Why Flee?

Fresh Heart For a New Week

“For the wicked have strung their bows, drawn their arrows tight against the bowstrings, and aimed from ambush at the people of God. ‘Law and order have collapsed,’ we are told. ‘What can the righteous do but flee?’”  Psalm 11:2,3 Living Bible

 

This is a description of persecution gone viral.

They’re not just slandering … they’re trying to destroy us! They’re not just snide, but vicious. They don’t just want us put down, but taken out.

Never underestimate the intentions of Satan. Scripture makes it clear that he moves about seeking anyone he can devour. And his objective puts a bulls eyes on the back of anyone who doesn’t follow him. Make no mistake, this is not a friendly picnic tug-of-war where the winners and losers will all share potato salad and ribs when the contest is over. This is serious.

What is one to do who has had war declared against him? King David’s advisors had looked at the looming conflict and had come up with the only option they felt he had.

Flee. Run from the threat. At least put your head in the sand so you won’t see what’s coming!

But they were addressing the warrior king, the one who in fighting a lion, bear and Goliath knew there was never just one option. Not as long as he had a God in heaven … a Friend in the highest place!

“How dare you tell me, ‘Flee to the mountains for safety,’ when I am trusting in the Lord?” he thunders. Listen to the rest of his impassioned rebuttal: “ …the Lord is still in his holy temple; he still rules from heaven. He closely watches everything that happens here on earth. He puts the righteous and the wicked to the test; he hates those loving violence. He will rain down fire and brimstone on the wicked and scorch them with his burning wind. For God is good, and he loves goodness; the godly shall see his face.”

 Remember this … when the enemy comes in like a flood (he will and does), God will raise up a standard against him. (Isaiah 59:19). Ultimately this is not your war. You are called to bear arms and stand your ground and fling your stone at the enemy. But it’s God’s battle and He will win it and we will have all of eternity to celebrate the victory.

This week, don’t think about fleeing … think about trusting.

 

May there be joy for your journey!

 

Paul Walterman

freshheartministries.org

Stubborn!

Fresh Heart For a New Week

 There seems to be a fine line between persistence and stubbornness. The trick is to know when you’re about to cross that line, because on one side of the line people praise you … on the other side they’d like for you to go away.

 Being determined and resolute in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles is the stuff great biographies are made of. But refusing to yield to reason and to ‘flex’ accordingly is the stuff great defeats are made of.

Stubbornness grows quickly in people who have an extremely high opinion of themselves and do not value the opinion of anyone else. Ancient Israel had a particularly nasty habit of putting their fingers in their ears when God spoke, but aggressively following the dictates of their evil hearts, succumbing to the Godless culture around them. It was a combination that kept them from inheriting God’s best gifts.

Is there a cure for being stubborn? Absolutely. The Bible says, “Do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; submit (yield) to the Lord.” II Chronicles 30:8 NIV   The writer of Proverbs makes very clear the end results of both stubbornness and submission: “When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful.^” Proverbs 29:18 New Living Translation

So how are we to know when we’ve crossed from resolute to reckless?  From passionate to obstinate? From determined to detrimental? Sometimes only God knows when we’re about to move from our character strengths to our character flaws. And that makes it very important this week to be sensitive to the Spirit. It’s his task to keep the steel in your backbone and not in your head!

May you find joy and discernment on your journey!

Paul  Walterman

freshheartministries.org

Numbering Our Days

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  Ps. 90:12

I started learning about numbers when I was about three. I’m still learning about them.

 By averaging numbers we can figure out how long a light bulb will burn, how long a running shoe will last and how long a dollar bill will stay in circulation before wearing out. And according to Moses in Psalm 90, we can expect to live an average of 70 to 80 years.

Some day there will be a stone marker bearing our name and two dates…date of birth and date of death. The dash between the two dates will represent what we did with the life God gave us. Longevity in itself is not the goal. Methusalah lived 969 years and probably died in the flood along with the rest of the unbelievers and skeptics. Jesus lived 33 years and his life is still impacting this planet today.

“Numbering our days” is simply the recognition that we won’t be around forever. And because of that realization, this week becomes very important. We will make wiser decisions. The future will take precedence over simply living for today. (Not just ‘carpe diem’, but ‘carpe manana’ as well!) We will put more emphasis on the relationships in our lives than the things and activities in our lives.

Even though we all wish to live to a ripe old age …think quality as well as quantity.

Paul Walterman

Fresh Heart Ministries

paul@freshheartministries.org

Anticipointment

 

“Anticipointment” def: hopeful expectation turned upside down/sky-high hopes

brought down to ground level

 All right, so it’s not a legitimate word. I made it up. But I bet you could have used it at several points in your life.

Who hasn’t set their sights high…who hasn’t entertained big, bold and daring dreams… who hasn’t attempted to lasso the moon, only to have reality set in or someone with more clout knock the moon completely out of sight. It’s so much a part of life that after several occurrences, especially within a short amount of time, we tend to give up. We sigh with resignation. Our shoulders slump. And our resolve grows to never allow that kind of disappointment to ambush us again.

So we lower our expectations. We make the bull’s eye too big to miss. We live and dream in dreary black and white until we’ve downsized our dream list so small that we’re absolutely certain to get whatever is on it. How understandable.

How pathetic.

Maybe the problem has been that your dreams and aspirations haven’t been big enough! Maybe you need to trade in your old black and white set for one with radiant color. Just maybe your dream list needs to be ‘up-sized’ and your bull’s eye needs to be made so small that you’ll only hit it if God does the aiming.

Take a careful look at the dreams that you’ve given up on. Look carefully to see if they have “Engineered By God” engraved on them. If they do, shrug off the ‘pointment’ part of that new word and concentrate again on the ‘antici’ part of it.

Eugene Peterson in “The Message” captures this attitude when talking about Abraham’s faith: “When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do.” (Romans 4:18) The Message

Why not go looking for that moon again this week?

Paul Walterman

Fresh Heart Ministries

paul@freshheartministries.org

Early Epiphany

Fresh Heart For a New Week

Typically it happens on Easter weekend. This year my ‘Easter Epiphany’ came on Palm Sunday.

The majestic Allen organ in the auditorium at Mt. Hermon Camp was being finessed, not played, to powerfully tell the story of Christ’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection through the Negro spiritual “Were You There?”

You may remember the four verses of the song: Were you there when they crucified my Lord … when they nailed Him to the tree … when they laid Him in the tomb and finally (the crescendo verse depicting death and the grave forever robbed of victory) … Were you there when God raised Him from the tomb?

As the instrumental moved us with dirge-like dignity through the first three verses, our imaginations were drawn in to the high drama being portrayed on the screens of our hearts. “What would it have been like to have been there, witnessing the moments of terror and hopelessness … watching Jesus die? And later being witness to his resurrection.

But then the epiphany came.

I had been there! I had a front row seat to my life story two thousand years later. What was happening to Jesus was initiating the corresponding experience in my own life. Don’t believe me? Paul stated in Galatians 2:20  “I have been crucified with Christ …” (NIV)  Later in Colossians Paul says, “For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.” (NIV)

This week as we head toward Easter, I celebrate my relationship with Jesus. Through his death sin’s life-stealing power over me had to go. Through his burial I was enabled to entomb my past forever. And through his resurrection, God’s formidable ‘grave robbing’ power was made available to me.

And that’s the source of the joy on my journey!

Paul  Walterman

freshheartministries.org

Wait For It

Fresh Heart For a New Week

Summer will always follow spring. It will never precede winter or attempt to sneak in between fall and winter. God’s seasons follow the same pattern He initially instituted. Granted, there are aberrations of sorts along the way … like an extremely dry summer, a rather colorless fall or a winter that appears to have no end.

Like this year.

This week’s devotional will be sort of a ‘self help’ giving you the key to making it to spring. It’s the only way really to ever see spring again and although my instruction is simple and it’s obvious we tend to make it more complicated and obscure than it really is. So here it is … are you ready?

To make it to spring you simply have to outlast winter! You only have to last longer than it does. No special formula. No classes at the local community college are needed here. Just wait it out. Be patient.

However, we’re not necessarily known for our patience anymore. Some things don’t come by working longer, by pressing harder or worrying more consistently. We just need to wait for them, particularly if God said they were on the way.

–       Joshua and Caleb had to outlast the unbelief of the rest of Israel to get the promise.

–       Daniel had to outlast the long night and the lions’ stares before freedom came

–       Sarah had to outlast years of barrenness to reach motherhood

–       Elijah had to outlast the frantic worship of the false prophets before his God showed up with fire

–       Joseph had to outlast lies, a cruel framing, years of imprisonment and even the apparent forgetfulness of God before his release and promotion

–       Jesus had to outlast death before coming out of the tomb with life for all of us

So, if there’s worth to what you’re waiting for … keep waiting. Outlast all the competition, obstacles and delays. Stay in faith and especially stay in touch with the One who made the promise. It’s his Word against all others and He is utterly trustworthy!

Remember, faith isn’t just waiting, but waiting knowing that what you wait for is worth the wait!

 ^“This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.”  Habakkuk 2:3 New Living Translation

 

May there be joy and patience for your journey.

 

Paul Walterman

freshheartministries.org

 

Waiting For The Shoe To Fall

Fresh Heart For a New Week

When our first-born came to our home, so did the prognosticators. These pseudo-clairvoyants claimed to know the future of the relationship we’d have with our son Wes.

“Oh, he’s cute now, but just wait. The ‘Terrible Twos’ will soon be here!”

“Well, you missed the bullet on the twos, but the ‘Turbulent Threes’ are next.”

We were forewarned about the ‘Frightening Fours’ and the ‘Formidable Five” and on to the ‘Seismic Sevens.’ We could have lived waiting for the shoe to fall, but we were waiting for something far better … God’s promised blessing on our family.

Forty-five years later we’ve never heard the shoe hit the floor or witnessed the devastation it was forecasted to bring. Instead, we’ve been chased continuously through life with goodness and mercy. (Psalm 23:6)

It’s not just your kids who provide fodder for negativity, but the weather (“Expect far more killer tornadoes this year.”), the economy (“Better start looking for cheap apartments because you won’t be able to keep your home.”) to politics (“It’s no use fighting it, we’re going down!”).

In a time when news means ‘bad news’ … when the doom and gloom prophets haunt the airwaves … when waiting for the sun to break through is considered an exercise in futility, we need to look in another direction. We need to get our information from a different Source!

So often with downcast eyes and furrowed foreheads we fail to see God standing off to the side with a slight smile on his face and in his hands the answers to our most terrifying nightmares. This week we must ask ourselves if the One who promised to never leave our sides, to supply all of our needs according to his full-to-the-rafters storehouse, to guide and protect us and grant us his unmerited favor throughout our lives … is He no longer trustworthy? Has the world turned into a puzzle He can no longer cope with?

Of course not. If He is the same yesterday, today and forever, then the trust that used to work will still provide security and peace of mind today. Get into his Word and pull out those promises that speak to you and sleep on those … not the last words of the naysayers.

 

Have great joy for the journey.

 

Paul Walterman

freshheartministries.org

 

 

 

Contented?

Fresh Heart For a New Week

It wasn’t much to look at, but it was our first car. Our 1957 Volkswagen Beetle was one of 380,561 produced that year. We got it in 1963, the year we were married. It was salmon colored (salmon steak grilled to ‘medium rare’), and featured ‘four on the floor’ with a gear shift handle whose travel covered most of the area between our knees as it searched for the next proper gear. The rear window was the size of a porthole and the car was narrow enough to put your elbows on the windowsill on both sides simultaneously. And with its powerful, quiet 36 horsepower engine it was able to reach speeds in excess of 50 miles per hour, if wind and incline were allies.

It was a jewel.

Never in my wildest imaginations could I have conceived of someday having a car where the passenger door was almost beyond my reach. Or that I could lock that door with a button on my side. Or that I could unlock all doors from down the street! For audio pleasure we hot wired an old six inch oval speak into our AM radio … mounted it in a wooden box and positioned it between us near the wandering gear shift pole. The thought of mega watts of stereo coming through 17 speakers throughout the car escaped my imagination.

Add navigation, ‘On Star’ emergency communications, 24 hour commercial free radio of any genre imaginable and engines powerful enough to drive an ocean liner and, well … you get the picture. The basics of transportation with additions and improvements added at a dizzying rate.

But this week I’m pondering how my ‘need list’ and ‘want list’ are morphing. In terms of the car I drive I had very few needs at one time. Oh, there were several improvements I kind of wanted. But now, at least 84 of my ‘wish-I-could-have-that-feature’ items have somehow moved onto my ‘need’ list. And it keeps happening in every section of my life. And I wonder if God’s promise to supply every need has been keeping up with all those changes. Are all my necessities considered necessary from His viewpoint and plan for my life?

Somewhere I suppose that contentment has to show up. After all, the real wealth in life is said to be ‘Godliness with contentment’ according to I Timothy 6:6. May I learn the quiet heart attitude of thankful contentment and may it put to permanent rest the restless desires of a discontented, thanklessness.

Enjoy the journey as you enjoy what you have!

 

Paul Walterman

freshheartministries.org

425 923 9000

 

Anger Management

Fresh Heart For a New Week

Anger management. I admit it … I need some on occasion.

It’s typically on the freeway when being passed on both sides by racers going 20-30 miles an hour over the limit. Or when someone is going 10 miles per hour slower than the posted limit in the fast lane (which I have reserved for my whole trip). My anger really spikes when someone driving foolishly threatens my personal safety.

That last scenario helps me understand that often my anger is precipitated by fear. Men aren’t really good at emotions. Oh, it’s not that we don’t have them, it’s just that we aren’t sure how to display them. And so we stuff them until they erupt in anger.

Now another admission. I am angry at what is happening in my world … fist pounding, raised voice mad. I am miffed at being asked to pay the sin tax for people whose lifestyle I abhor. I rage internally at bullies taking advantage of those who are vulnerable. My resentment rises against different standards being applied to people because of their connections or friends in high places. I am particularly galled by those who openly display their wickedness and do it often enough that their lifestyles appears to be normal.

The moral slide of my world seems completely out of control and I feel helpless at times to fight it, let alone make a difference. And so I’m angry … because I’m afraid. Is this the way it’s going to end? Will the enemy have the winning shot? Will Satan, standing on a mountain of sin and rebelliousness, be the last one standing?

Oh no! God has said, “At the time I have planned, I will bring justice against the wicked.” Psalm 75:2 New Living Translation. God’s counseling session to deal with our fear of sin’s encroachment can be found in Psalm 98:8,9 from the New Living Translation: “Let the rivers clap their hands in glee! Let the hills sing out their songs of joy  before the Lord. For the Lord is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with justice, and the nations with fairness.”

The affairs of man are still under God’s control. The ultimate outcome is assured. This week I need to remind myself that anger and fear over what is happening to my world are not my only choices. Instead I must feel compassion for those living the lies of the Liar and at the same time rejoice with the hills and rivers who are sure than redemption is coming!

“The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart.”

Psalm 28:7 New Living Translation

 

May there be joy and anticipation of victory as you journey.

Paul Walterman

freshheartministries.org

Read, Heed, Proceed

Fresh Heart For a New Week

“The Kingdom of God is not just talking; it is living by God’s power.” I Corinthians 4:20 The Living Bible

 I’m not at Starbucks every day, but often enough to see something that brings joy and encouragement to my heart. As I sit, ponder and pontificate via my computer, I also do a lot of watching and listening.

 There is a lady working on a Bible study. By the front window are two young men vigorously working their way through a passage of Scripture together. Often there will be a larger gathering of men or women engaged in systematic study of God’s Word. This is happening in coffee shops, restaurants, parks and gathering places all across our land. And it’s all being done out in the open, in full sight of a watching world!

But the world isn’t interested in watching us study and talk the Christian life, they’re waiting for us to live it. Because talking like a Christian and not living like one dilutes the Message.  It takes the Kingdom backwards, not forward.

What really smashes through anti-Christian bias and skepticism is the life of someone living out the powerful truths of the Book we are studying. God’s Word is to be studied and memorized, but then it must be lived out. The easy parts and the hard parts!

The love it talks about must be shared. The compassion spoken of must become actions that alleviate suffering and sorrow. The truth it promotes must counter the cultural lies that confuse and enslave. The Bible is not just a textbook to study, but a pattern for living.

To read and not heed and proceed is to shortchange our world. It needs to see the powerful application of obedient response to our study of God’s Word. This week would be a good time to turn our ‘study hall’ into a traveling ‘show and tell’ experience that will show our world just how serious God is about performing his Word through our lives.

May you find great joy for your journey!

Paul  Walterman

freshheartministries.org