Friends: Try this personal prayer routine that covers several bases helping to get us home to the Lord. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1015

April 28, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Ten Petitions

By Bob Walters

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” – Philippians 4:6

Every Christian has, or should be encouraged to have, a personal prayer ministry intent upon consistent and growing relationship with God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We are mistaken if we think ministry is always outward, helping others find, build, and maintain their faith and understanding of God’s plan of forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, and – not to be ignored – divine relationship in the here and now. Remember that Jesus, in his prayer in John 17 on his way to Gethsemane, prays for himself first before praying for his disciples and the faithful who would come later.

It isn’t selfish. It’s like when they tell you on airplanes that in an emergency, put your own oxygen mask on first, then help your kids and others. If you’re incapacitated, you can’t help others.  A prayed-up Christian is like that: able. It’s a skip-the-line pass.

Praying with (1) praise and (2) thanks are general rules one and two.  And while we might pray for rest or favor, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and our rest resides in constant loving relationship with Him. Favor is being in the Father’s will; that is enough.

A live, Godly, Christ-like, Spirit-filled prayer can take many shapes but is activated by what’s happening in one’s heart as well as one’s mind. Formula, rote, or creedal prayer is frowned on in Bible church circles, but not everything that is frowned upon is wrong in God’s eyes or man’s faithful heart. Sincerity is the ultimate catalyst.

That said, I have ten general petitions I pray God to fill me with. I don’t always know what they look like, but they help direct my conversation and focus on what to listen for in God’s reply. I remember them in related pairs, saying, “Fill me with …”

- Truth and Love: Jesus is truth (John 14:6), and God is love (1 John 4:8). These are the first two checks on our spiritual fluid levels. God exists; that is the truth. Jesus’s appearance and sacrifice prove God loves us. His resurrection proves it is all real. Fill me with that trust, Lord, and with the Spirit’s help let me never forget it. 

- Grace and Peace: Appearing in all of Paul’s letters, Jesus is our peace and Jesus’s person is God’s grace. It’s not just an idle or routine greeting in a letter; this is the apostle describing Jesus and citing characteristics that govern Christlikeness.

- Strength and Courage: Rather than just “heal my sickness” or “defeat my enemies,” give me strength to persevere in pain and courage in the face of fear.

- Discernment and Mercy: Help me identify God’s truth and, in a prophetic sense, recognize God’s word, will, and judgment: to not be tricked into sin by man or Satan. This isn’t begging for mercy, but for the discernment to know when God’s judgment requires mercy … or not. Mercy is a component of judgment, not its opposite.

- Wisdom and Compassion: The word “wisdom” appears 219 times in my NIV, 169 times in the Old Testament and 50 times in the New. James says God gives wisdom generously (1:5), and that God’s wisdom is “pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” (3:17). That’s what I want. God sending Jesus is a function of God’s glory, and Christ on the cross is God’s compassion for our cursed predicament of sin. We can live this life in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus says He will be with us always (Matthew 28:20), and Paul tells us to “Pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Here’s how: Live life as a prayer in every situation.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) grew up a liturgical Episcopalian and upon arriving in a Bible-based church was initially shocked at spontaneous prayer. He’s over it now.

Friends: I was paying attention to global events even when I wasn’t a Bible-abiding Christian. Let’s maximize this chance to build the world.  - Bob

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Spirituality Column #1014

April 21, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Religious Studies

By Bob Walters

“Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.” – Romans 12:9

I wandered away from church in my mid-teens, but wandered back at age 47.

As cited here just last week, I mention this life-shift often. I suppose the frequent retelling is because I’m as surprised to be a believing, functioning, Bible-literate, church-living Christian as I’ve been surprised by any turn in my life.

My Episcopal youth in Kokomo as an altar boy (acolyte) was fine. But I aged out of that (14-ish), couldn’t sing (so I just sat there), the service changed (the New Liturgy of the late 1960s), and I had a busy high school career of sports, friends, and extra-curricular activities.  Nothing among my interests or formal education soon pointed me back to church.

But I did pay attention to world events including the too-frequent Middle East skyjackings, the attack on the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 games in in Munich, the 1979 kidnapping of U.S. diplomats and military in Tehran (i.e., The Hostage Crisis}, Lockerbie Square, the Libyan encounters of the 1980s, the Gulf War in the 1990s, and of course, 9/11.

I mention these specifically because they all involved Muslims as the perpetrators, and until 9/11, I really had no curiosity, animosity, or knowledge of Islam. “Jihad” entered the American lexicon in the 1970s, but all I knew was that Islam seemed to be very, very mad at the West but I had no idea why.

“Death to America.” “The Great Satan.”  Well, what did I/we ever do to you?

In an ironic but perfect twist of timing, my first return to pretty much any Sunday church service was September 2, 2001 (search that date in my blog for details). There I met retired pastor Russ Blowers who suggested we do lunch. Nine days later was 9/11.

We kept that lunch date later in September when as a new believer – though at that point I wasn’t sure what it was I believed – I was embarrassed as Russ said grace right there in a public restaurant, the original Sahm’s on Allisonville in Fishers.

As we discussed 9/11, Russ noted that despite 50 years of ministry he knew little about Islam, while I knew nothing.  I had seen a then-recent Wall Street Journal editorial about a new book on Islam, What Went Wrong, by Princeton professor and Islamic expert Bernard Lewis. We agreed to read it together, and it was eye-opening.

In May of 2002 I met George Bebawi, a guest at a small gathering here in Indianapolis of old high school friends from Kokomo. He was a divinity lecturer at Cambridge University who was born Jewish, grew up in Cairo in a Muslim neighborhood, and in his late teens became a Christian and then a Coptic Orthodox priest with a Cambridge PhD. He knew – sorry for the all-caps – a LOT about Islam that both fueled and quenched my curiosity.

Russ also introduced me to the magazine First Things, a scholarly Catholic journal of religion, philosophy and culture that leans heavily conservative but carries all sides of many issues. I’ve been a monthly reader since 2007.

So, I look back at Russ and George showing up in my faith life and intellectual life when they did, as intensely as they did, and the lasting impact they’ve had with my own continuing studies. I’m thankful for, and trusting of, the perspective I’ve gained. 

There is an awful lot of chaff flying in the current swirling winds of commentary about Iran, Trump, the Pope, Just War Theory, Democrat hostility, media subterfuge, MAGA desertions, international politics, energy, economics, globalism, and much else.

We must discern wisely. All this to say I’m glad Iran’s Shi’ite theocracy won’t have a nuclear weapon soon, or hopefully ever. Let’s build the world, not destroy it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) this week chose his words very carefully.

Friends: The world may think God fills in reality’s gaps, but there are no gaps, only Jesus. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1013

April 14, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Reality of the Sabbath

By Bob Walters

“… the reality, however, is found in Christ” – Colossians 2:17

For nearly 20 years I’ve been reading Ray Stedman’s daily online devotional, “The Power of His Presence.”

Ray lived from 1917 to1992. He was born in Montana, served as longtime pastor of Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California, authored several books, and achieved national prominence. I’ve never studied Stedman himself, nor know a lot about his ministry that has extended well past his earthly life. I’ve just been a daily online reader.

His blog / devotional seems to run in seven-year cycles, typically an Old Testament book one month, then a New Testament book the next. It is basic, smart, protestant, evangelical Bible verse-by-verse exposition.  His work is nicely arranged and available free at RayStedman.org. For the blog, they’ve never sent a bill.

We all have our favorite, preferred, trusted devotionals and I’m not here to compare, contrast, or elevate Stedman.  I’ve just always included him in my daily reading, meditation, and prayer time. Most of you – i.e., regular Common Christianity readers – likely know I became a baptized Christian in 2001 because I mention it all the time. It goes without saying that I never met Ray, and he likely never met “the Internet.”

More than once Stedman’s devotionals have triggered ideas for this weekly column, especially when it syncs up with something I’ve been thinking about apart from his blog. This is one of those times, about reality and Jesus, Genesis and the Sabbath.

Why do we become Christians? 1 Peter 3:15 says we should “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” My answer for that never seems to line up with most preaching I hear.  That’s not a complaint, it’s just that most pulpits and altar calls revolve around coming to Jesus to solve one’s problems, to be forgiven of our sins, relieve our grief, atone for our transgressions, rest from our labors, or some other general application of turning the negatives of our lives into positives. A good outcome is divine joy, peace, and purpose.

I have seen all of that personally, for me, in my own faith walk and have seen it in many others.  Truth is, when I first walked into church expectation-less in 2001 at age 47, it wasn’t my problems or my sins or any perceived need for joy or direction that the Holy Spirit grabbed onto.  It was my curiosity, and, looking back, a sense that reality dwelled – really dwelled – in Jesus Christ.  It was long before I read Colossians 2:17.

But I see it now. Reality, I mean. In Christ. That’s where reality is: not in science, philosophy, politics, or culture, nor in my worldly appetites, experiences, or psyche. The assurance and comfort knowing that reality exists, truth exists, God exists, and that this life matters and has purpose is the reason for the hope and faith that I have. That’s my intellectual “jam.”

This month – April 2026 – Stedman’s blog presents early Genesis. April 10 was Genesis 2:2, where God rests and admires his work; what He later commanded and called the Sabbath (Link: God Rests). It was an early shadow that ended at the Cross

Stedman talks about the Old Testament Sabbath being a shadow, and Christ being the true Sabbath. This is what my Bible mentor George Bebawi emphasized, the “shadows” of the old covenant of the Law vs. the reality of the new covenant in Christ. The shadows of the Law become the reality of salvation in Christ.

Jesus never calls for feasts or festivals or even a day of worship because He, the real Sabbath – the Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8) – is with us always.

The world endeavors to define reality on its own terms. Reality, really, is defined in Jesus.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) reminds all that science was created by God.

Friends: It wasn’t until Jesus’s end that the disciples knew their ministry was just beginning, or that their lives – all our lives – were renewed.  Blessings, Bob

(P.S. – Indy friend Steve Bickel passed away quietly last Wednesday 20 years after a bicycle accident in September 2006 broke his neck, fractured his skull, and left him conversantly alert but bedridden. A former preacher and real estate executive with Marsh grocery stores, Steve even in his situation was a cheerful rock of faith, was a delight to visit, and became a good friend. Prayers go out to Jean and the family who will celebrate his life Wednesday, April 8, at Flanner and Buchanan on Carmel Drive, Carmel, Indiana. Visitation is 10-noon, the service is at noon.)

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Spirituality Column #1012

April 7, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Life on the Beach

By Bob Walters

“…those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” – Isaiah 40:31.

On the cross Jesus says, “It is finished.” That is our signal to get started.

These first few days after Easter annually put my mind on that beach with Peter and the disciples, who recognized the risen Lord but were afraid to say anything of His identity.

All the disciples but Peter and John – “the disciple Jesus loved” – had bailed on Jesus after his arrest. Peter, shortly thereafter and egregiously, denied knowing Jesus three times.

Only John witnessed their Lord on the cross.

As Jesus finished His earthly ministry at Calvary in obedience, love, glory, and death, the new ministry of the disciples – of the new covenant of life in Christ – began. Jesus truly died a human death, and in His blood and resurrection was our eternal life.

At the cross, the faith of everyone was strained. Imagine: a Roman executioner was the only human to recognize Jesus – in His death – as the Son of God. It would take His resurrection to convince those who previously believed all Jesus had told them.

Even John and the few women at the cross, knowing Jesus was dead, did not track what Jesus had said hours earlier: that He was going away for a little while but would return. All were stunned to discover an empty tomb, then later see the resurrected Lord in a locked room, encounter Him in a public meeting, and now, here on a beach.

On this beach, a stunning scene in John 21, Jesus was cooking a breakfast of fish for the disciples, fish He had instructed them how to catch. It is the third time the disciples saw the resurrected Jesus, and apparently the only time they were alone with Him. As a note of symmetry, Jesus at the beginning of His ministry three years earlier also instructed a bountiful catch, telling them they would be fishers of men.

Now at the end with another bountiful catch, Jesus begins their new day of service by symbolically providing breakfast. In His resurrected presence, their doubts will end and their new mission begin. It was a new beginning to their new life with Christ.

What was not understood at the foot of the cross could now begin to take shape.

Jesus pulled Peter aside and addressing him as Simon – which Jesus always did when Peter had a new beginning – thrice queried if Peter loved Him, each time instructing him to “feed my sheep.” Instead of a harsh rebuke for denying Him three times, Jesus forgave Peter three times. Love was the key and Peter’s work was laid out.

In time the world would realize that Jesus was more than what the disciples had understood Him to be on earth: their Lord, Son of God.  In His resurrection, they would soon learn he was God the Savior, restoring mankind’s eternal relationship with God.

Try to imagine the relief, confusion, awe, and likely fear that settled over not just that beach breakfast but over all who witnessed the newly risen King. It was already a heavenly story to be told, and now became a heavenly mission for humanity. This was a renewal for all the world, and with faith in Christ something entirely new under the sun.

God was now personal. His love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness by the Spirit was visited upon the human heart through the door Jesus unlocked. Jesus elevated our hope not only from momentary to permanent, but from permanent to eternal.

Jesus would be – and is – with us always in realms we can’t define but that deliver the exciting promise that death is overturned and life is renewed forever.

I doubt the disciples grasped this Godly purpose on the beach, or understood what lay ahead. But they would have known their work was far from finished.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is on spring break and likes the beach analogy.

Friends: Christian faith is about relationship with God the Father Almighty through faith in His Son Jesus. That wasn’t immediately evident to the disciples. Have a prayerful Holy Week; Easter is next Sunday. Blessings ...

(PS: From our auto racing days, Janine Vogrin Doyle (The Bean on our IMS pit note crew; her dad Jim ran the STP Indy Car program) has survived cancer and needs help. Her GoFundMe page is https://gofund.me/e7ca07427.)

Spirituality Column #1011

March 31, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Friends, Partners, and Heirs

By Bob Walters

“Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.” – Jesus, John 15:7

“The Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” – Jesus, John 15:16

“This is my command: Love each other.” – Jesus, John 15:17

These familiar verses from “The Vine” passage in the Gospel of John track the final teachings of Jesus to the Disciples after the Last Supper and before His crucifixion.

On what we now traditionally call “Maundy Thursday,” Jesus and the 11 remaining disciples – traitorous Judas has already left to inform the Pharisees of Jesus’s whereabouts – depart their Passover meal out a back door and walk through dark Jerusalem toward the Garden of Gethsemane.

John chapters 15, 16, and 17, a story recorded only in the fourth Gospel, chronicle Jesus’s encouragement, warnings, and instructions to the confused and soon to be bewildered disciples who believe Jesus to be the Son of God, but have yet to comprehend the meaning of His impending departure / death / return.

Jesus doesn’t tell them to behave better; he emphasizes his and their identity. Jesus locks in on the generosity and goodness of God: “He will give you whatever you ask” (v7,16). But they don’t understand what they will be asking for.  Jesus tells them they are no longer slaves, but his friends (v14), because He has “made the Father known to them” (v15). Jesus insists going forward they must work together because they will need each other and be partners to complete the task assigned to them.

The task? Preach Jesus’s message of grace and salvation to the world. Be His partners – and each other’s – in telling the greatest story ever told of how the Son of God came into humanity to heal our sins and restore our loving, eternal relationship with the Father of all things; to tell how Jesus died in loving obedience to His Father but rose in loving glory to seal the truth of His mission and heal the mortal wound of our sin.

Jesus is preaching a New Covenant of faith for all mankind, not of Law for the Jews. Repentance means not just physical obedience, but learning a new way of thinking about life and God; it is a new way of love and redemption.  It is a gift the world will not immediately understand; a gift from a God/man it hates. It is a gift that shows humanity the reality of God, and that gift that says our own lives have purpose as we glorify and are glorified with God. That is what Jesus did; that is the gift God sent.

We are not detached bystanders in our Christian lives today. “If you obey my commands you will remain in my love … as I have obeyed and remain in the Father’s love” (vv9-10). I believe that we, like the disciples, are chosen participants, though I have no idea why this one is chosen and “gets it,” and this one isn’t, and doesn’t. 

All we can do is preach truth, share love, obey in faith, and trust God’s plan. I often think how opaque were Jesus’s claims and instructions as he spoke to Jews, Pharisees, and gentiles. It seems the only beings who understood exactly who Jesus was and the power He had were the demons who feared Him, not the humans whom He loved and came to save. Many humans still do not understand our part in the story.

We want God and Jesus to do stuff for us; doesn’t Jesus say, twice in this passage, “Ask and it will be given to you”? What we are to ask, as friends, partners, and heirs of the magnificent ministry of Christ, is how to best preach, share, and witness this precious word of life. It is for God’s eternal glory, and for joy in our worldly life.

On Easter we celebrate our own salvation, sure. But our joy is being on the team.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes, “Gethsemane” means “a place that crushes olives.” Jesus, the Messiah anointed one, with olive oil, was crushed for our sins.

Friends: Where in the Gospels does Jesus say, “I am God”? If you know how to read scripture, Jesus says it all over the place. Blessings! Bob

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Spirituality Column #1010

March 24, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

When the Light Shines

By Bob Walters

“I did tell you, but you do not believe.” – Jesus,

People who want to argue with the Bible but know very little about the Bible love to point out that, with approximate and dismissive faux-authoritative commitment, that, “Jesus never says he is God.”

I guess that is a way, or at least an attempt, to de-tune a Christian’s faith and buttress one’s own rejection of the Bible’s authority, but it is a silly point. Jesus clearly identifies himself, in various ways, as God’s son throughout the Gospels in both word and deed. But, it is true, Jesus was not wearing an “I Am God the Messiah Christ” nametag.

My longtime Bible mentor George Bebawi often made the good yet simple point that Jesus didn’t come to broadcast his own glory, but God’s. And that Jesus didn’t come to display his power, but “being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death” (Philippians 2:8). The initiating economy of our salvation is faith in the identity of Christ, not billboards and sales pitches.

In our own hearts, with the collaboration of the Holy Spirit, we must arrive at the personal decision that the New Testament’s evidence provides the truth we need to accept God’s offer, through Jesus, of restored and eternal relationship with God.

Jesus wasn’t expected, his mission was hidden, his offer fantastical, and his identity was key to all who might believe in him.  Old Testament prophesies predicted his arrival and mission, but they were veiled from the hearts and minds of most Jewish leaders. They saw God through the lens of obedience to the Law, not obedience to the faithful presence of Christ. They were entirely in the dark as to the proposition of Jesus.

The Pharisees in Jerusalem ask Jesus, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly” (John 10:24, the verse prior to the one cited above).

Obligingly but cryptically, Jesus talks of his voice and his sheep and his promise of imperishable eternal life, and says, “I and the father are one” (v30). And then, “the father is in me, and I am in the father” v38).

That seems pretty plain, but the lights do not come on.  They will only “get it” when they believe, and they don’t believe. They picked up stones to stone him.

This story is the precursor to The Death of Lazarus in John 11, where Jesus tarries four days then dangerously plans to return to Judea to “awaken” the dead Lazarus despite threats to his own life. Jesus rebuts the warnings of his disciples by noting, in John 11:9-10, “a man who walks by day will not stumble … when he walks by night he stumbles, for he has no light.”

On the one hand, this verse is Jesus saying man has twelve hours of daylight to accomplish his tasks. He has time to fulfill God’s work, but no time to waste. It also harkens to the “I Am” statement of Jesus – one of seven in the Gospel – in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world.  Anyone who follows me will not walk in darkness.”  

A Jew hearing the words “I Am,” should know it references the name God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14-15, “I Am Who I Am.” There were those who believed, but even their faith was tested when Jesus was soon arrested and crucified.

Jesus knew his identity would have to be shown, not debated. The Pharisees were enraged when word of the very dead Lazarus, at Jesus’s beckoning, departed the tomb very much alive. It set in motion the Pharisees’ plot to have Jesus killed, which led to the cross, which led to the empty tomb, which led to light available to all mankind.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) figures Lazarus was revived two weeks before Easter.

Friends: Afraid of God? That’s a good thing. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1009

March 17, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Tremble Boldly

By Bob Walters

“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Proverbs 1:7

“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 9:10

“Fear of the Lord is the fountain of life.” Proverbs 14:27

“The Lord is my light and salvation – whom shall I fear?” Psalms 27:1

“Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, [who delights] in his commands.” Psalms 112:1

I’m having trouble remembering exactly when “Jesus is my homeboy” was a thing – 1990s maybe? – but I seem to remember it had something to do with pop singer Madonna and nothing to do with biblical Christian doctrine.

Yes, Jesus is my friend, but He is eternal Lord and King; I am here to follow him, not boss him around. I am his friend if I do what He commands (John 15:14). Obedient Abraham was God’s friend (James 2:23).  Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes God’s enemy (James 4:4). That’s what “homeboy” says to me.

One doesn’t have to dive too deeply into scripture to understand that fearing God as a friend – bringing knowledge, wisdom, life, light, and blessing to us – is radically different from fearing God as an enemy and deserving His wrath (Eph 2:3). “Jesus is my homeboy” expresses non-understanding and, I’d say, non-belief in a sovereign God. It proclaims, “I am sufficient.” Oy. If I think I am God, I am too dumb to fear the real God.

Once we settle in our faithful minds that “fear of the Lord” is our path to peace in His glory and truth, our proceeding reverence expresses love and awe. The modern, wide, progressive, therapeutic swath of Christian doctrine that wishes either to control our actions with guilt, or to remove our accountability of faithful obedience, serves to remove reverence and promote vanity. The Bible is reinterpreted for our convenience.

And so, our American culture steadily creeps away from our nation’s founding Christian principles: love for God and others, personal moral and ethical accountability, sin, a Creator, divine judgment, objective good, real evil, and eternal truth.  The Bible’s lessons and truth, still very real, become discounted, murky remnants of “old ways.”

What about those who should truly fear the Lord but don’t, whose lives would be lifted up by the confidence a faithful, Godly life instills. Instead, their souls lie fallow. They feel life in the present but are shackled to it, not soaring in the unfettered joy of knowing God and participating in His glory. Ours is a fear that is inspiring, not dreadful.

The secular world conditions us to see worldly reward and punishment, not divine grace and the heavenly world beyond. The world fears earthly punishment and relishes material reward.  We as believers can stumble in those secular moments, at least I do, yet 365 times the Bible urges us to “fear not” (e.g. Isaiah 41:10), and our joy rekindles.

In the arms of Jesus, we needn’t fear God’s punishment. His sacrifice “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10) may not relieve our personal guilt and shame for our sins, but what the world calls “fear” the Christian learns to call trust, hope, love, and confidence.

Tremble at the mighty power of God, then boldly rise before the world.

Blessed is our humility, and great is His faithfulness.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) was inspired by THIS ARTICLE from Touchstone.

Friends: I love Jesus and I love America, and am beyond thankful for both.  But being called a “Christian Nationalist”? That is not meant as a compliment. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1008

March 10, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

National Interest

By Bob Walters

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. …” – Psalms 33:12

There exists a contemporary pejorative sobriquet that is a dog-whistle attack on American patriots who also happen to believe in the proper Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In our Left vs. Right political climate, with even the Gospel-believing Right muscularly subdivided between those who revere Donald Trump and those who revile Donald Trump, “Christian Nationalist” communicates a disdain for any who would dare claim salvation in Christ but not assert and fear imminent destruction by Donald Trump.

America has never been nor would long survive as a theocracy, which is when a religious faith actually is the government.  That is what Islam and the Koran comprise, an inseparable package deal of faith being the government. The Mullahs are in charge.

While the chosen Israelites were a theocracy of Laws, the New Covenant in Christ holds a valuable separation of church and state enumerated by Jesus himself some 1,770 years before Thomas Jefferson’s famous comments on the matter.

In John 18, Pontius Pilate asks Jesus if he is a king. Jesus affirmingly replies, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Adding, “I was born, and came into this world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:36-37).

In the high school government class I teach, we spend a couple days early studying Romans 13:1-7, where Paul delineates faith apart from government, but saying governments are ordained from God based on what the people deserve. In 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Paul instructs Christians to pray for their governing leaders and for themselves to be “salt and light” as moral examples in their nations.  It is worth noting that in the Old Testament 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites reject God as their king, insisting on a human king.

Rusty Reno, editor of First Things journal I constantly read and frequently cite, this week wrote, The Case for Christian Nationalism. Reno is no particular fan of Trump, but makes the point that if one is going to be a nationalist, Christian Nationalism is the best.

Why has “Christian Nationalism” entered our lexicon? I think because it is a handy “scare” epithet meant to harken back to the evil World War II Axis nationalisms of Fascism in Italy and the Nazis in Germany. A “fasce” is a bundle of wooden rods, a traditional Roman decoration, which became the symbol of Mussolini’s 1930s leftist “Fascist” party. “Leftist,” like “progressive,” refer to government control superseding individual freedom. Faith in Jesus undermines that control; leftists cannot abide it.

The Nazis – Hitler’s “National Socialist” party, was also leftist but added in a racist component, Aryan Supremacy, heavily laced with pagan mysticism.  Atheist socialism, and its more draconian progression, communism, further eliminate personal freedom by calling for government or “collective” ownership of all property and industry.

Christian Nationalism is nothing like any of those, but the phrase has a linguistic Nazi echo of “National Socialist,” useful to those who like neither Christians nor Trump.

I’ll close by noting that there is a convenient alliance of thieves that explains how a Muslim communist like New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani can even exist.

Islam, as with any form of progressive leftism or collectivism, cannot exist beneath the authority of Jesus Christ. Communism refuses all religion, and Islam is a religion strictly governing itself.  Neither will share moral or cultural authority with Christ, but they will work together in common cause until their interests diverge. When is that?

They will get along as long it takes them to get rid of Jesus. And that’s the truth.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is a Christian and an American patriot who  understands our nation was founded on Christian values, not “religion.”

Friends: When our faith produces loving acts of Godly outpouring, we’re probably working on the right road. See the column below. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1007

March 3, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Pick a Lane

By Bob Walters

“You did not choose me, but I chose you.” – John 15:16, Jesus to the disciples

I wish I could sing.

My dad could sing.  Both my sons can sing (younger son John, an alum of the Carmel High School Ambassadors show choir, can really sing). My wife Pam in college toured Europe with Olivet University’s varsity Orpheus Choir, then for decades sang in our church choir and occasionally today leads traditional worship.

Most in our Sunday lunch “Old Friends” small group are trained vocalists.  It is quite something in a restaurant to hear this group sing “Happy Birthday” in soaring, four-part harmony.  I smile and hum along, enjoying their talents immensely.

Those folks who hear me talk are often surprised I can’t sing.  My God-given, strong speaking voice is clear, resonant, and loud, but not the least bit musically dependable. The joyful noise I make for the Lord during hymns in church is silence, i.e., not ruining beautiful choruses with honking aires. No need to force it.

Thankfully God has gifted me with other joyful, faithful voices I can share, whether writing, teaching, or occasionally offering a communion homily or corporate prayer. Our current Sunday school curriculum is James’s writing on faith and works, and it’s so true that the varied ministries we pursue with love for the Lord yield great dividends in our faith and expression of Christian joy.

I bring all this up because in visiting another church earlier this year the sermon settled in on those who pursue ministries for which they are not really called but nonetheless pursue them as an act – a work – of measuring their faith walk. I.e., for better or worse, don’t just stand there, do something! And that got me to thinking.

Not so much about singing, but about trying to measure faith as a quantity totaled by our ministry and service activities. It didn’t add up, salvation as the sum of an equation rather than trusting the profound eternal grace of God’s gift to us in Jesus. Salvation is by faith, and obedience is by love. Service and ministry are the “hands and feet” of the Holy Spirit directing us in our walk with Jesus. You just do it, not keep score.

Measurement of activity is the first killer of love, but absence of activity – including prayer – is the first sign of faith that is lacking. What a Christian needs to discern, prayerfully with the Spirit, is an expression of faith that feeds on love. To pick a lane, and be glad in it, and to not envy other lanes, i.e., other lanes not taken.

In the Bible verse above, John 15:16, Jesus is leading the disciples from the Last Supper through Jerusalem and out to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus doesn’t say much about their behavior or their ministries, but locks in on them understanding who He is, who His Father is, on how they will need each other, how their faith will feed each other, and to trust the Spirit to be with them, no matter what.

Jesus says they are not servants, but His friends.  By affirming that He, Jesus, chose them, they understand their calling is above their own desires. They are not there to merely serve, but to add to what Jesus is already there to do: reconnecting fallen mankind with their Father God in Heaven by retelling to all, all that Jesus has done.

The new lane they each had to pick was the new covenant of faith in Jesus, departing the pathway of the Law. When I think of my own decision to follow Jesus, I realize it wasn’t so much a decision as that I had been hugged by God’s love and brought into a new life; reality had shifted. There was a new song in my heart.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) can sing loudly, but then, a foghorn is loud.

Friends: The great treasure of this life is faith in Jesus Christ … and it isn’t complicated.  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1006

February 24, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Simple Faith

By Bob Walters

“Can it really be that simple?” – Character Ben Gates in the movie, National Treasure

If you know the 2004 movie National Treasure, you know that the lock to the world’s greatest fictitious treasure chamber – located under a Wall Street church in New York City – is unlocked by inserting an ornate tobacco pipe and rotating it with the stem.

Everything about finding the pipe and then locating the lock opening the chamber is the adventure of the movie.  But for all the riddles and complexity, in the end, accessing the uncountable treasure is as simple as insert, turn, and push a button.

Our searching human hearts, minds, and souls are unbound by such manmade mechanics, but discovering the faith we have in Jesus Christ and the treasure it leads to in God’s Kingdom is the glorious light of God’s unfathomable riches and His gift to us.

It is our faith – given by God, accepted by us – that is the proof of God’s treasure and our assurance not merely of life everlasting, but life everlasting with God as part of His treasure. We make our faith overly complicated wondering if God loves us or is mad at us, what he wants us to do or not do, and what He is going to do with us later.

My experience has been that as I journeyed on the path, it wasn’t my life that got easier, it was my faith that became stronger, simpler, less confusing, and more free.

You have no doubt noticed, as I have, that much of our modern culture depends on fear to gain and hold our attention, control our hopes, limit our freedom, and shape a world without personal assurance in and love of Jesus Christ. That’s the part of the path that gets easier: the part that focuses more and more on Christ and less and less on the fears attendant to this world. This is our freedom in the heavenly realms.

Yes, “Fear the Lord.” Respect Him, know His sense of humor has limits, and be infinitely convinced that His righteousness is absolute and unchanging.  That does sound scary and epitomizes a fearsome imprecation. That is the trustworthy God.

But also, Jesus says, “Fear not.”  Simple faith in Christ – which oddly is a mysterious mix of both mature faith and childlike faith – is the most uncomplicated key to unlock the door of the kingdom into which we are invited.  Ask all the questions you like.  Talk to God and express doubts, ask for wisdom, pray for strength, beg His truth, know His peace.  This too is the trustworthy God, freeing us from fear, with love.

I never worry about God being mad at me because – with my faith in Jesus – I know God doesn’t see me; God sees His Obedient Son Jesus on the Cross. That doesn’t give me license to sin; that gives me purpose for living in the joy, hope, freedom, and love His sacrifice provides. My sin is covered by His blood of the Cross.

We are studying James in our Logos Sunday school class, which I’m teaching this month while regular teacher Dave Schlueter is thawing out in southern Florida. Our section this week is James 2:14-26, Faith and Deeds, which folks often incorrectly view as one or the other, not both as the same. The Holy Spirit lights and guides both paths.

Those quick to theologically debate needn’t think this is a “salvation” issue; it is a “quality of this life” issue.  When we have faith in Christ, His light and Spirit will not stay inside us. The fun of a life in Christ is our deeds – our works – that aren’t performed to impress the world but to inspire our joy and usefulness and purpose of our faith.

God doesn’t need us to impress Him with works. He already knows we’ll be happier if we teach about Him by sharing Jesus and loving others. It’s as simple as that. 

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows of no treasure greater than faith in Christ.

Friends: It is a mix of joy, faith, and gratitude, not self-inflicted misery, that defines a Christian life. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1005

February 17, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sack Cloth and Ashes

By Bob Walters

“It will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” – Jesus, leveling a condemnation at Capernaum, Matthew 11:24

You know the story well. John the Baptist is in prison, not exactly condemned but knowing Herod wants him dead for criticizing Herod’s marriage to Herodius.

Contemplating his own imminent fate, John sends his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3). This question leads Jesus – who isn’t yet ready to say, “Yes, it’s me” – to recount His own miracles, and identify several of those who have seen miracles but not believed.

This included the town of Capernaum on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus performed much of his ministry. As a shortcut, I asked A.I., “Why was Jesus mad at Capernaum?” A.I.’s answer: “...because of [Capernaum’s] unrepentant hearts, their stubborn unbelief, and indifference despite being the primary location of his ministry and witnessing the most ‘mighty works.’ Despite being treated as ‘his own city,’ the town failed to believe or repent.” Sodom, you see, didn’t know Jesus; Capernaum did.

It is worth reading the rest of Matthew 11:1-24 as Jesus speaks to the gathered crowd, noting the unmistakable and famous condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18, 19) and that it will be worse for Capernaum. (John’s ultimate fate, his beheading, took place at the hilltop palace of Herod Antipas at Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea in Jordan, approximately A.D. 30, is recorded in Matthew 14:1-12 and Mark 6:14-29.)

What Capernaum was facing, and what every Christian knows, is that once the presence and truth of Jesus have been revealed to a person – and His presence and truth are rejected – woe to the unbeliever and the unrepentant. None of us is exactly sure how God’s grace and mercy work for those who have never heard the word of God or encountered Jesus. But Jesus had lived, preached, and performed miracles there, and to paraphrase many Bible verses, the people of Capernaum “believed Him not.”

Our greatest personal gift is to know Jesus, believe He is the Christ, accept His grace and love, and live in repentance – renewed thinking – knowing our own sin but also trusting God’s forgiveness. “Sack cloth and ashes” is the Bible’s way of signaling our own sorrow and humility, and our discipline of repentance. It indicates our low moments.

Yet I am sure Jesus does not want us to live that way: Our joy is our strength.

We examine the life of Jesus, the very few of his years we know about, and despite His looming fate Jesus lived what I perceive to be – what I hope was – a life of joy. It seems that from the young age of 12 Jesus knew who He was. And at the start of His ministry in his late 20s, we see signals that He knew the tasks, obedience, and crucifixion ahead.

Incarnate Jesus is God become man.  What God made “very good” in His own image – humanity – Jesus is God’s perfect image and visitation into that now fallen and imperfect creation. There was a scene in Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ movie (2004) of Jesus as a young carpenter laughing with his mother Mary. While that is a movie I never want to see again, the imagined image of Jesus knowing moments of joy, despite being a “man of sorrows,” gives me comfort, even if it is a made-up vignette of cinematography.

This week, on Ash Wednesday, some Christian denominations begin the observance of Lent, 40 days of fasting and prayer ending on Resurrection Sunday, Easter. The celebration typically involves “giving up” – sacrificing – some favored thing, but must properly be met with renewed focus and prayer on the gifts we have received.

Despite the “sack cloth and ashes,” we honor Jesus by being joyous for His gift.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) continually states his belief that repentance reaches far beyond behaviors and into spiritual and intellectual transformation: Think like a Christian.

Friends: Want to find meaning in this world? Better look to the life beyond. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1004

February 4, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Looking Beyond

By Bob Walters

“God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked.” – Ecclesiastes 3:17

Now there’s a cheerful thought: we will all get what’s coming to us.

As Christians, we know the righteousness of Jesus covers what we accept to be our fallen wickedness. If any person is interested in heaven, or in a loving God, restored eternal relationship with that God, or is seeking divine purpose and ultimate meaning in this present realm, then faith in Jesus is the only way, truth, and life to attain them.

Our job at hand isn’t to defeat our wickedness; we can’t, although it doesn’t hurt to try. Our goal, our faith, is to accept the love and truth of God. Then, to love others.

On the other hand, if a person in this life has no interest or belief in those divine things, or perhaps is openly contemptuous of, hostile to, or cynical about them, it makes no logical sense in this life to worry about spending eternity with someone, i.e. Jesus, in someplace, i.e., heaven, they already reject. Are you going to like Jesus better later?

We all, as Christians, pray for those folks.  We call them the lost.

This is the lesson in Luke 16:19-31 of poor, sick Lazarus in heaven and the rich man viewing him from hell. The rich man awoke too late to the truth of his sin, and once he departed this life, there was nothing he could do to save his sons from the same fate.

Every time I settle into my gratitude for the sacrifice of Jesus and his gift of freedom from sin’s eternal consequence, I am unsettled knowing many are still shackled to their sin.  It is not only their forever fate I grieve but their absence of light in this life, seeing the things of God as meaningless, and the things of this world as supreme.

I don’t want people first to fear judgment; I want them first to feel God’s love.

It is a tough nut to crack.  Ecclesiastes famously declares all things of this life as “meaningless.” Yet, why would a loving, creative, rational, and relational God create a world and its inhabitants for no discoverable purpose? It wouldn’t be logical or rational.

Then look again at Ecclesiastes 3:17, about God’s judgment of our righteousness and wickedness. None of us likes judgment, we all think our opinions are righteous, and many folks seriously wonder if their wickedness (if wickedness is real) truly matters.

We know Christians who are awful, and we know “lost” folks we would trust with our lives. So how do we put this together: that this life means something glorious, God’s love is as immutable as it is righteous, and faith in Jesus is the only key that unlocks heaven’s door? And, why would we want that? Don’t we just want to be happy now?

As widely as I do not understand either end of the Bible – creation or restoration – what I have learned is that God does only what is just and true and righteous. That I do not understand all of it is of no consequence. What is of consequence is whether I trust Jesus’s promise and believe God’s love. The Seeker in Ecclesiastes is looking for meaning on this earth. He learns the only way to find it is to look beyond, to God.

My mentor George Bebawi often made the very helpful point not to look at judgment and mercy as opposites; they work together. The greatest secular problem of this age, culturally, politically, and philosophically, is that we are quick to levy judgments on others without considering the joy and righteousness – and peace – of mercy.

God’s judgment on us all is guaranteed, and God’s righteousness is eternal. His mercy toward humanity is the component of judgment that Jesus delivered on the cross.

Mercy doesn’t erase wickedness; only Jesus could do that. Our lives in this realm are blessed, though, when we look with mercy and faith beyond the ugliness of sin.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows that God put a longing in our hearts…for God.

Friends: In Jesus we are free to do what is right, not to do whatever we want. See the column.  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1003

February 3, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Free, But Responsible

By Bob Walters

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free … The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Paul, Galatians 5:1,6

Having myself grown up in the “do your own thing” 1960s and then maturing in the “Me Decade” of the 1970s, I look back with dumbfounded gratitude that it was responsibility that my father pounded into me from an early age.

I’m neither perfect nor bragging, though I had a friend in college who leveled a criticism at me saying, “You don’t have to be responsible all the time.” But long before I had true Christian faith or freedom, I had, thanks to Dad, an on-board, secular sense of responsibility along with, sparing specifics, no shortage of examples of irresponsibility. 

The second of four kids born 1952-1959, I shared standard kid household chores like setting the table, clearing the table, washing the dishes, drying the dishes, taking out the trash, burning the papers (in our backyard we had a metal incinerator that looked like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz; trash went in a trash can; paper refuse was burned in the incinerator located between the garage and our basketball goal).

Any lack of attention to these or other chores was met with a sternly worded speech from Dad on being responsible. And it was many years later that I grew to fully appreciate the importance of what Dad was telling me.  It means far more to me today in a Christian sense and a civic sense than it ever did about pulling my weight at home.

In Galatians, and really in much of Paul’s writing and the New Testament overall, our freedom authored by Jesus was a function of “faith expressed through love” (Gal. 5:6), not about chores but about salvation. We think mainly of salvation from sin, but Paul was teaching salvation generally from death and specifically from the law.

Galatians overall is Paul’s book coaching believers in Jesus to understand that the game in Christ was now departed from the “yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1) presented by the Old Testament Law. My Bible mentor George Bebawi, who by the way, in Egypt, grew up Jewish and converted to Christ in his late teens, constantly made the point that Galatians was “a stick of dynamite” leveled against the Jews who refused to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. “Think like a Christian, not like a Jew,” was his common refrain.

This, at its most basic, is the meaning of “repent” (metanoia): Think anew.

Sadly, too many people through the ages – and our age is no different – see this difference of worldview, across all religions, as fighting words meant to wipe out opponents. With our freedom in Christ, we are urged to love God, our neighbor, and our enemy.  We are to be free of the enmity and condemnation the world so exemplifies.

And I’ll add, sadly even in our Christian family through the ages, history shows us that the name of Jesus and the idea of Christ have often created as much intramural havoc and hatred as any beliefs from the outside. In the centuries up through, say, the 1600s, Christian-on-Christian violence was a regular occurrence.  We see little of that today, but the mindsets of various Christian churches teach vastly different attitudes when it comes to the spirit of the age and the liberality of just what we are free to do.

As I teach high school students about history and government from the worldview of Christ and the authority of scripture, my dominant, accompanying point is that the most important, operative aspect of freedom is responsibility, Christian responsibility, of love for God and others. Jesus came to save, not condemn (John 3:17, Romans 8:1).

It is not about doing what we want to do; it is wanting to do what is right.

Walters’ (rlwcom@aol.com) father John passed away in September, 1991.

Friends: It is a blessing to share our joy with others, and for others to share their joy with us. Have a great week. Bob

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Spirituality Column #1002

January 27, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sharing the Joy

By Bob Walters

“… I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” – Paul, Philippians 4:11

Though it was never part of my plan, especially not my retirement plan, I somehow blessedly wound up now in my later years teaching high school history and civics at Mission Christian Academy in Fishers, Indiana.

I mention it often; MCA is a private K-12 school of 500 students this year heading north of 600 students next term in just its seventh year of existence.  It was born out of the Covid shutdown and opened in the fall of 2020 with 38 students. In its second year, with 150-ish students, my wife Pam became the high school English teacher. Two years later I came aboard teaching high school history, government, and economics.

We start the econ term in January discussing Christian perspectives of unlimited human wants discerning and deriving contentment amid choices of limited resources.

I.e., we want it all, but there’s only so much to get. Supply, demand, pricing, value, propensities, basic business structures, an overview of financial markets, and a mix of personal finance exercises (credit cards, insurance, banks, taxes, etc.) come later. I happily defer in-depth discussion of monetary policy and the Federal Reserve Bank for their college professors; there’s a reason econ is called “The Dismal Science.”

MCA’s is not a watery Sunday school treatment of a serious topic, but our econ text book integrates biblical principles and scripture.  We spend a couple of early econ classes deeply discussing the nuances of joy vs. happiness vs. contentment. I wrote a column about that two years ago (Link: #898 Happy for Now), but a story popped up this week having to do with IU’s football championship that showed me I missed something.

Heisman Trophy winning Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, a member of the St. Paul Catholic parish on the IU campus, the day before Christmas phoned Father Patrick Hyde and asked if he could “stop by with the trophy.” Hyde’s story about that appeared in a First Things post January 19, (Link: The Joy of Being a Hoosiers Fan).

It’s a fun story to read, and Hyde had this brilliant line: “Joy, from a Christian perspective, is a gift to be shared.” I had missed that in our econ discussions.  We can be content in our circumstances and happy with a situation, but joy is special because it is something of God that we can truly share. Be happy, yes.  Be content, yes.

But share your joy. In all circumstances share this Godly gift, and be content.

As an aside, the “page ribbon” in my Bible stays tucked in Philippians 4. Mainly that is because back in early 2003 when my mother Ruth, then living seven hours north in Alpena, Michigan, was in the final months of her life – and we knew it – I began one of my regular drives from Carmel up I-69 by calling friend and minister Russ Blowers.

I was in borderline tears; Russ knew my situation and suggested we pray his wife Marian’s favorite Bible passage, Philippians 4:4-9. I listened as he quoted, “Rejoice in the Lord always” through “whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, or praiseworthy” to “think about such things” … “And the God of peace will be with you.”

Mom died that March. Marian, in memory care, died 18 months later. Because of Mom, and Russ’s tender prayer and his unwavering love for Marian until the end, I leave my Bible’s page ribbon in that spot as a fond reminder. Also, it is a quick “jumping in” point when finding the shorter books Paul wrote. Everything from Galatians to Philemon is within a few page flips, and that wonderful prayer is always right there waiting for me.

Sorry to wander a bit, but be joyful in the Lord, and content in His love. Always.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is happy, and wrote about joining MCA HERE.