Sunday Take Home - What I Do

This past Sunday my pastor, Chad Graves, continued with his series on the Ten Commandments.  This week we covered the 4th commdment: from the passage of Exodus Chapter 20: 8 -11.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

The one phrase that stuck in my head from the message this Sunday was a resounding of the messge from last week: "Who I am determines what I do".  Since confirming the need for establishing and maintaining my identity in Christ it was an awesome reminder that my identity should translate into my actions.  I do not go to church to be a Christian. 

I do not feel that attending church is a chore.  It is a welcomed blessing each week to spend time worshiping with my family at Pauline.  It was a great confirmation to hear the message as Chad presented it Sunday to know and solidify that the 4th Commandment is not meant to be a difficult command.  It is meant to free us from binds of this earth.

God, in his infinite knowledge knew and made provision for us to take some time from everything in the world and come to his house for worship and revival.  He knew we needed rest! 

Felsenthal NWR Geo-Photo Blogpost

This past Saturday my family and I spent Friday night and Saturday camping near Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arkansas.  The weather was geat!  Saturday morning I got out and enjoyed the cool morning temperatures by canoeing in the Grand Marias area of Felsenthal NWR.

Felsenthal NWR is the world's largest green-tree resevoir with 15,000 acres being covered by water nearly year round.  Some years this acreage more than doubles to 36,000 acres during winter flooding. The refuge is a very diverse ecosystem with open water, bottom land hardwood, and upland timber habitats.  For more information you can read the refuge's fact sheet here or go to their website.

For my canoe trip I picked a short 3.5 mile path in the Grand Marias area of Felsenthal.  The Grand Marias area is in the southwestern most corner of the refuge north of the Felsenthal Dam.  I put my canoe in at the county boat ramp and campground which is provided and maintained by Union County, Arkansas.  

View From Boat Ramp down the boat canal.

From the boat ramp it is a short paddle down a boat canal which leads to the open water of Grand Marias.  The canal is surrounded by lily pads.  It is not very wide and you should be cautious and watch for other boaters (especially if you are in a canoe).

As I exited the canal I saw the beginnings of a very beautiful sunrise over Grand Marias.  Instead of beginning with my original plans of paddleing northwest I first went east to get a front row seat for one of God's many beauties...a Sunrise. 

Sunrise over Grand Marias From My Canoe

After watching and taking several photos of the sunrise I traveled northwest and began my trip around the island in the middle of Grand Marias.  While in the area I saw many types of waterfowl, wading birds, and woodpeckers.  The scenery of Felsenthal NWR is beautiful with the many Cypress trees, each with its own unique form, lining the banks and lily pads growing in huge patches throughout the shallow water of the refuge. 

Blue Heron in Cypress Tree in Grand Marias Area of Felsenthal NWR

For more photos and to see the path I traveled see the interactive map below.  The red line indicates the  canoe path I took.  There are multiple points also placed on the map:

• Yellow Stickpins are Geotagged photos of either scenic points of interest or wildlife seen on the trip.
• Orange Stickpins are Geotagged photos taken just to show my point of view at various locations of the trip.
• Orange Circles are Geotagged photos with notes about various locations in the trip.
• Yellow Arrows are written notes or observations made during the trip.

All of the above mentioned points are interactive in that you can click on each to see either the photo taken or read notes from the trip.  On geotagged photo points you can also click the underlined description to see a larger view of each photo.


View Larger Map

The data indicating boat ramps and other reference information is provided by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's GIS Division.