Larry Eckart
Well-known member
Guys (and Dani),
Happy Easter to you all. I inserted my Easter message to my congregation at the end of this post if you happen to be interested.
I’ve been thinking about vehicles for hunting and fishing and wondering to myself, if I had a choice and the money, what vehicle would I choose for my hunting and fishing escapades?
Most SUV’s as I see them are glorified station wagons to be used in much the same way as a mini van. In my mind, most SUV’s are not serious vehicles for the outdoors.
Whatever happened to the old style Jeep from the 1960’s, was it the Waggoneer, and vehicles like that which were designed for guys using the outdoors? Why aren’t the American car makers targeting the thousands of guys/gals who want a serious vehicle for the outdoors?
Earlier this year I saw a blog written by someone around the Outer Banks who said that he could always tell the guys that came from Raleigh and were not local to his area: they all drove Chevy Tahoes! He did not have good things to say about Tahoes or guys who drove them!
We of our website would have wide ranging needs and ideas about the “perfect vehicle.” God forbid, if money were no option, would we need as many vehicles as duck boats to follow our sport?
I was partial to my 1992 Chevy Blazer. This was the model that still had the tail gate that you could sit on while getting into your waders, eat lunch on or just sit and have a beer. It was small enough to fit into spaces and cut through logging tracks that bigger vehicles couldn’t go. I loved that vehicle. It pulled my 18’ Starcraft with no problem. One day, when I lifted up the hatch window and the whole window came off the truck into my hand because of rust, I knew it was time to put the old boy in the graveyard. But its replacement, a 1996 Blazer was a poor imitation of that 1992 model. No tail gate and a definite shift toward comfort as opposed to outdoor sport.
What do you consider your favorite all around hunting and fishing vehicle, whether you’ve owned it or not?
Again, Happy Easter to all. My Easter sermon to Island Lutheran Church in Hilton Head follows. Feel free to ignore it.
Larry
Joy to the World
He is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
Merry Christmas everyone! (Reaction?)
It is this day, our Lord’s resurrection, that makes Christmas, merry, joyful and everything we hope Christmas to be. Christmas does not stand on its own. Our culture has it backwards when we accent Christmas and ignore Easter. Jesus was not born to give you Christmas. Jesus was born to give you Easter, to give you Good Friday and the Day of Resurrection so that the thumbprint of God upon your life might be one of joy and peace and hope for the future.
It is entirely appropriate today to link together Christmas and Easter as one because they are one. Christmas was God’s physical entry into the world in the baby Jesus. Good Friday and Easter are the reasons God sent Jesus. He came in the form of a baby. He came to become the man Jesus of Nazareth. He came to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. He came to rise again and so bear witness that neither sin nor death nor the devil win out in the end. So today we take the Christmas hymn and use it as our sermon subject: Joy to the world!
Joy. Joy is a wonderful word. Joy is a delightful experience. It is easy to get on board with joy at Christmas. After all, Jesus is a baby. Who can’t get excited about a baby? Who can’t catch the excitement of the children unwrapping presents? But joy rapidly disappears if we attach joy at Christmas to babies and unwrapping presents and a temporary time we call “the holidays.” Soon enough life encroaches on our joy.
We sit at the Christmas dinner table and smile, but behind our smile is anxiety. Grandpa isn’t well. We spent too much money on presents. Some crazy person in Paris drove down a sidewalk. Many injuries. Many deaths. All that is going on behind the Christmas smile.
It causes us to wonder: isn’t there some place where I can go hide? Let me take my Christmas joy and a cup of coffee and go hide from all the things that worry me, all the things that trouble me.
The reason we lose our joy, whether it is Christmas or Easter or June, is that we forget the true source of joy.
The angel said to the shepherds: I bring you good tidings of great joy. The angel said to Joseph, who served as the father of Jesus: You shall call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
The true source of joy is just that: sins forgiven. The true source of joy is not a holiday escape, not the presence of a baby or the temporary excitement of children be they unwrapping presents or gathering Easter eggs. The true source of joy is this: he will save his people from their sins.
The man who can teach us about the connection between Christmas joy and sins forgiven is Jesus’ disciple Peter.
Peter was in many ways, the leading man of the disciples. He was quick to speak and quick to act. It was Peter who first identified Jesus correctly: You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
We would think that such a man, a man’s man who formerly made his living in the hard work of commercial fishing, we would think that such a man would always be dependable.
Probably you know that when pressure was applied to Peter, he caved in. After Jesus had been arrested, the risk for following Jesus escalated. Peter hung around the high priests court yard trying to do two things: to find out what would happen to Jesus and at the same time remain inconspicuous.
It is often true with us. We want to be associated with Jesus but at the same time remain inconspicuous so that we do not stand out as his disciple.
Peter was spotted. A servant girl, just a girl applied the pressure. You are one of his disciples. And Peter caved in. Three times he said, I am not. I do not know the man.
“I do not know the man.” Desertion doesn’t get much clearer than that.
We may never have gone that far publicly: “I don’t know you Jesus.” But then again maybe you have gone that far. Desertion is more often subtle. The opportunity arises to be identified as a follower of the Lord and we remain inconspicuous, silent, just blending in with the crowd.
When Peter realized what he had done, he left the courtyard and wept bitterly. The superficial joy of hanging around Jesus was now drowned out by guilt because he had deserted Jesus.
What to do when life crushes your joy? What to do when we publicly or privately desert Jesus? Peter could have walked around with a smile on his face, covering up, acting as if nothing ever happened. But joy isn’t a cover up. Joy isn’t a smile on the outside while inside we are dying.
The angel in the Christmas story told us plainly, clearly the true source of joy: he will save his people from their sins.
This is joy, sins forgiven. Left alone with his guilt, Peter may have thought his life was over. Peter may have thought his epitaph sealed: “I screwed up.” Yes you did Peter. And so has every person who ever lived.
Admitting responsibility, admitting fault, admitting guilt, admitting sin is the first step for joy restored.
Shortly after the resurrection, Jesus sought out Peter privately. In one of the beautiful scenes of the Bible, not only does Jesus forgive Peter. Jesus reinstated Peter as the leader of the disciples.
Sins admitted. Sins forgiven. Go in peace. Serve the Lord.
The same joy and forgiveness is there for you today. You don’t have to walk around with a smile on your face while inside your soul is empty, inside you feel like you’re dying.
Accept the truth: “I need my sins forgiven, Jesus. I need my sins forgiven.” It’s right there in the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Sins admitted. Sins forgiven. Go in peace. Serve the Lord. Joy to the world!
No more let sin and sorrow grow
Nor thorns infest the ground
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found
Far as the curse is found
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
v. 3 of "Joy to the World"
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