Dying So We Can Live

Spirituality Column #129
April 28, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Dying So We Can Live
By Bob Walters

Living fabulously takes a ton of pride and discipline and luck, if we are talking about the world’s standards.

God’s standards, on the other hand, must be beyond anything we can imagine.

Fabulous, I’m pretty sure, doesn’t begin to describe heaven, divine forgiveness, or eternity in a loving relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

Pride and discipline and luck won’t get you to heaven. Many would agree with “pride and luck” being worldly, but think “discipline” is a ticket to heaven. Discipline is important, but only if it is discipline of faith.

Having discipline to work hard, even for the Lord, is still just discipline, and still just work.

Faith, forgiveness, humility, grace, mercy … this is the face of the Christian walk. Yet aren’t we often stuck on fabulous? I know I am.

These things are swirling around in my head because I just finished reading the mystical, spiritual Christian classic, “The Imitation of Christ.” Hailed as the “second most published book in history” next to the Bible, it dates to 1418 and is credited to Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) near Cologne, Germany.

This isn’t a book to read before gaining personal familiarity and affinity for the Bible. I believe the Bible is entirely true, but it’s a tough read. Especially the parts that tell us to deny self, die to self, humble ourselves, and hate the world in order to serve God. “Dying to self” is not something I do easily.

“Imitation” is a thoughtful reflection on all these things, and includes a conversation in the voices of both a Disciple and Christ. Given the dust-up in 2008 over the breezy treatment of the Trinity in “The Shack,” I asked friend, mentor, Bible scholar, church history expert and local neighbor Dr. George Bebawi why “Imitation” does not scandalize the “voice of Christ.”

“The mystics of the Middle Ages are the undisputed treasure of Christianity,” George offered. “They speak to love, forgiveness, humility – topics people don’t debate – rather than to major or minor doctrines which divide us. Our union with and light in Christ is not a disputed doctrine.”

As to “the voice of Christ,” Bebawi reminds, “Christ did not go into a retreat of silence after the New Testament. He speaks to every believer’s heart. The voice of Christ in the inner life is an accepted fact.”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) suggests keeping a highlighter handy while reading “The Imitation of Christ.”

How We Know We Know

Spirituality Column #128
April 21, 2009
Current in Carmel - Westfield (IN) newspaper

How We Know We Know
By Bob Walters

English poet Thomas Gray secularly wrote, “Ignorance is bliss.” Psalm 14:1 in the Bible faithfully advises, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

There is no shortage of people around us who think not knowing Christ is a lot easier and, well, saner, than knowing Him. But even for believers there is a pesky question:

How do we know what we know?

If one is seeking comfort in the knowledge of Christ, the reality of the Cross – man’s brutality and God’s love – is a scary and mystical proposition that does not immediately invite comfort, or easy defense.

But even with the courage to face Christ, the energy to engage the Holy Spirit and the wisdom to accept God’s word as the ultimate moral truth, there is no way to measure our understanding of the Divine.

That’s OK. Christ isn’t about measurement. He’s about faith … and love.

Believers generally want to know everything they can about the blissfulness, peace and challenges of truly knowing God. That’s one of the easy self-tests of whether one is a believer or a seeker. How thirsty am I?

In possibly the same moment, one might wonder if the faith deep in our souls is the real deal, the real God. Is the Holy Spirit providing real light on our deepest spiritual questions?

These are intensely personal issues, even in light of the fact that as believers we are members of a community, the church, the Bride of Christ. We are saved one at a time because Christ loves us one at a time.

Newsweek magazine reports that Christian political influence is dwindling in our culture. Fine. Romans 13 is just one of several places in the Bible that plainly tells Christians not to seek political influence. Jesus did not come for the nations – “They are a drop in a bucket” (Isaiah 40:15) – He came for our individual souls.

Plainly Christ didn’t come for political glory. His glory was and still is in providing us with a sin-free, eternal and loving relationship with God; we are forgiven. Politics always seems to be looking for someone to blame.

The best way for us to glorify Christ is to love Him above all else, and to love each other, no matter what. If we can trust that, politics becomes a minor annoyance, our faith is secure, and we, lovingly, know what we know.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that politics so often seems to be the perfect antidote for love and forgiveness.

Season of the Holy Spirit

Spirituality Column #127
April 14, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Season of the Holy Spirit
By Bob Walters
Author of the book: Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Easter was a couple of days ago; the Lord is Risen indeed.

So what happens now? The Holy Spirit happens.

It is the Holy Spirit that quickens our living, breathing souls with our belief in God and our faith in the eternal salvation promised by Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity – fully God – and provides us with the emotional and intellectual ability to understand the Word of God: Christ’s truth in our hearts.

On the day Christ rose from the dead, Jesus began to breathe the Holy Spirit into the lives of His disciples so their eyes and hearts would finally be opened to the enormous truth of salvation, and the infinite glory of God.

Let’s review that first Easter Sunday. Resurrected from the dead, Jesus Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb (John 20:14) on the morning of “the first day of the week” (Sunday), appeared to disciples Cleopas and Luke on the road to Emmaus that afternoon (Luke 24:13:32), and appeared to a gathering of disciples in a locked room that evening (John 20:19), eating with them (Luke 24:43).

At the tomb, on the road, and in the locked room, Jesus was not immediately recognized; not even by disciples He had told in multiple ways that He would die and come back to life to assure their own Heavenly eternal life in the presence of God.

These were pretty big stakes; pretty plainly explained.

And the disciples missed it.

Teachable moment: Jesus specifically and of His own will came to the disciples on the very day of His resurrection and they, at first, missed the fact it was Jesus. Let’s try not to miss Jesus when He shows up in our lives … and He does, you know.

In that locked room Jesus gave the disciples the divine gift that keeps on giving; that animates Christian beliefs and has changed the course of human history – He breathed the Holy Spirit into them (John 20-22).

Forty days later was Christ’s Ascension to heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father (Acts 1). At 50 days – the Pentecost – God sent the gift of the Holy Spirit to all, so that all might believe (Acts 2).

Want to hear from the Holy Spirit? Confess faith in Christ, pray … and listen.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wonders if the Holy Spirit minds that we don’t make a big deal out of Pentecost, when Jesus gets Christmas and Easter.

Closer Than You Think

Spirituality Column #126
April 7, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Closer Than You Think
By Bob Walters

I beg to differ with anyone who thinks the Wondrous Cross of Christ sits on a hill far away.

The Cross is situated right here, right now, in the center of our beating hearts.

That’s a good thing, and a miserable thing.

It’s miserable because up there on the Cross – scourged, bleeding and gasping for breath – is the totality of our human wrath and the ugliness of our sins. It’s the most disturbing picture imaginable of what our sin and unfaithfulness would look like to God, if in fact He were able to look upon them.

Jesus – God become flesh (John 1:14) – could see sin and came among us to provide a resolution for the biggest catastrophe to befall humanity. Some think that catastrophe is sin, but the biggest catastrophe is death; it forever separates us from God.

No way do I believe that the horror of the Cross is a picture of God’s wrath; it is a picture both of our sin – man scourged Jesus – and what God is willing to endure to cure death. Not just that one time on a Cross on a distant patch of dirt, but every moment of every day for all eternity for every person who turns in faith to Jesus Christ.

The goodness of keeping the Cross always in our hearts is that it shows us the pure, unconditional, eternal love of God.

Is Jesus being punished for our sins? No, there is nothing in the Bible to suggest punishment. Besides, who can punish God? Jesus is defeating death, removing our sins, establishing a new covenant between man and God, birthing a new creation, and – with his resurrection – fulfilling the promise of eternal life for all who believe.

Christ is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Old Testament lambs didn’t do that; Christ is a new kind of Lamb.

We still sin. I’m a sinner. News flash: we’re all sinners. Sin’s the biggest problem we have in this life, and its ugliness is right up there on the Cross.

But with faith in Christ death is defeated, our hearts are changed, sin’s grip on this life is lessened … and with faith in Christ, eternity comes without sin.

That’s why we should hold that old rugged Cross close every second. It’s a lousy picture of ourselves, but proof God loves us anyway.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) archives these weekly columns at www.believerbob.blogspot.com.