With last year's Chesapeake Bay hot spots not producing much of anything for us in 2013, my buddy and I set out Saturday in search of aquatic life in untested waters...to us anyway. Destination - the upper Virginia Chesapeake, and point of entry - Ingram Bay. As we were preparing to put the boat in the water, two other fishermen came in behind us with the same intentions. We spoke with them at the ramp for a moment, quickly realizing that they were locals who fished the local Bay tributaries on quite a regular basis. One of the two described in particular detail how he himself had caught rockfish, speckled trout and puppy drum throughout this past winter and into the early spring due to the warmer water in the Bay and its tributaries. There before us had to have been 'the guy' that we had heard about through third and fourth-hand fishing stories, the one who was catching these fish throughout the winter when nearly all other fishermen struggled or hung it up all together until more favorable conditions returned. Well, we explored many new spots and went on to have a pretty good day, and although we didn't hook many of our target species, the Lord did bless us with plenty of action in the form of young scrappy rockfish. Regardless of what the skeptics say, based on where we were Saturday, the future of the Bay is looking up!
2 Peter 1:16 (NASB)
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
More often that not, the fishing reports that many of us receive have been passed down through several sets of mouths and ears, and by the time we get them, there is a good chance that the information we receive is either inaccurate or incomplete. For instance, "I've heard they've really been nailing the flounder at the High Rise" might actually have been one boat who fell into a hungry pod of fish at just the right time, while most headed back to the dock fishless that day. So, the report we heard on Saturday from 'the guy' struck me as rather unique in that he himself had been doing the catching and was able to recount vivid details of the tactics, the bite, the location and the conditions.
Eyewitness testimony - it is the most reliable source of truth and history that we have on which to base our beliefs and thoughts. In particular, Scripture is full of eyewitness testimony of Jesus - accounts from those that walked with Him during His earthly ministry, those that watched His death on the cross and those that encountered the resurrected Lord. And there is enough evidence to conclude that the Gospels, which house most of these testimonies, can be traced all the way back to the days of these eyewitnesses.
Hundreds of eyewitnesses testify to us that Jesus, God in human form, came to this earth, lived a blameless life amongst us, willingly died to pay our sin debt, and rose on the third day to defeat death once and for all. He loves you, and he allowed numerous people to personally witness His life, death resurrection so that you would have evidence. What then will you do with the testimonies of these eyewitnesses? - GE
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