King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wasn’t so wise with his love life. In all he had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Even worse, many of King Solomon’s wives were foreigners, something God prohibited because he feared they would distract his people from fully worshiping him (Deuteronomy 7:3).
Unfortunately, just as God feared, King Solomon’s foreign-born wives, who had vastly different views on spiritual practices, did lead him astray.
They caused him to turn from God. As a result, Solomon ruined his legacy and consequently his son would lose the kingdom.
When God tells us “no,” there’s a good reason for it. Will we obey him or think we know better? King Solomon thought he knew better and things didn’t work out so well for him.
Finish Strong
Though Solomon started off well, focusing on God and honoring him, he ended poorly, turning from God and pursuing other gods.
Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in e-book, 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.
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 #27.
I thoroughly enjoyed the worship time at this church. The worship of the song leaders was pure and ushered me into the presence of God.
With arms raised I connected with the Almighty through song.
For me, this was the highlight of the service though I also appreciated the genuine community these folks had with one another and how they shared with and prayed for each other.
Despite this, I also had some concerns, several. The first was them not being friendly. For the most part, they ignored us and the best connection we made was with other visitors. And this wasn’t the first church were this happened.
Next was the message and attitude of the pastor. His words seemed to ramble at times and was hard to follow. He also made some critical comments about our worship, which he deemed inadequate.
Granted, in his defense he was functioning on little sleep, due to delayed airline flights the day before when returning from vacation.
Third was an unpleasant odor near where we sat. It stayed with me the entire service. (Though my wife said she didn’t smell anything, and she asserted I was just imagining it).
Granted, I arrived knowing some of this church’s background and baggage, and my wife claimed I had a bad attitude.
Despite my concerns, I yearn to make a return trip or perhaps attend one of their Thursday night worship times. Of all the churches we visited, they were perhaps the freest in their worship and the most authentic.
I think God was pleased with their approach to him and the way they turned their praise to him.
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.
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 #26.
Beyond their worship of God and approach to him, two other things stood out about this minority congregation.
First, the kids were an active presence during the service, both in their participation and in their can’t-sit-still bouncing from seat to seat.
Although at times distracting, I’m glad for their involvement in the service.
The other item is their view of time is different from mine. Though the service started when specified, the crowd was sparse. For the next fifteen minutes, people wandered in, eventually doubling our numbers.
The last family showed up thirty-five minutes after the service started. I know this is a factor of culture, but it’s hard for me to understand.
Likewise, their service lasted longer than most, scheduled for two and a half hours, and extending beyond that with an after-service meal to celebrate the baby dedication.
Though we stayed to eat and talk, we were still the first to leave; everyone else seemed content to stay even longer.
Expand Our Worship of God
This was one of the two non-white churches we visited. (The other was church #20.) At both, I felt, for a brief time, a hint of what it’s like to be a minority. Yes, these experiences were shallow in that respect, but it’s all I have to go on.
More importantly, however, is that their worship of God was fresh to me, invigorating my soul. I desire to return and spend more time with them.
As we celebrate the Almighty with others who have different practices than we do, our worship of God is enhanced and our understanding of him is broadened.
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.
Luther Saw Marriage, Not Celibacy Vows, as the Preferred Option for Most Clergy
As Martin Luther’s ordeal wore on, he eventually left the castle where he was hiding. He returned to Wittenberg, some five years after he posted his ninety-five theses. Though still a wanted man, some powerful people offered him a degree of protection, so he no longer lived under constant threats.
Even so, he needed to watch for traps and guard where he went. Because of this, he often opted to remain in seclusion. With care, he resumed his teaching and preaching.
Aside from the abuse of indulgences, Luther went on to find no biblical support for the celibacy vows of priests and nuns. He saw marriage as the biblical preference.
Excommunicated and therefore no longer bound by his pledge to the Church, he married Katherine von Bora, a former nun, on June 13, 1525. It was a small, private ceremony. She was 26 and Martin, 41. He called her Katie.
A suitable complement to Martin, Katie was both strong and intelligent. Her outspoken nature matched her husband’s. Though they often lacked money, their union stood as a happy and successful example of ministerial marriage.
Over the years they had six children—three boys and three girls—and raised several orphans.
Now ousted from the Roman Catholic Church, in 1526 Martin set about to organize a new church based on biblical principles.
This isn’t what he wanted, but the Church left him with no other options to pursue his faith in community. In doing this he sought to avoid excessive change, lest he confuse or upset people.
In addition to establishing a reformed church structure, Luther wrote catechisms, a German liturgy, and a German Mass—though he intended it to supplement, and not replace, the Latin Mass.
He established his famous doctrine of the priesthood of all believers and authored the Augsburg Confession to clarify essential beliefs and practices. The Augsburg Confession continues as a formal expression of Lutheran teachings today.
Having a lifetime of writing to his credit, his voluminous output could fill a hundred books.
With his lifelong love of singing, Martin emerged as a prolific songwriter, too, authoring many hymns.
Having completed his New Testament translation of the Bible into German earlier in 1522, he (with the help of others under his direction) finished his Old Testament translation in 1534.
However, he continued to refine it throughout his life. The principles he used to guide his translation work would later influence other Bible translators.
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.
A too-common practice in the United States (and perhaps around the world) is to take parts from different religions and philosophies, mashing them together to form a personal belief system. Doing so is a consumer-centric mindset.
People keep the parts they like, and they ditch the rest. They grab what is comfortable and jettison everything that makes them squirm.
It’s akin to reading the Bible with a highlighter in one hand and scissors in the other. People do this now, and they did it back in the days of the prophet Zephaniah.
Making up a belief system in this way is really little more than deciding to believe in yourself.
In doing so people make God in their image, to be who they want and need him to be for their own satisfaction and comfort. It’s a feel-good religion that won’t save them. It has no basis for truth other than what people want it to be.
It may seem like a good approach, but it’s not. The God who is revealed in the Bible doesn’t like it when people mix thoughts and practices from other religions or philosophies.
In fact, he has some harsh criticism for them, which he shares with the prophet Zephaniah.
Remember, just because we think something is true, doesn’t make it so. For example, it might be intriguing to say that gravity doesn’t affect me or that 2 + 2 = 5, but those are laughable conclusions.
So it is when we make up our own religion.
Speaking through the prophet, God declares his judgment against those who mix the worship of him with the worship of other distractions.
In Zephaniah’s time this was the worship of stars and the worship of other gods. Mixing and matching doesn’t work in God’s book.
God is not content to have our partial attention. He is jealous of our affections and wants it completely. We must give ourselves fully to him.
Learn more about all twelve of the Bible’s Minor Prophets in Peter’s book, Return to Me: 40 Prophetic Teachings about Unfaithfulness, Punishment, and Hope from the Minor Prophets
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 #25.
I praised this congregation for not having a church building. Instead they rented space on Sunday for their services.
That meant the money they’d normally spend on a mortgage and building maintenance could instead be used for community outreach and service.
Shortly after our visit, this church announced a merger of sorts with another nearby congregation from the same denomination.
The other church, small and struggling, did have a church building, but their dwindling membership made it impossible for them to continue.
As the melding of their two congregations progressed, both churches shut down for several months, before re-emerging as a new entity in the second church’s building.
During this in between time, some members grew weary of the delay and scattered to find other churches, while others gave up and stopped going to church altogether.
I wish they hadn’t delayed. I lament the loss of people, and I lament they now have a large building to maintain. I wonder if their focus on the surrounding community will suffer as a result.
The early church met in people’s homes and public places. Why can’t we do the same today? Think of all the money we’d save and hassles we could avoid if we removed the shackles of owning and maintaining a church facility.
Not only are our church structures exorbitantly expensive, they’re also underutilized most of the time. At best, one of today’s churches enjoys full usage for only two hours of each week.
That’s 1.2 percent of the time. This means that for 98.8 percent of each week the building is underutilized.
Maintaining a church building is costly and does little to advance the kingdom of God. We don’t need to go to a building to go to church so we can connect with God.
We take church with us wherever we go—or at least we should.
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.
When God Wants to Give You a Second Chance Make Sure You’re Ready to Receive It
You’re probably not familiar with Ahithophel in the Bible. His life serves as a lesson in how not to respond to disappointment.
Though his name does show up a few times during the reign of King David, Ahithophel is a largely forgettable character. He is an advisor to the king.
And when David’s son Absalom orchestrates a coup and tries to steal his father’s throne, Ahithophel switches his alliance from father to son, conspiring against David, the rightful ruler.
The Bible notes that Ahithophel gives advice to Absalom, which he follows.
The second time Absalom seeks the counsel of his advisor, Ahithophel gives wise advice, but another counselor under the guise of helping—he’s there to help David, not David’s son—gives a counter recommendation.
This time Absalom decides not to follow Ahithophel’s advice.
How Ahithophel Responds to Disappointment
What does Ahithophel do?
He goes off in the sulk, puts his affairs in order, and hangs himself. End of story.
Yes, it would be embarrassing to be advisor to the king and have him reject your recommendation. But it’s not worth killing yourself over. And if his suicide is some misplaced honorable action, just remember that it is, indeed, misplaced.
What if Ahithophel hadn’t killed himself? Surely he would have another chance to advise Absalom. Maybe his counsel would’ve helped Absalom avoid being killed.
Perhaps Ahithophel could have groveled before King David and sought his old job back. Then he could have continued advising the king.
But we’ll never know any of these, because Ahithophel chose to end his life. In one fatal decision, he removes the possibilities of what his future could be.
Can you think of another person in the Bible who hung himself? How about Judas?
How Judas Deals with Disappointment
Distraught over his role in bringing about Jesus’s death, Judas goes out and kills himself too. Yes, his remorse is much deeper than Ahithophel’s. Judas arguably committed the biggest mistake in human history.
Yet I wonder what might have happened had he not chosen to prematurely end his life. When Peter three times denied that he followed or even knew Jesus, he stuck around—although guiltily.
And Jesus restored him into right relationship. Jesus forgave him and elevated him back into leadership.
If Judas hadn’t killed himself and stuck around, too, would Jesus have offered him mercy as well? I think so. Jesus is all about grace and mercy.
But we’ll never know. Judas chose to end his life, so we’ll never know what it could have become.
When people end their life prematurely, they remove their future potential and take away the opportunity for restoration, to both other people and to God.
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.
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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 #24.
The people at this traditional church were friendly, much friendlier than most. The message was good and gave me something to contemplate, but it was the teens who led music that left a lasting memory with me. Their worship felt pure.
With no pretense, their focus was solely on God. They gave me a glimpse of what it might mean to worship God in the spirit and in truth.
The pastor of this church saw my original post and forwarded it to the music director. She contacted me, thanking me for my words, which she shared with the musicians and singers.
A week or so later, we met at a coffee shop to talk about worship, church, and faith.
She likes to offer the congregation a variety in worship styles and content, from traditional to contemporary.
Her goal is to bring in youth once a month or so. I really want to go back and hear them again, but I fear a second experience would pale in comparison.
Instead, I choose to let my memory of this service suffice.
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.
95 Theses Reveals Our Past So We Can Reform Our Present
Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther’s supporters printed copies of his 95 theses and distributed them widely. The document essentially went viral.
Had Martin Luther lived today, his supporters might have taken to social media to get the word out. In doing so, 95 theses might have become 95 tweets.
Celebrate the five-hundred-year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, when Martin Luther nailed his list of ninety-five concerns to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517.
Most Protestants Have Heard of Martin Luther, but They Know Little More
Discover what Luther said in his history-changing document that people talk about but have never read.
Learn what Luther’s ninety-five theses meant 500 years ago.
Understand the significance behind his work.
Explore how the ninety-five theses apply to us today.
Consider reformation as an ongoing effort.
Reassess your spiritual practices.
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses explains the meaning behind each of Luther’s ninety-five concerns. Then it updates the basic premise of each one, for today’s audience. 95 Theses concludes with a present-day list of ninety-five items for the modern church to consider.
The intent is not to criticize her but to encourage ongoing reforms.
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.
Here’s the situation. The prophet Samuel is dead. God has abandoned King Saul, and the once-promising ruler is losing his grip on power. Saul prays, but God doesn’t respond.
None of the ways Saul has heard from God in the past are working now. In desperation, he seeks a medium.
In his better days as God’s king, Saul expelled all the mediums and spiritualists from the country. Now he wants one. It’s his last option for supernatural guidance.
His aids tell him there is a medium in Endor. Some versions of the Bible call her a witch.
In disguise, Saul seeks her out. She is cautious, fearing execution if her skills become known. He persists, promising her safety. After some persuasion, she relents. Saul asks her to conjure up the spirit of Samuel. She does.
Then she realizes who Saul is—the king who outlawed and ousted everyone in her line of work. She screams at Saul because of his deception, but he urges her to proceed and serve as a link to connect him with Samuel.
For Samuel’s part, he’s not pleased at having his existence in the afterlife disturbed. He’s likely happy there and wants to remain there, not be sucked back toward the physical realm.
Samuel confirms it’s too late for Saul. God has left him for good. Furthermore, Samuel says the next day Saul and his sons will die in battle. The nation will be lost.
Saul is distraught, losing what little hope he has left. The medium of Endor urges him to eat, and she prepares a meal for him.
Saul eats and then leaves. The next day, Saul and his three sons die—his boys in battle and Saul by suicide.
Not all that’s spiritual is good. The medium of Endor is one such example. When our prayers seem to go nowhere, do we keep our focus on God or seek unwise alternatives?
Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in e-book, 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.
