Lay Your Burdens Down

Lay Your Burdens Down

One of the blessings of living in South Florida is that my wife and I are within a minutes drive from the shores of the atlantic ocean. I enjoy walking the beach as the sun rises up from the sea. the sights and sounds of God's creation surround me. the walk, which is my daily devotion time, includes a spiritual and physical exercise. the devotion begins with a "Good morning Father" and continues with talking and listening to God.

After a minute or two with God, I shift my focus to the physical realm of this hike. The physical exercise is weight training with dumbbells. I execute various exercises while walking. The spritual exercise is prayer.  Because there is no one else on the beach at that early hour, I can freely talk out loud to Him as if He were walking beside me, and He is. Joshua 1:9

One day I arrived at the beach and realized I had forgotten the dumbells. so, instead of driving back to my house to retrieve them, I decided to do the devotions without the weights. Immediately, there was something missing. As soon as I stepped on the sand, the routine was noticeably out of sink. the absence of the physical burden allowed me to fully focus on God, Jesus Christ and the Holy
Spirit. I thought of Matthew 11:30. I felt free, unincumbered, fully able to talk to God, to praise Him,
to concentrate on listening and just be with God.

I realized the weights were symbolic of other emotional and physical burdens or distractions in my life. With the weights in my hand, I was getting tired, having to count, decide what exercise to do next, etc. Those repetitions took me away from God, from listening to Him and from talking to Him. Yes, I was seeking God, but was putting my exercise on an equal level with God. I realized after
the weights were removed, that my priority in the morning should have always just been God first, then my exercise would follow. I wondered, How many other burdens do we allow to distract us? We are carrying burdens that God did not intend for us to carry. When we lay those
burdens down and let God carry them, we can better focus on who He is and to hear His voice clearly.

Walking the beach this particular morning sans weights, I realized the necessity of prioritizing God first (spiritual exercise). physical exercise is good 1 Timothy 4:7and should have it's own time separate from God's time.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." -

Matthew 11:28-30 God's promises are always true. Always timely. And desperately needed not just in rough seas but through the mountaintop experiences as well.

Life is short. Fish hard. Pray harder!

Check out Blue Water Brotherhood at www.bluewaterbrotherhood.com...

Game Plan For Life by Joe Gibbs: #3

Chapter 3 started out with Joe Gibbs sharing a humbling personal experience of not communicating properly during a big game and then having to admit he messed up. Clearly the lesson of the story he shared was the importance of communicating every game plan to the players. He then compared how he communicated the game plan to the players vs. how we as believers must communicate the inspired Word of God to humanity.

He reminded us on page 34 of the theme consistent throughout the book, "The whole premise of Game Plan for Life is that God is in charge and his plan for your life can be found in the Bible. The logical question then becomes, can you trust the Bible?"

Enter Josh McDowell, "What do you believe about the Bible? Do you trust what it tells you about God and His Son, Jesus Christ? Can it really be what it claims to be - God's love letter to humanity? How can you know for sure?' All these questions are answered in more throughout the chapter. Answered according to what the Bible has to say - not what I say or Josh McDowell says or even what my wife Christina says (though she is a wise woman I might add).

I was reminded that everything we do as believers and born again children of the Living God must be held to God's standards - the Word of God. You will want to read Josh McDowell's testimony and his finding God then forgiveness for his father. He gave six Assumptions then Facts about God in this chapter.

Fact #6 God changes the lives of those who take His word to heart packed a powerful punch. Page 51, "I am walking evidence that the Bible is true and that Jesus can dramatically change a person's life. I'm not saying I'm perfect-far from it-or that I don't screw up from time to time. But thanks to the power of God's Word, I continue to enjoy the happiness, significance, and purpose that the Bible promises to those who trust in Jesus Christ."

Josh McDowell left the reader with three obvious changes that occurred in his life after he found the Lord and after fully trusting God and God's Word.

1. I experienced mental peace.

2. I gained control over my temper.

3. I found freedom over resentment.

My wife shared a cool word equation with me. I wanted to leave it with you today.

No God = No Peace

Know God = Know Peace

Looking forward to reading the next chapter. See you in Chapter #4

Check out Blue Water Brotherhood at www.bluewaterbrotherhood.com...

Game Plan For Life by Joe Gibbs: #2

Chapter 2 titled My Own Journey opened the door to Coach Gibb's down-to-earth statement that, ""Everybody's going to follow somebody. In football, it's the head coach. In NASCAR, it's the crew chief. In life, I believe it's God." (page 19).

And then His unashamed love for Jesus on the next page, "In the game of life, our Head Coach loved us enough to send His only Son to die for our sins, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have enternal life." Who can argue with that statement directly from the Bible? Many can and many do. But this coach does not write this chapter to argue or throw the Bible in your face. At least I didn't get that from reading.

I liked the story about how he thought he was so important - - doing lots of things in his career well - and one day he was above "picking up his bathrobe and socks." He came to his senses after a confrontation with his wife (as well as the conviction that only comes from God) and realized though he was quickly climbing the ladder of success, he was never going to be left out of doing menial chores at home. His wife brought him down-to-earth that day.

He realized his arrogance, "Regardless of your profession, some days everybody's cheering for you, and the next day they're booing. Then they're cheering again." I related to what he said because no matter if your wife is cheering or booing you -  you still need to man up and help around the house (well to a certain point that is).

The chapter ends with talk of team building which is the ticket into the team approach to the rest of the book. I enjoyed the author's reminder that no matter what I accomplish, how well I do, at the end of the day I am still a husband, an employee, a son of the Most High. Remembering this keeps me humble. And I almost forgot - - I am a man standing on the promise that one day I will have eternal life. Thanks Joe Gibbs for reminding me today that the Head Coach gave me the ticket for life. And it had nothing to do with anything I ever did or could ever do. God's free gift. Salvation.

Check back for Chapter 3 recap. Josh McDowell has been handed the ball. He's ready to run with it....

Check out Blue Water Brotherhood at http://www.bluewaterbrotherhood.com/.

Game Plan for Life by Joe Gibbs: #1

My wife and I are reading Game Plan for Life by Joe Gibbs. We decided to read a chapter a week and discuss what we learned, what we didn't understand or agree with and to pursue in greater depth the Truths uncovered in this book.

Chapter One layed the framework for the entire book. It was basically an introduction about two sports. Every sport needs a game plan, a head coach and helpers. In the Game of Life the head coach is God and the gameplan comes from the Bible.

Check back for Chapter Two insights...

Check out Blue Water Brotherhood at www.bluewaterbrotherhood.com...

No Regrets: Eliminate the Shoulda, Coulda, Wouldas in Life

My best advice to those of you who are still in high school is to take  Spanish as long as you can and learn to speak Spanish fluently! I wish I took more years of Spanish and had paid more attention in the few years that I did take it. I would never have thought that this Yankee boy from Connecticut would be fishing the high seas of the Caribbean and visiting countries and islands with a Spanish influence. I also should have taken more business classes.  I never would have thought back then that I would have my own business.  As you are sitting in classes wondering why you are there, I thought the same thing when I took Spanish and business class. Now I wish that I’d paid more attention.

A gentleman I used to work for would always say, “Eliminate the shoulda, coulda, wouldas in life”.  If you have the chance to do something - do it. Taking chances is a very real part of life. If you try and fail, at least you will not carry  regret for the rest of your life because of what “could have been”.

I was fortunate as a novice to have friends in the sportfishing charter business for many years to guide and direct me.  I rigged baits, washed boats, drove boats and spent many long hours learning alongside friends and “old salts” in South Florida. This mentoring system was essential for me. Because I was learning from those “in the know”, I was able to avoid making major mistakes down the road and was able to learn much more as my questions were patiently answered. I am grateful that these people took the time to teach me. I hope that in turn I am able to share what I have learned with others so that they too can carry on the traditions to the next generation of sport fishing professionals.

As the private sector in fishing has increased, the need for competent and responsible captains and mates has increased. Unfortunately, there continues to be a negative stereotype of mates and captains. The description of the typical captain and mate no longer apply.  Not all captains and mates are high school dropouts, pot smoking, beer brawling, lazy individuals. Surprisingly enough, there are more and more captains and mates with high school and college diplomas who are operating and managing multimillion dollar fishing machines. One of my personal goals is to educate owners about this changing stereotype regarding captains and mates.   We are a group that wears many hats and we should never stop learning and growing in this ever changing industry.  We are a fraternity that needs more unity both on and off the job.