To Tell the Truth

Spirituality Column #112
December 30, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN), Current in Westfield (IN) Newspaper

To Tell the Truth
By Bob Walters

We spend a lot of time on “What do you think?” The far more interesting question is, “What is the truth?”

A learned acquaintance of mine about whose faith I know very little, considered that statement and said, “They’re the same question. I don’t know how you would divide them. The truth is whatever someone thinks it is.”

Mark that spot. Right there at “whatever someone thinks it is” … that’s the dividing line between religion and secularism. I do indeed believe we are all, each of us, believer or not, God’s children, Amen. And I understand that is an opinion.

But to divide an earthly, theological “them” and “us,” we need ask only whether truth exists independent of our opinions.

The worldly “Them” runs on opinions. The worldly “Us” (since we are stuck for now in this worldly realm) worships truth.

Any religion, by definition, is the worship of a truth.

Yet, there is only one eternal, non-manmade Truth; there is only one figure in all of religion or theology or philosophy or opinion or history who showed up on earth and said, I am the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6), and that was Jesus Christ.

When we look at the truth as merely a thing, we can get away with equating it with an opinion. When Truth shows up in the person of God, well … that’s the final answer. The Truth is a separate, objective, complete entity.

In our human limitations, we can haggle over our opinion of what to make of that Truth, but we diminish our existence if God hands us a Truth and we trade it in for an opinion.

People do that with Christ. God gives Him to us, and we give Him back as just another opinion.

I doubt there is a Christian who hasn’t tried to prove the Truth by arguing against someone’s opinion, but the fact is you can’t prove truth with an opinion, because they are separate things.

That’s why a gulf exists between a believer who says “Truth exists” and good people who may believe something but won’t commit to Christ being the Truth because they so highly value their human opinion.

The good news is Christ is the Truth, and we don’t have to prove it.

We just have to believe it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) accepts the limits of his opinions and is thankful for the infinity of Christ’s Truth.

Life of the Party

Spirituality Column #111
December 23, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Life of the Party
By Bob Walters

And the Word became flesh … John 1:14

Above everything else, Christmas is a celebration of life.

Almost everyone in our culture, believing Christian or not, figures out a way to celebrate this “Winter Holiday” even if they can’t figure out what to do with Jesus: the Christ Child, co-equal in the Holy Trinity with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

We endure the tortured public rhetoric of political correctness – sure, sing a song in the school “Holiday” show that proclaims plainly “Christ the Savior is born,” but whatever you do … don’t call it a Christmas show – yet we all share the innate sense that there is something divinely special about us being alive.

God very obviously feels exactly the same way.

God came to us, through Jesus Christ, to save us. Yes, we are sinners and we needed to be saved in a way that we could not save ourselves – we cannot cure our own sin. But until we realize that God came because He loves us (John 3:16), not to punish us – Jesus, after all, is love – we cannot truly understand how very, very, very special this gift of life is.

Christ came because God knew we needed Him even though, as it says in John 1:10, “His own received Him not.” You can argue that “His own” refers to the Jews, since Jesus was in fact a Jew. But with the arrival of Christ, we all – Jew and Gentile – became “His own.”

Satan loves it when Christmas is about anything other than Christ. Satan – Mr. “Winter Holiday” – is the purveyor of death and darkness. In our God-given freedom, we find all kinds of ways to sin, to run from Christ and convince ourselves that dying with Satan through sin is better than living with God in light through Christ.

Do you get it? Satan equals Death. Christ equals Life … and Christ is the author of each of our lives because He, God, in fact became flesh like us.

That is the true meaning of Christmas.

The big deal at Christmas isn’t just that Jesus Christ is born, and born for everybody (again, see John 3:16).

The truly big deal at Christmas is accepting, believing and knowing that Jesus Christ is Life, Light and Lord.

Go tell that on a mountain.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wishes all a profoundly blessed and Merry Christmas. If you feel the magic, you feel Christ.

Life, Lights and Truth

Spirituality Column #110
December 16, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Life, Lights and Truth
By Bob Walters

And the Word became flesh … John 1:14

The flesh and blood arrival of Jesus Christ on earth as a human being – the Incarnation of Christ which we celebrate with Christmas – brought something brand new to the human experience: divine light and divine truth.

And something else: communion with God.

It’s a great example of the Bible’s consistency.

Think back for a moment to Genesis 1. Consider that God, with his Spirit hovering over the darkness of the deep, both created light and separated light from darkness on the first day. He didn’t get around to creating the sun and stars – the sources of physical light – until Day 4.

Now jump forward to John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The “Word” of course is Christ who became flesh, that part of the Holy Trinity which animates Creation, gives us life, breath, and freedom, and enables faith, hope and love.

What Genesis and John are saying is that Christ and the Holy Spirit are, from the beginning, with God. John 1:4-9 goes into some detail about light, and – read it again – is defining Christ as the Light of God we learn about in Genesis.

The light of goodness, the truth of knowing and our very lives are a great start to the infinite and eternal list of things God gives us in Christ.

Regarding our holiday season, I love Christmas lights. I think they are cheerful and poignant and sentimental and a wonderful expression of love. I could do without the fake deer and blow-up Santa’s, but the Christmas lights we put on our trees and houses are a bright reminder of the light and truth Christ brings into the world.

Sure, the date of Christmas is keyed to pagan festivals that celebrated the lengthening of the days after the winter solstice Dec. 21, not to the (likely) October or springtime birth of Christ.

But think … Who created the days? Who gave us life? And Who is the source of light and truth? The date doesn’t matter, because the gift is eternal.

Christ’s arrival showed us that God would come for us and show us a way to be in communion, despite our sins, with a God who is good, righteous and unchanging.

That is a truth that deserves to be put up in lights.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) rolls his eyes when he hears anyone suggest there is a more important symbolism of Light at Christmas than Jesus Christ.

Not A Word, THE Word

Spirituality Column #109
December 9, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Not A Word, THE Word
By Bob Walters

And the Word became flesh … John 1:14

When Jesus spoke, people listened.

Some were enraptured, many were enraged. Some believed, and many were incredulous. Some followed, some shunned, and some attacked.

Yet, they listened. His words were unlike anything heard in the history of mankind. His words talked of truth, light, life and eternity. They described a God of love and good, not wrath and power. Christ’s words spoke not of earthly goals for survival, but of a divine plan for salvation.

Jesus spoke, with human words, of His eternal Father and of His oneness with the Spirit of Life. He talked of humility and service. He revealed not only God but a new covenant of faith. He became flesh – a man – not only to save a needy world from death and sin, but also to call mankind to share in the divine glory of God.

It was radical stuff in the world of Jewish Law and Roman Rule 2,000 years ago. It is radical for all time.

Even in this day and age of instant, global, personal, mass communication, we too often dwell on the Bible’s words (Greek: rema), and miss the actual Word of God (Greek: Logos), Jesus Christ.

The Bible is the immutable word (small “w”) of God. Amen. I love the Bible, and even if you don’t love or even believe the Bible, you should read it: it’ll make you smarter. The Bible isn’t so much a rule book, a science book, or even a history or literature book. It is a relationship book; it describes God’s relationship with mankind.

And the key, top, No.1 component of that relationship is God’s Word (capital “W”), and that divine Word is the incarnate Christ Jesus, not the Bible.

This brings us back to John 1:14. The Bible presents good words, yes, but they are manmade words even as they express a Godly idea. Christ joining humanity (i.e., becoming flesh) brought to us the Word: a relationship with the Creator God, the Father Almighty. This is not something we could do on our own, and it is an action manmade words could never accomplish.

Read the Bible, go to Church, love your neighbor, take care of your family, and tend to your business, but don’t worship them. Worship God, and His Word.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is making a point about the true meaning of Christmas. This is the second of a four-part series.

Life, Time and Giving

Spirituality Column #108
December 2, 2008
Current in Carmel
Current in Westfield

Life, Time and Giving
By Bob Walters

And the Word became flesh … John 1:14

Time is a funny thing.

We rely on clocks and calendars and seasons, are immersed in a life that resides in time, and yet have no greater obstacle to understanding God than the fact that we are inside the constraints of time and He is not.

God operates in eternity; we look at our watch.

Lucky for us, Jesus Christ stepped into history – into our time – and in a very profound way eliminated the barrier of time in our relationship with God.

Christ’s incarnation – the very Word of God stepping into the flesh, mess, passion, confusion and time that is humanity – is the true meaning of Christmas and the greatest reason and cause for celebrating the birth of Jesus.

It is to our perpetual – what shall we call it … diminishment? – that the Christmas season is reduced to merely a time of year. We are in error if we focus only on this moment in time, when what God has handed to us – and put within us – is the perfect bridge from the confines of our earthly lives into the vast, inexpressible, and timeless glory of His eternal love.

Christmas is fun; and it’s a great publicity stunt for Jesus. The Christmas holiday creates community and helps us love one another … at least a little better, for at least a little bit of time.

But if we stop there, with celebrating a season, then we miss the unique and important part of “the Word” – God, becoming “Flesh” – Human, and how that frees us from the earthly shackle of time. The incarnation of Christ, and the resulting indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us, unites the one divinity and all of humanity for all time. That’s Christmas.

Time just got trumped for a larger world; eternity is as big as it gets.

We may think time is our most precious commodity, our most precious gift. But our time, in our own hands, is absolutely a non-renewable resource.

God’s eternity, given to us in the gift of Christ becoming man, means that God’s love is with us always. Not at this time or that time or only when we pray or buy Christmas presents … always.

Think about that the next time you look at your watch.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) figures that even if we still don’t understand God or God’s timing, we can find peace in not needing to be in a hurry.