Spirituality Column No. 539
March 14, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

By Bob Walters

Spirituality Column No. 528
December 27, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

By Bob Walters


The angels of God deal only in divine truth while the minions of Satan deal only in unholy falsehoods.

Be sure that those awestruck, reverent, simple shepherds on that hill near Bethlehem two thousand years ago knew the truth when they heard it just as surely as, ever since, so many people haven’t, don’t and won’t.

Recognize the truth, I mean.  The good tidings. The Good News.

God’s truth is simple and direct and has but one purpose: to glorify God.  Satan’s lies are complex and clandestine, also possessing but one goal: stealing God’s glory.  Across the great spectrum between these extremes and absolutes lay the temptations, aspirations, frustrations, hopes, fears, wiles, faith, deceits, desperation, pride, sins and love of mankind.  It is so very, very difficult to peel back all those layers of our own humanity and find the core truth; the real, true good news of all existence, which is this:

Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord; the incarnate deity sent into the human world by a loving God to restore humanity’s lost divine image and heavenly relationship in the Kingdom of the Creator God Almighty, for His glory, forever. Amen.

God’s good news comes with a one-question final exam: “Do you believe?”

It is not a question asking for an opinion, because in the face of the supreme truth our opinions are just like our lives: fallen, lost, hopeless and as the poet put it, “nasty, brutish and short.”  It is not our opinion or works or even our faith that saves us; it is the truth of Jesus that saves us.  After all, we can have faith in the wrong things and our opinions generally reveal our pride and cosmic smallness.  We see an exception to this in Luke 2:15, when the shepherds in faith venture the opinion that they should go to Bethlehem and “see this thing which has come to pass.”

The shepherds trusted the truth without knowing what “this thing” actually was.

As we shake the snowflakes off of this year’s Christmas celebration, it rings loudly in my ears how much I heard publicly about “faith” and “belief” with no mention of Jesus.  Due to recent celebrity conversation, whether or not we have “hope” – again, no Jesus – is media fodder.  And the over-riding media theme of the moment is “fake news” amid the dearth of coverage of the Christmas story’s real and truly Good News.

That’s not to categorically condemn modern day secular journalists, politicians, academicians and other culture warriors intent on manufacturing and distributing “truth” – opinions bent to their own un-angelic social, economic and educational agendas. They are sinners like the rest of us whom Jesus came to save like the rest of us.

Satan always puts human opinion squarely in the way of God’s Good News.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) read a Christmas Eve day newspaper editorial about “the magic of Christmas” that, in 800 words, never once mentioned Jesus.  Sigh.

Spirituality Column #446
June 2, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

“The gospel was not good advice but good news.” – William R. Inge

An  archive article from my favorite publication “First Things”  explains that a preacher’s primary task is not to tell us the rules how we should behave, which at heart most of us already know, but the good news of who we actually are – children of God – which many folks can’t believe.

The difference to the hearer is whether one leaves church feeling berated and hopeless because of one’s sins, or feels empowered and hopeful because the God who created humanity in His image loves us and provides a way “home” – back into His glorious kingdom – through the work of and our faith in His son Jesus Christ.

It’s the difference in the imperative mood casting condemnation – “Do this or else!” – and the indicative mood casting information – the grace of divine light, eternal salvation, absolute truth and identity in Christ.

The first tears down, the other builds up.  The one sends us home “on flat tires,” the other buoys our spirits to soar on eagles’ wings.  One creates fear and attention to self – “Am I following the rules?”  The other creates freedom, liberty, courage, and love of self, others and God – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Inge’s colleague V.A. Demant, in his book Christian Polity, writes:

“Tell people only what they must do, and you will numb them into despair, you will turn the gospel into a shabby replica of the world’s irreligious and nagging moralism, with its oceanfuls of good advice.

“But tell them what they are, of their dignity as made in the image of God, and that their sins are wicked perversions of their nature … tell them that the world with all its horrors is still God’s world, though its true order is upside down; tell them that they can do all things through Christ, because of him all the powers of their nature are directed to fruition … and you will help to revive hope in this dispirited generation.”

The article’s author John Jay Hughes, a Catholic priest from St. Louis, notes: “It is a paradox … that preaching morality will never motivate people to be good.  It will discourage them.  It will inevitably bore them.  It may even drive them into a state of despair [that] if they are not good God will not love and bless them.

“Proclamation of the Gospel – what God has done, is doing and will continue to do … will motivate people to love God and neighbor like nothing else.’

Amen.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) accepted the Lord not because Walters himself (admittedly) is so bad but because Jesus Christ is so good.

Spirituality Column #441
April 28, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

“The good news makes no sense if you don’t know the bad news.” – Sunday school adage.

Our church is spending several weeks focusing on, discussing and teaching about Christian “Doubt.”

Granted, any church worthy of its pulpit is addressing Doubt all the time.  People frequently experience a life – in the words of secular Enlightenment philosopher Thomas Hobbes – that is “nasty, brutish and short.”  Doubting the existence of eternal good seems natural.

The Kingdom of God, with its salvation in Jesus Christ and indwelling of the Holy Spirit – in faith – is a very different and vastly superior place; startlingly and unbelievably different from a typical fallen person’s typical fallen day on this fallen earth.

Faith may be better, but doubt is easier.

Doubt requires little effort, no discipline, owes nothing to authority and maintains the boundaries of this life and nothing more.  Only when one wants to step up into the free air of eternal hope, love, joy, grace and life does doubt become a problem.

Thing is, we know the “free air” is there.  It is faith; the divine yearning God put into every human heart.  Because the “free air” of our redeemer Jesus Christ is not where Satan, the Lord of this World, wants us to be, Satan is quick with his challenge:

“It is too good to be true.”  And … we doubt.

The truth of our earthly existence is that we were created in God’s perfect image, but with freedom in our souls so that we might learn to love God: it’s what God wants for us, and what God wants for Himself.  Freedom allows the possibility of love but has a brutal downside: it also allows Satan’s temptation.

So, we have this great news of the Gospel – the redeeming truth that God had a plan all along to save fallen, broken humanity from its sinful wallowings with the grace, mercy, love and sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.  Our sins are forgiven and we’re adopted back into the Kingdom of God. Whew!

But then there is this bad news; the awful truth – Jesus on the Cross is what we look like to God without being covered in the redeeming blood of Jesus; a picture of our sin, shame, guilt, fear, death, Hell … all the bad stuff the mind can conger or the body can experience.

It is awful to face the truth of what we are without Jesus Christ, but it explains the enormity of the good news of who we are with Jesus Christ.

Some people ignore it, others water it down.  But the truth is truth.

Better not doubt that.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a one-time reporter, didn’t know the good news or the bad news most of his life.

Spirituality Column #335
April 16, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters

Exactly how any one of us might come to faith in Christ is, to me, one of the great mysteries in life.

All of us as believers have family, friends, associates – shoot, everybody we encounter – with whom we want to share this great gift.  And that’s what the Bible tells us to do – make “disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-22) even to “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  “How” we should do it boils down to replicating, as best we can, the unselfish and sacrificial love of Jesus.  Jesus gives us “why” in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Doesn’t everyone want and need peace?  Sure, but … actions are misinterpreted, words are not understood, and motives are suspect.  We blame ourselves for not “converting” someone.  But remember: Jesus had the exact same problem with the Pharisees and Pontius Pilate.  History shows us that even the holiest words can fall on deaf, hostile ears.

In our personal lives, it is especially hard to see loved ones firmly entrenched in their steadfast knowledge of the world and rebuff the message of Jesus.  We have to be honest with ourselves and ask whether our love is selfish or unselfish because truly, only selfish love can be rebuffed.  Yet we can do what Jesus wants us to do as long as we draw breath if our love is truly unselfish.  We can also take heart that God isn’t keeping score of anything but our love and our faith.  “Souls saved” is squarely the job of the Holy Spirit.

But how does that happen?  There doesn’t appear to be a formula.

In my own case, I can look back, track the steps, see what happened, and it all makes perfect sense … now.  But I didn’t see it coming, would have run from it if I had, wasn’t really looking, and executed no repeatable “system.”

I think that’s what makes evangelism in general – sharing the Good News of Christ – so difficult.  I mean, yes it’s easy to tell a story about how I got here, but impossible to draw a map for someone else’s journey.  Only God can do that, and God starts by giving each of us the freedom to accept or deny Christ’s love.

Maybe that’s why one’s journey to Christ is so special, because God makes the path unique and personal.  I’m convinced it’s a mystery we can’t embrace until we realize that Christ is first embracing us.

Walters’ (rlwcom@aol.com) conversion story appears in his book Common Christianity, Uncommon Commentary in columns 55-59 and 252-253.

Spirituality Column #306
September 25, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters
Author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary











Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) thanks E91 pastor Rick Grover for the inspiration and sermon on Mark.