A Time to Tell

It’s a story that needs telling. Maybe some stories are sacred enough to leave for the telling in eternity. Maybe some can be told as a teaser for story time a hundred years from now. I will leave most things out but you will get the gist.

  Ominous sunset with a storm coming. I wonder what clashing spiritual forces look like? 

A while 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 small town where we lived. Odd situation I guess. Auntie didn’t like any of us or care to meet but she had cancer and was not long for this world. My wife had never felt moved 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 who’s daughter she was, that she wanted to visit and she brought a few cookies. Auntie took the cookies and shut the door.

This went on for awhile until my wife made it inside the door to talk a little longer and visit with one cold old bitter women. Seems Auntie didn’t need sympathy, prying relatives and even rejected her own children half the time. Auntie had no time for prayer or anything to do with God.

Auntie 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.

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 want to even know their names or see their faces. When my wife or her  grown children would visit, Auntie would pretend to be asleep. 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 less like hugging a wooden board.

My wife would sing hymns and read Auntie bible passages about knowing Jesus when Auntie would pretend to be sleeping. Some days Auntie would actually talk to her. She 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?”

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 isn’t any other evidence to explain the complete change from an angry and bitter old dying women to a sweet little old cancerous women in pain. She was not getting more morphine. 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 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 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

Please comment below, thanks

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A Sunset Reminder

I want to share last evenings sunset from our front door to you. I put the light meter on the sun so the camera would soak up the color as we see it live. Slow the speed for saturation, No filters, cropping or color enhancement. As is.

Below is a progression. 10 shots of the same sun over a period of seven minutes. all moving parts of color, lighting, framing, clouds and the sun dropping to the horizon.

See the slide show by clicking on a picture and follow the arrows. What do you see and feel in a sunset? Are you ready for each days sunset? Sometimes I am.

My Prayer: “lord God , I am in awe of your beauty. I want all things to be right between you and I, my family and fellow man. I don’t know when I will behold my last sunset. I am eternally grateful for your greatest Sonrise!”

Gary

One hour 249 Steps 117 pictures

 

 My wife and I sat together on the screen porch this morning and talked about all the signs of spring we could see outside. It’s been a long winter season in our lives as well. There are signs of spring everywhere!

The Blue Bird started it from 20 feet off the ground.

A Blue bird! Sitting at the top of a spruce tree outside the window singing away. I grabbed the camera and proceeded to notice spring in the north land through the camera lens. I spent an hour of last daylight, took less than 250 steps and over 100 pictures,

With a constant eye on the furling clouds and peeking sun, I began to become aware. The details of spring, new growth and a challenge to my Soul. Can anyone see new growth in me or am I like the rocks in the field just getting older and taking up space.

 Enjoy a few photos of spring taken within 60 steps of the front door. All photos taken the last hour of daylight May 11 2018. Truly, it’s all changed by now. Same sun, trees and all but I could take a million more pictures and not gain the exact same perspective. Click on one for an enlarged slide show. 

Spring signs are bursting forth right through the tree bark. Blossoms are waving in the wind as I try for a still shot. It was not even 50 degrees out and the rabbit did not even try to run away.

Lord: Are there signs of new growth in my life? Or, am I like the thorn bush still hanging on to last years berries?

The fast racing formations often remind me of the spiritual forces unseen to us. So much is beyond our control yet I am challenged to grow daily in my closeness to God.

The sun sets as the sky is clearing. All is well with my soul.

What season of life are you going through? Are there signs of spring?

Gary

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12 

Monday Worship

Monday morning, a balmy 40 degrees Fahrenheit  on the screen porch

When I can, which is most days, I approach the author and creator of this universe boldly on our screen porch (or the breakfast table inside). The loud traffic outside comes from hundreds of birds excited over a few patches of ground showing up in the snow (and three birds I have named Martha 1,2 and 3 fighting over a single bird house. I listen and worship today from the book of James. So much peace, joy and worship comes from this screen porch. I suspect someday some will want to ban screen porches.

Where is your place of worship? We all worship something or someone everyday.

Praising God and reflecting on his word. When hard times (which we see) and God’s goodness (only God sees) collide, we are never the same. We are Gods masterpiece created in Christ Jesus (EPH 2:10) 

Dressed for the occasion in my wilderness wool, blue jeans and moccasins. It is finally above freezing and the screen porch is a great meeting place with my Lord and savior Jesus Christ for now. I am competing with scores of upland song birds vivaciously singing at the top of their lungs. Sometimes God may enjoy their unabashed worship more than mine. Oh that God would melt the snow patches on my own heart and in that melted puddle reflect his glory.

What or who do we reflect?

Morning reflections from the woods as the snow melts. The suns reflection  is noticeably absent

I Pray that the light of Jesus is not absent in the reflections of my life.

James 1:22-24   

²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  

I’m looking forward to the eternal display of those masterpieces!

Please add your thoughts as well. Thanks for reading.

 Gary

Weathering Expectations

 

A sure sign of spring but a few hours later….

It’s supposed to be spring. It’s supposed to be 30 degrees warmer. I should be getting my boat ready for the fishing opener in three weeks. I could go on a longer rant but a couple of pictures will tell the story. This is a huge storm and they happen. It will keep happening for another day says the weather forecaster. Cars are guessing where the road is and hundreds of people are guessing wrong from reports.. Lives are being lost. Maybe it’s just a human condition to ignore messages we don’t want to hear.

 

Is there a “Footprints in the snow” poem?

This is why the baseball game was canceled

Right now as I write and look out the window, it’s only the weather. It’s bad but it will go away. A few million people are affected but it will pass. I’m disappointed in my expectations but it’s supposed to be spring. I’m not alone but that knowledge is only helping us stay home.

It’s been a day to lay some of life’s expectations on the table for me. It seems there has been quite a margin of error on my part between what is supposed to happen and what really happens as the years roll by. I think I am less accurate than the weather forecasters. I thought this snow was supposed to miss us. I guess I listened to the wrong station.

After six decades of hoping  for life’s expectations I have some disappointments. I should be in better shape physically, make more money at this age, be more prepared for retirement, have more friends around me,  live closer to family and help take care of dad. I guess I thought I would become “More” as a person than I have. There is more, way more but I can’t somehow put those cards on the table yet. Life is often filled with false or unrealized expectations.

There is one message I have not ever regretted following

One pursuit that I have vowed to follow from age 15 throughout my life. I pursue an intimate relationship and daily walk with God. My Creator, Savior, Comforter, Sustainer, Guide, King and Friend for eternity is who I listen to and follow. Yes, I have the expectation of living eternally with God. I am way more sure of the fulfillment of this expectation than any weather forecast. I have experienced His presence, blessings, guidance, peace and even His love for those I naturally wouldn’t. My wife and I talk often of the evidence of God and his hand on us throughout our life together.  The evidence stack is really high. I believed 1 john 5:11 This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is found in his Son.

Conclusion: Believe the right source. Let God design life’s priorities and expectations. Trust God forever. Completely trust God’s revelation to us. There are even real and powerful witnesses. Here is a quick sample.

2 Peter 1:16

 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

 Gary

PS I will be taking a wilderness canoe trip in may (5 weeks?) and the ice on the lakes is over 3′ thick yet. I still have summer plans and expectations (and the BWCAW permit to show for it). The canoe is ready…see!  It’s dark and still snowing and I should have put shoes on, but it’s just for one picture.

 

Getting Invited

This is how to get invited to events, camps, fishing and hunting trips and so on. This picture and pun will reveal all…
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.

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.

Images: One Frosty morning

It happened. I was in a hurry…again, and posted a new blog on the wrong blog site…Or did I? This is why I do not sky dive. My http://www.garyfultz.com is supposed to be an outdoors blog. I may merge them as I find I am no different in either blog. I do tend to have a more “secular” readership in the outdoor blog. We will see after this mix-up. Maybe it’s a good thing, You decide, and then I will. I now repost what I wrote this morning. I think you will like it. For those of you who get both blogs…sorry, you are “double dipped”, whatever that means. I will put a couple more pictures to help.

 

Posted on February 24, 2018.   www.garyfultz.com

Imagine for a moment that we have no ability to know or understand the concept of beauty. What the eye sees other than a field, trees, leaves, landscape, sunrise colors and frost on the bush is not attached to any compartment in our brain labeled “Beauty”. The emotion of a moment is never lost; it’s just not there. I would never know.

    I’m sorry but I can’t do it. I can’t imagine what is not because of what I know and experience on a daily basis. Beauty is everywhere, should one care to have beauty in their life. Standing in the middle of immense beauty leaves me in tears often.

Click on one of this mornings photos for the slide feature and enjoy some slices (just small slices of what I experienced this morning) of beauty. It does exist and we were created to enjoy this beauty. I believe it’s a part of being created in the image of God. I tried to get our dog to understand this but…well, you know. Dogs don’t seem to have a beauty appreciation app.

I got up this morning, looked out the window, grabbed my camera and ran into our attached, but heated garage in my PJ’s and moccasins. A quick look at the temperature outside confirmed my suspicions that it was zero degrees F and I would freeze fast. A parka, hat and outer layer ice fishing pants were handy so I was able to last 10 minutes before my fingers couldn’t function anymore. I captured a few images within a few yards of the house and enjoyed breath taking beauty that could never be captured in whole. I’m sorry that I can only show you some thin slices of from this amature photographer.  You can click on a picture and go to the slide show feature. I hope you enjoy them.  Which is your favorite?

Imagine for a moment that we have no ability to know or understand the concept of God.

    I’m sorry but I can’t do it. I can’t imagine what is not because of what I know and experience on a daily basis. Like beauty I have a life-time experiencing an interactive walk with God. He is! God shows himself in so many slices, should one care to have God in their life. 

I can however imagine eternity with God if only in small slices of what I see, hear, feel and experience here (without the pain). I cannot, however, imagine an eternity without God. I cannot even go there. No one has to go there. A relationship with God is way more than an app and it’s free (click here for starters). Please at least take an honest look at Jesus Christ the only way to knowing God.

The words to the captives in ancient Babylon are as true for us as to them as recorded by Jeremiah “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)

Gary

One last shot…

You know what red sky in the morning means in february? Ya, another 8″ of snow like it did yesterday

Merry Christmas everyone!

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.

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

Different: What if you were the only one?

He stained our planet with His blood.

He Killed Death.

His Love permeated all time and space.

If the force of love could be measured  it would have shattered the Richter Scale at the cross

Jesus Christ

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

If you claim to be “in Christ” that means He lives “in you”. It’s fair for the whole world to say “well then, where’s the Love?”.

 Oh that we are becoming more like Christ daily.

 

 

 

A Word Worth a Thousand Pictures

This picture is worth a thousand words, but…

Words are often cheap, thrown around casually as if in endless supply. words can power and leverage others with only thought of result. Words can change another’s world. Words leave in their wake no mystery of character image. 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 (a picture is worth a thousand words). In a split second I can think of this one word and a thousand pictures that go with each time I have used it at major times in my life,

Yes   

The word is yes. A word that begets yes after yes. Yes is direction. commitment direction, direction of duty, character development direction and a thousand thousand pictures splayed through a life of continuous yes.

Think about a life of “YES” to God,  This means 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 George and his wife (past friends of ours) as 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 can carry your suitcase inside and stay. If you choose Cocaine, take the suitcase and go and you will never see me again.” 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. The pictures and stories in eternity will be better than any epic movie made by man. Amen?

GARY