Biblical Christianity from Peter DeHaan

Ten Reasons Why the Bible is Important

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 15, 2015
2 Comments on Ten Reasons Why the Bible is Important

Celebrate Scripture

On an almost daily basis, I’ve spent my life reading and studying the Bible.

However, I don’t see the Bible as a rulebook for righteous living or a manual for the faithful to follow, but as a spiritual narrative to illuminate my journey with God through life.

Here are ten reasons why the Bible is important:

The Bible points us to God.
The Bible keeps us anchored in ageless truth.
The Bible is the foundation of our faith.
The Bible connects us with our past and points us to our future.
The Bible informs our practices, directs our actions, and guides our life.
The Bible protects us from wrong teaching.
The Bible is God’s written word to us, complementing God’s spoken word through the Holy Spirit.
The Bible keeps us from trying to create God in our own image.
The Bible protects us from turning faith into whatever we want it to be.
Reading and studying the Bible is an act of worship.

Without question, the Bible is fundamental to my faith and indispensable for my life. Without the Bible by my side, I would waffle in spiritual uncertainty over every feel-good fad and be distracted by every passing religious whim.

The Bible keeps me grounded in God and shielded from mankind’s misguided detours. The Bible is more than important to me.

The Bible is essential.

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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Christian Living

How Do We Worship God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 11, 2015

Celebrate the Savior

Many churches call their Sunday morning services a worship service. Does that mean going to church is worshipping God? I suppose it could be, but I don’t think many people believe that.

Instead, they focus on a particular aspect of the service as worship: the singing part. So singing can be worship. But where does that leave someone like me who can’t sing and doesn’t really even like to try?

I’ve also heard ministers say, “Let’s worship God with our tithes and offerings.” That implies donations are worship.

Except that we’re not giving our money to God but to people who—with varying degrees of success—endeavor to spend it on the things they think are important to God.

I’m all about charity. But because there’s an intermediary with our church donations, it doesn’t feel much like worshiping God but instead supporting a manmade institution.

Here are some other ideas of worship that resonate with me more so than singing and donating:

Help Others

Assisting those in need, either with our time or our money, can be an act of worship.

Appreciate Nature

Enjoying God’s creation affirms the creator and can serve as powerful worship.

Study the Bible

Scouring God’s Word for insights about him and how to serve him may be a viable act of worship.

Pray

As we move our prayers from telling God what we want towards sharing and listening, we approach worship.

Fast

Done with integrity, going without can be another way to worship God; it’s not for us but for him.

Hang Out With God

In all these ways, and many others, we can spend time with God. When our focus is on him, we worship him.

What I do know is that the Bible encourages us to worship God in spirit and in truth. Though I’m still working out what that fully means, it is my goal, my heart’s desire:

To wholly worship God in spirit and in truth. The way I do it is secondary.

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Peter DeHaan News

What’s the Focus of Your Bible Reading?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 8, 2015

Study God’s Holy Scripture

I spent all of last year studying women in the Bible. As the year progressed, my initial list of thirty kept getting longer. By yearend, I had found over seventy-five, and I wrote blog posts for about half of them.

Although I don’t plan on blogging about the rest, I am working on a book on the subject, Women in the Bible. The first draft is almost done, and I’m about ready for some beta readers to review it. When the book is finished, I’ll post a notice here.

For this year, I’m reading the New Testament, starting with the writings of Dr. Luke.

Although we’re a week into the new year, it’s not too late to start a Bible reading plan:

The New Testament Bible reading plan.
The Old Testament Bible reading plan.
Read the Entire Bible in a year
Check out our monthly Bible reading plans.

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in e-book, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

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

Tags Bible Reading, read the Bible

Personal Posts

Which is Better, Setting Goals or Making New Year’s Resolutions?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 1, 2015

Although I avoid making New Year’s resolutions, I do set annual goals. What’s the difference? Maybe nothing; maybe everything. To me, resolutions are akin to wishful thinking, with low expectations for success.

Goals are concrete, with stated action and quantifiable results.

I don’t think I’ve ever made a New Year’s resolution. If I discover something about myself I want to change, I set about making the adjustment right away. Delaying change until January first makes no sense.

However, every year I do set annual goals. I write them down and may even share them with friends. Throughout the year, I work towards achieving those goals.

Sometimes my goals morph into something else and other times they become irrelevant along the way, but I take each one as far as I can by December 31.

At the end of each year, I look back with a sense of accomplishment over the goals I’ve reached, while not wallowing in remorse over the ones I’ve missed. Never once have I achieved every annual goal and never once have I failed at them all.

This year was a rough year. Life took an unexpected turn soon after the New Year began, and my goals necessarily assumed a lessor priority. Even though it was one of my worst showings ever, I still accomplished two of my six goals.

However, other people shun goal setting, but they always make New Year’s resolutions. Just as I dismiss resolutions, they dismiss goals with equal disdain. Just as I embrace goals, they embrace resolutions with equal fervor.

Maybe the difference between goal setting and resolutions is just semantics, but maybe the difference is one of substance. I don’t know.

What I do know is that, whether it’s a goal or a resolution, we need to do what we can to accomplish the result we want and then look to God for help with what is out of our control.

With him, we have a much better chance of success than without him.

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 holiday, Sacred-Secular Divide

Peter DeHaan News

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Tags Biblical God, top ten

Christian Living

Interfaith Dialogue

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 28, 2014

A Good Thing Versus a Slippery Slope That Threatens Our Faith’s Essence

I’m a huge advocate of Christian unity and an equally huge opponent of denominations. After all, denominations are the antithesis of unity. Think about it.

Virtually all denominations resulted from disunity: of disagreements over things that didn’t really matter, of not getting along with one another, of saying “it’s my way or the highway.”

The solution is for all Christians to focus on our commonality in Jesus and not let anything else divide us. It’s that simple.

Now, what about other faiths? What should our reaction be to them?

Interfaith dialogue is a great start; it certainly beats not talking.

I recently heard a missionary explain that interfaith dialogue isn’t about sinking to find the least common denominator between two faiths; instead it’s about sharing who we truly are, of fully embracing one another.

Then I shared this idea with some ministers. They were shocked; in their experience, interfaith dialogue is always about finding the least common denominator. They didn’t see how it could be any other way.

I think the key is perspective. If we go into interfaith dialogue seeking to find the least common denominator, we will surely find it and likely find the experience disappointing.

However, if our goal is to mutually share who we fully are in our respective faiths, then true communication will take place and understanding is poised to occur.

When interacting with people of other faiths, we need to communicate our differences, not cover them. That’s when understanding can take place. While we don’t need to agree with one another, we do need to respect one another.

If we approach interfaith dialogue with a least common denominator attitude, then it does indeed become a slippery slope.

However, if we seek to share the totality of our respective faiths, then greater understanding and increased respect is the likely outcome.

And that’s a good thing.

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

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Bible Insights

Linus Reminds Us What Christmas is All About

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 25, 2014

Of the four biographies of Jesus in the Bible, my favorite is Luke’s. Luke also contains the best-known account of Jesus’ birth, made popular by the Peanut’s character Linus.

Watch Linus explain what Christmas is all about.

This well-known clip is from the 1965 TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas. Debuting over fifty years ago, the show addressed the secularization and commercialization of Christmas.

In the past five decades, the situation has grown much worse.

Let’s reclaim what Christmas is all about, starting with today—whether it’s Christmas or not.

May you and your family celebrate Jesus throughout the year.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Luke 1-3, and today’s post is on Luke 2:8-14.]

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 holiday, Jesus

Christian Living

3 Thoughts About Christmas

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 24, 2014

Christmas is almost here; my mind swirls with a jumble of thoughts as I try to connect the calendar with my celebration of Jesus. Here are three items I’m considering:

1. When my wife and I were in a state of transition between one home and the next. Most of our belongings, including everything relating to Christmas, were safely stowed in a couple of storage containers.

We had no decorations to hang and none of our familiar trimmings to remind us of this season. True, the signals are all around us, but those are just enough removed that the approach of Christmas mostly eludes me.

2. I wrote a blog post for Christmas, titled “Linus Reminds Us What Christmas is All About.” In it, I link to a clip of Linus reading part of the Christmas story from Luke 2:8-14.

This is from the perennial Christmas special A Charlie Brown Christmas, which first aired in 1965. The show was written to counter the secularization and commercialization of Christmas.

In the intervening forty-nine years, things have eroded much further.

3. I just received an email from a friend living in a culture far different from mine. He shared that not many people celebrate Christmas where he is, but his family will, intentionally preparing their hearts to remember Jesus’ arrival on earth.

At first I felt bad for my friend. He will miss out on having the familiar trappings of Christmas around him.

But as I think about it more, I’m envious because he doesn’t have the distractions from a secularized, commercialized distortion of Christmas to contend with.

Like my friend, I need to be intentional about Christmas and remember the true meaning behind it.

Thank you, Jesus! I love you!

Celebrate Christmas in a fresh way with The Advent of Jesus. It’s a forty-day devotional that prepares our hearts to celebrate the arrival of Jesus in an engaging read. Begin your Advent journey now and gain a greater sense of wonder for the season.

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Tags Christmas, holiday, Jesus

Christian Living

Will the Music in Heaven be Lame?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 21, 2014
4 Comments on Will the Music in Heaven be Lame?

Worshiping God in the Afterlife

One of the key reasons there are so many churches is that people have different musical tastes and prefer different forms of worship; they pick a church with music they like. Even though I know I shouldn’t, I do, too.

Worship shouldn’t be about what we prefer; it should be about what God deserves. We shouldn’t let music dictate our worship, but we often do.

Some music and songs draw me into worship, where I approach the very throne of God; other music erects a barrier I must fight to overcome.

For some inexplicable reason, I’m part of a denominational level think-tank of sorts.

The other members are wonderful people, who I really like, but they are also modern thinking folks who approach God with a traditional mindset, in a formal manner. I do not.

We often begin each day of our meetings with a worship service, which I tend to skip. One year the worship experience so crushed my spirit that it took most of the day to work past it.

Yeah, worship is supposed to be about God, but I couldn’t push through their formal constructs of it.

This year when I showed up midmorning to begin the day’s meetings, the worship service was winding down, droning on with some really lame music, sounds that repulsed me and evoked a rebellious spirit.

As I waited outside with other nonconformists, I heard the speaker end the service with, “Brothers and sisters, look around you; this is a little bit of what heaven will be like.”

Horrified, my knee-jerk reaction was, If this is what heaven will be like, then I don’t want to be there.

Seriously, that was my first thought.

The reality is that I greatly anticipate heaven. And if the music there is lame, then I will learn to push past it, because that’s what God merits.

However, I think music in heaven will be so compelling, so inviting, so awesome that we’ll yearn to worship God whatever the style may be.

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Tags awesome, worship

Peter DeHaan News

Old Testament Reading Plan

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 16, 2014

Get your free Bible reading plans today: Read the Bible This Year.

Read Through the Old Testament by Investing a Few Minutes a Day

The Old Testament reading plan Bible guide is now available.

By reading about 10 to 12 minutes a day, an average adult reader can cover the entire Old Testament of the Bible in one year.

The schedule, however, does not make people read the Bible straight through from page one to the end. “It’s too easy to get bogged down by one section of the Bible,” said the plan developer Peter DeHaan.

DeHaan’s method for all the options is to cover the Bible in sections, reading from only one book each day, completing that book before moving on to the next one.

“Every December people email me asking about Bible reading plans for the New Year. Each year we add more options and enhance our existing guides,” said Bible scholar Peter DeHaan.

Readers may freely share the Bible reading plans without restriction, as long as it is for noncommercial use.

Other Options

In addition to the Old Testament Reading Plan, author Peter DeHaan also provides two less ambitious Bible reading schedules. One covers just the New Testament. And the other is a set of twelve monthly reading plans.

“It only takes three to four minutes a day, five days a week, to read the New Testament in one year,” added DeHaan, “The New Testament plan is our most popular. And many people follow it up with our Old Testament reading plan the next year.”

In addition to the annual Bible Reading plans, ABibleADay.com also has hundreds of pages of information about the Bible, including Bible FAQs, Bible terms, books of the Bible, and a Bible blog.

Download one of the annual Bible reading plans, and have a Happy New Year!

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

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

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Tags Bible, Bible reading plans, spiritual growth