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!”

Friends: Jesus pursues us, and it is wisdom to allow Him to catch us. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, and to the sons and daughters they love. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1023

June 23, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Proof of Wisdom

By Bob Walters

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge … Listen, my son, to your father’s teaching …” Proverbs 1:7-8

Almost anyone can pick up a Bible and immediately understand the Book of Proverbs.  It is easily the most accessible, common-sense, non-mystical collection of divine advice, observation, and wisdom scripture has to offer.

Granted, one must possess an ear for biblical language and expression. The hermeneutic, or syntax, of a word like “fear,” washed through ancient translations, doesn’t mean to be afraid and timid.  “Fear of the Lord” means to be solemn and respectful with a full dose of appreciation for whom “the one true God” actually is. He’s not an idol or an idea; He is Lord of all wisdom, truth, reality, and Creation, and we meet Him fully in the person of Jesus.

This is where the secular world starts to wobble. “Common sense” contains an acceptable note of authority, but when knowledge includes “God,” well, now we start asking for proof God exists.  And I think we have, primarily, the ancient Greeks (Socrates, etc.) to thank for that interruption in wisdom’s chain of custody, and more recently, the Enlightenment’s recalibration of man’s position before God.

To be brief, and move quickly on to the next point, the Greeks tested reality with proof: if it cannot be seen or touched, it is not real.  I.e., prove God, or there is no God. And despite Christian influence, the Enlightenment (1600s-1800s), boiled down largely to man defining God rather than God defining man, or ignoring / defying God altogether.

These are humanists and atheists who may see some moral value in the Bible, but not God’s primacy.  God, it must be understood, is seen personally with the eyes and touch of one’s heart and intellect, unlimited by tactile experience or sage syllogism.

So, as we discussed last week, “proof” of God is faith itself: deeply unsatisfying – or perhaps we should say, unreasonably shallow – for the proof-demanding secularist / atheist.  Give me evidence, or give me a different story! Alas, the point is missed.

My life lived is the true proof of my faith, if I choose to accept the gift God offers.

Without revealing names, last week I mentioned a really smart (Mensa), life-long, dear friend who has a deep Christian faith and a loving son who claims atheism. They talk about it weekly. Here is a piece of the response my friend had to the column:

“We have been discussing the book, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, by Al-Ghazali, an 11th century scholar and polymath of the Islamic Golden Age. The book blurb states, ‘… [Ghazali] challenges the assumptions that philosophical reasoning alone can yield certainty in ultimate matters.’”

In other words, philosophers may not know everything. My friend continues:

“I agree. [My son] agrees. Where we differ? Philosophize all you want. Faith is consent by the individual. I consent fully and without reservation. I require no further proof nor do I believe that these ‘ultimate matters’ can be reduced to any proof.  Define God. Go ahead. The words you use and the thoughts you have are at best derivative of our human experience and knowledge. That's reality, but how do you describe the indescribable? God's power and majesty may surpass anything we could ever imagine.”

Adding, “… I have given my consent. I live my life as a challenge to others to give theirs. That's why Sunday is my favorite day of the week with a person I love, [my son].”

Love is the greatest gift of faith, and consent the greatest proof of wisdom.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes Father’s Day this year is also his friend’s birthday, so happy birthday, RG. Btw, Proverbs chapters 1-7, 10, and 13 all begin with phrases about sons. Walters is not one to write or hi-lite in his Bible, and has only one passage underlined, Proverbs 23:15-16.

Friends: The Bible presents a book of loving faith while mankind searches for Godly scientific proof. I’m saying relationship beats evidence. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1022

June 16, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Proof or Faith?

By Bob Walters

“The heavens declare the glory of God…” – Psalms 19:1

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” – Psalms 14:1

Well, which is it?  Let’s go with the “God is real” line of thinking, because that is the only sure avenue of truth. I spent a big chunk of my life not really caring whether God was real or important or optional or a population-wide figment of imagination.

And, I wasn’t really interested, one way or the other, in “proof.” “Proof” is a very human appetite, but it can also be a philosophical trap. Things we can’t prove – love and beauty come to mind – enrich life but cannot be studied or created in a laboratory.

Then, once faith came into my life – meaning, when I came to appreciate the person and reality of Jesus – “proof” took a back seat to relationship. I realized in a big way it was more important to know God, Jesus, the Spirit, the Bible, and the communion of the saints – i.e., the church – than to define it, prove it, or to simply know “about” Christianity. I can’t explain how it happened, but reason achieved a new dimension in faith.

Granted, I’ve learned a lot about Christ, and I love sharing what I know.  But the life I live in Christ isn’t about proving God; it is about knowing reality can be trusted because God is already real.  My faith or lack of faith has – and never has had – any bearing on the heavens declaring the glory of God. Or His existence, or His truth.

God is there, and here, whether we like it – or understand it – or not.

Space aliens are a hot topic these days because of the government’s recent, massive public data dumps on nearly 80 years of UFO and UAP (Unexplained Anomalous Phenomena) lore. But I don’t interpret that as the point of Psalms 19, saying the heavens declare the glory of God because God is a space alien.

The creation, rhythms, and infinity of the heavens declare the glory of God. The fact that infinity goes in both directions – to the largest things and to the smallest things – tells us God is indeed operating in a realm we cannot comprehend. I’m not depending on alien life forms to either prove or disprove God.  Jesus has already done that.

I have a lifelong friend, a Catholic, who spends his Sunday mornings debating / discussing / studying with his atheist son about the merits (on his side) and seeming impossibility (his son’s side) of God’s reality, Christ’s truth, the Spirit’s indwelling, and the Bible and Church’s authority. My friend is a Mensa caliber genius, and his son is a highly placed attorney whom I would never call a fool.  But I pray for them both.

I’ve just finished reading Jeremiah J. Johnston’s book, published this spring, The Jesus Discoveries. In only 180 pages it is a fascinating look at 10 archeological evidences of Jesus’s life on earth, including updated studies on the Shroud of Turin and several proofs of New Testament historical and cultural facts. Johnston’s website, ChristianThinkers.com, is well worth investigating. It has interesting, thoughtful grist for Christian intellectual life.

I’ve attempted reading classics like William Lane Craig’s A Reasonable Response, Josh McDowell’s Evidence that Demands a Verdict, and John Polkinghorne’s Faith in the Living God. All present intellectually deep, masterful apologetics, but I lost interest because they each presented copious evidence for ringings of faith I already possessed.

To me it is ironic, if that is the right word, that the Bible is so clear about the necessity and efficacy of faith when so much of educated humanity demands and accepts only proof. That is a worldly bug, not a feature. It is how Satan convinces us to deny the obvious truth of the heavens, and to doubt the obvious hope and peace of a divine savior.

I am quite used to doubting myself; my comfort is in knowing I needn’t doubt God.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) spends no time trying to prove he loves his wife, nor seeking inviolable evidence she loves him.  Faith in love is its own proof. God is with us.

Friends: Childhood melts away and life’s challenges and opportunities beckon as high school graduates contemplate the places they’ll go. 

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Spirituality Column #1021

June 9, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘Off and Away!’

By Pamela Walters

“Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to great places! You’re off and away!” – Theodor Gesiel, aka Dr. Seuss, from “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”

(We’re turning over the column this week to my wife Pam, taken from her commencement address May 22 to the Mission Christian Academy class of 2026: 29 strong! – Bob)

“In the past four years in my English classes – and for a few of you, five years – we have read pieces by a wide assortment of authors, from Shakespeare to C.S. Lewis, Dickens, Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Mary Shelley.  The names of the greatest writers the world has known have surrounded you each day in class.  But there is one very well-known and well-loved writer whom we did not study: Dr. Seuss.

“So … a bit of Seuss-ism on this auspicious day.

“‘Congratulations!  Today is your day.  You’re off to Great Places!  You’re off and away!  You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.  You’re on your own.  And you know what you know.  And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

“While we can agree with some of what Dr. Seuss wrote, as Christians, we have a different mindset when we look to the future.  True: this is your day.  Many of you have worked hard to achieve this goal.  You have persevered and finished well.  “You all ‘have brains in your head,’ and we hope that educationally you are prepared for whatever path you travel from here.  But more importantly, we pray that you keep your mind on Christ and that His Word is written on your hearts. ‘In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.’ Most of you have made your first big decision: it’s college or technical school, the military or the work force. While you can ‘steer yourself in any direction you choose,’ we pray that you are allowing Jesus to guide your steps, that you are seeking His will for your life. 

“‘Oh, the places you’ll go!  You’ll be on your way up!  You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to great heights.  Wherever ‘you fly, you’ll be best of the best.  Wherever you go, you’ll top all the rest.  Except when you don’t.  Because sometimes you won’t.  I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, its true that Bang-ups and Hang-Ups can happen to you.’

“Those of us who have spent so much time with you here and have come to love and care for you wish we could tell you that as long as you stay close to Jesus and attempt in every way to do His will, life will be nothing but joy and happiness and success.  But that isn’t how life goes in this fallen world.  There will be ‘bang ups and hang ups.’ challenges, disappointments, and failures. 

“The Bible tells us there will be trials.  But the big difference between facing trials on your own and facing them with Jesus is that He promised He would always be with you; Jesus will never leave you or forsake you.  You know my story; you know life has not been a cake walk.  But in the disappointments, Jesus was hope. In the darkness, He was light. When I didn’t think I could take any more, He was my strength. Let Jesus be your hope, your light, your strength. ‘For with Him, you can do all things.’

“‘Oh, the places you’ll go!  There is fun to be done!  There are points to be scored.  There are games to be won.  Fame!  You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.  Except when you don’t.  Because, sometimes, you won’t.  I’m afraid that sometimes you’ll play lonely games too.  All alone!  Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.  And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.  There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.  But on you will go though the weather be foul.  On you will go, though your enemies prowl.’

“On you will be able to go as long as you put your trust in Jesus, for with Him, you will never be alone.  You need to remember that you have never been alone.  While this is a time of beginning – that’s why it’s called commencement – please look back at where you’ve been.  You have families who have surrounded you with their love and support.  Here at MCA you have had teachers and staff who have encouraged you and prayed for you and have come to love you.  And we will all still be here for you should you ever need us.

“‘On and on you will hike, and I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.  You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. So be sure where you step; step with care and great tact.”  The world will try to trip you up; Satan loves to cause confusion and fear.  But remember that “our God is not a God of confusion but of peace.”  So ‘let us lay aside every weight and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.’

“Congratulations! Today is the Lord’s day. You’re off to great places. You’re off and away.”  We love you, we’re excited for you, and we will be praying for you. 

“God bless.”

The Faculty and Staff of Mission Christian Academy

Mr. Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that Mrs. Walters’ “Charge to Seniors” (which also appears in MCA’s 2025-26 Yearbook) is an annual graduation send-off, this year to MCA’s fourth graduating class. Mission Christian Academy in Fishers, Indiana, a K-12 private school, begins its seventh school year this August. MCA’s inaugural enrollment was 38 in 2020-21; enrollment this fall exceeds 750.

 

Friends: We started a summer sermon series on Deuteronomy at our church. It reminds us Jesus is all over the Old Testament, too. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1020

June 2, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Shadows and Reality

By Bob Walters

“These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” – Colossians 2:17 NIV

The Old Testament is a catalogue of God’s Creation, God’s character, God’s righteousness, and God’s plan. It is the tale of man’s possibilities in God but also man’s failures in sin. It is a tale of nations, of Satan, of rulers, of the faithful, of the deceitful, of prophets, and if you know how to look, one can find shadows and types and hints of Jesus on every page. He is the One to Come.

But the Old Testament is a story without a climax, a resolution, or a moral ending. It just … stops.  It is Jesus Christ, and the Gospel, and the New Testament writers who pull God’s Word all together: the Old story of God’s creation and man’s sin, and the New story of God’s grace and human salvation.  Salvation that is promised in the Old but delivered in the New. We need both Testaments to understand the full story; we need Jesus to understand God’s reality.

I like to say that the Old Testament describes the problem and the New Testament describes the solution. The problem? Our sin, our distance from God, and our human pride of sufficiency. The Solution?  Well, the solution is Jesus Christ and our renewed divine and eternal relationship in God’s Kingdom. That is what we celebrate with communion. It is a small meal that nourishes our souls and cements our fellowship in Christ.

As we enter into this new sermon series anchored in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, let’s use today’s communion time to mention various places in the Old Testament that suggest communion in the coming Messiah Christ.  In the cup is represented the blood of Jesus’s sacrifice and life, and in the bread, Jesus’s body and fellowship. With these, we remember the body and blood of Christ.

In Genesis, the apple of “the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” is the opposite of communion. The “apple” separated us from God; communion in Christ restores us to God.

The other tree in the garden, routinely overlooked, the “Tree of Life” (Genesis 3:22), calls us to “eat of it and live forever.” In Revelation 2:7, Jesus says, “to the victor I will give the right to eat from the Tree of Life that is in the Garden of God.”  In this communion is Christ’s promise of eternal life. In His sacrifice we are forgiven, and in our faith, restored to God’s Kingdom. In Genesis 4 we see Abel’s blood spilled by Cain, then Hebrews 12:24 declares the blood of Jesus “speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.”

Before there was the Jewish Law, there was Melchizedek, the mysterious, eternal king and priest, “made to resemble the Son of God” (Hebrews 7:3), who in Genesis 14:18 offered a sacrifice of bread and wine, foreshadowing communion.

In Exodus there are of course the blood of the Passover and the manna, or bread, of the desert.  There is the “hearth cake and jug of water” for Elijah in the desert (1 Kings 19), the Temple’s “Bread of the Presence” (Lev 24:7), and the Fiery Coal of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:6-7).  In Ezekial 2:8, the prophet has a vision, when God and the Spirit of the Lord enter him, saying, “open your mouth, and eat what I give you.” All these are shadows of communion with the coming King of Kings.

The Jesus we know has given us this communion to share. As we consume this small meal, let us consume and remember the Word of God in scripture, and remember the Word Who was made flesh, died for our salvation, and rose again in promise of eternal life.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) delivered this communion homily Sunday, May 31, 2026 at E91 Christian Church in Indianapolis where he and Pam are longtime members.

Friends: What is the best way to fight for Christ? Fight like John the Baptist, or “fight” like Jesus?  Peter Heck’s new book Rebellious has some good perspective.

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Spirituality Column #1019

May 26, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Warrior for Christ?

By Bob Walters

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors …” – 2 Corinthians 5:20

Some years ago, “Rob” was a wonderful Christian guy at our large church, active in Bible studies, the greeting team, traffic control, whatever … and always ready to cheerfully lend a hand with anything that needed to be done.

His full name escapes me now (though I remember his face), and once he remarked that he wanted to be “a warrior for Christ.” I thought that was a laudable goal, and I know he meant it in the best way possible. On the one hand, it is: forceful! 

But Peter Heck’s new book, Rebellious: What if Christians Were Actually Different? offers a sobering op-ed to that “warrior” ministerial objective, an objective Peter previously held most of his life. He possessed the well-researched and well-rehearsed scriptural kill shots to silence critics, heretics, atheists, or anyone looking at Christianity and getting it wrong. Since being baptized 26 years ago and digging deeply into scripture, I had always wanted to be that guy, too.

Peter was that guy, with successful decades of Christian but also cultural and political commentary.  Peter was a warrior for the right side of God and history.

He had a Sunday morning radio show on Indy’s WIBC, frequently made national guest appearances on Fox News and Glenn Beck’s show, wrote copious online commentary for Not the Bee and other platforms (Substack, etc.), travels as a speaker at conferences, conventions, and youth rallies, and preaches at Jerome Church near Greentown, Indiana, where he teaches history and government at Eastern High School.

Oh, and he recently rebranded his four-times weekly podcast to “Dashboard Jesus,” which has been heavily refocused from his earlier online offerings, lessening political content and emphasizing his heart for Christian life and scriptural truth.

I’ve followed Pete online for years and yes, he is a busy guy. He mentioned in a post a while back that he was easing off the political commentary to focus on preaching, but retains a great perspective on American history and the current state of our political and cultural dissonance. It is his approach to engaging the world that has changed.

Peter had an awakening three or so years ago that led to writing Rebellious, which he lays out in chapter 12, titled “Grace.”  It came when a college friend gently told Peter he couldn’t finish listening to one of Peter’s recorded sermons because of its harsh tone (pp155-157 in the book). The friend said it sounded “angry and mean.”

After a brief bout of defensiveness, Peter re-listened to the sermon and had to agree.  And then came (what I think is) the brilliant self-diagnosed revelation of his whole approach to witness. Peter had always styled himself after John the Baptist, “preparing the way for Christ” (Matthew 3:3). After all, “Among those born of woman … none is greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11). So, be like John the Baptist!

Wrong. Peter realized that his job in faith was to be an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20), and to be Christlike, i.e. gentle and forgiving. John the Baptist was commissioned to be the more blunt-force warrior, not fearing to be offensive.

“Offensive” is not what we are told to be. “We do not make war as the world does” (2 Corinthians 10:3). Jesus will make war in his own way when the time comes (Revelation 19:10-11). Christlikeness now should look like love, peace, and patience.

So, be like Jesus, not like John the Baptist. Be different, and read Rebellious.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recommends Heck’s website, PeterHeck.com, and offers these book links: About Rebellious, Buy Rebellious.

Friends: What the Jews expected as salvation and what Jesus actually delivered were two very different things.  Special note down at the bottom. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1017

May 19, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

In the Name of Jesus

By Bob Walters

“Salvation is found in no one else …” – Peter, Acts 4:12

What I notice most about the Gospels, especially the cross and resurrection, is that at the time of Jesus, no one but Jesus understood what was going on.

The Jews certainly had faith in God and worshipped Him piously in obedience to the Law, but “salvation” was misunderstood and remained shortsighted.  What the Jews expected and what God had in mind were wildly different. Nobody saw it coming.

Early Jews, as a culture and race, were of low consideration to the surrounding and much bigger cultures.  The Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans aggressively built and lost empires, while the Jews were regularly the object of conquering armies. They were picked on, held in low esteem, and their God mocked.

God had chosen Israel as “His People,” frequently informing Jewish prophets of their leaders’ missteps, even loosing armies on the Jews for their lack of obedience and misdirected faith. Disobedience began early: Moses descended the mountain with God’s laws only to find the Jews had fashioned a golden calf, an idol, that commandments one and two plainly forbade.

Did the Jewish leaders listen and learn from the prophets? No, they killed them.

Remember, at that time, God’s laws pertained to the Jews and no one else. On the “global” scene, Israel was small potatoes, a backwater religion and culture in a small area of the lands at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. The Jews, I think, understood they had a monopoly on the One True God, but did not see His long game.

Throughout the Old Testament, salvation for the Jews, briefly stated, would rid them of their outside tormentors, provide forgiveness for their mistakes and sins, elevate their status in the world, and make life easier. Theirs was a very hard life.

The Messiah, they believed and hoped, would both kill their outside enemies and lift the Jews up from their humble state to world power. Forgiveness, on the list of what they expected the Messiah to accomplish, appears to have remained an afterthought.

It was a tight and worldly view of salvation. Christ’s healing of sin, eternal forgiveness, restored divine relationship with God, a forever home in heaven, and an earthly Kingdom in Christ offered to the whole world, was on nobody’s radar. 

Hence, when Jesus arrived, He would fulfil the truth of what God had told the prophets, not what the Jews told themselves.  They wanted the Messiah to kill Romans.  The Cross looked like a failure; anything but salvation. The Resurrection? A mystery. The aftermath? It would take years for some Jews, then the world, to see the truth.

As Luke records in Acts 4:12, Peter preaches to a “greatly disturbed” (Acts 4:2) Sanhedrin: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Truth? It is God’s Son who saves.

The Law, it turns out, would save no one. The name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the exclusive eternal avenue to the One True God. What the Jews cried for as salvation was not the gift God had in mind. Christian understanding came slowly.

The disciples and earliest Christians came to firm belief that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah. The resurrection, following all Jesus said, accomplished that. Then the full fruit of what God provided to us through the sacrifice of Jesus blossomed.

I praise God for the gift of nearly 2,000 years of scripture scholarship and faithful wisdom that we can grasp the grace, mercy, love, and truth Jesus delivered to humanity.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), because Jesus lives, believes good and evil exist and are easier to tell apart.

BTW, big week ahead! It’s the last week of school, MCA graduation is Friday night (Pam is commencement speaker), Saturday is my 72^nd birthday, and both of my sons and their families, plus my sister Linda (and Bill) and brother Joe will all be in town for the 500. I won’t be attending the race (which is sold out and will be on live TV in Indianapolis), but everyone will be at our house Saturday for our annual Night Before the Race pregame meal. Blessings abound.