PHOTO EPISTLE #18 – STANDING FIRM

On one assignment for National Geographic World Magazine, I was privileged to shoot a story on Cheetahs. Wildlife is my favorite subject to shoot. I was actually a Wildlife and Game Management student in the School of Forestry at Stephen F. Austin State University before making the decision to pursue photography as a career. This cheetah is famous among cheetahs for being the first one to give birth successfully in captivity after 200 years of breeding attempts. In fact, she gave birth to nine cubs and only nine had been born in the wild. Unfortunately, all nine in the wild died. Since my story was focusing on this fact, I needed to get close enough to her and her cubs to get some great full frame shots (I was hoping for the cover:). I was using a 600mm lens so I didn’t really need to get that close. So I set up and was shooting away at one of the cubs when another cub without me or the Cheetah handler noticing, slipped around us, which put us between her and her mother. Once that distress call was sent out, the handler yelled at me to stand up and don’t run, no matter what happens. With my 600mm posed to use as a weapon, mom was upon us and stopped just in front of us while her cub scampered to her for safety. The two turned away and went back to the tree they had called their living-room. What saved my life was obeying the command to stand firm. People have been killed by cheetahs and we were very fortunate to not be among them.

God in His wisdom designed us for going forward and standing firm. Our ribs are in front. If we expose our back, we expose our weakest side. The bible tells us to stand firm over and over again. the promise is those who do will be saved Matthew 24:13. God calls us to resist or stand up to the devil and he will flee James 4:7. We have been given what it takes to stand up to our enemy…Gods word! We do have an enemy who is hunting us and is just waiting for us to expose our weak spots before attacking. Today that weak spot appears to be false teachings and teachers. One of the signs of the end times according to the Bible will be or perhaps is now the increase of many false teachers and prophets. These wolves are moving in among us. They are hard to see theses days. However, the light of God’s word will expose them 100% of the time! Your only real defense against destructive lies is knowing the bible. We can stand firm on the truth and not run when the devil comes at us like a lion..or a cheetah.

the Jesusfreak