Get Away From My Deer
By Ronnie Wyatt
It was Saturday morning as Jake, an avid hunter, woke up ready to go bag the first deer of the season. He walked down to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, and to his surprise he found his wife, Alice, sitting there, fully dressed in camouflage.
Jake asked her, "What are you up to?"
Alice smiled. "I'm going hunting with you!"
Jake, though he had many reservations about this, reluctantly decided to take her along. Arriving at the hunting site, Jake set his wife safely up in the tree stand and told her, "If you see a deer, take careful aim and I'll come running back as soon as I hear the shot."
Jake walked away with a smile on his face knowing that Alice couldn't bag an elephant, much less a deer. To his surprise, before he could make it to his favorite hunting spot, Jake heard a gunshot and a lot of screaming.
Quickly, Jake ran back. As he got closer to her stand, he heard Alice screaming, "Get away from my deer!"
Confused, Jake raced faster towards his screaming wife. And again he heard her yell, "Get away from my deer!" followed by another volley of gunfire!
Now within sight of where he had left his wife, Jake was surprised to see a guy standing there with his hands high in the air. Jake heard the guy begging, "Okay, lady, okay! You can have your deer! Just let me get my saddle off it!"
Jake’s wife tried her best, but it was not quite good enough. Sometimes our best of intentions still lead to our failure. In the Bible we read where the disciples of Jesus made Him a promise that they, regardless of their good intentions, could not keep. Jesus told them, “You will all fall away… for it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered (Mark 14:27). They assured Him that they would not fail Him: “But Peter insisted emphatically, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the others said the same” (Mark 14:31).
Their good intentions were to never fail Jesus, but we find out that in His most trying time they did abandon Him: “Then everyone deserted him and fled” (Mark 14:50).
Jesus was left to suffer alone. Can you imagine how those disciples felt? They had abandoned the one that they promised to stay true to. Their best intentions fell short.
The amazing thing to me about the whole story is that after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples, the very ones that had abandoned Him, and not one time did He mention their failure! Isn’t forgiveness a beautiful thing? Even when we blow it big time, God is willing to forgive us if we place our faith and trust in Jesus.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible comes from Isaiah 43:25 “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”
Isn’t that amazing? Once you ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, He does and God treats your failed good intentions and sins as if they never happened. Now that’s better than shooting a horse, I mean a deer any day!
Verse of the week:
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”
Psalm 103:12
Ronnie Wyatt travels for Crosseyed Ministries as a Christian Comedian, Evangelist, Conference Speaker and Author. www.crosseyedministries.com
