Spirituality Column #798

March 1, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Invasive Prayer

By Bob Walters

If you have heard of or perhaps follow Christian intercessory prayer minister Dutch Sheets, it’s likely you don’t spend much time asking yourself how to define “spirituality.”

And if, like me, you are wondering how in the world to pray a spiritual prayer of intercession – i.e., pray for God’s intervention – against Russia’s war and invasion of Ukraine, Sheets has some advice.  Spirituality is what Sheets does, 24/7/365.

Read this from his daily "Give Him 15" podcast last Friday:

"It is not always easy to know how to pray for situations like the invasion of Ukraine.  God cannot always stop evil from occurring, whether it be rape, murder, hunger, or war.  It is not a power issue - of course God is all-powerful.  It is a matter of allowing humans the privilege of free will.  When the human race became defiled at Adam's fall, evil entered the world.  One day it will end.  For now, it exists.

"Since God works on earth through people, not independently of them, dealing with evil requires human participation and cooperation with God and His laws.  He uses righteous authority, laws, and government to suppress evil.  At times, these restraining authorities must use force.  However, stopping evil regimes that have gained power and control can take time - again, because God uses people.

"All this to say it is not possible to simply pray a good prayer/s and end what is occurring in Ukraine.  Does this mean we don't pray?  Of course not.  We ask God to intervene in whatever ways He can, as quickly as He can.  We pray for comfort to those suffering.  We pray for other countries and leaders to make wise decisions that will mitigate the suffering and stop the evil.  We pray for people to come to Christ - God uses tragedies such as this to reach people.

"We also continue to pray for America's complete turnaround.  What occurs here affects the world. ..."  He ended the piece with this prayer and decree:

"Pray with me: Father, we ask for Your mercy to be manifested for the people in the Ukraine and the Baltic States.  We ask You to cause alliances and actions that will minimize violence and destruction.  We pray that evil doers will be exposed and judged for their wickedness.  We ask You to cause them to be hung on their own gallows.  We pray that those who don't know You will come to know You through difficult times they experience.  Bring revival to Eastern Europe.

"We pray for our government to make wise decisions.  Cause them to think clearly.  May they not fall into the traps and strategies of evil leaders.  Give NATO leaders wise strategies and sound decisions.

"We believe you will somehow use all of this to bring forth the great harvest You're planning.  Amp it up quickly, we pray.  Redeeming God, bring a tidal wave of glory into the earth.  We ask for this in Christ's name. Amen.

"Our decree: We decree that evil will ultimately fail; love will win." LINK 02/25/2022

Sheets has a wide following and offers a heavy-duty daily dose of Christian prophecy, prayer, and Holy Spirit discernment.  I'm no expert, but Sheets and "Give Him 15" pretty obviously comprise a sincere, charismatic ministry.  It is all Gospel, all Bible, revival, deep faith, spiritual immersion, and prayerful decrees ... all the time.

Be warned: Dutch is conservative and prays - a lot - for revival in America.

He may or may not be your cup of tea, but you can meet him at dutchsheets.org.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) planned a breezy piece on Eusebius and Athanasius this week, but the Ukraine injustice is just too heavy on his heart.  Pray, and be strong.

Friends: Rather than bore everybody with specifics about some church history I’ve been reading, let’s talk about the old time religion we recognize … or don’t. I had to bring up Christmas to make a point … but at least I didn’t mention Eusebius or Athanasius. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #797

February 22, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Old Time Religion

By Bob Walters

I am aware it is late February, but I need Christmas to make a point.

The gentle nostalgia and familial warmth of the phrase, “Old Time Christmas,” when you really study it, harkens back to a time that didn’t actually exist.  Our American minds have been taught to picture, say, brightly decorated and old-fashioned Victorian homes, snow, bells, sleighs, gifts, egg nog, and the “old fashioned values” of “the true meaning of Christmas.”  I guess that’s my picture, anyway.  Currier & Ives, Thomas Kincaid, etc.

You are welcome to picture your own architecture, time frame, decorations, food, transportation, and nostalgia, but the fact is the Christmas we know today is largely a commercial / cultural manifestation of the past century or so.  Christmas was barely celebrated before that; recognized as the birth of Jesus, yes, but far more subdued.

One’s personal “Old Time” sentiments are likely the Christmas memories of decades-ago youth and if we are fortunate, we remember them fondly.  But the ancient and “through history” reality of Christmas is not a story most folks recognize or recite today. 

And here is where enters, “Old Time Religion.”  It too can be a nostalgic fooler.

It has been, to me, a stunning and unanticipated development of my now past-midway adult life to have found secure faith in Jesus Christ.  And when I think of the “Old Time Religion” of my Episcopal youth, it is different from the “Old Time Religion” of my Bible-reading and theology-studying adulthood.  Old time religion is far older than I imagined.

What was great about the “Old Time Religion” of the Episcopal church was its grounding in history that went back hundreds of years – OK, two thousand years if you count Jesus – but regardless, there was security in the durability of the church itself.  No need to look back.

What I didn’t have as a kid and Episcopal altar boy was security in personal knowledge of the Bible or a personal relationship with Christ: both very big things in “evangelical” circles.  What tends not to be a big evangelical “thing” is the oldest of Old Time Religion – the way-back, early-centuries reality of Christian development.  The early heroes of faith are out of fashion.

In the majority of “mainline denominations,” the affectations of modern social and cultural “church” – with rare exceptions – supplant the ancient Biblical truth of Christ.  It’s re-written so we see more churches concerned with human-based “social justice” than divinely based, Jesus-believing truth.  These religions have old roots but new priorities, and it’s not progress.

The Bible-based crowd, my crowd, lamentably often seems eager to ignore the oldest of Christian developments – the early-centuries doctrinal certainty that fought heresies and celebrated martyrs to preserve the catholic (worldwide, single, true) understanding of Jesus – in Trinitarian relationship, Father, Son, Spirit – for which faithful people willingly died.

My own great comfort in tangible faith is the time travel of the saints, tracking church history back to the beginning and knowing there is a convincing and steady line of believers – from Jesus to today – who never reordered their priorities for modern therapeutic Christianity.  They cleaved to Biblical truth that goes all the way back to and is rooted at the foot of the Cross.

Bible Christians tend to ignore deep and meaningful church history; mainline Christians too often are easy prey for the heresies of redefining Jesus for our own modern purposes. 

Old time religion, the real thing, has a single purpose: understanding the truth of Jesus in faith as we lovingly serve our fellow human beings in the exclusive truth of His love.

While “Old Time Christmas” signals a need for historical perspective, “Old Time Religion” signals a need for Christian reckoning with the only truth that endures: Jesus Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) didn’t want to bore everyone with specific church history classics he’s been reading, but there is more to Jesus than praise music and politics.  Believe it.

 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 #795

February 8, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

A Sinner’s Lament

By Bob Walters

“…and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” – Genesis 3:5 KJV, Satan to Eve in the Garden of Eden.

This is where humanity’s trouble started, and it is critically important to notice what Satan is really saying.

Satan is not lying to Eve, saying she will be “as” the uppercase God and “know (God’s) good and evil.”  Look at the grammar.  Satan is telling Eve an absolute truth: that by her disobedience to God and eating from the tree, she, Adam, and all humanity will be stricken as lowercase “gods” – plural – with their own false versions of good and evil.

Satan’s word trick entrapped humanity’s freedom and curiosity in prideful vanity.

Everywhere in the Bible, the Creator and commander of all knowledge, things, righteousness, and truth is referred to as “God” – uppercase – or “Lord God” as He is identified in Genesis 3. Satan is promising Eve humans will be “as [false] gods.” True.

Linguistic ruses aside, learn this lesson: Ignore God, and you won’t know truth.

And when you do not know – or disregard – God’s truth, it is almost impossible to identify sin. You’ll see it as if you are your own god, not as God.  Sin becomes something that resides in the eye of the beholder causing us to look away from God.

Humanity’s history is full of Satan’s squishy lies that sound so much better to man than God’s righteous truth.  Jesus is our defense against Satan but my, how the false gods of today’s culture have a lamentable deal with the devil for us all.

I’ve begun reading Rod Dreher’s 2020 book, Live Not by Lies: A Manuel for Christian Dissidents.  It is an eye-opening, unsettling report by an Orthodox Christian who has read and interviewed countless survivors, escapees, and descendants of totalitarian cultural takeovers of the past 100 years: Soviet Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Communist Europe, etc.  Christians have taken a hard hit every time, as have others.

Dreher’s subjects include Solzhenitsyn, Carol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Pope Benedict XVI, Václav Havel, and dozens of others.  Dreher tracks disturbing yet familiar trends in modern day America and Europe that may redefine what it means – and what it takes – to be a Christian. 

If the subject is to your liking, take a look. I’m going to stop there and avoid the politics of discussing Dreher’s themes, action points, and conclusions.  But I believe he presents Godly truth about the sins and lies of our time and that it’s a sin to ignore them.

And this … My great friend and mentor George Bebawi fied a year ago, Feb. 4, 2021, and I just wanted to note the anniversary of his passing.  Because of George’s international ministry, Covid has presented the “all-points” memorial gathering we would like to have had but he lives on brightly in many, many hearts … especially May’s.

George taught that “sin is maybe 10^th or 20^th on the list” of why Christ came into humanity.  God’s kingdom, glory, and love brought Jesus into our realm to, yes, save us from sin, but more profoundly to capture our faith in the truth, light and life approaching the heavenly realms that await beyond.  The uniqueness of Christ shone brightly in George.

We miss you, dear teacher.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) coordinated George’s weekly Bible and theology studies at East 91^st Street Christian Church, Indianapolis, 2004-2017.  Here’s a link to an in-depth video (and text) with Dreyer: ‘Live Not By Lies’—Rod Dreher: How Much Are We Willing to Sacrifice for the Truth?

Spirituality Column #794

February 1, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

A Sinner’s Lament, Part 1

By Bob Walters

I’m afraid the day is coming, perhaps soon, when being a repentant sinner with church-going, praise-offering faith in Jesus will not be enough to call oneself a Christian.

In fact, I’d say we are living in a time of American Christian luxury in that “my sin” – our personal fallenness, repentance, redemption – stands front and center as the most important matter in church.  We should continue to have it so good.

Oh, we may not hear a lot of “Sin, Hellfire, and Damnation” from the weekly pulpit – that would be a bummer and make me unhappy – but sin is the overriding dynamic of the contemporary church narrative.  Want to test it?  Do what I’m doing right now, and note the horrified look on your faithful friends’ faces when you assert that sin is not the most important thing we as Christians have to deal with.

It’s not; though I daresay given many alternatives, sin is the easiest.

Hear me out.  We’ve all been sinners, we’re going to stay sinners, and given enough chances, our sin will wreck our own lives and perhaps the lives of others.  We are likely blessed to know people who seem far closer to eternal redemption than we might be, the Lions of the Faith who may be in our churches, prayer groups, study groups. I’m thankful to know and frequently see people who remind me of God’s truth, hope and strength, the examples of a redeemed, loving life in Christ. They’re out there.

Sin is awful, and our hope in Jesus isn’t just for His forgiveness – the hope for the help and truth of His strength to conquer our behavioral sin.  Maybe we can sin less, find joy, encourage somebody else, and allow the Spirit to comfort us in peace.  Still, sin is awful. But it shouldn’t be the only thing we talk about.  Denying Christ is worse.

Quick review … Jesus’s human life, death on the Cross, and resurrection established, once for all, forgiveness of our sin and sins.  The good news, Jesus came for everyone.  The bad news is, so did Satan.  Jesus came for God’s glory.  Satan came to destroy God’s glory.  But Satan’s trick isn’t to make us sin; it is to make us deny God.

Frankly, the more somebody talks about sin or tells me about my sin or tells me I'm going to hell if I don't stop sinning because I won't be forgiven, the less I want to listen to them.  They are saying salvation is a “deal,” not the pure love of God in Christ.

I’m not looking for a deal.  In Jesus I have found truth, and the greatest truth He brings is not that I’m a sinner – I already know I am and so does He – it is that Jesus presents me with an utterly unique opportunity to know and trust that I have found the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) into the Kingdom of God, and to say so.

My opening statement (above) about “the day is coming” when sin will be a secondary Christian issue is because of a couple things. 

One, I’ve been reading The Church History by Eusebius (c. 300 A.D.).  In those early Christian days of persecutions, martyrs, and heresies – you have to read it to appreciate it – you don’t read much about sin; there wasn’t time.  But you read a lot about people who denied – and more importantly saints who did not deny – Christ.

And two, Rod Dreher’s 2020 book, Live Not by Lies, is a reality dose describing America’s woke, coming Christian persecutions that will test our will to confess Christ.

Martyrs were not told to repent of their sins; but to confess against Jesus.  

Could you do that?

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wrote about Dreher before and will again, next week.

 Spirituality Column #793

January 25, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Atheists Don’t Cut It

By Bob Walters

"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, they cannot see the light of the gospel ... the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." - 2 Corinthians 4:4

 There sure are a lot of folks coming after Christians these days and I don’t think it’s because the critics are atheists.  Most people who call themselves “atheists” – in my experience – don’t really know what an “atheist” is, or how empty that bucket truly is.

What they tend to be are people who’d simply rather not be bothered with the whole “supreme being” dynamic.  “Who is more supreme than me?” they might ask.

No kidding here.  What the Apostle Paul is talking about in the above verse from his second letter to the church at Corinth – 2,000 years ago – are “unbelievers” who specifically do not believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, Son of the Father, Creator of all things and judge of all men.  He rebooted the entire believing world, including Israel. 

Jesus was a whole new idea, and replaced every religious leader, emperor, and god anybody had ever conjured with His own holiness and the actual, absolute, saving, humanity-fulfilling and divine Truth from the mind of God.  Jesus was/is the real deal.

Anywhere in the world in those days there was no shortage of gods, worship, pagans, and beliefs in nature, spirits, demons, idols, you name it.  Greek philosophy was big, as were the mythic but created and fictional gods of the world’s great cultures and empires. Everybody believed in something; an atheist would have been…an oddity.

Anywhere in the world today, it seems you can believe – by law – in anything except Christianity.  Examples are rife; it is Christian teaching and prayer outlawed in public schools and politics, while any nutty, destructive personal opinions are bogusly canonized.  “My own truth,” I think, is more accurately a plea to justify, “My own lie.”

Jesus the Son of God, who is Truth, is who culture tries to silence.  Who’s smart?

Look around the world.  We have it pretty good in the west, Christianity wise, but the fashionable “religion” is sterile “belief” in … well, nothing.  The self-deifying “I believe in me” is perhaps a bit more responsibility than a sane person would want to undertake.

Personally, I’m joyous that trustworthy truth – Jesus - exists external to my own fallen and I’ll admit sometimes crazy notions, appetites, temptations, and opinions. 

The god of this age – today, not 2,000 years ago – is an amalgamated self-centered muck of fame, money, fluid self-identity, freedom from “judgment,” immunity from having one’s judgments challenged (think “CRT”), and the collective contempt of and disregard for the absolute, eternal Truth of God, Jesus.  “I want my own truth!”

But that’s not atheism.  Hating God isn’t atheism; it’s simpleminded fallenness.  Not understanding God, or not believing Christ, is lack of education and perhaps absence of the Spirit.  The Bible is clear that not everyone will understand.

Our best play is to stick to the Bible, understand the Spirit, fellowship with believing Christians (those who know, trust, love, honor, obey, and believe in Jesus; you know, the Church), and endeavor to live out the simplest and most direct commands of Christ: love God and others.  You’ll not argue the Spirit into a soul, but love might work.

Yes, it is hard to be a Christian, but it is the path to eternity … not to emptiness.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that God gave us freedom to believe what we want, and gave us Jesus to know what is true.  Atheism is a short walk to nowhere.

 Spirituality Column #792

January 18, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Life Change

By Bob Walters

It dawned on me a few days ago that this month marks the 30^th anniversary of the biggest and most welcome job move and life change of my professional career.

In January of 1992 I hired on as the public relations director at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  I’d worked in the media and in sponsor/team public relations in both Indy Cars and NASCAR auto racing in the late 1980s.  Coming back home to Indiana to work at the 500 was a job I’d been praying for, and it happened.

That job, in my eyes, was akin to working in religion and landing a spot in the Vatican.  I say “I’d been praying for” it, but it wasn’t like I was talking to Jesus back in those days.  I was praying for the IMS job the way a whole lot of people pray – without any recognizable relationship with God and purely for favor, whether for self or others.

I didn’t meet up with Jesus for another 10 years.

That job in 1992 was my central purpose in life.  I was married, our second son John was born that month – January 18, in fact, the date of this column … Happy 30^th Birthday, John! – and it was joy upon joy to move back to Indiana after five years away in St. Louis and Albuquerque.  We were home, and I had the best job I could imagine.

Great times, those 12 seasons (1985-1996) working at the very top of American auto racing.  It would be a book-length yarn to tell in adequate detail, but not here.

That adventure for me ended with bumps and bruises amid the turmoil of the Indy Racing League vs CART battles through the latter 1990s.  Life changed again.

Instead of working and/or traveling literally dozens of weekends per year, I was home and got to truly know my sons Eric (now 34) and John.  I coached kid baseball, was a Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader and went camping, and helped out with the boys’ elementary school events.  I learned to have conversations with neighbors about subjects other than the 500 and auto racing. 

A few consulting gigs aside, my career in PR was basically over.  I’d felt I’d been dropped on my head, hard, leaving those heady days of high-profile motorsports, but I was learning, however slowly, that my life’s central purpose was being redirected.

As it turned out, because I was now home most evenings for dinner, I was sitting at the table when Eric asked – out of seeming nowhere – “How come we don’t go to church?”  That was August of 2001 – 20 years ago this past fall, if you’re counting.

My central purpose in life once was my career.  Then my central purpose in life was my kids.  Then through no expressed intent of my own – let’s be clear, I wasn’t looking for Jesus – we went to church one Sunday.  Guess who sat down next to me?

Yep, Jesus, who over the next several years introduced me in the Spirit to my new central purpose in life … doing what I could to glorify His Father God.

God’s most significant physical gift to me was time.  Time is part of the physical world, not the eternal world.  But I was gifted with time to learn, grow, write, teach, and understand the greatest central purpose of human life: loving Jesus to glorify God. 

My career didn’t teach me love; my boys did.  And Jesus put it to good use.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), because fast cars are still fun, provides this LINK of a Czech mogul driving a $3M Bugatti Chiron 260 mph on the Autobahn … for Jesus.  Also, 30 years ago was 1992; 30 years before that Walters was in second grade.