Spirituality Column #410
September 23, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

Spirituality Column #409
September 16, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

“… though the eye of sinful man, Thy glory may not see.” – from the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy.

Among my favorite Bible head-scratchers is God’s dual creation of light.

On Creation’s first day, God creates the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1), there is “darkness over the deep and the Spirit of God over the waters” (verse 2), and God says, “Let there be light” (verse 3).

“Light” is the first thing that God says is “good,” and it divided the darkness.  But it is not the light of the sun, the moon, the stars, the heavens, a campfire, or a light bulb.  That kind of light, the light of physical illumination that allows physical sight, isn’t created until Day 4 (verse 7).  Why does God create light twice?

Well, He doesn’t.  The Bible’s “first” light is God’s light of truth, love, power, goodness and relationship.  It is the “information” component of Creation.  As opposed to all the physical things that can “be” – such as matter or energy, or even “animal, vegetable or mineral” – God’s “light” is what installs a purpose and moral order to His physical Creation.  Without God’s light, Darwinian evolution may as well be true because no moral information would be needed.  The faithful in Christ believe in and fight for the light of Creation because that light is God’s truth.

Momentarily and mistakenly, we might think the “light” created in Genesis 1:3 actually is Jesus Christ, but it can’t be – Jesus Christ isn’t a created being.  He is an eternal, uncreated part of the Trinity and the exact reflection of the glory of God (see Hebrews 1:2-3).  Like the Spirit “hovering over the waters,” Christ the Son was already here at the beginning, not created after it.  It was God’s placement of His Son, the “heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2) with “authority over all things” (Matthew 28:18), that brought the light of God’s truth into the world – “His life was the light of all men” (John 1:4).  That Jesus is the “light of the world” (John 8:12) speaks to the incarnation of God on earth.

That first-day darkness must have been an unholy emptiness, a void then dramatically filled by the animating, loving, relational, creative, light of God.  But ever since man was created on the sixth day, just as man’s eyes adjust to physical darkness, so man’s soul adjusts to spiritual darkness.

Satan – a created being and fallen angel – is alive and busy wherever a soul’s darkness persists with festering blindness to God’s light.

In Jesus Christ – the eternal shepherd of God’s light – man overcomes his blindness to the glory of God.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes the Earth was once all water – Genesis 1:2,9. Hmmm.

Spirituality Column #408
September 9, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

- Steadfast conviction in the Lordship of Jesus Christ,
- Perpetual immersion in the comfort and peace of the Holy Spirit,
- Resolute vigilance against the evil of the enemy and great deceiver Satan.

A Christian could do worse than to possess and exhibit these traits.  But we are instructed by countless secular, philosophical, academic and atheist demagogues to take their word for it, there is no brilliant light, absolute truth, or unwavering good.

Faithful, steadfast, perpetual, resolute?  No.  The great, dynamic drama of God’s creation and man’s role in it – we are advised – is a myth for suckers.  Further, only misbegotten arrogance would cause one to call anything “evil.”  Culture dismisses both divine glory and fallen evil – “it’s just your opinion,” “don’t judge me,” “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” “I’m a good person,” etc.

Talk about “misbegotten arrogance.”

Man was created by God with both the desire to worship something and the freedom to decide what that would be.  Satan suggests we direct that worship toward ourselves.  We go a step further and create our own gods.  Political correctness and social science reign as the quasi-spiritual coins of the earthly-focused modern realm.  That’s how society rolls these days and, we suppose, largely how fallen man has rolled ever since Satan suggested Adam and Eve deserved equal knowledge with God.

Our problem is that we generally have more questions than answers about the One True God.  Jesus constantly tells the disciples there are things about Him they cannot understand.  God told Isaiah that His thoughts and ways are higher than man’s thoughts and ways.  We imagine it to be an unfair allocation of thoughts and ways.

With Satan’s urging and glee, we demand answers.  The self-piously educated world erroneously supposes man’s character to be the final arbiter of morality. We shouldn’t be surprised it has come to that.  Modern mankind has put vast cultural energies into education in humanities, science and technology.  Our lust for answers has overtaken our reverence for God’s sovereign plan for the glory of His Creation.  We imagine the answer to the eternal equation is: “Me.”

Among the groanings of the Holy Spirit, the revelation of the Bible, the traditions and fellowship of the Church and the lessons of all the saints – merged with sober, reflective time in prayer – one can develop a pretty vivid understanding of God’s intentions.

And His intention is for us to trust Him, and to understand that we must have the right answer for Him. And that answer is “Yes.”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has learned that seeking truth doesn’t always mean demanding answers.  Often it means “praying for faith.”

Spirituality Column #407
September 2, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

Having Seen Both Sides Now
By Bob Walters

How do I know there is a loving God and that Jesus Christ is not only my savior, but the whole world’s?

Well … let’s make a list.  In order I’d credit the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the worldwide church and the fellowship of all believers as the four signal “proofs” of the value, reality and certainty that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that it is quite OK – recommended, in fact – to trust Him as Lord and Savior.  The enormity of God’s Kingdom and the brightness of God’s light – humanly inexpressible except for our faith in His Son Jesus Christ – far exceed the simple confines of worldly proof.

Recently I heard a Christian radio host debating an atheist who was demanding “proof” of Jesus, God … the whole Christian thing.  While the host presented his “historical facts” argument, I mentally composed the above list.  I also recognized that I used to sound more like the atheist than the host.  Having seen faith from both the outside as a non-believer and the inside as a functioning Christian I can tell you from experience, demanding “proof” is the easiest faith dodge in the world.  “If you can’t prove it to me,” I’d reason, “I don’t have to be encumbered by Jesus.”

“You lose,” I’d conclude.

It would be nice to be able to prove the existence, goodness and purpose of God and Christ by the example of my own life, but I can’t.  I fall short.  Blessings abound, but still sins of every stripe dot the lengthening landscape of my earthly existence.

Regardless of anyone’s particular faith in Jesus, people certainly encounter both sin and blessings – possibly without recognizing them as such.  Yet by dismissing the life and light of faith in Christ humans operate in the small, dark, dismal, time-is-running-out prison of “this mortal coil’s” empirical evidence.  Where is this life’s hope – hope for good, hope for clearer meaning, hope for larger purpose – if I confine “hope” to my limited human physical senses, talents and timeline?

Thankfully, I don’t have to be Jesus to know He exists.  And I no longer expect to find “larger” cosmic hope and purpose within my personal fallen piece of humanity.  The Spirit, scripture, church, traditions, teachers, preachers and all the really smart Christians I’ve encountered are ample evidence to the truth and perfection of Christ, and witness to the enormity of God’s Kingdom and glory.

Knowing that perfection exists is different from being perfect.  I was blind, but now I see.  I was lost, but now am found.  That’s all the proof I need.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), then age 47, awakened to Christ 13 years ago today, Sept. 2, 2001.