Audience: Cornelius, his family, and close friends—all Gentiles (that is, non-Jews)
Preceding Events: Through a dream, God tells Peter to go to Cornelius’s house.
Overall Theme: God makes no distinction between people; traditional barriers have been broken, everyone can come to Jesus.
Scripture Quoted: none (as a non-Jewish audience, citing the Bible would not likely have been helpful to those listening)
Central Teaching: God shows no favoritism.
Subsequent Events: When Paul says “everyone who believes in him…,” his message is interrupted by the Holy Spirit, who comes upon the Gentiles who have just believed.
Key Lesson: Don’t allow our past or perceptions to dictate who we interact with; Jesus is for everyone.
Peter had to set aside his traditions and the law of Moses to do what God told him.
How often do our expectations, customs, and practices get in the way of us doing what God wants us to do? Do our unexamined perspectives block us from seeing things as God sees things?
May we do all we can to remove our blinders and accomplish God’s will.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Applying the Fairytale Story of Cinderella to Esther Disrespects Her Situation
I’ve always liked the story of Queen Esther. She’s an ordinary girl who wins a national beauty pageant and becomes queen. If this story seems familiar, consider the fairytale story of Cinderella.
The two have much in common.
Both are orphans.
Both are raised by a relative.
Both are beautiful.
Both are common people.
Both have an improbable, amazing interaction with royalty.
Both are elevated to a high position.
Given all this, in my imagination, I’ve ascribed to Esther a Cinderella-like romanticism, with Esther and the king falling in love and living happily ever after.
Alas, this isn’t what the Bible says.
The biblical account of Esther doesn’t mention love. It fails to include any hint of happiness. Let’s review some more facts:
Forcibly relocated to a foreign land, Esther and her people are victims of war.
Esther doesn’t opt to take part in the beauty contest. All attractive virgins must participate. Her involvement is unwilling and more akin to slavery.
Esther’s heritage prohibits her from marrying outside her faith. To do so is a shameful and disobedient act.
Contrast Cinderella to Queen Esther
Whereas the prince rescues a Cinderella from a subservient life under her unloving stepmother, the king removes Esther from a loving life with her guardian Mordechai to make her subservient to the king’s sexual whims.
Add to this some reasonable conclusions about Esther’s relationship with the king:
Even after she becomes queen, he continues to enjoy the company of other women in his harem.
She and the king don’t have regular interaction. He hasn’t summoned her for thirty days.
She fears him. She faces execution by merely approaching him without permission.
Esther’s elevation to queen isn’t to give her a grand life and make all her dreams come true. Instead God uses it to put her in a position where she can influence the king to save her people from annihilation.
Queen Esther is a hero to her people, despite personally forced into a life she doesn’t want to live.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Plan to Read Scripture to Feed Your Soul and Inform Your Life
I’ve read the Bible most of my life. It’s been a huge part of my faith journey. To be clear, this started out with my parents reading to me: one Bible story each night before I went to bed. This helped me know God’s Word at an early age and prepared me to read it on my own.
To be sure, during my days in elementary school, I read Scripture infrequently. This was because my preteen mind found the language of the King James Bible largely inaccessible and mostly confusing.
What little Bible reading I did in my preteen years was more drudgery than anything else. I learned little from it.
Read the New Testament
By the time I hit middle school, however, more accessible translations became available, at least for the New Testament. Mirroring my experience as a preschooler, I set a goal to read the Bible each night before I went to bed.
Eventually I worked my way through the New Testament. It took me a couple years because some nights I was too tired to read and other nights I forgot. But eventually I finished.
In case you’re interested, reading a chapter each weekday will get you through the New Testament in a year. It only takes two or three minutes to read one chapter. Surely this is a doable task.
Read the Entire Bible
By the time I reached high school, the Old and New Testaments were available to me in more language-friendly versions. The summer of my fifteenth year, I set the goal to read the entire Bible before school resumed.
This was before I got my driver’s license. I was stuck home all day, scrambling to find something worthwhile to consume my time.
Reading an hour most every day, I reached the end of Revelation in mid-August, a couple weeks before it was time to go back to school. Mission accomplished.
I later learned that the average adult reader can read the entire Bible in about 80 hours. I proved that claim to be correct.
Making Time to Read the Bible
If you think an hour a day is unreasonable for anyone except a bored teenager on a mission, let me ask three questions.
How much time do you spend each day watching television?
How much time do you spend each day gaming?
How much time do you spend each day on social media? I suspect one or more of these areas consumes more than an hour of your time each day. Perhaps several.
The solution is simple. Cut back on entertainment and scale up to read the Bible. That doesn’t mean eliminate all television, gaming, and social media. It’s just a nudge to scale back and not let it consume so much time.
In my first reading of the whole Bible, I covered many familiar passages, albeit in more detail than my children’s Bible story book provided. I also discovered the less kid-appropriate passages too.
I assumed reading the entire Bible was a once-and-done effort. Even so, when I finished, I reverted to my nighttime Bible reading effort, albeit at a much slower pace: one chapter a day.
Though I met with better success then when I was in middle school, I still struggled. I found it hard to concentrate on the words in front of me as I fought off sleep. For some reason I could read fiction at bedtime but not the Bible.
Deciding When to Read the Bible
As an adult and a morning person, I switched my Bible reading to the start of each day. This fit me better—much better. I was more consistent in this practice and less fatigued by it. I learned more and better connected with God.
In my mid-twenties I felt the call from God to again read the entire Bible. This time my goal was to do it in a year. It took me twelve to fifteen minutes every day, but I did finish. Relieved to have met my goal, I was also delighted to no longer need to cover so much Scripture every day. I needed a break. Or so I thought.
It wasn’t long, however, before I felt God’s nudge to resume intentional Bible reading each day. That year I read through the New Testament. The following year I read through the Old Testament (ten to twelve minutes a day). The third year I again read the Old and New Testaments.
Pick a Version
Though I grew up hearing the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, I never used it when reading through Scripture. Today I mostly read from and study the New International Version (NIV).
Yet in my annual explorations of the Bible, I’ve used other versions or translations and benefited greatly. Each one gave me a fresh perspective on the text.
In addition to the NIV, I’ve also used the New Living Translation (NLV), The Message, Amplified Bible, and The Living Bible (which I wore out as a teenager). I think there have been a few others that I can’t recall.
The point is, don’t feel you must restrict yourself to one version. Mix it up. Variety is good.
Adjust as Needed
Since that time, I’ve had a Bible reading plan every year—except for a season when I didn’t. Here’s what happened: After a couple decades of regular, daily Bible reading, I became stuck. I would read the words but failed to comprehend them.
I persisted Bible reading as a discipline, assuming I would one day emerge from my rut of routine to reclaim the joy of reading the Bible each day. When it didn’t happen, I switched to reading other inspirational books for a time until I felt I could successfully resume my exploration of Scripture.
Rejuvenated, I jumped back in and persisted for a decade or so. But again, the day-to-day Bible-reading discipline eventually threatened to push me back into a rut. Refusing to allow that to happen, I decided to take one day off each week.
Instead of reading seven days a week, I now read six. In essence, I took a Sabbath rest from reading the Bible. Lest you think this day off happens on Sunday, Saturday works as a better day for me to pause my study of Scripture.
Taking a break one day each week prepares me to better embrace God’s word, study it, and learn from it on the other six.
I can hear someone complaining already: just as you feed your body each day, you must feed your soul each day too. Since you would never skip a meal, you can’t skip the Bible either. Hold on.
On most weeks I do take a daily break from food. I do a 24-hour fast. (In case you’re interested, my fast currently falls on Fridays.)
Reading my Bible each day, Sunday through Friday provides a great rhythm for me. I take a break on Saturday, which prepares me to dive back in the next week. The timing is ideal for me. I’ve now done it for years.
What does vary from year to year, however, is how much I read each day. Though usually I’m on a plan to read the entire Bible in the year, other times I slow my pace to cover the New Testament or even to focus intently on just a few books of the Bible.
Form a Habit of Reading the Bible
Doing this, I’ve read the New Testament about thirty times, the Old Testament twice, and the entire Bible more than ten times. It’s taken me a lifetime to reach these numbers. I plan to continue this habit for the rest of my life.
But don’t look at my lifetime of Bible reading and let it overwhelm you. Instead start small.
Read the Bible one day. Then read it a second day. Aim for a third. Keep the streak going. Form a habit. Soon daily Bible reading will become a way of life that you can’t do without.
Read through the Bible with me this year. Download the chronological Bible reading plan I will follow. (In case you’re wondering, to make this work for my schedule, I need to do seven days of reading every six, so that I can take Sunday off.)
Regardless of which option you choose, the goal is to have a plan to read the Bible this year.
Then do it.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #37.
This small church likes to sing, and they’ve built a strong community that cares for one another. However, this church stands out for two other reasons.
First, as exemplified by the ragtime vibe of the music, it felt as though we were transported to another time. Candy called it a hoedown. This experience was one of our more unusual ones in all fifty-two churches.
The other issue was the appearance and condition of the building. From the road it looked abandoned. The inside showed signs of neglect and disrepair; the facility felt dirty.
Despite wearing blue jeans, I was reluctant to sit down on the grimy, stained padding of the pews. I didn’t even want to touch anything, and the first thing I did when I returned home was to wash my hands.
I’m sure the regulars overlook the filthy conditions, but dirt was the main thing I saw. And if formed my chief memory of my visit. There are so many ways that a church can scare off a visitor. Don’t let a dirty building be one of them.
Give your facility a serious church cleaning. Your visitors will appreciate it.
My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Central Teaching: The news about Jesus is for all people (both Jews and Gentiles).
Subsequent Events: Paul and his companions are invited back, but opposition mounts against them and they are driven away. Nevertheless, their message spreads throughout the region.
Key Lesson: Be ready to speak of Jesus when the opportunity is presented—and ready to leave when the opportunity to speak is withdrawn.
We must be vigilant and ready to act or speak when God provides an opening for us. If we’re not, we may lose the opportunity to do so. If we delay, the door may shut, and it will be too late to reopen it.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
I’ve talked about the need for theological diversity in our churches. While we need to embrace those who hold different understandings of Jesus, we perhaps need to adopt a separate view of the behaviors of people who live contrary to God’s word.
Or maybe not. Instead, we need to warn one another in love.
Paul touches on this in his second letter to the church in Thessalonica. He tells them to stay away from those who do not follow his instructions. He specifically refers to what he says in that particular letter.
However, by extension, we could assume he means all the commands in the Bible.
But this might be dangerous, for we read the Bible through the lens of our experiences and not with the comprehension of the original audience or their situation.
It’s too easy to see what we want to see when we read the Bible and miss what God actually wants to communicate.
Even more worrisome is to imply that these verses offer a principal that we are to avoid those who don’t follow the words of their church leaders or spiritual guides. But this becomes even more problematic.
People are fallible, and many religious leaders have led their flocks astray by demanding compliance to some misguided belief. Don’t drink their Kool-Aid.
Who Is in Error?
We need to proceed with the utmost care before we criticize the actions of fellow believers. After all, we could be the ones in error.
If we do feel we must move in this direction, we should advance with great caution and follow Paul’s teaching in this matter: We are to not view these folks as an enemy but as a brother who needs a gentle warning.
We need to warn one another in love
I say it again, if other Christians don’t behave like we think they should, they are not the enemy. If we say anything, we need to warn them in love and not with self-righteous indignation.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Earlier this month I took part in the Victorious Christian Conference, hosted by Emily Louis. My session was a “Fresh Perspective of the Bible and God.” We covered that and a lot more.
Though I don’t like seeing myself on video or listening to a recording of my voice, I did enjoy my interaction with Emily and our faith discussion.
I pray you’ll get something useful from our words. Here’s the video of the session.
Here are some of the other speakers at the conference:
R. Christian Bohlen: “Letting the Life of Jesus Shape Our Lives”
Mimika Cooney: “Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things for God”
Entrice Rowe: “Relational Prayer”
Wendy Snyder: “Relating to God as our Father”
Rick Torrison: “Created for More/Our Identity in Christ”
Daniel Lancaster: “Shame Is a Liar”
Kim Vollendorf: “Who God Says We Are”
If you want to hear their sessions at the Conference, it’s not too late. A backstage pass is available.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Ever since our daughter was born, I knew I should pray for her, as well as for her brother, when he came along. I did pray for them—when I thought of it—which wasn’t very often.
I felt guilty for not doing what I knew I should do. And when I did pray, my prayers were always the same. My words repeated. They felt stale. When it came to praying for our children, I was stuck in a rut.
Praying for Our Children
When the oldest was in middle school, her youth group leader gave us a handout. Titled “Things I Pray for My Children,” it listed twenty-three items to guide our prayers. I began praying one item each day.
At the end of twenty-three days (or a little bit longer if I missed a day) I started the list over and prayed through it again, making one request each day.
The prayer list empowered me to pray for our children. I no longer felt guilty about neglecting this aspect of their spiritual development.
After a few years, however, the list had grown stale. Though I continued to pray, I began to struggle. About that time, I came across another list, a prayer card: “31 Biblical Virtues to Pray for Your Kids.”
This one had thirty-one suggestions, one for each day of a thirty-one-day month. Though both lists had similarities, no items were an exact duplicate. I now had thirty-one new ideas to guide my prayers.
On the months with thirty-one days, I used the thirty-one-day list. On the other months, I used the twenty-three-item list. And when I had run out of items for those months, I went off the list and came up with my own things to pray for our kids.
Praying for Their Friends
As they got older, I added their best friends to the list too. I did this because their friends were emerging as a bigger influence in their lives than their mom and me. I wanted their friends to be godly influences, so I prayed for them.
When they started dating, I prayed for those they were dating. One dated a lot and the other not so much. In college, I added their roommates.
Though the makeup of the list changed over time, the two people I consistently prayed for were our kids. Because I prayed for the people they were dating, their future spouses received years of prayer before they were engaged, even before they met.
These simple prayers, offered daily, one prayer at a time, were huge.
Praying for Grandchildren
After they were married and the prospect of grandchildren became more realistic, I took a step of faith and began praying for their future children, my future grandchildren. Using the same two prayer lists to guide me, I prayed for God’s blessing on what would be.
As each grandchild was born, my prayers for them became more real. Having invested years of prayers before their arrival served to deepen my love for them.
Praying for Great Grandchildren and Great, Great Grandchildren
Along this journey of praying for my children and grandchildren, God prompted me to an even grander calling. He told me to pray for my future great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. This was hard to do at first because that reality resides so far in the future. And though it’s realistic that I may someday see and hold great-grandchildren, it will only be by God’s grace that I live long enough to welcome great-great-grandchildren.
Praying for Future Generations
The story doesn’t end there, however. Praying for the next four generations of my descendants wasn’t enough. God prompted me to pray for the next ten. It was hard to get my mind around this, but I’ve faithfully prayed for them, as a group, ever since.
Then one day as I prayed, I misspoke. Instead of praying for the next ten generations, I said “twelve” in error. But before I could correct myself, God assured me that twelve is the number I should use going forward.
Interestingly, twelve is a recurring number in the Bible: twelve tribes in the Old Testament and twelve disciples in the New Testament, symbolically connecting the two parts of God’s Word.
In addition, twelve pops up often in the books of Moses (twelve pillars, twelve stones, twelve loaves of bread, twelve oxen, twelve silver plates, twelve silver bowls, twelve gold dishes, twelve bulls, twelve rams, twelve lambs, twelve goats, and twelve staffs), as well as in the future-focused prophecy of Revelation (twelve stars, twelve gates, twelve angels, twelve foundations, twelve apostles, twelve pearls, and twelve crops of fruit).
And for me, twelve generations.
Beyond twelve, I know that at some point God will up the number to one hundred. That’s heady stuff, but when the time comes, I’ll embrace the challenge, full of faith that he will answer these prayers for our descendants for hundreds of years to come.
Yet one thing remains. As I pray for our grandchildren and future great-grandchildren and the generations that follow, I continue to pray for our children every day.
And I’ll never stop.
[Update: This is an excerpt from my book Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide. I have now taken the bold step of praying for all future generations of my offspring, through to the end of time.]
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Reimagining Our Sunday Traditions from a New Testament Perspective
Do you have a nagging feeling that something’s missing from your church experience?
You’re not alone. And it’s time to discover a better way.
Church-reform advocate and Bible scholar Peter DeHaan, PhD is a strong proponent of meaningful Christian community. In Jesus’s Broken Church, he uses Scripture to guide us into right practices and away from the off-track customs that most every church adheres to.
The problem is that today’s church follows an Old Testament model. We go to a building where we have professional clergy serve as our liaison between us and God. Then we pay for the whole thing with our tithes and offerings—just like Moses instructed.
But Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament. Through him we are the church, we are living stones. We don’t need to go to a building. As the church, we take it with us wherever we go. And we don’t need paid clergy either. Each of us serves as priests to one another. Or at least we should.
In Jesus’s Broken Church, you’ll discover:
How Jesus moves us from an Old Testament understanding to New Testament enlightenment
The early church’s approach to their meetings, which we neglect to follow today
Essential New Testament practices that are more important than song and sermon
Biblical ideas to inform the activities of our spiritual communities
Seven religious concepts that require reformation
If you happen to like how your church functions, then don’t buy this book. It will only make you mad. But if you sometimes leave your Sunday service feeling let down, that something is lacking and there must be more, then this book can guide you into a new direction.
Get your copy of Jesus’s Broken Church today to discover what’s missing and how to fix it.
Read more about this in Peter’s thought-provoking book, Jesus’s Broken Church, available in e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #36.
We arrived at church only to learn they cancelled the service because their pastor had an emergency.
Despite this, we hung around and talked for a long time, having brief conversations with most of the people who had gathered for Sunday School, which wasn’t cancelled.
During this time we had a deep spiritual discussion with a long ago friend. In doing so, we were able to minister to one another in a most satisfying way.
Though we didn’t experience a church service, we did experience deep spiritual community. From my perspective, I had a meaningful church encounter even though there was no official service.
It was one of my more noteworthy memories at the churches we visited.
The time was memorable for my wife, too, although it hit her a bit differently. “If they’re so full of the Holy Spirit,” she said, “you’d think he would have prompted someone to lead their service.”
Yes, indeed.
Though they held a successful Sunday School on their own without pastoral support, they didn’t even attempt to do so for church. I’m not sure if this was the minister’s decision or theirs, but they should have tried.
Even if no one felt capable of teaching a lesson, they could have still done the worship portion of the service and handled all the other elements too.
The idea that a church needs to have a pastor present to hold a service is ridiculous. As followers of Jesus, he expects every one of us to minister to one another. This is what we should always do, whether a minister is there or not.
My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
