Friends: Christian life doesn’t mean “hit the brakes.” Christian life means “use the accelerator wisely.” Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #928

August 27, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Full Speed Ahead

By Bob Walters

“The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places …You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” – Psalms 16:6,11

In his 1908 classic book, Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton has a great scenario of living life – on the one hand – within the boundaries of Christ and His church.  Or, on the other, of living life completely “free” with no boundaries.

Chesterton imagines a high plateau on top of which the whole of the human race exists – where all humanity works, plays, loves, helps, hates, fights, produces, destroys. pursues goals, pursues God, sins, worships … everything. This world is a rollicking whirl of activity and passions because this plateau has high perimeter barriers – fencing and walls – that prevent anyone from actually falling off its lethal cliffs into the bottomless and deathly chasm below.

Those barriers are God’s parameters and the church’s rules that restrain the degree of catastrophe that can occur.  The plateau’s inhabitants are bold because they pursue their passions without fear of real death.  They might bump up against the barricades and be bruised, but they themselves will not topple into the abyss.

Chesterton likens this plateau not just to God’s spiritual guardrails provided by humanity’s promised salvation in Jesus, but to creative humanity’s Godly freedom of physical action, intellectual endeavors, and spiritual pursuits.  Humanity knows that whatever happens on the plateau, Christ in the form of his church – those high walls around the edges – represent God’s guarantee of love and eternal life.

Safely in the arms of our savior, mankind can let its diversely directed passions run free in the very fullness of life’s possibilities (Ephesians 1:23, 3:19, 4:13).  

Chesterton’s other plateau scenario is the same everything, except no barriers, no walls, no church, no savior, no safety.  Mankind’s carefree rollicking becomes timid cowering in the center of the plateau; humanity is huddled in a mass of fear: fear that with no boundaries present, there exists the very real danger of dropping over the side.

Mankind’s creativity and passions are stifled.  Hope of joy is choked away by the fear of venturing from the “safe” but captive middle where any stray misstep may mean the abyss. Passion dries up without salvation’s guardrails promising to preserve life.

I lived 47 years outside the arms of Jesus, and had no sense of being on a living plateau without safety from the abyss.  I didn’t know the abyss, I didn’t know safety, I didn’t know what there was to try to protect myself from.  Then light replaced the dark.

Lo and behold, Jesus was there all the time, despite my ignorance.  Now when I hear anyone mention the “severe boundaries” of being a Christian, I can confidently say … No, life’s boundaries without Jesus are only death on every side. I’ll choose life.

I don’t feel hemmed in by life and truth.  The boundary lines of life, as King David suggests in Psalms 16, are a pathway to pleasant places and to God’s right hand.  Which, we all know, is where Jesus is seated. It is our loving eternity … if we want it.

With no divine boundaries, life’s path leads one to a very different and far less pleasant place: to a dark abyss we likely do not even imagine is there. But it is.

Live life full speed ahead within the boundaries of Christ, and in the full light and liberty of God’s Creation.  Look at this huge, magnificent world God created. No need to be timid, just be humble enough to appreciate the boundaries. They’re a blessing.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes his “awake” date in Jesus: Sept. 2, 2001.

Friends: The Apostle Paul was both free in Christ and a slave for Christ. Lots of people are. See the column ... Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #927

August 20, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Freedom, or Slavery

By Bob Walters

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free … do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” – Paul speaking of the New Covenant vs. the Law, Galatians 5:1

My Bible mentor George Bebawi called Galatians a “stick of dynamite.” Galatians he said is not there for friendly advice about forging a gentle new path ahead in Jesus.

It is there to blow up the Jewish way of thinking about the mindset of the Law.

And who better to do it than Paul?  Early in the book of Acts we see this highly educated but rigid and murderous Pharisee hunt, torture, and mercilessly kill Christians for their disobedience to the Law. Paul then came powerfully to Christ (Acts 9), and in his 13 letters of the New Testament not only explains to all how to be a Christian, but how Jews erred in not accepting Jesus, the new covenant, and Christian thought life.

Later in Acts 18:1-17 we see Paul, rejected by the Jews in Corinth, declare “I will go to the Gentiles” (non-Jews), and is then told by the Lord to “keep on speaking.” Paul, once a vicious Jew who killed Christians brings the message of Christ to non-Jews.

As the Bible is organized, after Acts is Paul’s letter to the Romans, two letters to the Corinthians, and then his run of shorter letters beginning with Galatians. This is where we see Paul note (v2:4), “Some of our false brothers infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ and to make us slaves.” Paul is referring to Jews who insisted Christians, among other things, be circumcised.

Then in Galatians 2:11-21 is Paul’s vociferous disagreement with Peter on many matters concerning the Law. Paul’s “freedom” in Christ was from the “slavery” of the Law. No human could fulfil the burden of the Law from which Jesus frees us by grace.

Paul pounds that message throughout Galatians.  Today’s Americans see the word “freedom” and think “land of the free and home of the brave.” We see the word “slavery” and think of only past plantations, modern social injustice, and CRT racism.

To avoid today’s cultural horrification at the mere word “slavery,” modern Bible translations have largely cleansed the Greek doulos (slave) into “servant.” But here the English is either “slavery” or “bondage” and a “yoke” that limits life. Some form of doulos is used 125 times in the New Testament to describe a person who is owned by another.

But “slavery” is not always a horrible yoke. In Matthew 11:30 Jesus says “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” It means in Christ we are properly yoked with our master. When Paul says he is “a slave of Christ” in Romans 1:1, he is declaring his love and purpose of being owned by Christ. We are usually slaves to that which we love.

Another of my great Christian mentors, Russ Blowers, knew George Bebawi well and gave George the highest compliment I ever heard Russ bestow on anybody. He called George “a free man in Christ,” and Russ was among the greatest of encouragers.

Few anywhere could match George’s scriptural expertise (in many languages), his understanding of the ancient church and multiple doctrines, his life experience of having grown up a Jew in a Muslim neighborhood in Cairo, Egypt, converting as a teen to Christianity, becoming a Coptic priest, attaining a divinity PhD at Cambridge, teaching and serving in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and USA … and the obvious surety and humility of his faith in and love for Jesus Christ.

George joyously made himself a slave of Jesus, and freely shared his joy with all.

G.K. Chesterton wrote that our greatest freedom is to be free to bind ourselves to that which we choose. Freedom only works well when we choose Jesus.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes freedom also requires love and responsibility. And in case you missed it last week, here is a link to my recent guest slot on Rich Jacobs’’ “Finding Genius” podcast (48 minutes): Exploring The Culture Of Christianity With Bob Walters (recorded 7-31-24).

Friends: Christianity is uniquely personal and also uniquely relational. Our faith life and communion are not so very different from the divine love within the Holy Trinity.  Blessings, Bob

BTW, there is a new Rich Jacobs "Finding Genius" podcast! Here is the link: Exploring The Culture Of Christianity With Bob Walters (recorded 7-31-24).

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Spirituality Column #926

August 13, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Team Effort

By Bob Walters

“…I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” – Jesus praying, John 17:20-21
One of the lessons of the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, Spirit – and of church gatherings and corporate Christian life in general is that Christianity is not an individual pursuit; it is a team sport. We are all in this together. Yes, with the triune God.

Do we – each one of us, singularly – have a personal and unique faith relationship with God through Jesus? Yes, we do. 

Does the Holy Spirit abide in our lives individually?  Yes, the Spirit does. 

But are we alone in our faith?  No, we are not.

The above cited prayer of Jesus is from the “Priestly Prayer” in John 17, the concluding prayerful words of Jesus to his disciples before His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. To refresh, Jesus and the disciples left the last supper (John 14:31), walked through Jerusalem toward the Garden listening to Jesus’s teaching (John 15-16), and in John 17 Jesus prays for himself (vv1-5), the disciples (vv6-19), and for “all who will believe in me through their message” (vv20-26). That includes us … today.

When Jesus directs us with the two greatest commandments, to love God and to love others (Matthew 22:37-39), and at the last supper reminds the disciples of this “new command … to “love one another” (John 13:35), Jesus is only telling the disciples – and by extension all believers – to do what Jesus himself does in the Holy Trinity … to love God and love others. 

God’s cosmic design is that He Himself is a community, and He created all of us – for His own glory – to be loved and loving, faithful participants in His Kingdom. Our faith in Jesus and reliance on the Holy Spirit bring us into that divine communion.

Perhaps the greatest mystery of our faith is the Holy Trinity – how something can be three in one, one in three, unique, yet together. But don’t get hung up on the math.

For all the different ways the Bible describes God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, when the Bible says in the letters of John that “God is Love,” he is explaining the purpose of the Trinity, and that purpose is relationship, which is what gives communion its meaning.  Love cannot exist without relationship.

God is a community, as we, His faithful, are a community joined with Him and with each other. When we celebrate communion, we are celebrating our relationship not just with God through Jesus and among ourselves as Christians, but celebrating the Father-Son-Spirit relationship that is the abiding and loving truth of our faith. 

Our faith, my faith, your faith, can’t be something we simply “believe.”  Faith is the truth of all being, of how we live our lives.  I don’t merely believe I’m married to my wife Pam; I AM married to Pam.  That’s life and that’s truth … and that is what faith is. 

It is what God calls faith to be: real, the bedrock of our soul.  Faith is not a transient opinion, but life with love, purpose, and direction.  Our communion in faith is the communion into which Jesus invited his disciples, and all who would believe.

The communion we celebrate today as the faithful body of Christ is a communion in faith that is our strength, our hope, and our joy and our oneness in Christ.

To love God and to love each other is a divine team effort, and what Jesus does.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) adapted this from his Aug. 4 communion meditation at church. Regarding the “math” of the Trinity, 1+1+1=3, but 1x1x1=1. Multiply!

Friends: I never worry about God but I sure do worry about various and dismaying aspects of current culture, politics, and the church. Here’s some relevant reading.  See the column below.  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #925

August 6, 2025  

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Weird Times    By Bob Walters

“…fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10 ESV

Are we having fun yet?

Sorry (not sorry) to be flippant, but “dismayed” is what comes to my mind observing recent events and developments both silly and serious on religious and cultural fronts.

How about the opening ceremonies of the Olympics? As quick as there was Christian outcry of blasphemy and heresy, there was leftist pushback about artistic rights of interpretation. The media largely applauded desecration of Christ and accused the offended of not understanding pagan characters and gender-fluid representation of historic French legends, literary figures, and pagan gods. Mon Dieu! How can we be so provincial?  

OK … it’s France.  But why was the little boy amid the drag queens?

While the Olympics grab little of my attention – not to be crass but they really just don’t – I’m glad for the Simone Biles led U.S. gymnastics team and swimmer Katie Ledecky’s multiple golds, abhorred by Brittney Griner’s kneeling rather than respecting the American flag, and at first confused about the women’s boxing controversy because media was overwhelmed by gender agendas.

Turns out … the “man” in question was born with all “girl parts” and was raised as a daughter, is still a daughter, but at puberty was discovered to have “Differences in Sex Development” (DSD), which means an XY (male) chromosome and more testosterone than estrogen. Her pro boxing record against XX chromosome women was only 9-5. I’m far less dismayed now with “Olympic Boxing” but retain vigorous cynicism of most media and online “news” sources for their lack of inclination to report a story accurately and in context.

And here at home, we have the “woke” political party calling the normal political party “weird.” It’s going to be a long (and weird) three months (exactly) to the Nov. 6 election.

But that’s the Olympics and politics. My recent purely religious reading includes books and articles that shine a bright and welcome – though dismaying – light on modern Christian practices, academics, preachers, and churches both Catholic and Evangelical.

In June I reviewed The Deconstruction of Christianity (LINK Something Else, Again) about organized efforts by former Christians to help believers “un-do” their faith in Jesus.  In July I wrote about universal salvation LINK What Will You Love? and atheists who crave Christian culture but reject God (LINK What Atheism Means).

For the philosophically literate, a Catholic friend recommended The Religion of the Day about not just cultural “wokeness” vis-à-vis religious beliefs. The book plumbs the depths of Gnosticism and its relevance to Marxism’s surprising but logical link to today’s Woke ideology. Gnosticism has been a Christian heresy since the beginning of the church, and is alive and well today in our crumbling political and social structures. Brilliant stuff.

Next up on my reading list is Megan Basham’s Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda (good articles HERE and HERE). The book matter-of-factly reveals notable evangelical preachers, churches, and institutions – Andy Stanley, Rick Warren, United Methodist Churches, and the Southern Baptist Convention to name just a few in a very long list – who have received millions of dollars from various and muscular LGBTQ advocacy groups. It’s a real thing, not hype; language is a lethal weapon.

So … dismaying?  It is a very old story that humanity in general and the church in particular need to get their acts together. God is still with us and He will strengthen, help, and uphold us.  Jesus saves, but sorry if I’ve been focusing on religion’s rough underbelly.

As much as all this “news” makes me want to shake my head in dismay … I have no doubt all these ills are about the world, not God’s eternal righteousness, goodness, or truth.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a former journalist, has lost faith in journalism not God.