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.

Judge Not, Lest Ye ... What?

Spirituality Column #208
November 2, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Judge Not, Lest Ye … What?
By Bob Walters

“Judge not, lest ye be judged.” (Matthew 7:1-2)

Is there a more widely celebrated scripture verse in society today?

Or one whose true meaning is more misunderstood?

My friend Brent Riggs’ “SeriousFaith.com” blog provides illuminating reading for any biblically literate believer. He says it’s illogical “not” to judge.

“People say, ‘the Bible says don’t judge.’ What the Bible says and means is ‘don’t judge … in a manner that will bring judgment on you.’ Everyone leaves out the second part,” Brent writes. “It means don’t judge in a way that 1) is hypocritical and 2) uses human standards instead of God’s divine standard that is above pettiness, selfishness and the agenda of man.”

“Don’t judge”? Nonsense. We have to judge. We have to discern. We have to develop smarts and discretion and wisdom. We have to judge – constantly – between good and evil, helpful and harmful, loving and unloving, right choice and wrong choice.

Psychology and sociology have unfortunately replaced theology and philosophy as the primary behavioral guiding lights in the Academy. The post-modern academic world of science and research universities constantly seeks to diminish, decentralize and compartmentalize truth. It abhors judgment based on the absolute moral authority of God. In its “judgment” – firmly and ironically – there are no God standards.

Perhaps, like me, you find it disturbing that these soft-science academics (along with journalists and pundits) pass for arbiters of ultimate worldly judgment guiding our cultural conversation on who can judge whom about what.

Why do we intellectually allow that? God’s standards are high, so why do we dumb down expectations of ourselves and each other, reacting to corrections and rebukes by misapplying a Biblical proof-text?

“Don’t judge.” Baloney. We may as well say it in the vernacular: “Get out of my face!” In other words, it’s not “Don’t judge,” but “Don’t judge me.”

My favorite definition of sin is “anything that falls short of God’s standards.” And God’s standards according to the Bible include declaring one’s faith in Jesus Christ, loving God, loving and serving others, and engaging one’s heart, soul and mind in pursuit of God’s truth, to gaze at the face of Christ.

Channeling Johnny Cochran, “Human standards are in dispute, while God’s standards are absolute.”

Saying “don’t judge” is akin to saying, “don’t think.” Even secularists know we have to think; believers know how comforting it is to think of God first.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) felt that a discussion on right judgment and God’s standards was appropriate on Election Day.

Sin and the World's Shortest Book

Spirituality Column #204
October 5, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Sin and the World’s Shortest Book
By Bob Walters

What is the world’s shortest book?

It’s not “Different Ways to Spell ‘Bob,’” “The Engineer’s Guide to Fashion” or “Al Gore, The Wild Years.”

And no, it’s not 3 John, the Bible’s shortest book.

The world’s shortest book is “Sins for Which Jesus Christ Did Not Die.”

Jesus, you see, died for them all (2 Corinthians 5:15, 1 Peter 3:18).

The human race is a motley lot. We seek Godly heights yet often stumble into the lowest of pits due to either our own sin or the fallenness of the world around us.

"We are,” to quote my worship minister friend Shockley Flick, “sinful, rebellious, willful, demanding, slow to learn, resistant to change, egocentric and sometimes just not very pleasant to be around.

“Yet,” he continues, “Jesus Christ, through His grace and love, reached out and lifted us up from our squalor to walk with Him.”

As Christians we are taught that we must deal with our sin, but sometimes forget that Jesus Christ has already dealt with our sin … all of it.

Every sinful thing we’ve done, are doing and will do is why Jesus died on the Cross. For the sake of our eternal salvation, our sin was forgiven, taken away, removed and erased.

The “debt” was cancelled on the Cross.

Despite this Biblical truth, non-believers scoff at Christ and salvation. Even some Christians cling to their own sin, wallow in their guilt, and speak somberly of their – or accusingly of someone else’s – “unresolved sin.” But that makes me want to ask, “What sins could anyone possibly have that Christ didn’t die for?”

In God’s eyes, Jesus Christ already resolved our sin by His sacrifice on the Cross. That forgiveness, that grace, is a gift for which humanity did not ask, but is a gift freely given to anyone who in faith believes and declares that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God and trusts Him as Lord and Savior.

Faith is the key. Trying to resolve one’s own sin, with effort or works, is a fool’s errand, a canard, an oxymoron, an impossibility.
We can’t resolve sin. Jesus can, and did.

Sin is death in each of our lives until we declare our faith in Jesus Christ, confess our sin, and live our life dedicated to His Glory rather than our effort, happiness and comfort.

That’s the long and short of it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) figured out years ago you can’t hide anything from Jesus. Confess, repent, worship, try to do better. Above all, have faith.

Sin, Knowledge, and Faith

Spirituality Column #203
September 28, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Sin, Knowledge, and Faith
By Bob Walters

Why does one believe in Jesus Christ?

Is it to:
a) Escape one’s sin,
b) Increase one’s knowledge, or
c) Because our faith tells us to?

Defining and justifying one’s belief in Christ can be a lonely, confusing enterprise.

Our increasingly schizophrenic, postmodern society systemically tries to both acknowledge truth and deny the existence of God, self-righteously insists on goodness but scoffs at morality, and smugly claims heaven as its own while rolling its clouded eyes cynically at the person of Jesus Christ.

But clear-eyed to Christ some of us are drawn. All are invited in grace, but the world tugs hard against the heart that hears the heavenly hearkening of Jesus.

Sin generates pleasure and fear, and fear pulls some toward the Cross. The pursuit of pleasure, of course, pulls the other direction.

If Jesus is presented merely as a “get out of jail” pass, some will misinterpret that as a divine call rather than the selfish, empty escape that it often is; for guilt always focuses on us, not the Lord.

Knowledge is the exclusive province of Christ. He is the Word of God from the beginning of the world (John 1:1), and knowing Christ – which is the New Covenant brought by Jesus – is the only way to know any part of God.

But alas … who pursues Christ in order to obtain knowledge? Secular science has replaced the throne of God as the public seat of knowledge. Where in science does one find grace, or mercy? Facts, please. Let us discover the facts.

“The postmoderns,” to quote Joe Bottum, “say there is neither Good, nor right and wrong.” Justice becomes an opinion or an open-variable equation. Do the math; there is no God.

Faith is an agonizingly simple enterprise. The intuitive examine their heart. The aware learn from experience. The intellectual study the evidence. God is near. Be still, and know it (Ps. 46:10).

Proving faith is agonizingly difficult. I can prove faith only as I can prove love … by my actions, by my joy, by the depth and fullness of my life. Yet the proof is in my heart and, like all eternal things, unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Believers may arrive at Christ’s hem quaking in guilty fear, or possibly seeking ultimate wisdom. How real and wonderful it is when the indefinable quality of faith animates the undeniable fact of God in our soul.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) weeps for those whose walk with the Lord is a guilt trip. The best answer is C.

Is a World of ‘Cool’ Killing Christ?

Spirituality Column #199
August 31, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Is a World of ‘Cool’ Killing Christ?
By Bob Walters

“World” in the Biblical sense can mean very good, godly things, or very bad, evil things.

For example, in John 3:16 we are assured God will save our world and us with it because He created it, He loves us, and in faith we are worth saving.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son … ”

Great! The world is good.

But then, “In this world you will have trouble.”

John 16:33 presents the world as a catch-all name for the bad stuff. Only God, in the person of Jesus Christ, can “overcome the world.”

Uh oh! The world is sin.

The Bible plainly credits God with all Creation, and at the same time lays the root and blame of all sin on “the world.” Any wonder why the Christian church has a hard time trying to figure out where it fits into the modern world?

The accomplished young magazine writer Brett McCracken (Christianity Today), has taken a thought-provoking and entertaining stab at sorting out the modern church world of fads and fashions in his first book, Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide.

The title, he writes, is a “nod to Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. McCracken recently finished writing Hipster at the Kilns, Lewis’s home near Oxford, England. The book was published this month.

Thankfully, the book is not about how to be a Christian hipster. It is a look at the history, pros, and cons of Christians trying to improve on the look and work of Jesus Christ through the lens of “cool.”

Ah yes. “Cool.” McCracken provides an intelligent conversation on how Christians try to synergize their faith with the world of intellectual fashion, cultural trends, technology, and marketing. All quantified with modern metrics, and a steaming café au lait on the side.

The history of the church has been riddled with heresies which were an expression of contemporary “cool.” Today, hipsters young and old walk out of churches, never to return. The church, you see, is too much like the world.

And eventually, the world will do something God won’t … go away.

Serious Christians will appreciate the depth and direction of McCracken’s conversation, and I pray hipsters will learn that Jesus Christ plays “cool” at a level unique in the history of mankind.

The world of Christ is a world worth seeing. Worldly cool won’t cut it.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) learned of this book in an Aug. 13, 2010 Wall Street Journal article, written by the author.

Too True, Too Wonderful, Too Hard

Spirituality Column #177
March 30, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Too True, Too Wonderful, Too Hard
By Bob Walters

When “The Passion of the Christ” was released in 2004, I joined hundreds of local folks at a pre-screening of the film.

When it first appeared in stores, I bought the DVD.

Now years after that first theater viewing, the DVD is still in the wrapper and I’ve never seen the movie again.

It was that kind of movie. Our sin is that kind of awful.

Too many people debate the wrong elements of that film. They complain it is anti-Jewish, it is too violent, it includes story elements that aren’t in the Bible, the androgynous Satan / serpent character is too creepy, the theology is “old school,” producer Mel Gibson got a DUI and drunkenly made racist comments, Gibson’s father is a nut-case Holocaust denier, conspiracy theorist, and Vatican II crank.

Satan just loves it when he can pull us off point.

You see, the point is that the Cross of Christ’s crucifixion shows us the reality of our sin, and the depth of God’s love. The truth is that the Cross of Christ is not a picture of God’s wrath; nor does the Bible anywhere call it punishment or payment. Christ on the Cross is a picture of God’s grace with Jesus bearing the infinite burden of our sins, erasing them with his death, and defeating death itself with His resurrection.

It was the world’s evil and the wickedness of man – Satan – that beat and bloodied Christ. Those are a fallen world’s sins and our individual brokenness for which sinless Jesus suffered pain and humiliation, which are so realistically, shockingly, disturbingly, horrendously and mercilessly depicted in The Passion of the Christ.

If we blame God – or Mel Gibson or his dad or the Church or the Jews – for what happened on the Cross, we are blame-shifting something for which we must take full responsibility, and for which we must be willing to claim in faith as the ultimate truth:

- That I am a sinner and Christ died so I wouldn’t have to.

- That the victory of the Cross is our freedom from death; our salvation.

Do I believe that? Oh yeah.

What the innocent Jesus – fully man and fully God – endured to provide my salvation could not have been God’s hate and retribution; it could only have been God’s love.

But oh, I loath being reminded how the victory was won.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) knows other people who saw the movie, and then bought the video but never watched it.

The Straight and Narrow

Spirituality Column #154
October 20, 2009
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

The Straight and Narrow
By Bob Walters

None of us should congratulate ourselves with righteous satisfaction simply for believing Jesus Christ is Who He says He is.

Satan knows more about the person of Jesus Christ – and exactly Who He is – than any of us possibly can. So, knowing Christ puts us about even with Satan, who thoroughly understands and willingly acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God.

What makes us different from Satan is that he can not, will not, and does not love Jesus, nor can Satan live eternally in Heaven with the loving God Almighty.

We can … if we want to.

As a practicing, believing and flawed Christian – I think that covers most of us who consider ourselves inside the global Christian communion – I am heartsick when I meet people seeking a “higher consciousness” or a “secret of life” in popular culture who dash past Christ trying to access precisely the things Christ promises.

We fear death. In Christ, we needn’t fear death.

We seek a purpose. In Christ, we have one: to love and glorify God by loving and glorifying each other.

We feel guilty for our sin. In Christ, we are forgiven our sin.

We search for truth. Jesus Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life.

Our intelligence, our creativity, our industriousness, our freedom, our love, our very being – are the creation of Christ. If you think there is any other possibility, get out your Bible and re-read Genesis 1-3 and John 1. The capital-W “Word of God” is Christ.

To Satan’s satisfaction, countless people and institutions around us labor mightily to put curves in a path we know in our hearts is only straight, and to widen a gate that we know in our hearts is only narrow. Philosophy and open-mindedness are virtuous until they rob us of the greatest of all spiritual gifts, the divine Holy Spirit without Whom we cannot fathom God’s love, Christ’s truth, or the Word of God in scripture.

At a funeral recently I heard a message delivered powerfully. “If you choose to lead this life with Christ, then you will spend eternity with Christ. If you choose not to live this life with Christ, then you will spend eternity without Christ. The hard part is, once we die, you don't get to choose.”

Satan is the robber baron of our eternal well being. Choose now, while you can.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) suggests reading 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. Love the truth and be saved.

Head-Bangin' Evangelism

Spirituality Column #149
September 15, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Head-Bangin’ Evangelism
By Bob Walters

Confronting our sin is an inescapable part of the Christian walk.

But why would anyone let confrontation define the entire journey?

Maybe because in Romans 14:10, St. Paul tells us we will “stand before the judgment seat of Christ." True stuff. And then there is Romans 1:18-32, a litany of God’s wrath and human failings. Scary stuff.

Plus, “evangelists” too often preach a terrifying “salvation” message of God’s wrath and man’s wretchedness, whether to bewildered non-believers or to believing Christians crippled by sermons dripping with “death by sin” rather than life by the Gospel light of Christ’s sacrifice, grace and mercy.

“You’re a sinner condemned to Hell … and that’s the good news,” quips one of my pastoral friends, tongue in cheek and aghast at the dark spectacle of evangelism by threat, guilt and wrath.

Nobody establishes a relationship, willingly, on that kind of a foundation. Yet too often we allow our most personal, precious hope – forgiveness of sins and eternal life – to be co-opted into obedience by fear rather than forming freedom fueled by God’s love.

“God’s mad at you so you better straighten up!” is not the central message of the Bible, and it’s not the central message of Christ.

The central message of the Bible is that each one of us – every single individual human being – is special to God, forgiven of our sins by the grace of Jesus Christ, and gifted by the Holy Spirit with a soul and access to eternal communion in heaven.

Not one of us can work – or worry – our way out of this sinful and fallen world. Thank God … and I mean, Thank God, we don’t have to.

Jesus did the heavy lifting of that one on the Cross.

With God’s gift of love, freedom and salvation so accessible, why would anyone sell it with fear, control and guilt? Why would anyone buy it?

John 14:6 plainly tells us Christ is the only path to salvation. Believe it.

Romans 8:1 reads, “There is … no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.” Trust it.

Certainly, be an example of Christian love. Learn to tell people of your faith. But, like 1 Peter 3:15, do it “… with gentleness and respect.”

Not a 2x4 to the head.

Sure … confront sin; but find joy in the Lord.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that we catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. “Evangelism” means “spreading good news" not "terrorizing sinners."

Thanks for Nothing

Spirituality Column #107
November 25, 2008
Current! in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current! in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Thanks for Nothing
By Bob Walters

There is nothing any of us can do to earn our salvation.

We may spend a ton of time worrying about it, but the fact is, God’s grace already has been defined for us in Jesus Christ. Our efforts to win salvation are not only vain, but also superfluous.

Our salvation – if we want it – is a done deal that cannot be undone; the Holy Spirit is alive, Christ is real and God does not change.

There are plenty of faith, hope and love actions we can do to make things go a little easier for us in this life – regardless of our circumstances – but our eternal destiny, entirely within our free will to receive, is entirely already taken care of.

In this Thanksgiving season, I don’t know how any of us can be more thankful for anything than that.

I spent a very large part of my life staying away from Christ. I didn’t want to be saddled with the caveats and confinements that I wrongly imagined to be the defining disciplines of Christianity: be afraid of God’s wrath, don’t sin, get up and go to church, forfeit free will and intellect.

Hmmm. Instead of God’s wrath, I now understand His love. Get up and go to church? I love getting up to go to church. Forfeit free will and intellect? I’ve discovered eternal freedom, and learned that the intellect of Christ is the most intense brainpower in the universe.

Sin? Well … I am a sinner. I’m aware of my sin and I know it will not now or ever go away because of my good works or intentions.

But … in God’s eyes my sin is already gone because Jesus Christ made it so (Romans 8:1). The point of His death on the Cross isn’t God’s wrath; it is God’s love. The Cross is not about Christ’s end; it is about mankind’s new beginning.

Now and forever, salvation is a gift that keeps on giving.

Like any gift, salvation is optional of course. We can’t earn it, but we do have to accept it. We aren’t sent to Hell; we walk away from God. Satan loves that.

Salvation is ours for the asking – a miracle – but you have to come and get it.

Think about that when they call you to Thanksgiving dinner.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) gives thanks to God for the love of our children, the grace of our being, and the beauty of this world. Amen.

The Open-Mindedness of God

Spirituality Column #94
August 26, 2008
Current in Carmel - Westfield newspaper

The Open-Mindedness of God
By Bob Walters

Adam and Eve’s sin wasn’t so much about the act of eating the fruit as it was about (1) disobeying God and (2) trying to be like God.

You can read this whole story in Genesis 2 and 3, but it seems very possible that God is more concerned about what we think than what we do.

This doesn’t mean it’s OK to sin (physical disobedience to God) as long as our faith (mental acceptance of God) is expressed. It’s not. God made that clear back in the Garden.

But in order for us to truly experience God, it is necessary to do it with more than just pure actions. We must do it with an open, not a closed mind.

We cheat ourselves if we make the mistake of putting God in a box – defining and limiting God to being what we want Him to be for our earthly and immediate desires. We have to be open to all that God can do.

It is far more than we can imagine.

Consider that God is eternal and therefore already knows everything, yet we still have freedom to seek Him or not to seek Him. It makes me think perhaps God has an open mind about us. He wants to see what we make of things.

The Bible tells me God created everyone, Jesus came for everyone, and the Holy Spirit is accessible to everyone. It excludes no one.

It also tells me that God doesn’t capture anyone. Even the 12 Apostles and Saint Paul made the decision to follow Christ, although in Paul’s case, Christ brought out the persuasive big stick (see Acts 9).

Considering whether God has an open mind, I look at our world God created and notice something astounding … no two of anything are exactly alike. Not two people, two trees, two mountains, two blades of grass, two butterflies or two snowflakes.

So why did God – who created a world of beauty and harmony and repeatedly pronounced everything as “good” (Genesis 1:4, 10,12,18, 21, 25 and 31), make absolutely everything different from everything else?

You may have a different thought on this, but I think it is because God has an open mind. The choice to follow Him is truly ours.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) points out that Genesis 2:17 identifies the forbidden fruit only as “the knowledge of good and evil,” i.e., judgment as a sin. That’s something else to think about.

Independent as Sin

Spirituality Column #91
August 5, 2008
Current in Carmel - Westfield

Independent as Sin
By Bob Walters

In our culture the words “freedom” and “independence” are virtually synonymous.

We might respectfully describe an especially non-conformist person as an “independent cuss.” A “freedom rider” in the 1960s was a socially conscious agent of change. Our “Declaration of Independence” laid out America’s utterly unique (and I believe God-ordained) roadmap to the magnificent human, economic and political freedoms we enjoy.

And yet, from a Biblical standpoint, the freedom we are to have in Christ, as children of God ordained by the Holy Spirit, is just about as opposite from human independence as one can spiritually get.

I’ve read the Bible cover-to-cover, re-read parts of it every day, attend organized Bible and theological classes or discussion at least twice a week, go to church, read daily devotions, am usually in the middle of one religious book or another, say grace before every meal, am involved in numerous church activities … and if it looks like I am just sitting there doing nothing, I’m probably praying.

This is to say that I am kind of a “gym-rat” when it comes to church, Bible study, personal growth and change in Christ, and theological education.

But for all the seeming spiritual contradictions, conundrums and mysteries I’ve encountered in my faith walk, the realization of the “opposite” natures of freedom and independence is right at the top of the list.

Our Biblical human freedoms are based around the fact that we are to be free to pursue God, have an individually personal and unique relationship with God, and be free to love God and others, in community, as the Holy Spirit directs.

God designed our hearts to be free to love God and love others.

The error Adam and Eve made in the garden – the biggest blunder of all time – was to mistake their freedom given by God to discover love, with the independence described by Satan to discover power.

All our temptations are exercises in independence. God wants us to be free to totally love and rely on him and each other. What He does not want is for us to be independent from Him.

We try to be free as birds, but too often are independent as sin.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) back in 2008 read “The Shack,” a whimsical story that warmly and clearly describes the beauty of freedom with God, and the coldness and danger of independence from God.

'God Loves Even You'

Spirituality Column #88
July 15, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current iIn Westfield (IN) newspaper

‘God Loves Even You’
By Bob Walters
Author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

In the gently rolling western Indiana farmland near Shades State Park one perfect, sunny day earlier this summer, a tidy country church had these words on its welcome sign:

“God loves even you.”

In the spirit of backhanded compliments like “Hey, your face is clearing up,” I considered the sign and burst out laughing. A question popped into my head:

Do you suppose God has a marketing department?

The obvious answer is: Yes He does. It’s called the Church.

With thousands of Christian “denominations” worldwide, it isn’t surprising that the “marketing” of the Christian message splits off in many directions.

“God loves even you” tells me this church fearlessly proclaims the Gospel truth that each of us is a sinner, and that no matter the hideousness of our individual squalor, Jesus Christ is the only avenue to a loving, personal and eternal relationship with God.

No serious, thinking Christian will deny our sin problem or our guilt, but I wonder if God’s marketing focus is better stated in the famous John 3:16 …

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Then there’s the oft-overlooked John 3:17:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Notice that sin is not mentioned. Condemnation is negated. Love and salvation compose the cornerstone of this passage, and of Christianity.

I suppose we each figure that in our sinfulness we are condemned … and well, OK, we are. That’s our guilt. But churches that market God’s product of love and salvation with a tagline hook focused on sin and guilt – and there are plenty of them – too often focus our Christian walk on our own sin, and therefore on our own works, and therefore on ourselves.

The danger is that if we focus only on our sin, we miss the more important and central point of God’s overwhelming love.

Simply knowing I’m a sinner will not put me in a church pew, or see me through tough times.

Knowing God loves me, will.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) once read that two things have to be present for humor to exist: truth and surprise. It was assuredly his own arrogance that made him laugh at the sign.

Spiritual Nutrition

Spirituality Column #83
June 10, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Spiritual Nutrition
By Bob Walters

The great banquet of the Holy Spirit, the source of our spiritual nutrition, exists in our very real and palpable relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Things that enhance that relationship – the Bible, church, humility, service, prayer (the list is long) – feed our faith and both deepen and strengthen our commitment to walking the joyous but often hard steps of the true Christian life.

What steps?

Just take the examples of Christ in the Bible. That’s the most accurate picture of what a walk with God is supposed to look like. We all want the reception with palm leaves; but it’s that walk to the Cross that ultimately defines our faith. We need nutrition for that walk.

I’m not sure we’re going to need nutrition in Heaven, or in Hell, for that matter. Nutrition seems to be the stuff of this life, not the next. The Bible does not reveal a precisely recognizable nature of how the perfection of our eternal relationship with God works (“No eye has seen …” etc., 1 Corinthians 2:9), but there is no hint that it continues to be, on either our part or God’s, a work in progress.

At that point it’s a done deal.

Between the Bible, Christian traditions and my faith, I have no lingering doubts God has the eternity thing all figured out. My hunch is that he saves that part of the mystery for the end because … duh … it’s the best part.

But here and now is when developing that relationship provides the spiritual nutrition for our walk, both through the imperfections of our own lives in this fallen world, and for the hope we find in the glimmers of our potential for goodness in a beautiful world God created for us.

If we are having difficulty being certain of our relationship with God, we should look at the elemental components of how we build relationships with each other:
- we nourish relationships with love and grace and trust,
- we choke relationships with sin and fear and guilt.

It seems obvious which is the more nourishing three-course communion meal.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), who has been putting on weight lately, neither ignores sin nor makes it the center of his spiritual life.

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him ..."
1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)

Necessary Evil

Spirituality Column #72
March 25, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper

Necessary Evil
By Bob Walters

The Bible tells me …
Creation is real, Heaven is real, and Hell is real.

I don’t thoroughly understand any of them, but I do know that Creation and Heaven are not threats or warnings; they both embody God’s goodness. I’m fairly certain that ignoring them will only lessen the joy of my experience with God here on earth, not create eternal ramifications for my salvation.

The specifics of Hell, on the other hand, demand our undivided attention at least once in a while because if we miss God’s message on Hell, we can and very likely will stumble into very deep doo doo for all eternity.

Frankly, I don’t spend a lot of my Christian faith-walk fearing Hell because I wasn’t frightened into the faith by threats of damnation. I was intellectually drawn to Christ by a preponderance of both evidence and emotion that acted on my heart, mind and soul, telling me that access to God, through Christ, with the Holy Spirit alive within me, was how I wanted to live my life.

Now, none of that means I’m not a sinner yet today; I am. So it’s necessary to take a moment every now and then to contemplate the awfulness of sin and what, exactly, Hell is. “Eternal damnation” is a hackneyed church phrase that does not paint a cogent – or ugly enough – picture.

Hell is where sin plays its home games. Hell is inescapable once you’re there. It’s not just fire; it’s a furnace with intensified and perpetual heat. It is complete aloneness, hopelessness and shame. It is awake, not unconscious. It is death, and you are aware of it. It is where God, over and over again in scripture, promises that he vanquishes souls who reject him.

A lot of churches ignore Hell. Shoot, a lot of churches ignore sin.

But if the Bible is your standard of what God promises, study up on what scripture says about Hell.

A Christian blogger I like named Brent Riggs has a succinct four-part teaching on what the Bible says about Hell at seriousfaith.com, search “040722.”

I don’t follow Christ because I fear Hell, but it’s a special kind of crazy to ignore Christ because you don’t fear Hell.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) fully appreciates how uncomfortable it is to contemplate Hell. Can you imagine what it’s like to be there?

Simple Question

Spirituality Column #70
March 11, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper

Simple Question
By Bob Walters

Let’s ask the great theological question:

Are we humans basically good, or basically bad?

I’m going to go with “basically good,” because we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27, 2:7) who the Bible convinces me is a loving and good God, and who – the Bible insists (John 3:16) – desires a perfect and eternal relationship with each one of us.

There’s just that pesky “sinful nature” and unavoidable “death” (“the wages of sin is death,” Romans 6:23) that we can’t seem to shake off.

So, if we are basically good, why do we need Christ? Because we have free will and we sin and we have doubts and we create all kinds of physical and spiritual mayhem all over the world. And because Christ very simply – whether we prefer to believe we are good or bad – is the access path to God.

That’s why He was sent here.

It bothers me to think that Christ would go through the ordeal of the cross if we were basically bad. We must be worth something to God.

And if we are to hope in anything, isn’t “good” hope’s foundation? I rarely hope for anything bad to happen, even to people I don’t like. “Bad” and “hope” just don’t go together.

Plenty of people are convinced that they themselves are the good and that God must be the bad because awful things happen – in the Bible and in the present world around us – and how can a good God let awful things happen?

That, my friends, is a very human – and very flawed – way to see life.

Do we carry Adam’s sin in us? Yes, it certainly seems so. And it is a fact beyond discussion that the curse of Adam’s sin is death; not only of us humans, but for all of creation (Genesis 3, Romans 8:22). The phrase isn’t “fallen humans,” it’s “fallen world.”

There is no sin in the first two books of the Bible (Genesis 1 and 2) nor in the last two (Revelation 21 and 22). The story starts good, and ends good.

As for this time in the middle, it sure is a comfort knowing Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) thinks the point of life is to learn to love God, and each other, no matter what happens.

Pride, Patience & Humility

Spirituality Column #33
June 26, 2007
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper

Pride, Patience and Humilty
By Bob Walters

I hate to admit it, but I know more about pride than patience or humility.

That's exactly the reverse of what Christ tells us about living a Godly life.

As our perfect example, Christ is without pride, has unlimited patience and lived on this earth in total humility.

The Bible gives us many standards for a faith-based, Godly life:

Abide in Christ. Be humble. Serve the Lord. Have faith. Love one another.

Pride means we are trusting our self instead of God, and therefore very likely bearing a burden or anxiety – unnecessarily – that Christ’s death has already removed.

Patience means we are trusting the Lord; and truly trusting in the Lord means you’ll never have a problem with pride or fear or doubt because you know that God, not you, is in control and you trust Him totally. (That’s a really tough one.)

Humility means you don’t worry about yourself; you worry only about God’s will.

This is gibberish to a non-believer, I realize. Christians – because Christ the perfect God / perfect man is eternally interceding with God – believe God is in control of their individual lives. “God is in control” is an especially tough truth when you or a loved one is hurting. Or even if you’re just impatient.

Pride is the king of sins because we strongly pursue our self interest instead of God’s commands. That’s what happened in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3) when Adam and Eve were tempted to doubt God’s goodness.

Impatience is my personal specialty, because when I see something I want …

Uh, good time to bring up humility – what “I want” isn’t important. How can I figure out what God wants?

Reading the Bible, asking God in prayer, and then listening for His voice, is a great place to start.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a Carmel resident, reads Philippians 4:4-7 every day. Also, see Galatians 5:22-23.

Why Christ Had To Die

Spirituality Column #29
Current! In Carmel (IN) Newspaper
May 29, 2007

Why Christ Had To Die
By Bob Walters

Why did Christ have to die?

Anyone who is familiar with the Christian religion will tell you that Christ died to forgive our sins.

OK. But why did he have to die? Why couldn’t God Almighty just say, “OK, you are all forgiven of your sins,” and be done with it? What was it about God’s plan for our salvation that required Jesus to die?

The answer is: Christ had to die to conquer death itself. There was even more at stake on the Cross than our awful sins and the fallen nature of the entire creation. Our eternal lives were at stake.

Christ had to die to beat death itself.

When we read the Gospel accounts of Christ’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t God’s punishment of Adam and Eve that made them sinners, Satan made them sinners (Genesis 3).

They were not created to die, but when they sinned God banished them (and all of us) from the Garden of Eden, and that banishment brought death into the world. (Genesis 3:3, 4, 19).

“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). That’s a hard one because, remember, it is not God who makes us sin. It is, however … um … God who makes us die. No matter how sinless or good (or horrid or bad) any one of us may be, we are going to die because, no thanks to Adam and Eve’s sin, we are banished from the Garden.

Christ comes into the picture – and this is why they call the Gospels “Good News” – to do more than forgive our sin. He died a horrible death that totaled the depravity of the sins of the world and in that gave us renewed life and fellowship with God.

With Christ’s death, He defeated death.

We need to remember to thank Him, and praise Him, for that.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a Carmel resident, expects many of his Christian friends to argue with him over the finer points of sin, death, forgiveness, salvation and eternal life.