Monday, March 25, 2013

332 - If I'm 'No. 1,' What's Jesus?

Spirituality Column #332
March 26, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

If I’m ‘No. 1,’ What’s Jesus?
By Bob Walters

Most people in our culture know the basics of the Christian story.

Jesus was born peacefully in a manger, died violently on a cross, came back unexpectedly from the dead, and somehow because of all that our sins are graciously forgiven and we can go eternally to heaven.  And, oh yeah: Jesus Saves, Jesus is the Son of God, and Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.

Not everyone believes it, but almost everyone knows the story and understands they are a sinner in need of redeeming help.  Thanks to Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter, the majority of folks have at least a visceral attachment to Christian faith.  That’s one of the great gifts of our culture: that people generally accept and understand there is room for improvement in their moral being and they’d sincerely like to “be a better person.”  The problem is that the outlandishness of the whole “Jesus Story” – being a humble servant dedicated to glorifying God – doesn’t pass the secular sanity test of “Looking out for No. 1.”

Most people see “No. 1” in the mirror, not in their faith.  To paraphrase Rick Blaine in Casablanca, “Here’s looking at me, kid.”  After all, who can be more important than “me”?  Whose priorities can supersede mine?   We are coached by popular society to “find ourselves” and “define ourselves” and to organize our activities around the pursuit of “being as good as I can be.”  So we ask, “Who or what can help me achieve that goal?”  People might answer with “Jesus” or “church” or some other religious, spiritual, or self-help term, but too often the small and mistaken goal is “me.”

Turning toward church only works when we turn toward the Cross with the goal of discovering something about Jesus.  And that only works if we approach Jesus with our entire life: our heart, mind, soul, strength, personality, treasure … everything.  We cannot define one part of our life in Jesus, and another part in something else.

That’s because Jesus is bigger than anything else.  He is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3).  Jesus totally defines himself and anyone who truly follows Him.  In His life, His ministry, His trial, His torture, His death and His resurrection, Jesus submitted to the will and glory of God.

If I want to be like Jesus, to get to know Jesus, that’s what I have to do.

Because the real story and basic truth of Christianity is that Jesus Christ is No. 1, and I’m not.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recommends an Easter Sunday trip to church focused on God’s love, not on one’s personal sins.  Try it, you’ll like it.
Monday, March 18, 2013

331 - Christians Shoot at Can't-Miss TV

Spirituality Column #331
March 19, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

Christians Shoot at Can’t-Miss TV
By Bob Walters

Early in the project, The Bible miniseries producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey – both life-long Christian believers and successful secular entertainment figures – sought advice from noted pastor and author Rick Warren, who offered:
 
- Tell the Story.  The Bible is a love story, not a documentary; take some chances.
 
- Let the story stand.  The Bible explains and defends itself; don’t worry about building that into your production.
 
- Pray “Use me.”  Ask God to use you to tell His story.
 
The day before The Bible premiered on March 3, Warren sat with the producers March 2 in a live online preview and equipping session for pastors and teachers, and opined that 1950s-1960s era Bible mega movies and even the vaunted but decades-old “Jesus Film” are occasionally “wooden” in their use of direct scriptural dialogue.  Warren was enthusiastic about freshening the Bible’s “movie” images.
 
Listening to Downey and Burnett, it’s obvious that their hearts are sincerely with Christ.  Extensive video previews focused heavily on New Testament Jesus stories and I have to tell you, the beauty and emotion of the new video repeatedly had me near tears.  I challenge any believer not to choke up when Jesus lovingly calls tax collector Matthew to be a disciple or tenderly saves and forgives Mary Magdalene.
 
The first episode March 3 surveyed Genesis (Creation, Noah, Abraham, etc.) and Exodus (Moses).  I noticed it was powerfully done, a lot was left out, and some obvious story license had been taken.  But the love story is intense and intact, and I was gratified – thrilled, really – that The Bible was suddenly the hottest topic in the country.
 
It’s what we pray for as Christians, isn’t it, to share God’s word and to have our increasingly lost culture gain familiarity with and enthusiasm for exploring the Bible?  Well, here is a great chance.  The major secular news and entertainment media raved about The Bible’s story, fabulous production, and high ratings.  Yet I was astonished at concurrent social media slams and snarks from Christian quarters: this story was omitted; that angel was embellished; “TV” can’t get anything right, etc.
 
Whoa, folks!  I am reminded of the learned and faithful Apollos, the oft-mentioned associate of the Apostle Paul.  When Aquila and Priscilla perceived rough spots in Apollos’ enthusiastic preaching, they didn’t berate his faith; they taught and encouraged him.  So I have this message for Pharisaical Christian critics who are unlovingly posing and arrogantly promoting their superior Bible expertise: Stop it.
 
Instead, love the opportunity The Bible provides to explain “the way of God more adequately” (Acts 18:26).  And relax.  Like Warren said, the Bible can defend itself.
 
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) figures the rapture can’t be too close because Christians are still so far apart.
Monday, March 11, 2013

330 - The Bible: Reality TV Gets It Right

Spirituality Column #330
March 12, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

The Bible: Reality TV Gets It Right
By Bob Walters
 
Tip: Watch “The Bible,” History Channel, Sundays at 8 p.m. throughout March.

The truth is I don’t watch a whole lot of TV.

And while I am good-naturedly chuckling as I think about this, I especially have no interest in reality shows like “Survivor” and am offended by the “historical Jesus” nonsense routinely offered as “documentary” programming.
 
The manufactured predicaments of what little reality TV I have seen – jungles, bachelorettes, whatever – make me cringe: the programming allure seems to be the revelation of the ugly truths and deceptions of the dark side of humanity.  Coarseness is king (and queen).  Dignity is for losers.  It reminds me of me at my worst.  Yuck.
 
“Historical Jesus” is a lately-popular secular academic and entertainment media euphemism best translated as “the Jesus of the Bible didn’t really exist.”  This is a dark deception of the most lethal sort – the spiritually dead trying to kill the rest of us; the blind leading the blind (Matthew 15:14) into the inglorious pit of doubt and death.
 
There is a great reason why there is so little historical evidence of Jesus: the grace of Christ and the glory of God are written in the Bible and in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, not by scribes in the pages of secular history.  “What is unseen is eternal,” (2 Corinthians 4:18) is how the Bible puts it.
 
Modern culture, on that score, has it just backwards: it insists worldly physical evidence trumps inspired faithful truth and ridicules any suggestion to the contrary.  Rather than understanding that Jesus is author of true freedom and the remover of all shackles, culture portrays Christian faith as limiting rather than freeing – the Bible is for the close-minded; church is for the intellectually limited; serious biblical exposition has no proper place in mainstream cultural conversation.  Satan revels in the lies.
 
All that may explain why every other on-air and cable TV network rejected the five-episode miniseries “The Bible” (8 p.m. ET Sundays) which began airing March 3 on the History Channel.  The series was produced by Mark Burnett (producer of Survivor, which is why I was chuckling above) and Roma Downey (actress, Touched by an Angel).  It is backed by author and Pastor Rick Warren (40 Days of Purpose) of Saddleback Church.  “The Bible” is a big time, truth-telling production.  In this case, seeing really is believing.
 
And the truth is, this is must-see TV.
 
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) sat in on a national online media kickoff conference March 2. “The Bible” producers Burnett and Downey think public schools should teach the Bible (Wall Street Journal, March 1) because “Westerners cannot be considered literate without a basic knowledge of this foundational text.”  Walters couldn’t agree more.
Monday, March 4, 2013

329 - It's Tempting to Dismiss God

Spirituality Column #329
March 5, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

It’s Tempting to Dismiss God
By Bob Walters

Even people who are not especially close to God are often quick to blame God when things – health, relationships, jobs, money, dreams, etc. – fall apart in their lives.

“If God loved me,” they lament, “He wouldn’t let this happen …”

Conversely, believers are quick to blame Satan when things fall apart in theirs.  “The enemy is attacking me,” they piously claim.

And while I am convinced that both angels and demons – good spirits and evil spirits – exist and are active in this world (they appear frequently in the Bible), it is important to get a biblical handle on what God and Satan do and don’t do; who they are, and who they aren’t.

God is Creator (Genesis 1:1), God is love (1 John 4:8), God is good (1 Timothy 4:4), God is light (1 John 1:5 ) God is justice and righteousness (Isaiah 9:7), God is eternal (Genesis 21:33), God is eternal life (1 John 5:20), God is Father (John 1:18), Son (John 1:49), Holy Spirit (John 4:24) and sovereign (Daniel 4:25).

Satan is created (Revelation 12:7-9, Ezekiel 28:14), is the tempter of Jesus (Matthew 4:1), is the tempter of man (1 Thessalonians 3:4), is our accuser (Zechariah 3:2), is our tormenter (2 Corinthians 12:7), is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44), wants control of this world (1 John 5:19), is the enemy of man (1 Peter 5:18), is the founder of sin (1 John 3:8), and the coin of his realm is death (Romans 6:23).

What’s critically important to understand is that God is not the God we want him to be … God is the God HE wants to be.  Goodness and righteousness are best defined as “what God actually is” (see Psalm 23).  Our human mistake is thinking ultimate goodness and righteousness should reflect our human opinions and experience founded in earthly pride and power, rather than in the humility and service of Jesus Christ.

And that mistake is precisely the flashpoint of Satan’s evil lordship on earth.

Satan – born of heaven as an angel who fell of his own pride (Ezekiel 28:17) – battles God by suggesting sin, not by inflicting it.  Satan suggested sin in the Garden, and he continues to suggest sin to us today.  He tempts us to dismiss God’s truth and accept his lies of fleeting earthly glory.  Way too often, we agree.  Willingly.

God is nobody’s enemy, and Satan is nobody’s friend.  The solution to life’s challenges is neither to blame God nor curse Satan, but simply to pray – earnestly – to be closer to Jesus Christ.  God never dismisses those prayers.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wonders if anyone else remembers Flip Wilson’s character “Geraldine” saying, “The devil made me do it.”

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