Category: Bible Insights

Reflections and meditations about the Bible by Peter DeHaan, PhD.

A Card Carrying Member of the Jesus Party

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 31, 2012

Tuesday’s post was about Jesus’ invitation to side with his life-party. This is not a raise-your-hand, say-a-prayer, or sign-a-card decision made without careful consideration, but a total, lifelong commitment regardless of the consequences.

To grasp the enormity of this, contemplate the verses where these phrases appears in the Amplified version of the Bible:

…became His disciples [sided with His party and followed Him] (Matthew 4:20).

…joined Jesus as disciples [sided with His party and followed Him] (Matthew 4:22).

“Be My disciple [side with My party and follow Me],” (Matthew 9:9).

“…be My disciple [side with My party and follow Me]” (Matthew 19:21).

…become Your disciples [sided with Your party and followed You] (Matthew 19:27).

“…you who have [become My disciples, sided with My party and] followed Me,” (Matthew 19:28).

…followed [with] Him [joining Him as disciples and siding with His party] (Mark 1:18).

…went off after Him [to be His disciples, side with His party, and follow Him] (Mark 1:20).

Follow Me! [Be joined to Me as a disciple, side with My party!] (Mark 2:14).

…take up his cross, and [joining Me as a disciple and siding with My party] follow with Me (Mark 8:34).

“…we have yielded up and abandoned everything [once and for all and joined You as Your disciples, siding with Your party],” (Mark 10:28).

…they left everything and joined Him as His disciples and sided with His party and accompanied Him (Luke 5:11).

“Join Me as a disciple and side with My party and accompany Me” (Luke 5:27).

And he forsook everything and got up and followed Him [becoming His disciple and siding with His party] (Luke 5:28).

“Become My disciple, side with My party, and accompany Me!” (Luke 9:59).

“I will follow You, Lord, and become Your disciple and side with Your party,” (Luke 9:61).

“…follow Me [become My disciple, join My party, and accompany Me],” (Luke 18:22).

…many believed in His name [identified themselves with His party] (John 2:23).

This is what it means to follow Jesus.

[Biblical references to Jesus’ party (and a few others, too)]

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 disciples, follower of Jesus

Bible Insights

What’s Your Party?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 29, 2012

Regardless of what country you live in, there will be at least one political party, and usually many to choose from. People who read and follow the Bible often affiliate with a particular party in order to best align their politics with the Bible.

What’s interesting is they can read the same book and reach different conclusions about which party to join. This, I think, points to the diversity of the Bible—and the God behind it—as much to the varied interpretations of its readers.

But setting politics aside, what if there was a life party, a holistic philosophy that covered everything? Might you join a compelling life party? I have.

In the Amplified Bible, Jesus invites people to “side with my party.” This wasn’t about politics, but about life.

When Jesus calls people to do this, it usually accompanies phrases such as “be my disciple” and “follow me.”

Other supporting thoughts include “take up your cross,” “forsake everything,” “identify with me,” “leave everything,” and “join with me.”

Being part of Jesus’ party isn’t about politics; it’s about all of life. It’s not an opinion to be held, it‘s about a complete, all-in, sold-out commitment to side with him.

Will you side with his party?

[Biblical references to Jesus’ party (and a few others, too)]

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Tags cross, disciples, Jesus

Bible Insights

More Thoughts About Holy Spirit Power

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 24, 2012

The Bible writes that Mary became pregnant by the Holy Spirit and the result of this spiritual/physical union was Jesus—it was a virgin birth.

This supernatural impregnation was the spiritual superseding the physical. And if God can do that, he can certainly heal our bodies and restore us to health.

He has the power to do that. (When and why he does so is a different discussion for a different time.)

However, there are some within Christendom who deny the possibility that a baby could be conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. These are often the people who also disregard God being able to heal.

Their view of God is more limited than mine, but just because our respective understandings of God are different, it would be wrong to assume one is right and the other, wrong.

God is a big God and even the grandest of our comprehensions of him are small and understated. So we understand him the best we can and to the degree we are able—and I suspect that is enough.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Luke 1-3, and today’s post is on Luke 1:35.]

Read more about the book of Luke in That You May Know: A 40-Day Devotional Exploring the Life of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, now available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags Holy Spirit, Mary, supernatural

Bible Insights

Realizing Holy Spirit Power

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 22, 2012

Although the terminology and even the timing vary between the various Christian traditions and perspectives, a generality is that first, someone decides to follow Jesus and then the Holy Spirit is given to guide and direct them.

While each stream of Christian thought assigns different terms to these events and has a diversity of understanding as to how and why this is the generally prescribed order.

So how then does this square with John the Baptist being “filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born?” Things certainly seem out of sequence for him.

True, it would be unwise to rewrite our theology on the basis of one verse that seems to offer an exception to our understanding of the normal order of how things are done.

However, at the least, this verse should give us pause before we adamantly assert there is a specific way and time for one to receive the Holy Spirit.

Apparently, not everyone’s journey to God is exactly the same.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Luke 1-3, and today’s post is on Luke 1:15.]

Read more about the book of Luke in That You May Know: A 40-Day Devotional Exploring the Life of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, now available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags Holy Spirit, Jesus, John the Baptist, tradition

Bible Insights

Which Version of the Lord’s Prayers Do You Say?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 15, 2012

Which Version of the Lord’s Prayers Do You Say?

Did you know there are multiple versions of the Lord’s Prayer—the prayer Jesus used to teach his followers how to pray? Matthew records the most common version, which goes something like this:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

While there are some variations to this depending on the version of the Bible referenced, it is essentially the wording many people use.

However, there is a footnote indicating that some manuscripts add the following phrase at the end:

“For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

This completes the version used by most of the rest of us. However, Luke also records the prayer with a more concise wording:

“Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.”

I’ve never heard anyone use this version. But it is in the Bible and is worth considering.

However, it doesn’t really matter which of these three versions of this classic prayer we follow, for I don’t think Jesus intended us to recite it verbatim, but to use it as a model or a template to form our own prayers.

[Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4]

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Tags glory, Jesus, Lord’s Prayer, prayer

Bible Insights

Ungodly Men in the Church

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 10, 2012

The book of Jude—which I’ve blogged about quite a bit—addresses ungodly men in the church, not those outside the church.

Jude’s key passage is verse 11, where he compares ungodly men in the church to Cain, Balaam, and Korah.

It’s noteworthy that each of these men has an overlooked connection with God, as do ungodly men in the church. Despite this, it’s their failings for which they are noted. But even in these, we may be looking at things too simplistically. Upon deeper consideration:

The way of Cain is not controlling sin.
The error of Balaam is syncretism, that is, mixing religions.
The rebellion of Korah is not a problem with his theology, but in opposing God’s appointed leaders.

These examples give us pause. The ungodly in the church: do not control sin, mix different religious ideas, and oppose God’s leaders.

Given this, we have much to guard against, less we become the very people in the church that Jude warns us against.

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Tags Balaam, Cain, church, Jude, Korah

Bible Insights

Who Were the Sons of Korah?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 3, 2012
2 Comments on Who Were the Sons of Korah?

Several of the Psalms are attributed to “the sons of Korah.”

These sons of Korah could have been the writers of those songs/prayers or perhaps the ones tasked with sharing them with others; that would effectively make them performers.

It makes me wonder if the group called “The Sons of Korah” ever performed to standing-room-only crowds at the temple gates.

Pushing my imagination aside, I wonder, who were the sons of Korah?

There are at least two guys named Korah in the Bible, possibly more depending on how the various references are reconciled. So the sons of Korah could have hailed from one of them—or a different, unknown Korah.

Though it is strictly speculation on my part, I want these sons of Korah to be descendants of Korah, the rebellious one, mentioned in Numbers 16.

Korah was killed for his rebellion, as were the men who followed him and the families of his co-conspirators.

However, Korah’s children are not explicitly mentioned as being killed or as surviving.

I want to think they did live and their offspring would write or perform songs and prayers to God.

That is a legacy worth noting.

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Tags Korah, Moses

Bible Insights

Consider Cain: Who Was He Really?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date April 26, 2012

We know Cain to be a murderer—and we vilify him for it. What we often fail to consider is that Cain had a relationship with God.

Consider that Cain gave an offering to God that wasn’t requested or expected. (Cain lived centuries before God instructed Moses about the need to give him offerings.)

Also, consider that Cain also had a personal relationship with God, that is he talked to God and was able to be in God’s presence.

Given this, one might conclude that aside from one terrible act, Cain was a good guy, a God-loving dude. Perhaps like you and me.

Even so, this one act—his only recorded failure in life—needed to be punished. Justice demanded it. And as a just God, he meted it out.

So God sent Cain away, away from his presence. But not angrily or out of spite. For despite a need to punish Cain for his grave error, God lovingly put a mark on him to protect him from being killed by others.

God justly punished Cain—and then lovingly protected him.

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Tags Abel, Cain, justice, love

Bible Insights

Avoiding the Way of Cain

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date April 24, 2012

Cain kills Abel because he is jealous, jealous that his brother’s offering to God is accepted and his isn’t.

God knows what Cain is thinking—and urges caution. God directly tells Cain that he must rule over his sinful thoughts, the temptation to do wrong. But Cain doesn’t heed God’s advice and kills his brother.

The resulting murder may have been an act of rage or merely an extreme way of eliminating the competition. But either way, Abel ends up dead and Cain has blood on his hands.

Thousands of years later, when Jude advises followers of Jesus to avoid “the way of Cain,” he might be referring to murder or perhaps a jealousy that could lead to murder, but I suspect the warning is for something much more subtle.

I think when Jude says we need to avoid the way of Cain, he means we need to control our thoughts and desires to do wrong—a warning we all need to heed.

[Genesis 4:7, Jude 1:11]

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Tags Abel, Cain, Jude