Campers Cove RV Park, Alpena, Michigan
Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Romans 12:9
Here’s the picture I mentioned we wanted to take the other day.
They have these little canals here in the campground, and the “campers” back right up to them. Pretty cool!
Five days surrounded by perfect kayaking waters, and we’d yet to put in. The conditions just haven’t been conducive to allow us to paddle our inflatable. It’s either rainy or breezy – or both. When we get up in the morning, it’s perfectly calm, but within an hour, the neighbor’s flag starts flapping in the breeze. It’s a no-go.
And then we returned from church and the skies held a few clouds and winds were calm, so we were finally able to get out on the water.
Church first.
Today, we visited the Word of Life Baptist Church. When we arrived, there were more cars in the parking lot than we’ve seen for quite some time. It almost seemed strange to see so many. 😊 The weekly report in the bulletin (which had 3 filled, front and back, 8 ½ x 11 pages stuffed in it!) said they had 360 in attendance last week. The music was good, the message, too. The only negative thing we noticed was the Associate Pastor holding a perfectly good Bible in his hand, but read scripture off a piece of paper. Why not read from the real thing? They also had a baby dedication this morning. At its conclusion, they gave a gift of a jar of over 900 pennies (I forget the exact amount). They represent the weeks of the child’s life that the parents have to influence their lives. They’re supposed to remove a penny each week. We thought that was pretty cool.
The Pastor is working through a sermon series titled “Standing On God’s Promises”. I don’t know how many they’ve gone through, but I think it will be a long series. 😊
Today’s promise? The Promise of Recognition. The recognition of us as disciples of Christ.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35
The Pastor (Great Lakes Association Minister, Terry Holley, taught us, even though the Senior Pastor was in house.), began his message with a slide presentation – close ups of everyday items. He asked us to guess what they were, then showed the full image. The point being, that sometimes we just aren’t able to recognize the things we should. If we don’t show love, how are people supposed to recognize us as followers of Jesus Christ?
In order for others to recognize us as believers, we must show love. Not display bumper stickers, or wear T-shirts, or have our neighbors watch us leave for church. In fact, I have a non-Christian friend who tells me of her experiences with “so-called Christians”. They’re not loving. They’re critical of others. They behave in non-Christian ways and speak with non-Christian language. My friend uses these examples as excuses not to become a believer herself. I often pray that I’m a better ‘advertisement for Christ’. That I’m the exception, rather than the rule in her life.
Our Pastor Mike once gave this definition of Love: Righteous actions for another’s highest good.
True love, isn’t based on feelings. When you love, you act. Love is a choice. And over all these virtues put on love . . . Colossians 3:14.
And of course, we have the list in I Corinthians 13 which gives a good definition of love – both what it is, as well as what it is not. Love IS: patient, kind, rejoices in the truth, protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres and never fails. Love IS NOT: envious, boastful, proud, rude, self-seeking, easily angered, grudge-holding, doesn’t delight in evil. And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13
The Pastor today mentioned “Operational Definitions” – something is defined by how it operates. There are over 50 ‘one another’ statements in Scripture. I’m not going to list them all, but here are a few: Don’t steal, lie or deceive one another (Lev 19:11), show mercy and compassion to one another (Zechariah 7:9), be devoted to one another in love and honor one another above yourselves (Romans 12:10), live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16), stop passing judgement on one another (Romans 14:13), accept one another (Romans 15:7), serve one another humbly in love (Galatians 5:13), be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32), forgive one another (Colossians 3:13), encourage one another and build each other up (I Thessalonians 5:11), spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), don’t grumble against one another (James 5:9), love one another deeply, from the heart (I Peter 1:22)
Not only is love a choice, it’s also a matter of conduct. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (I John 3:18) And this is His command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us. (I John 3:23)
We must all learn to love, and we must love all. “They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” – hymn published in 1966, written by parish priest, Peter Scholtes.
And now we kayak!
It was mutually decided to re-visit Duck Pond Park today. This is the place with the wooden bridge. It turned out to be a good decision! Although there were several places where paddling was more difficult because of the stuff growing underwater, we saw quite a variety of wildlife today! Aaaannnnndddd . . . . we actually got in and out of the kayak without either of us getting our feet wet!!, thanks to the kayak rental kiosk in the parking lot and their boat launch.
This is my job – blowing up the boat. I switch legs so they both get a work out. : )
And away we go . . . .
The water runs right alongside part of town.
There’s some traffic noise at first, but when you go back in to the right, it disappears.
On the right is a Wildlife Preserve.
Our first sighting – an egret.
And there he goes . . .
We spotted quite a few of these snail shells in the water and picked up a few. They were all empty. Strange . . .
Lighting wasn’t optimal this afternoon.
That’s a good sized playground.
Three ducks . . . one left before we were anywhere near them.
Shortly after, the other two followed.
Skittish little things!
Look! There’s a deer, dear!
If you remember, we saw these two from land the other day.
Blaine decided he wanted to chase them down.
Boys!
The swans split up and he followed the one on the right.
Those things are really fast!
Here’s what swans sound like when they’re irritated –
This one eventually swam into the reeds where we couldn’t follow . . . .
. . . . but then it came back out right in front of us.
Silly swan!
Here’s something totally gross and sad . .
That other white blob is a dead swan. I refused to take a picture of it, but we paddled over to see what it was.
It had a big hole in it’s side and it was black and smelly and covered with bugs and flies.
Ewwwwww!
Watching this thing trying to get away, made us wonder if they can fly.
I looked it up. They can.
And there it goes.
What lies beneath . . .
and a one, and a two, and lift and stretch . . .
We caught one of the ducks unawares. : )
A pigeon.
Hey. Wildlife is wildlife.
We’re on our way back now, and passed by this .sculpture
We had to sit and wait a bit while all the rentals returned.
No wet feet! No water in the kayak!
As we were completing our voyage, Blaine mentioned that we should go swimming when we got back home. But not just swimming . . . . jumping. As in, using the Aquajump trampoline we’ve been looking at this week. (By the way, you too can have one, for just $6,000!) There haven’t been any other adults even in the water, let alone on the trampoline. At least not when we’ve been around. But why should kids get to have all the fun? And let me tell you, it was FUN!!
We jumped. We leapt into the water from the top. Then we climbed back up and did it again – over and over. I’m sorry there are no pictures of us acting like children. You would’ve enjoyed that.
I just hope we don’t regret it tomorrow. . . .