Of Denials, Thorns and Truth

Spirituality Column #233
April 26, 2011
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville – Current in Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Of Denials, Thorns and Truth
By Bob Walters

Peter famously denies Christ three times (Matthew 26:69-75) in the pre-dawn hours of Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified.

Paul suffers a “thorn” in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7), described as a “messenger of Satan” to prevent Paul’s conceit in possessing the great revelations of Christ with which he is entrusted.

Whether by denials or thorns, don’t we all encounter temptations to fashion our own truths about God and ourselves despite the Bible’s plain instruction, revelation and truth of the primacy of Jesus Christ in our overall world and individual lives?

Every day we witness modern culture’s continuing academic, legal, social, and scientific broadsides on all things God, yet often it is from within the Christian community that the most disturbing and direct assaults on Jesus Christ emanate.

Here’s a huge church that doesn’t mention Christ. There’s a preacher who won’t preach against sin. Over on the best seller list is a book saying Hell won’t happen. Denials and thorns; Satan loves to see man worship at the altar of self-importance.

The danger in all this is not to God the Father, Christ the Son, or the Holy Spirit. The danger is to us, to people, to anyone led astray from the truth of Jesus Christ by the fuzzy theology of don’t-worry-be-happy pop-culture doctrines.

To be clear, I don’t think Hell is a doctrine. The Bible tells me Hell is a real place, no matter how many feel-good contemporary “Christian” preachers, writers and churches deny it. In these denials is Satan’s effort to whitewash the blood of Christ away from us. Whether we are planted in good spiritual soil or not, we all suffer the thorns of life’s challenges and worldly temptations with every breath we take.

I love God, trust Jesus, and pray with the Holy Spirit not because I fear Hell but because of the autonomy of love – God’s gift of freedom and truth embodied in Jesus Christ. Even amid my own self-interested denials and worldly thorns, that’s what my head, heart, trusted Christian mentors and Bible all lead me to do.

If we are led by any church, any book, any one or any thing that denies Hell, minimizes sin, does not challenge the wretchedness of our sin and tells us Christ isn’t Who the Bible says He is, well, then we had better be warned and take a hard look at who is holding the leash.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) just finished reading Pope Benedict XVI’s excellent book “Jesus of Nazareth, Part 2” and saw nothing citing Jesus Christ as an optional aspect of Church, or Hell as a mistranslation.

Words Fail Us at the Cross, Lent Part 7

Spirituality Column #232
April 19, 2011
Current in Carmel - Westfield - Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Lenten Series 2011: Just Not That into God, Part 7
Words Fail Us at the Cross
By Bob Walters

Some people are just not that into God because they have difficulty putting their faith into words.

So remember that faith is first about our relationship with God, not the words we use to describe faith. Like my mentor and friend George says, “Develop your relationship with God. The words will come later.”

Besides, the word “Word” among theologians is a confusing powder keg. Most regular folks are merely trying to communicate ideas or concepts with spoken or written words. But “Word” in the Bible – the Word of God – has many meanings with theologically intricate nuances such as Christ, message, spirit and prophecy.

This Easter week – Holy Week – we encounter the Cross of Jesus Christ. Words easily fail us if we rely on them to describe our deepest love, faith and hope we have in the redemptive relationship we receive in Jesus.

The Bible is full of words, yet is a book about relationships. Why the Triune Godhead (Father-Son-Holy Spirit)? Because God is community, relationship and love. Why the Covenant with Israel? To reveal a relational God. Why was Jesus born? To present eternal God as a humble servant capable of entering our history of human relationships. Why was Jesus crucified? To defeat death, erase our sins and restore relationship with God. And why the resurrection? To teach us the truth of salvation: that in faith our relationship with God extends infinitely past death.

Relationship, relationship, relationship. Not words. Christians throughout the centuries have fought over words: “nature,” “will,” and “worship” are common tinder for church debate. But Jesus wasn’t primarily about words. He was about living an example, dying for others, and living again in relationship with us. Jesus returned sinful mankind to communion – relationship – with the eternal Creator God.

The great danger of putting words before relationship is in evidence throughout the Christian landscape. We fight over words, even the ones in the Bible. Countless books, teachings, seminars, sermons and doctrines are full of words expressing countless ideas, concepts and gadget ways of doing this or that. Some are good, some are bad, some are heresies.

Jesus Christ is not an idea or a concept. He is a real, living person, the “Logos” Word of God with, in and through whom we are promised and invited into eternal, divine relationship with God in Heaven.

Know God first, then trust Him for the right words when you need them.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) wishes all a prayerful Holy Week and a blessed Easter. The Lord is Risen Indeed.

Perfect God is No Contradiction, Lent Part 6

Spirituality Column #231
April 12, 2011
Current in Carmel - Westfield - Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Lenten Series 2011: Just Not That into God, Part 6
Perfect God is No Contradiction
By Bob Walters

Some people are just not that into God because God seems to harbor so many contradictions.

Is He the Old Testament’s good and mighty God of Creation? The exasperated God of the Great Flood? The unfair God Who delivered Israel out of Egypt, made the Jews wander 40 years in the desert and ultimately denied His servant Moses entry into the Promised Land? The warlike God Who vanquished Israel’s unsuspecting foes from Canaan, but then banished disobedient Israel to Babylon? The abiding God of Psalms 51 and 91 Who delivers us from all trouble? Or the absent God of Psalm 88, Who leaves us despairing in the pit?

In the New Testament, utterly humble baby Jesus grows into a friendly, gentle man Who works miracles, picks fishermen and tax collectors for Apostles, ransacks the Temple, heals the lame, preaches never-before-heard truths, and leaves cryptic but indisputable proof that He is Christ, the Son of God; the fully human and fully divine Second Person of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit Trinity.

This glorious, eternal, innocent King of Kings is brutally murdered on the Cross – dead – then resurrected to life.

These evident contradictions lead some people to reject God, the Bible, or religion, or to diminish Jesus’ mission with theologically suicidal rules of engagement, e.g., “Don’t worry about Jesus or Hell. God saves all. Everyone goes to Heaven.”

Theologians through the ages have worked exhaustively on that idea, known by the Greek term “apocatastasis.” It means “everyone is restored” suggesting, bottom line, Christ’s work on the Cross was unnecessary because death and sin didn’t really need to be defeated. Now there’s a contradiction.

God does nothing unnecessarily, and underestimating Jesus’ sacrifice is a human death sentence.

So here’s the real deal. There is one unwavering, patient, faithful, good, loving and eternal God. He is Perfect, and God’s idea of “Perfect” is the Bible’s point. Our fallen, self-interested, worldly, human idea of “Perfect” is not.

We pine for our “Perfect.” Scripture reveals time and again, God insists on His.

The Bible’s overarching proposition is this – Which is better: God giving sinful man the Law to attain righteousness, or God giving sinful man Jesus Christ whose righteousness removes our sins?

The Bible, you see, reveals a New Covenant, not contradictions.
It takes work to understand the Bible, faith to understand Jesus, and belief to go to Heaven. The contradictions reside in us, not God.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com), a sinner, is humbly thankful for God’s love and securely trusts the Bible’s truth. Amen.

Demanding an Explanation, Lent Part 5

Spirituality Column #230
April 5, 2011
Current in Carmel - Westfield - Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Lenten Series 2011: Just Not That into God, Part 5
Demanding an Explanation
By Bob Walters

I was just not that into God for a long time because no one could explain specifically what God was supposed to be in my life.

Many caring people told me I “needed Jesus,” should “go to church,” had to “be saved,” proclaimed the “inerrancy of the Bible” and invoked the “sovereignty of God.”

I’d engage, arguing that I was basically a good person, didn’t trust organized religion, and pooh-poohed the whole “Jesus is the only way” mantra. “The way to where, and why?” I’d ask.

I’d dismiss the Bible as just an “old book” of generally decent advice and rejected the notion that anything or anyone was totally in charge of this often inexplicable world. Plus, the irrational math of the “three in one” Trinity was too bizarre to take seriously.

In sum, nobody’s explanation of their faith ever overcame my combination of self assuredness and skepticism.

Turns out … everybody who’s been there and understands say “Amen” … that nobody else can explain God’s place in our individual lives. Only we can sense it, believe it, know it. Only the ironic combination of self examination amid revelation, scripture, teaching, love, hope and raw faith can explain – to me – God’s overpowering presence in an individual life.

Thunder, lightening and drama are optional. My own epiphany 10 years ago while sitting quietly in church, outwardly, was little more than a tear on my cheek.

I just knew.

It’s such an unexpected equation. My walk with the Lord is mine alone, but only works when shared with others. One’s relationship with the Lord is formed in many ways, pieces and places – Church, the Bible, prayer, received instruction and preaching, service, patience, trust, investigation, reflection, study – but ultimately it is a one-on-one encounter with God that actuates one’s faith. We cannot install our own faith into someone else, not even with love.

What we can do – what Christians are called to do – is reflect the loving light of Jesus Christ on the world around us. We can introduce Jesus – “witness” – to others in many ways by sharing our story, citing scripture, preaching, praying, explaining, loving or serving, but faith cannot be forced … neither by my will nor another’s request. Only the Holy Spirit can answer that call.

So … make the call. And when the call is answered, listen.

No one else’s explanation will ever be as convincing as your own.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) received a surprising email recently from someone he worked with but barely knew back in the 1970s. ’Said they’d been praying for him all these years. Amazing.