Hulsizer Christmas Letter 2014

      It’s hard to believe that December has rolled around once again but, alas, here it is. We hope this letter finds you and yours happy, healthy and whole. Christmas is such a joyous time, the very first Christmas began with “good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people!” We hope you are able to slow down and thoroughly enjoy this season with all its trappings, but especially to take the time to consider the real reason for the celebration.

This Hulsizer clan has enjoyed another very busy year, but it has been a good one. We are grateful to God we can begin this letter like we did last year’s, with good news from Jessica’s most recent blood work. Two years after her stem cell transplant she is still cancer-free! God is good! She and Matt have their house up for sale and are hoping to build a new home just north of Cabot (one big enough for children, when that time comes!). They’ve had some interest but no real good bites yet, all in good time. They continue to do well in their jobs. They moved their church membership last year and have made themselves busy in their new church home. Matt teaches the 7th grade boy’s Sunday School class and serves as a greeter. Jessica sings in the choir, and they are very involved in their Sunday night small group program. We are very proud of them!

Little Miss Jennifer is getting ready to graduate! Her graduation day is 12/13/14, isn't that interesting? She has worked so very hard the last 4 1/2 years and we couldn’t be more proud of her. She is hoping to find an elementary school around close with an opening for a long-term sub (like a teacher out on maternity leave) to finish out this school year and then have a good opportunity to find the perfect teaching position at the beginning of the next school year. We would appreciate your prayers toward that end! Jennifer has caught the eye of a young man, named Matthew of all things! But he is a good Christian young man and her mother and I are both very impressed with him and with the way they are handling their relationship.

Shelia is officially a half-fanatic! Don’t jump to conclusions, that just means she is part of a group of runners who have run a certain number of half-marathons and then run a certain number each year. She has done very well with her running! She has lost weight, her heartbeat is strong and slow, she is dedicated to it, and she has some very close friends with whom she enjoys running.

I guess the big news with Jeff is that he’s picked up his paintbrushes again and has done several paintings for friends and even some customers! This is a good creative outlet and a form of recreation and therapy for him, and folks seem to enjoy his work. You can see several of his paintings at www.paintingsbyjeff.weebly.com. 

        June 29, 2014 was Jeff and Shelia’s 30th anniversary! To celebrate they took an Alaskan Cruise with good friends Marty and Sara Patterson, the first week of September. It was a dream come true! They saw beautiful scenery, wildlife, native arts and crafts, enjoyed some real King crab legs and fresh salmon. Jeff even caught some salmon and had it processed and shipped home for us to enjoy here. It was such a beautiful place, we would love the opportunity to go back someday!

We plan to enjoy a wonderful Christmas together with good food, good music, good movies, good times and maybe even a game of Monopoly! But, most certainly, a time of thankfulness and praise to God for the gift of His only begotten Son, sent to save the sins of the world. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas celebration with your loved ones as well. Merry Christmas!

                                                                        Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night,

                                 Jeff, Shelia and Jennifer Hulsizer 

We Thank God for His Abundant Blessings

Amidst the crazy busy-ness of the day yesterday a sense of wonder and blessing washed over me. Today (Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014) our youngest daughter graduates from college; the culmination of lots of work, lots of money, lots of new friends, many tears and lots of laughter. I couldn’t be more proud of her and I wait with wonder and anticipation at what God has in store for her as she begins the next step of her journey. 

In addition, I get the great honor of conducting my best friend’s wedding this afternoon. This has been a long time coming and a beautiful story of love. It’s going to be a great time of friends and family up on the Little Red River, celebrating love and God’s perfect provision.

This morning I will gather with my family, including my parents who drove over from Alabama to be here. What a tremendous blessing to have both of my parents still with us and in good health for their mid-70s! My oldest daughter, yes the one who with the Lord’s help conquered Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and is the picture of health and beauty, and her faithful and dedicated husband will be by our side. I'll proudly stand beside the wife with whom I’ve shared 31 Christmas’, the one God prepared especially for me who brought these precious children into the world. Friends, old and new, will share in this wonderful day, Matt Mitchell-a very special young man in Jennifer's life, even Jennifer’s best buddy Bill and his girlfriend drove in from Fayetteville for the occasion. What a tremendous blessing!

But in the midst of all these blessings, to realize that the King of the Universe, the Creator of all that is, the author of life, love and all that is good, loved me so much that He came to earth as a baby, the Creator lowering Himself to become one of His creations, yet still remaining in every way God the Creator, lived a perfect life and died the humiliating death of a criminal on a cruel cross, abandoned by those He came to save, bearing the sins of them and us. Yet suffering the shame, He died and was laid in a borrowed tomb. Yet after three days He rose victorious over sin, death, hell and the grave and awaits that glorious day when He will gather His children up and bring us into the heaven that awaits those who love Him. What a glorious day! Oh what a Savior, O hallelujah.

Merry Christmas to you all! We are so blessed.

Grace and Peace

The Apostle Paul used the same salutation in several of his letters. The books of Romans, I & II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I & II Thessalonians and Philemon all contain these words, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

I think it is no coincidence that the word “grace” appears in the sentence before the word “peace”.  I believe that’s quite an important message in itself.

Grace has been defined as “unmerited favor”, getting something we don’t deserve. It is the amazing grace of God that forgives us of our sins, saves us and secures our place in the family of God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,” Eph. 2:8 NKJV.  You have probably heard the adage “Know Jesus, know peace—No Jesus, no peace?” You see where I’m going don’t you? Grace comes before peace because we cannot know peace until you’ve experienced salvation by the grace of God.

Peace is something for which the world is desperately looking, yet not finding. There we find our mission, to share the Gospel and all the grace and peace it brings, with a lost and dying world. We need not look very far to find those who know no peace. 

I hear the conversation over and over again, especially among those who have recently suffered the loss of a loved one. It goes something like, “I don’t know how people who don’t know the Lord get through times like this.” There is truly a great sense of peace that can be had when we know that our loved one knew Jesus as their Savior and has gone on to heaven to live completely peacefully for all eternity.

Yes that peace that passes understanding is a precious gift for sure. But we do wrong when we do not share this peace and the way the world can come to know it.

Like we saw Sunday morning, because of Jesus we have our revelation of God, (He is the image of the invisible God); our reconciliation to God (through Him those dead in sin can know life); and our relationship with God, (a personal, abiding relationship). Jesus died for the sins of all mankind, that’s the good news (the Gospel) and He has left us with the responsibility to share that good news with a world that is hopelessly lost in sin.

So let’s not be hoarders of the grace and peace of God, but rather take advantages of the opportunities that He will place along our path to share His good news! “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always [be] ready to [give] a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” —1 Peter 3:15 NKJV. Who can you talk to today about the peace you have? Then go do it!

God's Adoption

I believe there are few more beautiful pictures of love in this world than that of adoption. Accepting someone born outside a particular biological family and placing them as a son or daughter within that family. We have some wonderful examples of adoption here within the Faith family.

I have a beautiful sister, she is 4 years younger than me. We met when she was 3 months old. I am told that when she was brought out to us I immediately spoke up and said “Yep, that’s her!” My mother has always said to her, “You may not have grown under my heart but within it.” 

My sister is as much my sibling as my younger brother who was born to the same parents as me. Yes, my sister is adopted. We never shied away from that fact, we never hid it from her, but it was never a problem, it was simply a fact. My parents loved and continue to love her just as much as they did and do my brother and I. My brother and I love our sister as much as we love one another. “But she’s not ‘really’ your sister,” you may say. I beg to differ! I recognized her as my little sister from the moment I met her and have never considered her anything else. We are family.

Our loving Heavenly Father is very well acquainted with adoption. In last Sunday’s message we saw God’s amazing plan of adoption. In Ephesians 1:4-6 we see that God has adopted us as children. Adoption means ‘to place as a son’. That adoption is through, or by, Jesus Christ and Him alone. It is in Jesus because of His redeeming work on Calvary. You see, God accepts us because we believe in His Son Jesus. Jesus has provided, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins thus making us acceptable and because of Him we have the riches of His grace that abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. 

God’s desire is to have many sons and daughters who will love and serve Him both now and forevermore. Therefore, when a person wants to live for Jesus so much that he entrusts all that he is and has to Christ, God adopts that person, making him a brother or sister to Jesus Christ (Romans 8:15-17). God’s purpose for adoption is that we, His children, will live forever to the praise and glory of His grace. We are sons and daughters in the family of God! What an act of love, what amazing grace! “Oh what a Savior, Oh Hallelujah!”

So then the question we must ask ourselves is this, are we living as children of the Most High God? Is there a family resemblance? Do we reflect His image in our lives? What are we doing to let others know of this blessed adoption that God offers freely to all? 

Let us decide to live lives full of joy, trusting God to lead us and guide us through this life abounding in the riches of His grace here and now as we are indwelled with and dwell within the Holy Spirit of God, ambassadors of His peace, provision and power!

God is good!

Reflections on Barnabas

I have just completed a very full week. I have been stressed and stretched. I've been frustrated and felt like a failure, but at the very same time I've been hugged and held the hands of some of God's most amazing children. Most of the children that we served this week were children with Down's Syndrome. While it is easy to feel sorry for them or be uncomfortable around them, after a week of hearing them laugh, watching them play, seeing them love and listening to them sing and pray, I have a whole new attitude. These children are not to be pitied or felt sorry for, they are to be loved and accepted and given their own place in the world God brought them into. They have such a capacity to love and to be loved, I think they are closer to heaven than those of us without the "syndrome" and they just want to live, laugh and love. Let's make them a place right in the big middle of us!

I'm BAAAACK!

So May is here and I’m back in the office! First of all, I am thankful that when I got here I still had an office! As wonderful as the time away was, I really did miss you all, especially my fellow staff peeps! But the time has come and gone and I’m rested up and ready to get back to the calling of God on my life; ministry. What a blessed privilege.

I had planned to finish up the final 5 classes remaining toward my Master’s in Theology, alas I only got two of them done, but direction is more important than speed. I thoroughly enjoyed the in-depth study of the books of Galatians and Ephesians. So many wonderful lessons there for us all.

I am still overwhelmed at the generosity and welcome I was given. I spent the first two weeks of April at a good friend’s retirement/weekend home up on the Little Red River just above Judsonia. The beauty of the Lord’s creation was mesmerizing! 

Next, how blessed am I that both of my parents are still with me and doing well? I went to Alabama to take my mom to her Cancer Survivor’s dinner, no small matter for this family! What an honor and pleasure to be able to, and then to spend some time visiting and helping out around their place. Then this last weekend I had the blessed task to move my baby girl back home from college. As she only has one more semester before she graduates, and that is mainly practice teaching (pardon me, internship) we opted to move her home to save some money on rent and utilities (only to spend it on gas!) But it’s good to have her home again.  

The last 3 days I’ve spent at another friend’s lake home, just trying to rest up and get mentally and spiritually prepared to get back to work. How awesome is it that these people open their home and let me just take over for a time? A man with friends is wealthy indeed!

But, all that said. I’m glad to be back in the saddle and back at work. Like the old saying goes, “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life!” I love my job, but it’s certainly not a job - it’s a blessed privilege.. (Eph. 3:7)

Ok, enough of this…it’s time to get back to work!

Much love for you all,

Bro. Jeff