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.
In the post “Hear God” we looked at Jesus’ instruction to “hear the word of God and obey it.”
“Hear the word of God” is usually understood to mean “read the Bible,” but it might be more correct to comprehend it as meaning “listen to the Holy Spirit.”
Regardless, the concluding part, to “obey,” is the critical aspect.
When it comes to obeying the Bible, we do so selectively. We take some parts literally and some figuratively.
We discard some commands as no longer being relevant and we interpret others from the perspective of modern society. We may obey the Bible, but I fear we all obey it in part.
Then there’s obeying the words, the promptings, of the Holy Spirit. This can be even more confusing. Did we hear correctly? What if we only heard part of the message?
Did we understand it fully? Do we interpret the words literally or figuratively?
While we may not hear everything, everything we do hear from God, we should obey.
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.
I’ve blogged about squirrels in my yard, which I see on a daily basis and rabbits in my yard, which I see almost as often. This is not the case with raccoons. I’ve never seen a raccoon near my house, at least not until a couple weeks ago.
I was outside as dawn was peaking forth, setting the lawn sprinklers for the day. Not fully awake, I walked around my house, looked up, and was startled to see a raccoon lumbering across my yard, headed in my direction.
I froze. What should I do?
Do I yell to scare him off? Chase him away? Ignore him?
In my early morning stupor, I conjured up a comedy/horror skit, which flooded my mind.
I envisioned him rearing up on his hind legs and running towards me. With lightning quickness he would attack, mouth foaming and eyes ablaze with anger.
Before I could react, he would leap into the air, hit my chest, and pin me to the ground. Then he would…
I shuttered, trying to shake my over-active imagination from my foggy mind. It was not logical but filled me with fear just the same.
I clapped once to get his attention. He looked up with a start. He, too, was in a predawn stupor. To my relief, he made a U-turn and waddled out of sight. He was not full-grown, but with quite a tummy on him, he was apparently well-fed.
I recalled my next-door neighbor catching two adult raccoons in her live animal trap earlier this spring. I wondered if those were his folks. The trap was still set in her yard, ready for a third, but this lad was too clever.
If he was an orphan, he was doing okay, avoiding capture and finding plenty to eat.
Mr. Raccoon, I hope you have a long life and a happy life—just do it in someone else’s yard.
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 Jesus was wrapping up a teaching, he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” What exactly does he mean?
Hear God from the Bible
In our culture, we often consider “the word of God” to mean the Bible. So the common understanding is we need to read the Bible and obey it.
However, the part of the Bible about Jesus (the New Testament) didn’t exist at the time, so he couldn’t have been telling the people to read and obey something that hadn’t yet been written.
Hear God from the Holy Spirit
But since Jesus is both man and God, he could have used “hear the word of God” as a euphemism to mean “hear me.” While we can’t directly hear Jesus today, we can hear from the Holy Spirit he sent to us.
So maybe Jesus means he wants us to hear the Holy Spirit.
For some people it’s easy hear God and for others it’s nonsensical, while for the rest this is feasible but difficult and confusing and infrequent.
Yet, we may need to pursue listening to the Holy Spirit if we are to truly “hear the word of God.” (Learn how to hear from God.)
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.
I believe God lives outside of the space-time he created. Therefore, he isn’t limited by time—as we are—so our prayers need not be bounded by time, either.
This allows me to pray for things after the fact; the timing of when I pray is not as critical as the fact that I did pray, at some time.
For example, if someone asks for prayer at ten o’clock, I can pray at ten (the best option).
Or I can pray in advance, anticipating what they will undergo (this is great if I’ll be busy at ten).
A third option is to pray afterwards but to pray as if the outcome is still undetermined (this is hard and I don’t do it often).
Once I told a friend, I would pray for her—and then forgot. A reminder of my forgetfulness was an email from her, which essentially said, “thanks for praying; things didn’t work out.”
Dismayed over my broken promise, I did my best to set aside my knowledge of the outcome and pray as if it hadn’t occurred. My faith, that my feeble prayer would be answered, was weak at best, but I did pray nonetheless.
About four hours later I received a second email, which negated the first. It basically said, “God is amazing; he has provided for me and answered our prayers.”
I can’t explain the two contradicting emails and don’t know the details. What I do know is thatGod answers our prayers—regardless of when we pray.
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.
