it inside himself to do it on his own.  It started his freshmen year when reality sank in that high school is different then grammar school.  In grammar school they pretty much carried him along and let things slide.  In high school they have not, nor should they.

As I sat here thinking about this road it reminds me of our walk in many aspects of our life.  The road traveled in the outdoor world.  From my starting point of hunting that first time with my grandfather to where I bring and introduce youngsters to hunting now.  It has been an amazing journey and no where’s near done yet.

Then there is our Christian walk.  We started as babes in Christ.  Each of us have reached different levels in our walk with him.  Again, this is another journey that I have had a great time experiencing.  There has been many ups and downs and I have had to learn the hard way many times.  Although, it gets better and more exciting everyday.

It has been a crazy couple days around the house.  We had a little family emergency pop up, we are preparing for my step sons graduation, we have family members arriving daily, and getting the house and land set up to par for everyone.  This morning I had to drop my wife off at work and go and pick up some stuff that my mother needed moved.  I had about an hour or so in between times to waste.  So my son, Kolten and I went to Birdsacre.  We strolled around and checked out the birds penned up.  Then we set off jogging through the trails in order to get rid of some cooped up energy my two year old son and I had.

While walking and jogging through the trails it came to me, the amazing beauty that God has given us.  What beauty there is in the great outdoors.  I often take the time to thank God and realize that he has given us such a great gift.  But, there are still times like this morning that just make me step back and say WOW GOD!!!

Get outside today and take the time to look around at God’s master work.