Friends, The Christmas season is upon us, and Jesus is as near – or far away – as we want Him.  See the column below.  Also, the latest Finding Genius podcast where I’m a guest is available at this link: Analyzing The Origins Of Biblical Christian Ethics: Bob Walters. That, btw, is host Rich Jacobs' title, not mine! And it’s more interesting than it sounds.  Honest.  We recorded it 11-17-23. Blessings! Bob

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #889

November 28, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Lord is Near, Part 1

By Bob Walters

“The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” – Psalms 145:18

Christmas has a better public relations department than Easter because it is easier to ignore the truth at Christmas.  Easter is pretty serious; Christmas is fun.

At Easter, Pilate begged Jesus, “What is truth?”  in an impossible life-or-death trial. At Christmas, a baby in a manger is the king of heaven and earth, and anything is possible. So, if Jesus is closer when we have the truth, when is Jesus closest? 

When do we have the real truth?  Christmas? Easter? In church on Sundays?

This might be something to ponder as we wade into the cheerful and giving traditions of our modern, weeks long Christmas celebration.  Whether we approach Christmas in the secular spirit of the season or in the Holy Spirit of Almighty God, should we really worry about truth when everyone is having such a great time?

Despite gargantuan societal efforts to profane Christmas into a meaningless winter holiday while retaining all the faux joy and irreverent trappings of earthly appetites, Christmas hangs in there, and Jesus hangs in there with it.  The world wants the party without the precepts, the holiday without the holy, and the gifts without God.

We harken the lucre of St. Nick, and teach children the truth of a Christmas list.

We also remove Jesus from the school Christmas, er, “Holiday” pageant, sue the town council for that nativity scene on the square, and formulate Christmas, er, “Holiday” inclusivity with blow-up yard Santas, Snoopys, chimneys, and candy canes.

Let’s have fun, our culture insists, and not get into all that buzz-killing Jesus stuff.

But there are those of us who smile in rebellion while bidding strangers a sincere and loving “Merry Christmas.” We live life in the heartfelt, constant love of that swaddled baby in a manager who grew up to teach humanity who we all truly are, and how close He truly is … or at least, how close he can – and wants – to be to every human life.

Jesus loves each of us enough to give each of us a choice.  Just like John 3:16 says Jesus came to save all mankind, Jesus understands it is love in the human heart that will make the choice to follow truth.  Many people say, “I have my own truth, thank you,” and “Hey Jesus, you can’t prove you are the truth!” Never mind they cannot prove their own shallow worldly truth; never mind they refuse a restored relationship with God.

Thankfully … Christmas still puts it all out there; the PR, I mean: the Bible stories, the Gospel witness, miracles of love and healing relationships (see: Hallmark Channel), presents, churches in full bloom exhorting the holy truth (we hope) of a holy God, holy savior, and Holy Spirit seeking closeness with a population wholly incapable of saving itself yet striving to be a little nicer in the general but unnamed “spirit of the holiday.”

And which “spirit” is that?  Well, it is the Holy Spirit seeking the loving heart of each of us.  And the truth is, Jesus is always there, always near, always dismayed by humanity’s depravity, and always moved by sincere faith in Him as the Son of God, Son of Man, forgiver of sins, restorer of humanity, personal savior, and trusted friend.

The Lord is as near to each of us as we want, allow, or ask Him to be. A gracious Lord, Jesus doesn’t typically just “barge” in.  He gives us space, gives us choice, gives us time, allows our seeking elsewhere, and always welcomes us home.  And while Easter is the real lesson in salvation, Christmas indeed is the festival season of hope when it is most timely to invite a new, divine friend into our home, life, spirit, and trust.

That is the truth of Jesus, and the opportunity of Christmas.  Call out His name.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) spent years in public relations; more next week.

Friends, I am thankful for the broad light in Christ we know in scripture.  The disciples only had Jesus’s words, deeds, and promises, but it was obviously enough.  See the column below. Happy Thanksgiving!  Blessings, Bob

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #888

November 21, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Lamp of Faith

By Bob Walters

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Jesus, John 16:33

These words are the last of Jesus’s teaching to the disciples before His arrest, crucifixion, death, and resurrection.  It is the end of Jesus’s dramatic speech (John 15-16) as He and the disciples depart the Last Supper, walking across dark Jerusalem headed for rest and “hiding” in Gethsemane.  In this final teaching Jesus said nothing about salvation, behavior, forgiveness, safety, punishment, God’s wrath, eternal life, or heaven’s rewards. Jesus spoke of the disciples knowing and loving Him, testifying to His identity and truth, and relying on and loving each other.  A rough road awaited.

In the disciples’ looming, frightening here and now and in the momentous, world-changing events of the hours to come, Jesus said they would have trouble, grief, be hated, be persecuted, turned out of the synagogue, and be heartbroken at His death and later His departure.  Jesus promised to send the “Holy Spirit” for comfort, teaching, and truth.  Jesus declared the condemnation of Satan and His own victory over the world, a “victory” no one would understand for decades to come.  Jesus reasserts that it is the disciples’ faith in and relationship with Him that will be their peace.

Jesus then prays aloud (John 17) for Himself, the disciples, and all who will follow in faith and humility.

“If this is a victory,” the disciples must have been thinking, “we’d sure hate to see a defeat.” They knew only faith, Jesus’s identity as the Son of God, and the ominous forbearing of a night of treachery, violence, injustice, denial, fear, and a day of death.

Most of official Israel – the Pharisees, Sadducees, Sanhedrin, rabbis, scribes, ministers, magistrates – rejected Jesus as the Messiah.  The One for whom they had prayed for a thousand years, now in their midst, was invisible and reviled in their wicked blindness.

Much of the world remains in the same spiritual blindness today, 2,000 years later.  Jesus came out of Israel for all the world’s salvation, but His victory over the world remains a matter of faith.  Assured, yes, but there remains daily witness to the “Lord of the World” – Satan – of injustice, violence, treachery … all the things that the disciples dealt with, understanding neither the impending darkness nor the eternal light.

If we can be thankful for one thing this Thanksgiving week, it is the abiding light of the Holy Spirit and the gift that we can in fact know Jesus, truth, and eternal life in relationship with God.  I believe this “heavenly realm” reveals itself even now, and I ask, Are we thankful enough to trust in awestruck wonder that we have a Bible that lifts the world’s veil and helps us see God’s indelible glory beyond? We should be very thankful.

I came to faith at an odd time, maybe. I was baptized 22 years ago this past week – Sunday, November 18, 2001 – but had first come to church and “got it” about 10 weeks prior to that, on September 2, 2001.  We all remember what happened the following week on September 11.  My church friend “El” asked recently “if 9/11 was a factor” in my early days of faith.  Great question but truth is, it was not.

What cemented my faith, late, at age 47, wasn’t a crisis, the world’s ugliness, my own fear, copious personal challenges at that time, or even a desire for forgiveness or heaven.  I had to know why I could pray thanks for the love of my children, the grace of our being, and the beauty of this world, and know a peace I could not describe.

Jesus’s love, not the world’s terrors, lit my lamp of faith. I am thankful it did.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) realizes no time is a bad time to come to faith.

Friends, What do you remember about your first Bible? Mine’s not pretty but it has a story to tell.  See the column below. Have a great week!  Blessings, Bob

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #887

November 14, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Words of Truth

By Bob Walters

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:16-17

My first Bible, in all its worn, paperback, black-duct-taped glory – like a retired warship at anchor – rests on my home office bookshelf.  It did its job well.

Later this week I’ll be recording another “Finding Genius” (the title still cracks me up) podcast with its host and my newfound friend and conversational colleague, Rich Jacobs. Among the suggested discussion topics is “How to get started reading the Bible,” and the array of support and collateral materials that are available and helpful.

Whether we get to that topic or not, the question set me to thinking about my first foray into scripture 22 years ago, and the previously mentioned battered blue NIV (1984 edition) that was my constant companion for nearly four years. Here’s how I got started.

I had just begun attending church and “believing” in September 2001, yet thinking back, I wasn’t quite ready for a Bible.  Then in late October I began a four-week “Walking with Christ” Sunday night class for newbies taught by E91’s Senior Minister Dave Faust.  There were free Bibles on the study tables and I was encouraged to take one.  The assigned class homework was a workbook with scripture passages and questions, plus a weekly Bible book to read: Genesis, Isaiah, Matthew, and Revelation.

Between the class teaching, discussion, coaching, encouragement, and challenge, the Bible which I had never before been able to read with either interest or comprehension, came technicolor alive to me.  It was a Holy Spirit cavalcade.

Granted, I didn’t understand most of it, but I read it anyway.  Fascinated by text discoveries – simple stuff, like where the twelve tribes of Israel came from – there was much in those parts of the Bible that I related to other lifelong, secular reading (and I read a lot).  Now there was this additional life/divine/faith context that pulled me in.

But I also knew I wouldn’t get far reading alone.  So, so many questions … help!

On the final night of class – Decision: stand up, get baptized? – Dave announced he would be teaching E91’s weekly Wednesday evening “Through the Bible in a Year” study starting in January, going book by Bible book – Genesis to Revelation – through the course of the year. That gift of a weekly crutch is what convinced me to stand up.

A lot happened over the next year. Dave left E91 to be president of Cincinnati Christianity University.  I also became good friends with former E91 minister Russ Blowers, met my later Bible and theology mentor Dr. George Bebawi, and started attending E91’s Logos Sunday school class taught by Steve Hall.  I read through the Bible by autumn, cheating a bit in the repetitive parts of Deuteronomy and Chronicles. 

What I noticed early on was that God put a lot of smart believers in my life at roughly the same time the Bible – and the truth of Jesus Christ – came alive in me.

When Dave left E91 in June, Jeff Ballard took over the weekly Wednesday night classes.  A couple years later in another Wednesday class series, Jeff noticed my beat-up Bible, asked if he could borrow it, and showed it to the crowd saying, “This is what a Bible is supposed to look like.”  Amen to that.  The truth doesn’t have to be pretty.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) uses a leather-bound 1984 NIV he bought in 2005.

Friends,  One’s faith walk involves far more than meets the eye … at least, it should.  Have a great week!  Blessings, Bob

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #886

November 7, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Unseen Beauty

By Bob Walters

“… we fix our eyes on not what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:18

Life in this earthly realm is soaked in measurements, comparisons, and definitions, i.e., the temporal, finite, and quantitative environment of the “seen.”

For many if not most folks, the “seen” suffices for the totality of all that exists.  This idea that an unseen divine realm – heaven, the Kingdom, whatever one may call it – is the actual home of unerring reality intrudes on “common sense” and threatens one’s comforting, if prideful, personal supremacy: “God can’t improve what I already have.”

That the eternal birthplace, generator, and residence of truth, beauty, purpose, and love is seen only with a believing heart and faithful discerning eye is too far outside the box of possibility.  “Prove it,” screams the world, “Your faith puts you in a box.”

“I am free,” boasts the non-believer, unaware that it is the measured, temporal, earth-only life he inhabits that is the confining box.  There is plenty of structure in the divine; not only more than meets the eye, but beauty the eye is unequipped to handle.

What kind of structure? “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor 1:18)

When you know, you know.  God, creating us in His own image, gave us a mind to think and create and love … and to seek Him and find Him by trusting His grace and living in His truth.  Most of that was muddled until the arrival and resurrection of Jesus Christ, proving the prophecy of an age when man would meet God, face to face.

The trouble humanity has these days is the self-inflicted culmination of several hundred years of philosophy separating man into pieces – his body, his will, his soul – that negates our willingness to accept the fullness of God’s grace.  We can see our “natural” state and for better or worse – or for death – we deny the unseen eternal quality of marrying our life to God’s through Jesus’s bride, the church. It’s very real.

I can see that divine life just fine, I think, as can many people I know. I can read the Bible, I know the love of Christian fellowship, I know the peace of Spiritual grace, and when I look around with my physical eyes, there is nothing I see that I think “just happened” without purpose or God’s will, and sadly, too often, by Satan’s evil design.

I once read a Bible commentary that made a compelling point that “eternity” is not a measure of anything, but that eternity is the quality of God’s life, not a quantity.  I liked that, and was all the definition I needed.  We can only glimpse God’s life on this side of reality in faith, and without faith, the message of the cross is foolish indeed.

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor 4:4).

This mind God gave us … it isn’t just to learn obedience, but to learn to think freely and in truth.  It is how we find God, who by the way I am convinced is also always searching for us.  But while secular humanity is “all about thinking,” missing scripture means you are missing truth … and in the process, missing Jesus.  There is no way back.

The ancient Jews had it a little easier, with a well-defined Law just for them and God’s faithful promise to save all mankind through their chosen nation Israel.  A life of faith in Jesus is not so well defined, despite the clarity of scripture and the abundance of historical evidence of His life, death, and truth.  Modern man stumbles and complicates.

Life in Christ is a beautiful thing; but the brightness is in our hearts, not our eyes.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) prays Ephesians 1:18: “Open the eyes of my heart.”