When a man asks Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life,” he is showing proper respect for Jesus by calling him good.
Jesus, however, is quick to assert that only God is truly good.
If ever anyone deserved the label of “good,” it was Jesus. But instead he offers this accolade up to God his Father as an affirmation of God’s character.
Then Jesus reminds the man of the Ten Commandments.
The man asserts he has kept them all since he was a boy; he is effectively saying, “I’ve been good.” He seems to miss Jesus’ teaching that only God is good.
But merely being good is not enough. Jesus tells him to sell all he has and give away the proceeds. This is easy when we have little, but harder when we have a lot; the man has much.
The idea of giving it all away distresses him and he leaves.
Though it might be unwise to turn this story into a rule, for this man, at least, being good is not good enough.
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.
Jesus seems to specialize in doing the unexpected.
For instance, consider when the rich young ruler asks Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus side-steps the question about eternal life. Instead, he goes into teaching about good. That was unexpected.
Another time, four men bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus to be healed. Jesus shocks everyone by forgiving the man’s sins. That was really unexpected.
However, later on Jesus does heal the paralyzed man and he does answer the young ruler’s question (although it’s not what the man wanted to hear—that was unexpected, too).
Jesus often does the unexpected. Perhaps that’s one reason the crowds were drawn to him two thousand years ago and why we are drawn to him today.
Unexpected Jesus may surprise us and at times perplex us, but he is still our healer and savior.
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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The Bible encourages us to pray without ceasing, to pray continually. This seems to be an impossible task. If we always prayed, we’d be doing nothing but praying.
However, Brother Lawrence did approach this goal, learning over the course of many years to be in a constant attitude of prayer as he went about his daily activities.
But Brother Lawrence lived in a setting that would be ideal for this (a monastery) and during a much slower-paced era (some five centuries ago).
Surely this isn’t feasible today with our busy lives overflowing with activity.
Although I, too, consider this as unattainable, I was at least motivated to be on the lookout for people and situations warranting prayer. I guess I made progress in that area, although it was confirmed in an odd way.
Once while watching TV, the protagonist was in a bad situation and faced a critical decision. I asked God to protect him and that he would choose wisely.
I quickly caught myself, embarrassed for treating fantasy as reality, while at the same time realizing I was developing a subconscious prayer life.
For the next several months this tendency to pray for fictional characters continued, apparently mirroring a growing real-life practice.
I don’t pray for characters in television and movies anymore. I wonder if I don’t pray as much for real-life people either.
I wonder how I can better pray without ceasing.
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.
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.
Peter DeHaan and Jerry Barrett have started a writers critique group, Kalamazoo Christian Writers (KCW), based in Kalamazoo Michigan. The first meeting was held on July 11 at The Point, a non-profit community center located on the west side of Kalamazoo.
KCW materials passed out at the inaugural meeting state:
“Though this is a Christian writers group, there is no expectation that all our work must be ostensible ‘Christian’ writing. Christians who write have a place in virtually every genre, market, and industry; we need to embrace and support that.”
“The response was great,” said co-founder Peter DeHaan. “We talked about the vision for the group, shared the critiquing process, and practiced on a couple of pieces.”
Attendees were universally excited about the group and what it will offer to improve their writing and advance their careers.
For some time Barrett and DeHaan have been making an hour drive twice a month to take part in another critique group.
When they realized the value of group critiquing and with the uncertainty of winter driving in Michigan, they began making plans to form a local group. Though the two intend to remain connected with the first group, this new endeavor, KCW, will be their focus.
“The main value of a critique group is to help the writer to look at the window of the craft of writing not through it,” said co-founder Jerry Barrett.
“The goal of critique is to help one another, as writers, to accentuate what is clear for the reader and to remove possible smudges on the pane.”
The critiquing process is scalable, so there’s no limit to the size of the group, and the meeting room is large enough to accommodate a much larger scope.
Regardless of the number present, writers will split into manageable sized groups to maximize effectiveness and minimize time requirements.
Critiquing is best when done in groups of four or five, with everyone having a piece to share and everyone providing feedback.
Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.
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.
Jesus gives a brief story about the interaction between a servant and his master. The conclusion is that the servant should not expect any praise or special treatment for merely doing his job.
So too should be our attitude when we do what God expects of us.
Instead, we—I don’t think I’m alone in this—have a tendency to expect God’s attention and special favor when we merely do what we’re supposed to do.
It’s as if we tell him, “Look what I did for you; now you need to do something for me.”
While I do think God appreciates and takes pleasure in the good things we do, he doesn’t owe us anything as a result.
He’s already given us everything through Jesus. What more could we want or need?
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.
In The Meaning of Life, author James Rutz takes a new look at some of the standard thinking about God.
He examines anew God’s creation, corrects common misconceptions about what heaven and hell are really like, revisits history to address its central theme and approaching conclusion, addresses the problem of evil, and takes aim at clarifying some of the Bible’s perplexing passages.
His purpose in doing so is to remove the intellectual stumbling blocks to faith. However, all this is merely a prelude to his main objective: offering “an enticing alternative to old-fashioned, Sunday morning Christianity.”
Although The Meaning of Life is a standalone book, Rutz does make multiple references to is prior work, Megashift, which was published the prior year.
Both works take vastly different approaches and cover a different theme to arrive at the same place: house churches.
Toward this end, Rutz first suggests that it is time to “reboot the church”; then he encourages readers to “make an end run around the church” by starting their own (their own church, that is, not their own religion).
Rutz proceeds to reel off a string a house church benefits where participants can experience “team life,” with “24/7 support”; “have mutual accountability”; “form deep, loving relationships”; “find solutions to many…deep seated problems”; realize “tremendous empowerment”; “gain a new authority”; discover freedom and a “greater identity as part of the royal priesthood”; and be offered “the ultimate challenge – daring high-stakes, history-changing adventure.”
In addition, there will be the free worship of God, where his presence is clearly felt.
“When the [church] meeting is open,” Rutz notes, “the Holy Spirit is allowed to direct things as he wants, His presence can be heart-stopping—like nothing you’ve ever experienced.”
Rutz then offers a dozen rules for those who desire more out of life. He concludes The Meaning of Life with five keys to help readers understand the problem passages found in the Bible.
[The Meaning of Life, by James Rutz. Published by Empowerment Press, 2006, ISBN: 9780966915846, 138 pages.]
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.
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.
In the post on forgiveness, I cited the instructions of Jesus: when someone treats us wrongly we are to first confront (“rebuke”) them about the issue.
If they apologize or acknowledge their error (“repent”), then we are to forgive them.
From this, we can infer a three-step process:
We confront
They apologize
We forgive
Which evokes several questions:
Must apology proceed forgiveness?
If the offending person refuses to apologize are we still expected to forgive?
What about us and Jesus, do we need to apologize ( “confess” and “regret”) to him before he will forgive us?
Frankly, I don’t know the answers to these questions. Although this passage implies one set of answers, other verses in the Bible suggest the opposite.
Could the real answer to each question be “maybe?” Perhaps God wants to keep us from turning his words into a simple three-step procedure.
Instead he gives us guidelines to study, interpret, and apply as appropriate.
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.
Once when teaching his disciples, Jesus addresses forgiveness.
He says when someone treats us wrongly we are to first confront (“rebuke”) them about the issue. If they apologize or acknowledge their error (“repent”), then we are to forgive them.
Although Jesus literally says we are to do this seven times, there is actually no limit to forgiveness.
What a great picture of God’s mercy towards us—endless, unconditional forgiveness!
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.
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.
When people approached Jesus, wanting to connect with him, he would offer a variety of instructions. It seems his response addressed their particular situation and issues. What he said most often was “repent and follow me.”
“Repent” simply means to change our ways, to do a U-turn; “follow” means to go after. Sometimes Jesus was even more concise and just said “follow me”.
I like this idea of following him and often tell people “I’m a follower of Jesus.” The label of Christian may be a quick and easy one, but it means different things to different people, evoking varying responses from respect to invective.
To say, “I follow Jesus” is straightforward and less confusing. Or is it?
With the ubiquitous popularity of Twitter, comes the common request to “Twitter.” To follow someone on Twitter takes little effort and requires no commitment; it is passive and demands nothing.
This is quite the opposite of following Jesus with a passionate desire to be his disciple and know him intimately.
It’s my hope that everyone will follow Jesus, not the meaningless “follow on Twitter” nonsense, but an all in, totally sold out following of Jesus, the Christ who is revealed in the Bible.
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.
The Hip-Hop Church: Connecting with the Movement Shaping Our Culture
By Efrem Smith and Phil Jackson (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)
In The Hip-Hop Church, authors Efrem Smith and Phil Jackson assert that hip-hop transcends the music on which it is based, forming its own culture that has been largely missed or dismissed by the church.
They note that even youth who don’t listen to hip-hop music are heavily influenced by the culture it has spawned. This is the hip-hop generation, which the authors present as an overlooked mission field.
Divided into three parts, along with two forwards and an introduction, The Hip-Hop Church provides much to consider and contemplate about all that is hip-hop.
In the introduction, the authors share their connection with hip-hop and their passion for it.
Part one, “Why Should the Church Care about Hip-Hop,” consists of a solitary chapter that addresses the connections between hip-hop and the African American church.
The authors astutely note that “the church cannot avoid the culture of the unchurched postmodern community,” (p 42).
Part two, “Understanding the Hip-Hop Culture,” addresses hip-hop as both postmodern and an influencer of culture.
Laying the foundation for discussion, Efrem states that “Hip-hop is about dance, art, expression, pain, love, racism, sexism, broken families, hard times, the search for God and overcoming,” (p 81).
“Bringing Hip-Hop into Your Church” is the title of part three, introducing the concept of “holy hip-hop.”
Comprising nearly half the book, this section is both a primer and a practical guide for those desiring to integrate hip-hop into their church services or to produce special hip-hop outreach events.
After discussing the components that comprise a holy hip hop service, the schedule, or “flow,” of one is presented.
Phil concludes The Hip-Hop Church with the reminder that “culture and religion cannot be separated,” (p 217).
For his part, Efrem reminds readers that “the church embracing and engaging hip-hop culture in the end is really not about music but about a generation of young people,” (p 220).
Throughout the book there are repeated allusions that though hip-hop is primarily an urban, minority phenomenon, its influences pervade all of culture and therefore all churches must consider reaching out to the hip-hop generation.
Nevertheless, the examples and efforts shared center on the urban, African American church, leaving more questions than answers for those who are non-urban and non-African American.
Even so, The Hip-Hop Church provides much to consider and contemplate.
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.
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.
