Friends: Whose name do we seek to glorify in this life: Ours, or the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? My wife Pam shared some thoughts on the matter at MCA’s graduation Friday night. School’s out! Enjoy the summer. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #967

May 27, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Your Name Here

By Pam Walters

“… a name which is above every name … that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” – Philippians 2:9-11

Once again, I give the byline to my wife Pam, who Friday night May 23 delivered the “Charge to Seniors” at our Class of 2025 Mission Christian Academy graduation. I present this not just because I am biased, but because I pray for this message to resonate in every high school graduate’s heart.  Only a few will hear it.

Pam points out that her inspiration for this message came from a sermon a couple months ago by Dave Faust, senior associate minister at our East 91^st Street Christian Church in northeast Indianapolis. He preached about Bible names famous and not so famous, focusing on Aaron’s brother-in-law Nahshon (Numbers1, 2, 7, and 10). Nahshon is also listed in genealogies appearing in Ruth, 1 Chronicles, and Matthew 1.

But Dave’s point wasn’t about rarely heralded Nahshon; his point was about whose name do we prioritize: Ours, or the Lords? That message struck Pam as a “spot on” winner for her address to her beloved MCA graduating seniors.

We just heard each of your names called as you received your diplomas.

It seems like yesterday that I was calling off many of your names, taking attendance on our first MCA day together four years ago. Not all of you were present on that August day in 2021.  You joined the class in later months and years, each addition adding to the rich fabric and vitality of this class of 2025.  

Somewhere along the line, I realized that none of you have the same name.  Yes, two girls in the class share the same name, but they are spelled differently so this still works.  Each of your names is your own.  The hearing of each of your names brings a flood of memories and emotions to everyone in this place who knows you.  You have each left your mark on MCA and on each of our hearts.  We love you, and in the days to come, every time we hear one of your names, we will smile.

When you were born, your parents gave you that name, and naming you was no small decision.  Perhaps there was a family name and tradition, dictating what would be your name. Some of your names were chosen because of what they mean, and your name carries a message with it, reflecting certain traits or values.  Whether you view your name as good or bad, it is yours, and it will follow you all of your life.  It is part of your story.

There are many well-known names throughout history:  General Grant, Joan of Arc, Michael Jordan, Hitler, Corey Ten Boom.  We hear these names, and they stir feelings of respect and admiration or horror.  In the Bible, certain names bring similar responses:  David, Moses, Rahab, and Saul.  These are names we all recognize.  But what about Hezron? Ram? Amminadab and Nahshon? These aren’t quite so recognizable, but they all had a story and a name known unto God.

You are going from this place in many different directions with many different goals.  There may be times when you feel like you aren’t accomplishing much, that what you are doing is insignificant.  In those times, remember that God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.  The life you lead from this moment on should not be about being famous - striving to make a name for yourself – but about being faithful.  God loves you greatly and always will even if your name is never widely known among men.

I mentioned the Biblical name of Nahshon.  Not a character most of us know, and probably not the name you will choose for your first born son. But when you look into his story, you will learn that his sister married Aaron, which therefore put Nahshon and Moses together at family reunions. 

We learn he was a leader of one of the tribes of Judah, ruling over 74,000 people.  When the temple was dedicated, he was the first to show up with a large offering.  And Jewish tradition – not Biblical – says that Nahshon was the first one to step into the Red Sea, and it was up to his nose before the waters parted. Nahshon is listed in the genealogy of Jesus.  Who knew that Nahshon was kind of a big deal!!!  God knew.

The world will tell you to go out there and make a name for yourself.  Do something to leave your mark on society; seek after fame and fortune so you can leave a legacy for those who follow.  But Jesus tells us to seek after Him first.  Make your life’s goal service to Him; bring glory to His name, not your own.  Do not let your motivation be to be seen of men (Matthew 6:1), but to honor and glorify our great and awesome God. Let your life be holy. Let your actions be pure. Let your priorities keep you faithful because the book of Proverbs tells us that “a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches” (Proverbs 22:1).

When I was young, I remember being told that I might be the only Bible someone ever reads. The same will be true of each of you.  Therefore, let your lives speak volumes about the God you serve. When others hear your name, may they recall a person who represents Christ Jesus. When others look at you, may they see someone who lives his or her life to honor and glorify the name of Jesus.

Everyone here at MCA has been blessed by your lives.  You are a very special group of young people; we hope that the education you have received will serve you well as you make choices about your future.  But more importantly, we hope you will stand on the unshakeable foundation of Jesus, and that you will take His name with you wherever you go, in whatever you do.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), Bob, that is, notes that MCA in Fishers, Ind., opened in the fall of 2021 in a small rented church with 38 students. Enrollment this fall will top 530. It is MCA’s third graduating class, and Pam’s third year giving the senior charge, which by the way also appears in the MCA yearbook. And …  Aaron’s wife’s name was Elisheba, mentioned only in Exodus 6:23. For Pam’s previous column, her address to MCA’s April all-school chapel, here’s a link: #963 4-29-25 - His Name is Jesus. 

Friends: Another trip around the sun, a few more thoughts on truth and salvation. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #966

May 20, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

This Aging Thing

By Bob Walters

“They will still bear fruit in old age … proclaiming ‘The Lord is upright;’” Psalms 92:14-15

Well, happy birthday to me, again.  I’ll be 71 this Friday, having for now slightly outkicked the coverage of the Bible’s declaration in Psalms 90:10 that “The length of our days is seventy years – or eighty, if we have the strength.”

Psalm 90 continues uncheerfully, “… yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass and we fly away.” I’m sure you have noticed how often throughout the psalms, the verses go quickly from being uplifting, hopeful, and peaceful while praising God, and then switching to complaints, laments, or asking God to smite one’s enemies.

Praise-to-anger, or anger-to-praise, is a recurring pattern, though Psalms 23, 91, and 93 come quickly to mind as notable exceptions.  They are absent condemnation or vengeance while steadfastly declaring trust in God and acknowledging His goodness and love. God promises us, the faithful, in Psalms 91:14-16, “Because he loves me, I will rescue him … with long life I will satisfy him, and show him my salvation.”

Let me go on record here that I am praising God, secure in His love and the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and that the Holy Spirit is alive in my life. When someone challenges me or asks if I “am saved,” I say only that I trust Jesus and my eternal destiny is up to God.  I am thankful, even overjoyed, that I know that – and that I know it now – in this life.  God will show me His salvation; He does every day.

I cannot imagine what is next, but see plainly, always, that God paints reality.  I am thankful to be beyond the guessing game of whether God exists, truth exists, or purpose exists; they all do. Salvation in Jesus Christ exists. The Holy Spirit shares God’s knowledge and grace.   I can’t prove it … nor feel that I need to. 

God knows, and that’s enough. If others see it, then my joy is complete.

As for the great beyond, I often quote my friend and minister Dave Faust who baptized me in 2001 when I was 47 years old. I asked him a few years back about heaven and rewards and who does what inside the pearly gates. Dave noted, “Whatever it is, you won’t be disappointed.”  Amen.  I haven’t worried about it since.

My wife Pam shares life’s joy and God’s purpose not only with family and grandkids, but in the loving ministry of teaching high school English at Mission Christian Academy here in Fishers, Ind.  She catches up with me, age wise, in October. I’m blessed with the same MCA ministry, teaching high school history and civics, pouring into the students’ budding Christian lives, but not as much as they pour into a very necessary component of my existence: that of purpose and investing my faith. 

You may have noticed last week that famed billionaire investor Warren Buffett, 94, announced he would retire from his position of CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of this year.  He said, “I noticed a couple of years ago that I was starting to feel old.”

Buffett has 23 years on me, and while I don’t “feel old,” I notice my balance isn’t what it used to be, and our three-day teaching weeks at MCA come close to maxing out my energy reserves. Back in the day, 80-hour work weeks were not uncommon.

I spent my first 47 years not bearing fruit for the Lord and only feel the loss of opportunity, not guilt. Praise God for the length of my years, whatever they may be.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), after attending 45 Indianapolis 500s and not missing one since 1982, is sitting out the 500 this year. His old legs’ incompatibility with the E Stand stairs tell him the season has passed. Praise God, and start your engines…  

Speaking of Dave Faust, he wrote a good pastoral, practical, scriptural book last year on aging, Not Too Old: Turning Your Later Years into Greater Years.

And, if it’s not stuck behind a paywall, here is the link to the WSJ story on Buffett’s retirement: Buffett Steps Down After Finally Feeling His Age.

 

Friends: Against conventional Catholic wisdom that an American can’t be pope (we’re a superpower, after all), Peruvian missionary Bob Prevost, now Leo XIV, hails from Chicago.  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #965

May 13, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Citizen of the World’

By Bob Walters

“But our citizenship is in heaven.” – Philippians 4:20

Pope Leo XIV – born Robert Francis Prevost, Sept. 14, 1955, in Chicago – was the “surprise” choice last week when white smoke danced from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel chimney. “Habemus Papam!” – “We have a Pope.”

This new leader of the 1.4 billion worldwide congregants of the Roman Catholic Church – this new Bishop of Rome occupying the 2,000-year-old Chair of St. Peter – is the first American successor to the apostle. It turns out Prevost wasn’t really a surprise, but since he served for decades in Peru, I didn’t, at first, get that he is American.

But American he is; American enough to be a White Sox and Bears fan growing up on the south side of Chicago, attending high school at St. Augustine prep in Holland, Mich., and graduating from Villanova University. He earned a masters of divinity at Chicago Theological Union (1982), and carries dual American and Peruvian citizenship.

As for a “surprise” pick, it is true that few outside his various pastorates and bishoprics knew him. But Pope Francis, who died April 21, personally recruited and elevated Archbishop Prevost to a high level Vatican cardinal in 2023 as the Director of the Dicastery of Bishops, the cardinal bishop in charge of who became Catholic bishops. That position recently along with Prevost’s extensive mission work made him well known to cardinals as a highly able pastor and administrator.

The odds-on favorite for pope was Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State and de facto No. 2 to Pope Francis. He was the best known of the 133 attending cardinals – who largely didn’t know each other – but was a career-long Vatican bureaucrat.  Prevost, from now on Leo XIV, was deemed better suited to the Church’s global missions reach. He was elected after only four rounds of balloting.

Quoting the weekend Wall Street Journal: “The 69-year-old long-time Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru was from the U.S. but of the global south. Many of his supporters described the polyglot prelate by the same four words: ‘citizen of the world.’”

Every Christian knows we are “citizens of heaven,” not of the world.  But given the Roman Catholic history of worldwide missions work in the spirit of Jesus’s Great Commission in Matthew 28:19 – “make disciples of all nations” – let’s read that as a compliment of dedicated global ministry, not a negative of worldly passions.

Anyway … top Catholic leaders around the world knew of Prevost’s leadership.

Regarding the Vatican’s well-known current financial difficulties, WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan pointed out that Leo is the first Vatican “boss who is assumed to be versed in the general principles of American management.” That can’t hurt.

Personally, I was fascinated that Leo is of the “Augustinian Order,” organized by hermit monks in 1255. Taking the name “Leo,” he reminds us of fifth century pope “Leo the Great” who defended against heresies, built Christian doctrine as to the dual nature of Christ (God and man), and also talked Atilla the Hun out of sacking Rome in 452.

Leo XIII, 1878 to 1903, was highly consequential outlining Catholic social instruction and the rights of workers in an era of heavy U.S. union organization.

Leo the XIV promises to be neither as liberal nor as conservative as various factions in the Church fear or promote. If he’s a Godly citizen of the world with a loving pastoral touch, dedication to Church traditions, and steeped in scriptural truth, perhaps he will be the shepherd who draws the flock and staves off the wolves.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is aware that many of his Bible Christian brethren are wary of Catholic doctrines, that many Catholics are skeptical of Bible Christians, and that there is no shortage of dispute, scandal, and intrigue surrounding Vatican global influence and local pastoral misconduct … yet Walters hesitates to cast the first stone. May Jesus Christ be known and loved by all. Btw … here is a Facebook Reel of Bishop Prevost at a White Sox World Series game in 2005: Prevost at Sox WS game. Leo XIV will be formally installed as Pope next Sunday, May 18, 2025.

Friends: Catholic cardinals convene this week in Rome to steer the issue-laden Church toward its 266^th pope. The private proceedings promise to be lively. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #964

May 6, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Navigating the Holy See

By Bob Walters

“Apostolica Sedes Vacans,” or “The Chair of Peter is empty.” – Vatican.va

The Roman Catholic Church begins its conclave to name a new pope this week when the global 165-man College of Cardinals convenes in Vatican City – in the Sistine Chapel, specifically – to elect a successor to Pope Francis.

Leading 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide, the pope shepherds Christianity’s largest denomination. Francis – born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Dec. 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina – became the first Latin American pope on March 13, 2013.  He died Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, at age 88 of pneumonia that had weakened him in the preceding months. Lung issues plagued Francis throughout his life.

Francis was the 266^th pope in a 2,000-year line of succession that goes back to the Apostle Peter, the fisherman who was a disciple of Jesus. “Apostolica Sedes Vacans” currently appears on the Vatican website (LINK- The Holy See – Vatican.va) referring to the “apostle’s seat” being vacant. The office of pope is also called the Holy See (for “seat”) or the Papacy (PAY-puh-see}. The Pope himself is also known as the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the Bishop of Rome, the Pontiff (Summus Pontifex}, the Sovereign of the Vatican, and the Successor of the Prince of the Apostles (i.e., Peter).

Francis was also the first Jesuit (Society of Jesus} pope, and took the name of Francis of Assisi who cared for the poor. Francis named 80 percent of the current 165 Cardinals who will begin voting this week to replace him.  Francis’s ascendance made sense in 2013 given the global rise in Catholic membership in the southern hemisphere. Today there are controversies about Francis’s liberality and doctrinal propriety.

The conclave of cardinals will elect a new pope from its membership by a vote of two-thirds-plus-one. After each non-electing round, the ballots are burned in a stove installed in the Sistine Chapel, sending black smoke out of a chimney for all to see.

When a new pope is elected, the ballots are burned mixed with chemicals (potassium nitrate, lactose, and pine resin) that emit a bright, white smoke, signaling the Chair of St. Peter has been filled. It promises to be quite a lively internecine battle.

While the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s considerably loosened Catholic practices – for example, making it not required that the Eucharist / Mass / Communion be celebrated in Latin – later Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who retired in 2013, nevertheless remained conservative in cultural issues like abortion, marriage, divorce, and the exclusivity of who may participate in the Eucharist. Francis was, um, less strict.

Catholicism has rich extra-scriptural traditions and doctrines that it equates with the authority of scripture. With respect, I do not share that view. I am a Bible Christian, not Roman Catholic, but am also a long-time reader of the Catholic journal First Things.

I read and study extensively with a special focus on church history, the development of denominations, Bible literacy, and modern historical context for how the church, faith, Christianity, religion in general, politics, culture and academia have all arrived at perhaps the most confused, chaotic, convoluted, complicated, feverish faith / political / moral moment in the history of humanity. Still, Christ can save us.

If the new pope tempers culture’s fever and promotes fervor for Jesus, I’m for it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) adds: 1) Jesus told Peter he would be a “fisher of men,” hence the column’s title. 2) If Walters had a vote in the papal conclave, he’d write-in current New York Cardinal Tim Dolan. 3) Walters wrote a piece on Francis and Dolan back in 2015, LINK – And the Crowd Goes Wild, 4) This period between popes is called an “interregnum” – “between reigns.” 5) BTW, “Vatican.com” is a tourism site.