Friends: Charlie Kirk’s memorial service Sept. 21, 2025, brought unprecedented Christian witness from public officials broadcast to a gargantuan live, national, and global TV and Internet audience. Who might sing a new song? Blessings! Bob

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Spirituality Column #985

September 30, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sing a New Song

By Bob Walters

“… by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation … Worthy is the lamb who was slain …” – Revelation 5:9, 12

It is generally useless to quote scripture to people who don’t believe the Bible, trust the person of Jesus, acknowledge the reality of God, or accept the Holy Spirit.

Share the Gospel? Absolutely! But the first step is to share God’s truth with one’s own life, love, and kindness. Shouting out John 3:16 and 14:6 – “God so loved the world that He sent his only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life”, and “No one comes to the Father except through Jesus” – is beautiful language to a believer but a clanging gong to a hostile soul where pride blocks grace’s entry to its humanity.

Let the Holy Spirit capture a human heart and spirit, though, and the richness and authority of the Bible blossom into an eternal and previously unseen palette of purpose, possibility, faith, and embedded truth in a regenerate human heart.

My own heart regenerated for Christ at age 47 not because someone handed me a Bible or quoted a verse, but because I saw Christians I respected believing the Bible, worshipping Jesus, and living in His truth. I discovered a whole new land that I knew almost nothing about – Christian faith – except that now it was real, trustworthy, and inviting me in. I heard a new song, and didn’t want to stop listening. Only, to learn and grow.

I think that was the overwhelming power of Charlie Kirk’s memorial service.

Hostile hearts may well remain hostile hearts; there are those who have been and will continue beating their breasts in rage and contempt not just at Jesus but for the politicians who spoke of Jesus and even for Kirk’s memory. Softened and perhaps seeking hearts who paused for the spectacle – whose ears could suddenly hear and whose eyes could suddenly see – augment the joy I perceive. Faith grew that day.

The hundred thousand in attendance inside State Farm Stadium in Phoenix, a total 277,000 active cell phones (i.e., people) in the immediate area, millions watching the video in our nation and nations worldwide, thousands of requests for Turning Point USA chapters, and nonstop media and internet discussion should call to more than a few unbelievers that Christ is something – and somebody – to reverently pursue.

“Worthy is the lamb who was slain” (Revelation 5:12) refers to the heavenly host praising Christ in heaven.  Millions and millions see Charlie Kirk as a slain lamb in the service of Christ.  Charlie’s death – and his memorial – were momentous national, international, and eternally significant, events. Who now believes? Who now can see?

As for critics who decry “Christian nationalism,” fine. No sane person wants a theocracy. But I did not see Christians wrapping themselves in the American flag; I saw Americans wrapping themselves in Christ. I saw a grieving widow forgive her husband’s killer in the name of Christ.  I saw American leaders offer bold, powerful, persuasive, and in my experience unprecedented witness for Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior, King … and the Way, the Truth, and the Life alone. I saw and sensed peace and resolve, not violence.

I saw U.S. President Donald Trump, a grossly underappreciated defender of Christian freedom, wander off script (he does that) but land in a Christian confessional: he hates his enemies while citing Erika Kirk’s admirable forgiveness, grace, and mercy in Christ.

Trump, with humor and possibly a touch of humility, implied he “needs to work on it.”

I did not see Christian nationalism; I saw Christian revival.

Christians are dealing with modern pharisees on all sides, whose anger ratchets up as Christ’s message grows. Let us keep singing louder; Jesus was ransomed for all.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) watched all five hours of the memorial, through tears,  and shares this 2013 Passion Conference “Revelation Song” video link of Kari Jobe who performed with Hillsong at the Kirk memorial. Walters also notes a pattern he has observed: the more a Christian likes Donald Trump and watches Fox News, the more likely they were to know of Charlie Kirk. Oppositely, Christian non-fans of Trump who never watch Fox News generally knew little about Kirk until he was assassinated. Charlie was a gifted conservative political protagonist, but also the Christian apologist of recent years with the biggest megaphone. Pro-Jesus and pro-Trump, the legacy media rarely mentioned him.

Friends: Truth has a freeing effect, where lies tend to gum up the works.  Whose side is Satan on? - Bob

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Spirituality Column #984

September 24, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Tell the Truth  

By Bob Walters 

“If you hold to my teaching, then you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – Jesus, John 8:31-32. 

“When [Satan] lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” – Jesus, John 8:44

Is it just me, or has our politically divided country the past couple of weeks been more consumed than usual with calling everyone on the other side “liars”?

Who’s lying? Who’s telling the truth? How do we tell the difference?

We can study scripture for eternity and not know precisely whether late night talk show raconteur Jimmy Kimmel should have been fired for telling a mockingly absurd lie about Charlie Kirk’s murderer. It’s “Free speech!” don’t you know. Who’s the sinner here?

Was it even Kimmel’s job to tell the truth? I can’t remember the last time, if ever, I cared about or believed what he said.  Ditto Stephen Colbert.  Both were shouting into a sophistic, leftist, disingenuous television abyss of dissension and hate that played narrowly to like-minded but dwindling audiences. I ignored them; some folks reveled in them. Leftists have a hysteria-laced, apocalyptic opinion about it. Freedom of speech is crucified!

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and nobody feels fine. I say, “Maranatha.”

Lies are – unconditionally – a product of this world, i.e., Satan. Who is the “father of lies”? See John 8:44. Who is the “prince of the world”? See John 12:31. How will we know truth? By Jesus (John 8:32) whom we implore prayerfully in our hearts, minds, and souls.

Scripture will never tell us the truth about late night television employment decisions. I would actually know nothing about Kimmel or Colbert (or many others) over the years if Fox News didn’t use video clips of their shows and other network “late night comedy” and daytime talk show commentary as fodder for critical and heated expressions of conservative outrage. It just so happens I’m more likely to agree with Fox’s outrage than with the drum-beat, lock-step leftist outrage / narrative of most other media. But that’s just me.

I remain mindful of truth, or the absence of it, and strive to discern the sincere pursuit of factual objectivity vs. disingenuous narrative. My dad was an honest journalist in the 1950s and 60s, and I received a journalism degree in the 1970s. Then, objectivity was still a thing. Headlines, for example, were written to inform, not incite. Freedom included responsibility.

Most media and 100 percent of leftist politicians are currently at DefCon1 decrying “Trump is destroying free speech!” Yeah, well … free speech, not the truth, is their weapon.

As Charlie Kirk rests in peace with Jesus, many, many of us would like to grieve in peace here.  Holman Jenkins writing in the Wall Street Journal noted that Trump administration FCC chairman Brendan Barr (who is probably toast) applied some ill-advised “easy way or the hard way” pressure to the networks. Even Ted Cruz objected … strenuously.

Jenkins added, truthfully, that TV news and talk shows have long been unprofitable so networks didn’t fight to defend money-losing properties. But I think Barr’s optics were bad.

I was disappointed Fox News focused only on “market forces” and low ratings while ignoring the administration’s thumb on the scales. There is a lot to this as a complex, multi-tiered business / political / media / freedom story, as well as a network affiliates “community standards” story. Still, I believe Kimmel’s dismissal is a step in the right direction by pouring disinfecting sunlight onto wildly irresponsible commentary and leftist strictures on truth.   

Insensitive and untrue? Yeah, Kimmel was that and will continue to be. If ever a fellow had “his own truth,” it’s him. But like the guy who shot Charlie Kirk, shouldn’t we pray for their salvation, since they “know not what they do”? Interestingly, Kirk believed in capital punishment.

Truth, generally, brings love, righteousness, and closeness to God. Lies do Satan’s work of attacking God’s glory and fomenting hateful chaos. Discern wisely, and speak truth.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes the left didn’t yell “Free Speech!” when Trump was earlier hoaxed, deplatformed, and censured. Defending free speech is different from defending truth. Btw, “DefCon1” (“nuclear war is underway”) is from the 1983 movie War Games.

Friends: Charlie Kirk was a political, cultural, and Christian voice for youth.  Here is how some kids I know reacted.  May we all sow hope, not despair. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #983

September 16, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Turning Point

By Bob Walters

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” – Jesus, John 12:24

A typical early morning at Mission Christian Academy is a joyously chaotic affair.

The orderly car drop-off line at 8:15 that in 15 minutes delivers 500 students to the Fishers, Indiana, K-12 school for an 8:30 start produces approximately 15 minutes of high energy pandemonium in the gym where most of the middle and high school students congregate. Shouts, laughter, basketballs, volleyballs, and footballs echo and bounce throughout the former newspaper production plant. Homeroom begins at 8:30.

Last Thursday morning was different.

Through tears following the assassination of Charlie Kirk Wednesday afternoon, MCA administration called a Thursday morning prayer gathering of grades 6-12. At 8:30, the gym bleachers were packed with 300 silent teenagers.

Charlie died late Wednesday afternoon. What I didn’t know until discussion in Thursday’s ensuing classes was that virtually every student knew who Charlie Kirk was, knew of his ministry and faith, knew of his patriotism, and knew of his common-sense, cheerful worldview. The cesspool that is social media, ironically, over the years presented this beacon of hope and faith for our students to emulate … and now mourn.

Thursday was also 9/11, a day thankfully still revered and remembered.  But for these kids, those attacks were years before they were born.  It is the similar historical distance of my sixth grade year in 1965-66 going back to 1941’s Pearl Harbor attack 24 years earlier. Kirk’s death will be their Kennedy, King, and Kennedy memories.

What I sensed among the students at that prayer service, and then in class discussion throughout the day, wasn’t despair or fear.  While I was sad and angry, the kids, as well as they could understand, were focused and resolved in their faith.  They “got” that Christian life requires courage.  It is in the Bible, and here it was in life.

At the prayer service, MCA founder Shawn Moore and operations chief Jerry Ackerman spoke.  Before campus pastor Andy Waite closed in prayer, Shawn’s son Travis, a 2024 MCA grad who had pitched the convocation idea to his dad the night before, sang “Reckless Love of God” accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar.

Oh my.

With no amp or microphone, Travis’s music filled the gym. The previously silent students joined in, and led by a half-dozen junior boys down front who quickly rose to their feet, the entire student body was soon standing, singing loudly and worshipfully.  I was holding my wife’s hand, watching the kids, tears streaming down our faces. This was love; a Holy Spirit, kingdom moment. This was praise for and growth in Christ.

What a blessing to be a part of it.

What a blessing to see the budding fruit of the seeds that family, friends, pastors, MCA – and Charlie Kirk – planted.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has endless thoughts on Kirk’s assassination, his evangelism, cultural and political acumen, and a profound appreciation for being close to these youth who exude faith, hope, and courage. Walters teaches history at MCA; his wife Pam, English. With her nearly 40 years in secondary education, Pam was floored at the silent respect the students showed.  And those juniors who quickly stood?  They comprise the classroom cadre who require vigorous seating charts spreading them apart from each other. On this day, they were leaders – a Christ-like gang for Jesus.

Friends: Where is our nation headed when we have senators and media who no longer understand where human freedom originates?  Some thoughts on God in modern U.S. civics. 

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Spirituality Column #982

September 9, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Whither Freedom?

By Bob Walters

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” – Paul, Galatians 5:1

Paul’s assurance here of Christian freedom from the Hebrew old covenant Law vs. modern political freedom uniquely and divinely assumed into American government are today’s topics of discussion. And it was Virginia U.S. senator Tim Kaine’s egregious and ungodly civics fumble last week, comparing the U.S. Constitution to Islam’s Sharia Law, that necessitates a refresher about both God’s intent and man’s understanding.

Let’s briefly sort out human freedom as it applies to the three Abrahamic religions, U.S. founding documents, the Ayatollah’s current reign in Iran, and Kaine’s horribly errant take on a “core pillar of the American experiment” (hat tip: Peter Heck).

In case you missed it, Kaine offered this howler in a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing last Wednesday: “This notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator … that’s what the Iranian government believes. …  So, the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”

So, rights from our Creator are “extremely troubling.” Really? Thomas Jefferson’s take in the Declaration of Independence differs a bit: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Genesis 1:27 tells us humans are created in the image of God.  Thinkers through the ages – including Aristotle, John Locke, and Jefferson – have noted man’s special agency in divine freedom subject to God’s righteousness, which Paul understands is imputed to us through Jesus Christ. In Romans 13:1-7 Paul lays out the necessity of government and Christian compliance, but also our ultimate duty to glorify God.

Islamic Sharia Law, without getting into the tall grass, dictates that law and government are ordained by God – theocracy – with little mention of individual rights.

It scares me, but I’m not surprised, that a U.S. politician could be so far afield as Kaine seems to be.  He is saying our rights come – or should come – from government. Wow. Kaine could not be more wrong in theory, but is far from alone in his ignorance.

Going back to Galatians, cited up top, my Bible mentor George Bebawi called this letter “a stick of dynamite” as a broadside exposition on how Christian salvation by faith in Jesus is different from Hebrew compliance with the Law. Paul is expressing freedom in Christ, not slavery to “law that brings sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Paul’s self-proclaimed “slavery” was his declaration of love for and faith in Christ. That’s OK; most of us make ourselves slaves, i.e., are supremely dedicated, to that which we love. 

Founding father John Adams famously said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Those morals – collective, objective agreement on right and wrong and ultimate Godly purpose – are what Adams is citing, not non-Christian “religious” symbols and systems.

People possess rights from God apart from government. Or, is government the sole arbiter of human freedom? These are very, very different philosophies, Mr. Kaine.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recommends these articles on Kaine by Peter Heck and The Daily Signal. Kaine, btw, was Hillary Clinton’s VP running mate in 2016. Also, Walters checked and saw no coverage of Kaine’s comments on so-called “legacy media.” This tells us the media does not understand Kaine’s comments. Pity.

Friends: It’s a reflective time of year as school begins, I count my blessings, and track an important anniversary. Have a great week! Blessings, Bob

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September 2, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

My Favorite Years

By Bob Walters

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5

The school year has started back up at Mission Christian Academy here in Fishers where my wife Pam is in her fifth year teaching high school English and I began my third year teaching high school history and civics.

Three weeks in it remains pretty much a dream job for both of us: Pam the career teacher, preacher’s kid, and multi-talented crafter and homemaker, me the late-to-the-faith ex-sportswriter, media relations executive, and – how did that happen? – 11 years in retirement as a school bus driver. Hybrid school MCA meets just three days a week.

Pam and I are cruising into our 70s, we as children of the 1960s and 70s, now greeted daily by nearly a hundred fresh-faced teen-agers in a caring, Christian atmosphere and serious K-12 educational setting. Students are happy to be there, staff is happy to be there, and families express regular thanks for their kids being there.

MCA, in its sixth year, has grown from 38 students and eight teachers in 2020-21 (Covid factored into its creation) to now more than 500 K-12 students and 50 faculty.

Labor Day weekend, for me, annually marks my coming-to-faith “awake date” – Sunday, September 2, 2001 – when a random, middle-aged trip to church at my young son Eric’s urging yielded an irrefutable encounter with the Holy Spirit that led shortly to my baptism in Christ. This column’s publication date, you may notice, is September 2.

Pam has never had a day in her life when she didn’t know Jesus, while I had 47 years not really knowing Him.  I was a dedicated, youthful Episcopal altar boy but then an entirely unserious, in-name-only Christian until that Labor Day Sunday 24 years ago at East 91^st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis.

I bring all this up because, like I said, I am highly reflective about this anniversary of the beginning of my faith life.  But a couple of my wonderful current students in two different periods recently asked, in class, what had been the “favorite time of my life.”

Pam and I by far are the oldest teachers in the building, so we get good-natured pot-shots from the kids all the time about our lack of “current” cultural and technical proficiencies. The students are, however, no match (yet) for our combined language, literary, and historical “chops” as well as our deep Christian experience. It’s great duty.

So, students asked earnestly about my “favorite time of life.” And if you read my bio you know I’ve had a good life, a fun and interesting career, and raised two great sons – Eric and John, both baptized – who now have their own families and careers.

Including all the stumbles, sins, and hardships that don’t appear in my bio, parts of my life are less attractive than others. But the students’ questions dug into something Pam and I have often discussed, that this is the favorite time of my life, and our lives. 

That is not a complaint about anything that has come before.  What’s great is that we can track back through lives that have had plentiful “best” times – with more than a few rough patches – and are yet so deeply thankful to have this latter time of purpose, commitment, freedom, love, family, learning, and joy while still avoiding life’s off-ramp.

I lived most of my life not knowing the Lord, not knowing what I had and didn’t have, and not trusting the truth, joy, and purpose present in the magnitude God offers.

I learned to trust God’s character and lean not on my own understanding. Whew.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is thankful for every moment that led to now.

Friends: Jesus sacrificed “once for all.” Did He mean it? God forgets our sins. Really? Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #980

August 26, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

What Happened to My Sin?

By Bob Walters

“He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” Hebrews 7:27

“I will forgive … and remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:34, Hebrews 8:12

Christians spend a lot of time asking for forgiveness for our sins, when what we ought to be doing is acknowledging our sins.  With Jesus – the anchor of our faith and by his death on the cross – the ship of forgiveness has already sailed. His work is “finished.”

Why put Christ back on the cross?  He already sacrificed – perfectly – “once for all.” And why keep that ratty ship of sin moored in our own dock? Is it because we define the quality of our Christian faith against the gauge of our sin?  I think maybe.

If God “remembers our sins no more,” why do we?

The fact is, as long as humans are breathing, we are capable of sinning. And if we are sinning, our own comfort with God is compromised.  Not like God denies our relationship, because what God says and what Jesus did and what the Holy Spirit assures us is that we can trust God’s love, Christ’s work, and the Spirit’s leading.  God’s side doesn’t change; it is our side of the equation that changes. God isn’t seeking our condemnation; the awful weight guilt presses on us – not Him – when we stray.

I believe strongly that it is us/we/me that guilt truly affects.  And it is God we can go to in confession, always, and hopefully confess to a brother or sister we have wronged.  That calms our guilt. If it doesn’t, pray until it does. We all know plenty of our sins – past and current – die a slow death in our own memories.

People may not forgive or forget; in Jesus, we know God has done both.

We must offer great thanks to God’s and scripture’s direction for confession of our sins. The “once for all” sacrifice of Jesus on the cross tells us that Christ was on a rescue mission, not a punitive crusade. God wants our sins erased as much as we do.

Another thing I believe strongly – not to be cynical but to posit what to me appears a plain truth – is that while the presence of guilt ruffles our personal peace of mind, its efficacy dramatically plays into the “powers and principalities” that use guilt to control us.  Satan the accuser plays that card incessantly. My advice? Talk to Jesus, never to Satan. Run and stand in the grace of our Lord. Cling to Him.

Too many Christians love to call each other sinners in an expression of ill-considered self-righteousness.  Too many church hierarchies play sin guilt as a powerful motivator for obedience and financial strong-arming. Satan is always at work.

That plank in my eye? That is what I pray first to be removed so I won’t judge my brother.  I never doubt God’s grace, but we all worry how people respond to our sin. It’s a unique human characteristic: a wildcard variable and “gift” of God – you never know what a human will do. That’s why G.K. Chesterton calls man “the only truly wild animal.”

The greatest relief of my nascent Christian life (I was baptized at 47) was realizing not that I was a sinner, but that God already knew everything I could ever tell Him.  That opened the book to trusting Him with anything I needed to share. I understood that while the work of the cross was forgiveness, the point of the cross was relationship with God.

Are we convicted, chastised, and challenged by God? Yes … but it is for our own good, if we understand our purpose is sharing in God’s glory.  We should thank God when He convicts us and melts our hearts in repentance that restores our peace. 

Never doubt God’s truth, love, or purpose. Forgiveness is already ours.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) doubts his own worthiness but never God’s grace. See also Psalm 32:3-5, Proverbs 28:13, Isaiah 43:25, Micah 7:18-19, Hebrews 10:10:12 James 5:16, 1 John 1:8-10.

Friends: Christianity’s great challenge to secular intellect is the truth and reality embodied in the mystery of God. Man wants evidence, Jesus insists on faith. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #979

August 19, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Embracing the Mystery

By Bob Walters

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. … what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” – Hebrews 11:1,3 ESV

Hebrews 11 is the great New Testament catalog of the Old Testament prophets and faithful whose trust in God exemplified and to this day remain object lessons commending the promises of God. Jesus is all the proof we need.

“Proof,” however, looms across the non-theological firmament as that which must be provided in understandable, tangible, empirical, human terms – i.e. evidence – to validate God’s reality. Faith, the non-faithful loudly proclaim, is not proof enough. 

I blame the ancient Greeks for re-casting reality out of the realm of Godly faith and instead funneling God’s presence and purpose as things to be tucked away from true intellect. Not to pick on Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle – great Greek thinkers and educators who sensed the necessity and logic of the existence of One True God – but their final reality was governed only by that which could be seen, defined, and explained by humans to humans. Divine mystery, evidently, could not be part of reality.

The problem here is so simple that great minds can’t grasp it; God’s mind is different from ours. He says so himself in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as heavens are higher than earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours.”

Humanity’s greatest minds, if they be slaves to physical evidence, haven’t thought through that the one who created our minds – granted, in His own image – has a perpetual leg up on what and how a human mind might conceive.  The highest, most logical and legitimate reality a human should expect – should depend on – is that our Creator knows more than we do.  That insults many self-congratulating human minds.

But I believe there is more.  It is not just that God is smarter, eternal, more righteous, more creative, more loving, and more everything than humans.  “Higher,” I submit, truly means “different.” We think how we limitedly think; God is unconstrained.

Humans are stuck in the closed crosshairs of time, space, matter, probability, and aspiration, with only an occasional peak behind the divine curtain of God’s intentions and the mind of Christ. God, on the other hand, is not “stuck.”

As humans our only mental ability to get “unstuck” resides in a mystery that Paul refers to as “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16), and to “have the same mind in you that was in Christ.” (1 Timothy 2:5). The first suggests the illuminating indwelling of the Holy Spirit that shifts our perspective to think like Christ, and the second to model His humility, selflessness, obedience … and His trust in God.

These are among the free – and underappreciated – gifts we receive with faith in Christ. If we lack wisdom, James 1:5 invites us to “to ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault.” We are never shy about asking in prayer, in Christ’s name, to fix our problems, heal our wounds, or cleanse our sins, both for ourselves and others.

So why won’t we deeply accept God’s offer of wisdom unlocked by our faith? Because we are thinking in worldly terms of needing an explanation rather than, in faith, accepting the mystery of not being able to entirely explain the gift. It is still real and true.

Western culture loves a good mystery as entertainment, but the very best mystery is when our faith leads us to relationship with God through truth in Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is relieved he doesn’t have to explain everything. Btw, the Greeks mentioned lived during the period between the Bible’s Testaments.