Biblical Christianity from Peter DeHaan

Why You May Be In The Top One Percent

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 13, 2011

I’m weary hearing about the top 1 percent, the wealthiest people in the USA. While too much has already been said about this from a political, social, and philosophical standpoint, I see it as a spiritual issue.

For most of us in the US, the bottom 99 percent, we need to guard against a spirit of envy. In fact, we should be happy (the Bible would use the word “rejoice”) for just how much the top 1 percent has gained.

Let’s not forget that we, too, have gained. But it is spirit of envy that objects to someone else who gains more than us.

For the top 1 percent in the USA, let me provide a spiritual reminder: you are blessed to be a blessing. That is, help others with your money. You don’t have to give it all away (but you could).

I’m not advocating socialism or higher taxes, but I am suggesting a spirit of generosity that continually seeks to do the most good with the money that God has allowed you to earn.

However, there is a bigger picture that we need to look at, a worldwide one. According to the website globalrichlist.com, if you make over $49,000 a year, than you are in the top 1 percent worldwide.

You are blessed and need to be a blessing to others. Don’t be envious of the few who make more; be generous to the 99 percent who make less.

Did you know that about half the world lives on less than $4 a day—and that about a billion people live on less than $1 a day?

Consider that next time you buy a gourmet coffee or rent a movie—your trivial expenditure equals the daily income of someone else.

Helping those in need is a spiritual issue, so is realizing that you are not part of the problem, but the solution.

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 Bible, generosity

Bible Insights

Moses Died and Then Good Things Happen

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 10, 2011

The book of Joshua opens by confirming the death of Moses, followed by a curious instruction: Now you go into the Promised Land.

Imagine that, an entire nation was put on hold, unable to move—until Moses died. Moses had to die for them to receive what God had promised to give them.

What if Moses had stubbornly clung to life for another month, another year, or even longer, holding on to a vain hope that he would also be allowed to enter the Promised Land?

Then the people would have had to wait even longer. Or what if Moses had died a bit sooner?

Perhaps the people could have moved forward a bit sooner.

Though it seems morbid, Moses’ death was a good thing for the people. Though their faithful leader was gone, only then could they receive God’s promised provision. His death was a necessary requirement for their journey.

It’s kind of like receiving an inheritance. The person needs to die for the gift to be given. Their death releases what has been promised.

It’s kind of like Jesus. He, too, had to die for us to receive what God had in store for us. His death was sad and horrific, but it was necessary for what happened next—our salvation.

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Tags Jesus, Joshua, Moses

Bible Insights

Different Versions of the Bible

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 8, 2011

In my post “Translation Confusion,” I pointed out that the Bible has word-for-word translations, thought-for-thought translations, and paraphrases (more technically known as “functional equivalence”).

These all exist on a continuum, so the lines of distinction between them are blurry.

Here is how Ministry Today magazine recently broke them down:

Word-for-word Translations

Popular word-for-word translations are the New American Standard Bible (NASB), King James Version (KJV), and the English Standard Version (ESV).

Thought-for-thought Translations

Popular thought-for-thought translations are the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), as well as the New International Version (NIV) and New Living Translation (NLT), though both those are viewed as more of a balance between word-for-word and thought-for-thought (hence the aforementioned continuum).

Paraphrases

Popular paraphrases are The Message and The Living Bible.

Not included in their list is the Amplified Bible. It is based on the American Standard Bible, which is word-for-word translation.

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Tags read the Bible

Christian Living

Do You Enjoy Reading Psalms?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 6, 2011

Many people love reading the psalms in the Bible.

They connect with the beauty and the flow of the words; they resonate with the pains, passions, and praises of the writers; it is their “go-to” place to find, express, and reveal their emotion of the moment as it emotes from daily living.

I am not one of those people.

Let me be frank. The psalms bore me to tears. I want to reach back through the passage of time and slap King David (a writer of many of the psalms) with the rejoinder, “Quit your whining.”

However, when reading the psalms in The Message—a Bible paraphrase that attempts to capture the raw, earthy nature of the original text in a comprehensible way for today’s world—I, too, become captivated by the power and honesty of it.

If, unlike me, you enjoy reading the psalms, then by all means continue to do so. Don’t let my curmudgeonly outlook spoil your joy and appreciation for this ancient text.

However, if, like me, you too struggle connecting with the psalms, then check them out in The Message—you might just find a new appreciation for them.

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Tags psalm, read the Bible

Bible Insights

Let’s Go Back to Egypt

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 3, 2011

After spending 430 years in Egypt, the Israelites are finally free. They head out for the Promised Land and one of the first things they do is complain.

They beg to go back to Egypt.

Then they spend forty years in the desert. When they finally cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land, one of the first things they do is become discouraged and pine for the desert where no one was trying to attack them.

They want to go back.

It’s human nature to want to stick with what we know and remain firmly mired in the familiar. But that is not how we grow and not the way of progress.

God often asks us to do the uncomfortable, to take risks, and do what we would rather not do.

But it is when we leave behind what is known that real growth can occur; it is when we are outside our comfort zone, depending on God, that our relationship with him deepens.

Yes, we can remain in our own Egypt or own desert, but staying where we don’t belong is being stuck in something less than God’s best plan for us.

When God says to go, we need do it—and not think about going back.

[Numbers 14:3, Joshua 7:5, 7]

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Tags desert, Egypt, promised land

Bible Insights

They Went to Egypt for Food and Forgot to Return Home

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 1, 2011

In earlier posts, I noted that after the Israelites left Egypt, they spent 40 years in the desert before entering the land God promised for them. I also observed that Moses waited 40 years before leading them out of Egypt.

This makes for an unnecessary delay of 80 years.

However, why were they in Egypt in the first place?

God told Abram (later called Abraham) to “go to the land I will show you,” which he promised to give to Abram’s offspring. Abram went. His son Isaac and grandson Jacob were born there. Jacob had 12 sons.

Joseph, his favorite, ended up in Egypt in a position of power. When a severe famine hit the entire region, Joseph invited his whole family to Egypt, where he had stockpiled plenty of food.

The famine lasted seven years. After which you would think that Jacob’s family would go home. But instead, they stayed in Egypt for 430 years—which God likely did not intend—eventually becoming slaves and suffering greatly.

This all could have been avoided had Jacob remembered God’s promise to Abraham and returned to the place God intended them to be.

Instead, they spent 430 years as slaves in Egypt, when they could have been in the Promised Land the whole time.

[Genesis 12:1, 7, Joshua 24:4, Exodus 12:40]

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Tags desert, Egypt, promised land

Christian Living

May We Be Refreshed By Each Other

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 30, 2011

This week, as I wrote out a prayer in my journal, I invited God into a time of fellowship with me, for us to commune with each other. Then I intended to ask him, “May I be refreshed by our time together.”

Instead, I felt a spiritual compulsion and at the last moment I wrote, “May we be refreshed by each other.”

I was shocked. That seemed sacrilegious. I felt I was being forward, presumptuous, and even arrogant. How could a finite being tell his creator that he intends to offer refreshment to a sovereign deity?

So I asked him.

His answer was quick. “I am refreshed by the things you think.”

I was reminded to “take captive every thought” and think about whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable (2 Corinthians 10:5 and Philippians 4:8). If God is to be refreshed by what I think, then what I desire to do is no small task.

By extension, I don’t think our opportunities to delight the divine are limited by what we think, but also by what we say and by what we do. These, however, are not to be tasks of obligation or duty, but rather acts of love.

May our thoughts, our words, and our actions be pleasing to God and refresh his spirit.

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Tags pray, spiritual journey

Bible Insights

Forty Years—Times Two

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 27, 2011

The Israelites left Egypt for what should have been an eleven-day trek across the desert to the “promised land.” However, because of their disobedience, God gave them a 40-year timeout in the desert.

This, however, may not have been the first delay.

Prior to that, Moses sensed that his place was to rescue his people, but when initial opposition occurred to his leadership, he high-tailed it out of there, only to spend 40 years hiding in the desert.

Imagine that. Moses spent a total of 80 years of his life in the desert.

Now Moses’ initial 40-year desert retreat could have been a needed time of preparation, but I think not. God could have worked through him at any time—then or later. I think Moses shirked his initial call.

He needed 40 years of alone time, tending to his sheep, before he would be ready to hear God and obey.

So, had Moses not procrastinated for 40 years and had the people of Israel not been disobedient, earning another 40-year delay, they could have arrived in the land God promised them 80 years sooner.

[Numbers 14:33, Acts 7:30]

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Tags desert, disobedience, Egypt, Moses, promised land

Personal Posts

The Domino Effect of Home Improvement

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 27, 2011

This summer my bride and I began working together. This required that we convert an unused bedroom into her office. At the time, she made a reasonable request to paint the room first.

I noted that this would also be an ideal time to replace the carpet. I had planned to ditch the aged 25-year-old carpet throughout our home next year anyway, so we picked out and ordered the carpet for the entire job.

Candy’s office was painted and re-carpeted on schedule. However, re-carpeting the rest of the house set in motion a chain reaction, which I call the domino effect of home improvement.

It was pointed out that before installing the rest of the carpet, it would be preferable to have all the non-carpeted areas redone first, not later. That too had been planned for next year.

However, the existing bathroom cabinets—also planned for replacement in two years—had a larger footprint than what is currently available. So, new cabinets were picked out and installed first.

Between the cabinet replacement and redoing the flooring, both bathrooms have been out of commission for a couple of weeks. (Fortunately, the guest bathroom was still functional.)

Of course, this was an ideal time to repaint the bathrooms.

But, with the flooring tore up, it was the window of opportunity to try to fix the squeaking floors. The list goes on…

In the midst of this, I decided to move my office next to my bride’s, as opposed to being at the opposite end of the house on a different level. This meant buying a new desk since the other one wouldn’t fit in the new room.

At this point, every room in the house—save the guest room — is either in various states of remodeling or is storing furniture from the other rooms.

I think that our home is currently at the peak of disarray and can now anticipate steady movement towards getting back to normal.

As for dominoes, I think I’ve had enough of them for a while.

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.

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Tags family, money, Sacred-Secular Divide

Bible Insights

Bookends to the Desert Experience

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 25, 2011

After the Israelites left Egypt, God gave them a 40-year timeout in the desert. This was because of their lack of trust in his pledge to provide for them as they entered into the land he promised.

This meant that what should have been an eleven-day journey, ended up being a 40-year desert experience—which for most, literally lasted a lifetime.

While their desert sojourn was marked by complaining and disobedience, there were a couple of significant bookend events to their time of waiting.

First, they celebrated Passover for the first time just before they left Egypt to head to the desert. Then they celebrate it again, 40 years later after they leave the desert.

The first Passover was marked by God’s provision for them to leave Egypt, while the subsequent ones were intended as a reminder of the first.

Second, two miracles occurred, allowing them to enter and later leave the desert. After leaving Egypt, and being pursued by its army, God parted the sea so they could escape the attack and enter into the desert.

Forty years later, when it was time to leave the desert, God parted the Jordan River—at flood stage—allowing them to leave.

So their desert experience began with Passover and the parting of the sea; it ended with the parting of another body of water and another Passover celebration.

[Leviticus 23, Joshua 5:10, Exodus 14:21, Joshua 4:18]

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Tags desert, disobedience, Egypt, flood, miracle, Passover