Friends: Christian faith is about relationship with God the Father Almighty through faith in His Son Jesus. That wasn’t immediately evident to the disciples. Have a prayerful Holy Week; Easter is next Sunday. Blessings ...

(PS: From our auto racing days, Janine Vogrin Doyle (The Bean on our IMS pit note crew; her dad Jim ran the STP Indy Car program) has survived cancer and needs help. Her GoFundMe page is https://gofund.me/e7ca07427.)

Spirituality Column #1011

March 31, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Friends, Partners, and Heirs

By Bob Walters

“Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.” – Jesus, John 15:7

“The Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” – Jesus, John 15:16

“This is my command: Love each other.” – Jesus, John 15:17

These familiar verses from “The Vine” passage in the Gospel of John track the final teachings of Jesus to the Disciples after the Last Supper and before His crucifixion.

On what we now traditionally call “Maundy Thursday,” Jesus and the 11 remaining disciples – traitorous Judas has already left to inform the Pharisees of Jesus’s whereabouts – depart their Passover meal out a back door and walk through dark Jerusalem toward the Garden of Gethsemane.

John chapters 15, 16, and 17, a story recorded only in the fourth Gospel, chronicle Jesus’s encouragement, warnings, and instructions to the confused and soon to be bewildered disciples who believe Jesus to be the Son of God, but have yet to comprehend the meaning of His impending departure / death / return.

Jesus doesn’t tell them to behave better; he emphasizes his and their identity. Jesus locks in on the generosity and goodness of God: “He will give you whatever you ask” (v7,16). But they don’t understand what they will be asking for.  Jesus tells them they are no longer slaves, but his friends (v14), because He has “made the Father known to them” (v15). Jesus insists going forward they must work together because they will need each other and be partners to complete the task assigned to them.

The task? Preach Jesus’s message of grace and salvation to the world. Be His partners – and each other’s – in telling the greatest story ever told of how the Son of God came into humanity to heal our sins and restore our loving, eternal relationship with the Father of all things; to tell how Jesus died in loving obedience to His Father but rose in loving glory to seal the truth of His mission and heal the mortal wound of our sin.

Jesus is preaching a New Covenant of faith for all mankind, not of Law for the Jews. Repentance means not just physical obedience, but learning a new way of thinking about life and God; it is a new way of love and redemption.  It is a gift the world will not immediately understand; a gift from a God/man it hates. It is a gift that shows humanity the reality of God, and that gift that says our own lives have purpose as we glorify and are glorified with God. That is what Jesus did; that is the gift God sent.

We are not detached bystanders in our Christian lives today. “If you obey my commands you will remain in my love … as I have obeyed and remain in the Father’s love” (vv9-10). I believe that we, like the disciples, are chosen participants, though I have no idea why this one is chosen and “gets it,” and this one isn’t, and doesn’t. 

All we can do is preach truth, share love, obey in faith, and trust God’s plan. I often think how opaque were Jesus’s claims and instructions as he spoke to Jews, Pharisees, and gentiles. It seems the only beings who understood exactly who Jesus was and the power He had were the demons who feared Him, not the humans whom He loved and came to save. Many humans still do not understand our part in the story.

We want God and Jesus to do stuff for us; doesn’t Jesus say, twice in this passage, “Ask and it will be given to you”? What we are to ask, as friends, partners, and heirs of the magnificent ministry of Christ, is how to best preach, share, and witness this precious word of life. It is for God’s eternal glory, and for joy in our worldly life.

On Easter we celebrate our own salvation, sure. But our joy is being on the team.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes, “Gethsemane” means “a place that crushes olives.” Jesus, the Messiah anointed one, with olive oil, was crushed for our sins.

Friends: Where in the Gospels does Jesus say, “I am God”? If you know how to read scripture, Jesus says it all over the place. Blessings! Bob

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Spirituality Column #1010

March 24, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

When the Light Shines

By Bob Walters

“I did tell you, but you do not believe.” – Jesus,

People who want to argue with the Bible but know very little about the Bible love to point out that, with approximate and dismissive faux-authoritative commitment, that, “Jesus never says he is God.”

I guess that is a way, or at least an attempt, to de-tune a Christian’s faith and buttress one’s own rejection of the Bible’s authority, but it is a silly point. Jesus clearly identifies himself, in various ways, as God’s son throughout the Gospels in both word and deed. But, it is true, Jesus was not wearing an “I Am God the Messiah Christ” nametag.

My longtime Bible mentor George Bebawi often made the good yet simple point that Jesus didn’t come to broadcast his own glory, but God’s. And that Jesus didn’t come to display his power, but “being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death” (Philippians 2:8). The initiating economy of our salvation is faith in the identity of Christ, not billboards and sales pitches.

In our own hearts, with the collaboration of the Holy Spirit, we must arrive at the personal decision that the New Testament’s evidence provides the truth we need to accept God’s offer, through Jesus, of restored and eternal relationship with God.

Jesus wasn’t expected, his mission was hidden, his offer fantastical, and his identity was key to all who might believe in him.  Old Testament prophesies predicted his arrival and mission, but they were veiled from the hearts and minds of most Jewish leaders. They saw God through the lens of obedience to the Law, not obedience to the faithful presence of Christ. They were entirely in the dark as to the proposition of Jesus.

The Pharisees in Jerusalem ask Jesus, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly” (John 10:24, the verse prior to the one cited above).

Obligingly but cryptically, Jesus talks of his voice and his sheep and his promise of imperishable eternal life, and says, “I and the father are one” (v30). And then, “the father is in me, and I am in the father” v38).

That seems pretty plain, but the lights do not come on.  They will only “get it” when they believe, and they don’t believe. They picked up stones to stone him.

This story is the precursor to The Death of Lazarus in John 11, where Jesus tarries four days then dangerously plans to return to Judea to “awaken” the dead Lazarus despite threats to his own life. Jesus rebuts the warnings of his disciples by noting, in John 11:9-10, “a man who walks by day will not stumble … when he walks by night he stumbles, for he has no light.”

On the one hand, this verse is Jesus saying man has twelve hours of daylight to accomplish his tasks. He has time to fulfill God’s work, but no time to waste. It also harkens to the “I Am” statement of Jesus – one of seven in the Gospel – in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world.  Anyone who follows me will not walk in darkness.”  

A Jew hearing the words “I Am,” should know it references the name God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14-15, “I Am Who I Am.” There were those who believed, but even their faith was tested when Jesus was soon arrested and crucified.

Jesus knew his identity would have to be shown, not debated. The Pharisees were enraged when word of the very dead Lazarus, at Jesus’s beckoning, departed the tomb very much alive. It set in motion the Pharisees’ plot to have Jesus killed, which led to the cross, which led to the empty tomb, which led to light available to all mankind.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) figures Lazarus was revived two weeks before Easter.

Friends: Afraid of God? That’s a good thing. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1009

March 17, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Tremble Boldly

By Bob Walters

“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Proverbs 1:7

“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 9:10

“Fear of the Lord is the fountain of life.” Proverbs 14:27

“The Lord is my light and salvation – whom shall I fear?” Psalms 27:1

“Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, [who delights] in his commands.” Psalms 112:1

I’m having trouble remembering exactly when “Jesus is my homeboy” was a thing – 1990s maybe? – but I seem to remember it had something to do with pop singer Madonna and nothing to do with biblical Christian doctrine.

Yes, Jesus is my friend, but He is eternal Lord and King; I am here to follow him, not boss him around. I am his friend if I do what He commands (John 15:14). Obedient Abraham was God’s friend (James 2:23).  Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes God’s enemy (James 4:4). That’s what “homeboy” says to me.

One doesn’t have to dive too deeply into scripture to understand that fearing God as a friend – bringing knowledge, wisdom, life, light, and blessing to us – is radically different from fearing God as an enemy and deserving His wrath (Eph 2:3). “Jesus is my homeboy” expresses non-understanding and, I’d say, non-belief in a sovereign God. It proclaims, “I am sufficient.” Oy. If I think I am God, I am too dumb to fear the real God.

Once we settle in our faithful minds that “fear of the Lord” is our path to peace in His glory and truth, our proceeding reverence expresses love and awe. The modern, wide, progressive, therapeutic swath of Christian doctrine that wishes either to control our actions with guilt, or to remove our accountability of faithful obedience, serves to remove reverence and promote vanity. The Bible is reinterpreted for our convenience.

And so, our American culture steadily creeps away from our nation’s founding Christian principles: love for God and others, personal moral and ethical accountability, sin, a Creator, divine judgment, objective good, real evil, and eternal truth.  The Bible’s lessons and truth, still very real, become discounted, murky remnants of “old ways.”

What about those who should truly fear the Lord but don’t, whose lives would be lifted up by the confidence a faithful, Godly life instills. Instead, their souls lie fallow. They feel life in the present but are shackled to it, not soaring in the unfettered joy of knowing God and participating in His glory. Ours is a fear that is inspiring, not dreadful.

The secular world conditions us to see worldly reward and punishment, not divine grace and the heavenly world beyond. The world fears earthly punishment and relishes material reward.  We as believers can stumble in those secular moments, at least I do, yet 365 times the Bible urges us to “fear not” (e.g. Isaiah 41:10), and our joy rekindles.

In the arms of Jesus, we needn’t fear God’s punishment. His sacrifice “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10) may not relieve our personal guilt and shame for our sins, but what the world calls “fear” the Christian learns to call trust, hope, love, and confidence.

Tremble at the mighty power of God, then boldly rise before the world.

Blessed is our humility, and great is His faithfulness.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) was inspired by THIS ARTICLE from Touchstone.

Friends: I love Jesus and I love America, and am beyond thankful for both.  But being called a “Christian Nationalist”? That is not meant as a compliment. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1008

March 10, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

National Interest

By Bob Walters

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. …” – Psalms 33:12

There exists a contemporary pejorative sobriquet that is a dog-whistle attack on American patriots who also happen to believe in the proper Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In our Left vs. Right political climate, with even the Gospel-believing Right muscularly subdivided between those who revere Donald Trump and those who revile Donald Trump, “Christian Nationalist” communicates a disdain for any who would dare claim salvation in Christ but not assert and fear imminent destruction by Donald Trump.

America has never been nor would long survive as a theocracy, which is when a religious faith actually is the government.  That is what Islam and the Koran comprise, an inseparable package deal of faith being the government. The Mullahs are in charge.

While the chosen Israelites were a theocracy of Laws, the New Covenant in Christ holds a valuable separation of church and state enumerated by Jesus himself some 1,770 years before Thomas Jefferson’s famous comments on the matter.

In John 18, Pontius Pilate asks Jesus if he is a king. Jesus affirmingly replies, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Adding, “I was born, and came into this world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:36-37).

In the high school government class I teach, we spend a couple days early studying Romans 13:1-7, where Paul delineates faith apart from government, but saying governments are ordained from God based on what the people deserve. In 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Paul instructs Christians to pray for their governing leaders and for themselves to be “salt and light” as moral examples in their nations.  It is worth noting that in the Old Testament 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites reject God as their king, insisting on a human king.

Rusty Reno, editor of First Things journal I constantly read and frequently cite, this week wrote, The Case for Christian Nationalism. Reno is no particular fan of Trump, but makes the point that if one is going to be a nationalist, Christian Nationalism is the best.

Why has “Christian Nationalism” entered our lexicon? I think because it is a handy “scare” epithet meant to harken back to the evil World War II Axis nationalisms of Fascism in Italy and the Nazis in Germany. A “fasce” is a bundle of wooden rods, a traditional Roman decoration, which became the symbol of Mussolini’s 1930s leftist “Fascist” party. “Leftist,” like “progressive,” refer to government control superseding individual freedom. Faith in Jesus undermines that control; leftists cannot abide it.

The Nazis – Hitler’s “National Socialist” party, was also leftist but added in a racist component, Aryan Supremacy, heavily laced with pagan mysticism.  Atheist socialism, and its more draconian progression, communism, further eliminate personal freedom by calling for government or “collective” ownership of all property and industry.

Christian Nationalism is nothing like any of those, but the phrase has a linguistic Nazi echo of “National Socialist,” useful to those who like neither Christians nor Trump.

I’ll close by noting that there is a convenient alliance of thieves that explains how a Muslim communist like New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani can even exist.

Islam, as with any form of progressive leftism or collectivism, cannot exist beneath the authority of Jesus Christ. Communism refuses all religion, and Islam is a religion strictly governing itself.  Neither will share moral or cultural authority with Christ, but they will work together in common cause until their interests diverge. When is that?

They will get along as long it takes them to get rid of Jesus. And that’s the truth.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is a Christian and an American patriot who  understands our nation was founded on Christian values, not “religion.”

Friends: When our faith produces loving acts of Godly outpouring, we’re probably working on the right road. See the column below. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1007

March 3, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Pick a Lane

By Bob Walters

“You did not choose me, but I chose you.” – John 15:16, Jesus to the disciples

I wish I could sing.

My dad could sing.  Both my sons can sing (younger son John, an alum of the Carmel High School Ambassadors show choir, can really sing). My wife Pam in college toured Europe with Olivet University’s varsity Orpheus Choir, then for decades sang in our church choir and occasionally today leads traditional worship.

Most in our Sunday lunch “Old Friends” small group are trained vocalists.  It is quite something in a restaurant to hear this group sing “Happy Birthday” in soaring, four-part harmony.  I smile and hum along, enjoying their talents immensely.

Those folks who hear me talk are often surprised I can’t sing.  My God-given, strong speaking voice is clear, resonant, and loud, but not the least bit musically dependable. The joyful noise I make for the Lord during hymns in church is silence, i.e., not ruining beautiful choruses with honking aires. No need to force it.

Thankfully God has gifted me with other joyful, faithful voices I can share, whether writing, teaching, or occasionally offering a communion homily or corporate prayer. Our current Sunday school curriculum is James’s writing on faith and works, and it’s so true that the varied ministries we pursue with love for the Lord yield great dividends in our faith and expression of Christian joy.

I bring all this up because in visiting another church earlier this year the sermon settled in on those who pursue ministries for which they are not really called but nonetheless pursue them as an act – a work – of measuring their faith walk. I.e., for better or worse, don’t just stand there, do something! And that got me to thinking.

Not so much about singing, but about trying to measure faith as a quantity totaled by our ministry and service activities. It didn’t add up, salvation as the sum of an equation rather than trusting the profound eternal grace of God’s gift to us in Jesus. Salvation is by faith, and obedience is by love. Service and ministry are the “hands and feet” of the Holy Spirit directing us in our walk with Jesus. You just do it, not keep score.

Measurement of activity is the first killer of love, but absence of activity – including prayer – is the first sign of faith that is lacking. What a Christian needs to discern, prayerfully with the Spirit, is an expression of faith that feeds on love. To pick a lane, and be glad in it, and to not envy other lanes, i.e., other lanes not taken.

In the Bible verse above, John 15:16, Jesus is leading the disciples from the Last Supper through Jerusalem and out to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus doesn’t say much about their behavior or their ministries, but locks in on them understanding who He is, who His Father is, on how they will need each other, how their faith will feed each other, and to trust the Spirit to be with them, no matter what.

Jesus says they are not servants, but His friends.  By affirming that He, Jesus, chose them, they understand their calling is above their own desires. They are not there to merely serve, but to add to what Jesus is already there to do: reconnecting fallen mankind with their Father God in Heaven by retelling to all, all that Jesus has done.

The new lane they each had to pick was the new covenant of faith in Jesus, departing the pathway of the Law. When I think of my own decision to follow Jesus, I realize it wasn’t so much a decision as that I had been hugged by God’s love and brought into a new life; reality had shifted. There was a new song in my heart.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) can sing loudly, but then, a foghorn is loud.

Friends: The great treasure of this life is faith in Jesus Christ … and it isn’t complicated.  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1006

February 24, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Simple Faith

By Bob Walters

“Can it really be that simple?” – Character Ben Gates in the movie, National Treasure

If you know the 2004 movie National Treasure, you know that the lock to the world’s greatest fictitious treasure chamber – located under a Wall Street church in New York City – is unlocked by inserting an ornate tobacco pipe and rotating it with the stem.

Everything about finding the pipe and then locating the lock opening the chamber is the adventure of the movie.  But for all the riddles and complexity, in the end, accessing the uncountable treasure is as simple as insert, turn, and push a button.

Our searching human hearts, minds, and souls are unbound by such manmade mechanics, but discovering the faith we have in Jesus Christ and the treasure it leads to in God’s Kingdom is the glorious light of God’s unfathomable riches and His gift to us.

It is our faith – given by God, accepted by us – that is the proof of God’s treasure and our assurance not merely of life everlasting, but life everlasting with God as part of His treasure. We make our faith overly complicated wondering if God loves us or is mad at us, what he wants us to do or not do, and what He is going to do with us later.

My experience has been that as I journeyed on the path, it wasn’t my life that got easier, it was my faith that became stronger, simpler, less confusing, and more free.

You have no doubt noticed, as I have, that much of our modern culture depends on fear to gain and hold our attention, control our hopes, limit our freedom, and shape a world without personal assurance in and love of Jesus Christ. That’s the part of the path that gets easier: the part that focuses more and more on Christ and less and less on the fears attendant to this world. This is our freedom in the heavenly realms.

Yes, “Fear the Lord.” Respect Him, know His sense of humor has limits, and be infinitely convinced that His righteousness is absolute and unchanging.  That does sound scary and epitomizes a fearsome imprecation. That is the trustworthy God.

But also, Jesus says, “Fear not.”  Simple faith in Christ – which oddly is a mysterious mix of both mature faith and childlike faith – is the most uncomplicated key to unlock the door of the kingdom into which we are invited.  Ask all the questions you like.  Talk to God and express doubts, ask for wisdom, pray for strength, beg His truth, know His peace.  This too is the trustworthy God, freeing us from fear, with love.

I never worry about God being mad at me because – with my faith in Jesus – I know God doesn’t see me; God sees His Obedient Son Jesus on the Cross. That doesn’t give me license to sin; that gives me purpose for living in the joy, hope, freedom, and love His sacrifice provides. My sin is covered by His blood of the Cross.

We are studying James in our Logos Sunday school class, which I’m teaching this month while regular teacher Dave Schlueter is thawing out in southern Florida. Our section this week is James 2:14-26, Faith and Deeds, which folks often incorrectly view as one or the other, not both as the same. The Holy Spirit lights and guides both paths.

Those quick to theologically debate needn’t think this is a “salvation” issue; it is a “quality of this life” issue.  When we have faith in Christ, His light and Spirit will not stay inside us. The fun of a life in Christ is our deeds – our works – that aren’t performed to impress the world but to inspire our joy and usefulness and purpose of our faith.

God doesn’t need us to impress Him with works. He already knows we’ll be happier if we teach about Him by sharing Jesus and loving others. It’s as simple as that. 

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows of no treasure greater than faith in Christ.

Friends: It is a mix of joy, faith, and gratitude, not self-inflicted misery, that defines a Christian life. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1005

February 17, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sack Cloth and Ashes

By Bob Walters

“It will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” – Jesus, leveling a condemnation at Capernaum, Matthew 11:24

You know the story well. John the Baptist is in prison, not exactly condemned but knowing Herod wants him dead for criticizing Herod’s marriage to Herodius.

Contemplating his own imminent fate, John sends his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3). This question leads Jesus – who isn’t yet ready to say, “Yes, it’s me” – to recount His own miracles, and identify several of those who have seen miracles but not believed.

This included the town of Capernaum on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus performed much of his ministry. As a shortcut, I asked A.I., “Why was Jesus mad at Capernaum?” A.I.’s answer: “...because of [Capernaum’s] unrepentant hearts, their stubborn unbelief, and indifference despite being the primary location of his ministry and witnessing the most ‘mighty works.’ Despite being treated as ‘his own city,’ the town failed to believe or repent.” Sodom, you see, didn’t know Jesus; Capernaum did.

It is worth reading the rest of Matthew 11:1-24 as Jesus speaks to the gathered crowd, noting the unmistakable and famous condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18, 19) and that it will be worse for Capernaum. (John’s ultimate fate, his beheading, took place at the hilltop palace of Herod Antipas at Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea in Jordan, approximately A.D. 30, is recorded in Matthew 14:1-12 and Mark 6:14-29.)

What Capernaum was facing, and what every Christian knows, is that once the presence and truth of Jesus have been revealed to a person – and His presence and truth are rejected – woe to the unbeliever and the unrepentant. None of us is exactly sure how God’s grace and mercy work for those who have never heard the word of God or encountered Jesus. But Jesus had lived, preached, and performed miracles there, and to paraphrase many Bible verses, the people of Capernaum “believed Him not.”

Our greatest personal gift is to know Jesus, believe He is the Christ, accept His grace and love, and live in repentance – renewed thinking – knowing our own sin but also trusting God’s forgiveness. “Sack cloth and ashes” is the Bible’s way of signaling our own sorrow and humility, and our discipline of repentance. It indicates our low moments.

Yet I am sure Jesus does not want us to live that way: Our joy is our strength.

We examine the life of Jesus, the very few of his years we know about, and despite His looming fate Jesus lived what I perceive to be – what I hope was – a life of joy. It seems that from the young age of 12 Jesus knew who He was. And at the start of His ministry in his late 20s, we see signals that He knew the tasks, obedience, and crucifixion ahead.

Incarnate Jesus is God become man.  What God made “very good” in His own image – humanity – Jesus is God’s perfect image and visitation into that now fallen and imperfect creation. There was a scene in Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ movie (2004) of Jesus as a young carpenter laughing with his mother Mary. While that is a movie I never want to see again, the imagined image of Jesus knowing moments of joy, despite being a “man of sorrows,” gives me comfort, even if it is a made-up vignette of cinematography.

This week, on Ash Wednesday, some Christian denominations begin the observance of Lent, 40 days of fasting and prayer ending on Resurrection Sunday, Easter. The celebration typically involves “giving up” – sacrificing – some favored thing, but must properly be met with renewed focus and prayer on the gifts we have received.

Despite the “sack cloth and ashes,” we honor Jesus by being joyous for His gift.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) continually states his belief that repentance reaches far beyond behaviors and into spiritual and intellectual transformation: Think like a Christian.