Powerful!! Granger Smith's Devotional after losing his 3 year old son in a drowning accident, in June 2019.

For those of you who don't know much about Granger, he has been a rising country music singer for the past 10 years or so. After losing his son, he has begun a journey of possibly preaching and possibly leaving the entertainment business behind. He explains how God used a tragic incident in his life to "help him see".

We often ask God why… Why do you give us these horrible things in our life? Why do you make us suffer?? Salvation and light are seen through suffrage and most of the time we are shielded from seeing the light and grace of God because of ourselves and all the worldly things around us. So, he reminds us and sometimes it’s very painful.

Why do we expect the fruits of the spirit when we don’t possess the faith it requires? We must understand what it truly means to "deny yourself". As Sheepdogs we push ourselves and other men to "deny yourself" for Christ and to help others. Living for others is truly Christlike and we must always remember why God gives us the gifts to be Godly men. "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me."

Granger reminds us that we must turn to the word of God. We must read the bible. Don't substitute the bible with other manly, worldly words, and books. We must start with the true word of God before moving to written devotions, biblical self help books, or any book where an author attempts to interpret the word of God for you. Find truth through suffering with the word of God. Other references are great but your truth must start with the words of God. Let the words of God open your eyes to see. I was blind but now I see... Be reborn!

Granger tells a story about horses and how he's seen them wild in Montana and how the horses need Montana but Montana doesn't need them. He also speaks about the horse sitting in a stable in another state that has never seen Montana, and how that horse longs for and needs Montana. I can relate this to the wild turkey, since we've spook about the wild turkey in discussions in the past. The wild turkey is the bird some of our founders wanted to the be national symbol in lieu of the eagle. The turkey is a animal who seems to be part of the forest and has insanely good eye sight and senses and is very hard to hunt. BUT, if he is domesticated and taken out of the forest, the turkey becomes the dumbest animal on the planet. The turkey will kill itself in the dumbest way and reason. The forest doesn't need the turkey but the turkey needs the forest. God doesn't need man but man needs God! Without God in our lives we become that domesticated turkey.

If God is so good why doesn't he just eliminate the suffering...? Why would we need a savior when we have nothing to be saved from? If you didn’t know the dark, how would you rejoice in the light? Without evil how would you know good?

Peace and Hope (Romans 5:1-6)
5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.