I caught a few...

courtesy of the Norfork River...

Reading and Fishing...Fishing and Reading...

Last week I had the tremendous opportunity to fish the Spring River around Mammoth Springs in Arkansas.  This also meant that I was able to spend a lot of that time fishing with my dad, which I always enjoy.  The fish above that I caught is one of the biggest rainbows I've ever landed and the biggest I've ever caught on a fly rod.  I was able to spend a night at my parents' house and then they joined me at my campsite on Thursday for a night.  We caught these fish by the Riverside Resort.

 I finished up Crazy Love last week.  I can say that it was a decent book.  I was a bit disappointed in the depth of it.

I started and completed The Great Divorce last week.  This was a great read.  I can't say that this book had no depth because it was as deep as anything I've read.  I am still mulling over the scenarios of those who choose a life separated from God.  A few of my favorite quotes from this book are as follows:


"There is but one good; that is God.  Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him."


“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. ” 


“There have been men before … who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God himself… as if the good Lord had nothing to do but to exist. There have been some who were so preoccupied with spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ.” 


“You cannot love a fellow creature fully till you love God.” 

My dad and I saw this tiny baby deer a couple nights ago.  It was so young that it didn't yet know that safety was in the woods and danger was in the road.  Why didn't this fawn's mother rush over to it to lead it back to safety? Why did the mother go bounding into the woods and leave this baby to fend for itself?  

Why do some Christ followers only care for baby Christians inside the safety of a church building?  Do we often neglect to reach out to fellow new believers outside the four walls because we are scared, inconvenienced, or busy?  What if we were their only hope from the dangerous temptations that prowl around them?

When was the last time we found a person new in the faith and began a mentoring friendship with them?

Headed to Arkansas

The Smoky Mountains were awesome!!!!!  After saying goodbye to Amanda and the kids, I am about to head out for some more camping and trout fishing...this time it will be in Arkansas.  I was able to listen to my good friend, Neil Oldham's sermon on the "Success Idol" on my way home from Tennessee.  I thought he did an excellent job at explaining the difference between success as our God vs. God as our success.  This is definitely something that I have struggled with in ministry and enjoyed Neil challenging me on that.  I had the opportunity to drive for several hours over the last couple of weeks so that gave me some time to catch up on Jeff Manion's current series called, "When God Moves".  This series started at Easter and has walked through the foundation of the church in the book of Acts.  Not only did it challenge me because of the awesomeness of the Apostles but it reminded me about the hope that is found in the local church.  Hopefully the next time I post it will be pictures of the world record trout that I'll have caught!  Or maybe you'll just have to settle for something a bit smaller...LOL!  This week I'll be finishing up Crazy Love and beginning one of the C.S. Lewis books on my list.