Thrift Store Saints: Meeting Jesus 25¢ at a Time By Jane Knuth (reviewed by Peter DeHaan) Jane Knuth never set out to help the poor; that wasn’t her plan and wasn’t her calling. She was merely trying to buy a rosary at the local thrift store—and was frustrated with the whole ordeal—when a spry octogenarian […]
Jesus taught his disciples to ask God for their daily bread, that is, the food they needed for the day. Just as God provided manna for the Israelites in the desert, the implication is God will meet our needs each day. We are not to ask for enough for the week, the month, or the […]
I grew up attending non-liturgical churches. So when I participate in a liturgical service it is an enigma to me. While there is something that draws me to it, something mystical, almost magical, I am more so repelled by its distance, a cold aloofness that seems foreign for the God I love. Even though things […]
The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit: Encountering The Power of Signs and Wonders By C. Peter Wagner (reviewed by Peter DeHaan) C. Peter Wagner begins The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit by identifying the first two waves: the Pentecostal movement that opened the twentieth century and the wider Charismatic movement that followed it some […]
When the nation of Israel was in the desert, God provided food for them each day. The Israelites called it manna and it miraculously appeared every morning. The manna would provide them with the sustenance they needed for that day. If they tried to gather extra and stockpile it, it would turn bad (except for […]
In my post Be Careful What You Pray I mention a line in the Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Different groups have different wording for this line. There are some I’ve run into: Debts “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The word debt, conjures up thoughts […]
Enjoying God’s Creation In the pre-dawn haze, I perched at the edge of a meadow. From a distance I watched three whitetail deer arise from their slumber, moving with deliberate slowness as though waiting for their circulation to return and their muscles to wake up. I don’t know if they saw me, smelled me, or […]
By Theresa L. Flores, with Peggy Sue Wells (reviewed by Peter DeHaan) The Slave Across the Street, by Theresa L. Flores puts a face—a middle-class American face—on human trafficking, specifically for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. This real-life account of Theresa’s recruitment, manipulation, and coercion to become a sex slave will surprise and shock. […]
Silence Is Golden We live in a world where it’s hard to sit still and even more challenging to be silent. We are conditioned to be moving, active and physically engaged. And as we do so, we expect to be surrounded with sound, to be constantly exposed to an auditory stimulus. To be still can […]
Last night while mowing my lawn, I saw three frogs in my yard. In 24 years of living here and mowing the grass, this was a first. Where did the frogs come from? I know the biological answer and the evolutionary answer and the creation answer, but those are the wrong answers to my question. […]