Friends,

Here is Common Christianity #1024 (6-30-26), “Getting a Kick out of Christ.” I’m loving all these global World Cup soccer fans recently discovering the spirit of America – up close. What a country! See the column below, or at our blog CommonChristianity.blogspot.com, or on social media. God bless America … it’s our 250^th birthday this Saturday.

Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1024

June 30, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Getting a Kick out of Christ

By Bob Walters

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.” – Ezekiel 36:26

I know almost nothing about soccer, and have even less desire to watch it.

However, I have gotten a maximum kick out of this global World Cup futbol fan visitation upon America of late, and hearing/seeing their joyous and surprised reactions to just about everything American.  From Big Gulps to ranch dressing to Buc-ee’s, and from bar-b-que to grocery stores to gun ranges to the Americans themselves.

Americans are friendly. Americans are helpful and honest. We love a good houseguest. Our nation has wide open spaces, big pick-up trucks, and accommodating, endless streets, roads, and highways that go almost everywhere. Our air conditioning cools entire houses and whole passengers in cars. Our stadiums are mind-blowing.

All these folks never knew this stuff, and approached America with trepidation.

Here’s what they learned: to hate America, watch the media and surf the internet. To love America, visit it, drive it, experience it. How fun.  The world is loving us.

What a great gift for the ol’ USA on our 250^th birthday.

The Spirit of America, ostensibly, of course is a profound but still secular vibe of liberty of the human person. Not every visitor, and certainly not even every American, understands the Christian underpinnings of the freedom we enjoy and the patriotic fellowship we share.  Global visitors enjoying their American adventures and expressing their unexpected grasp of the zeitgeist of our uniquely American culture? Just fabulous.

We have all these great things going for this nation and I’m hoping these happy visitors continue to focus on soccer and the general abundance and fun of America. Not everyone understood when, nine years ago, President Trump signed off on hosting the World Cup in the USA – who watches soccer? – but this is the best possible way to celebrate this particular, momentous July 4; we get to share No. 250 with the world.

Contemporary U.S. politics being what they are – an ugly mess of conflicting priorities, a President who is both revered and reviled, and a dangerous cancer of Socialist activism permeating our largest cities – I hope our guests ignore the news.

As a Christian, would I like to see these visitors take a piece of Jesus home with them and let it blossom into a saving faith in their homelands? Oh yeah; I pray for that.

But while religion is a blood sport in many countries and completely ignored in many others, let’s hope all these American freedoms – especially freedom in Christ and our freedom in worship – linger in their memories of America.  It is good soil here.

I mentioned Jesus earlier and here’s why. I see a similarity in what these soccer fans are learning about America and what I learned later in life about faith. Mixed as the metaphor may be, I had a fairly informed idea about Christ but, until I was older, no experience being with Him. These soccer fans (who like many sports fans, worship their game perhaps too much but that’s another topic) have heard about America their whole lives but never experienced being in America … with actual Americans.

When I truly met Christ – not the watered-down, brokered church proxy Jesus of my youth but the thundering, loving, wise, holy, and righteous Son of God who leapt out of the Bible and into my adult heart, mind, and soul – I wanted to share the experience with others. To learn more, love more, live more, and pray more with this new Spirit.

Have fun at the World Cup, everyone. We’re getting a real kick out of it. Take some of the best parts of America home in your hearts. And thanks for helping us see things we too often miss.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) quotes Russ Blowers: “God loves to see His kids play!”

Friends: Jesus pursues us, and it is wisdom to allow Him to catch us. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, and to the sons and daughters they love. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1023

June 23, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Proof of Wisdom

By Bob Walters

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge … Listen, my son, to your father’s teaching …” Proverbs 1:7-8

Almost anyone can pick up a Bible and immediately understand the Book of Proverbs.  It is easily the most accessible, common-sense, non-mystical collection of divine advice, observation, and wisdom scripture has to offer.

Granted, one must possess an ear for biblical language and expression. The hermeneutic, or syntax, of a word like “fear,” washed through ancient translations, doesn’t mean to be afraid and timid.  “Fear of the Lord” means to be solemn and respectful with a full dose of appreciation for whom “the one true God” actually is. He’s not an idol or an idea; He is Lord of all wisdom, truth, reality, and Creation, and we meet Him fully in the person of Jesus.

This is where the secular world starts to wobble. “Common sense” contains an acceptable note of authority, but when knowledge includes “God,” well, now we start asking for proof God exists.  And I think we have, primarily, the ancient Greeks (Socrates, etc.) to thank for that interruption in wisdom’s chain of custody, and more recently, the Enlightenment’s recalibration of man’s position before God.

To be brief, and move quickly on to the next point, the Greeks tested reality with proof: if it cannot be seen or touched, it is not real.  I.e., prove God, or there is no God. And despite Christian influence, the Enlightenment (1600s-1800s), boiled down largely to man defining God rather than God defining man, or ignoring / defying God altogether.

These are humanists and atheists who may see some moral value in the Bible, but not God’s primacy.  God, it must be understood, is seen personally with the eyes and touch of one’s heart and intellect, unlimited by tactile experience or sage syllogism.

So, as we discussed last week, “proof” of God is faith itself: deeply unsatisfying – or perhaps we should say, unreasonably shallow – for the proof-demanding secularist / atheist.  Give me evidence, or give me a different story! Alas, the point is missed.

My life lived is the true proof of my faith, if I choose to accept the gift God offers.

Without revealing names, last week I mentioned a really smart (Mensa), life-long, dear friend who has a deep Christian faith and a loving son who claims atheism. They talk about it weekly. Here is a piece of the response my friend had to the column:

“We have been discussing the book, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, by Al-Ghazali, an 11th century scholar and polymath of the Islamic Golden Age. The book blurb states, ‘… [Ghazali] challenges the assumptions that philosophical reasoning alone can yield certainty in ultimate matters.’”

In other words, philosophers may not know everything. My friend continues:

“I agree. [My son] agrees. Where we differ? Philosophize all you want. Faith is consent by the individual. I consent fully and without reservation. I require no further proof nor do I believe that these ‘ultimate matters’ can be reduced to any proof.  Define God. Go ahead. The words you use and the thoughts you have are at best derivative of our human experience and knowledge. That's reality, but how do you describe the indescribable? God's power and majesty may surpass anything we could ever imagine.”

Adding, “… I have given my consent. I live my life as a challenge to others to give theirs. That's why Sunday is my favorite day of the week with a person I love, [my son].”

Love is the greatest gift of faith, and consent the greatest proof of wisdom.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes Father’s Day this year is also his friend’s birthday, so happy birthday, RG. Btw, Proverbs chapters 1-7, 10, and 13 all begin with phrases about sons. Walters is not one to write or hi-lite in his Bible, and has only one passage underlined, Proverbs 23:15-16.

Friends: The Bible presents a book of loving faith while mankind searches for Godly scientific proof. I’m saying relationship beats evidence. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1022

June 16, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Proof or Faith?

By Bob Walters

“The heavens declare the glory of God…” – Psalms 19:1

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” – Psalms 14:1

Well, which is it?  Let’s go with the “God is real” line of thinking, because that is the only sure avenue of truth. I spent a big chunk of my life not really caring whether God was real or important or optional or a population-wide figment of imagination.

And, I wasn’t really interested, one way or the other, in “proof.” “Proof” is a very human appetite, but it can also be a philosophical trap. Things we can’t prove – love and beauty come to mind – enrich life but cannot be studied or created in a laboratory.

Then, once faith came into my life – meaning, when I came to appreciate the person and reality of Jesus – “proof” took a back seat to relationship. I realized in a big way it was more important to know God, Jesus, the Spirit, the Bible, and the communion of the saints – i.e., the church – than to define it, prove it, or to simply know “about” Christianity. I can’t explain how it happened, but reason achieved a new dimension in faith.

Granted, I’ve learned a lot about Christ, and I love sharing what I know.  But the life I live in Christ isn’t about proving God; it is about knowing reality can be trusted because God is already real.  My faith or lack of faith has – and never has had – any bearing on the heavens declaring the glory of God. Or His existence, or His truth.

God is there, and here, whether we like it – or understand it – or not.

Space aliens are a hot topic these days because of the government’s recent, massive public data dumps on nearly 80 years of UFO and UAP (Unexplained Anomalous Phenomena) lore. But I don’t interpret that as the point of Psalms 19, saying the heavens declare the glory of God because God is a space alien.

The creation, rhythms, and infinity of the heavens declare the glory of God. The fact that infinity goes in both directions – to the largest things and to the smallest things – tells us God is indeed operating in a realm we cannot comprehend. I’m not depending on alien life forms to either prove or disprove God.  Jesus has already done that.

I have a lifelong friend, a Catholic, who spends his Sunday mornings debating / discussing / studying with his atheist son about the merits (on his side) and seeming impossibility (his son’s side) of God’s reality, Christ’s truth, the Spirit’s indwelling, and the Bible and Church’s authority. My friend is a Mensa caliber genius, and his son is a highly placed attorney whom I would never call a fool.  But I pray for them both.

I’ve just finished reading Jeremiah J. Johnston’s book, published this spring, The Jesus Discoveries. In only 180 pages it is a fascinating look at 10 archeological evidences of Jesus’s life on earth, including updated studies on the Shroud of Turin and several proofs of New Testament historical and cultural facts. Johnston’s website, ChristianThinkers.com, is well worth investigating. It has interesting, thoughtful grist for Christian intellectual life.

I’ve attempted reading classics like William Lane Craig’s A Reasonable Response, Josh McDowell’s Evidence that Demands a Verdict, and John Polkinghorne’s Faith in the Living God. All present intellectually deep, masterful apologetics, but I lost interest because they each presented copious evidence for ringings of faith I already possessed.

To me it is ironic, if that is the right word, that the Bible is so clear about the necessity and efficacy of faith when so much of educated humanity demands and accepts only proof. That is a worldly bug, not a feature. It is how Satan convinces us to deny the obvious truth of the heavens, and to doubt the obvious hope and peace of a divine savior.

I am quite used to doubting myself; my comfort is in knowing I needn’t doubt God.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) spends no time trying to prove he loves his wife, nor seeking inviolable evidence she loves him.  Faith in love is its own proof. God is with us.

Friends: Childhood melts away and life’s challenges and opportunities beckon as high school graduates contemplate the places they’ll go. 

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Spirituality Column #1021

June 9, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘Off and Away!’

By Pamela Walters

“Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to great places! You’re off and away!” – Theodor Gesiel, aka Dr. Seuss, from “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”

(We’re turning over the column this week to my wife Pam, taken from her commencement address May 22 to the Mission Christian Academy class of 2026: 29 strong! – Bob)

“In the past four years in my English classes – and for a few of you, five years – we have read pieces by a wide assortment of authors, from Shakespeare to C.S. Lewis, Dickens, Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Mary Shelley.  The names of the greatest writers the world has known have surrounded you each day in class.  But there is one very well-known and well-loved writer whom we did not study: Dr. Seuss.

“So … a bit of Seuss-ism on this auspicious day.

“‘Congratulations!  Today is your day.  You’re off to Great Places!  You’re off and away!  You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.  You’re on your own.  And you know what you know.  And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

“While we can agree with some of what Dr. Seuss wrote, as Christians, we have a different mindset when we look to the future.  True: this is your day.  Many of you have worked hard to achieve this goal.  You have persevered and finished well.  “You all ‘have brains in your head,’ and we hope that educationally you are prepared for whatever path you travel from here.  But more importantly, we pray that you keep your mind on Christ and that His Word is written on your hearts. ‘In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.’ Most of you have made your first big decision: it’s college or technical school, the military or the work force. While you can ‘steer yourself in any direction you choose,’ we pray that you are allowing Jesus to guide your steps, that you are seeking His will for your life. 

“‘Oh, the places you’ll go!  You’ll be on your way up!  You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to great heights.  Wherever ‘you fly, you’ll be best of the best.  Wherever you go, you’ll top all the rest.  Except when you don’t.  Because sometimes you won’t.  I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, its true that Bang-ups and Hang-Ups can happen to you.’

“Those of us who have spent so much time with you here and have come to love and care for you wish we could tell you that as long as you stay close to Jesus and attempt in every way to do His will, life will be nothing but joy and happiness and success.  But that isn’t how life goes in this fallen world.  There will be ‘bang ups and hang ups.’ challenges, disappointments, and failures. 

“The Bible tells us there will be trials.  But the big difference between facing trials on your own and facing them with Jesus is that He promised He would always be with you; Jesus will never leave you or forsake you.  You know my story; you know life has not been a cake walk.  But in the disappointments, Jesus was hope. In the darkness, He was light. When I didn’t think I could take any more, He was my strength. Let Jesus be your hope, your light, your strength. ‘For with Him, you can do all things.’

“‘Oh, the places you’ll go!  There is fun to be done!  There are points to be scored.  There are games to be won.  Fame!  You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.  Except when you don’t.  Because, sometimes, you won’t.  I’m afraid that sometimes you’ll play lonely games too.  All alone!  Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.  And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.  There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.  But on you will go though the weather be foul.  On you will go, though your enemies prowl.’

“On you will be able to go as long as you put your trust in Jesus, for with Him, you will never be alone.  You need to remember that you have never been alone.  While this is a time of beginning – that’s why it’s called commencement – please look back at where you’ve been.  You have families who have surrounded you with their love and support.  Here at MCA you have had teachers and staff who have encouraged you and prayed for you and have come to love you.  And we will all still be here for you should you ever need us.

“‘On and on you will hike, and I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.  You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. So be sure where you step; step with care and great tact.”  The world will try to trip you up; Satan loves to cause confusion and fear.  But remember that “our God is not a God of confusion but of peace.”  So ‘let us lay aside every weight and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.’

“Congratulations! Today is the Lord’s day. You’re off to great places. You’re off and away.”  We love you, we’re excited for you, and we will be praying for you. 

“God bless.”

The Faculty and Staff of Mission Christian Academy

Mr. Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that Mrs. Walters’ “Charge to Seniors” (which also appears in MCA’s 2025-26 Yearbook) is an annual graduation send-off, this year to MCA’s fourth graduating class. Mission Christian Academy in Fishers, Indiana, a K-12 private school, begins its seventh school year this August. MCA’s inaugural enrollment was 38 in 2020-21; enrollment this fall exceeds 750.