Welcome to the Red Letters & Whitetails Podcast! On episode 11, host Steven Crawford jumps into the Gospel of Mark, where he does a deep dive into Mark 8:34-38. This is a well known verse where Jesus declares, "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever wants loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it." As true, bold Christians we must deny ourselves and our own selfish desires each day, and take up our cross and follow Jesus. It's easy to get caught up spending all of our energy seeking pleasure and our own selfish and worldly desires, but remember whatever we gain or achieve on the earth is only temporary. We have to be willing to make our pursuit of God more important than the pursuit of pleasure and worldly success. Live for Jesus now, and you will know what it truly means to live life to the fullest and have peace that you will have eternal life with Christ. 

After a discussion around the Letters in Red, Steven is joined by Matt Campbell; an avid deer hunter from Mid-Michigan to discuss the issues around Michigan's doe management problem, and herd management in general. Back in September, an article written by Chad Stewart was widely circulated in Michigan that called for Michigan hunters to harvest more anterless deer this upcoming season. Matt and Steven dive into this article and the harvest report numbers from years past and discuss ways we could potentially change the narrative and shift the culture a tad here in Michigan. This conversation was a lot of fun and you don't want to miss it! 

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Welcome to the Red Letters & Whitetails podcast! On episode 10, host Steven Crawford does a deep dive on John 14:15-17, and what it means to "practice the presence of the lord." Sometimes when we are going through difficult times in life, we feel far away and disconnected from God, but he is ALWAYS with us. Practicing being in his presence (because we always are), can help us get through difficult times and situations.

After the Red Letters portion of the podcast, Steven talks about his 2023 deer season and recaps whether he hit his goals for the season. It was a challenging season, but one of his best yet for many reasons! SUBSCRIBE AND ENJOY!!

Welcome to the Red Letters & Whitetails podcast! On episode 9, host Steven Crawford jumps into the Gospel according to Matthew, where he does a deep dive into Matthew 18:21-35 "Jesus tells the Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor." In these verses, Jesus tells the story of the Master who forgave his servant his debt, but afterward the servant didn't forgive another servant the debt owed to him. What Jesus is trying to teach is the power of forgiveness and the consequences of living in unforgiveness. If you live your life for Jesus, you NEED to forgive people of their wrongdoings. How can we expect our father to forgive our sins if we cannot forgive others while here on earth?

After a discussion around the Letters in Red, Steven is joined by his good friends Jack Shull, Blake Ledger, Sam Hogan, and Calvin Beeke for a Pre-Rut Michigan Round Table! All the guys have great stories from this year as Sam, Calvin, and Jack have all already filled tags on GREAT Bucks. They tell their stories from this year, go into a discussion of late October vs Early November, mock scrapes, hunting the rut, what their plans are the rest of bow season, and much more!! 

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Welcome to the Red Letters & Whitetails podcast! On episode 8, host Steven Crawford shares the big news and his life!! Kaely and Steven were baptized on October 1st, and after Steven shares his experience he dives in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." When Kaely and Steven were baptized, they became new creations in Christ; their old selves have passed away, and they are now reborn in the image of Christ!

After diving into that verse, Steven turns his attention to the whitetail woods now that it's October!! He discusses the cold front coming in the first full weekend of October; deer are going to be on their feet with temperatures dropping 25+ degrees and drastic wind direction changes! With the huge temperature drop, this would be the weekend to squeeze in a morning hunt to see if you catch that buck heading back to his bedroom a little bit later than usual. Also, be focused on corn and acorns!! Deer will be on the feed this weekend after this crazy warm front.

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Welcome to the Red Letters & Whitetails podcast! On episode 7, host Steven Crawford is back for part 2 of a 3-part series talking about how to balance family, work and the outdoors with Nate Griswold- a friend an avid Michigan public land hunter.

Before the discussion with Nate, Steven shares some big personal news, then jumps into the gospel of Matthew, where he does a deep dive into Matthew 18:15. This verse goes like this, "If your brother or sister in God's family does something wrong, go and tell them what they did wrong. Do this when you are alone with them. If they listen to yo, then you have helped them to be your brother or sister again." This all ties back to be a Loving person in God; by not avoiding what needs to be said, you are showing love. When you are avoiding what needs to be said, you are showing the opposite of love. If someone you love is doing something wrong, do you really love them if you aren't calling them out on it?

After a discussion around the Letters in Red, Steven and Nate discuss balancing family, work, and the outdoors. Something we can all strive to be better at! Nate is married with a 7 year old son and 10 year old son, so his hands have been tied for quite a few hunting seasons now, and he has learned how to prioritize what is important during whitetail season and still finding time to spend in the great outdoors chasing whitetails. This was a great conversation that would be great for any father, or expecting father to listen to!

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Welcome to the Red Letters & Whitetails podcast! On episode 6,  host Steven Crawford kicks off part 1 of a 3-part series talking about how to balance family, work, and the outdoors with co-owner of Latitude Outdoors Kevin Leach. 

Before the discussion with Kevin, Steven jumps into the gospel of Matthew, where he does a deep dive into Matthew 6:14-15. These verses talk about being forgiving to others who have wronged you, in order to be right with God.  In these verses, Jesus declares "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." Powerful words to live by. If we are continuously asking God for forgiveness of our sins, are we also continuously forgiving others who have wronged us? 

After a discussion around the Letters in Red, Steven and Kevin discuss balancing family, work and the outdoors. Something we can all strive to be better at! Kevin has a 20 month year old daughter at home, so last year was his first full hunting season trying to balance having a child, along with maintaining a quality marriage, and still finding time to enjoy the whitetail pursuit in the fall. This was a great conversation that would be great for any father, or expecting father, to listen to; Kevin also talks briefly talks about what's new at latitude outdoors and what we can expect from them this fall as hunting season approaches! 

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Latitude Outdoors website: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com

Latitude YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/@latitudeoutdoors

Welcome to the Red Letters & Whitetail podcast! On episode 5, host Steven Crawford jumps into the Gospel according to John, where he does a deep dive into John 8:7. This is well known verse where Jesus declares "He who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." We are all guilty of judging others in one way or another, and Jesus declares multiple times in the gospel that we must refrain from doing this. We are eager to call out other peoples sin, but we usually do it before we look in the mirror and deal with our own sin.

After a discussion around the Letters in Red, Steven is joined by Carl Ream of Foxtrot Hunting to talk all things Self Filming, including a couple of their favorite self filming stories. They also discuss planning, prepping, and scouting for out of state hunts and Carl's favorite time to do some preseason scouting! A lot of great info here- and make sure to head to Foxtrots Youtube page and follow them on IG for some great whitetail content! LISTEN AND ENJOY!! 

Foxtrot hunting IG: https://www.instagram.com/foxtrothunting/?hl=en

Foxtrot YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@FoxtrotHunting

Welcome to the Red Letters & Whitetails podcast! On episode 4, host Steven Crawford jumps into the Gospel according to Matthew, where does a deep dive into Matthew 10:34-39. It is in these verses where Jesus declares that he did not come to bring peace, but rather division. Jesus was so bold in his faith that he knew that his teachings and sermons would bring division and cause an uproar during his time. As Gods children, our faith is constantly being tested, and we can either turn away from God, or be bold in our faith even knowing that our boldness will likely cause division within our own families, friend groups, and other relationships in our life.
After a deep dive into those verses and how we can apply them to our life, Steven discusses the importance of summer glassing and how it can help you pattern your target buck(s) for this upcoming fall. By taking multiple nights to glass, you can not only pattern bucks to figure out where they are bedding, but also figure out where the doe bedding is located using your binoculars and maps. We all know come November, doe bedding = bucks. Summer glassing can be absolutely vital for fall success. LISTEN AND LEARN MORE!

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On episode 3, host Steven Crawford is joined by good friend and fellow Christian David Droge. We jump to the Old Testament in this episode- The first half of the podcast they go into a deep discussion that revolves around Proverbs 13:20, "Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm." We can probably all look back at our lives at some point and remember a time when we were hanging around the wrong group of people that eventually affected our lives in a negative way. David and I discuss how to constantly be paying attention to the people you are spending a lot of time with, and if they have you turning toward God, or running away from him.
The second half of the podcast David tells the story behind his Michigan buck kill last year in early November. After his story, we discuss summer preparations that we are doing to get ready for the upcoming whitetail season including food plot prep, trail cam preparations, and a little discussion around mock scrapes!

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Welcome to the Red Letters & Whitetails podcast! On episode 2, host Steven Crawford jumps into the New Testament and the Epistle of James to go over two of his favorite verses of the Bible- James 1: 2-3, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." We all go through trials every single day, and we can face them head on by leaning into God, or we can try to solve them ourselves and run away from God. After a deep dive into those verses and how we can apply them to our life, Steven goes into the story of his 2022 whitetail season, which was the most challenging of his life. Listen and hear why! 

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