Friends ... Christians hope the promise of Christmas adds up to year-round joy.  See new column below ... and we’ll be back next year! Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #841

December 27, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Summing Up Christmas

By Bob Walters

“Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” – Jesus, Mathew 6:18

I suppose I put up too many Christmas lights, and my wife Pam possibly bakes too many Christmas cookies … not that we plan to make any changes going forward.

Our neighbors, family, and friends – and co-workers, many of whom have become close friends – notice and appreciate our yearly Christmas holiday behaviors.  We have great fun expressing our joy in the season; it is a joy in Christ and an easy outpouring of our faithful love for Him … and Christian love for others.

I think there is plenty of evidence that our Christmas celebrating is not a matter of Pam and me coming out of a slumbering closet, awakening to our mission with Jesus only at the commercially and culturally “acceptable” Yuletide season.  We are thankful for the life we share, together, in Christ, and it’s a 24/7/365/Eternal fact of our existence.

Stumbles?  Yes (mainly me).  Perfection?  No (again, mainly me).  We don’t keep count, and living our lives in the forgiveness of Christ and forgiving with Christ provide peace, joy, and a divine closeness of relationship other Christians understand.  It’s a joy the secular Christmas crowd glimpses faintly but largely can’t fathom.  Thankfulness is one thing; thankfulness for a life in Christ is an entirely different ballgame, one where you don’t need to keep score and couldn’t quantify or count points if you tried.

The “true meaning of Christmas” is closer to that, i.e., not keeping score or seeing, empirically, “what it all adds up to.”  Giving with joy is its own reward.

Last month on a warmish central Indiana Thanksgiving weekend afternoon (funny how Christmas weekend arrived with sub-zero temperatures, blowing snow, and whoo-boy windchills in the minus 30s), several of us, including our very pleasant new neighbor lady across the street, were outside hanging Christmas lights.  When her husband arrived back from wherever he had been, he surveyed his house and then ours and in a friendly way shouted across the street, “Ah … competition!”

I shouted back, cheerfully, “It’s not competition, it’s Christmas!”  The lady agreed.

When I delivered Pam’s customary, generous cache of assorted, hand-decorated Christmas cookies to my many workmates, a kind lady sensing the enormity of effort Pam put into baking them, asked me, “How much time does she spend on these?”

I replied, with a broad smile, “It’s not time; it’s love.”  What a satisfying answer.

As we move past this “most wonderful time of the year” into our 2023 trip around the sun, I want to remember this and every Christmas not in terms of “how much time” or “how much money” or who gets the neighborhood Griswold Award for excessive Christmas lights.  Let’s store away our Christmas gear, not the Christmas in our hearts.

Jesus Christ – God coming to live among humanity to restore our relationship with the good, loving, unsurprisable, and unerringly righteous God of Creation – is truth for all time and love beyond all measurement.  As an expression of God’s love, Jesus is our sure hope.  He isn’t here to “beat Satan,” He’s here to show us how to love God and each other. Christmas isn’t the sum of an equation, it’s a divine mystery of God’s love.

Whatever we do at Christmas, it should be an unbridled expression of our love and God’s love, not judgement of human effort or measurement of worldly transaction.

Believe it when I say we are well aware – as are you – of the prideful, non-faith world that cynically takes great commercial advantage of the Christmas season.

My goal – our goal – is to take loving advantage of Jesus Christ all year long.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) suggests focusing on God’s love, not God’s rewards.

Christmas isn’t so much about “when” as it is about “why.”  Here are three good questions (and answers) to help understand the “true meaning of Christmas.”  Merry Christmas!  Bob

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Spirituality Column #840

December 20, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Timing Isn’t Everything, Part 2

By Bob Walters

And it came to pass …Joseph went up to Bethlehem … with Mary his espoused wife who was great with child. And … the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. – Luke 2:1-6

Rather than expend forensic effort on the logistical specifics of Jesus’s birth – what date, who was there, was it a stable or a cave, etc. – here are three questions we must ask ourselves … in faith … to understand the true meaning of Christmas:

1. Was Jesus born of the virgin Mary?

2. Was Jesus who He and the Bible say He was and is?

3. Why did Jesus come?

First, “Was Jesus born of the virgin Mary?”

For this one we’ll go word by word. 

Was – Did this event happen in history?  Yes.

Jesus – Did a man named Jesus exist?  Yes.

Born – Was Jesus a fact/creation of human biology? Yes.

Of the virgin – Biologically, naturally impossible, but “nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37).

Mary – Yes, Mary existed, and was a human woman.

So … Was Jesus born of the virgin Mary? Yes.  That establishes the miracle.

Second, “Was Jesus who he said he was?”

Throughout the Gospels Jesus calls God His Father.  That makes Jesus God’s son.  Was Jesus fully God and fully human?  Jesus says he will go back to the father, in heaven, and prepare a “room” for all who believe.  He has to be God to do that.  Jesus says he will send the spirit to comfort and educate believers.  He has to be God to do that.  Jesus lived, worked, spoke, bled, and died.  He had to be human to do that.

But was Jesus truly part of the Godhead, the Trinity?  Jesus spoke of God the Father and of the Holy Spirit in terms that included He, himself, Jesus.  Yes, Jesus was part of the Trinity (by the way, the word “trinity” does not appear in the Bible; Tertullian invented it in the second century).  

“Yes” here establishes Jesus’s identity: God/Man.

Now … third.  “Why did Jesus come?”

It is the biggest question of all.  The easy answer of course is that Jesus came for our forgiveness and our salvation.  But what was God’s purpose in miraculously sending His Son into humanity? Why Jesus?  Why not just a flick of God’s divine fingers to say, “Snap!  It’s all fixed.”?  Answer: Because there is neither faith nor glory in that snap.

Nor is there reciprocating love, truth, education, or obedience.  There is nothing about ourselves becoming the humble and selfless sacrifice that Jesus presents to the world.  We could never understand the glory of our relationship with God.  We may not feel very glorious in our earthly, broken, sinful, aching bodies, but our relationship with God’s glory and righteousness that we have through our faith in Christ and with the urging of the Holy Spirit … that’s what the Law on those tablets could never provide.

Jesus Christ was a canvas of God’s life humans could understand.  Jesus didn’t tell us how to act; He told us to love.  He told us who we could be – who we were, who we are – in God’s creation, God’s eternity … and God’s love.

That’s the true meaning of Christmas.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) celebrates the savior and loves the celebration.

Friends,  The Bible is full of great information but sometimes withholds details to give us pause … and rely on faith.  Christmas has a lot of that.  See the column below.  Blessings, Bob

Spirituality Column #839

December 13, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Timing Isn’t Everything, Part I  

By Bob Walters

And it came to pass …Joseph went up to Bethlehem … with Mary his espoused wife who was great with child. And … the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. – Luke 2:1-6

In the past century Christmas has erupted – with the enthusiastic cooperation of modern culture and commerce – into a target date on the calendar like none other.

December 25^th, the Day Jesus was Born!  Silent night, the shunned Mary and Joseph, a cold lonely stable, shepherds, wise men, and a baby born to save the world.

Most of the Christmas-observing world celebrates the tightly scripted story of “the most wonderful time of the year” based not so much on scriptural truth and God’s incarnation, but on “holiday spirit,” comforting traditions, gifts, and a wildly misunderstood narrative of what actually happened 2,000 years ago.

Truth is … nobody exactly knows when Jesus was born.  Summer, fall, or spring?  Maybe … but definitely not the middle of winter.  Roman taxation, census taking – and often, accompanying military conscription – were not winter activities.  Folks didn’t travel much, and shepherds would not have had their sheep in the cold, nighttime Palestinian hills.

Various long-established pagan celebrations of the lengthening of days after the winter solstice – i.e., more daylight – made for a logical Christian usurpation of a festival for the “light of the world,” Jesus Christ.  So … Christmas was born as a “church thing.”

Funny thing is … there is nothing at all in the Gospels – or anywhere in the entire New Testament – about establishing festivals or feasts for Jesus.  He Himself, the Christ, God the person, is the enduring and perpetual Sabbath.  There is no special date or temple required; Jesus is the date and temple.  He elicits perpetual, abiding, comforting, obedient love and faith, not requiring periodic, specific legal observances.

Neither is a new sacrifice required, like the Christmas gifts we exchange.  Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, once for all.  The only new sacrifice is us, dying to self to live our lives for Christ and others.  And it’s not confined to December 25; it’s not a time and date thing; it’s an always thing.  Our gift from Christ and to each other is grace.

Gifts are not a sacrifice of our possessions; they are an expression of our love.

Yet … folks full of Yuletide cheer merrily celebrate Christmas who nonetheless withhold love, faith, and trust in the truth of Jesus citing “insufficient evidence” – like maybe newspaper clippings (kidding) or a real-life statue or painting – of humanity’s single most history-changing, life-changing, and eternity-confirming person.  

These are the folks who miss the “true meaning of Christmas,” i.e., God’s truth. Christmas celebrating is great, though for some not great even though it is all around them.  Many folks have fun with Christmas without believing.  The ancient Greek philosophers, Enlightenment humanists, and modern scientists want “hard facts” and “physical evidence” to “believe” anything.  But that’s not how faith’s mystery works.

It is, however, why Jesus was an obscure baby born on an unnamed date to peasant parents in civilization’s hinterlands.  Faith is the only way to know Him.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) doesn’t worry about “when” Jesus was born because there are far better questions, which will be discussed next week.  Merry Christmas!

 Friends,

It’s funny how often those posing cosmic-sized questions ignore God’s answer key: the Bible.  See the column below.

And a special gift … our K-group (church small group) went surprise caroling at John Samples’ house late Saturday afternoon, Dec. 3.  See the great video John W. produced, here: A Needed Christmas Gift - YouTube, or on my public Facebook page (on Fb search Bob Walters, news feed posts), just below this column post.  It’s also on John W’s Facebook page: lots of Fb likes and comments!

Blessings, Bob

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Labels: atheist, Big Bang, Bill Mahar, Club Random podcast, creation, Genesis 1:1, John 1:1-2, science, Star Trek, truth, William Shatner

Spirituality Column #838

December 6, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

A Bigger Bang

By Bob Walters

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” – Genesis 1:1 KJV

“In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God…the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him, nothing was made that was made.” John 1:1-3 KJV

“Why is there anything? Why is there a universe at all?” – Political talk host / atheist / comedian Bill Maher discussing the “Big Bang” with Star Trek actor William Shatner.    

It’s so simple, really.

Rather than pointless, endless, and raging speculation, debates, scientific theory, intellectual prognostication, philosophical constructs, talk show ponderings, and prideful humanist assumptions …  truth is, the world and life exist because God wanted them to.

And made them so.

How did God do it?  Well, the Bible is far bigger on “why” than “how,” but the uncomplicated answers are right there in the Bible … if we’ll believe and pursue them.

Why a universe? Because Creation and life were God’s will and, as we further learn throughout scripture, the expression of God’s love.

“How?”  Simply put: With His Word, the Logos, the one we know as Jesus Christ.

“His will and His love” generally work for a shorthand philosophical answer to “Why?”  If, that is, one believes in God the Creator, and the existence of His divine purpose which He imprinted on man.  Those are huge “ifs,” but simple and true,

The “Big Bang” Creation chattering communities find as utterly unsatisfying – in their own limited way, even heretical – to answer a Creation query of “How?” with a crazy referral to the simplicity of God’s truth: His Word did it.  Really, it’s a bigger bang.

God, you see, is the answer to the universe. Christ, we discover, is how He did it.

Observation suggests science craves to be the thing to figure it all out: to take credit for its own brilliance while pridefully obviating God.  God’s truth, to science’s chagrin, diminishes the popular, outside-of-faith assumption of science’s omnipotence. Science pridefully seeks to hand to humanity the answers of the universe, sans God. 

Thanks, huzzahs, and hosannas to follow!  Yet, what’s missing?  Purpose.  Science cannot replace God’s purpose … or love; it can only reveal God’s workings.

This brings us to Bill Maher, William Shatner, and a stunning array of like-minded secular but cosmic “truth” seekers who fervently demand answers to “Why is there a universe?” but want the truth to be anything other than what it actually is, i.e., God.

In Maher’s “Club Random” podcast conversation with Shatner earlier this year (Link - YouTube), Shatner excitedly brought up the Big Bang theory and science while Maher – highly political and dependably, virulently anti-religious – expressed his lack of scientific knowledge except to say, “If you really want to make your brain hurt, you would ask the question, ‘Why is there anything? …  Why a universe at all?’”  And later that “… at least science can be disproved, which is why it is better than religion.”

In a small nutshell, that is the sideways philosophy and “truth” of secular science: it is the favored, unthreatening “truth” because it can be disproved. Huh?  Shatner then mused, ‘Is the Big Bang even science because it can’t be repeated?”  I rolled my eyes.       

Talk about making your brain hurt.  God’s the easiest answer because He’s true.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) prays for smart people who chase the wrong truth.

Friends,

 My most basic assumption in life is that God is real.  Some think Artificial Intelligence, or “AI,” is poised to give humanity and God a run for their intellectual money. Let’s pay attention. See the column below.  Blessings,  Bob

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Spirituality Column #837

November 29, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Assuming God

By Bob Walters

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts [higher] than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:9, God speaking through the prophet.

Artificial Intelligence, or “AI” – man-made robots, computers, digital sensors, and technology of extreme physical, informational, and yes even intellectual capability – looms quite possibly in the near term as a threat to human existence or, at minimum, predicating a civilizational reboot that will subordinate humanity and culture as we know it.

Yeah I know … not something I have spent much time worrying about, either.

But, that, approximately, is the message of AI’s ascendancy one receives – I did – watching a montage of world’s-richest-man (and new Twitter owner) Elon Musk’s thoughts on the dismal downside of unbridled AI development.  Musk, the owner of Tesla, SpaceEx, and the less-known AI implant company Neuralink, is a compelling prophet of AI’s dangers.  He’s as thoroughly versed on the topic as anyone, anywhere.  AI is more advanced than I imagined.

We’ll not explain Musk’s concerns in detail here, but you can either Google “Elon Musk AI Warning” or click this link, Elon Musk's Horrifying New Warning about AI, and immerse your mind in some categorically stunning technology and philosophically wrenching prognostication. Robots and computers for decades have been able to outwork and out-calculate humans.

Overshadowed by the hue and cry of recent upheavals in politics, culture, wokeness, etc., AI has developed rapidly and powerfully yet quietly … almost off the grid.  Yet, here it is.

 Musk suggests we are on the cusp, globally, of ceding similar supremacy to computers not just in labor and information but control and creativity.  “We are headed toward a situation,” Musk said recently, “where AI is vastly smarter than humans. I think that time frame is less than five years from now.” Dancing or fighting robots? 24/7 Human surveillance? Moral judgment?

The evidence is already all around us, Musk points out.  His Tesla cars (and many others) can essentially drive themselves … though they have nowhere to go.  We are already near-cyborg in our daily lives as we endlessly utilize smartphones that we hold in our hands instead of – yet – implanted in our brains.  Neuralink conceives an implant to make our brains function more like computers, and AI to function more like our brains. That’s happening now.

Like I said, you can look it up.  AI is a real technology and concern, and has the potential to shift everything about human interaction, aspiration, and freedom.  It’s reminiscent of “Skynet” in Terminator movies: deadly technology that “became aware.”

Control by unfathomable information and synthetic logic lacking love, joy, and remorse?

I’m no AI expert but am certain we’ll be hearing much more about this soon.  From a Christian perspective, let’s not simply pooh-pooh AI technology and try to hide behind Jesus; that would be unwise.  Man is very clever, and Satan is strong.  The better tack is to strengthen the idea of who we – all of us – already are as humans: we are created and loved by God.

I assume the existence of God. And when you start with God and Isaiah 55:9, regardless of AI’s power, we know there already exists an intelligence beyond human comprehension.  Musk, evidently, does not “assume God.”  He assumes technology and the “God of Spinoza,” i.e., a sort of idol of the sum of human knowledge and experience.  I wrote about Musk last December (link 789 - The God of Spinoza).  He was surprised to learn people read the Bible.

When humans developed the atomic bomb and nuclear technology, many called it a physical power too close to God and man would use it to destroy himself.  AI could be a similar God-sized human development poised to out-think us and enslave us.

Give Musk his due, keep watch, and know God is higher than any of man’s endeavors.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notices that Musk never mentions God.

 

 Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #836 (11-22-22), “Polite Thanks?” When we thank God, it’s not out of politeness, and God’s “You’re welcome” is something different entirely.  See the column below.  Happy Thanksgiving! – Bob

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Spirituality Column #836

November 22, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Polite Thanks?

By Bob Walters

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God for Christ Jesus in you.” – Paul, 1 Thessalonians 5:18

“Thankfulness” is unselfish but nonetheless benefits us, I think, not God. 

Paul says in Philippians 4 to “be thankful always” and to “present our requests to God with thankfulness.”   Does it help or impress God that we thank Him?  Does it change God that we thank Him?  Likely not, but thankfulness changes us. 

We as humans appreciate a “thank you” once in a while.  And we know that it is polite to thank others.  Politeness is a dynamic that helps us get along with each other, be civil, promote harmony, prevent discord, and in general advertise our desire for pleasant relationship with our fellow humans.  When we are impolite, it undoes all those good things and opens the door for bad things – unpleasantness, discord, evil, etc.

But, when we “Thank God,” does God owe us a polite, “You’re welcome”? I think He responds in greater ways, and I don’t think we thank God out of mere politeness.

When we thank God in all circumstances, God and we know that not all the circumstances we face are welcome.  I often think that when we thank God in difficult times, God’s response more likely than “You’re welcome” is, “I hope you understand.”

But I think the way God responds to our thanks is through the fruits of the Spirit Paul describes in Galatians 5 and elsewhere.  When we praise and thank God always, and pray continually … you know how God responds?  With the gigantic spiritual gifts of our own love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.

“Against such things there is no law,” Paul says (Gal. 5:23).  In our acceptance and faith in these wonderful gifts and fruits from God, we activate and nurture the abiding fellowship with God and our fellow humans that God built into us at Creation. 

Yes, there once was peace in the Garden; I don’t know about thankfulness.  Now, in our fallen world, thankfulness activates these Godly gifts and fruits of the Spirit.  They allow us now to experience the rejuvenation – the salvation – of our souls God endowed with the presence, life, love, obedience, example, teaching, sacrifice, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Salvation jumps far above the realm of politeness; it deserves our thankfulness with a capital Whew!  It’s an unexpected deliverance we don’t deserve.

God, mysteriously, is unchanging and righteous yet has mercy, compassion, and reacts to our prayers, petitions, and situations.  He is our help in time of trouble.  That means that though God doesn’t change, he still has relationship with His creation.

That’s the mystery: God has a personality and reactions – He knows, feels, and sees things – but doesn’t change.  I can’t explain how that is possible; people with personalities and reactions change all the time: for better or for worse.  With prayer and obedience, we can even change in Christ.  That’s something for which to be thankful.

But God’s ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than ours. We may not always understand, but I can say and witness with confidence that our faith, our hope, our love, our obedience, our prayer, our praise, and our thanks are God’s return gift to us.  All those things make our lives more bearable now.

That’s how God says, “You’re welcome.”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes our joy in Christ is rooted in the steadfast gratitude and eternal trust we express to God in our lives here and now.  And I believe when we all get to heaven, God is grateful we’re there … and welcomes us.

Reflexively including God in our planning and goals is a great relationship builder – with Jesus.  See the column below.  

On a personal note, today I’m remembering minister and friend Russ Blowers, whose funeral was 15 years ago, Nov. 15, 2007.  The unexpected bright side that day was that I met my wife Pam there – she playing tympani in the brass ensemble, and I was a pall bearer.  I wrote about it back in 2021, columns 763, 764, and 765, which are easily searched in the white box in the upper left hand corner, just above). - Bob

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Spirituality Column #835

November 15, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Lord Willing

By Bob Walters

“… you ought to say, ‘if it is the Lord’s will we will live and do this or that.’” – James 5:15

I’ve always over-simplified this seemingly straight-forward passage, “Lord willing!” and confined it to sort of begging God’s approval for what I plan to do.

“See you tomorrow!” Or, “Let’s meet for lunch Tuesday.”  I reflexively, piously, and maybe quasi-reverently say, “Lord willing,” the same way I reflexively pray, “In Jesus’s name,” without thinking through all the depth involved.

The key thing I tend to miss in saying “Lord willing” is that I’m really thinking about my plans, not God’s will.  Yes, “Lord willing” is a perfunctory nod to God’s will, and in most simple, routine planning, it’s not a terrible habit.

However, the large point here is not just identifying and nodding to God’s will as we plan, but truly including God’s will in all things that we intend.  This general epistle credited to James, the brother of Jesus and first head of the Jerusalem church, is for Christ-believing Jews in the mid-first century, here focusing on business and money. 

Jews were long noted for their trading and financial acumen, and James is telling these new Christian believers to include God and the lessons of Christ in their business planning, beyond what they had known and practiced from the Law.

And what, now, was new?  God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, grace, personal sacrifice, humility, and the totality of His presence through the example of Jesus.  How they acted in business and elsewhere was now their witness for Christ. 

James was driving that point home.  Christian faith encrypted a whole new way of looking at life: they were now, through Christ, not a sinful and rebellious nation but forgiven heirs of God.  They – we – must act like it.

The Law, remember, laid out specific times and places for doing things.  There was none of that in Christianity.  Jesus had declared He was the Sabbath – i.e., He was to be honored at all times and in all places, not just on a given day and or a given place.  The New Testament says nothing about festivals or temples (except our bodies).

Jesus is with us always, and He sent the Holy Spirit to assure us of His abiding presence.  When we are with Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, we are in the Sabbath – the peace, love, and presence of God. 

Early Christians celebrated the first day of the week as The Lord’s Day, commemorating Jesus’s resurrection.  And for 2,000 years the church – on Sunday not Saturday – has more or less co-opted the idea of continuing the “seventh day of rest” described in Genesis and called for in Mosaic Law.  But Sunday isn’t the Sabbath.

Where the fourth commandment, “keep holy the Sabbath,” means a specific day to the Jews; that’s how the Law works.  In Christ “keep holy the Sabbath” means keeping Jesus in our hearts, minds, souls, spirits, and planning … all the time. 

That means living in and witnessing to the grace and integrity of our Lord moment to moment, season to season, and year to year.  The sacrifice He wants from us isn’t dependent on a law or code, it is the perpetual entirety of our lives and love.

Jesus is with us all the time … if we want Him there. 

Lord willing, we do.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) generally still seems to recognize God’s will after something has happened rather than with the prophetic discerning of God’s will in advance.  It keeps life interesting, that’s for sure.

Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #834 (11-8-22), "Laugh with Jesus." It is hard to laugh at politics, especially with this rancorous mid-term election.  But personal peace in Christ bears sweet fruit.  See the column below.

And a quick note. Fifteen years ago, late on November 10 - it was a Saturday in 2007 - dear friend and minister Russ Blowers went to be with Jesus.  Many of us knew and loved Russ, and remain thankful for the abiding influence he had on our lives in Christ.  Rest in peace ... and glory. - Bob

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Spirituality Column #834

November 8, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Laugh with Jesus

By Bob Walters

“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23

Do you think everybody in America is angry enough right now?  If they are paying attention to politics, they probably are.

In that case, they would more likely identify with the preceding bit of Galatians 5:19-21, that recounts several “sins of the flesh” that “will not inherit the Kingdom of God” like “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions …”

Watched any news lately?  The lamentable and vicious ramp-up to today’s national mid-term election has lit fires of rancor in all theaters of commentary.  Our political discourse has ballooned past disagreement into declarations of dishonor and accusations of evil on all sides.  No hearts are swayed; no minds are changed.

Civil discourse? I’ve not seen or read much recently that promotes political “peace, patience, kindness,” etc.  Instead, we witness full-throated expressions of malicious, absurd, and intricate cross-purposes – the end of democracy! – impossibly detached not only from “love thy neighbor” but the secure moorings of common sense.

Rhetorical artillery rains destructively in all directions.  I harbor no hope that, like Jesus awaking (Mark 4:39) or arriving (Mark 6:51) in the storm, our tumultuous modern waters of cultural and political dissension will calm anytime soon.

But speaking of Jesus … when you think of Him, do you smile?  Do you think Paul’s list of “fruits of the spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23 is a valid prescription for Christ’s incredible lightness of being that defeats the dark and heavy forces of human division?

Jesus can provide a purposeful, sane, joyous – and calmer – life if we let Him.

My mentor George Bebawi was raised a middle Eastern Jew among Muslim neighbors in Cairo.  In his late teens George declared faith in Christ and went on to earn a PhD in Divinity at Cambridge, was a Coptic priest, and eventually retired from the Divinity faculty at Cambridge.  George understood the Jewish humor of Jesus – think of how He teased His disciples – and recoiled from the often-sour Western view of Christ’s countenance.  I imagine Jesus as someone fun to know, not someone to hide from

Jesus too-largely is viewed as a draconian purveyor of “Do the Right Thing or Else.”  Yes, his righteousness is unshakeable but His love is unfathomable.  Christians prefer to “fear the Lord” in an unhealthy perspective of avoiding punishment rather than in adoration for His infinite understanding of and grace toward the human condition. 

God didn’t create humanity to make us prisoners, but He definitely sent Jesus to set us free. Humanity largely gets that backwards, encasing our lives in misery.

A secular fellow on a secular-but-sarcastic news discussion show Friday night commented of the election acrimony, “[the other side] is saying if you vote the wrong way, Satan will reign on the earth.”  Hey kids, guess what?  He already does!

And that’s a good lesson to take to heart.  Yes, I will fight for my nation and knowingly pray for the strength and endurance of the body of Christ on earth.  But I also know that it is our anger that gives Satan his most scurrilous control over the misery of humanity.  Our peace, joy, and love prosper best in the light and laughter of Christ.

Perhaps it is time we laughed at evil and ignorance. Jesus just might join us.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) prays for Christ and votes for common sense.

 Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #833 (11-1-22), “Sleepers Awake.” Eric Metaxas is a favorite author and he’s blown it out of the water with “Letter to the American Church.”  Buckle up. See the column below.

And a personal note … this column #833 begins the 17^th year of Common Christianity.  It began November 7, 2006, as the Christian column in the Current in Carmel (then Fishers, Westfield, Zionsville weekly newspapers through 2015.  Since then I just do it because I must – total 833 weeks in a row.  Thankful for the outlet.  Thanks for reading, commenting, and occasionally arguing.  May Jesus Christ be praised.

Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #833

November 1, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sleepers Awake

By Bob Walters

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.  Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.  If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.” – Revelation 2:2-5

These are the ominous words of the “always forgiving” Jesus after complimenting the church at Ephesus for its “patient endurance,” saying now they “have fallen.”  This “lampstand” is the light and protection of God. “But I have this against you…”  Yikes.

It’s not enough to be a patient, enduring Christian.  Jesus calls us to be active, be true, repent of our errors, and stand up – and fight – in the battle for God’s Kingdom.

Christian salvation is a free gift, but it is not a free ride.  Here’s a story.

The Protestant church, especially the Lutherans, celebrate “Reformation Day” on Oct. 31, marking (in 2022) the 505th anniversary of Roman Catholic priest Martin Luther’s nailing his “95 Theses” to the door of Germany’s Wittenberg Castle, effectively breaking from the Roman Catholic Church and launching the Protestant Reformation.

Some years ago, a passionate 26-year-old Lutheran minister and celebrated theological prodigy delivered the Reformation Sunday sermon at an august European cathedral.  He ripped into the staid, comfortable, and “enduring” congregation with a warning of God’s coming judgment against a church that no longer fought for truth.

It was October 1932 at Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.  The young preacher with the unsettling and unwelcome – and basically ignored – call to action was Dietrich Bonhoffer, who never stopped fighting for Christian truth.  As a passionate servant of Christ, patriot, and martyr, he swung from the end of a Nazi noose in 1945.

Judgment for the church, incidentally, had arrived three months after Bonhoffer’s famous sermon when on January 31, 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

That German congregation never recovered the first love it abandoned, and the once-magnificent Wilhelm Memorial Church was bombed into near oblivion by the British RAF in 1943.  Its ruins in downtown Berlin to this day are a reminder of inaction.

Bonhoffer was not appreciated as a prophet in his own country in his own time, though he told the prescient truth.  It was a truth not about foreseeing Hitler’s and Germany’s atrocities, but what the lukewarm German church was opening itself to in a perilous time when few wanted to “rock the boat” of politics and upset comfort at church.

Moreso than “future telling,” prophecy involves discerning and communicating God’s will.  Bonhoffer’s message of God’s will in Berlin went unheeded.  Germany's once-Godly national culture had lost its will to honor God, and its lampstand went out.

I thank God that I’m almost out of space for this week’s column, because I’ll spare – for now – my own church and friends and any other Christians who read this the many thoughts I have on the relevant prophecy Bonhoffer presents to America today.

America’s lampstand flickers at a political tipping point, and the “out-loud in bright lights” message of Christ is as important to our nation’s survival as it has ever been. 

Eric Metaxas, with his book Letter to the American Church, has “thrown a bucket of cold water into the face of the sleeping church.”  We had better wake up.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) suggests this video: American Church – Metaxas.

Dear Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #832 (10-25-22), “Life Verse.” You may or may not have a life verse from the Bible, but regardless, there’s probably one in there for you.  Mine’s a little odd.  See the column below,

Blessings!  Bob

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Labels: communion, Ephesians 1:3, heavenly realms, Life Verse

Spirituality Column #832

October 25, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Life Verse

By Bob Walters

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." - Ephesians 1:3

Somehow Ephesians 1:3 wound up being my life verse - it jumped out at me when I read through the Bible the first time 20 years ago.

I am a baby boomer, and a late bloomer in the faith.  The fall of 2001 (I was 47) was when I found faith in Christ and was baptized.  By the fall of 2002 I had read my way through most of the Bible - to the 10th book of the New Testament, Ephesians - and this verse hit a personal, spiritual bullseye.  It was the first verse I memorized.

I didn't then understand what all Paul was saying, nor was I aware there are two other New Testament verses, 2 Corinthians 1:3, and 1 Peter 1:3, that also start (in my 1985 NIV), "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..." Good to know.

It was clear to me that this partiular verse was somewhat off the beaten path of typical "life verses," a concept which was as entirely new to me as the previously opaque pages and words of the Bible, which bloomed into coherence, truth, and hope.

A "life verse" is a top-of-mind, go-to piece of scripture that both calms and focuses our minds and prayers, and speaks directly to our relationship with God, Jesus, the Spirit, the church ... and our own souls.  It is a speical and personal expression of our own unique love, relationship, and communion with God and fellow Christians.

The righteous prayers of Psalms, the accessible wisdom of Proverbs, and the brute, faithful theology of Paul's 13 books (Romans through Philemon) - especially Romans - are popular wells of "Life Verse" origins.  I like Romans 8:31: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Psalms 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God."

Typical of life verses, they call God's presence and power into one's life.  Notice these are single sentences, not entire verses, so perhaps they are "life sentences"? There are no "rules" for picking a life verse or even having ong.  What we know is that life ruled by Christ and steeped in scripture is a good "sentence" to have.

I presented my "Ephesians 1:3 Life Verse" in a church communion meditation Sunday.  A friend said afterward, "That's an unusual choice for a live verse." I agreed; it is not the more normal "God be with me, God guide me, God is faithful" sentiment.

As a newbie Christian, I guess I figured one could do worse than start every conversation with the Lord with this dynamic praise of God while declaring the identity of Jesus Christ as God's son.  Beyond a single verse though, one of the great comforts of faith is having great swaths of scripture memorized and locked in one's heart and mind.

We remember scripture and we remember Jesus in Christian communion, which was the overall message for Sunday's meditation.

I've learned over years of study, paying attention, and contemplation, what it means to praise God for blessing us "in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Paul is telling us that in this life now, through Jesus, we have glimpses of God's heaven in eternity.  God's realms already exist, and we can know and sense and touch them with prayer, work, and the love we hold for God and each other.

Heaven, you see, isn't where we go to be dead.  Heaven is where we go to be fully alive, restored to the righteous image of God we were created to be.

Praise God for the assurance of the heavenly realms we have through Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) was booting the tail end of a week-long head cold on Sunday and apologizes for the microphone-amplified sniffles.  ‘Shoulda had a tissue.

Friends,  Here is Common Christianity #831 (10-18-22), “She’s No Angel.” Our dear friend Joyce Samples passed away last Saturday.  Her journey is complete, she is now among the angels … but God gives us so much more.  See the column below.  Blessings and Joy, Bob

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Spirituality Column #831

October 18, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

She’s No Angel

By Bob Walters

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” – Romans 8:17

“Our Joyce just went to heaven.”

The succinct text from dear friend and pastor John Samples arrived at 2:33 this past Saturday afternoon, October 15, 2022,

Through tears I say RIP and be with Jesus, Joyce Estes Samples.  Many are the voices of heaven welcoming another saint. 

And to Joyce, I hope no one thinks you’re an angel, because you are so much more.

Angels are servants of God, and humans who believe in and love Jesus Christ are heirs of God.  In Jesus we are divinely adopted into the Kingdom of God, where we live eternally as sons and daughters – heirs – of God Almighty in glory through the grace of Jesus Christ.

There … just wanted to get that said.  Joyce, created in the image of God, has fully joined the family of God and heaven is better off for it.  Her humanity is now perfected.

I loved Joyce Samples.  Everybody did.  She was mom to many of us, not just to her loving and protective sons John W. Samples, with whom she and John lived, and Dain Samples, who died too soon.  Joyce will always be a beautiful, loving, encouraging, and no-holds-barred lover of Jesus Christ and sister in the faith.  She is a friend in the Kingdom of God.

Our corporate, faith-family prayers deeply embrace her husband, John.  His strong, wise presence – in my opinion and others’ – as Senior Pastor Emeritus carried our East 91^st Street Christian Church through a difficult season of pastor-transition 12 years ago.  He’s the best.

Why do I think so much of the Samples?  Well, John married Pam and me, June 22, 2009 (after we asked him on June 21, 2009 – click CommonChristianity - 764 to see the column; it’s a great story).  In 2008 John and Joyce trusted me to drive their grandson Ehren to Civil Air Patrol camp up in Michigan.  Three years before that, John arranged the 2005 baptism of my son Eric by Russ Blowers (also a great friend and pastor) in an E91 Sunday service. 

Also in 2008, John and Joyce asked me to publicly share a family story (my actual working life was in journalism/public relations).  Of nine Estes siblings including Joyce, seven of them, all alive, were married for 50 or more years; one brother died after 48 years of a marriage delayed two years by his service in World War II (note: that would have been 50), and the ninth Estes sibling, a baby sister, died before age 2.  Read all about it at CommonChristianity - 275.

The Estes Golden Anniversary story went national on Associated Press and Jay Leno offered to fly them all to LA to appear on the Tonight Show.  The Estes clan declined because some family members refused to fly – anywhere – including L.A.  They just never had … flown.

John and Joyce’s 72^nd wedding anniversary would be this Oct. 28. Their 70^th anniversary during October Covid in 2020 was celebrated with hotdogs at Costco, their charming tradition.  The Castleton Costco manager set up the employee quarantine lunch area for them.  Awesome.

Yes … scripture says there are no marriages in heaven (Matthew 22:30, like the angels, who also are not married).  But Joyce was a presence who made folks on this side of the river sure there was a heavenly home awaiting.  Faith, love, joy and kindness were what Joyce sowed in the Kingdom every day.  I don’t know how it all works but I hope she’s rejoicing with Dain.  The rest of us will be along at some point. 

For now, with a big amen to a beautiful child of God, Joyce is home, safe, and loved. But she’s no angel.  She’s an heir in God’s image, and a beacon of light and love to the faithful.

Look at Joyce, and remember.  And celebrate.  And know … that’s how you do it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes he’ll especially miss Joyce’s daily “Ponders” (CommonChristianity - 535). She was 89.  Her funeral is Sunday, Oct. 23, 1 p.m., in The Hall at E91.  Visitation at noon.

Friends,

Here is Common Christianity #830 (10-11-22), “What in the World?” Godly wisdom and worldly wisdom are two fairly different things, but easy spot while hard to define.  See the column just below.  Have a great week!  Bob

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Labels: James 3:13-18, Kindness, Mustard Seed Bible study, peace, philosophy, U.S. Supreme Court, wisdom

Spirituality Column #830

October 11, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

What in the World?

By Bob Walters

“Who is wise and understanding among you?” – James 3:13

Wisdom is one of those wonderful cosmic qualities, like love and beauty, that defies common, worldly definition.

One can spend a great deal of time describing wisdom or love or beauty without nailing a repeatable, true-in-every-case, conclusive list of qualities.  It’s easier to revert to the “I know it when I see it” argument Justice Potter Stewart used in a 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case involving free speech and a more opposite idea, obscenity.

But wisdom is the topic of the day.  In preparing a lesson on James 3:13-18 for a Mustard Seed session last week I discovered a couple of plainly observable elements of “wisdom” that I’ve previously overlooked … but now realize they are there all the time.

One is kindness, and the other is peace. Yeah … it surprised me too.  These have not been the first things I think of regarding wisdom.  Now, I can’t un-think of them.

James is considered the New Testament’s unofficial “wisdom literature” because it is similar in pithy, practical, easily accessible tone and advice to the Old Testament’s Book of Proverbs.  Plain language, plain instruction: do the right thing and it is wisdom.

“Who is wise…?” James can tell with two sure indicators – “a good life, and humility.” (v13) Good life here means “free of self-inflicted chaos” and humility is bridling one’s pride.  If we think of a “good life” as being “rich, smart, good looking, and healthy” – hey, I’d take it, I think – we are nonetheless flirting with and possibly nosediving into James’ next point (v14) about harboring “bitter envy, selfish ambition … [and] boasting.”

Humans tend to idolize the worldly stuff we attain, and we need to not do that.

We never encounter selfish envy and think, “This is a wise person.”  But when we see grace and calmness amid difficulty, and an abiding concern for others, and let’s not forget love, we sense a power beyond fallen humanity’s chaotic fight for survival.

I daresay we sense the comforting, peace-tending presence of the divine.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, clearly delineates origins of two different kinds of wisdoms: the wisdom from above, i.e., God, and the wisdom from below, which he describes as earthly, unspiritual, demonic (v15).  This is the worldview that creates trouble amid those who are “wise in their own eyes” (Is 5:21, Prov 26:12, Rom 1:22). To avoid, disbelieve, or discount divine – i.e., God’s – wisdom is to sow chaos and death. 

Only God’s wisdom is permanent and eternal.  Man’s earthly wisdom – we all have at least some – works for a while but ends at human death; there is no enduring, eternal peace, no “next round” to go to.  Unspiritual wisdom gives rise to earthly disorder, and when the “wisdom” of demons and Satan call the plays, evil flourishes.

Sadly, there is only limited “play” for this assessment, and that only among those of us who believe the Bible and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is our connecting point to God and salvation. Whatever else happens in life, when we have relationship with Jesus, wisdom shows in kindness and inherent peace. Non-believers lack that.

Think of the countless libraries of human philosophy that are plenty erudite but lack God, the fear of God, and relationship with Christ. James shouldered the task of defining the world’s new reality in Christ, and it was God’s wisdom James shared.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) encourages you to think of Godly and wise people you know; they live in kindness and peace, right?