Spirituality Column #476
December 29, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

“No one comes to the Father except through me.”  – Jesus, John 14:6

As we cruise on into the other side of life past Christmas – when the sentimental swirl of the season morphs into pedantic pursuits like cleaning up, packing up and paying up – what is the most important thing we keep with us as the holiday lights dim?

Why, our Savior Jesus Christ, of course.

“Reason for this season”?  C’mon, He’s the reason for every season.

Yet upon heading into the New Year most people find Jesus easier to put away than take along.  He’s a holiday decoration.  After Christmas, they’d rather see Jesus packed up than the Gospel picked up.  Folks move on from the holidays thinking Christmas was great and Jesus is OK but in their heart-of-hearts figure, “Hey, enough is enough; I have a real life to live.  The season is over; Christmas was what I hoped it would be … I’m good ‘til next year.”

There is a flicker of faith even in harder hearts – not all, certainly, but a lot of them – that senses the truth of the Christmas story beating well beyond the considerable cacophony of Yuletide’s clanging commercial largesse.  These faithful sparks are earnest in intent but unfueled in practice.  Starving, the heart’s flame of the Christmas season retreats.  The “want” of truth and “need” of peace smolder and eventually cool into the uninspiring, unsatisfying ashes of spiritually “getting by.”  We can always meet Jesus again next Christmas.  He’ll be there, right?  Until then … where’s the necessity?

Our information is wrong and our priorities are catastrophically inverted when we seasonalize, marginalize or otherwise compartmentalize Christ.  Correct information is written in the Gospels, well-represented above in John 14:6: Jesus is the only way to God, not just “a” way.  The catastrophe is misunderstanding what’s at stake when we prioritize ourselves or anything else ahead of God.

Satan’s entire playbook hinges on man’s priorities of “Me.”  Hell is fed continually by man’s fears, guilt, shame and eventual death.  Satan’s temptations may make us feel good for a while, but in him our sins and fears endure forever.

Joy, you see, is a function of forever with God.  What God promises, what Jesus delivers, and what the Holy Spirit assures is that our eternity will reside in the presence of our Creator God Almighty, who loved us enough to make us and then set us free to find Him anew.

It is that part about finding God “anew” that makes Jesus indispensable all the time.  We cheat ourselves horribly if we see our Savior only at Christmas.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that God’s gift to us is our best gift to God - Love.

Spirituality Column #475
December 22, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

“If anyone loves God, he is known by God.” – 1 Corinthians 8:3

The gift of Jesus Christ – the gift we celebrate at Christmas – is this “knowing” relationship humanity has with God.

It’s unique.  Period.

“Say it ain’t so” if you want to.  Say that every religion seeks knowledge and love of God, Christianity is just another of those religions, blah, blah, blah.  But a dismissive statement like that only serves to prove one’s desperate lack of scholarship, understanding and investigation.  Christmas celebrates our opportunity to love God and be known by God.  It’s a relationship no one else is selling.

"I am the way and the truth and the life; nobody comes to the father except through me,” says Jesus in John 14:6.  He must mean it, because no other religion claims anything remotely close.

The arrival of God as man in the Christ child, the baby Jesus – incarnate, “and the Word became flesh,” John 1:14 – is unique in history and well deserves the biggest party and commemoration of any year.  The party goes just fine, but the commemoration of what we’re actually celebrating tends to get lost amid the egg nog, gift wrapping, lawn Santas and politically correct brutality against showing or mentioning God’s own symbol, sign and seal of our salvation, Jesus Christ.  Happy holidays.

Which is to say: as a culture we are quite good at knowing Christmas and quite bad at knowing Christ.  We don’t discern and embrace what Christ means and how one-of-a-kind special He is.  The “baby Jesus in a manger” narrative is quaint and cozy, and our holiday decorations and gift giving are beautiful and joyous.  But we have peacefully, self-righteously, and stupidly forfeited the understanding of the uniqueness of not only the best gift at Christmas but the best gift of all time – the gift of knowing God’s love.

What’s so important about God’s love?  “Love” is who and what God is: “God is love” says the Bible over and over again.  It was God’s love in the beginning that was “His Word” that then became earthly flesh so that mankind, in Jesus, could see God’s face, hear God’s voice, love God’s presence and then dwell with Him for all eternity.

All that was demanded of us – graciously, compassionately and miraculously – wasn’t our own Godly perfection, but faith in God’s perfection.  God endows that faith to all, along with our complete freedom to accept it or reject it.

Rejection?  That looks like Jesus on the cross.

Acceptance?  Its beauty and glory exceeds anything we can imagine: we get to be known by God.  And the only thing necessary is love.

Merry Christmas.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) prays for your peace and rest in Christ.

Spirituality Column #474
December 15, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

“We have this hope as an anchor …” – Hebrews 6:19

“Hope” the verb indirectly suggests fear and doubt about pending outcomes.

“Hope” the noun is the forthright acceptance of God’s truth.

As action, hope the verb generally designates worldly reservation, akin to wishing, supposing, wanting, desiring, or even coveting.  We hope our ball team wins the game, we’d like to think the best of people, it’d be nice to get that raise, “Why can’t we all just get along?” and “Wow, that sure is a nice car!”   Even praying for healing – for ourselves or others – probably expresses more of a temporal wish (relief from pain and inconvenience) than assured, faith-filled forfeiture to God’s eternal will.

That hope, the noun identifying man’s faithful, intellectual, God-ordained understanding of the fact of God’s glory, love, eternity and Creation, is necessary hope.  It is far larger than merely wishing to dodge the discomforts, disappointments and dismay of this fallen world.

The word “hope” appears more times in the book of Job than anywhere else in the Bible except for Psalms.  Ironically, “hope” goes unmentioned in the Gospels.

Job, the Old Testament book depicting Satan’s mischief, worldly misery, man’s doubt, interpersonal frustration and God’s confident righteousness, exposes temporal human hope – the verb – as inadequate in this fallen world.  Divine hope – the noun – creates a personal, peace-bestowing glow when shared with the eternal being of God.

The Psalms offer great hymns and prayers of the faithful, the scared, the downtrodden, the exultant, the penitent, and most especially – overarchingly – the hopeful who desire to see God’s face, know God’s presence, and share God’s love.  The psalmists pray – they hope – for a day when God’s righteousness will be apparent.

Turns out, that day of hope wasn’t what anyone was expecting.

Certainly, hope arrives in the Gospels as God’s supreme gift to mankind, but in the humble, loving, shrewd, unwavering, truth-teaching, parable-spouting, miracle-working person of Jesus Christ.  Fully God and fully man, Christ is our hope.  Many souls miss that Godly message because Jesus isn’t the “fixer” we hoped for, humility isn’t what we wanted, and loving our enemies isn’t what we had in mind.

Fallen man’s typical expression of hope is focused desperation; a plea for favor. Godly, broadband hope anchors itself in the gift of Jesus Christ: eternity with God.

While the Gospels reveal the perfect image of God’s glory in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:3), Paul describes God’s gift of hope to the faithful human intellect, a gift that facilitates and illuminates God’s eternal plan: the Glory-to-come of faithful believers.

In the here and now, we fear, we doubt.

Life in Christ, that’s what hope’s really about.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) doesn’t “hope it’s true;” he’s thankful for truth.

Spirituality Column #473
December 8, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

“… if we are faithless, he will remain faithful …” – 2 Timothy 2:13

Have you ever noticed that most of what the Bible says about faith is about God’s faith, not ours?

Obviously faith is a major theme in scripture.  Derivative words – faith, faithful, faithfulness, faithless, etc. – appear hundreds of times.  Only a few nouns (God, Lord, Love, Heaven and maybe a few others, whatever, not the point) appear more often.

Out here in the fallen world, amid humanity’s mixed bag of kindness, strife, beauty, disaster, comfort, horror and generally things that work out and things that don’t work out, faith often is regarded as a conjured, vaporous, wishful crutch for man’s existential helplessness.

Wrong.

Faith is the Almighty Creator God’s unyielding truth, power and relational promise.  Faith, the Bible unrelentingly tells us, is a God thing, not a mankind thing.

Throughout the Old Testament “faith” most often appears – dozens and dozens of times – directly referencing “God’s faithfulness” (Genesis 24:27) or humans praising God’s faithfulness (see the Psalms).  Most direct references to human faith are in the context of “broken faith” or “faithlessness.”  I’m serious.  Look it up.

In the New Testament, Hebrews 11 famously catalogues great examples of Old Testament holy lives – Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses and others – who trusted God “by faith” they themselves did not create and could not see.  Faith, we can discern from the New Testament, comes to tactile fruition in the person of Jesus Christ, who bore history’s only gift of God’s faith mankind could see and touch.

So …you have faith?  Great, it’s a gift from God.  It’s the light God provided our souls at Creation.  It’s a light illuminating divine things outside our experience.  It’s a light for discerning the mysterious, often-hidden-in-plain-sight reality of God, of His Creation and of our own relationship within God’s belovedness and Creation’s majesty.  It’s a light God bestows along with the freedom to stoke it with the fuel of God’s own faith so it burns brightly, or asphyxiate it with our own self-centeredness, fear and pride.

The light, by the way, is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

G.K. Chesterton warned elegantly (in “Orthodoxy”) against “Inner Light” theology: that God exists within and is controlled by the human soul.  Problematically, if the “self” is where we believe God exists, we wind up worshiping the self instead of God.

A bad idea.

Faith isn’t so much something we possess; it’s a fundamental, necessary piece of God’s character that He shares with us through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

That makes faith the ultimate team effort.  And with it, we are never alone.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is more thankful than faithful, but he’s working on it.

Spirituality Column #472
December 1, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith … it is the gift of God.”  – Ephesians  2:8

The Bible convinces me God knew what He was doing when He created man, gave us freedom, gave us commandments, most importantly gave us Jesus Christ, and lovingly gave us grace.

God, evidently, is never surprised by how much help mankind needs.

I believe this “help” was a package deal from the very beginning; a package that in this season of Christmas gifts we are wise to consider as the most important, divine and Godly gifts, and really, the only gifts that truly matter.

We all have on our Christmas shopping lists items we know are a combination of wants and needs for those we love.  The grandchild wants a pricy electronic device, but really needs a practical pair of snow boots.  We as grandparents – y’know, humans – are stuck as to how best to show our love.

God’s instructive secret is this: love itself is the best gift because love is eternal, and God gives it continually because of His grace.

Most of humanity just wants the electronic device and really doesn’t want to hear about grace, love, snow boots or Jesus Christ.  When their feet are warm and dry in the harsh winter snow, they’ll think not about being loved but about their comfort because humanity’s sinful first cause is “me,” not God.  In our prosperous nation we often define luxuries as necessities, and we always want more.

Can there possibly be a greater luxury – or need – than God’s grace in Jesus Christ?  The common Sunday school definition of grace is “unmerited favor,” but I prefer “necessary help.”  Grace has everything to do with humility and weakness (James 4:6,  2 Corinthians 12:9) and nothing to do with merit.  It’s better not to contemplate what we do and don’t “merit” in the eyes of God.

Going all the way back, God created mankind in His own image and vowed to love us no matter what.  “What” took a severe hit early when Satan convinced Adam and Eve of their own “image-of-God” glory – so “why not” eat from God’s tree of knowledge?   Satan still revels in our guilt, in bruising God’s image, and in conflating God’s grace with our worldly appetites.

We err gravely when we evaluate God as a Santa Claus to be judged by his material largesse.  Read First John.  “God is love” doesn’t mean “Here’s a new X-Box.”

That God gave us freedom proves that our love for Him isn’t coerced.  That God gives us His grace proves He knows what we need the very most.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is going to spend December talking about true necessities.

Spirituality Column #471
November 24, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters


The life-long, well-studied, devout, Bible-savvy Christian believer was earnestly making a point in a recent Bible study:

“We have to understand that everything God does is for us.”

And that’s when my blood pressure started to rise.  God’s volition – what He does and why He does it – is a mystery largely hidden from human understanding.  Close study of the Bible reveals, surely, a creative, living, righteous, relational God of tenacious love whose own glory is the defining will and purpose for everything He does.

So, am I – or you, we, whomever – the driving stimulus for all that God says, does, plans, promises and provides?  Or is there something bigger than me; a greater purpose than humanity?  I’m saying there is, and that bigger thing is the Glory of God.

Do we really need to care about God’s motivation?  Or just know He is there (Psalm 46:10), that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior (2 Peter 3:18) and the Holy Spirit is our advocate, comforter and soul-filling divine connecting point (John 14:26)?

While some of God’s existence is gloriously revealed in the heavens, the earth, scripture and in some but not all churches, ministries, faiths, human relationships and scientific discovery, I don’t see anything anywhere that suggests my existence, in God’s eyes, is “all about me.”

That’s backwards at best, and at worst suggests, perilously, that God’s creational purpose is my glory, not His.  Since we praise what is most important to us and worship what we think is most important to God, it is a short, predictable step from “all about me” to saying either “I am God” or, like the modernists, “Let’s define God in our own image.”

Where all this joins up with thankfulness in this Thanksgiving week is in discerning and understanding what we are truly thankful for.  Are we thankful for a righteous God who is truth, love, justice and mercy on His own dependable terms, even when we don’t understand?  Or are we merely thankful to God when we get good stuff, and mad at God when we get bad stuff?

Humanity, made in God’s own image, is surely important.  That God sent Jesus to save us is divine love at its most humble and profound.  That the Holy Spirit gives us instruction makes a massive point about the importance of our intellect and education.

But when I give God thanks for the saving person and grace of Jesus Christ, I’m thanking Him for His righteousness, not my importance.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) loves a good, lively Bible study discussion. 

Spirituality Column #470
November 17, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

“I have made you known to them …” John 17:26, Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane to His Father, God

Jesus’s life and ministry – and crucifixion and resurrection – had one goal: to tell humanity about the love and glory of God.  Funny thing is, Jesus IS the love and glory of God.  That’s His job.  And so is the Creative splendor of heaven and earth.

The Bible is clear on these points from Genesis to Revelation.  It’s tempting to dissect and separate the Father from the Son and the Son from the Holy Spirit, in our own minds, because the concurrent individual distinction and yet relational unity of the three persons of the Holy Trinity doesn’t make ready sense to the human brain.

At least not to the part that demands evidence, proof, and self-sufficiency.  That must be why God included our capacity for faith and creativity, overlaid it with freedom, and sent His son Christ Jesus into the world to show us God’s glory.  It allows us to appreciate God’s real will and purpose, grasp our real identity, share that real truth and point to the exclusive glory of God.  That’s the story Jesus came to tell.

Glory, however, is not what it seems, not to humans anyway.  The glory of God in Jesus was expressed upon the cross, in humility and sacrifice.  Humans more easily relate to God’s glory being expressed with victorious trumpets and white horses.

Come to think of it, it actually IS that, but not here, not in this fallen earthly realm.

We want the victorious white horse Jesus of Revelation 19 – right now! – not the suffering servant Jesus on the Cross in John 19, which is our truth right now.

With that in mind, pay close attention to all that is said in the name of Christianity around us.  Examine the song lyrics, the testimonies, the preaching, the prayers, the heartfelt thanksgivings, the fist-pumps and exuberant fingers gesturing toward heaven, or even the celebrity acceptance speeches at awards shows, and reflect on this:

Who, really, are we crediting with the glory?

Well, too often, it’s us.  It shouldn’t be; but mistakenly, it is.

The angels announce Christ in Luke 2 with “glory to God in the highest,” assigning ““peace and goodwill” – not glory – to man on earth.  The good thief on the cross next to Jesus, by faith got a home in heaven, not release from his earthly suffering.  In John 17:24, Jesus speaks to God of “the glory you have given me.”

Jesus, always, gets the glory, and that glorifies God.

Our job is sharing the story, not sharing the glory.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recommends thanking God but not thinking we are God.

Spirituality Column #469
November 10, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

Do you ever go looking for Jesus in the Old Testament?

It’s great fun.  He’s all over the place.  Jesus isn’t something God invented to expand scripture and have church on Sundays.  Jesus is in the original equation of God, not a “decision” God made later; not God’s “Plan B” after mankind’s sin, pride, fear, lust and so many other Satan-inspired depravities made such a mess of things.

God never lost control.

What God did was give humans freedom, not to be irresponsibly “happy” but freedom to glorify God, make God’s righteousness known, and freedom to decide to love God.  People have often used that freedom to make bad decisions.

So God never lost control; it was people who lost God.

God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit knew the plan all along.  The New Testament is where the three were presented as what early theologians figured out was the Trinity – three persons, one God, a mystery of mysteries and righteous, relational, moral, saving love.  But the Trinity started before Creation, not at the Cross.  Read Genesis 1 about the Spirit.  Read John 1 about The Word of God – Jesus.

They were God’s original, eternal, indivisible equipment.

Christ and the Spirit were revealed to man after Jesus lived, walked, taught, was betrayed, crucified and buried.  That violence is what Man in general thought of God’s ultimate truth – Jesus Christ – a truth God was telling us throughout the Old Testament, through the Hebrew nation and the prophets.  The resurrection of Jesus made known the true, eternal prospects of man; it didn’t change anything about God.

Scout for Jesus in the Old Testament.  Everywhere you see “Lord,” read it as “Jesus.”  It often fits the context of God’s salvation of man through Jesus Christ.  It’s especially fun in the very-long Psalm 119.

See Psalm 51.  David beseeches God in verse 11, “Do not cast me from your presence, or take your spirit from me.”  Who is God’s “presence”?  Jesus.  How do we know?  Because of the Spirit; Please don’t take it away.

Amos chastising Israel makes no sense unless you put Jesus in it.  “You hate the one who reproves in court; and despise him who tells the truth.”  Amos 5:10 foretells the Jewish leaders’ hatred of Jesus, as Jesus criticized the court and told the damning truth about their pharisaical pride and legalism.

Isaiah predicts Jesus vigorously.

No, God didn’t “decide” to send us a savior.  God simply let us in on His best secret: the glory and wisdom of our own decision to follow Jesus Christ.

It’s what the whole Bible is about.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) loves the Old Testament as a predictor of Christ, not as a rulebook for Christians.

Spirituality Column #468
November 3, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

The Faith of a Child
By Bob Walters

No, this isn’t a column about a little kid with an amazing faith story.

We all love stories of a child’s innocence and wonder and truth, so hopeful, so blessedly untainted by life’s doubts, age’s cynicism, and energy’s erosion.  We warm to the notion of purity – whether of observation, reflection or narrative – that surprises and charms us.   When demonstrated in youthful straightforwardness, it’s a tonic of guilelessness and virtue.  Kids are great.

But no, this is about us.  Adults.  And the Bible.  And Jesus Christ.  And mainly Jesus’s repeated instruction to his disciples and others, in so many words, to possess or exhibit “the faith of a child” as a requirement to come into the Kingdom of God.

This teaching on children and “little ones” appears throughout the Gospels (e.g. Matthew 18, Mark 9, Luke 9, Luke 17, etc.) and New Testament.

Taken on its surface – in a 20^th century social context of human maturity, a light understanding of Christian theology and within typical church doctrinal rigors of guilt, sin, fear, disobedience and general human fallenness that get worse as we age, and then juxtaposed with the humility, simplicity, and naiveté of the “childlike” mind, the grace of Jesus and the truth of the Gospel – the “faith of a child” teaching is charming but confusing, and even contradictory.

For example, it’s bad to be a milk-drinking spiritual infant, “not acquainted with righteousness” (Hebrews 5:13), but desirable to crave pure spiritual milk to “grow up in our salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).  We need the “milk of … God’s word,” not “solid food” (Hebrews 5:12).  Are we supposed to grow up, or not?  Are we supposed to really educate our adult selves about Christian faith, or not? Which is it: milk or meat?

In our modern Western culture, the “faith of a child” teaching seems naïve.  But to pious first century Jews and Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, it would have seemed outrageous.  And here’s why: they would have known what Jesus was really saying.

At age 13, Jewish boys went through a ceremony to become a “Bar Mitzvah,” one who is, literally, “subject to the law.”  What Jesus was saying, in quasi-parable fashion in places like Luke 9:46-48, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven,” a “child” in its contemporary social context would have meant “one not subject to the law.”

In Christ, the law is fulfilled.  “Childlike faith,” then, is pure faith focused on Jesus the Messiah Christ, meaning freedom from Jewish law.

It’s an amazing faith story, yes; but all about Jesus.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) thanks Dr. George Bebawi for his Wednesday Bible studies at East 91^st Street Christian Church.  He is a deep well of faith and teaching.
PS - This column begins the 10th year of "In Spirit" in Current in Carmel.  Column #1 appeared Nov. 7, 2006.  Thanks to Steve, Brian and everyone through the years at Current. 

Spirituality Column #467
October 27, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

“… faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” – Hebrews 11:1

It is stated no more clearly than this anywhere else in the Bible: faith is about spiritual sureness, not physical proof.  Human comprehension of and confidence in the divine requires something beyond evidence and definition.

Old Testament history, laws, scripture, landmarks, prophets and the story of Israel provide a trail of earthly evidence of God’s plan for His chosen nation.  Even with so much cultural structure and religious direction, the Jews still had to take it on faith that their unique story represented God’s will and purpose.  Consider Noah, Job and Abraham and their remarkable faith in the One True God even before the Hebrew covenant, tribes, Moses, Ten Commandments and law.

The New Testament’s eternal truth of Christ is so much more unimaginable.

The Gospels attest to the arrival, purpose, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.  In Acts the disciples receive the Holy Spirit, live as Christ’s church and tell the world about Jesus.  Paul’s 13 letters describe God’s son Christ Jesus fulfilling God’s laws and prophecies while redrawing man’s expectations to include, through faith in Jesus, gracious forgiveness of sins and adoption into God’s glorious Kingdom. Hebrews – the book – proclaims Jesus as entirely sufficient for all this; in Jesus the world is entirely new.  Instead of failure and being judged in sin, humanity has hope in the redeeming, saving grace of Jesus Christ (John 3:16).  God’s promise to Israel is completed in Jesus for the entirety of humanity – humanity created in God’s image with the breath of the Spirit and the Word, Jesus, that showed up in history, time and location as the Messiah Christ.

Evidence?  How about God in the flesh, with teaching, miracles, love, wisdom, courage, humility and the ultimate purpose of saving all mankind?

“Naw, that’s just a story; I got real problems,” folks say.  Jesus just isn’t sufficient.

For a moment put aside the pervasive intellectual misdirection of the evidentiary narrative of ancient Greek philosophers and modern humanists, who endeavor to define the undefinable with arrogant insistence on the sufficiency of man’s inexplicable brain to discover truth, and the sovereignty of man’s unexplained being to assign purpose.

It’s really so simple:

Why are we here?  Because of God, for His glory.

Why do we have hope, light and truth?  Because of Jesus Christ.

Why do we know it?  Because of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is sufficient for all this not because He’s all we have, but because He’s all we need.  The point is lost when we look outside our faith.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) ignores ghosts at Halloween the way secularists ignore Christ at Christmas.

Spirituality Column #466
October 20, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

“Do you love me?” (John 21:15-17), Jesus to “Simon Son of John,” aka Peter.

Jesus, the Creator of knowledge and wisdom, isn’t on biblical record as having asked many questions.  Why would He?  There is nothing He didn’t/doesn’t know.

But the questions He does ask cut to the core.  They force each human answerer to dig deeply within his or her fallen self to discern the bedrock of what they believe about God, Christ, the Spirit, the Law, the Truth, the Scriptures and most importantly, and in the context of, the man standing in front of them – Jesus.

In John 21, the resurrected Jesus provides breakfast for the very surprised – and frightened – disciples.  Note Jesus’s sufficiency: He feeds them bread He has already prepared, and fish the disciples caught after Jesus told them where to cast their nets.

After breakfast, Jesus asks Peter: “Simon son of John, Do you love me?”

This is not a challenge but a major reset – a “do-over” – for the fiery disciple.  In two other places, Jesus calls Peter “Simon son of John.”  Upon first meeting Simon (John 1:42), Jesus declares He will call him Cephas, which translates as Peter and means “rock.”  Later, when Peter is first to identify Jesus as the Christ (Matthew 16:17) – another beginning – Jesus adds, “on this rock I will build my church,” etc.

Bible geeks dig into this – OK, I’m one of them – and note Simon was Andrew’s brother, Andrew was one of the first two disciples (the other was probably Gospel writer John) and the father of Simon (and Andrew) is identified as “John” in John 1 but as “Jonah” in Matthew 16.  The name and early discipleship are not vital.  What is vital is that the impulsive, unstable and emotional Peter – the opposite of Andrew, incidentally – was anything but a “rock” as a disciple but what Jesus knew Peter would become.

So, why is Jesus asking Peter, “Do you love me?”

Because the night Judas betrayed Jesus, a frightened Peter three times denied being a disciple of Jesus.  Now days later, facing the resurrected Jesus, Peter is again addressed as “Simon, son of John.”  Why?  Because Jesus is going back to the beginning of Peter’s discipleship and of Peter’s understanding.  Jesus, in other words, is starting over.  He forgives Peter’s betrayal and restores him with the single most important question in human existence: “Do you love me?”

Church doctrinaires argue endlessly about what is essential, proper and sufficient in Christian life.  It seems Jesus covers it all with one question:

“Do you love me?”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes many things are important, but only Jesus is sufficient.  And look what else, sinners … you can come back.

Spirituality Column #465
October 13, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist
 
Modernizing the Eternal?
By Bob Walters

Last week in this space we commented on the thunderous applause Pope Francis received in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

The thought here was that in that moment, the Pope appeared at best wistful if not a tad embarrassed about the divine tenor of that applause directed at him which he knew properly should be directed at Jesus Christ.

The Pope smiled politely; he didn’t take a bow or pump his fist.

One thing I believe about the Pope is that he is no hypocrite.  In general I think that helps explain the breadth of especially the secular fascination with any Pope.      What’s the number one complaint against Christians?  “They’re hypocrites.”  Folks may not understand Christianity, scripture, Jesus, Trinitarian relationship or what the Pope stands for, but they appreciate his commitment.

Three cheers for not being a hypocrite.

Catholics of course cheer the head of their Church.  They see the successor of St. Peter, the Vicar of Christ, and the Holy embodiment of Rome’s long Christian tradition.  Whether or not one is in theological, salvational, doctrinal big-picture agreement with the Catholic Church, all of us recognize the Pope, globally, as a religious leader.  Maybe he’s not “my” or “your” particular leader, but a leader nonetheless, and a leader by non-fraudulent personal example.

What seems to be particularly endearing to the masses about this Pope is that observers of his papacy have interpreted in his various political comments a tendency toward the modern.  Critics will call him too much of a socialist, or too much of a dabbler in science, or out of his proper depth in commenting on global political pressures, cultural trends and economic disparities, but I see no cracks in the Pope’s key Christian commitments of loving others, spreading the Gospel, and helping the poor.

Folks should not imagine that their personal political and cultural agendas will imprint this Pope’s mission.  He is not in the office of “modernization” of anything.  He is in the office of relaying the eternal message of Jesus Christ.  It is a message of God’s truth, love, hope and faithfulness.  It is a mysterious message that will never change.  It is a comforting message in which we can rest.

It is a message this Pope thoroughly “gets.”

It is a message, sadly, many people completely miss.

So, about that thunderous applause.  From the sincerely faithful?  Praise God!   But from the politically and culturally agenda-driven modernizers who hope this “new” Pope will declare it “OK” and somehow righteous to “conform to the world” today in pursuit of earthly happiness and morally vacant personal desires?

Better get with God’s eternal message in Christ.  Today will soon be over.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) cites “everlasting to everlasting.”

Spirituality Column #464
October 6, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

I had a moment of deep sympathy for Pope Francis a couple weeks ago as he gazed up from his seat during Mass at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Cardinal Tim Dolan was welcoming the Pope into the midst of these 20,000 or so souls: so happy to see their Pope, so blessed to be in his presence, so profoundly moved by his visit and vision.  The Cardinal pronounced, “We pray for you, by name, in all our churches every day, and now here you are; with us!”

At “with us!” the fervent arena crowd erupted in a massive, sustained, and divinely thunderous chorus of reverent cheers, shouts of “Il Pape!” and heartfelt applause.  The longing of the faithful and the hopes of the lost were expansively, wonderfully expressed in this extended demonstration of love and admiration for this Pope of the Holy See, Bishop of Rome, and Vicar of Christ.  This was the ultimate in Big Apple props to the Pontiff, the leader of a billion Catholics across the globe.

Why my sympathy?  Because as I watched TV and saw the Pope’s gentle face smile humbly, politely, at that Garden cacophony reminiscent of an NBA Finals Game 7, I swear I saw a hint of longing in the Pope’s own eyes that reflected what I imagined Francis was feeling at that moment:

Oh, if only that cheer went up for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

I am not being cynical about this.  I am a Bible Christian, not a Roman Catholic.  I read and study extensively with a special focus on church history, the development of denominations, Bible literacy, and modern historical context for how the Church, faith, Christianity, religion in general, politics, culture and academia have all arrived at perhaps the most confused, chaotic, convoluted and  complicated faith/political/moral moment in the history of humanity.

What I have absolute confidence in is that Pope Francis knows exactly who he is, and who he isn’t; a man, not Jesus.  Is he the exclusive representative of Christ on earth?  That’s a piece of Catholic doctrine other churches don’t generally share; most other doctrines say each believer is Christ’s representative on earth, or should be.

Regardless, Jesus always should be the main point.

But as Francis sat, the object of that amazing applause that shook the rafters of that enormous place, and the echoing beauty of that Roman Catholic Mass filled it with Holy peace, I am sure he humbly listened, and prayed in Jesus’ name …

That God would get the glory, not him.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) doesn’t remember hearing a guitar or a praise song in any of those lovely services the Pope celebrated.  Just saying …

Spirituality Column #463
September 29, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

"No greater love has anyone than this; that someone lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13 (ESV)

It’s a good bet that this is one of the most familiar verses in the Bible, even among people who don’t read the Bible, don’t especially believe what it says about Jesus, or maybe are unaware that this even is a Bible verse.

Dying for others as an act of sacrificial love is something that abides deeply in our American DNA.  No other country has military cemeteries in as many far-flung places as has the USA, which has advanced the cause of freedom with its own treasure and blood throughout her history.  Americans “get” this.

Among the Bible literate, John 15:1-17 is known as “The True Vine” or “The Vine and Branches” story.  The “someone” who “lays down his life for his friends” is Jesus, whose death and resurrection restores our relationship with God.  This passage has fascinating depth, symbolism, instruction and Old Testament pedigree.

Essentially, these words are Jesus’ final instructions to his disciples as they leave the last supper.  Heading to the garden of Gethsemane where He will “sweat blood” in distressful prayer, be arrested by Jewish guards, be abandoned by most of his disciples and then led away to trials, beatings, rejection, humiliation, crucifixion and death, Jesus talks of abiding in His love and loving one another.

In Isaiah 5:1-7, “The Song of the Vineyard,” the “vine” is the symbol of Israel; much like Americans would recognize the bald eagle as the symbol of our nation.  God is telling Israel, through Isaiah, that “the vine” he has loved and set apart, i.e., their nation, has failed him.  Jesus is now telling the disciples that He is the true vine, the true representation of God’s will and purpose.  And after all … Jesus is God.

This is the kind of teaching that regularly infuriated the Jewish leaders.  Jesus constantly represented to them that He was the Messiah savior, son of God, come to save all mankind.  The Jews did not want to lose what they assumed was exclusively theirs and were unwilling to share God’s favor with all humanity.

The instruction of “The Vine” of Jesus is simply this: “Love one another as I have loved you” (verse 12). And we can only properly love each other if we properly abide in the love of Jesus (verses 4-7, 9-10).  It is instruction for everyone.

The circle is complete when our love for each other abides in the love of Jesus, and then produces fruit for the glory of God.

That’s abiding in the true vine.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) thanks Dr. David Faust, pastor, mentor and friend, for the Vine background.

Spirituality Column #462
September 22, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, for fools despise wisdom and discipline.”  - Proverbs 1:7

Righteousness is the coin of the realm of the Kingdom of God.

But oh, how humanity – foolishly – wants to charge off all moral accounts to “fairness.”

Therein lays the great divine divide between God’s will and purpose, and man’s fear and weakness.  “Fear of the Lord” is simply, unconditionally, understanding that God doesn’t operate in the sphere of “fair” as a negotiated, worldly, give and take.  To “fear God” means to know in one’s soul, and trust with one’s intellect, that the definition for all that God ordains comes down to the word “righteous,” not the word “fair.”

Much of what transpires in the midst of fallen mankind in a fallen world is a function of man’s fear, man’s greed and man’s arrogance.  Humans fear death, we seek physical and emotional comfort, and bear false assurance in the mistaken belief that we can invent and thrive in a moral code of “fairness” born in our own sinful image.

No, we need God in the equation, and we see the sum total of God’s righteousness in Jesus Christ.

“Fairness,” when dealing with God, is the wrong thing to ask, expect, or even to pray for.  God – ultimately, finally, always and gloriously – will do the righteous thing regardless of whether mankind agrees that it is the fair thing.  As Proverbs indicates, fools prefer their own version of “fair” to God’s unwavering truth and righteousness.

Wisdom and discipline, you see, are the province of God.

One can never understand the Old Testament’s chaos or the New Testament’s sacrifice if one believes God’s objective is to be fair, unless of course one accepts that whatever God does, by definition, is fair because one already accepts God’s righteousness.  Then, yes, God is fair.  But few people think like that.

"Amen, God is righteous,” many folks agree, yet expect God to be fair.  That’s another way of saying, “God needs to see things my way.”

Sorry.  God sees things His way.  The Apostle Paul’s wonderful line in Romans 8:28 about “all things working together for good” does not mean that every misbegotten human endeavor, interpersonal injustice or situational iniquity in life is going to turn out “OK.”  What that passage does mean is that we can trust the righteousness of God whether we in our human, worldly, fallen foolishness agree with it or not.

Levying anger at God and disavowing Jesus are common reactions to perceived divine unfairness, but never solutions.

Faith in God and more specifically trust in Jesus Christ, however, are.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that the cross was not fair, but it was powerfully righteous.

Spirituality Column #461
September 15, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

Why Am I Doing This?  Part 2

Spirituality Column #460
September 9, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville-Geist

By Bob Walters

Let’s talk about why we go to church.  Or why we don’t.

There’s plenty of church tradition and doctrine dealing with the Sabbath, attending services, worshipping God in fellowship with other believers, sharing God’s house with those still seeking God’s truth and love, presenting offerings, taking communion, dressing up, dressing down, resting on Sunday, and on and on.

I went to church as a kid because my parents and friends did.  I didn’t think about “why.”  I drifted away from church in my mid-teens and away from God in my early adult years, also without much thought of “why.”  I spent another couple decades thinking little about church, God, Jesus or religion at all.

I spent neither time nor intellectual energy on – let me coin a phrase here – my own “faith equation.”  The world was treating me well.  I had a series of terrific jobs, got married, had two healthy sons, enjoyed the esteem of my professional peers (I was in sports journalism then public relations), and while I wasn’t getting rich, I was enjoying life – an interesting and happy life – tremendously.

Going to church on Sundays was something other people did.  Sunday mornings I was either working and therefore traveling, or when I was home I slept in, had a big at-home breakfast with the family and watched the news shows.

My “not going to church” story is not especially unique.  I didn’t see a reason to go, wouldn’t have understood why I was there and doubted anyone could explain it to me.  Then one day, I had a reason to go.  My older son, in eighth grade, wanted to go to church.  So as a family, we went.  And suddenly, inexplicably, right there in the service, my “faith equation” needle pointed true north toward Jesus. I wanted to know more, and craved the help of anyone who could explain any part of it to me.

That’s another and much longer story, but since that Sunday 14 years ago (Labor Day weekend 2001) I go to church, want to go to church, enjoy going to church.  I read a lot, attend Bible studies, write this column, engage in ministries and nurture Christian relationships. I have learned much about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, church history, doctrines, other religions, etc.  And I have noticed one fascinating thing about going to church, especially, specifically, biblically, about the Sabbath:

It’s the only one of the Ten Commandments not mentioned among our Christian obligations in the New Testament, despite being one of the unique aspects of Christ.

More next week.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notices that Jesus in His earthly life caused a lot of trouble on the Sabbath.  There’s a reason why.