Biblical Christianity from Peter DeHaan

A Hint of What is to Come

Last month I shared that my yard was a blank canvas, a palette of browns awaiting a fresh start. At last, that transformation has begun.

Trees have been added, bushes inserted, and plants strategically placed. Grass seed sown, just now showing the fragile green tips of what is to become. Watering has begun in earnest.

My yard is in the process of change, from lifeless to life-filled. What is presently there shows promise, the promise of what is to become.

Trees will grow, bushes will flourish, plants will bloom, and grass will thicken into a rich carpet of lush goodness. Change awaits.

At least that is my hope. Until then I can only anticipate what will one day be. However, I can glimpse what is to come. One plant is already displaying its glory.

While it will take time to realize the overall landscaping dream for my yard, this one bush now offers a hint of what is to come: a beautiful scene.

So it is with us. Our lives possess potential; we anticipate a better tomorrow. Yet even as we envision what will one day be, if we look carefully enough we can now see hints of our future.

Today’s limited beauty foreshadows tomorrow’s complete glory.

Just as I hold on to hope that my life tomorrow will be better than today, I have an ever greater expectancy in the spiritual realm, that today is but a dim reflection of the eternity that awaits.

God gives us hints today of what our future with him will be like. Do we see 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.

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Tags eternal life, glory, hope

Christian Living

Will You Pray For Me?

Three Outcomes to Consider

When people ask for prayer, I’m eager to do so. Prayer is important; prayer makes a difference. God wants us to pray, and it’s part of our spiritual formation.

So when someone asks, “Will you pray for me?” I pray. Often I pray right away, either silently or out loud, depending on the situation. And I try to pray again later.

Sometimes this may be just once or twice. In other instances I feel a prompting of the Holy Spirit to intercede multiple times throughout the day or over the course of many days.

Then, after investing so much in praying for someone, I’m anxious to learn what happened. I hear one of three responses:

Yes! Often I hear glowing reports of God’s amazing answer, either exactly as we prayed or in ways beyond what we hoped. Then I breathe a prayer of thanksgiving to Jesus. God is good; I’m so glad I prayed.

No! Other times, the person is downcast. God seems to have been silent, not responding in any discernable way. I’m disappointed when this happens, but it doesn’t dissuade me from praying. I persevere.

Prayer isn’t about getting our way; prayer is about aligning our thoughts with God’s will.

Sometimes we fail to see his perspective. Navigating this is a tricky path, but it’s part of our spiritual journey; it hones our faith. I press on. I thank God that he is growing me.

What? A few times—too often, in fact—they give me a blank stare. This is something they asked me to pray about, but they forgot. It was a passing thought to them, one quickly disregarded.

I invested time, emotion, and faith into something for their sake, and God was part of that process, but they went AWOL: not joining in prayer, not listening to God’s direction, and not doing their part to move towards resolution.

I was more faithful in praying for them than they were. They didn’t follow through or keep me updated. This minimizes prayer and demeans God; it makes me sad.

At times we can be too casual when asking for prayer. While prayer should be common, it is not trivial. When we ask someone to pray for us, it is serious business; God is involved. After asking for prayer, our role is to pray, too.

Next we listen to God, and then we do our part to move towards resolution. This honors God and respects those who pray for us.

Don’t ask someone to pray for you unless you truly mean it and are willing to take part.

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Tags faith, faithful, prayer, Thanksgiving

Bible Insights

Did Jesus Have Second Thoughts?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 28, 2015

Before Jesus is captured and executed, he spends some time praying. At one point in his prayer, Jesus asks God for a reprieve—that he won’t have to die—even though that was the plan all along.

But he’s quick to add an addendum, confirming he’ll do whatever his papa wants.

I wonder if Jesus is thinking about the test God gave Abraham, commanding the patriarch to kill his son Isaac. Just as Abraham is preparing to plunge the knife into his son in total obedience, God says, “Wait.”

Then he provides a different sacrifice, a substitute. Isaac is spared.

I wonder if Jesus pauses, hoping that God will again say, “Wait” and provide a substitute sacrifice or a different solution.

But this time God the Father doesn’t, and Jesus willingly dies as a once-and-for-all way to reunite us with Father God.

When it comes to Jesus dying instead of us and taking our punishment on himself, he doesn’t have second thoughts, but he is open to alternatives.

When John writes about Jesus, he records a different prayer. In this prayer, Jesus admits his anguish about dying, but he knows he can’t ask God to intervene. He acknowledges that dying is why he came to earth.

He will do it—and he does. Jesus dies to make us right with the Father. Though our wrongs separate us from him, Jesus takes our punishment upon himself, thereby making us right with the Father.

[Matthew 26:39-42, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42, Genesis 22:1-19, John 12:23-29]

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Tags Apostle John, death, Heavenly Father, Jesus, sacrifice

Christian Living

Who Prays For You?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 24, 2015

Are there people who pray for you? Family members, such as parents or spouse often intercede for those dearest to them.

Your best friend, boyfriend, or girlfriend may seek God on your behalf. Maybe members of your church, your small group, or your pastors pray for you. If you’re fortunate, it may be your boss, coworkers, neighbors, or the clerks where you shop.

Sometimes these folks pray for you when you ask them to, when they see a need in your life, or when the Holy Spirit prompts them. Or praying for you may be a daily habit of theirs and you are the benefactor.

As you read these possibilities, the list of people who pray for you may be overwhelming. Or you may be dismayed that no one (that you know of) prays for you.

Regardless of how long or short your list, there are two names we can add to it—important names, the most significant we can find, the best of the best. Did you know that Jesus prays for us? And not just Jesus but the Holy Spirit, too.

Imagine that, Jesus prays to the Father for us. The Holy Spirit prays to the Father for us.

Though the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one, this is kind of like God praying to God, but they are also three parts of the godhead, imploring each other on our behalf, as though urging themselves to give us their best.

Jesus advocates for us; the Holy Spirit advocates for us. And I see God the Father nodding in agreement. It’s like a heavenly pep-rally—at least that’s how I imagine it.

Though this is hard to grasp, the essential point is that God wants the best for us and one way he shows this is by interceding for us.

Know that others, including Jesus and the Holy Spirit, are praying for us.

[Romans 8:34, Romans 8:27]

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Tags Holy Spirit, Jesus, prayer, small group

Christian Living

What Does it Mean to Break Bread?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 17, 2015

Comparing Communion to a Meal

I’m always perplexed when the Bible talks about breaking bread.

What does this mean? In some contexts it seems to be a euphemism for eating, for sharing a common meal. In other cases, it seems to be a colorful reference to the Lord’s Supper, to Communion, aka The Eucharist. Which is it?

This question seems important to me only because I ask it through the context of modern church practices, which has separated the two into disparate acts. Communion has become a sacred ritual we do as part of a church service.

A meal is a common activity with little spiritual connection, aside from an obligatory prayer sometimes tacked on at the beginning.

I don’t see this distinction in the early church. For them, I suspect, communion is a meal and a meal is a communion. The two are connected, intertwined; for them, their meal is not merely physical and their communion is not merely transcendent.

To them, every action is a spiritual one.

We will do well to elevate the importance of a meal—both spiritually and communally—while demystifying the sacredness of communion, not to debase it, but to make it more accessible.

As it is, our meals are too routine and our communion gatherings are too ritualistic.

Breaking bread is not just a meal and it’s not just Communion; it is both. May we seek to reclaim this understanding in our practice and in our theology. Let us break bread together with a fresh awareness and a renewed excitement.

May we start today.

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Tags communion, early church

Visiting Churches

An Epic Fail in Church Promotion

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 11, 2015

Church Marketing

Easter this year was a few weeks ago, on April 5. A week and a half later, on April 15, I received a postcard inviting me to attend a church’s Easter service.

Aside from arriving too late to do any good, the church wasn’t even nearby; it was an hour’s drive away.

What were they thinking? Obviously they weren’t. The problems didn’t stop there. The postcard gave the address of one location and a map to another, which aren’t even close to one another. Where do they meet, anyway?

The postcard also included social media info for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Each one was for their parent church in California, with no reference to this (nearly) local congregation they wanted me to visit at an indeterminate location ten days too late.

Only HQ’s website made any mention of the church in question, but it was minimal. To further frustrate matters, they provided no phone number or email address. Their epic marketing fail still confounds me.

Too, often, this is how we invite people to church: haphazardly and without thinking things through.

What we need to do is make our invitation timely, personal, and relevant. What could be easier? Go out and try 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.

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Tags 52 Churches, church services

Christian Living

A Fresh Start

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 4, 2015

It’s Time to Plant, Water, Nurture, and Prune

A friend recently shared how much she was enjoying spring, of seeing flowers bloom and once dormant grass turn green. I connected with her joy, warmed by the thought of spring and the new life it represents. I was happy for her, but then I grew somber.

I have no green grass in my yard to celebrate: no new life, just the brown of dirt.

Though this gave me pause, it quickly reminded me of opportunity. My yard represents a blank canvas, a chance to create something new. It offers a fresh start.

Soon grass seed will be sown and after that, flowers and bushes and trees will make their appearance.

The brown of potential will give way to the color of life. My yard will come alive, and I expect it will one day look delightful.

I wonder if God considers us the same way, as people of potential, as soil awaiting transformation.

In God’s eyes our past is forgiven and forgotten, our present offers potential, and our future beckons with the hope of something wonderful and amazing to behold.

However, the outcome is not assured. Just as I need to plant and water to transform my dreary brown yard into a pleasant lawn, so too, we need to let God work in us: to plant and water, to nurture and grow, and, yes, to periodically prune.

Then we can grow, becoming much more than who we are today.

God offers us a new beginning. May we open ourselves to his design for us, accepting his plan for our lives. May we allow him to grow us into something new and wonderful to behold.

God offers us a fresh start, beginning today; don’t miss out.

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Tags God, grace

Christian Living

Were Adam and Eve Married?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 3, 2015

The Bible Never Says that Adam and Eve Married

To consider Adam and Eve had children without the benefit of marriage is disconcerting to many; it assaults our traditional idea of matrimony and having kids.

The Bible, however, does refer to Eve as Adam’s wife and Adam as Eve’s husband. Well isn’t that marriage? Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. Consider Abraham and Sarah. Sarah gave her slave Hagar to Abraham to sleep with him and make a baby.

The Bible then refers to Hagar as Abraham’s wife, even though no marriage took place.

Based on these two stories, it seems the biblical idea of becoming husband and wife is connected to sex, not marriage. After all, as soon as Eve is created, the Bible says man will leave his parents, be united to his wife and they will become one.

I think the idea of becoming one implies permanence, a lifelong sexual commitment. Getting married isn’t mentioned. After this, in the next verse, Eve is called Adam’s wife.

Biblical Marriage

Marriage, by the way, isn’t cited in the biblical timeline for several centuries, some eight generations later (remember people lived for hundreds of years back then). The first occurrence of marriage is with Lamech, the father of Noah.

Some Bible scholars place extra emphasis on the first mention of a word in the Bible, using it to frame our understanding of the word.

This gives us another pause, for the first mention of marriage is in reference to polygamy, as in “Lamech married two women.” This is certainly a perversion of the idea of two people becoming one.

In all this, I’m not suggesting we disregard marriage, and I’m certainly not advocating polygamy.

My suggestions are that our idea of traditional marriage may not be as biblical as we think, that we need to be careful before judging people with differing practices, and that sex does indeed make us one, as in husband and wife.

May we view this oneness as sacred and lifelong.

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Tags Adam and Eve, marriage

Christian Living

What Do We Do To Dishonor God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date April 26, 2015

Look for Ways to Honor God

In his letter to the Christians living in Rome, Paul talks about people who attempt to live life according to a bunch of religious rules, that is, the law.

The result is that God is disrespected, not so much by the people themselves, but by those on the outside looking in.

In short, others harbor contempt for God based on how his follower’s act.

However, this isn’t the first time this happens. Paul is actually quoting from the book of Isaiah. What Isaiah writes is not his words, but God’s. God complains that because of his people’s failures, he doesn’t receive respect from others.

In both cases, the word the Bible uses to describe this is blaspheme. Others blaspheme God because of the behavior of those who claim to follow him.

To blaspheme is to speak of God in an irreverent, impious manner; to disrespect, show contempt, dishonor, slander, or abuse him.

I fear we have learned nothing from Isaiah or from Paul. Today we still do the same thing. We claim to love God, yet too often our words or our actions cause those outside of our faith to shake their heads in derision.

They mock us and they disrespect God; he is blasphemed—because of us.

How do we do this?

We hate when we should love.
We act with malice to those deserving compassion.
We judge others even though we aren’t supposed to.
We reject people on the fringes of society, the very people Jesus embraces.
We are exclusive, even though God is inclusive.

Forgive us God, for our blasphemy. You deserve better.

[Romans 2:24, Isaiah 52:5]

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Tags Jesus, love, Moses, Paul

Bible Insights

What is the Origin of Baptism?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date April 16, 2015

The word baptize is only found in the New Testament of the Bible. Prior to John the Baptist preforming this water ceremony, it is never mentioned. John, by the way, baptizes Jesus.

The Old Testament doesn’t mention baptism and there is no biblical account of its origin. It seems to have just started on its own, beginning with John the Baptist.

Did John invent it? Perhaps God told John to do this new thing, pointing people to a new way—Jesus.

I don’t know the answers to these questions, even though I ponder them a lot. And I can’t find much of a clue in the Bible.

Though some people attempt to connect New Testament baptism with Old Testament uses of water in religious ceremonies and rituals, I think any correlation is weak.

The dictionary describes baptism using the words cleanse, purify, and initiate. This helps some, since the first few books of the Old Testament talk a lot about cleansing and purification.

Yet pulling the ceremony of baptism from them seems a stretch.

However, in a curious passage in Corinthians, Paul talks about the Old Testament Israelites being “baptized into Moses.” Since I can’t find an actual Old Testament account of this happening, I assume it is a figurative baptism, not actual.

None of this, however, gets me any closer to learning the basis for baptism. But what’s important to know is that Jesus tells us to do it.

[Luke 3:21, 1 Corinthians 10:2, Matthew 28:19]

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Tags Jesus, John the Baptist