Biblical Christianity from Peter DeHaan

What’s Your Favorite Bible Verse?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 31, 2011

What is your favorite verse in the Bible? Is it John 3:16? That seems to be one commonly cited. Or perhaps, it’s commonly cited, only because it is the only one people know.

As a teen, just to be contrary and catch people off guard, I would claim that my favorite verse was John 3:17. It’s a good one, too, and worthy of consideration.

Or how about: “God helps them who help themselves.” That may be a popular and comforting thought, but I can’t find it in my Bible, so that doesn’t count.

My favorite verse, at least for this season of my life, is quite a bit more obscure. It’s the last part of 1 Chronicles 4:10. To save you the effort of looking it up, it simply says, “And God granted his request.”

The back-story, found in that verse and the preceding one, is that a guy named Jabez prays. After he prays, the Bible simply records that God answered his prayer. It’s my favorite prayer in the Bible.

I find that wonderfully comforting and joyfully encouraging to know that God answers prayers. That is why this is my favorite verse.

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 pray, Prayer of Jabez

Bible Insights

Jude’s Advice to Promote Godliness

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 28, 2011

In Jude’s letter, he warns Jesus’ followers to be on the alert for ungodly people in the church.

After detailing their characteristics, Jude tucks in a bit of advice at the end of his letter. Implicitly, it is his recommendations on how followers of Jesus can avoid being ungodly, offering three prescriptions to promote godliness:

Build up your faith.
Pray in the Holy Spirit.
Remain in God’s love.

These, then, are three essentials that we are to actively pursue: faith, prayer, and love.

Although some items on Jude’s list of ungodly behaviors may be far removed from us, other aspects might be quite close, such as speaking against things we don’t understand and being divisive.

What about grumbling and finding fault? For those who follow Jesus, these are apparently all forms of ungodliness.

However, we can do much to avoid these errors as we actively seek to build up our faith, pray with the Holy Spirit’s power, and abide in the love of God.

By following Jude’s advice, we can avoid the error of ungodliness.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is from Philemon and Jude, and today’s post is on Jude 1:20-21.]

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Tags godliness, Jude

Bible Insights

Jude Warns Against Ungodly Men in the Church

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 26, 2011

The book of Jude in the Bible is a short letter that is tucked in the back, just before Revelation. Add to this the fact that it is a bit confusing with obscure references.

In addition, Jude meanders his way through his message with many distracting examples and illustrations.

Given all this, it is little wonder that the writing of Jude is largely ignored.

Removing Jude’s supporting text, his essential message is to watch out for ungodly people in the church. Their profile is that they…

pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord (v 4).
pollute their own bodies, reject authority, and heap abuse on celestial beings (v 8).
slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them (v 10).
are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves (v 12).
are grumblers and fault finders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage (v 16).
are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit (v 19).

Do you know anyone who acts like this? Then watch out. Do you ever act like this? Then take corrective action.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is from Philemon and Jude, and today’s post is on Jude 1:3.]

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Tags grace, Jude

Christian Living

Going on a Prayer Retreat

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 24, 2011

Last August, I went on a 24-hour prayer retreat. I had scheduled it at the beginning of summer, picking the optimum day amongst a calendar of prior commitments and a busy work schedule.

I anticipated the day with much excitement but some trepidation, looking forward to what God would have in store for me as I sought him.

Many events would conspire to thwart my attempts to arrive at the designated place to begin my sojourn. At several times I had to fight a strong and insistent compulsion to abort my mission. Gratefully, I did not.

Even once there, it took a few hours to quite my racing mind enough to be able to seek God and listen to his gentle words.

My diligence and persistence paid off. It was a significant time of spiritual enlightenment and divine encounter. At the end of my 24 hours, I was not ready to leave and even lingered for a few more.

As I drove home, thinking of the work that awaited me there, I was already planning my next retreat.

Could it be a quarterly event? I desired that to be the case, but here it is, almost a year later and another prayer retreat is yet to be planned.

In some respects, the attacks that preceded my retreat are a bit off-putting. Plus, there is a nagging fear that a second time would pale in comparison to the first. But the reality is that I failed to plan.

I let the minutia of each day, each week, and each month obscure a better and higher goal: to block out quality time to spend with God.

Granted, I do this incrementally throughout each day and on a smaller scale when I fast (almost) every week, but that pales in comparison to a full day focused on God.

I want to do this again. I need to do this again, but when will I do this again?

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Tags prayer

Bible Insights

You are In Christ, Crucified with Him

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 12, 2011

The apostle Paul writes to the church in Galatia about being “crucified with Christ.” In his letter to the church in Corinth, he states, “You are in Christ.”

That is a hard concept for me to grasp, yet, the phrase “in Christ” occurs some 90 times in the Bible. It appears in about half of the New Testament books, from Acts to 1 Peter, encompassing the writings of Luke, Paul, and Peter.

What does it mean to be “crucified with Christ” and to be “in Christ?”

Watchman Nee, in his book Sit, Walk, Stand, offers a most helpful illustration. He says, “If I put a dollar bill between the pages of a magazine, and then burn the magazine, where is the dollar bill?”

It is turned to ashes, along with the magazine. What happens to the magazine also happens to the dollar. “Their history has become one.”

“Just as effectively,” he continues, “God has put us in Christ. What happened to him happened also to us. All the experiences he met, we too have met in him.”

“Our history,” he concludes, was “written in Christ before we were born.” We were crucified with him.

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Tags Jesus, Luke, Paul, Peter

Christian Living

Show Me Your Faith

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 10, 2011

Early church leader James wrote, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”

It seems that to James, a faith without action is worthless. His statement, however, did not end this debate between faith and works. In fact, he seems to allow at least the possibility of a viable faith that lacks tangible action.

There is a tension here, one that has not been resolved in the two millennia since.

James also wrote, “If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”

I recently read the premier issue of a magazine that addresses this idea of Christian action in a most proactive way. It is Reject Apathy, published by the folks who put out Relevant magazine. (I recommend both.)

The tag line of Reject Apathy is: “Sustainable Change. Sacrificial Living. Spiritual Revolution.”

We can look to Jesus as our example. He went about doing good: healing people, feeding people, and teaching people what they should do. How could we, as his followers, do anything less?

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Tags early church, follower of Jesus, Jesus

Bible Insights

Jesus is the Reason

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 7, 2011

In studying the short letter to Philemon, we’ve looked at the central players of Paul (the author), Philemon (the recipient), and Onesimus (the subject).

There are also brief mentions of eight others: Timothy, Apphia, Archippus, Epaphras, Aristarchus, Luke, John-Mark, and Demas.

The foundational character, however, is Jesus. He is mentioned more often than any other in this letter, a total of six times.

The reality is that without Jesus, none of this matters. He is the ultimately the reason why this letter was written and he is the reason why each person was mentioned.

Without Jesus, Paul would not have been a missionary; without Jesus, Onesimus would have no desire to return to his master; and without Jesus, Philemon would have no reason to show mercy and offer forgiveness.

It is because of Jesus that each of the eight other characters are worthy of inclusion.

Jesus is the reason for the letter to Philemon—and the entire Bible. Without him, nothing else really matters.

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Tags Jesus, Onesimus, Paul, Philemon

Christian Living

The Spirituality of Writing

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 3, 2011

A few weeks ago, I posited, “everything is spiritual.” This idea did not originate with me, nor is it a new one, but it is worthy of adoption as a personal outlook on life, a guiding perspective.

Following that thought, I view all writing as spiritual, too. Writing can be a good spiritual or a not so good spiritual—it can build up or it can tear down—but regardless it is all spiritual.

As a writer, I’ve been noticing what the Bible says about writing. Here are some that I’ve made note of so far:

On Research

“I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account.” -Dr Luke (Luke 1:2-3)

On Frivolous Writing

“Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. ” -King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 12:12)

On Brevity

“The fool multiplies words” – King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 10:14) and “I would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language.” -Paul (1 Corinthians 14:19)

On Clarity

“Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying?” -Paul (1 Corinthians 14:9)

On Understanding

“I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” -Job (Job 42:3)

These verses are not only helpful to a writer, but to anyone who communicates—and we all communicate. All our communication is spiritual; may it be spiritually beneficial.

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Tags writing

Christian Living

Show Me Your Worship

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 26, 2011

Two weeks ago, I asked what is worship? I acknowledged that for many people, worshiping God is singing songs to him or about him. To some, worshiping God may be no more watching other people sing.

For me, worshiping is seldom about singing. Raised in a church that exclusively used a pipe organ to play songs that resembled a funeral dirge, I long ago was conditioned to mentally disengage when the music started.

Even though the instruments have been updated to drums and guitars and the plodding hymns have been replaced by upbeat tunes, I still zone out while others are worshiping God via music.

For me, I worship God by serving and helping others.

I’m reminded that Jesus’ brother James, in debating the issue of faith versus good deeds, said, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”

I’d like to borrow that thought and restated it to: Show me your worship with music, and I will show you my worship without music.

Thankfully, there are many ways to worship God.

[James 2:18]

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Christian Living

Life’s Not Fair

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 19, 2011

What Are You Going to do About It?

How often have you heard someone exclaim, “It’s not fair!”?

This lament seems especially prevalent among children and teens. When this complaint is voiced to their parents, the typical response—be it sage or sadistic—is “Life’s not fair.”

It’s true; life’s not fair—and I, for one, am glad.

If life were fair, then we would all go to hell. As less than perfect beings, we all do wrong things upon occasion, some more frequently than others.

As a result, we deserve punishment from a holy and just God; we all deserve to go to hell. Justice demands punishment.

Fortunately, life is not fair. The God of the Bible offers mercy to those who follow him. Though fairness demands hell, an eternal death, those who follow Jesus receive something else: heaven, an eternal life.

Thank you God for not being fair, for offering us mercy and grace instead.

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Tags follower of Jesus, heaven, hell, Jesus