Friends: The test of a Christian isn’t being forgiven; we already are.  The test is in forgiving others.  Here’s one for the books.

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Spirituality Column #911

April 30, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Five Crowns

By Bob Walters

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” – C.S. Lewis

We’re going to hit many bases today and it all begins with the fact that twice in the past week I’ve stumbled onto accounts of WWII holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom.

Corrie’s is a familiar name in evangelical circles, though I must admit until this week I only knew her name, not of her family’s – and her own – heroics and courage defending Jews in the face of Nazi extermination. They hid Jews in their Christian home in Haarlem, Netherlands, and her father, mother, and sister died in Nazi death camps.

Corrie survived, preached Christ the rest of her life, and wrote The Hiding Place.

After the war ten Boom traveled Europe – including post-war Germany – and the world, including several appearances with Billy Graham Crusades in America and elsewhere, with a Christian witness of hope, peace, survival, fortitude, and forgiveness. 

Once, after Corrie spoke at a church in post-war Germany, a man approached her with glowing admiration and a confession of deep contrition in his new life now ablaze in Christ.  Corrie froze; she recognized him as a death camp guard, a Nazi charged with observing the women’s showers where Corrie had been held captive.

In that moment of paralyzing non-forgiveness, she called on Christ to release her from her hate. Upon finally grasping the man’s hand extended in apology, Corrie felt the Spirit travel through her body and arm when she clasped the man’s hand, giving her peace … and forgiveness she thought she’d never bestow. Such is the power of Christ.

Her “forgiveness” story is one for all time. She became great friends with Cliff Barrows, Billy’s trusted friend and companion on countless Crusades for Jesus. Upon her death in 1983, Barrows wrote a devotional tribute to her on …

“… the five crowns this little woman wore in her life and ministry:

·      The crown of righteousness from 1 Timothy 4 given to those who love His appearing.

·      The crown of exultation from 1 Thessalonians 2, the soul winner’s crown.

·      The crown of life from James 1:2, reserved for those in great trials of faith.

·      The martyr’s crown for those who died for Christ.

·      And the crown of glory from 1 Peter 5 reserved for the under shepherds of the flock who lead and teach what the Bible has to say.

“Five magnificent crowns worn by prisoner #66730 who Christ forgave and to whom He gave a limitless capacity to forgive others.

“C.S. Lewis got it right. ‘To be Christian,’ he said, ‘means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.’”

This quote comes from my friend Ed Simcox’s new book, He Leadeth Me, a truly remarkable collection of devotions, meditations, prayers, and stories of his Christian life steeped in service, reflection, and leadership.  I’ll talk more about Ed’s book next week.

Also, First Things magazine last week posted a review (FT link) of a new biography about ten Boom, The Watchmaker's Daughter: The True Story of World War II Heroine Corrie ten Boom by Larry Loftis. Two “ten Boom” sightings in one week.

Unlike many of you who know the story, I had previously known little about ten Boom. But those “five crowns” were assuredly well placed in the soul of this saint.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes another Netherlands’ WWII heroine, Anne Frank.

Friends: Dave Faust’s new book Not Too Old has a lively message for everyone. Here’s what it said to me. See the column below. The book is available at (links) Amazon and CollegePress+audio or at E91’s bookstore (a better deal, $20).

Have a great read … I mean, a great week! 

Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #910

April 23, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Living on Purpose

By Bob Walters

“Your soul gets a do-over when you accept Christ.” – Dave Faust, in his new book, Not Too Old.

Dave Faust’s new book, Not Too Old (Turning Your Later Years into Greater Years), is different: it is the first book on aging I have ever wanted to read.

Let me start by saying the above “soul” quote is cherry picked from one of Dave’s many informative sidebars (page 261) and is reflective of the book’s great information, advice, wisdom, memorable phrasing, and scriptural and human citations. You see, Dave – then senior minister at East 91^st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis – performed my baptism in 2001, when I was 47, and so was he. We are only a month apart in birthdays.

Anyway, Dave’s construct of a soul “do-over” resonates with me. I live it, with thanks, daily.

While that line struck a personal chord, the book is far more than merely an exercise in “Do you know Jesus?” It is a gold-mine of Christian, biblical, and this-world perspective on living long and living well, in faith and with purpose, on grief and compassion, on funerals, changes, and challenges.

The “senior citizen” basics – retirement, health, finance, wills, funeral planning, etc. – are addressed with Christian wisdom, but those topics are also available everywhere.  Call your HR department, doctor, financial advisor, lawyer, or funeral director. The marketplace info is the same.

But I’m telling you, this book on life’s later years is different because Dave is different.

After my baptism, I asked Dave to help me get involved at our church.  A month or so later I was invited to join the new “Facilities and Land Use Committee” to assess a church growth need.  The committee – Dave wasn’t on it – turned out to be mostly elders and other lions of the church who were burdened to figure out how E91 could accommodate 10,000 or more weekly attendees because Dave’s excellence as a preacher of Gospel Truth drew multitudes; he was different. The faithful flocked in. I was awed, and learned much about the church. Music, btw, wasn’t mentioned.

That was early 2002, and late spring Dave was called to become president of Cincinnati Christian University, his alma mater, and the committee’s work went fallow.  

Nonetheless, I stayed in touch with Dave as a friend, preacher, educator, and kindred fellow-writer over the decades which now gave me an enthused push to see what new he had to say on my heretofore discounted subject of “aging” about which I generally had been unenthused. Here’s why.  

I figure I already know how to get old – I’m scheduled to turn 70 in May (Dave in June) – and “aging,” previously in life, was not something on which I wanted to get ahead of myself.  Just like you (possibly), I believe I have become my own sovereign expert on the subject of “I am getting old.”

What Dave is an expert on, and so richly blesses us with in this 287 page book, is scriptural perspective and life stories and interviews that have made him a beloved preacher and pastor over 50 years.  Scripture abounds, interviews (Bill Gaither!) fascinate, and personal testimonies resonate.  The anecdote on E91’s now-departed Russ and Marian Blowers (page 258) made me sob fondly.

Dave and his wife Candy returned to the E91 family in 2014, when Dave felt his time at CCU had been fulfilled and E91 was in need of a friendly, familiar, calm, and steady assist in a turbulent time. At age 60, Dave returned as – and approaching 70 remains – E91’s Senior Associate Minister.

Dave says it was his journey into his 60s that sparked inspiration for the book.  His kindness-infused personality joins his writing gift for the “turn-of-a-phrase” fashioning a warmly enjoyable read.  There is scripture for virtually every paragraph, a study guide after each chapter, and familiar anecdotes about folks we know.  Not Too Old is not the same old thing about the same “old” thing.

Life and aging are intensely personal, and no two lives age in precisely the same way: surprises abound.  Not Too Old is a treasure chest of faith, what to say and how to say it, and what scripture says and doesn’t say about the final leg of life’s journey as our time heads into eternity.

God’s purpose pursues us to the end, and that is an encouraging message for any age.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that E91 is hosting a church book signing with Dave this Sunday near the Resource Room (bookstore). At church the books are $20 (cash, card, or check, including tax and eliminating shipping). But in this case, it’s about the message, not the money. 

Friends: Understanding God’s love is perhaps life’s greatest mystery and humanity’s greatest gift. The Bible tells us so.  See the column below.  Have a great week!  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #909

April 16, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Love is the Greatest

By Bob Walters

“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:13

This verse, 1 Cointhians 13:13, is the one that hooked me my first day in church.

Russ Blowers was preaching – September 2, 2001 – on his 50^th anniversary of tending the flock at East 91^st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis. I was an unbeliever somehow in church (sitting in the back row), and Russ said, approximately:

“We learn faith from the past, we have hope in the future, but we have love in the present.”  Learning later that C.S. Lewis wrote, “… the present is where eternity touches time” (The Screwtape Letters), the idea, well, the reality, that God is Love, God is eternal, and God stepped into the present in the form of his Son Jesus Christ, solved Russ’s words and put my esteem of love’s stature in theology at the head of the line.

There are dozens of personal, corollary stories (rabbit trails, my wife calls them) that could stretch the above three paragraphs into days of self-reflection, but I recently learned something new – a brilliant perspective – on all that 1 Corinthians 13 says about love with a nearly perfect blending of Paul’s “fruits of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23.

First Corinthians 13:4-8 says “Love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no records of wrong, does not delight in evil, rejoices in truth, and always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.”

Galatians 5:22-23 says, “the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

My friend Craig Streett, at a recent E91 Mustard Seed Bible class, shared the following handwritten card stuffed in his Bible from a lesson long ago.  Its precis was this: Love is the chief and true fruit of the Spirit, and all other fruits flow from love.

Note: this doesn’t divide the fruits, but we must never divide love, because God is love and we mustn’t divide God.  But what about Father, Son, Spirit?”  My advice is to consider the math problem of the Holy Trinity – 3 in 1, 1 in 3 – as multiplication, i.e., 1x1x1=1, that gives us a loving community of one, not a divided crowd of three. 

So, without division, notice how these two “truth” and “fruit” passages of Paul’s sync up pretty well when love takes the lead over all fruits of the Spirit. Here’s the note:

         “The fruit of the Spirit is love …

1.    Joy is love’s strength.

2.    Peace is love’s security.

3.    Longsuffering is love’s patience.

4.    Kindness is love’s conduct.

5.    Goodness is love’s character.

6.    Faithfulness is love’s confidence.

7.    Gentleness is love’s humility.

8.    Self-control is love’s victory.

Against such as these there is no law.”

When we see love’s fruits in our lives, we have love’s gifts in our hearts.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes this list originated with BibleProject.com. And ... next week we'll review Dave Faust's new book "Not Too Old, Turning your Later Years into Greater Years." Available at Amazon and CollegePress. E91 has planned a book signing session with Dave Sunday, April 28, where books will also be available.

Friends: Communion with Christ is an eternal, and also present, exchange.  See the column below.  Btw ... We are publishing the column on Sunday instead of Monday this week because - in case the eclipse or Purdue’s presence in the Final Four creates a cosmic singularity that shuts down communications or opens the rapture portal or whatever - this message needs to be out there.  Enjoy the  sky show, Go Boilers, and have a great week! Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #908

April 9, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

This Exchange Doesn’t Change – ‘He is Here’

By Bob Walters

“He's not dead, He’s here.  He came back and he said, ‘I am with you until the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:20), John Chapman Samples, Easter Communion, 2024

Our treasured friend and retired minister John Samples delivered this communion meditation Easter Sunday at our East 91^st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis. His words are trimmed for length, but this eternal message defies boundaries.  John is 93.  Consider his words …

“It is a time of communion ... community, union.  Communion.

“A lot has changed in the Lord’s Supper, the communion, the breaking of bread, through the years. And I’m old enough that I’ve seen a lot of those changes.   For instance, my grandfather, Logan Chapman, in rural Kentucky in the late 1800’s, had an acre vineyard and provided seedlings and clippings for other people in the area who wanted to have grape vines growing in their yard.  He was very generous about that. But he also from his personal grapes of wine provided the communion element for the blood of Christ in local churches.

“Once, on a group mission trip in a church in another country, their form of communion was a large brass cup that was passed among the people, the cup carefully wiped by servants after each person drank from it. But one of those in our group refused to take communion because they were just sure there would be a disease or bacteria of some kind on the rim.  Someone else in our group was quick to remind that what was in the cup was strong enough to kill any bacteria … and it was.  It was a fermented drink. 

“Here at E91 we used to pass open trays of bread and juice cups for communion, but Covid shut that down and we now use these individual, sealed, bread-and-juice communion kits. It was another of many changes over the years.

“However, what is exchanged between the believer and the believed does not change; it cannot change.  Communion – community, union – is a time when we come together as a body of Christ.  It is a time when we remember Jesus.  That’s what Jesus said … “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, do it in remembrance of me.” (Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts).

“Sometimes communion isn’t just a little crusty piece of cracker and some weak grape juice. On one occasion, my wife Joyce and I were on a trip and found ourselves without what we needed for communion on Sunday morning, so we used a cheese cracker with peanut butter in it and a grape soda.  But it was not the elements that made the communion.  It was our hearts.

“As we share the communion service, be sure, be sure, that you are concentrating on the holy relationship with Jesus that gives us eternal hope and assurance.  And today, Easter, we celebrate the most important event in the total universe since the beginning of time – the resurrection – because Jesus who died for us gave us the privilege of knowing Him.

“And Jesus, our Lord and Savior, was scorned, beaten, and rejected by His own people.  He was denied and betrayed by his disciples, but He still went to the cross and became the perfect sacrifice for us.  But even all of that would have been just another religion in the making without the resurrection.  The resurrection is the reason, the cause, and the formation of our faith.  That is how we can communicate with Him, because He is here.  He is not dead; He is here. He came back and said, “I am with you until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20).

“You know, there were other people crucified, mostly desperate criminals. The cross was a despicable symbol of shame and disgrace, until Jesus converted the image of the cross to a sacred, sacred image by His resurrection. Never fear, God is present.  And He is with us here today. Let us turn our hearts completely, lovingly to communicate with Jesus. 

“We can, because He lives.” – John C. Samples

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) gladly yields this space when a message this good exists.

And, just for the E91 family … if you heard mention of a northern Indiana “Logan Chapman Winery” in John’s Easter communion message, John reports that he was mistaken; it doesn’t exist.  There is a “Chapman Winery” in central Indiana, and a “Peoples Winery” in Logansport, Indiana, but no “Logan Chapman Winery.”  Still, “Logan Chapman” would be a great name on a wine label … 

Friends: There are winners and there are losers and I wonder if there will be sports in heaven.  No, seriously.  Meanwhile, I pray your Easter was blessed and Christ’s resurrection continues to resonate in your soul.  Have a great week!  Bob

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Spirituality Column #907

April 2, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sporting Spirit

By Bob Walters

“I hate losing even more than I love winning.” – Jimmy Connors, 1970s tennis champ

“God loves to see his kids play.” Russ Blowers (1924-2007), preacher of the Gospel

Please don’t blow this off just because it seems like a dumb question: Will there be sports in heaven? This coming from a once-upon-a-time sportswriter … me.

This is something I’ve been thinking about, theologically and unsatisfactorily, for the past several months.  We’ll talk about eternal heaven in a minute, but first let’s start with sports, today’s 24/7/365 here-and-now-and-always presence of God’s kids at play.

Sports, overall, is as prominent a cultural idol as currently exists.  And we’re lucky.  We have time for sports because we have conquered most elements of human survival.  We can afford to worry about stuff that doesn’t really matter and oh, how we expend emotional energy on contests that neither affect us nor that we can control.

Note the pro-football jerseys in church on game days.  How’s your NCAA basketball bracket doing?  Is this finally Purdue’s year? (Breathe deeply, Boiler faithful.)  Baseball’s opening day last week marked the initiation of spring melding into the boys of summer.  It’s Easter, so the Master’s golf tournament, yea verily, draws nigh.

Closer to home, what’s up with your kids’ travel sports schedules? Or even the local, no-tryouts, everybody-gets-a-trophy, two-or-three-times-a- week rec leagues for baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, etc.?  How about … swim team! … sunrise practices and steamy hours in poolside bleachers? God loves to see his kids play; we’re just waiting for practice to be over. Breakfast is a pop tart; dinner likely a drive-through.

Sports breeds, and needs, a competitive spirit which I don’t really think we’ll need beyond the pearly gates.  It also develops confidence, strength, courage, character, and perseverance, all exceptional and needed virtues in this life; love dominates the next.

My central negative issue with sports comes to a point at the notion of “identity.”  I’ve never liked being call a “fan” of anything, although my own young life and well into adulthood was filled with tennis. I played, taught, officiated, and was a fan of the 1970s era pro tennis tour, most players of which (men and women) I called lines for at their tournaments in Indy.

So, I was a “tennis guy.”  Hence, I quote feisty champion Jimmy Connors above. 

My problem with our tenacious current cultural idolatry of sports, in the eternal view, is that our sports passions – you know, the “We’re Number One!” “Wait ‘til next year!” “We was robbed!” passions – don’t translate well into heavenly grace and love.

A few weeks ago, that “grace and love” part popped into perspective. Ah ha! If we want to examine the eternal worth of sports in our lives, it is not in the win-loss metric to be better than the other guy (or gal). In heaven – once we’re there – we’re all even-steven. We will play and not only enjoy ourselves; we’ll cheer the skills, grace, and passion of others. Beyond winning and losing is God – with a smile – watching us play,

I possess a “new heaven and new earth” view of the eternal (Revelation 21); i.e., heaven as a perfect, busy, sin-free earth as opposed to a vaporous, floating praise-fest.

Rewards? Yeah, but who knows what that means? Friend and pastor Dave Faust says of rewards, “Whatever they are, we won’t be disappointed.”

And there it is.

Sports with joy … without being disappointed?  How heavenly that would be.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) was yelled at by most pro tennis players of the 70s.