Rolling Sermonette a Hit with Hoosiers

Spirituality Column # 24
April 24, 2007
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper

Rolling Sermonette a Hit with Hoosiers
By Bob Walters

Some folks believe the wildly popular “In God We Trust” Indiana license plate is offensive, an infringement on their individual rights and will make Hoosiers a national “religious nut” laughing stock.

At least they believe something.

Perhaps they believe divisive things about U.S. currency as well, which if read carefully also offends.

“In God We Trust.” It’s the best sermonette on the roadways since highway signs first began preaching “Keep Right.”

The new specialty tag, announced last summer and offered January 1, 2007, is available for no extra charge when Indiana license plates are renewed. The Indiana Civil Liberties Union says it is unfair for one interest group to get special treatment.

God is an interest group? Note to ICLU: Good luck with St. Peter.

The Bureau of Motor Vehicles initially, crazily, ordered a half-million plates. To the undoubted chagrin of leftists, Church-State extremists, ICLU’ers, liberal commentators and leave-me-alone-about-that-God-stuff curmudgeons across the Hoosier state, more than 400,000 have been distributed (it’s only April) and another half million have been ordered.

God wants us to be kind, humble and loving. When we put one of those plates on our car, some deem us to be arrogant, backwards and endangering the Union (America, I mean).

The plates are reverent to God, not to the “Church of Me.”

For the attentive, there is great entertainment in deciphering the two-letter branch code on the plate … and likely even more fun watching the secular-or-else crowd’s heads explode when they realize all those letter combinations can actually have scriptural significance.

“J R”? How about Jesus Redeemer? “A O”? Why not Alpha Omega? “J C”? Um, that one’s easy. There are 50; and 50 more on the way. How many have you seen?

Interesting that former House speaker Bob Garton, who for years blocked the “God” plate, relented in 2006 when he was challenged for his Columbus district seat by an overtly Christian contender. The plate, with no fee attached, sailed through the legislature and Garton lost his seat to the Christian anyway.

God Bless America, and the Indiana BMV.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a Carmel resident, urges those who are squeamish about the plate to read Romans 13 for comfort.

'Blessed' and 'Forgiveness' in God's Language

Spirituality Column # 23
April 17, 2007
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper

'Blessed' and 'Forgiveness' in God's Language
By Bob Walters

Our modern-going-on-post-modern culture adapts Christian religious concepts to its own comfort and convenience.

Consider how our society’s Oprah-esque pursuit of personal, self-actualizing and carefree happiness trumps our Biblically mandated personal pursuit of God.

To a specific point, the Bible’s terms “blessed” and “forgiveness” … Surprise! … aren’t there to communicate that our lives will be “happy” and that our actions are “without consequence.”

Quick! Call Oprah and Say It Ain’t So!

When Jesus talks about what is “blessed” in the Beatitudes (The Sermon on the Mount, Mathew 5-6-7), Christ is defining those things which are objectively good, right and in harmony with God’s ways.

Blessed are the poor, the meek, those persecuted for righteousness, those who mourn … hey wait a minute! None of those are things a sane person would pray for. None defines or provides “happiness.”

What gives? Something deeper:

Blessings are things that make us entirely reliant on God.

Forgiveness, in the lexicon of the Bible’s original language, refers to rebirth and renewal of life. On the Cross Jesus said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He was saying, “give them (meaning all of us) rebirth and a renewal of life.” Jesus dying on the Cross defeated death; His resurrection gives us all the Hope for eternal life.

Today we prefer “forgiveness” to mean “there are no consequences.” That’s not what the Bible says or implies; just look at Christ on the Cross. The truth isn’t “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” (singer Bobby McFerrin, 1987); the truth is “repent and be baptized” (The Apostle Peter, Acts 2:38).

It seems ridiculously unambitious for us to pursue God on our own limited terms. Jesus says “follow me” – meaning on His own much larger terms – 20 times in the four Gospels. Along with “love God,” “love others,” and “tell others,” “follow me” seems to be a direct order.

I’m inclined to think He meant it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a Carmel resident, is happy but sees it as a gift, not a birthright.

God's Word Keeps Up with the Times

Spirituality Column # 22
April 10, 2007
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper

God’s Word Keeps Up with the Times
By Bob Walters

Words change in meaning or even disappear over time and generations.

Gay meant happy during my youth. Groovy means something to me that is opaque to my teenage sons. Going back further, thee and thine have been you and yours in popular parlance for a couple of centuries now.

Words change and languages evolve. Yet God’s word, the Bible, does a remarkable job of keeping up with the times.

To a Christ-centered believer – pick any denomination: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, all the Baptist and Bible-based Christian independents – the Bible is the living, infallible, eternal word of God. Traditions endure, liturgies and worship styles come and go, but the Bible’s message lives and breathes (Hebrews 4:12) with us.

Still, the Bible “changes” with new translations constantly. BibleGateway.com currently has 69 versions of the Bible in 30 languages, including 20 in English. There are literally hundreds of versions in existence.

How does God do that? How can they all be right? How can we trust something that changes so often?

And here’s a better question: how can we believe in a God that gives us so much advice that is so difficult to follow?

The living and personal God that occupies ones heart and mind doesn’t have a tough time keeping up with cultural idiom. He knows what we’re up to. Bible versions can be spiritually and theologically solid whether the Catholic Bible’s 73 books or the King James and its Protestant iterations with 66 books (Catholic and Protestant each has 27 New Testament books).

The eternal truth of Christ Jesus crucified, dead and risen for all mankind is the same in both. People and technology change, but God – our relationship with Him and what He has to say to us – doesn’t change.

Why is following God’s word so difficult?

I’m not sure. But I’m glad He wrote it down.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) lives in Carmel and hasn’t used the word “groovy” in a sentence for several years.

Good Friday - One Really Hard Day

Spirituality Column #21
April 3, 2007
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper

Good Friday - One Really Hard Day
By Bob Walters
Author of the book: Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Eternal Life for all mankind is the Good News of the Gospel and the reason we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter. Christ defeated death for all of us so, in faith, we live eternally with God the Father in Heaven.

But as Easter Sunday celebrates Christ’s rising from the dead and promise of Eternal Life, Good Friday marks perhaps the most evil day in the history of humanity; the day Man killed Christ, the Incarnate Son of God.

I hate Good Friday.

Crucifixion is a horrendous death. As one's body weight hangs from outstretched arms tied or nailed to a crossbeam, the lungs cannot function and suffocation comes in agonizing minutes. The foot pedestal (or nailed feet) on the cross allows one to painfully brace ones body weight enough to allow excruciating breaths that prolong the death process for agonizing hours.

Christ breathed his last … “It is finished” (John 19:30) … and died before the Roman soldiers had to hasten death by breaking His legs with a club.  So His bones were not broken (John 19:36).

God’s perfect Eden for mankind was undone by Adam’s sin in the Garden, and because of that sin death came into the world (Genesis 3:22). Christ, God’s Son on the Cross, provided mankind with “forgiveness” – which means not the ignoring of our sin as the word is commonly misunderstood today, but the renewal of life.

Christ died for our sins, indeed, but our sins are not the ultimate point. Christ died to defeat death itself, giving us eternal hope and communion with God.

That’s the point.

As we contemplate the horror of Christ’s death on the cross, and the horror of our own sin which separates us from God, ask this question about the crucifixion: Why did Christ do that for us?

Those in faith have the answer: So we can live forever, sinless, with Him, in Heaven, for His Glory.

God loves and values each of our lives that much, but Good Friday is still a rough deal.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) often prays the Orthodox "Jesus Prayer": Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.