Bible Study Verse
Proverbs 12:11-12
He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, but he who follows frivolity is devoid of understanding. The wicked covet the catch of evil men, But the root of the righteous yields fruit. (NKJV)

Thoughts
Kevin smirked as he leaned up against his fifty thousand dollar sports car. His neighbor, Tom, was sitting on the tailgate of his worn-out pickup truck filing a hoe that he used in his garden. Pushing his sun-glasses back up his nose with one finger, Kevin sauntered over to Tom. “When are you going to give this garbage up? You’re out here every day sweating, working, and for what? A bucket of tomatoes? I’ve got a sweet deal about to go down at work. Sure, it’s a little shady. But, I’m going to earn enough this month to buy all of the tomatoes in this state!” With that he headed back to his car. He revved the engine and tore out down the road with radio thumping.

Tom smiled, shook his head, and kept filing the old hoe.

That very afternoon, Kevin rang the doorbell of Tom’s house. He was clearly broken as tears ran down his face. “It’s over, Tom. My boss found out about my big deal. He said that he didn’t do business that way and he fired me. Now, on top of that, the other company is suing for my actions. I guess you were right all along, Tom.”

Tom placed a big calloused hand on Kevin’s shoulder. “The Bible says that we don’t have any understanding if we follow frivolous things, Kevin.”

Kevin was quiet for a minute. “Tom, how can I learn to be more like you and less like the jerk that I’ve been?” Tom smiled again and handed Kevin a hoe.
(Brian H)

Action Point
Attention! Attention! This is a call to work and a call to live in righteousness! Just picture the writer of the Proverbs standing up on a hill overlooking the city. He clears his throat, cups his hands, and shouts out that line. Now, that’s probably not how this proverb was written. But, no doubt, I have your attention now. Have you noticed a theme in the evening news over the last few years? I have seen two things:

• How can I get more money or things?
• If what I’m doing is wrong, I just need to change the rules so it is now right?

I can’t think of any attitudes that are more contrary to the above mentioned verses! You can always find a clear contrast between worldly thoughts and what God has to say. You’ve seen the two themes of the world above. Now let’s state those thoughts as God did in His Word:

• Wealth is not evil, but you have to work for it.
• The Bible is ultimate truth. Align yourself with it and live in righteousness.

Now compare and contrast those statements. Mull them over in your mind. Does your life square up with the Bible, which is ultimate truth? Do you work for your wants and needs or are you looking for a get-rich- quick scheme? Are you living in righteousness? Read the entire chapter of Proverbs 12. The root of the righteous yields fruit. There is life and no death.
(To be continued. . .)

Bible Study Verse
Romans 5:3-8
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (TNIV)

Thoughts
This fall held one the most challenging trips we had taken. Nothing was going right. The weather was nightmarish, the deer weren’t moving like expected, and we had tried various locations while moving to three different motels. We weren’t seeing hardly any deer, let alone the big ones we had gone there for. Yet at any point the rut could change, so we kept getting up at 5 in the morning and hunting the whole day. Finally after six days, someone flipped the switch. I harvested a really nice 10 point.

I’m sure you can think of challenging times you have had in the field or on the water. You wanted to give up, yet kept at it, and your perseverance was rewarded. Sometimes in life we want to give up due to circumstances, yet we are reminded of all Jesus has done for us. We have something to hope for, no matter what is happening at the current time.
(Ross G)

Action Point
Putting your faith and trust in Jesus is easy to do when things are going well. Use the challenging times to develop your character and to remember the love Jesus has for you. It’s the tough times that will strengthen your faith in Him.

Bible Study Verse
Proverbs 30:2-3
“I am the most ignorant of men; I do not have a man’s understanding. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.” (NIV)

Thoughts
Years ago I read Robert Ruark’s The Old Man and The Boy. The story is about a grandfather who teaches his grandson about fishing, hunting, and life in general.

While recently looking over the book again, I came across the chapter, “X+Y to the Second Power= Bluefish.” In that chapter, Ruark writes about the old man telling his grandson about knowledge:

“Bear this in mind. Knowledge is an accumulation, like a pack rat hides things. Things you never knew you knew have a way of popping up later. You’re supposed to fill your skull with a lot of things, against the day when you might need one of them. And remember this too: you can’t pour a gallon of knowledge into a one-quart brain. The idea is to make the brain big enough and flexible enough to handle what it has to handle. I want to see better marks next month, or we might just find ourselves not shooting any quail this fall.”
(Tom L)

Action Point
Many Christians including myself admit that we don’t have a deep knowledge of God. This lack can cause believers to have an inconsistent walk and prayer life.

To know God is to have intimacy with Him. Knowing God is more than having ideas about Him. It involves opening our total innermost being to Him: intellect, emotion, and will. Daily reading and studying God’s Living Word will increase your knowledge and produce an intimate understanding of who God is and His unending love.

Thoughts
Here’s another way to put it, “You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in this world. God is no secret to be kept.”

When I think back to my years growing up, I was most attracted to men like you reading this article. Sportsmen, hunters, adventurers, cowboys that rode rodeo & risked their lives, and especially if they had wall mounts of their conquests. My Christian parents worried that their maverick, rebel, and renegade ways would influence me away from Christianity, but they didn’t. Instead they opened my eyes to the God-colors of this big beautiful world and encouraged me to explore and to expand my horizons to discover all that God made available to us as men.
(Wes W)

Action Point
Most of us are dads, grandpas, uncles, employers, guides, husbands, and friends. There’re young men watching and looking for a hero. You may not think you have much of a christian testimony, but hero you do have an audience. Be “the Man,” be courageous, live the adventure, fight the battle, and win your beauty. Get the book Wild at Heart by John Eldridge; it will get you started.

Thoughts
The year? 1976. The tag? Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep in Hunt Unit 40A. In Arizona you can draw a sheep tag multiple times, if you are very lucky. But, you are allowed only one kill in a life time. Needless to say, this was a very special tag.My friends were supportive and wanted me to harvest a really good trophy ram. The problem was, I had never hunted sheep and knew nothing about the animals, especially what they looked like in the mountains. That seems funny, but it is a physiological fact that you see what your mind is looking for. But, I had never seen sheep in the wild.

So, enter my friend, Jim, a premier sheep hunter. He put me on a herd of sheep and left me there for two days, just me, my spotting scope, and those sheep. By the time Jim picked me up,I could see sheep. It was like I had been blind before, but now they suddenly stood out up there on the side of the mountain.I did get lucky and killed a nice trophy. I’m looking at it right now on my office wall!
(Cliff S)

Action Point
We can be spiritually blind for a variety of reasons. We may have never heard of Jesus and His gift of salvation. Maybe we’ve heard, but haven’t had it explained so we can understand. It could be that we’ve listened to teaching that has blinded us to the truth of the Savior, that He is the only way to a relationship with God. For whatever reason, we might be blind to the truths of Jesus Christ.

Now, enter the Holy Spirit, perhaps through reading the Bible, through the testimony of a friend and believer, or maybe through the teaching of a local pastor or a great evangelist such as Billy Graham. However the Holy Spirit has brought the truth of Jesus into your life, suddenly you can see. You can understand your need for a Savior. You can believe in the truth that Jesus can bring into your life.