I’m an avid reader. I love books: to buy them, receive them, read them, and collect them. My common birthday and Christmas gift requests are for books. I have four bookcases of them, full and overflowing, with another 100 stacked on the floor. My overstuffed library is a dilemma. I need another bookshelf. This reminds […]
A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny By Amy Julia Becker (reviewed by Peter DeHaan) How do we react in the presence of someone who is physically or mentally different from us? Do we accept them, ignore them, or retreat? Do we say the right things, the wrong things, or […]
Simon Peter Last week we talked about Simon Peter, a guy with two names. Another man with two names is John Mark. Unlike Abraham and Sarah who received new identities from God and Peter who got his second name from Jesus, the origin of John Mar’s two names seems to lack divine origin. Perhaps his […]
Today is Sunday and many who love God will worship him today. But why? These are all secondary reasons. Worshiping God is not about us, it’s about him. The primary reason we worship God is to affirm him. He doesn’t need our affirmation, but we need to offer it. That’s what worship is.
Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption By Katie Davis, with Beth Clark (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)From all appearances, Katie Davis was a typical all-American high school student: homecoming queen, class president, lots of friends, and frequent trips to the mall, a loving boyfriend, cool convertible, and doting parents who would do […]
One of Jesus’ disciples was Simon, who Jesus renamed Peter. According to the Amplified Bible, Peter means “stone” or “a large piece of rock.” Sometimes the Bible refers to him as Simon (47 times) and other times Simon Peter (33 times) but mostly just Peter (139 times). Peter was the first leader of Jesus’ followers, […]
Go To Church, Change the World: Christian Community as Calling By Gerald J. Mast (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)Despite a trend to the contrary, the premise of Gerald Mast’s book Go To Church, Change the World is that church involvement is not a tradition to throw aside, but a practice to embrace. With a calling to […]
Kingdom Journeys: Rediscovering the Lost Spiritual Discipline By Seth Barnes (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)Seth Barnes begins Kingdom Journeys by relating one of his own—a journey both physical and spiritual—one he first took as a 20-something college graduate. It resulted from restlessness, an inner desire to do something that mattered. It bubbled up inside. He needed […]
We live in a fast-paced world. It seems there are always ten things to do at once—and at least two are urgent. So we plan and schedule in an attempt to fit (most) everything in. It’s easy to approach God that way when we pray and read the Bible: plan and schedule, squeeze it in, […]
One of the 10 commandments is “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Other translations of the Bible state this passage as “do not give false testimony” or more simply, ”do not tell lies about others.” We typically think of this as a command to not perjure ourselves, that is to not give false or misleading […]