Friends: Western commercial culture insists that everything has a price. What if an ultimate price is really an expression of ultimate love?

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Spirituality column #1030

August 11, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Payment Plan

By Bob Walters

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son …” – Jesus, John 3:16

The following puts me at friendly odds with every evangelical preacher I can think of, but I think modern western Christianity has it wrong, or at least misdirected, by insisting Jesus died as a “payment” for our sin. I.e., a quid-pro-quo transaction, not grace and love.

In Orthodox circles, this transaction of the cross – an idea Anselm of Canterbury conceived in the early 1200s that grew into the stubbornly western mainstream doctrine of “penal substitutionary atonement” – is considered worse than head-shaking bad teaching. To the Orthodox, it is more like a heresy and considered an insult to Christ.

Now, we hear about Jesus “paying the price” every Sunday. It fits our western, commercial culture of cost and reward, penalty and payment, punishment and prize, etc. If we do something good, we get something good. If we do something bad, we get something bad. But we all know that’s not an accurate picture of how the world and humanity work.

Jesus, God’s son, the only perfect human, was given by God into the world, into humanity, to restore our divine relationship with our Creator; a relationship that was broken in the fall. Curses aside (read Genesis 3 for a refresher), God pursued humanity and Jesus was point of reconnection. In Jesus we know God is real, because Jesus was with us, and sacrificed mightily to cover our sins, ransom our souls, and restore us to God.

We think, generally, of sacrifice and ransom as payment options. But what if instead of a transactional installment payment, the Cross was a positive action of love? What if the Cross isn’t a metaphor for “final payment,” but instead is a freeing sacrifice of faith?

I see the Cross not as the wrath-driven payment of an ultimate price, but the gracious expression of an ultimate love. Do we see God’s wrath in the Bible? Sure, but we also see His righteousness and His truth. When Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” that is God saying to humanity that His righteousness, commands,  truth, and sacrifice are unassailable and reveal the heavenly realms of His existence.

We diminish it horribly, I think, by defining Christ’s person and faith with a price tag.

It’s not just a linguistic trick or a moot point of semantics – a gift vs. payment – that sustains this view in my mind.  There is the practical, obvious question of, “If Jesus paid a price, to whom did he pay it?” Certainly not to God, because He is God.  And certainly not to Satan, because God owes Satan nothing. Atonement and ransom are conditions that result in forgiveness and freedom. The cross is an invitation of faith, in faith, through faith.

And if 1 John 4:8 is correct, that “God is love,” think about the maximum and defining loves in our own lives.  Is my love for my wife a payment plan? Or for my children, my grandchildren, the friends in my life I cherish the most? Or for my country?

My longtime Bible mentor George Bebawi always willingly swam upstream on this issue of the Cross as a payment vs. the free grace of God’s love. He was a Coptic priest (Egyptian Orthodox), multi-lingual Bible translator, a divinity lecturer at Cambridge University, England, among other places, and renowned Patristics expert, the study of the early church and the church fathers. I studied with him for nearly 20 years,

George would joke that if modern Western evangelism and substitutionary atonement were correct, then John 3:16 should read, “For God was so mad at the world that he killed his only son.” That’s because we see salvation as a “deal,” not perfect love.

We see God’s wrath and Jesus’s punishment, not righteousness and obedience.

I could go on. I don’t write about this often, but I think about it all the time. Christianity survived its first millennia without “penal substitutionary atonement.” The Bible was taken at its word, and the glory of Christ was not reduced to a payment. I like that.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wrote about this in 2015; see “The Price is (not) Right.”

Friends: Knowing Jesus and being saved are not the same. 

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Spirituality Column #1029

August 4, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Even Demons Believe

By Bob Walters

“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that.” – James 2:19

Christians are supposed to “fear God,” right?

You know who really fears God? Demons.

And you know who really doesn’t fear God? Unbelievers and atheists, who do not understand or accept who God is, who Christ is, who the Spirit is, the Bible’s authority, and what our divine mission on earth* is set up to be.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell who the demons actually are.

Sometimes, sorry to say, it’s hard to tell who the Christians are.

Usually, it’s not that hard to tell who the Jesus-ambivalent and atheists are.

As far as Christians fearing God, in a biblical sense, I think we can all settle on the translation of “fear” as awe and respect, not cowering in terror. I don’t perceive God (as a comedienne once put it) as “daddy with a switch.” Jesus came to love us and save us, not punish us. “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17) and “There is now no condemnation in Christ” (Romans 8:1) are the two most overlooked – and calming – verses in the Bible. They preach peace.  

Terror? That’s what the demons experience. The demons famously possessing the wild man named Legion, terrified when Jesus approached, knew exactly with whom they were dealing.  Read about it in Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, and Luke 8:26-39,

E.g., Matthew 8:29: “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come to torment us before the appointed time?” Don’t miss that last part, “before the appointed time.” The demons know Jesus, know he has power and enmity over them, and even seem to know there is a coming “appointed” time when their cause – and Satan’s – will be lost.

They ask to be sent into pigs and killed rather than deal with Jesus. Pigs! We are reminded of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) whose sign of abject failure was tending pigs.

I once read that “No one can be ambivalent about Jesus: You either love him or you hate him. No one is neutral.” I’d debate that because of how much of my life I gave no thought to whether or not I was saved. Live and let live was my attitude toward Christ.

I was neutral then, but no longer. Salvation beckons, and we all hope for the best.

Still, Christians may wonder if we, me, I, individually, are saved. Historic Protestant theology provides an interesting three-part salvation test I had not previously seen until this week. It came in a podcast clip with Dallas preacher Josh Howerton (link below).

First, do we have knowledge (notitia) of Christ? Most atheists know that the church down the street worships a guy named Jesus in a book called the Bible. That is a fact.

Second, do we accept (assensus) that this story is true. That yes, Jesus is the Son of God, the Bible is real, and that in Christ we are offered salvation of eternal life. Fact.

A good example of the notitia person is Judas, who never affirmed Christ’s truth. Of assensus, those possessing knowledge and accepting Christ as God’s son, but don’t care and don’t love. There is no better example than the demons, who knew and feared Jesus.

Third is the clincher, trust (fiducia), or our acceptance. As Howerton explains, it is “when I put the entire weight of my life on that fact” of Jesus as Lord, and I act like it. This is the obedience part that sometime gives me the cold discomfort of, “Will I measure up?”

My hope isn’t in the reality of salvation in Christ: that is truth; I already know it. My hope is that the grace of God in Christ is greater than the weight of my sin. I don’t fear it; I trust it and pray.

When I have the chance to hug Jesus, I hope he hugs me back.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that our *divine mission on earth is to glorify God and to be part of that glory as we were created to be. That starts with believing in, living as, and loving Jesus as our Lord and Savior … and acting like it. Howerton Link - YouTube

Friends: When Jesus says, “It is finished,” what does that have to do with the book of Exodus? Funny how the Bible all ties together. 

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Spirituality Column #1028

July 28, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Incomplete Passover

By Bob Walters

“I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” – Exodus 6:7

There is a thing – not sure if it is best to label it a heresy, a questionable doctrine, or merely a “controversial Christian theological belief” – called “supersessionism” that means the New Testament of the Bible replaces or supersedes the Old Testament.

Also known as “replacement theology,” it is the notion that with the completeness of Jesus Christ and the divine salvation described in the New Testament there is no need for the Old Testament’s stories of God, Israel, Creation, the Commandments … all of it. They become superfluous because Christ is sufficient. Who needs Moses?

As Christians we can all agree, I think, that Christ is sufficient, e.g., 1 Corinthians 12:9 where Jesus tells Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” The grace and power of Christ is infinite; there’s nothing quite like it, for humans, in the Old Testament.  But I will rail loudly against the negation of the Old Testament. It is the foundation for why we are here (God’s glory), what our purpose is (participating in that glory), and where our destiny lies (eternal relationship with God).

The Old Testament is a divine story with no ending and no solution.  It stops at Malachi, and through its many prophesies says something further is going to happen. In its 39 books (for my Catholic friends, 46 books with the Apocrypha, but that’s another issue), the OT describes who God is, who we are, what Creation’s problems are, and never exactly nails down an ultimate point.  It is more than “Israel will be God’s people.

Jesus Christ shows up in humanity, as human, and restores people – all people – to the promise of eternal relationship with God. But Jesus doesn’t just “show up.” A careful reading shows that Jesus has been “with us” all the time.  He is the Creative Word of God: “In the Beginning was the word … and the word was God.” (John 1:1).

I was taught to be very careful in assessing the “human” presence of a pre-incarnate Christ.  Father, Son, and Spirit are eternal – no beginning, no end – but one wonders exactly with whom Jacob was wrestling (Genesis 32:22). What was the deal with the burning bush? Various prophets physically encountering God – these are called theophanies – bring good questions that do not prove or disprove one’s faith, only one’s curiosity.  I’m like that.  My relationship with Jesus has jumped from the pages of the Bible into my heart, so I know it’s OK to question and investigate all that scripture offers.

That said, one can find Jesus on every page of the Bible if one knows what one is looking for.  And this past week I ran across a correlation I had never previously seen.

It was in a Traci Coston post July 19 (full post here and below). Jesus interrupted his final Passover meal – the Last Supper – that began in the upper room (John 13-14) but wasn’t completed until the Cross (John 19), when Jesus said, “It is finished.”

Costin notes, “The Passover meal traditionally includes four cups of wine, each connected to God’s promises in the Book of Exodus 6:67. The four cups represent 1. Sanctification – “I will bring you out,” 2. Deliverance – “I will rescue you,” 3. Redemption – “I will redeem you,” and 4. – Praise / Completion – “I will take you as my people.”

At the last supper in Luke 22, Jesus drinks the first three but not the fourth. That is reserved for the Cross when Jesus exhales saying, “It is finished.” What is “finished?”

Passover is finished; it is completed: the ultimate Passover sacrifice where God takes not only the Jews as His own but restores His relationship with all mankind. Faith in Christ is our acceptance of that offer, and our faith in Christ completes our salvation.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes: All scripture is useful (2 Timothy 2:16-17).

Traci CostonStrange Detail - Link

There's a strange detail in the Last Supper that most people never notice. Jesus stopped the Passover meal partway through.

And He didn't finish it until the cross.

The Passover meal traditionally includes four cups of wine, each connected to God's promises to Israel in the Book of Exodus 6:6-7. The cups represent:

1. Sanctification - "I will bring you out."

2. Deliverance — "I will rescue you."

3. Redemption - "I will redeem you."

4. Praise / Completion - "I will take you as My people."

Now watch what Jesus does. During the meal He lifts a cup and says: "This cup is the new covenant in My blood." (Luke 22:20)

Luke specifically says this happened after supper, which corresponds to the third cup - the Cup of Redemption. Jesus was declaring He is the redemption.

But then something strange happens. Jesus says:

"I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” (Luke 22:20)

He stops before the fourth cup. The Passover meal is left unfinished. Later, while hanging on the cross, Jesus is given sour wine.

Then He declares: "It is finished." (John 19:30)

The Passover Lamb had been sacrificed.

Redemption was complete. Jesus giving His life on the cross was the fulfillment of Passover itself.

Friends: Where there is smoke, there is fire, and there is an awful lot of smoke – the unhealthy kind – in our current political and religious culture.  More fire for the truth of God and the gift of Christ will save us.

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Spirituality Column #1027

July 21, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

A World Without Miracles

By Bob Walters

“You are the God who performs miracles.” – Psalms 77:14

We arrived in smokey northern Michigan a few days ago hoping mother nature would give us a break and clear the air for our family vacation. Nowhere is pretty in these conditions, but in this glorious God-blessed area, we trust the sun will return.

Massive chunks of Ontario, Canada and even parts of northern Minnesota are enduring wildfires of great human, animal, and woodland disruption and destruction. Still, it seems unfair these fires have the audacity to dampen our arrival Up North.

We live in a blame-crazy world, whether the blame is rational or not. It’s easy in northern Michigan – actually the entire U.S. northern Midwest – to blame Canadian forest fires or Canadian forest management or, somehow, Canadians themselves for our momentary inconvenience. I’ve not entertained the need to blame Minnesota, but a dose of human compassion for the death and destruction there and farther north is a more humane attitude. These fires are nasty; pray for the victims, ask God for rain.

Here, we will be inconvenienced by a day or two of dangerous air quality but our lives won’t be ruined: thanking God for that.  Vacation will commence. I’ll pray for a miracle for the folks farther north, and not stoke my annoyance with misdirected blame.

Still, there must be someone or something to blame, right? Since blaming humans is disconcerting and requires retribution, I’d prefer the peace of blaming an entity I can’t hold responsible, like, say, Mother Nature. And that leads to a thought.

G.K. Chesterton in his 1908 classic, Orthodoxy, mentions Mother Nature while making a point about God’s identity. He notes nature is a creation of God, just like mankind is a creation of God. The lesson? God and Mother Nature are not the same.

Chesterton instead sees Mother Nature as a co-creation, a relative of humans. And not so much like a mother, but more like a “funny little sister.” As created beings we need to worship God and as Christians give grace to God’s creation, not blame it.

 The “Gaia, the Earth Mother” worshipping crowd, I think, gets it all wrong. Humanity causes as many or more problems for other humans as does “Mother Nature.” In that vein, I think “climate change” is a human dodge to shift an explanation in nature back onto blame for humanity, thereby creating guilt and thus a lever for some humans to control other humans. A real miracle would be humans living in peace.

So, here is my actual point. That peace – that miracle – is what we have in Jesus Christ.  A miracle of all miracles, the point of the Resurrection, is God proving His reality, presence, truth, and love by sending His son into humanity for our salvation: not just from our sins but from the cloaking darkness of our blameworthy fallenness. 

Jesus is God’s light and it is a miracle we can see Him, live with Him, and have faith have eternal hope with Him. Blame evaporates. What’s a bigger miracle than that?

Living in a world with God, knowing God, trusting God, loving God is a gift.  It is the glory of our humanity.  Any human, entity, or ideology seeking to destroy and denigrate that gift – that truth – is an enemy we must righteously resist. 

A life without God? A life without miracles? That’s the threat we truly face in our world, and it is not wildfire smoke.  It is the very real fire of Islam’s attempted destruction of our Christian culture and Communism’s leftist challenge to our free market republic.

I pray for the miracle of America addressing these threats and not losing our nature. If our nation disappears – and it could – we’ll have only ourselves to blame.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) found this recent Marco Rubio Speech sobering.

Friends: These ovine sleuths solve a murder mystery and echo timeless truth in a movie for the whole flock. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1026

July 14, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Sheep Detectives

By Bob Walters

‘Behold, the lamb of God!” – John the Baptist, John 1:29

“Do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus, Mark 14, Luke 22, 1 Corinthians 11

“... And a friend should never be forgotten.” – Mopple, in The Sheep Detectives

Pam’s daughter’s three kids (second grade boy/girl twins, fourth grade boy) were here for a grandkids sleepover last Sunday and Nana’s evening entertainment was watching this summer’s movie, The Sheep Detectives, on Prime.

Released in May, it is a secular movie loaded with Christian symbolism and surprisingly well-informed and non-hostile to several basics of Christian doctrine. I was working in my office publishing last week’s column, and from the living room I heard laughter, Pam talking to the kids while she paused the movie, and was unaware of the soft tears that welled up occasionally.

I was intrigued enough that I convinced Pam to watch it again the next evening with me.  I laughed, got teary eyed, was intrigued by the premise, and seriously curious about “whodunit.” We paused several times to discuss Christian metaphors and marvel at how a secular, Hollywood movie not the least bit promoted as Christian fare got this much right. One review came close: it is “entertainment for the whole flock.”

It’s playful, with same director as the Minions movies. It is thoughtful, written by the guy who wrote Chernobyl.

Briefly, a shepherd (Hugh Jackman) reads mystery books to his sheep. The shepherd – with no idea the sheep understand him – winds up dead, and the sheep solve the mystery. Emma Thompson plays an engaging character, while Julia Louis-Dreyfus voices Lily the sleuthing ewe and Chris O’Dowd voices Mopple, the wise old ram who, intriguingly, is the only sheep with complete memory. The other sheep protect themselves by forgetting bad things, and believe that when they die, they become clouds.

Again, it is obvious that the producers and most reviewers – I’m guessing on purpose or possibly out of politically correct feigned ignorance – whistle past the Christian themes. But they are definitely there: poignant, funny, and true.

Justice, for example, is described by Mopple this way: “It means the good should not be harmed by the bad. The weak should not be harmed by the strong. And a friend should never be forgotten.” It is not far-fetched to find our remembrance of Jesus, and then put it together with the sheep’s defense mechanism of forgetting.  When we forget, we lose our purpose; and our faith is what we remember. Something to think about.

There is a runt “winter sheep” shunned by the flock, and the fourth-grade grandson said: “Nana, they’re not showing justice to that little winter lamb.” Kids learn quickly.

I’m reminded how Jesus was shunned by the Pharisees … and so many others.

My out-loud cackle was when the sheep walked by a church and Mopple explained: “That’s where God lives.” “Who’s God?” a sheep asks. Mopple: “He’s a shepherd, but he’s also a lamb, and he’s also invisible, and he’s made of bread, and he damns things …”  The other sheep: “Like a beaver (dams)?” Mopple: “Yes. And they eat him on Sundays.” The other sheep: “Poor God.” A great transubstantiation joke.

Without giving away too much, Sebastian is another older, wiser ram who lives apart from the flock. But when trouble arises (think Jesus coming for our salvation), Sebastian returns, in danger, and explains, “You are my flock.” Pair that with John 15:13-15, as Jesus leads the Disciples through Jerusalem toward Gethsemane, and says, “I called you friends.” Justice is remembering our friends, and joy is knowing Jesus remembers us.

What a friend we have in Jesus, and what a thoughtful movie this is to behold.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) omitted some names to protect the innocent.

 

Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #1025 (7-7-26), “A Dash of Thankfulness.” A friend from childhood passed away and I had a few thoughts during her Celebration of Life.  See the column below, or at our blog CommonChristianity.blogspot.com, or on social media.  Hope you had a happy Fourth of July!

Blessings, Bob

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Labels: 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Battle Creek, Celebration of Life, Chrysler, Kokomo IN, Lena, Linda Ellis, my sister Linda, The Beatles, The Dash Poem

Spirituality Column #2025

July 7, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

A Dash of Thankfulness    By Bob Walters

“Give thanks in all circumstances…” - 1 Thessalonians 5:18

My sister Linda and I recently went to childhood friend Lena’s Celebration of Life.

Linda remembers Lena, a neighbor, standing in our driveway to greet and meet us the day we moved into our new home in Kokomo, Ind. We had moved there from Battle Creek, Mich., where our dad had been city editor of the Enquirer and News newspaper. He now would work in public relations at the Chrysler Transmission Plant in the car industry hot-bed city 50 miles north of Indianapolis.

A piece of trivia I love about the move is that it was the weekend of February 8-9, 1964, the Sunday the Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. In a nation still stinging from President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, the Beatles from England sparked a re-shaping of American youth and music culture. For us, Kokomo was a great place to grow up. We lived there through our college years.

But, back to Lena. She was Linda’s age, and the word was out that a new girl was joining sixth grade at Lincoln Elementary School. In no time, we were folded into the Walnut Street “gang” of 12-15 kids (depending how you counted) going to school together, playing kick-the-can on Sunday evenings, hiking through Foster Park to the immense, round Seashore swimming pool, stopping off at the miniature golf course for sno-cones, and riding bikes all over Kokomo’s downtown and west side.

When I was an altar boy at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Kokomo, my usual short-cut foot route to church was through Lena’s back yard. Her family, when they went, attended the Greek Orthodox church in Indianapolis; now located in west Carmel.

Lena was a delight. Friendly, smart, full of humor, a beautiful girl of Greek descent. Two doors farther down the block was LeaLea, later a Kokomo High School cheerleader (a very big deal). “Lena, LeaLea, and Linda” were a tight unit of great friends who stayed in touch the rest of their lives. Lena died June 11 at age 73.

I wanted to share the flavor of our childhood days. At some point I learned that Lena’s name was actually Helen (a good Greek name), and LeaLea’s name was Leslie, though I never called them by their real names. LeaLea, sadly, could not make the funeral due to illness. I was last with them at a Walnut St. lunch reunion in early 2020.

Lena was married (then divorced) and had a son, Christian, who delivered a breathtaking eulogy at the celebration of life in Broad Ripple (Indianapolis) where they lived. We knew Lena survived cancer twice, but there were other difficult times of which neither Linda nor I were aware. From the pictures, Lena retained her beauty throughout.

Leading the service was a retired priest (now a police chaplain) who recited parts of The Dash Poem by Linda Ellis. Published in 1998, it is a popular verse noting that a tombstone has two dates – birth and death – with a dash in between. The poem’s end:

 “So, when your eulogy is being read with your life’s action to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?”

Lena lived a full life, traveled, ran marathons, taught and tutored special ed kids, and loved her son and granddaughter intensely. But I grew uneasy as the chaplain returned multiple times to the line about “how proud Helen must be” of her “dash.”

I’m guessing Lena, ever gracious and humble, would have cringed, too. Proud?

Lena, I think, would be thankful for her “dash,” not proud. Pride is when we give our lives to ourselves; thankfulness, like love, are the eternal blessings we give away.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) and Lena’s younger brother Johnny were great pals.

Friends,

Here is Common Christianity #1024 (6-30-26), “Getting a Kick out of Christ.” I’m loving all these global World Cup soccer fans recently discovering the spirit of America – up close. What a country! See the column below, or at our blog CommonChristianity.blogspot.com, or on social media. God bless America … it’s our 250^th birthday this Saturday.

Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1024

June 30, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Getting a Kick out of Christ

By Bob Walters

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.” – Ezekiel 36:26

I know almost nothing about soccer, and have even less desire to watch it.

However, I have gotten a maximum kick out of this global World Cup futbol fan visitation upon America of late, and hearing/seeing their joyous and surprised reactions to just about everything American.  From Big Gulps to ranch dressing to Buc-ee’s, and from bar-b-que to grocery stores to gun ranges to the Americans themselves.

Americans are friendly. Americans are helpful and honest. We love a good houseguest. Our nation has wide open spaces, big pick-up trucks, and accommodating, endless streets, roads, and highways that go almost everywhere. Our air conditioning cools entire houses and whole passengers in cars. Our stadiums are mind-blowing.

All these folks never knew this stuff, and approached America with trepidation.

Here’s what they learned: to hate America, watch the media and surf the internet. To love America, visit it, drive it, experience it. How fun.  The world is loving us.

What a great gift for the ol’ USA on our 250^th birthday.

The Spirit of America, ostensibly, of course is a profound but still secular vibe of liberty of the human person. Not every visitor, and certainly not even every American, understands the Christian underpinnings of the freedom we enjoy and the patriotic fellowship we share.  Global visitors enjoying their American adventures and expressing their unexpected grasp of the zeitgeist of our uniquely American culture? Just fabulous.

We have all these great things going for this nation and I’m hoping these happy visitors continue to focus on soccer and the general abundance and fun of America. Not everyone understood when, nine years ago, President Trump signed off on hosting the World Cup in the USA – who watches soccer? – but this is the best possible way to celebrate this particular, momentous July 4; we get to share No. 250 with the world.

Contemporary U.S. politics being what they are – an ugly mess of conflicting priorities, a President who is both revered and reviled, and a dangerous cancer of Socialist activism permeating our largest cities – I hope our guests ignore the news.

As a Christian, would I like to see these visitors take a piece of Jesus home with them and let it blossom into a saving faith in their homelands? Oh yeah; I pray for that.

But while religion is a blood sport in many countries and completely ignored in many others, let’s hope all these American freedoms – especially freedom in Christ and our freedom in worship – linger in their memories of America.  It is good soil here.

I mentioned Jesus earlier and here’s why. I see a similarity in what these soccer fans are learning about America and what I learned later in life about faith. Mixed as the metaphor may be, I had a fairly informed idea about Christ but, until I was older, no experience being with Him. These soccer fans (who like many sports fans, worship their game perhaps too much but that’s another topic) have heard about America their whole lives but never experienced being in America … with actual Americans.

When I truly met Christ – not the watered-down, brokered church proxy Jesus of my youth but the thundering, loving, wise, holy, and righteous Son of God who leapt out of the Bible and into my adult heart, mind, and soul – I wanted to share the experience with others. To learn more, love more, live more, and pray more with this new Spirit.

Have fun at the World Cup, everyone. We’re getting a real kick out of it. Take some of the best parts of America home in your hearts. And thanks for helping us see things we too often miss.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) quotes Russ Blowers: “God loves to see His kids play!”