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?

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In no particular orderJournal entry 2eml

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Discipline is required but the pay off is immeasurable.

Gary

 

And We, Like the Bee. Maybe

Posted on by Gary Fultz

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lessons from a Battered Bumble Bee

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The sun was setting, it was close to dark. I was walking to the house after taking sunset pictures that were odd colored when I noticed a bumble bee on a fall flower. I took a full one second time exposure to capture the light and the bee. An OK picture I thought, but I could not see everything. Sometimes we just do not see the whole picture unless we stop and see. Really see.

Battered Bumble Bee

For the bee this is as good as it gets.  

A bee, clinging to a flower when it should have been in the hive. Old, torn wings, badly wounded leg and foot and feeding late into the evening. A bee on it’s last feeding perhaps? We all end up in tough shape if we live a long life.

This is how good it can get…

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty (John 6:35)
 But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)
 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. (Revelation 21:16)
The promise that came to me as I walked into the house: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. (Matthew 11:28)

Gary

Just a Worship Thought

Posted on by Gary Fultz
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 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.

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Some places are gonna be loud!

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.

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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.

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!”

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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

 

Exponential Brain Illustration

Posted on by Gary Fultz

Fishing with Liz email
How do we learn?  Teaching a grand daughter to fish. Picture by my Daughter Tracy Demarse

We are born with a brain in the physical sense. I am told that most of us only use a few percentage points of our brains capacity through out our lives. Huh! Funny word “capacity” . I picture a livestock water tank (from growing up on the farm) that can hold 200 gallons of water and most of us put in 10 gallons our whole life.

Reality check here. The brain is actually closer to being a water balloon with growing expansion room as we grow.  Yes, it matters what you put into it! “But wait, there’s more” (to quote the overused commercials).  Way more!

What if the brain grew more capacity as it was used? what if capacity (and it does) grows exponentially in the areas used? What if we were created in the image (and we are) and likeness (how much do you know about His likeness?) of God? That part of us that can have a close relationship with our creator and be-becoming like Him in proportion.

Here is my story…and a spiritual illustration.

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Trying to get a grand son interested….this is going to take some work

When I was 11 years old a saw blade came off a machine and cut both my arms to the bone, cutting off the main nerves to the rest of the arms, hands and fingers. As I tried to function somehow a doctor told my mother I needed to either play the piano or learn to type; and do it a lot. I now had Hope to be able to use my fingers past being clothespins on the end of my hands. I chose piano. It was slow. Very slow. Somehow I began to use my fingers. After years of playing (even with a degree of proficiency) I began to wonder why I could feel the keys when I played. I could play songs in the dark and actually feel the keys. Hmmm. This is not possible…or is it? What happened?

A few years ago I read an article from a retired neurosurgeon that explained what happened. The brain can actually begin to fill in the blanks (it’s the nerves that tell the brain what is being felt and in essence we experience feeling through the brain. This is why a blind person can use their hands to feel your face and say with confidence “I can see you” and they really can! This is why, when I play the piano, I actually have a touch on the keys and do not just pound away (although pounding was a huge part of learning for me). I can feel the keys and yet get a wood sliver under my fingernail and not feel it until I see it…then the brain kicks in and then says “yep , sorry, this should be hurting….oh, sorry wrong finger. Sometimes my brain still gets the fingers mixed up.

(A good version of senses taking over other senses is explained here)

Don’t miss the applications here. I have realized that knowing God and having a personal relationship with Him is way more than knowing about God. It’s like knowing about pianos.  The hours spent on the piano for me are way beyond what most people would need to be able to play the piano extremely well.

    We come to God, in a sense (pun intended), with our spiritual nerves cut off. The best we can do if we used 100% of our capacity falls extremely short of Gods requirement of perfection.

Our baby brain does not start out leaning toward anything but ourselves. fast forward into adulthood and we have no more capacity to play the piano proficiently or have a deep relationship with God without a “start” in our lives. With the piano the start was easy. Sit down and start banging away right? No I needed someone to at least start me in the right direction, Sit down on the bench, open a beginner’s book, point the way, keep pointing the way and then practice for hours on end every week for years. I started to “feel” the piano keys some time in my 20’s. The progression was extremely slow. Even now, if I quit playing for awhile my feeling of the keys deteriorates rapidly.

I believe a relationship with God is the same way. Our “Start” is when we realize we cannot even know God except through Jesus Christ, your most important relationship (Please see how this is explained in detail here).

Final thought and why I wrote this blog: Knowing Gods heart deeply takes time. Knowing God can be in the next few minutes. Knowing God and His Heart can begin right out of the gate. Knowing God deeply takes a lot of time spent with God. No short-cuts on in-depth relationships of any kind.  I am still a beginner but alone time is essential.

Every morning I get up and put my book (not the piano book) in front of me and read my Bible. I ask God for understanding, guidance and honestly have a staff meeting with God.  Side Note: God seems to like “obedience” quite a bit. We talk and listen to one another. It’s taken years for this time to not be so one sided. My “feeling” capacity for God and for others has changed me to be more like Jesus. I may be quite slow to love God, others and possibly even my enemies but hey my nerves were cut off as were yours. I suspect that is why there are so many “One Another” commandments in the Bible, sigh, that’s  another discussion.

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Little Red Bird, Big Life Lesson

Posted on by Gary Fultz

I was restless on this chilly, damp and blustery May day. The kind of day to read a good book by the fire casting it’s heat to thaw the chilled bones. I had been watching the deer mosey around the fenced apple trees and the little song birds getting blown off the feeder by wind gusts. No singing today as they seem to look for spots of refuge from the wind and flapping foliage.

I stood with my camera ready as I had spotted a bright red Scarlet Tanager. A tunnel through the flapping leaves suddenly appeared as my little red bird found a sanctuary on a stout oak limb situated just right, behind the tree trunk and out of the wind. The unruffled bird put up with me and even posed a bit. I felt as if we shared some peace in the chaos until little tweetie said, “that’s it, I’m done” and off he flew to wherever birds go after a fine photoshoot.

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Much has been said about having Peace in the midst of Chaos. Songs written and Poems published but so many times the experience eludes us.

Jesus told his disciples they would encounter chaos (my words) but he promised “My Peace I leave with you” John 14:27. Jesus calmed the storm when the disciples thought they might die. Mark 4:39.  Again: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.

Watching this little bird find a brief sanctuary in the chaos made me realize that I spend too much time looking for ways and places to escape the various levels of chaos life seems to daily throw my way. I have also found peace in the storms of life when my walk with Jesus is close. He draws me closer and says “I’m here, experience my peace”.  When my trust level with God is high he seems to smile and raise the bar higher. “Trust Me”. Seems cruel on God’s part to give no explanation or relief sometimes.

My Prayer most of my life has been “I need you Jesus”

My wife and I have experienced our share of loss and extremely hard times as well as a great life with adventure and good times. Our trust bar with God has been raised beyond sight. There becomes an unexplainable depth to the sanctuary we find in walking daily with Jesus. Unexplained chaos becomes unexplainable depth.

My hope is that others may see a tunnel through the chaos to where we are sitting and see what they would like to have. Peace inside becoming peace on the outside. I will not look at the Scarlet Tanager the same way again.

Gary

Unswerving, An Intentional Journey

Posted on by Gary Fultz

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“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23

Teen wilderness canoe trip day 2.

Nine of us woke up before daylight, ate an instant breakfast, packed up our camp and began the longest day of any wilderness trip I have ever led. It was a day representing life. Mostly great mixed with pain tainted moments. Every teen ended up crying at some point before we set up camp in the dark. We crossed through two large bays into a fast-flowing river. By noon we had found a rocky island in the little river. A beautiful little place to stretch and eat something. We didn’t know this was a potentially deadly place. How could we?

I remember three things. Lunch was really good and the pop-up storm that hit without warning was really harsh. It was such a nice day that most of us had their raingear packed on the bottom of our huge packs. Lightening was continuous and close. I encouraged everyone to stand on a rock under small trees and not touch a tree or the roots. I was talking with two teens and then one just disappeared in the wicked storm. Evidently, he was standing in a puddle of water when lightning struck a tree about 50 yards away. We found him on the ground with no ability to speak or move in the harsh rain. Gradually his neurons and muscles started working. When he could finally move and talk, we were able to get him into a canoe when he was stable enough not to tip over the edge. We were a day’s travel to the nearest vehicle. It seemed best to find a place to camp. 9 miles later we found a campsite in the dark. “Grateful” was no longer a surface word for any of us that night. We didn’t know there would be a harder day ahead. How could we?

We all push out from shore each day to navigate life. Constantly reacting or making adjustments to the weather and seasons, we navigate life as a canoeist navigates a winding wilderness river. Deadheads, sandbars, rocks, rapids, sink holes, log jams and a host of unseen dangers blend with the beauty while the currents push us around the next corner.
I know something about swerving. I have an aversion to obstacles in life while my canoe seems to seek the unseen and unavoidable things. I also know something about studying the river ahead with a diligent eye, at least until I get distracted or get lulled into complacency. I have a lot of experience dumping the canoe, patching another hole, getting back in and shoving off into the current. I know I know…It’s my life, my canoe and like you I didn’t choose the river or the obsticles.
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I know of many who seem content to make camp and never go further down the river spiritually. Some of my friends stand on their last wreck and demand that God apologize and explain why he does not remove the rocks we wreck upon in life.

It is my prayer that at the end of life, we will have a ton of stories to tell forever. Getting to where I want to be forever is an intentional journey. Jesus not only has the map, He ran the river and made the map. He says, “follow me”.

Gary