Sacred Moments

Posted on by Gary Fultz

To many this would be sacrilege. but to those who have realised they just escaped hell, sacred.

 I came a stranger, a visitor and casual observer. I left immersed in wonder.  

 The place was packed. The air as electric with excitement as a tied championship game in final seconds. Yelling, clapping and (very) loud cheering sounds from young and old alike. God winning. Testimony and story from several teens, twenties and some elderly as they declared hardships and victories before being dunked in an icy water filled cattle tank. Tears and much shaking of heads as memories of who they were “before Christ”. Gods power was evident, powerful, overflowing and permeating. All were participants in this sacred gathering.

Thirty-five quick stories and baptisms before moving on to thirty-two child dedications. The electricity was still there. Clapping, yelling and various carrying on continued as parents gave their kids to God and pleaded with the people to help them raise their kids to Love God. Not a dry eye in the place as a mom gave her child to God. “Before Christ”, Strung out on drugs at life’s bottom she had given away her young child for adoption.  Now in her new life in Christ, she was now giving her child to God. A child she may never see again on earth. She desperately wanted to at least see her child in heaven someday.

[Side notes: extremely organized, the youth band was great but their drummer is an alien with six arms I think. How could over 70 events happen with people talking and take only 2 hours? Wow, they didn’t come for the cake afterwards! I still feel compelled to pray once in awhile for the barren mom with purple and pink hair. So this is where my grandkids are being raised…wow]

There was nothing ordinary about this afternoon church service.  God wasn’t just “talked about”, God permeated the room and the people with his presence. A sacred excitement. We were there with His Spirit. I could picture Jesus in the eyes of the little kids standing on chairs clapping with glee. The year was 2018. I shall not forget this sacred moment.

Ask God for a sacred moment in your life and church (and by faith carry ear plugs)

Gary

PS: a bit of irony on the backstory. This meeting was held in a nice church building given to this ministry. Seems the church grew old and disbanded from lack of people and funds. This ministry grew out of that church a few years back but was attracting young people that made the church people uncomfortable. Now that ministry is a come-as-you-are church and the old church building given to them is just big enough for the youth ministry. God wins.

He Restores My Soul

Posted on by Gary Fultz

6-9 people will sleep in this house each night. The Motorcycle will transport up to 4 people at one time. My world is different from this.

I fell asleep praying and pondering deeply on Psalm 23:3 last night. I awoke praying and pondering the depths of God’s work of restoration when I let him. I think somehow I prayed and pondered in my sleep…is that possible?  I’m quite sure His remake is quite different and beyond what I have in mind. Like the picture above we might be asking for a bigger bike when our house needs a rebuild.

new house
A brand new house in Guatemala

 

On this day of thanksgiving (our american set aside holiday to mostly over-eat), May we say “The Lord is my Shepherd” and allow his remake process to be happening in our lives.

Our team built a new house for a family. Great as it was for them, it’s only a house. Oh the undiscoverable depths God wants to build restoring our soul.

Now that’s something to be thankful for. My personal challenge: Give someone else a reason to be thankful today.

Gary

 

 

A Reason To Journal.

Posted on by Gary Fultz

I re-read this often. 100 years from now this may matter to someone.

Dad

When I sit to write in my own journal, I often think of you because you first introduced me to journaling. You let me read one of your entries once and I loved the little bits of personality and the depth it allowed me to see in you. I loved the wisdom it so clearly showed all laid out there in your own hand. It showed me that journaling was a valuable and even cool thing to do. It has since been invaluable to me. A means to get my thoughts all out where I can see them and sort through what makes sense and what doesn’t. Sometimes just having to put enough thought into it to form the words was the valuable part. I love that I now have pages to look back at and see the path my own learning has taken so far in life. It leaves a bit of legacy to perhaps share pieces with my own daughters someday down the road.

So, thank you and keep those pages coming, hope this will come in handy.

Love …(and signed by my oldest daughter). This was her introduction to gifting me a new journal, now mostly filled.

Just a small glimpse of some of my past. How could I quit now?

Journal entry 1eml

In no particular orderJournal entry 2eml

Journal entry 3eml

Journal entry 4eml

Discipline is required but the pay off is immeasurable.

Gary

 

Just a Worship Thought

Posted on by Gary Fultz
Rocks Cry eml

 

 Luke 19:37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

 Isaiah 55:12 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

 Habakkuk 2:11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.

Fire lake

Some places are gonna be loud!

Gary

To DeClutter Life

Posted on by Gary Fultz

Clutter before God title 1
Psalm 1: What will be standing in my life when someday I stand before the almighty God? You and I will watch all that is seemingly important fall away.

I watched a leaf fall off a tree this morning, before it’s time, yet not I thought. but Fall is a ways off when leaves die and clutter the ground.

It was 50 degrees (f) on the screen porch where I sat with a bible and a cup of coffee. The hummingbirds were scolding me for being close to “their” flowers and feeders for a backdrop in my morning meet with God. In the distance a Rooster pheasant crowed to add reverence with a dozen song birds chirping in.
I had just had a conversation with my neighbor about decluttering our garages, storage sheds and so many extras. This morning I was reminded to think about decluttering my spiritual life. The to do lists, priorities and even not taking my own thoughts and views seriously unless they really come from God. This is serious stuff when an outdoorsman begins to pray for a smaller boat!

I had opened my Bible to Psalm 1. “Lord I want to be like the tree” I prayed. “Please help me declutter my life from the unimportant”.

I drew out a rough illustrated rendition of the psalm 1 version of  the two things that could happen to each of us when we stand before God. That day is coming. It will happen.  Add your comments to make it personal…Some great insights from fellow bloggers. Makes me feel like a lion in a den of Daniels.

Check out a very insightful comment below from parishdynamics . Also check out some great insight from InnerDialects written from a half a world away prompted by this blog and the concept of decluttering.

Clutter t eml
This is my own little book with blank pages ment for scribbles and bits of wisdom potential. It’s a kind of sort of journal that works for me.

Psalm 1

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

 Not so the wicked!
    They are like chaff
    that the wind blows away.
 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

 

GARY

 

A Time to Tell

Posted on by Gary Fultz

It’s a story that needs telling. All anyone can really do is grasp pieces of Aunties story for now. I believe the intricate details will be displayed like a tapestry and listened on seats edges in eternity.

A few months after moving to a strange place with hardly an acquaintance, my wife casually mentioned to me she had an aunt, I had never met, living in the same very small town where we lived. Odd situation, I guess. Auntie didn’t like any of us or care to meet us, but she had cancer and was not long for this world. My wife had never felt any urgency to get to know Auntie until now. “I’m going to visit her starting tomorrow” she announced “and she probably will not want to see me”. 

My wife found her address, knocked on her door and when the door opened a crack with a “What do you want?” greeting, she was quick to stick a foot in the door and let Auntie know whose daughter she was, that she wanted to visit and she brought a few cookies. Auntie took the cookies and forced the door shut.

This went on for a few visits until my wife made it inside the door to talk a little longer and visit with one old-cold-bitter women. Seems Auntie didn’t need sympathy, prying relatives, no religious preacher and even rejected her own children half the time.

Auntie had no time for prayer or anything to do with God. She believed that when one dies, that’s it. No after life. No purpose to life. No God. Nothing. “Burn the body and get rid of the ashes” kind of aunt.

In all this, my wife seemed more and more confident that God was pushing her from a weekly visit over time to daily visits by the time Auntie went into the hospital. “She needs someone” my wife kept saying. The nurses drew straws (they actually did) to see who had Auntie duty. Auntie was not a nice lady and even refused to let her grandchildren visit her. She did not know or want to know their names or see their faces. When my wife or her grown children would visit, Auntie would pretend to be asleep in her hospital bed. If they tried to hug her, she would say “You may shake my hand”. My wife would not ask. She would hug her anyway. Gradually her stiffening at hugs became somewhat less like hugging a wooden board.

My wife would sing hymns softly and read Auntie bible passages about knowing Jesus when Auntie would pretend to be sleeping. Some days Auntie would actually talk to her. She still would not let any clergy see her or anyone pray with or for her.

A few days before Auntie died, my wife felt moved to ask her if she could pray for her. Auntie said “I suppose it would be OK”. My wife thanked Jesus for dying for all the things that separated us from God. She prayed the whole plan of salvation as she had been reading to Auntie in the bible. She prayed for Auntie to just believe in Jesus. If she would just believe. When she was done Auntie said something no one had heard from her lips in a very long time, “Thank you”. Then she went to sleep and My wife went home.

The next day some of Aunties kids said to my wife “What did you do to her?” Alarmed my wife said, “I prayed with her, why?” “She is changed-different” they said.

Auntie spent the last few days of her life smiling, thanking nurses and asking to meet her grandchildren. Hugs happened and Auntie was a different person. Auntie never acknowledged praying with my wife or believing in Jesus but there wasn’t any other evidence to explain the complete change from an angry and bitter old dying women to a sweet-little-old-cancerous woman in pain. She actually seemed to be living beyond the pain drugs. She died much happier than she had lived most of her life.

“All I did was do what I felt God was telling me to do” says my wife.

My wife and I thought God had relocated us 300 miles from family, friends and great fishing lakes for a job and better income. Now we are thinking God had far bigger things in mind. It’s very possible that God moved my wife here for Auntie and gave me a job while He was at it.

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:8-9

Gary

Getting Invited

Posted on by Gary Fultz

This is how to get invited to events, camps, fishing and hunting trips and so on. This picture and pun will reveal all…Getting invited eml
Bring something to the table

We all have something to offer. We all have our particular ways to be in demand. To serve is a better way of understanding how to be invited. While it may seem to be self serving with this approach it is also a good personal measuring stick of our own character.

I met a couple of young gals (at a men’s retreat) who were invited everywhere. It seems they had bought the equipment from a coffee shop going under and were willing to be portable and serve. They had skills and great coffee. How about: they had skills and 100 kinds of  really great coffee! They were also willing to take a stab at making anything requested with an adventurous smile. Side note: They were not single very long.

This morning as I plopped an easy made breakfast and some coffee onto the table I saw how the plate, cup, and book represented me. I cook, make special mugs (and a mean  coffee) and speak in public at special events. I get invited. What’s more they invite me back (Remembering that journey will hopefully keep me humble).

What are you willing to bring to the table to serve others?  

My day job keeps me very busy as well as home life. My heartbeat is summed up on the coffee mug of this second picture. This side of the mug says it all.

Getting Invited 2 eml
What Jesus brought to the table; The Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith Roll: Mine and Your part?

Gary

Credits: 3 eggs, 1/4 onion, 2 baby bell pepper, Men’s breakfast mug with thrice heated coffee and my bible opened to where I am at in my morning  time with God (Hebrews 11). Oh ya, and bacon…don’t ever forget the bacon at a men’s breakfast.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Posted on by Gary Fultz

Ice fishing cp eml
To all you readers and fellow bloggers, Merry Christmas from the frozen lakes areas of northern United States. The sun is a bit inconspicuous through the cab and the trees as it sets over the small lake I was fishing.  A safe 7″ of ice with the fold up shelter allowed me to see 9 fish and catch 3.

When I read your blogs from South Africa, UK, South America and so many warmer countries, I often wonder what I am missing that excites you. I only know what you are missing if you have never driven or walked on a frozen lake or peered down a hole in the ice as a monster fish suddenly appears to bite your hook (Or decide not to).

I dropped a camera down the hole to show you just what it looks like down there. I was catching some blue gill that day.  Check out this utube video 

Have a Merry Christmas fellow readers and bloggers. may you keep connected. May you also become more connected to the God who created all that we know and love.

For me, Christmas is a time where I reflect on how our creator exchanged His eternal Glory for a different kind of glory never seen before. A glory He wants to pass on to us through God in a finite human body as a baby. Inconspicuously inserting himself into his own creation to make a way to restore our relationship to Him.  “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. ” Luke 2:14. take some time to mull over what the angels proclaimed to some obscure shepherds who would worship God in the form of a baby born in a barn. Glory to God both in heaven and now on earth

May you make room for Jesus in your everyday life this next year.

christmas-wall-2017-eml.jpg
We have a christmas tree wall for some of our Christmas Cards

 

Merry christmas All from the Frozen state of Wisconsin, USA. It’s -8 F actual temperature and diving. Wind chill close to -30 F.

Gary

Love Potion 3:16

Posted on by Gary Fultz

What if you were the only one separated from God? The bible never says, “relax, you are not the only one.” The bible does say, “everyone has sinned and falls short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

We are, you know, alone. All of us, alone. It’s an us and God problem and not God’s fault. Sin. Inherited. We sin because we were born sinners. We are considered dead before a Holy God with an eternal gulf separating us from God. We are so dead that we cannot fix our problem.

No mortal can stand beside us to help or take our place. No one.

There is nothing we can do to wash sin away. We embody sin on our side of the canyon.

No friend, parent, teacher or priest can bridge that gap for us.

No accomplishment, no brilliant strategy, no personal goodness or charisma can remove sins eternal devastation.

Then came Jesus. Fully God born into his own mortal creation. To die for our eternal death sentence. Alone.

God’s only acceptable solution. He stained our planet with His blood. The only perfect sacrifice.

He beat the death meant for us. He offers his immortal life, to you, to me, individually, to everyone… one at a time.

We bring nothing for this transaction. Alone, with nothing, we meet and acknowledge Jesus. Savior. Lord.

We begin to realize how much his love permeated all time and space. We belong to God.

If the force of love could be measured, it would have shattered the Richter scale at the cross.

Jesus Christ

Have you met Jesus? Have you dropped all your life’s crutches and baggage at the foot of the cross and asked his forgiveness from sin? The cross bridges the gap between us and God. Someday we will stand alone before a Holy God. We will either hear “I don’t know you, get out of my sight!” or “I know you, welcome to my place forever!”

Only One different eml
So, what if you were the only one? Would Christ Jesus have died for you? This love is too great to think otherwise!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation (new species…my words) has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

 Oh that we are becoming more like Christ daily. We were meant to share this off the charts love and introduce others to Jesus. Oh yes, Love potion 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son. Whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)

Ah, but that’s only the beginning. God then wants a friendship. We can walk and talk through life and forever with him. Jesus made that clear. “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). Gods plan all along from original sin to eternity was a restored relationship where the created can know creator. Absolutely amazing grace.

Even if I were the only one, Gods love would reach out to me. I never have to be alone. Ever since Jesus chose me and I chose him. Even when I someday stand before the most powerful Holy God. Alone. Probably trembling with realizations never understood, but not alone…My friend who knows me way more than I know HIm, and invites me home forever anyway.

Gary

A Word Worth a Thousand Pictures

Posted on by Gary Fultz
Tim on Jesus Rock email
This picture is worth a thousand-word story

Words are often cheap, thrown around casually as if in endless supply. Words often power and leverage others with only thought of a desired result. Words change another’s world. Words leave tracks. The ripples of words change the world in so many lives in their wake. Words flowing from a pure spring are clean and refreshing. Words with even a trace of dirt taint the taste for more.

I have been thinking of a word worth a thousand pictures to turn about the common phrase. I have often thought of this one word and a thousand pictures that go with major times of growth and change in my life.

Yes   

The word is yes. A word that begets yes after yes. Yes is commitment direction, direction of duty, character development direction and a thousand times thousand pictures splayed through a life of continuous yes. Yes is unusually contrary to the most common two year old response. No is a reaction word. Yes is intentional.

Think about a life of “YES” to God, a continuous “YES” to your Spouse, “YES” to your neighbor and yes the pictures are rolling in. We have stories to tell. Great stories that will be told in eternity.

Think about “Yes” to our self only. You see much different pictures. I always picture our friends George and his wife. She put his suitcase on the front porch when he came home from work and said “Choose between me and cocaine. If you choose me we flush all your drugs and you carry your suitcase inside and stay. If you choose Cocaine, take the suitcase and go.” George took the suitcase and ran. This “YES” to cocaine has been the saddest thousand pictures for me personally.

Please say a continuous “YES” to Jesus; He said “YES” for us. The pictures and stories in eternity will be better than any epic movie made by man.

GARY