Biblical Christianity from Peter DeHaan

5 Biblical Truths about God

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 19, 2019

Discover Who God Is from Scripture

We can learn a lot about God from the Bible. After all, we do sometimes call it the Word of God. Every book in the Bible, even every chapter reveals truth about God.

This includes Psalm 33. It’s a psalm of praise. It reveals five biblical truths about God.

In this Psalm, the writer praises God by telling him who he is. If this seems a bit corny, know that we do this with the people we care about all the time. Why not do it to God too?

While this shortlist is far from inclusive, it’s a great start and a smart summary about who God is.

1. God is Right and True

God’s word is right and true. What he says reflects his character. So, if his words are right and true, so, too, is his character. While we always want to be right, no person can be right all the time.

But God is. He’s always right. And what he says is always true. We can count on it. God is right and true.

2. God is Faithful

God is faithful in all he does, every action. He’s loyal to us and devoted. This isn’t just part of the time. It’s all the time. God’s faithfulness to us is consistent. He’ll never let us down.

3. God is Righteous

God is righteous. He loves righteousness. This isn’t a word we use too much nowadays. This means he does the right thing. It denotes virtuous, moral behavior, without a hint of guilt or any stain of sin.

Though some people are more righteous than others, we all fall short of God’s perfect standard. Only God, exemplified by Jesus, is fully righteous.

4. God is Just

God is also just. He does what’s right. He’s honorable, and he’s fair. He loves justice. We should too.

5. God is Loving

God is love. His love fills the earth. His love is unfailing, never faltering, and without end. Despite our best intentions, we can never truly love unconditionally. But God can.

Our love is limited, while God’s love is limitless.

Who is God?

God is right and true. He is faithful. He is righteous. He is just. And he is loving. These are five characteristics of God that we can count on.

What can we do to show these traits to others? Doing so will glorify God and point others to him.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Psalm 31-35, and today’s post is on Psalm 33:4-5.]

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.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Tags faithful, God, God is love, justice, righteousness

Christian Living

My Favorite Prayer in the Bible

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 17, 2019

Discover How God Reacts to the Prayer of Jabez

Last week I wrote about The Most Dangerous Prayer in the Bible, at least the prayer containing the most risky line. It’s a reminder that we must forgive quickly and fully.

Now let’s look at my favorite prayer in the Bible. It’s the prayer of Jabez, found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10. It’s a prayer I say most every day. I don’t repeat it because God needs to hear me say it again but to remind myself that I prayed it.

There are five phrases in this prayer, my favorite prayer, which The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson details (check out my review):

1. Bless Me Indeed

I don’t see Jabez’s request for God’s blessing as a hint at materialism or a prayer of greed. Instead it’s Jabez’s desire to be a blessing to others. The more God blesses him, the more he can bless others.

This is as God blessed Abraham so that he could bless others (Genesis 12:2-3).

2. Enlarge My Territory

Again, Jabez’s prayer for more territory isn’t a pursuit of wanting more for the sake of more, it’s a means of influence. Jabez knows that with more territory comes greater influence. And don’t we all want to influence more people for God?

3. May Your Hand Guide Me

It’s foolish for us to try anything on our own, doing it our own way. We need the hand of God to guide us in everything we do.

4. Keep Me from Evil

The request to keep us from evil is a prayer for protection and safety. The Lord’s prayer repeats this idea.

5. Not Cause Pain

The final element is to not cause pain. If anything we do harms others, it’s for naught. The opposite of causing pain is to do good. To produce joy, to encourage others, and to promote peace are all good ways to not cause pain.

The Outcome of My Favorite Prayer

After Jabez prays his short prayer, the Bible records God’s response. I blogged about this here and again here. To me it’s the most comforting phrase in the Bible. It simply says, “God granted his request.”

God answers prayer. That’s so encouraging. He answered Jabez’s prayer in the past and he can answer our prayers today, as well as in the future.

When we pray, may our words align with the heart of God. And may he grant our request.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Tags prayer, Prayer of Jabez

Personal Posts

Daylight Saving Time

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 13, 2019

Last weekend, most of us in the United States had set our clocks forward one hour for our springtime jump into Daylight Saving Time (DST).

We will stay in this mode for seven months, at which time we will “fall” back to “normal time.”

This means that every man, woman, and child in the US will realize an annual time savings of exactly—zero.

That’s right; it is a gross misrepresentation that Daylight Saving Time actually saves time. All it does is shift the clock setting forward one hour so that dusk has the allusion of being delayed.

Of course, the tradeoff for this is that dawn likewise seems to arrive one hour later. So on one end, we seemingly have more time to play and on the other side, more time to sleep in. Yeah, right!

The result is that no time is created or lost in the process, merely the perception by some that they actually gained something through this temporal sleight of hand.

So, what will you do with all this extra time that you save?

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags Sacred-Secular Divide

Bible Insights

Where Should We Go For Jesus?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 13, 2019

Sometimes We Need to Go Away for Jesus and Other Times We Need to Go Home

Before Jesus returns to heaven, he tells his followers to go throughout the world and let others know about him (Matthew 28:19). Does that mean we’re all supposed to travel to a distant country for Jesus?

Is that their mission field? It could be, but it might not.

Consider a different account, one where Jesus gives an alternate instruction.

Luke tells us the story of Jesus exorcising a legion of demons from a man. Jesus permits the displaced demons to enter into a herd of pigs. They do. The pigs go berserk, jump into the water, and drown.

(We know the pigs die, but I wonder if the demons die along with them. It’s an interesting thought, but that question has deep theological ramifications to consider at a different time.)

The demonic influence is now gone from the man. In his right mind, and likely full of gratitude, the man asks if he can hang out with Jesus. Jesus says “sure, why not . . .” No, that’s not what Jesus says at all.

Jesus tells the man no way. Instead Jesus instructs the restored man to simply go home and let his family and friends know about what God did for him by restoring him to full health.

His hometown is his mission field. The man obeys and tells the whole town about Jesus.

In both accounts Jesus tells his followers to go. One time it is to go to all nations and the other time it is to go home.

While our mission field may be in a foreign country, it might also be in our own home or right next door.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Luke 7-9, and today’s post is on Luke 8:38-39.]

Read more about the book of Luke in That You May Know: A 40-Day Devotional Exploring the Life of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, now available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Tags gospel, heal, Jesus, obey God

Christian Living

The Most Dangerous Prayer in the Bible

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 10, 2019

Forgiveness Is a Serious Thing, and We’re Well Advised to Never Withhold It

You’re probably familiar with the Lord’s prayer, sometimes informally called by its opening line as the Our Father. It’s a well-known passage in the Bible and many Christian traditions recite it as part of their Sunday worship service.

Growing up in a church that prayed this prayer in unison every Sunday, I quickly memorized it and could mumble it by rote, without thinking about the words I said. I suspect I knew the Lord’s Prayer before I could count or say the alphabet.

Now, however, I seriously consider the words I say when I quote this prayer. One line alarms me. In fact, it fills me with fear. It’s dangerous, eternally so.

What is this dangerous line?

It says, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Some translations of the Bible use the word sins, as in “forgive us our sins.” Others use the word trespasses or wrongs. But most say debts.

Forgive Us

In this prayer, we’re asking God to forgive us. What’s wrong with that?

Yes, this is true. In this common prayer, we ask God to forgive us. But we’re also asking him to place limits on the extent to which he can forgive us.

What?

Read it again. Read it carefully.

Check out how God’s Word Translation (GW) renders this line: “Forgive us as we forgive others.”

Don’t Withhold Forgiveness

We’re asking God to forgive us to the degree that we forgive others. This implies that if we withhold forgiveness from other people, we’re letting God know that he can withhold forgiveness from us.

So, if we forgive other people 75 percent of the time, we’re asking God to forgive us 75 percent of the time too.

This thought makes me tremble. My spirit quakes in trepidation.

It also encourages me to forgive quickly and to forgive fully.

Though I want to believe that God won’t do what this prayer requests of him and thereby withhold forgiveness of us in proportion to our unforgiveness of others, I do wonder.

Forgive Seventy Times Seven

When Jesus tells Peter that we should forgive others, not just a generous seven times, but seventy times seven (literally 490 times), we get a sense that God’s forgiveness of us extends without limit.

But after Jesus tells Peter to not stop forgiving, Jesus launches into a parable about unforgiveness. In this story, the man who refuses to forgive his debtors is given over to torture until he can repay his debt.

Jesus ends this parable with a stern warning: if we don’t sincerely forgive others, God will punish us in the same way.

That’s why I strive to never hold grudges and to fully forgive people as quickly as possible.

If we don’t forgive others, our future might be at risk.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Tags forgiveness, Jesus, Lord’s Prayer, Peter, prayer

Bible Insights

Know the Bible: Is Studying and Memorizing the Bible Important?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 6, 2019

When Satan Tempts Jesus and He Quotes Scripture

Satan was unsuccessful in preventing Jesus’s birth and he was unsuccessful in causing Jesus to die prematurely before he could start his mission.

For the enemy’s next ploy to thwart God’s plan to reconcile us to him, Satan tries to tempt Jesus into taking a shortcut: an easy button, if you will.

Satan makes three attempts to stop Jesus and to each one, Jesus counters by quoting the Bible. Jesus doesn’t try to ignore Satan. He doesn’t tell him to go away. And he doesn’t simply say “No” (all things I have tried).

Jesus responds to each of Satan’s attacks by throwing the words of God back at the devil. Touché.

This may be the biggest and best reason to study and memorize the Bible, to hide God’s word in our heart so that we can avoid sin. But don’t take my word for it. The Bible says it, too: Psalm 119:11.

However, there’s another significant lesson we can learn from this passage. In his third try, Satan uses the Bible to attack Jesus.

Though Satan’s application is arguably misapplied, the fact that the devil quotes the Bible gives his attack an unexpected credibility.

If Satan uses the Bible to oppose Jesus, he’ll certainly try the same trick with us. The only way we will prevail is if we know the Bible, too, and can point out his error.

When misapplied the Bible can mislead us. Not everyone or every spirit quoting scripture does so with integrity.

We must know the Bible as well as, or even better than, our enemy.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Luke 4-6, and today’s post is on Luke 4:3-12.]

Read more about the book of Luke in That You May Know: A 40-Day Devotional Exploring the Life of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, now available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Tags Bible, Jesus, temptation

Personal Posts

How Much Does it Cost?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 5, 2019

I’m not one who spends money easily or frivolously. It should surprise no one that at some point in a purchase decision I will deliberate on the cost of the item in question.

Can I afford it? Is it within my budget? Is this a wise use of my money? Will I derive sufficient value? Is this an emotional or intellectual decision? If I buy this item now will it preclude a more relevant purchase later? Yeah, I do that.

When I’m at a restaurant I also look at prices. No, I don’t ask all of the above questions, but cost is an important consideration.

For the first part of my life, price was a financially practical contemplation. Did I have enough money to pay the bill? I would only order what I could pay for with cash—be it with bills or coins.

I’m at a different place today. Though I never want to overpay for a meal, the primary reason I look at prices now is that I perceive price as being an indicator of the quantity of food.

You see, I was taught to eat everything on my plate and to not waste food, so what the restaurant gives me, I will eat, even if I’m full.

If the portion is too big, I will end up eating too much. So I resort to judging the amount of food by the cost of the meal.

Though not an error-free method, it always serves to save me money and often serves to save my waistline.

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags marketing, money, Sacred-Secular Divide

Christian Living

How Do You View Jesus?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 3, 2019

Revelation Gives Us Insight into Jesus and the Truth May Surprise You

People view Jesus in different ways. To some he is judgmental and mean. Others think he’s a good teacher but nothing more. Some view him as their Savior. They say Jesus is loving and accepting.

To help us get an accurate view of Jesus, let’s look at what he says in the book of Revelation. He says he stands at our door, the door to our heart and to our home. He knocks.

If we open the door to invite him in, he’ll enter and hang out with us (Revelation 3:20).

From this simple illustration, we learn three things about Jesus.

Jesus Is Respectful

First, Jesus doesn’t barge in where he’s unwanted or uninvited. He’s polite. He stands on the outside. He knocks. Though he could open the door and burst in, he doesn’t. He respects our privacy and our lives.

He wants to be our guest, but he won’t force himself into some place he’s not wanted. He’s patient. He waits for us to open the door and invite him in.

Jesus Is Responsive

When we hear Jesus knocking and open the door, he reacts immediately. He doesn’t tarry outside. Without delay, he comes in.

When we’re ready for him, he’s ready for us. He doesn’t play games, though he could say, “You ignored me for years, and now I’ll do the same to you.”

That’s not how Jesus operates. As soon as we open the door for him, he enters. How awesome is that?

Jesus Is Relational

We experience community around a table sharing a meal. As this is true in the physical realm with people, so it is true with Jesus in the spiritual realm.

When Jesus comes in, it’s to hang out. He wants to spend time with us, to eat meals with us.

He desires to be in a relationship with us. This is how it was in the beginning, at creation. This is how it will be at the end, in the new heaven and the new earth. And it’s how Jesus wants it now. He wants a relationship with us.

That’s how we should view Jesus.

Jesus stands at our door, knocking. Will we let him in? All we need to do is open the door. It’s that simple.

Read more in Peter’s devotional Bible study, A New Heaven and a New Earth: 40 Practical Insights from John’s Book of Revelation.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags awesome, Jesus, salvation

Bible Insights

Do You Hear From God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date February 27, 2019

Under Holy Spirit Inspiration Simeon and Anna Affirm Jesus When He Is a Baby

Shortly after Jesus is born his parents take him to the temple in Jerusalem to present him to God and go through the purification rites as prescribed by Moses.

As they do so, they receive two startling surprises from what others say about Jesus. They know how to hear from God.

Simeon

First is Simeon, a godly man full of the Holy Spirit. He lives in expectation of the promised savior. God assures Simeon he will live long enough to witness the coming Messiah.

Prompted by the Holy Spirit Simeon goes to the temple, takes Jesus in his arms, and praises God for what Jesus will do.

Anna

Next is Anna, an elderly woman and prophetess. A devote widow, she spends her time worshiping God. She walks up and thanks God for Jesus, confirming he is the fulfillment of prophecy.

We Can Hear from God

Note that neither Simeon nor Anna are part of the religious elite. They lack the pedigree and the man-made credentials to do what they did.

But they do have Holy Spirit wisdom, and that’s all that God needs in order to use them—and us—to accomplish his purposes

There’s no special training or insider connections, just people who put God first and focus on him. The Holy Spirit will guide us.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Luke 1-3 and today’s post is on Luke 2:22-40.]

Read more about the book of Luke in That You May Know: A 40-Day Devotional Exploring the Life of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, now available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags Holy Spirit, supernatural, worship

Bible Insights

Do You Believe that God Can Raise the Dead?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date February 19, 2019
4 Comments on Do You Believe that God Can Raise the Dead?

Jesus Rose from the Dead and So Did Many Others

In Acts chapter 26, the prisoner Paul makes his defense before King Agrippa. Basically Paul recaps key moments of his life and turns his testimony into a sermon.

This must make King Agrippa squirm, because he pushes back, asking if Paul expects him to become a Christian. For the record, Paul does.

However, I want to focus on something Paul says early on in his testimony to the court. Paul asks those present, “Why would anyone consider it incredible that God can raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8). What an interesting question.

If we believe in God and consider him as an all-powerful deity, we can certainly accept that he is able to bring dead people back to life. Most notably he does this for Jesus. And Jesus, who is one with God, raises several people from the dead too.

So do Paul, Elijah, and Elisha, who all raise the dead through God’s power.

God’s Resurrecting Power

Where is this resurrecting power of God today?

Is God still in the business of raising the dead?

God doesn’t change. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8). Moses and James agree (Numbers 23:19 and James 1:17).

If God doesn’t change and once brought dead people back to life, there’s no reason to expect that he can’t raise the dead now. For some people in our world, resurrection from the dead is normal and still occurs.

Yet other people in our world, namely those in developed nations, dismiss the idea of supernatural resurrections. What’s the difference?

We get a hint in Matthew 13:58, which says Jesus—even Jesus—was limited in what supernatural wonders he could perform, because of the people’s lack of faith.

So if we’re not seeing people rise from the dead, it might not be God’s doing, but our lack of faith.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Acts 26-28, and today’s post is on Acts 26:8.]

Read more about the book of Acts in Tongues of Fire: 40 Devotional Insights for Today’s Church from the Book of Acts, available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags believe, Jesus, omnipotent, Paul, supernatural