Spirituality Column #306
September 25, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters
Author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary











Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) thanks E91 pastor Rick Grover for the inspiration and sermon on Mark.

Spirituality Column #305
September 18, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters
Author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

When I was 5 or so, I wanted to be an ambulance driver.  It wasn’t a better or worse answer than fireman or soldier or brain surgeon or fry cook.  I just wanted to be an ambulance driver.

It’s always cute to ask little kids “what they want to be.”  And more than a few of us quinquagenarians have worked through a career or two and still joke about “what we want to be when we grow up.”  At that level, it’s sort of a personal commentary or maybe a reflection of life choices.  But whether it’s asked of a 5 year old or a 50 year old, “What do you want to be?” is a docile question driven more by cuteness or wryness than expectation of commitment to a vocation.

How much different it is to ask “What were you created to be?”  Answering that question requires some semblance of mature self-awareness.  Raised to the next level, let’s ask “What were you Created to be?” with a capital “C” on “Creator.”  Now it’s not just about us.  To answer that question one must stare straight back at God.

What did God Create us to be?

The only example in history of what God Himself Created any of us to truly be is the example of Jesus Christ.  God is perfect, created mankind perfectly, and wants us to be perfect.  But the one thing we all know is that we are not perfect.  And why is that?  Because God was wrong?  God is weak?  God lied?  God doesn’t care?

No. God’s perfect plan for mankind – which was to create us in His image, to have us freely worship Him, and to have us share in His eternal divine love – took a big-time Fall in the Garden of Eden when Satan used man’s free will to question and mock God’s authority.  Satan tricks us into thinking we were created for our own benefit.  It’s the world’s oldest trick and mankind, imperfectly, keeps falling for it.

What we have in Jesus is the ultimate human role model.  Jesus would not, could not, be suckered into Satan’s temptations (Matthew 4:1-11).  Yes, Jesus is fully and perfectly God, but He is also fully and perfectly human.  Jesus’ humanity could resist Satan because He had been baptized into the Spirit and answered Satan with scripture. That’s something we can emulate; that’s the humanity we should pursue.

Satan wants us to look at the world and worship what we want to be.  God wants us to look at Jesus Christ and see who we were created to be.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) never actually drove an ambulance.  Maybe someday…

Spirituality Column #304
September 11, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters
Author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Spirituality Column #303
September 4, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters
Author of (click) Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Not everyone organizes his or her life around the basic assumption that a relational God who really exists created all things.

But a lot of us do.

Even folks who back away from church because it seems intrusive or unsatisfying, dismiss Christians because too many of us seem like hypocrites, idolize sports teams and pop culture figures rather than Jesus Christ, and prioritize money, family, good vibrations and the good life ahead of repentant faith – even them; many of them – will still reflexively, instinctively, call on capital-G God for blessings and help.

They may invoke God, blame God, question God, praise God, make requests of God and maybe on occasion even pray to God.  They have a gut assumption that He’s there even though they don’t understand or buy into the religion and church thing.  As an example, how many people (and I used to be one of them) have you heard say some variation of, “I believe in God, I just don’t believe in religion”?  Our witness needs work.

I think most folks “get” God’s existence and honestly hope God is really there (wherever “there” is).  It is the work of evangelism to share, explain, and strengthen mankind’s confidence that God really is there, that divine love in the person of Jesus Christ really is the central doctrine of the entire Christian faith, and that Christ came for all mankind to put us right with God (John 3:16).  Amen.

Of course, God is there.

But for those who at a basic level “connect” to the fact that God is there and loves us, it is another step up to say “I love God” and another step after that to say “I need God.”  But to truly trust God, it is logical to ask:  What does God need me for?

Surprisingly and simply enough, the answer is: To praise Him and love Him.

Here is how it works.  And it’s not a transaction; it’s grace.

The purpose of all God’s creation is to glorify Him.  Because we are created in God’s own image (Genesis 1:26-27), we are created to be in relationship with God, to love Him, to praise Him, and in that love and praise, to reflect His glory.  Jesus Christ is the bearer (“radiance”) of God’s glory (Hebrews 1:3), and the Holy Spirit teaches us to recognize God’s glory (1 Corinthians 2:6-16).

As sinful mankind in a fallen world, coached and cheered on by Satan, we are inclined to glorify ourselves, love ourselves, praise ourselves, and try to be all we need unto ourselves.  Just understand one thing:

God doesn’t need that.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) first attended church as an adult 11 years ago this weekend, on Sept. 2, 2001.  It just so happened it was the 50^th anniversary of Russ Blowers’ ministry at East 91^st Street Christian Church.  Bob’s book, “Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary” is dedicated to Russ.