Biblical Christianity from Peter DeHaan

Why Do You Fast?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 8, 2016

Some Things are More Important Than Religious Practices: Focus on What Matters Most

I plan to fast one day a week. While I’m not as consistent as I would like, I follow through more often than I miss. Fasting is a spiritual act of worship for me.

It better connects me with God and sharpens my prayers. I (mostly) anticipate my fasts.

Fasting provides me with spiritual focus—providing I fast for the right reasons.

As such, I must fight against fasting for lessor, secondary benefits: saving time in meal preparation and eating, increased productivity throughout the day, and a means to keep my weight in check.

Those may be good, but they miss the main point of fasting.

Sometimes I fast with the right perspective, and other times I don’t do so well. It seems Zechariah has my struggle in mind when he cites God asking, “Was it really for me that you fasted?” Y

es, we can fast for God or we can fast for ourselves.

The first brings glory to God and the second, detracts from God. If we’re going to fast—or engage in any spiritual discipline, for that matter—we need to do so for the right reasons. If we fast, may we do so appropriately.

Yet a few verses later Zechariah seems to offer a better alternative to fasting. Again quoting God, he says to “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.”

When done right fasting honors God. However acting with justice, mercy, and compassion honors God and benefits others. While the first is good, I suspect the second is better.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Zechariah 5-7, and today’s post is on Zechariah 7:5-9.]

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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Tags fasting, glory, worship

Christian Living

What is Your Spiritual Litmus Test?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 6, 2016

Most Christians Carry Unexamined Criteria that Others Must Agree with Before They’re Accepted

I was once interviewed for a volunteer position at my church. The pair of interviewers cranked through a series of pre-assigned theological questions to determine my supposed worthiness to lead.

For some queries the answers were straightforward; others, not so much.

On these tougher questions, instead of responding with simplistic answers, I shared a more complex perspective, one packed with more questions but backed by biblical support.

I answered with shades of gray, but my inquisitors wanted black and white responses. I knew what they wanted to hear, but instead I was honest.

I suppose that in a sense I should have responded with the religious equivalent of political correctness.

For my candor I earned a one-on-one meeting with the senior pastor. He had five areas where he sought clarification. We worked through the first four without issue; he accepted my grayscale answers.

Though I don’t remember what it was, the fifth area was problematic. As he drilled down I realized I was at a tipping point. If I gave the pat answer he wanted to hear I was in. If I vacillated, I was out.

I wanted to serve my church in this capacity and, more importantly, I felt God had called me to do so—more succinctly, he told me to.

With only a tinge of guilt I gave the easy answer that would assure my acceptance. Pastor smiled and shook my hand. I was in. I passed his spiritual litmus test.

We all have spiritual litmus tests. Though I try not to, I know I do. So do you. Of a larger concern, churches have their litmus tests, too. These litmus tests are why our world is saddled with 42,000 Protestant denominations.

After all, if we agreed on everything there would be no reason to take the unbiblical step of separating from one another, of dividing the church that Jesus prayed would experience unity.

While most everyone draws a spiritual line in the sands of theology that cannot be crossed, none of this should matter.

Whether it’s disagreeing about baptism, communion, which version of the Bible is best, the song selection, pews or chairs, the color of the lobby, or even if men need to wear ties to church, Jesus wants us to be one.

Unity is more important than theology (and personal preference). That’s what matters most.

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Tags church, denominations, theology, unity

Christian Living

When and Where is the Kingdom of God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 30, 2016
2 Comments on When and Where is the Kingdom of God?

Should We Consider the Kingdom of God As Our Future in Heaven or As Our Present Reality on Earth?

The Bible often talks about the Kingdom of God, sixty-eight times in all (in the NIV). Five biblical authors—Mark, Luke, John, and Paul—cover this topic in ten of the New Testament’s books.

Luke writes the most about the kingdom of God, accounting for half of the mentions.

Of course most of the teaching about God’s coming kingdom comes from Jesus himself.

Most people equate the kingdom of God with heaven, our future reward, something to anticipate in a glorious afterlife.

In reading the Bible it’s easy to understand the kingdom of God as a forthcoming event that will change everything—for the better.

As such the kingdom of God looms as our future outcome in heaven; it is valuable, something for us to pursue with glorious expectation.

Many of the verses support this understanding of the kingdom of God as something in our future, but others don’t align so nicely with that interpretation and some even confound it.

Consider Jesus saying that the kingdom of God is near (Mark 1:15), with some translations, such as the International Standard Version, saying the kingdom of God is now.

While we might postulate that Jesus’s birth or his public ministry ushers in this understanding of the kingdom of God, at the “last supper” Jesus says he will not eat with his followers again until after the kingdom of God comes.

Then he dies, rises from the dead, and later shares a meal with his people, confirming that the kingdom of God has come.

So the kingdom of God comes two thousand years ago and is still here for us today. We are living in it, or at least we have the potential to.

What Jesus says about the kingdom of God and what Paul writes about it in the Bible is more than a future possibility, it is a present reality for us to live in today—we are willing.

If the kingdom of God is closer to us than heaven, it becomes a present day proposition, something for us to consider, to pursue, and to embrace in our everyday lives.

Jesus is the kingdom of God, which emerges when he rises from the dead to prove his mastery over evil. The kingdom of God is here for us to embrace now, and it’s waiting for us to experience fully after we die.

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Tags kingdom of God

Bible Insights

When Given a Faith Ultimatum is Martyrdom Required?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 25, 2016

Elisha Seems to Allow an Alternative to Taking a Life-Threatening Stand for God

I love the story of Naaman in the Bible. He commands the enemy army, conducts raids into Israel, and even has a Hebrew girl as a slave.

It’s this girl, full of faith and void of resentment, who suggests Naaman go to the prophet Elisha for healing of his leprosy.

Despite Naaman’s complete unworthiness (sound familiar?), God has compassion and wants to remove this disease. Though there are some twists along the way, God does heal him.

However it’s easy to miss a small detail in the middle of the story.

After he is healed, Naaman seeks forgiveness for something he knows he will do in the future, something he now comprehends as wrong.

In the course of his service to his king, Naaman will have to go into the temple of Rimmon and bow down in worship.

Naaman’s life will be on the line if he doesn’t. If he fails to kneel to this foreign god, he will be summarily executed.

Today we hear stories of those fully committed to their faith in Jesus; they refuse to bow in worship to anyone but him. They stand firm and are summarily executed. They take a stand for Jesus and are martyred.

I expect Elisha to tell Naaman to do just that, to affirm God as the only true god, to refuse to bend his knee, and to die for his convictions.

But Elisha doesn’t. Instead he gives approval for Naaman to not take a stand and permits him to bow in worship to another god. Elisha says, “Go in peace.”

This gives me pause.

God knows Naaman’s heart and that his bowing to Rimmon is merely a life-preserving tactic. Through Elisha, God gives Naaman permission to pretend to worship another god and live, instead of refusing to and die.

Most martyrs have no control over their fate and are helpless victims of hate and opposition, but some have an option: affirm your faith and die or equivocate and live.

While we shouldn’t take this passage as permission to avoid taking a stand for Jesus if our life is at stake, we also shouldn’t conclude that God doesn’t allow for exceptions.

Our response, if faced with such a situation, is for us to discern.

May God grant us the wisdom to do so.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is 2 Kings 5-7, and today’s post is on 2 Kings 5:18-19.]

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Tags Elisha, faith, Naaman

Christian Living

Is Being a Christian a Present Reality or a Future Hope?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 23, 2016
2 Comments on Is Being a Christian a Present Reality or a Future Hope?

Our Perspective on What it Means to Follow Jesus Shapes How We Think and Act

I’ve met people so fixated on heaven that they squander their time here on earth. Not only do they miss the opportunities before them, but they also offer a negative example to the world of what it means to be a Christian.

They treat life as a burden and react to every disappointment as a stoic martyr. With long faces they measure their time on earth as an ordeal to endure, one that prevents them from obtaining heavenly bliss.

Yes, our future hope in heaven is significant, but if that’s the only reason to be a Christian, we’re missing what God wants from us and has to give us – now.

Life is a gift, an amazing gift to enjoy and to use and to share. We need to make each minute count for Jesus today, not sit in a corner and count each minute until it’s time to leave.

Years ago I largely missed the delight of my senior year in high school because I was so fixated on what was to come next. High school loomed as a time to tolerate, a hurdle to jump over, before I could move on with life.

I even let relationships languish because I didn’t see them as part of my post high school reality. I lost that time and can’t reclaim it.

Yes, I can’t wait to get to heaven and enjoy eternal ecstasy, but I also can’t wait for the opportunities of each new day. In some small way I want to be the hands, the face, and the love of Jesus to those I meet.

I want to encourage those who are discouraged, to help those in need, and to point those who are searching to a better way.

When Jesus told us to pray for our daily bread (Matthew 6:11), it was a reminder to take each day as it comes, one day at a time, and not rush to the next one. We need to make the most of today, whether it is our last one or we have thousands more.

God has given me my time on earth for a reason. If I don’t make the best of it, I may not be ready to fully embrace my future with him in heaven.

As the saying goes, “Today is the first day of the rest of our lives.” We need to live it to the full for Jesus.

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Tags daily bread, eternal life, heaven, Jesus, serve God

Bible Insights

God Deserves Our First, Our Best, and Our Most

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 18, 2016

How Much Time We Spend on Our Activities Reveals Our Priorities

King David longs to build a temple for God, but God says this is not to be. Another, a descendant of David, will attend to its construction. Instead David must content himself with the temple’s planning and in accumulating its building materials.

Then he dies, having never seen the temple he desired to build.

Solomon succeeds his father, David, as king of Israel. Solomon oversees the construction of the temple. A grand edifice, it takes seven years to build, a fitting effort for God’s earthly dwelling and the center of Jewish worship and life.

However, in a telling aside, the Bible indicates that Solomon spends almost twice as much time building his own residence.

This seems out of balance: seven years for the house of God and thirteen years for a house for Solomon. What does that say about Solomon’s priorities?

The temple is for all the people, as well as for God; the palace is for Solomon.

Yes, the palace must be a structure worthy of a king, but spending over a decade on its building may be a bit much, especially given that it consumes almost one third of Solomon’s forty-year reign.

Yet I wonder how often we effectively do the same thing, placing greater emphasis on the things we do for ourselves than the things we do for God, the time we spend with him, and the offerings we give.

We need to not only put him first, but he also deserves our best and our most.

I fear we too often fall short in those areas.

We must truly make God our priority.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is 1 Kings 5-7, and today’s post is on 1 Kings 6:38-7:1.]

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Tags give, God, King David, King Solomon, temple

Christian Living

A Christian Response to Criticism

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 16, 2016

Jesus Provides a Simple Solution For Us to Follow When We Face Opposition

Recently a friend asked for some assistance at a writers conference, for help in modeling a writer critique process. I and several others were happy to volunteer.

We arrived at the session and disbursed ourselves throughout the room, each sitting at a different table, ready to lead our group when the time came.

God drew me to a table at the perimeter, specifically to one man at that table whose body language screamed a warning. When I asked if I could join them he scowled, though his female tablemates welcomed me.

As we waited for the session to begin, my efforts to connect with him met with failure. And each time I interacted with others at the table, he hijacked the conversation and made it about him. He craved attention and wanted to be in charge.

In small group lingo we’d call him an EGR person (“extra grace required”). I wished I’d picked a different table.

My friend leading the session called the attendees to order and explained the procedure: how it worked, what we should do, and what not to do.

Each table had a leader familiar with the practice, she explained, who would guide the attendees in following the process.

I’ve done this for several years and successfully guided many groups through this critiquing process. The man at our table objected to the prescribed process and wanted to do things a different way. Words were exchanged. Heated barbs were thrown at me.

He called me a dictator. I hope I responded in a way that would honor Jesus, but I’m not sure—only God knows.

Eventually the man calmed down, but the tension he caused remained, palpable and unrelenting. Though we went through the motions of the critique process, I doubt anyone gained from our efforts.

We completed the assignment, and I left as soon as I could.

Hurt by the affliction of his words, I stewed about this for a couple of days. His emotional wounds had inflamed mine. Then God prompted me to consider why this man acted as he did.

Writers call this the backstory. A different view of him surfaced; a bit of compassion emerged.

Instead of harboring ill will for this man, God told me to pray. I thought this was a once-and-done deal. But no, it is ongoing.

Each time I think of this situation and the actions of this man, I am to pray for him. He has received many of my prayers in the past few days.

Yes, he has issues, but I have issues, too. We all have issues. God loves us despite our issues. We all need Jesus to save us—sometimes from ourselves.

Though this man is not my enemy (not really) and has not wronged me (not really), Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, Matthew 5:44. This, I realize, is how we need to respond to opposition.

Prayer for those who opposed us is Jesus’s solution to deal with conflict.

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Tags Jesus, love, pray

Bible Insights

Do We Ever Place Our Traditions Over God’s Commands?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 11, 2016

Jesus Condemns Those Who Supersede the Word of God With Their Religious Practices

Jesus asks the people, “Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your traditions?” (Matthew 15:3). He goes on to give an example that is culturally relevant to his audience, but which doesn’t connect so much with us today.

Of course we would never do such a thing, would we? Sadly, we too place traditions over God’s commands. Consider these four examples:

1. Vain Repetition

Jesus tells the people to not pray using vain repetition (Matthew 6:7), yet in church growing up we did this every Sunday, repeating a prayer from rote memory, as well as the Ten Commandments and often a creed.

Yet he commands us to avoid vain repetition.

Other translations say “meaningless repetition” and “babbling many words.” The Bible says to not do that, but we do.

2. Do Not Call Anyone Father

Jesus specifically teaches us not to call anyone Father (Rabbi or Teacher) because only God is our Father.

The principle seems to be against elevating our spiritual leaders with titles, perhaps suggesting we should avoid “Pastor,” “Reverend,” and “Doctor,” as well as “Father” and “Rabbi.”

Yet we do this (sometimes at the insistence of our spiritual leaders), and some traditions specifically use Father, but Jesus says not to (Matthew 23:8-10).

3. Give in Secret

Jesus tells us to give anonymously (Matthew 6:3-4), to not call attention to our charitable giving. Yet our Sunday offerings are a public event and certainly not done secretly. Yet our tradition trumps God’s command.

4. Seek Man’s Approval

Though it’s not a direct command, Paul condemns those who try to win the approval of people. Instead we should follow his example of trying to please God (Galatians 1:10).

Yet how often do ministers water down sermons in order to avoid human offense, which might cause parishioners to get mad, cause a stink, or withhold their donations?

These are a few ways we put our own preferences above what the Bible says. I’m sure there are many more. Be on the lookout for them, and then seek to do things God’s way, regardless of tradition.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Matthew 14-16, and today’s post is on Matthew 15:3-7.]

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Tags Jesus, minister, obey God

Christian Living

Can Technology Hurt Our Relationship with God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 9, 2016

God Doesn’t Want Part of Our Attention; He Deserves 100 Percent

As the main speaker talked at a business conference, I looked around our table of eight. Seven people had their smartphones out, pushing buttons with intention and staring at those tiny screens as if they showed the most essential of images.

Why were they doing this? They paid a lot of money to be there, yet they weren’t fully there. A few, no doubt, had checked out, either bored by the speaker’s message, or they presumed their smartphones’ news was more important.

The others, I’m quite sure, thought they were multitasking. (Even though many experts say that true multitasking is a myth.)

They were attempting to listen to the speaker with their ears and read email with their eyes, while their minds compartmentalized both. I suspect neither activity received the attention it deserved.

Yet, how often do we treat God this way? Does our desire to stay connected with the world impair our ability to connect with the Almighty?

The Bible says to “be still and know that I am God,” (Psalm 46:10).

This doesn’t mean we need to just keep our bodies at rest; we need to keep our thoughts still as well.

We must occasionally stop all we are doing, to still our motions and our minds, so we can be fully present in his presence. Then we can best know him; then we can best hear him.

How often do we ask God for answers and then allow distractions to keep us from listening? Yes, people can distract, busyness can distract, and life can distract, yet I suspect today’s technology might be the biggest distraction of all.

I’m not against technology. I rely on technological tools every day to work. I tap social media and email to connect with friends and followers of Jesus, and I use online resources to study and write about God.

Yet I wonder if sometimes I need to disconnect. Should we occasionally fast from our technologies so we can fully focus on God?

How long could you go without technology? A few minutes? An hour? A day? What might you learn about yourself and God if you did?

Turn off the smartphone and tune into God.

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Tags fasting, spiritual discipline

Christian Living

Not All That’s Spiritual Is Good

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 2, 2016

As Followers of Jesus We Can Point the Supernaturally Curious to God

Premodern people saw everything as spiritual. Though modern thinking attempted to remove the spiritual from our everyday reality, the postmodern view is open to reunite them. For that I am glad.

Yet not all that is spiritual is good. Consider all of the TV shows and movies that delve into the supernatural. Sci-fi specifically seems to be moving in this direction but so are more generally marketed television shows and movies.

Also, consider the growing interest in fantasy novels and the various speculative fiction subgenres. Why is this?

It’s quite simply because of demand. The public seeks content that investigates spiritual concepts and explores the supernatural realm.

They have interest in such matters. They hunger for something more than what a nonspiritual life offers, with content producers happy to fill that void.

In fact, most people in today’s postmodern world, notably younger generations, such as Millennials, are open to the spiritual. This is both good and bad. Just because something is spiritual doesn’t automatically make it good.

Sometimes supernatural considerations point us to God and other times this content steers us in the opposite direction.

Often these mind-blowing forays into the non-temporal merely confuse a godly, spiritual reality with intriguing, yet inconsequential fantasy.

Does this mean we should abandon all cinema, television, and books that dip into the supernatural? Of course not. Ignoring this trend will not make it go away and will leave the spiritually curious with only opposing views to influence them.

As people who know what the Bible says about spiritual matters, we need to guide our world’s spiritually inquisitive toward an understanding that is biblically centered and focused on Jesus.

If we don’t, people will persist in forming their own hodgepodge of spiritual practices based on what they see in their entertainment choices and that is not anchored in the foundation of God’s Word.

Let us be their light to a path that leads to God, the narrow way, and away from the wide path that leads to destruction (Psalm 119:105, Matthew 7:13-14).

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Tags Bible, biblical Christianity, Jesus, postmodern, spiritual growth, spiritual realm, supernatural