Dear Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #832 (10-25-22), “Life Verse.” You may or may not have a life verse from the Bible, but regardless, there’s probably one in there for you.  Mine’s a little odd.  See the column below,

Blessings!  Bob

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Labels: communion, Ephesians 1:3, heavenly realms, Life Verse

Spirituality Column #832

October 25, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Life Verse

By Bob Walters

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." - Ephesians 1:3

Somehow Ephesians 1:3 wound up being my life verse - it jumped out at me when I read through the Bible the first time 20 years ago.

I am a baby boomer, and a late bloomer in the faith.  The fall of 2001 (I was 47) was when I found faith in Christ and was baptized.  By the fall of 2002 I had read my way through most of the Bible - to the 10th book of the New Testament, Ephesians - and this verse hit a personal, spiritual bullseye.  It was the first verse I memorized.

I didn't then understand what all Paul was saying, nor was I aware there are two other New Testament verses, 2 Corinthians 1:3, and 1 Peter 1:3, that also start (in my 1985 NIV), "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..." Good to know.

It was clear to me that this partiular verse was somewhat off the beaten path of typical "life verses," a concept which was as entirely new to me as the previously opaque pages and words of the Bible, which bloomed into coherence, truth, and hope.

A "life verse" is a top-of-mind, go-to piece of scripture that both calms and focuses our minds and prayers, and speaks directly to our relationship with God, Jesus, the Spirit, the church ... and our own souls.  It is a speical and personal expression of our own unique love, relationship, and communion with God and fellow Christians.

The righteous prayers of Psalms, the accessible wisdom of Proverbs, and the brute, faithful theology of Paul's 13 books (Romans through Philemon) - especially Romans - are popular wells of "Life Verse" origins.  I like Romans 8:31: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Psalms 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God."

Typical of life verses, they call God's presence and power into one's life.  Notice these are single sentences, not entire verses, so perhaps they are "life sentences"? There are no "rules" for picking a life verse or even having ong.  What we know is that life ruled by Christ and steeped in scripture is a good "sentence" to have.

I presented my "Ephesians 1:3 Life Verse" in a church communion meditation Sunday.  A friend said afterward, "That's an unusual choice for a live verse." I agreed; it is not the more normal "God be with me, God guide me, God is faithful" sentiment.

As a newbie Christian, I guess I figured one could do worse than start every conversation with the Lord with this dynamic praise of God while declaring the identity of Jesus Christ as God's son.  Beyond a single verse though, one of the great comforts of faith is having great swaths of scripture memorized and locked in one's heart and mind.

We remember scripture and we remember Jesus in Christian communion, which was the overall message for Sunday's meditation.

I've learned over years of study, paying attention, and contemplation, what it means to praise God for blessing us "in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Paul is telling us that in this life now, through Jesus, we have glimpses of God's heaven in eternity.  God's realms already exist, and we can know and sense and touch them with prayer, work, and the love we hold for God and each other.

Heaven, you see, isn't where we go to be dead.  Heaven is where we go to be fully alive, restored to the righteous image of God we were created to be.

Praise God for the assurance of the heavenly realms we have through Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) was booting the tail end of a week-long head cold on Sunday and apologizes for the microphone-amplified sniffles.  ‘Shoulda had a tissue.

 Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #828 (9-27-22), “What Are You Waiting For?” Don’t shrink from the difficult teachings of Paul, nor dismiss his simple statements, either.  We are raised up and seated with God … even now.  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #828

September 27, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

What Are You Waiting For?

By Bob Walters

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus …” – Paul in Ephesians 2:6-9

My Bible mentor George Bebawi used to joke that as much as he looked forward to meeting Jesus in heaven, he feared his first reaction to meeting the Apostle Paul might be to “catch (grab) him by his throat” and demand, “Why did you write such difficult things?”

I sat under George’s teaching for 14 years on Wednesday evenings at East 91^st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, organizing class and formatting notes. This after George retired from the Divinity faculty at Cambridge University, England, in May 2004. 

Born Jewish in Eastern Europe – though he grew up in Cairo, Egypt and converted to a life in Christ in his late teens – George to me personified what I thought Paul might have been like: a brilliant, feisty, thoroughly educated Jew who later brilliantly – with force and authority – shared his faith in and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I imagined George probably looked, and possibly even acted, like Paul.

George taught Paul’s letters – and many other things – with depth, clarity, and thematic discernment.  Paul’s Book of Ephesians, George maintained, was the first place a believing Christian should go to for a proper refresher course in Christianity 101.

That said, today’s specific passage in Ephesians 2 points to something crystal clear but obliquely overlooked by many believing, serving, loving, sincere Christians about salvation, forgiveness, and the “heavenly realms”: we already possess them.

We await the day of the Lord, our day of Judgement, and our entry into eternity as future events.  And they are.  But examine Ephesians 2, verse 6 – “God raised us up” with Christ “and seated us” with him in the heavenly realms.  It’s already real.

This “salvation” so many Christians anticipate in “the next life” is the salvation we already have – now – by being “born again” in Jesus Christ.  Paul says in Romans 6:10, “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive in Christ.”  Never overlook that … or wait for it.

Believers in Christ can live our lives now in the joy of Jesus.  Not by “betting on the come” of rewards and glory far off in another mysterious life and sphere, but in the vibrant, visible, eyes-wide-open reality of today, with thankfulness and full knowledge of instruction Jesus preached: to love God, love others, and to trust Him, Jesus, as Lord

Why? Because Paul says so in verse 6, and then says this in verse 7: “…in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Jesus Christ.”  These coming ages are going to be quite a show.

But we know a piece of it now: these “heavenly realms.”  They are real, a part of our current existence, and because of Jesus’s resurrection, we know it for sure. Yet we doubt our worthiness: What about my sins and the icky parts of my life behaviors? 

Paul goes on (verse 8), “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God –”.  Do you wonder if you have earned this gift?  Don’t wonder … you haven’t.  See verse 9: “…not by works, so that no one can boast.”  Accept the gift, live the life, read Ephesians, and note the grammar.

The Bible covers past, present, and future, and Jesus covers our sin.  Already.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes: Non-believers are missing a large part of life. And ... George passed away in February 2021.  I'm curious how the meeting went with Paul.

 Spirituality Column #796

February 15, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Made My Week

By Bob Walters

“I love this – ‘to capture our faith in the truth, light and life approaching the heavenly realms that await beyond.’ I always focused just on salvation.” – Pamela Osborn Brandley

This recent, brief Facebook comment by our church pal and my wife’s friend and former teacher colleague Pam Brandley lit up my face with joy.

It drove home for me, again, the power of the teaching quoted at the end of last week’s column when we remembered the one-year anniversary of the passing of friend, mentor, encourager, and retired professor George Bebawi.  George taught that our salvation was only a thin slice of the glory that awaits us in life with Jesus amid the glory of God.  It is a faith dynamic that eludes many, but Pam picked it up immediately.

There exists a legion of us, right here in Indianapolis and literally around the world, who would recognize Pam’s comment as a fruit of George’s straight-shooter, erudite, wide-vision teaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.      

Pam and her husband Bruce exercise their faith robustly and regularly in service to our East 91^st Street Christian Church.  Though they didn’t know George, a few words from George could always take a bright, faithful light and make it brighter.

It was George’s approach that sin was and is terrible, yes, no surprise.  Everyone believes that.  But he believed, knew, and taught that the human fullness of life in Christ would never be very full if the focus remains on my sin, my salvation, my rewards, my room in the Father’s mansion, etc.  He saw those as human shortcomings because they all focus on the prideful, competitive, judgmental, guilty “me,” not God’s infinite love and not our selfless love of others He commands and Jesus demonstrated on the Cross.

George’s broad theological grasp was formed in his Jewish upbringing while living among Muslims in Cairo, coming to Christ in his late teens, becoming a Coptic (Orthodox Church of Egypt) priest, and receiving advanced degrees at Cambridge University, England, where he later taught.  His bio appears at GeorgeBebawi.com (link below).

George worked with Coptic leaders in Cairo, was an emissary at the Vatican (yes, the one in Rome), considered becoming a monk (in Egypt), did missions work in sub-Saharan Africa and was a medic with the International Red Cross in Beirut during the 1970s Lebanese Civil War.  He wrote many doctrinal books, but all in Arabic.

George had seen it all and, given his facility with languages ancient and new, read it all.  He could translate scripture, speak, or communicate among 11 different languages, including Copt (language of the Pharaohs), Aramaic (street language of the middle east at the time of Christ), Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Syriac, and others, including English.  Upon his arrival at Cambridge as a student in his 20s, he took a job translating the Coptic Bible into German.  We’re talking serious academic chops.

But also … George was a great guy and a serious pastoral presence for those of us who sat under his teaching. Through my friend May I met George in 2002. With Russ Blowers’ help in 2004 we started a weekly E91 Bible study George taught through 2017.  I was class coordinator and formatted/published George’s weekly class handouts.

What an education, and Pam’s note captured perfectly George’s rich teaching.

It made my week.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) thanks Stan N. for keeping alive  (link)GeorgeBebawi.com

 Spirituality Column #759

June 1, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentator

Rest for the Wicked

By Bob Walters

“For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” – Exodus 20:11 KJV, the fourth of the Ten Commandments

Whatever it looks like when God is busy, He was busy during creation.

While it is the great, searching mystery of the ages how all that exists came to be, the most important aspects of the Bible’s Genesis Creation story are readily apparent: God created everything, and everything God created is Good.

It was a magnificent show, and thanks to the “heavenly realms” (Ephesians 1:3) of love, peace, perfection, eternity, and divine freedom we occasionally glimpse through our faith in Jesus Christ, humanity’s hope of heaven and our relationship with God’s goodness promise that we need never doubt God’s perfect provision for us.

When God rested on that seventh day He was celebrating perfection, not salving weariness.  And this is a good time to notice a couple of things.

First, in His Creation, God did not create evil.  On God’s first day of rest, man had not yet made bad choices nor started causing trouble.  Creation was untainted. 

Maybe that’s why God made Sabbath such a big deal; it is our reminder that God is perfect and created a perfect, free world that was once our world and in Christ will be again … one day.  When we face sin, evil, and wickedness in our daily lives, it’s good to remember that there was a day God celebrated – that first Sabbath – when there was no sin, evil, or wickedness.  Note: there is no sin, evil, or wickedness in Jesus either.

Evil?  We did that to ourselves.  We blame God because that’s what fallen people do; blame others. We would have no cosmic significance had God not bestowed upon that which He created in His own image, us, the freedom He knew could empower divine love.  Humanity uses that freedom, often, to deny God and empower hate.

Second, the “Sabbath” later became a law and commandment while nothing else about Creation did.  Alongside that, is it irony that observing God’s Sabbath is the only Commandment not “enforced” in the New Testament?  How do we explain “Sunday”?

God takes His day of rest at the start of Genesis 2 and we hear nothing more about it until Exodus 16:4-5, when God, communicating through Moses, tests Israel to see if His people will follow His direct orders: pick up twice the manna on the sixth day, then rest on the seventh.  They mostly whine and groan; many obeyed, many didn’t.  

In Exodus 16:23 God gives this seventh day a name, Sabbath.  In Exodus 20:8-11, it is codified in the Ten Commandments: Israel will observe the Sabbath, and throughout the Bible the Sabbath is mentioned a 150 more times.  But the Sabbath’s tenor changes in the New Testament: it goes from the seventh day of remembering God’s perfection to a new language of a Lord of the Sabbath who in His fulfillment of God’s law, becomes a living Sabbath in the perfect image of God: Jesus Christ.

God made the Sabbath a big deal for Israel because eventually the Sabbath rest and observance of God’s perfection and plan for the salvation of the entire world became the biggest deal all humanity has ever known: Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Jesus is our Sabbath: the perfect rest for the wicked.  More next week.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) ponders what God did on His eighth day.