Yesterday I went deer hunting and was sitting in a very comfortable deer stand that looks like a miniature apartment; it even has large executive chairs with arms and recline capacity. I usually reserve this type of lavish stand for our resort guests, but yesterday was a little lazy and decided to go to one of them myself.
As I sat there in my comfortable chair looking out the tinted windows in the warm early afternoon sun, my eyelids got heavier and heavier and soon I was fast asleep. I woke myself up snoring and actually jerked upright. I dazedly looked around as I wiped the drool off my face and noticed six deer and two big gobblers standing in the field I was overlooking.
I surveyed them, picked out the largest fat doe of the herd, and harvested it. With venison on the ground, I summoned a couple of our plantation hands by cell phone to retrieve the deer and take it to the resort Smokehouse for processing.
Okay, okay, I’m getting lazy in my old age, but it sure is nice.
Everywhere I’ve hunted this year I’ve seen bountiful numbers of deer. We have to harvest a fair amount of them here on the plantation in order to keep their numbers in check and to keep the herd healthy and the state game and fish department gives us tags to harvest a preset amount to assist with achieving this goal.
The alternative is they will keep reproducing and growing exponentially until there are so many of them that they will literally eat everything in sight. If we were to allow that to happen soon starvation and disease would ensue, and the herd would be reduced to numbers that the land will support in that more harsh and cruel manner.
Try telling that to some liberal namby pamby, card carrying, PETA member and they’ll remove their billfold and show you a picture of Bambi the talking deer who has a wife and child at home, and admonish you for being a Neanderthal.
Hmmm…That’s a touching story, but I can’t wait to get our chef to cook up some fresh venison backstrap today.
OMG!
Yes I’m going to eat Bambi today.
OMG!
And I’m going to have leftovers tomorrow.
Okay enough of tormenting the PETA crowd today; I get enough hate mail as it is. One benefit of harvesting large numbers of deer is that we can provide free venison to local charities. If you are a hunter I urge you to consider giving a part of your harvest to those who are hungry. They will appreciate it for sure.
I was talking to a pastor who is considering joining me in shepherding our new church. The subject turned to giving and he mentioned that he felt that people should learn how to give to the Lord and be blessed.
I wholeheartedly agree.
Early in my Christian walk I didn’t tithe. I felt the church would just squander the funds and I could be more effective by giving my money directly and cut out the middle man. While that sounds good, it goes against what God has told us to do. When I studied this topic in the Bible and saw God’s will in this matter, I began tithing and it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. God blessed me as I’d never been blessed. We truly cannot out-give God.
Now I have a whole new outlook that even carries down to sharing my harvest of deer. If you are not tithing and giving above and beyond the tithe as led by the Lord, I urge you to do so. I encourage you to do it for two reasons. God has commanded us to do it, and because it is very fulfilling and rewarding and will make us feel great.
If you give, do so cheerfully, because the Bible states that God loves a cheerful giver. Can’t get better than God loving you even more that He already does…
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday! (And tithe)…
Deuteronomy 15:10
Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.
Matthew 6:3
But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Mark 12:41
And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”
Luke 3:11
And he would answer and say to them, “The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.”