Categories
Peter DeHaan News

News: Receive Free E-book From Peter DeHaan

Receive Peter DeHaan’s new e-book, How Big Is Your Tent? as a free thank you gift when you sign-up for his free weekly newsletter below.

And don’t worry. We won’t spam or share your name with anyone else. You can unsubscribe at any time.

May you enjoy reading Peter DeHaan’s book and newsletter.

Get How Big is Your Tent? A Call for Christian Unity, Tolerance, and Love today.

Read more in How Big is Your Tent? A Call for Christian Unity, Tolerance, and Love and discover what the Bible says about following Jesus. Available in e-book and paperback.

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.

Categories
Bible Insights

How Big Was the Promised Land?

God gave the Promised Land to the descendants of Abraham, not because they deserved it, but to use them to punish other nations who were wicked.

After he gave them the territory, their job was to drive out the other people (thereby punishing them).

Though the nation of Israel did this to some extent, their efforts were incomplete. This was to their detriment and God’s dismay.

God also gave them laws to obey. They didn’t do a good job at following through with those either.

Had they completely done all God instructed them to do, he would have given them even more territory: this time because they earned it.

Sadly they didn’t do their part, so they never received all the land God wanted to give them. The Promised Land could have been bigger, but because of disobedience, the nation missed the full blessing of what God had in mind for them.

I think it’s that way with us sometimes.

God wants to give us more, but we don’t do our part to receive it and so we miss out.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Deuteronomy 19-21, and today’s post is on Deuteronomy 19:8-9.]

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.

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

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

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

​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Categories
Peter DeHaan News

News Release: Peter DeHaan Releases A Faith Manifesto

New Spirituality E-book Conveys Author’s Basis for Belief and is Available as a Free Download

[Note: this book has since been updated and relaunched as How Big is Your Tent? A Call for Christian Unity, Tolerance, and Love.]

Mattawan, Michigan, Apr 25, 2013—Author Peter DeHaan, PhD, announced the release of his new e-book, A Faith Manifesto, an essential belief statement of what it means to follow Jesus as revealed in the Bible.

Weighing in at a mere 2,800 words, A Faith Manifesto is a quick read that’s packed with elegant simplicity, yet offers much to contemplate.

Proclaiming the Bible as his foundation for belief, Peter simply asks, “What did Jesus say?” Compiling Jesus’ own words from the biblical accounts of his teaching, the evidence mounts to produce a fresh perspective.

The result wipes away centuries of assumptions that don’t really align with Jesus’ teaching.

And that’s just part one. There are two more parts—even more daring and outrageous than the first—as Peter urges readers to “follow the God who is revealed in the Bible.”

A Faith Manifesto is a succinct account of the foundation of my theology,” stated Dr. DeHaan. “It also serves nicely as a focal point for much of my other writing. Part one of A Faith Manifesto is a concise summary of key principles from my dissertation.”

Peter continued, stating that two other books he is working on also connect with the core ideas expressed in A Faith Manifesto.

A Faith Manifesto is available as a PDF file and formatted for easy viewing on a computer screen.

Read more in How Big is Your Tent? A Call for Christian Unity, Tolerance, and Love and discover what the Bible says about following Jesus. Available in e-book and paperback.

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.

Categories
Christian Living

How to Spend Time with God

We spend time with people we like. The more we like them, the more time we spend together. If we claim people as friends but don’t often see them, then they must not be too important.

The same is true with God. If God is important to us, we’ll spend time with him: not out of guilt but out of longing. Here are some ideas.

Pray

Prayer is talking to God. When we pray, we tell him what’s on our minds. We also listen to what he says.

We would never dominate our time with a friend, just talking about ourselves but never listening or always complaining but never being appreciative or always asking for favors but never giving any. Those are easy ways to lose a friend.

So it is with prayer: don’t do all the talking, rant, or just ask for things. Instead, listen, thank, and give.

Read the Bible

With friends we read their emails, subscribe to their blog, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter. If God is our friend, shouldn’t we likewise be interested in what he has to say?

Think

Taking time to just contemplate is not often done in our fast-paced culture. Yet we do think about friends. And for that someone special, we think about him or her a lot.

We call this daydreaming; we can’t help ourselves. As it relates to God, thinking about him is meditating; we contemplate God.

Give

I’m not talking about money. We give friends our time, attention, and focus (and sometimes money, too). So it should be with God. We carve out time to be with our closest friends. So too, God appreciates our time, attention, and focus.

Hanging Out

The Gen-X and Gen-Yers value “just hanging out with friends.”

In the same way, we can hang out with God: going for walks, listening to music, watching TV, eating out, taking him to the movies. In fact, God can do whatever we do and go where ever we go.

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.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

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

​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Categories
Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: Prayer: Conversing with God

By Rosalind Rinker (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

“I have discovered,” says Rosalind Rinker, “that prayer’s real purpose is to put God at the center of our attention, and forget ourselves and the impression we are making on others.”

So begins the preface of Prayer: Conversing with God, aptly establishing the foundation for the rest of the book.

Rinker starts Prayer: Conversing with God by sharing her experiences at three prayer meetings—both the positive and the negative. The lesson that she learns is that prayer is simply talking to God.

It’s a dialogue, sans religious prayer-language, pretentious posturing, and Shakespearean low English (thou, thee, thy). As a result, her spiritual journey is forever; a new and fresh relationship with God emerges.

Interspersing personal experience with scriptural support, she moves from the basics – prayer is dialogue, a conversion, a relationship—to discussions about group prayer and private prayer.

In the chapter entitled, “To whom should we pray?” she addresses the Trinitarian nature of God in a helpful and practice manner.

Prayer: Conversing with God also includes the perplexing and the ponderous, addressing issues such as faith’s role in prayer, unanswered prayer, and making “faith-sized requests.”

She notes that prayer can be delayed and even hindered, providing convicting teaching on the importance of forgiveness.

The concluding chapter presents practical steps for turning a prayer meeting into a vibrant conversation with God. As a bonus, there are four appendices with additional tools to aid readers in their own spiritual journey.

With numerous printings and nearly a million copies sold, Prayer: Conversing with God is a book that has proven itself to be a timeless classic. Written over 50 years ago, its truths are as valuable and useful today as they were a half a century ago.

[Prayer: Conversing with God, by Rosalind Rinker. Published by Zondervan Publishing House, 1959, 117 pages.]

Read more book reviews by Peter DeHaan.

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.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

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

​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Categories
Bible Insights

Why Does God Bless Us?

When God’s people were in Egypt, he promised to send them back to the land of Jacob, that is, the Promised Land.

God would give them the land because they deserved it, right? Surely God would bless them with freedom and a place to call home because they earned it.

Their endurance while enslaved in Egypt for four centuries must have secured this reward.

Certainly, they would receive the Promised Land because of good behavior and righteous living. They had garnered God’s favor and he was duty-bound to respond.

No, that’s not it at all.

Moses said God would not do this to reward Israel but to punish the nations they would displace. God had a bigger picture in mind and in order to accomplish it, he blessed one people in order to remove the wickedness of another.

The Israelites were the happy recipients of God’s unmerited favor.

When something good happens, we often assume God’s implicit acknowledgment of our character and conduct.

But before we pat ourselves on our back, we should recall Moses’ warning to the people of Israel: they were not to assume the Promised Land was a response to their righteousness.

We shouldn’t make incorrect conclusions about why God chooses to bless but instead just be grateful when he does.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Deuteronomy 7-9, and today’s post is on Deuteronomy 9:4.]

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.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

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

​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Categories
Christian Living

How Is God a Part of Our Lives?

Last week in “What are your priorities?” I wondered if God is a part of our lives. Does he have first place, given lessor attention, squeezed in, or an afterthought? Next is the contrast between our intention and our reality—which seldom match.

A follow-up consideration is “How is he a part of our lives?” Again, this isn’t a discussion about ideal theory but the real results of what occurs on a daily basis. Some considerations are:

Read about Him: If God is important to us, we should want to get to know him better. One way is to read about him. The Bible is the best source. Though frequency and quantity (such as one chapter every day) are noble goals, they’re also legalistic.

The key is focusing on quality, be it one verse or four chapters, occurring three times a day to once a week.

Talk to Him: Communication with God happens through prayer, but not the bow-your-head, close-your-eyes oration that happens in church or before meals. Prayer is casual interaction, informal and frequent throughout the day (and night).

Make Him Part of Our Actions and Words: We talk about what’s important to us and our activities confirm it.

What do our words and actions say about us? While God doesn’t need to show up in every sentence and deed, his persistent reality shouldn’t be far away.

Spend Time With Him: Western society doesn’t value silence, solitude, or meditation. Yet when we do these things with a focus on God, we connect with him, deepening our understanding of him and relationship to him.

Let Him Permeate Our Thoughts: Can God become part of our subconscious, residing near the surface throughout the day?

While it seems unlikely and impractical, Brother Lawrence serves as an example for us to aspire to (see The Practice of the Presence of God.)

Regardless of the priority we give God, we can always make him more fully part of our lives.

The question is do we want to?

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.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

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

​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Categories
Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: The Poor Will Be Glad

Joining the Revolution to Lift the World Out of Poverty

By Peter Greer and Phil Smith (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

Over half of the people in the world live on less than four dollars per day and one billion of them live on less than a dollar a day. Most of them reside in developing countries.

These people face a plethora of problems, including hunger, child mortality, lack of clean drinking water, death producing diarrhea, a dearth of education, limited access to healthcare, lower life expectancy, an absence of women’s rights, high unemployment, and a shortage of access to financial services.

So opens Peter Greer and Phil Smith’s book, The Poor Will Be Glad.

Attempting to tell them about Jesus, without addressing the ravages of poverty in their lives, fail to produce long-term results. However, when physical needs are addressed along with spiritual needs, lasting change can result.

Unfortunately, many aid efforts, although well-intentioned, actually do more harm than good, training recipients to be dependent on and expectant of Western handouts.

The solution that authors Greer and Smith advocate is microfinance. Microfinance provides small, short-term loans to poverty-mired, but otherwise able individuals.

These loans enable them to engage in income-generating work that can improve their standard of living and help them rise above the ravages of poverty. Succinctly, access to small amounts of capital empowers the poor.

As the book’s subtitle suggests, microfinance can lift the world out of poverty—and the church should join in this revolution.

After laying out the severity and pervasiveness of poverty and offering microfinance as a liable and proven solution, Peter Greer and Phil Smith devote the latter two parts of the book to detail microfinance and connect it to ministry.

When done properly and wisely, the results are an opportunity to help those in poverty on both a physical and spiritual level.

The Poor Will Be Glad is full of instructive and inspiring examples of microfinance in action. Unlike many books that are co-authored, where it is often frustratingly unclear which author’s voice and experiences are being shared, with The Poor Will Be Glad, there is no such confusion.

The book also abounds with poignant pictures from professional photographer Jeremy Cowart. The inclusion of his work in The Poor Will Be Glad raises the work to coffee-table book status.

This does not detract from, but rather enhances, its central function of providing practical education on the power of microfinance, coupled with ministry.

Microfinance is not a poverty panacea, but it does offer the most realistic way to make lasting changes in the lives of the poor in third world countries. When it is coupled with biblically based principles and pointing people to Jesus, the change can be eternal.

[The Poor Will Be Glad: Joining the Revolution to Lift the World Out of Poverty, by Peter Greer and Phil Smith. Published by Zondervan, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-310-29359-0, 279 pages, $19.99]

Read more book reviews by Peter DeHaan.

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.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

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

​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Categories
Bible Insights

What’s the Meaning of Manna?

When the nation of Israel was in the desert between Egypt and the land God promised to give them, stuck in time-out, they needed something to eat.

God supernaturally provided a substance called manna. It sustained them for forty years while in the Sinai Peninsula.

Although the Bible describes manna, the explanation leaves me wanting. Apparently it was a nutritious foodstuff. It had multiple uses and physically nourished them, either in part or in whole, while living in the desert.

In a practical sense, God gave them manna to keep them alive. However, there’s more.

Moses writes that:

  • God humbled his people. Being hungry will do that. Consider the implications to fasting.
  • In their hunger, God provided for them.
  • The lesson in this was that “man does not live on bread alone.” Yeah, Moses said that. Does it sound familiar?
  • In addition to eating manna (bread) for physical sustenance, God wanted his people to also depend on him for their spiritual sustenance, living on his words—all of them.

Several centuries later, when Satan tempted Jesus to perform a miracle in order to feed himself, Jesus quoted Moses: “Man shall not live on bread alone.”

The implication is that even more important than eating food, is hearing God. Spiritual needs trump the physical.

But there’s more. Later, when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, one phrase was “Give us today our daily bread.” This is a request to meet both our physical and our spiritual needs.

Manna is a means to live, both physically and spiritually; we need both every day.

[Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4, Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3]

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.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

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

​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Categories
Christian Living

What Are Your Priorities?

It’s a good idea to be aware of the priorities in our lives. We should periodically review what’s important to us and make sure our actions align with our intentions.

For example, if I consider watching sports to be a waste of time but devote hours to its pursuit, then my actions don’t align with my intentions. Something needs an adjustment.

Perhaps I would need to be honest and say I enjoy watching sports, thereby making it a priority (remember, this is hypothetical).

Alternately, I might need to skip some TV viewing in order to subject my actions into matching my intentions.

(For the record, the television can be a distraction for me, but it’s seldom sports.)

So if you were to make an honest list of the priorities in your life, what would they be? Perhaps the main categories might look like:

  1. God
  2. Family
  3. Work
  4. Hobbies
  5. Rest

Then there would be subdivisions. For example, family might include spouse, children, parents, and so forth. Or work might consist of the 9 to 5 portion, expectations outside of the workday, and going the extra mile.

By factoring in variations and distinctions, our list of five or six key areas can expand to a couple dozen items with overlapping themes and intertwined considerations.

The next step is to compare our ideal list with reality. Does the way we spent our time match our priorities? If you’re like me, the answer is often no.

Contrasting actions with intentions isn’t a guilt producing exercise but an opportunity to better align our reality with our priorities.

For me the practical result is often the realization that I should scale back on television or need to cut out some non-essential activities.

The most important consideration, however, is where does God fit into our life? Is he a priority? Do our actions actually support that?

The consequences are eternal.

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.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

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

​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.