Special note ... our dear friend and pastor John Samples passed away peacefully Tuesday morning, October 6. Pam and I visited John Monday and are thankful we had the chance to say goodbye (John married us in 2009). John’s Celebration of Life will be at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, at East 91^st Street Christian Church, Indianapolis. Visitation 2-4 p.m. – Bob

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Friends: Ask a simple question, get a simple answer. Some questions appear harder than they are.  Blessings, Bob

Spirituality Column #1039

October 13, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Simple Stuff, Part 2   

By Bob Walters

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth … and in one Lord, Jesus Christ … who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven …” – from the Apostle’s Creed, Book of Common Prayer, Episcopal Church, 1789

Here is where we ended last week: “…it is the simple stuff of Christianity – the orthodoxy and doctrines – that our students need to have on hand without hesitation or confusion.”

Mission Christian Academy in Fishers, Ind., where Pam and I teach high school English (her) and history/civics (me), is a highly biblically literate environment.  Faculty and staff all sign Christian faith statements, while the students (and their parents) who are drawn to that environment don’t have to sign anything; they just know what – and Who – is there.

Also mentioned last week in Part 1 was that teaching western culture, literature, history, civics, and economics becomes a much more complete experience when the foundation of western culture, i.e., Jesus Christ (we’ll get to the Greeks, Romans, and Jews in a minute) and the Bible, are not ignored, pre-empted, or outright banned as they have been in American public education since the early 1960s. (U.S. Supreme Court refresher:  Engle v. Vitale, 1962, vigorously restricted public prayer; Abington School District v. Schempp, 1963, banned mandated daily Bible readings and recitation in public schools.)

Twenty-first century anti-Christian sensitivities and atheistic liberalism have made cultural things worse, spiraling into the Woke, DEI, gender fluid, critical race theory, globalist morass that now defines universities, the media, entertainment, public school, much industry, and government bureaucracies. It is called “Progressive,” but I see no progress toward truth.

I see zero progress, in the public academic square, toward Jesus.

Anyway, back to my MCA students.  A few weeks ago, in both U.S. history and American government, we were studying pre-Revolutionary War colonial society including the Great Awakening of the mid-1700s. The Awakening developed a spiritual cohesion among the not-always-copacetic Christian denominations that coalesced into a common cause for developing a free nation independent from the British king.

In the discussion of how these 13 separate colonies – separate nations, really, each with a dominant local denomination – united in a religious sense toward becoming one nation, words like “doctrine” and “orthodoxy” came up.

If I ask almost any of my students simply “what do you believe,” they would effortlessly answer that they believe in God, that Jesus is Lord and Savior, and that one day they will go to heaven, forgiven of their sins. And most would add flourishes beyond that. 

But, ask them to name one orthodox Christian belief, or to explain any part of Christian doctrine, every student in every class clammed up. They didn’t realize they already knew the answers.

The problem was the words, “orthodox” and “doctrine.” These are simply descriptors for articles of faith that remain the same across all Christian denominations. Things like the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That Jesus, the Son of God, was fully human and fully God. That Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, lived, taught, was crucified, was dead, buried and resurrected. That his death was a perfect sacrifice that frees us from our sins and restores our relationship with God the Father.

That, forgiven, we will spend eternity in a new life in heaven with Jesus and the communion of saints.  That the Bible is Spirit-inspired and carries God’s authority. That the Old Testament prophesizes about Christ.

Every one of these is an orthodox Christian belief; each is a bit of universal Christian doctrine.  Christians have fought to defend them since the time of Christ. Depart from any, and you may have a religion but it is heretical in relation to Christianity.

The miracle of America’s founding had help and inspiration from the pre-Christian Greek and Roman republics, and of course the Jewish laws, scripture, and commandments. Even the more modern Enlightenment asked many right questions about man’s sovereignty vs. government.

Our job is not to freeze up when asked about our faith; the basics are pretty simple.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that the phrase “Judeo-Christian” came into modern parlance in a 1939 book review by George Orwell; the phrase wasn’t known at America’s founding.     

 

(Special note ... our dear friend and pastor John Samples is in hospice. I just found out this afternoon.  I have no more details, but please keep him, his son John W. and wife Bobbi in your prayers.  I spoke with Amy B. from E91 a few minutes ago. May we all be at peace. – Bob)

Friends: What are the basics of what you believe as a Christian? Creeds are an answer, but what is your heart telling you?  It’s kids’ stuff, really. See Part 1 of the column below. Have a great week!

Blessings, Bob

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October 6, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Simple Stuff, Part 1

By Bob Walters

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth … and in one Lord, Jesus Christ … who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven …” – from the Apostle’s Creed, Book of Common Prayer, Episcopal Church, 1789

I am going to talk about the faith and witness of Christian high school students, not the history and esoterics of creedal Christian faith, but let’s review some basics.

Basics of the faith, I mean, along with some post-Reformation church history.

Bible-based evangelical Christianity, by and large, does not depend on the ancient creeds (list of beliefs) for its understanding of Jesus, church, or scripture. We read the Bible, study the Bible, pray with the Bible, and we ingest all the preaching and teaching and Christian church fellowship we can consume. Ideally, we live daily and perpetually, with faith in Jesus Christ, love for God, love for others, reliance on the Holy Spirit, and the imperfectly understood but absolute truth and authority of the Bible. Sola scriptura.

The above quoted bit of the Apostle’s Creed, dating from the second century AD, and it’s slightly longer and younger cousin, the Nicene Creed, fourth century, have differences but say pretty much the same thing. If you’re inspired to do so, Google both and enjoy the deep dive.

I grew up in the Episcopal Church, where Bible literacy among the congregation was far subordinate to a congregant’s trust in the church, its priests, its traditions, and its authority.  Prior to its arrival in the American colonies, it was the Anglican Church, founded in 1534 by Britain’s King Henry VIII. This followed a tiff with Roman Catholic Pope Clement VII regarding Henry divorcing his wife, Anne Boleyn. You can Google that one, too. The upshot? England gained a church; Boleyn lost her head.

Like the Catholic Church, the Anglican and then Episcopal Church in its worship practices is creedal, with established liturgies (weekly worship plans), litany (prayers), and hierarchies (leadership). That big book on a Catholic or Episcopal Altar is not a Bible, it is a Missal, or what I grew up knowing as the Book of Common Prayer. While the Bible is a direct conversation with God, in my experience, the Book of Common Prayer is more of a training-wheels version of what church is supposed to be like.

Meaning, it contains the curated basics of the church, including much scripture, prayers, Psalms, and rituals (e.g. baptisms, weddings, funerals, etc.). My point is that knowing Church basics is not necessarily knowing Christ. And here’s where I wanted to share something about my Christian teenage students and “the basics.”

Our Mission Christian Academy in Fishers, Ind., where my wife Pam and I teach high school English (her) and history / civics (me), have plenty of students who know the Bible pretty well.  Many of them can cite all 66 books from memory, know the Old Testament from the New, know the Gospels from the Pauline letters, and attend weekly extracurricular Bible studies and church youth groups. By and large, the students know Christ.

That makes teaching Western literature and civics a more complete enterprise because Christianity is the foundation of Western culture the past 2,000 years.  We can include the reality of God, the truth of Jesus, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the authority of scripture, and the communion of the saints (church), Were there other influences? Of course – Greek, Roman, and Jewish philosophy before Christ, and the Enlightenment and modernism that has tried to re-define God the past 400 years or so.

Plus Islam, since the seventh century, which has tried to erase the whole thing.

But it is the simple stuff of Christianity – the orthodoxy and doctrines – that our students need to have on hand without hesitation or confusion. More next week.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) still has his mangled Book of Common Prayer from his Episcopal confirmation in 1965, which his dog Kramer Too chewed up 15 years ago.

 

Friends: We always love talking about Jesus, but that doesn’t mean we can always be sheep. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1037

September 29, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Gentleness, Respect, and Tenacity

By Bob Walters

“… Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” – 1 Peter 3:15

This is among my favorite Bible verses for a couple of reasons.

First, it is calming; I only have to explain why I, personally, have hope. I can do that all day long. I can always explain Jesus to my own satisfaction, but whether I can explain Him adequately to someone else is a more daunting challenge. We find Jesus in our own hearts; that is why we know Him as a personal Lord and Savior. He is everyone’s, as well as ours alone. That is why everyone’s testimony is unique.

I envy, in a good way, the natural evangelists; but my gifts lie elsewhere.      

Second, the verse instructs us not to be a jerk about Jesus; to have “gentleness and respect.” Jesus was kind, but also direct with the truth and creatively vivid with His illustrations (swallowing a camel, plank in the eye, brood of vipers etc.). People will argue about whether Jesus ever laughed (the Bible doesn’t tell us), but it takes an educated, period-specific, cultural sense of Jewish humor to cull the humorous bits from the Gospels. My erudite Bible mentor George Bebawi, who grew up Jewish (in Egypt of all places) before finding Christ in his late teens, thought Jesus was hilarious.

Anyway, we should fearlessly share about Jesus, live in confident hope, be kind to others, show our faith by virtue of a caring and intelligent demeanor, love – but do not bow to – our enemies, and pray mightily for guidance, discernment, and the right words.

Jesus knew how to temper his language. He spoke kindly to the lost, softly and confidently to the demons who knew who He was and feared Him, but was often harsh and condemning – and cunning – with the Pharisees who refused to recognize Him.

The Pharisees, you see, had inherited the “world,” i.e., status, wealth, power, pride, and jealousy of their position. They forgot there was a Messiah with whom they could inherit the Kingdom of God. They lost sight of the truth, and could not see Jesus.

And that’s today’s lesson for today’s Christians: let’s keep clear sight of Jesus.

Jesus was tenacious and wise. By his truth and authority, believers were drawn to Him then and are still drawn to Him today. Hebrew scripture, i.e., the Old Testament, was replete with prophesies of His coming, His person, His purpose, His providence, and His destiny. The Pharisees of His time were willfully blind to the scrolls, but John the Baptist, the Disciples, and many others saw the divine in Jesus’s person.

Today, we have the whole New Testament to explain prophecy to us and we wonder how anyone, ever, could be in the presence of Jesus, whatever he looked like, and not sense the glory of His person, relationship with God, and love for mankind.

But … folks make those errors all the time.  In our current age, in a rapidly deteriorating post-Christian American culture, our mission becomes not just personal reflection and prayer, but the tenacity of Jesus and of Jude 1:3-4, “to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. … [against] ungodly people who pervert the grace of our Lord.” How do we contend for the faith … our faith?

One way is simple: vote. Get to the polls this fall. Don’t lay back. Be tenacious against threats. In a nation slipping from its Christian underpinnings, whether by the ignorant secular culture or heretical progressive Christians – e.g., “Islam is just another religion,” “Jesus was non-binary”– sane Christian citizens must pick up the mantle of tenacity defending our nation from those who attack truth and seek to remove our freedom to worship.

The ungodly, freedom-squashing left will be at the polls. Will we?

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) asserts the current American faith and political contest is not between Christianity and Islam; it is between a Constitutional Republic and Sharia Law.

Friends: Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in eternal Heaven and occupies space in our hearts here below. When does He have time to love us? Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1036

September 22, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Never a Time  

By Bob Walters

“And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” – Jesus praying for himself in the Priestly Prayer, John 17:5

“… before the world began.” For all the discussion in Sunday school and Bible study about “who” and “what” Jesus was, here we’re confronted with “when” Jesus was.

Christian orthodoxy – the basics of the faith, not the capital “O” Eastern church – tells us that Jesus was fully God and fully man. That’s a mystery I can’t define or explain, other than to say that the Almighty trinitarian God – Father, Son, and Spirit – reached down into history and in the person of Jesus, saved us from our sin.

Salvation means our curse and separation from God is resolved by the sacrificial work of Christ on the cross. From His seat in eternity, Christ entered humanity as Jesus of Nazareth, born of the virgin Mary and the seed of the Holy Spirit. Jesus lives, laughs, and suffers among humanity, is baptized, preaches God’s truth, rebukes Israel’s leadership, is crucified by the Romans, died, is buried, resurrected, and returned to his heavenly seat beside God. Then, the Spirit arrives to live in the hearts of the faithful. Our faith, trust, and love of Christ express our acceptance of eternity’s grace.

That’s “who” Jesus was, and is. As to “what” Jesus was and is, meaning His essence in the Trinity of being “from God” or “of God” – topics deep in the theological fabric of Christian truth, opinions, and heresies for 2,000 years – I go with the eternal, uncreated reality of God as a society, community, and relationship of goodness and glory that allows John to say “God is love.” Humanity is an expression of that love, and Jesus the Messiah Christ is Who rescues and heals humanity. He is the Word of God.

What anchors my faith, recognizes this truth, and cements my trust is that the story of Jesus has been discussed, challenged, and protected constantly for 2,000 years.  The fact that smart people have disagreed – and still disagree – on various doctrinal points does not tell me that the story is wrong. That the core Christian beliefs of Jesus’s life, death, burial, and resurrection have endured tells me it is safe to weather any storm, or celebrate any joy, in the name of Jesus.  He is the real deal; done deal.

So, Who Christ is and What Christ does isn’t screaming for further definition in my faith life.  God’s love – for me and others proven through Christ – is truth enough. My love for God and others, thankfully, “covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

I’ll gladly take it.

But this idea of “When” Jesus was, is currently occupying space in my brain. I heard a phrase this past week, regarding the Trinity as existing “before eternity.”  “Before” puts eternity in time, and I’m pretty sure that is not how eternity works. There is no “before eternity” or “after eternity.” Eternity, like the Trinity, was/is just always there. Our human minds, living as we do within the rhythms of God’s Creation of time, space, and matter, measure everything. The definable and measurable world is where we live.

Eternity – and it’s the same with God’s love, the sacrifice of Jesus, the indwelling of the Spirit, the authority of the Bible, the fellowship of the faithful, and probably many other things I’m forgetting – cannot be measured.  These are qualitative realities, not quantitative observations. Jesus on earth somehow had a foot in both camps.

My question: Jesus is in eternal heaven, but He is also in my earthly heart. Does that mean that Christ is there? Or here? Or both? And “when” am I in all this?

Fear not. I realize there is never a time Jesus doesn’t love every one of us.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) cites C.S. Lewis: “The present is where eternity touches time.” – The Screwtape Letters

 

Friends: Jesus came not to win a war against the Romans, but to bring victory to humanity.  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1035

September 15, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Peace with God

By Bob Walters

 “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus), and through him to reconcile to himself (God) all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.” – Colossians 1:19-20

The Jews of the first century made a huge mistake in their expectation and understanding of how to deal with the prophesied Messiah of ancient scripture.

This is a commentary, not a criticism, because I doubt I would have expected or thought any different. The Romans kept the peace and enforced civic order – often harshly – but were not the Jews’ idea of salvation. The Romans were a burden, and pagan: idolators with false gods and earthly deities. Fear and violence were their justice.

What the Jews – what Israel – had going for them was a defined relationship, albeit shaky, with the One True God. God wasn’t shaky, but the Jews were. They had laws and traditions to outline their divine relationship, but their practice of worshipping God had become infested with self-imposed legalities that masked God and elevated the human leaders of Israel.  The Jews and the Romans focused on conflict, not peace.

Jesus, the promised Messiah, came, I believe, not so much as a rebuke to Israel – although He was definitely that – but as the fulfillment and deliverer of God’s intent for all mankind. How, where, or when better to do that than in the center of God’s Israel where the world’s most powerful empire held earthly dominion?

Jesus came to address both problems: 1. the Jews’ mistaken idea of the Messiah, and 2. the Romans’ mistaken idea of manmade authority.

The Jews’ mistake was praying for a Messiah whose mission was to kill the Romans and exalt Israel to political and religious dominance over all the earth.

Whether or not the Romans thought much about the world beyond the Mediterranean, or say, from the British Isles to the west and Persia/India to the east, isn’t often discussed. But Rome’s wide dominance allowed only for Caesar, not Jesus.

Jesus came not to kill the Romans or elevate Israel. Jesus came to make peace between God and humanity. Peace was the goal; that was the victory on offer.

We think of “victory” as implying, of necessity, a “loser.” Victory as reward, victory as vanquishing an enemy, victory as gaining power. Leafing through the New Testament, whether the Gospels or epistles of Paul, Peter, James, John et al, we don’t see military or political dominance as God’s goal or Jesus’s mission.

What we see in Christ is endurance, patience, obedience, faithfulness, righteousness, truth, and love. When we in this life encounter “trials of many kinds” (James 1:2-4), our victory and goal in overcoming those trials is peace in knowing Jesus is Lord, Jesus is our Savior, and Jesus is with us always (Matthew 28:20). God cares.

Where the Jews saw war and persecution and the Romans saw empire and order, Jesus came to save mankind from our true enemy, sin, which brings death. Salvation is forgiveness, grace, and love. Jesus’s blood brings peace, not war.

We may be in a war with Satan and his earthly and spiritual “princes and principalities” (Ephesians 6:12), but our victory, and Satan’s defeat, is peace with Christ.

It is that peace, and our trusting faith in Jesus, that invites us lovingly into the Kingdom that overcomes the world, restores fellowship with God, and brings eternal life.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) paraphrases: Make peace, not war. God loves you.

Friends: Humans can do something animals could never imagine doing ...

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Labels: humanity, G.K. Chesterton, nature, Orthodoxy, our dog Kramer, wild animals

Spirituality Column #1034

September 8, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Imagine That

By Bob Walters

“Man is the only truly wild animal.” – G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Our little dog Kramer – marking his 16^th birthday last week as a slightly pudgy, aging Bichon Friese that’s blind and deaf but otherwise healthy, hungry, continent, and in seemingly good spirits – has exhibited some surprising talents in his life.

Now a 20-pound white fluffball, we got him as a puppy from a very nice kennel – Tea Pups – in northern Indiana near Lake Wawasee. We had first pick in the litter, and he chose Pam and me as much as we chose him. He had a big head and was sitting on top of the other male pups. I picked him up and he licked my face, then went for Pam’s.

The previous 15 years Pam had a Bichon named Kramer, who died in the spring of 2010. In November that year, figuring she’d never reset her brain for a Bichon with a different name, we dubbed our new 10-week-old puppy, “Kramer Too Walters.”

He has been a great dog.  If he wandered, he found his way home. Like most dogs he barks when it is meal time and stands by the door when it is time to go out. He has never shown fear of fireworks or thunder. He loved splashing in the lake up north and riding around town with his head out the window … on days that are now past.

As a young dog Kramer developed a uniquely creative trick and we could never understand how he came up with it. We were living in an apartment with a carport requiring a walk across the complex’s main drive. Kramer just naturally “heeled” – we don’t know why – so we typically didn’t leash him at home. Then one day as we all exited the car headed toward our apartment, Kramer sat down by the rear bumper.

We didn’t notice his absence until we traversed the dozen or so paces to the main drive. When we checked to make sure he was with us and safe, we looked back and saw him sitting – his head slightly cocked forward, intently peering at us – waiting.

Waiting for what? Waiting for one of us to signal, “Come!” From then on, he’d wait by the car until we checked traffic and signaled, then come tearing across the drive to our door like it was a game. He had trained us. How? We’ll never know. Smart dog.

But was he creative?  I think most likely not. Animals recognize patterns and places, sense danger, are drawn to those they “trust,” seek food and shelter, and somewhere in that equation Kramer mimicked what to us looked like intelligence.

But to Chesterton’s point that man is the only “truly wild animal,” what Kramer can’t do, and no animal can do, is to go against its nature. They can be trained to mimic intelligence or observed behaviors, but their natures are set by creation, i.e., by God.

That is where, Chesterton observes, man is wildly different. Created in the image of God, man can do creative, intellectual, philosophical, and charitable – or horrible – things. That is the spark of freedom and creativity God placed in no other animal.

Survival instincts? All living things have those. Man is the only creature that can disrupt his own survival instincts. We have an imagination, gifted by God, to do good or evil. You can’t blame an alligator that eats, say, Kramer, and call it evil. It’s an alligator obeying its natural, uh, nature. It is instinct: not creativity, not hostility, not morality.

I heard someone say last week that man (i.e. humans) cannot create anything because God is the creator of everything. I get the sentiment, but not the practical reality.  I’m on the side that understands why smart dolphins don’t build hospitals, and why God-given human talents and aspirations can imagine, and do, great things or terrible things.

Of course humans can create – or destroy – at will. And I notice, so can God.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes man’s first job was to create names for animals (Genesis 2:19).

Friends: I call Sept. 2 my “Awake Date,” and here’s why … 25 years ago this week. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1033

September 1, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Flash in the Pan   

By Bob Walters

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” – Ephesians 1:3 NIV

This fall is a season of personal milestones, marking 25 years of a life in Christ I never expected and for 47 previous years I never imagined.

That takes us back to 2001 – September 2, to be exact – then a personal season of significant turmoil none of which, consciously, was leading me to Christ nor looking for answers from Jesus. Crisis was real, but, stubborn me, I never tried to solve it in church.

My very fun career in sports writing, media relations in college and professional sports, and 15-ish seasons in auto racing PR had foundered. Debt was high, the house was in jeopardy, my marriage was in trouble, and bankruptcy loomed on the very near horizon.

Oh, and the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attacks on the nation were nine days away.

It all sounds like a perfect precursor to “Let’s find Jesus!” It was nothing like that.

Prayer was the one thing I hadn’t really tried.  Through most of my life in times of turmoil I’d say the Lord’s Prayer because it was the only prayer I knew, left over from my youth in the Episcopal Church. I knew the prayer, but didn’t know Jesus. I watched a fair amount of Christian TV on cable those intervening years, but none of it really stuck.

Maybe it was the cable TV preachers that softened me up for the day I woke up to Christ, September 2, 2001. I found myself sitting at East 91^st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis and – almost inexplicably – feeling very happy about being there.

I’ve written this many times, but two weeks earlier my then-8^th grade son Eric, at the dinner table, asked, “How come we don’t go to church?” On the school bus, kids around him talked about what churches they attended. He simply asked his mom and me why we didn’t.

This was a school bus in Carmel, Indiana, a thriving community of money, education, families, achievement, and as it turns out, faith.  Six of Indiana’s largest churches, along with three huge Catholic parishes, are either in Carmel or in communities adjacent to it.

These are the kinds of communities that attend church. I thought it was only the mono-syllabic country folk who actually believed this stuff. My whole life I’ve been blessed with really smart friends. Now, smart friends with deep faith would raise the intellectual bar.

Anyway, Eric and his younger brother John bought into the idea of church. Their mother Jean (my wife until 2006) had a sister who was looking for a new church, and they settled on trying E91 because it was almost exactly between our two homes.

We dropped the boys off in their respective Sunday school areas, which were lively, welcoming, and fun. We adults headed to the sanctuary; it was my first exposure to contemporary worship, extemporaneous prayer, and communion without all the priestly robes and ceremony of the Episcopal “high church” liturgy and eucharist.

Culture shock aside, E91’s wonderful longtime pastor Russ Blowers, who had retired in 1996 but was still a rock of the congregation, happened to be celebrating his exact, 50-years-to-the-day anniversary – since September 2, 1951 – of serving the church.

Russ, sharing the pulpit with E91’s senior minister Dave Faust, preached on 1 Corinthians 13, the “Love” chapter, a Bible verse I’d heard many times at weddings. Never thought much about it. This was different: Faith is past, hope is future, and love is now.

Russ’s delivery, Dave’s follow-up, and the congregation’s expressed love for both of them, not to mention the church’s obvious corporate and personal understanding of Jesus, turned this from a mere visit into a new life direction. It was the day I awoke to God’s truth.

During the sermon, my eyes welled up and my throat clutched. Over time I’ve realized my career years amount to a flash in the pan. Faith in Jesus, happily, is not.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) apologizes if this is repetitive, but it is his favorite story, and Ephesians 1:3 is the first Bible verse he memorized. Russ, by the way, baptized John in 2004 and Eric in 2005. A dear friend, Russ died in 2007.