A Gift
Romans 5:15: But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.James 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth GRACE unto the humble.
Have you ever harvested an animal of some kind that you thought was just a gift? I have killed multiple deer and turkeys that I just know was a gift of God. I know that any game animal we are fortunate to harvest is a gift from God. But I am mainly referring to those animals killed that we felt like we did not deserve in some way. Such as hunting with a buddy that has done all the work for you, planting, scouting, and what not, and all you do is pull the trigger. Or you just go set in the woods somewhere with little to hope in seeing a buck period and kill the buck of a lifetime.
Last year I killed a mature 8-pt in January last year that was just a gift from God. I had hunted hard in December never harvesting a buck. I moved stands around time and time again with no luck. I shot at a wide mature 10-pt. the day after Christmas only to double lung a tree limb that my scope never picked up. Finally one afternoon, with feelings of disgust and little confidence of seeing a mature deer, I setup in a stand that I put up years ago. Just before dark, after seeing several does and some young bucks, to my surprise a shooter buck walked out only 60 yards away. Ten minutes later after getting my hands on him I thought, what a gift! It was my first Mississippi buck harvested that year killed in a stand where I have spent no effort in placing and having little expectations in. It was not the biggest deer on the property, but I was very glad to get him.
As I look back on hunts like this, and especially of the picture of that buck with me and my little Anna Grace, I think about God's grace and the greatest gift He has ever given us through His Son, Jesus. You see the meaning of grace is simply a gift from God that we do not deserve. We are all sinners that deserve eternal death and not eternal life. It is by His grace that we are saved and can enter in the realm of ever lasting life. There is nothing we have ever done and nothing that we can ever do to deserve that, it is His gift to us. All we as sinners have to do is except the fact that we are sinners and except Jesus' gift of life ever lasting that He paid for on the cross with His life.
Understand this as well; God's gift of grace does not stop with salvation. The believer receives new grace and more grace on a daily bases. When times of heartache and difficulty come His new grace showers us with a freshness to help get us through the day. When you are overwhelmed with the pressures of the world He sends more grace that seems to overcome any trouble or storm that we are going through. Jesus does not just save us and throw us to the worldly wolves. He cares for us and watches over us in away that we could never deserve. I like to look at it like this: Jesus saved us by His grace, He keeps us saved by His grace, and he cares for us by His grace. What A Gift!!!!
Enjoy God's Great Gift of Grace!
God bless and happy hunting!
Mark Newell
PS: Listen to the song New Grace by Tom Hayes on You Tube.
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