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Cruise Ship or Battle Ship?
This week, Pastor Paul brings us another messages from South Carolina. We learn about the differences between cruise ships and battleships and how it relates to our readiness for spiritual warfare. Are we filling our lives with entertainment or spiritual things. In Ephesians 6, Paul reminds us that we are in a war and need to put on the armor of God if we are to be successful in battle. |
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Go and be a Missionary
Pastor Paul talks about missionaries. Just like Midwest Whitetail depends on sponsors, missionaries depend on donations to keep their ministries alive. Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), the largest organization of bush pilots, serve many groups worldwide by bringing medicine, food, and literature to places that would otherwise be inaccessible. This is just one organization that depends on donations. Support the mission field - in doing so you can bring hope to many who need it. |
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WEM10.1: What is "Without Excuse"?
In the first episode of the new season, Pastor Paul explains the new name of our weekly devotional and sheds insight into the "Without Excuse Ministries" website. God gave us enough wonders in the world he created that all of us are "Without Excuse" in recognizing that this awesome world was made for us by a creator that we need to get to know better. We are off and running again with a new year, and Pastor Paul is again bringing us God's word. |
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WEM10.10: Pit Stop Faith
This week, we watch a pit stop. The car gets what it needs and rejoins the race as quickly as possible. Is our relationship with God like that? Do we hop out of the race for prayer and devotion and then jump back in because we are too busy? God desires a growing relationship with us, one that requires Him to be a priority, not just something on the sidelines. Ps.46:10 says "Be still and know that I am God." Try it. Slow down, turn off off distractions and spend quality time with Him. |
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WEM10.11: The Vapor of Life
This week, Pastor Paul revisits a hunt from last year and points out that every time we take an animal it should be a reminder that life is short, a vapor that is here today and gone tomorrow. Would you be ready to die today? What is your attitude toward life in general? Have you come to know Jesus so you can die in confidence? These are some of the tough questions asked this week that are worth contemplating. Don't put off until tomorrow the things that can be done today. |
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WEM10.12: Down to the Wire
Many hunts can come down to the wire. Jesus had a similar situation in John 11 when Lazarus became sick. Rather than healing him, Jesus allows Lazarus to die. This was hard for Lazarus' family to understand, until Jesus performed a miracle. Do you feel like God isn't answering your prayers? Remember that God's timing is perfect and He can use any situation for His glory. Perhaps our prayer should be for contentment in all situations giving God "permission" to handle things as He sees fit. |
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WEM10.13: Quiver Full
With five kids and a sixth on the way (congratulations!) Pastor Paul truly has a quiver full. Psalm 127:4-5 states that children are like arrows in the hands of a warrior. As parents our responsibility is to equip them with strong faith and values so they can be mighty tools when sent into the world. The best way to do this is to lead by example - after all that's how our Heavenly Father taught us. |
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WEM10.14: Living Water
Pastor Paul visits a favorite spot and is reminded of John 4 where we find Jesus at a well. He encounters a woman and tells her that if she drinks the well water she will thirst again but if she drinks the water He offers she will be satisfied forever. Being concerned with her physical need she almost misses what her soul truly desires. Often we fill our lives with earthly things that leave us thirsty for more. Jesus offers spiritual water that fills the void in our hearts only He can satisfy. |
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WEM10.15: Give Thanks
With this being the week of Thanksgiving, Pastor Paul talks about taking time to give thanks for the blessings in your life. It's easy to let the busyness of the holiday distract us from what's really important, so this year purposefully sit down, meditate on, and thank God for all He's given you. |
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WEM10.16: Good Soil
Hunters till soil while putting in food plots to create better habitat for whitetails. Jesus tells a parable about different types of ground. There's the dusty path where seeds are snatched up, rocky ground where the seed grows but has no root and dies, thorny ground where it grows but is choked by weeds, and finally good soil where the seed grows to its full potential. The seed represents The Word and the soils are different types of people. Which soil are you? |
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WEM10.17: Christian Faith is Not Blind Faith
As bowhunters, we don't have to see deer to know they exist on our properties. If the right habitat is there and we find sign, we can trust the deer are there without physically seeing them. It's the same with God . We have several evidences to know he exists. The Bible, fulfilled prophecy, and how He works in peoples' lives are all testament to His existence. God demonstrates his invisible qualities through visible things so that we can have faith that is not blind.
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WEM10.18: Blood Bond
Pastor Paul recently had the privilege of hunting with wounded warriors. This group of men found a common bond in their passion for whitetails and also in their passion for Christ. There is a common bond that is available to everyone who accepts the blood of Jesus. Believers worship together, struggle together, and help each other. Accepting Jesus means becoming part of that blood bond - have you accepted it? |
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WEM10.19: God's Special Gift
In this season of giving and receiving gifts it seems appropriate to remember the greatest gift ever given...Jesus. This week, Pastor Paul reminds us of the reason we celebrate Christmas and challenges us to take time away from all the busyness the holiday season brings to reflect on the great gift God has given us, afterall, without it there would be no Christmas. |
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WEM10.2: Pressing Forward
In his second installment of Without Excuse, Pastor Paul takes us back to his 2009 hunting season and the problems he encountered, then he brings us Biblical truth related to our past. In Phillipians 3:13-14, the Biblical Paul talks about forgetting the past and pressing on toward the prize of knowing Jesus. That is the main point of Pastor Paul's devotional this week - moving beyond the ball and chain represented by our past. |
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WEM10.20: Amazing Grace
This week Jim Hale, a Vietnam veteran, tells the story of how he became paralyzed in combat and how God has used his situation for good. On the day of his injury Jim wanted to pray but felt unworthy. The truth is we are all unworthy, but God loves and forgives us anyway. That's what makes His grace so amazing! |
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WEM10.21: Finish Well
In the final episode of the year, Pastor Paul talks about Finishing Well. It was the apostle Paul's desire to finish well as he wrote to a young pastor in the church of Ephesis, and it should be our desire as well. |
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WEM10.3: Don't Forget Your First Love
Pastor Paul reminds us that the busy-ness of life can start to squeeze out our first love for Jesus Christ. Even the work we do on a spiritual level can squeeze out this love. It still comes back to the relationship - not the work. We need to remember the need for maintaining our relationship with Christ as the most important thing we can do each day. |
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WEM10.4: Dealing with Temptation
In this episode, Pastor Paul uses a turkey hunting analogy to demonstrate the way we can overlook something right in front of us (real hens) and exchange it for something that is false (a decoy) - satan's way of tempting us. Pastor Paul offers verses from the Bible to bring more clarity to this battle and to offer solutions to temptation. |
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WEM10.5: Old Warriors
Pastor Paul talks about the incredible importance of older men in the service of God. He takes us back to ths story of Caleb, a warrior for God's people at the time when the Isrealites are taking over Canaan. As Caleb gets old, his warrior spirit never dims and he continues to battle as long as God continues to ask it of him and as long as there are still promises unfulfilled. Pastor Paul's message focuses on older men, but it is just as inspiring to any age. |
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WEM10.6: Tame the Tongue
This week Pastor Paul brings us a message from Charleston, South Carolina. While aboard the USS Yorktown we are reminded that just like something as small as a rudder can steer a huge ship, our tongues direct us. Our words are powerful - they can be used for destruction or for building up and we need to be careful with what we say. The book of James calls the tongue "untameable," but Jesus can give us power over our words so we may be a blessing to those we come in contact with. |
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