Category: Christian Living

Pursuing a holistic expression of Christian faith that is true to the Bible and applicable for today’s world.

Happy Birthday Jesus and Merry Christmas Too

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 25, 2023

Segregating the Two Sides of Christmas

Is Christmas an important holiday to you? I suspect you’ll say, “yes.” And if you follow Jesus, you may say Christmas is the most important holiday because it celebrates his birth some 2,000 years ago.

That’s when Jesus came to earth to live among us and die in our place so that we can live forever with him. Happy birthday Jesus.

As the saying goes, “Jesus is the reason for the season.”

Though Jesus is the basis behind Christmas, how much of our celebration focuses on him? I’m talking about Christmas trees, ornaments, lights, Santa Claus, reindeers, sleighs, eggnog, parties at work, and gatherings with family and friends.

Then there’s gift giving. Though it’s gotten out of hand, the idea of giving to others at Christmas does—or should—remind us that Jesus gave us the greatest gift of all: his life. But how many of us remember that?

Instead, we tune in to Christmas specials, watch Christmas movies, and sing Christmas songs. A few of them are even about Jesus.

When we strip away all the commercialization of Christmas and the man-made traditions we’ve grown to cherish, what do we have left?

A nativity. A baby laying in a manger with Mary and Joseph gathered around and an array of barnyard animals looking on. Amazed shepherds—and their sheep—stand nearby. Magi approach on their camels (never mind that they didn’t arrive until much later).

Happy Birthday Jesus

We may go to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. There we hope to celebrate Jesus and sing some Christmas songs that are actually about him.

I wonder what Jesus thinks of our Christmas traditions, the day once intended for our focus to shift exclusively to him, but which has gotten eerily misappropriated.

Whenever I wish someone “Merry Christmas,” it carries a God-honoring implication, but I doubt many people receive it in the way I intend.

Let’s remember the Christmas story in the gospel of Luke: “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10, NIV). Then check out “Linus Reminds Us What Christmas Is All About.”

We may never be able to reclaim Christmas as the spiritual celebration it once was. But we can reframe it to recapture its intent. Yes, we can continue to celebrate Christmas. But don’t let a secular celebration overshadow the reason behind it.

Let’s celebrate Jesus’s birthday with equal—or even better—fervor. We can even make him a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday to him.

Happy birthday Jesus (and Merry Christmas too)!

Celebrate Christmas in a fresh way with The Advent of Jesus. It’s a forty-day devotional that prepares our hearts to celebrate the arrival of Jesus in an engaging read. Begin your Advent journey now and gain a greater sense of wonder for the season.

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.

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

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Tags Christmas, holiday, Jesus, Joseph, magi, Mary

Christian Living

Celebrate Christmas Eve

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 24, 2023

Anticipating the Arrival of Baby Jesus

I don’t really think of Christmas Eve as a holiday as much as the prelude to one. Yet there is—or should be—a spiritual reason to celebrate Christmas Eve.

Anticipating Christmas

As a child I looked forward to Christmas Day with much excitement. On Christmas Eve I found it hard to fall asleep. I was too excited to quiet my racing expectations for the next day.

Not only did I struggle to fall asleep on Christmas Eve, sometimes I woke too early the next morning. My parents would wearily tell me to go back to sleep for a few more hours.

Yet despite my struggles to sleep that night and stay in bed until the morning light, Christmas Day would come and with it the presents I so looked forward to opening.

As such I didn’t celebrate Christmas Eve as much as endure it. It was something to patiently undergo so I could embrace Christmas presents the next day.

The Greatest Gift

Yes, I knew the reason for Christmas was to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Yet the allure of opening gifts pushed the true reason for the holiday aside.

We are right to celebrate Christmas as a reminder of the baby born in Bethlehem who came to earth to save us for the punishment our sins deserve. And we can celebrate Christmas Eve as a prelude to Christmas Day.

Without first having Christmas Eve, we would never get to Christmas Day.

We celebrate Christmas Day as a reminder of Jesus coming to earth as a baby to save us. Yet one day of celebration doesn’t seem enough. That’s why we can celebrate Christmas Eve in anticipation of the blessed baby’s arrival the next day.

Thank You Jesus

We rightly see Jesus’s gift of salvation—set in motion at his birth—as the greatest gift that has ever been given and the greatest gift that ever will be given. With this we say, “Thank you, Jesus, for coming to earth to save us!”

We celebrate this—or we should celebrate this—on Christmas Day. And when we celebrate Christmas Eve, we can begin one day early our remembrance of Jesus and what he came to earth to do.

May we remember to celebrate Christmas Eve now with the same over-the-top excitement that we had as a child, looking forward to the day ahead.

Then it was presents. Now it’s a salute to the day of Jesus’s birth—the most significant day in all of history, throughout all time.

May we celebrate Christmas Eve with the same over-the-top excitement we had as a child, looking forward to Jesus’s birth on Christmas Day.

Thank you, Jesus!

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

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Tags advent, Christmas, Jesus

Christian Living

Do You Love Jesus More Than Anything Else?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 17, 2023

Make God Your Number One Priority

When asked which commandment was the greatest, Jesus said we’re to love God with all our heart, our soul, and our strength (Mark 12:29-31, quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5). We’re to love him more than anything else, to make him our number one priority.

And when we understand God as referring to the three-in-one Trinity, we realize we’re to love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength. In this way, we are to love Jesus more than anything else.

It’s easy to claim that we love God more than anything else, that we put following Jesus first in our lives. But let’s consider what this entails.

Love Jesus More Than People

We must put loving God as more important than loving family. Jesus said that to be his disciple we must hate our parents, our spouse, our children, and our siblings (Luke 14:26). In short, we must hate our family.

But Jesus exaggerates to make his point—something his audience would readily understand. Hyperbole aside, the inescapable truth is that we must put Jesus before all others. This includes our family, as well as our friends and those we hold in high esteem.

When some people decide to put their trust in Jesus, they do so at great cost. Their family may disown them. Friends may shun them. They may lose their job or their standing within their community.

But compared to Jesus, none of these people matter. Jesus must come first.

Love Jesus More Than Our Possessions

Though we may readily say we love Jesus more than what we own, does our behavior confirm it? Consider our most prized possession. Are we willing to give it up for Jesus? If it competes with Jesus as first place in our life, we may need to sell it or give it away to remove its distraction. Or the Holy Spirit may convict us to let someone borrow it. For the sake of Jesus, we must hold what we own loosely.

Yet we must be ready to give up all that we have for the sake of Jesus. (Consider Matthew 19:29 and Luke 9:62.)

When fleeing for her life, Lot’s wife look back at what she was leaving behind and it cost her (Genesis 19:21-26).

Love Jesus More Than Our Position

Some people elevate their job above everything else in their life. It comes first and everything else—including God—comes in second. We may pursue it for the satisfaction we derive from our labors, the money we earn through our work, or the prestige of the position we hold. Yet if it gets in the way of us fully following Jesus, our job must go.

Love Jesus More Than Our Pleasures

A final consideration is our comfort. Putting God first and following Jesus as his disciple may result and giving up worldly contentment. We may face ridicule, we may suffer embarrassment, or we may be attacked, either verbally or physically. This could include death. We could—we will—suffer when we put Jesus first.

This may be in small ways or big ways, but we will suffer (1 Peter 4:12-19).

Love Jesus More Than Anything

To put Jesus first, to love God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—more than anything, we must set aside anything that might hold us back (Hebrews 12:1-3). We must make Jesus our number one priority, loving him more than family, property, work, and comfort. Those things all pale when we consider who he is and what he has called us to.

In doing so we’ll realize a heavenly reward of spending eternity with him. Nothing else matters, so put Jesus first,

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

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Tags family, Jesus, love, money, priorities, work

Christian Living

Exploring the Church Calendar

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 10, 2023

Celebrate Jesus Throughout the Year: Explore the Church Calendar

Embrace Annual Cycles of Worship to Provide a Regular Rhythm to Our Faith Journey

Some churches follow a church calendar throughout the year to guide them into seasons of worship. This provides an annual rhythm to their embrace of God.

Other churches are less structured in their approach, focusing on two major biblical holidays: Christmas and Easter. Even so, it’s good to be aware of the traditional church calendar.

There is no single agreed upon calendar that all churches follow, with each applying their own unique approach.

Yet there are some general concepts that most church calendars follow. Note that church calendars don’t start on the first of the year but instead begin with Jesus’s birth.

Here’s a generic overview of the church calendar.

Advent

We call the time leading up to Christmas Advent. It begins on the fourth Sunday prior to Christmas, which yields differing starting dates each year.

Some churches, however, are flexible with the start of Advent. They begin on the first Sunday after Thanksgiving (in the United States) or the first Sunday in December.

Often—but not always—this coincides with the fourth Sunday prior to Christmas.

Christmas Day

On Christmas Day we celebrate the birth of Jesus who came to earth to save us. This date is one of tradition more so than the Savior’s actual birth. No one knows for sure, but spring is a more likely time.

Epiphany (the day)

Epiphany occurs twelve days after Christmas, traditionally marking the Magi’s arrival to visit baby Jesus.

Christmastide

Some churches call the time between Christmas Day and Epiphany Christmastide. Other practices end Christmastide on New Years Day.

Epiphany (the season)

Confusing our understanding of the church calendar, some churches celebrate the season of Epiphany, instead of just one day. It starts on the day of Epiphany and ends with the beginning of Lent.

Other churches, however, have a break in their church calendar celebrations, calling the time between the day of Epiphany and Lent as “Ordinary Time.”

Lent

The season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is six weeks prior to Good Friday. Though we commonly think of Lent as lasting forty days, the reality is that they don’t count Sundays to make the numbers work.

The ending of Lent varies greatly. It can be on Good Friday, Maundy Thursday, the day before Easter, or the beginning of Holy Week.

What matters in all this, however, is that Lent moves us toward Jesus’s death for our sins and his resurrection from the grave.

Good Friday and Easter

Good Friday and Easter—more appropriately called Resurrection Sunday—celebrate Jesus and his all-important mission of coming to earth to save us.

On Good Friday Jesus died for us and the wrong things we did. He was buried in a tomb. On Resurrection Sunday he rose from the grave, proving his mastery over death.

Eastertide

The season after Jesus rose from the grave on Resurrection Sunday is called Eastertide.

For some church calendars, Eastertide lasts forty days and ends on Ascension Day, which occurs on Thursday, even though many churches celebrate it the following Sunday.

For other churches Eastertide lasts fifty days and ends on Pentecost.

Ascension Day

Forty days after Jesus rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven. We call this Ascension Day. This occurs on Thursday each year, but many churches celebrate it the following Sunday.

Pentecost

Fifty days after Resurrection Sunday (Easter), and ten days after Ascension Day, God sent the Holy Spirit to Jesus’s church to fill them and guide them, just as he promised.

Ordinary Time

Church calendars label the days between Pentecost and Advent as Ordinary Time. It is, in fact, an ordinary time. It’s the space on church calendars without any religious holidays or celebrations.

Some churches also observe a short season of Ordinary Time between the day of Epiphany and Lent.

Celebrate Jesus Throughout the Year

Whether your church calendar celebrates all these seasons and dates or focuses on Christmas and Easter, we should all celebrate Jesus throughout the year.

The first four devotional books in the Holiday Celebration Bible Study Series guide us in doing just that:

The Advent of Jesus covers the season of Advent, Christmas Day, and ends on Epiphany.
The Ministry of Jesus focuses on what Jesus did leading up to his death and resurrection, that is, his earthly ministry. It’s an ideal devotional for Ordinary Time, be it between Epiphany and Lent or between Pentecost and Advent.
The Passion of Jesus covers the season of Lent and concludes on Good Friday (Eastertide).
The Victory of Jesus begins on Resurrection Sunday (Easter) and goes through to Pentecost.

Reading these four devotionals in this order provide a comprehensive understanding of Jesus’s life and mission as recorded in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Learn more about the Holiday Celebration Bible Study Series.

Holiday Celebration Bible Study Series, by Peter DeHaan

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

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Tags advent, Ascension Day, Ash Wednesday, Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, Holiday Celebration Bible Study Series, Lent, Ordinary Time, Pentecost

Christian Living

How to Invite Friends to Follow Jesus

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 3, 2023

Three Easy Ideas If the Word Evangelism Scares You

In the post Are You Reluctant to Invite Friends to Church? we looked at the New Testament church and saw that people first invited others to follow Jesus. Then they went to church.

Therefore, we shouldn’t invite people to go to church with us until after we invite them to follow Jesus. The early church was where they went afterward to grow in their newfound faith. But how can we invite friends to follow Jesus today?

Some people find it easy to invite friends to follow Jesus, but many find this a struggle. They don’t know what to say or the best way to say it. They don’t want to drive their friends away, so out of fear of doing it wrong, they do nothing.

Here are three straightforward ways to invite friends to follow Jesus:

Invite Them to a Bible Study

One way to invite friends to follow Jesus is to first invite them to a Bible study. You can do that.

But this shouldn’t be any Bible study. If you invite them to join an existing study with you and five of your Christian friends, they may think you’re ganging up on them. They may be uncomfortable with the Christian language that would normally permeate the discussion.

Instead, invite them to a Bible study with just the two of you. Or structure it as a Bible study with you and a group of unchurched friends. This could make for some robust discussions about Jesus, following him, and faith. Yet it would also be more challenging to do.

Therefore, a Bible study with just you and your friend may be the ideal solution.

But what if you think you’re not ready to lead a Bible study? What if you’re afraid they’ll ask a question you don’t know the answer to?

Yes, it may happen, but don’t worry about it. Pray for Holy Spirit insight before you meet. Trust God to give you the right words at the right time. (Consider what Jesus says in Luke 12:11-12.)

If you come up blank anyway, just say, “That’s a great question. Let me look into it, and we can discuss it next week.”

It’s also okay to say, “I’ve wondered about that, too, and I don’t know the answer.” They may respect you for your honesty.

Also, know that the question they ask may not be a concern to them but merely to divert the discussion away from something that makes them uncomfortable. This is what the Samaritan woman at the well did with Jesus (John 4:19-20).

You don’t need to have a ready answer to any question that may come up. No one could. That’s why we all need to grow in our faith. It’s a process.

For your Bible study you can pick a book in the Bible to read and discuss. The gospel of John is a great start for many people. If John doesn’t click with you, try Luke.

Alternately, you can use a Bible study guide to help you. I have several to pick from. You may want to consider That You May Know or Living Water.

Invite Them to a Book Discussion

If leading them in a Bible study is too big of a stretch for you or something they’re not interested in, you could invite them to a book discussion.

Again, this should be either just the two of you or you and a group of unchurched friends. This is an even easier way to invite friends to follow Jesus, albeit indirectly.

The book you choose could be either fiction or nonfiction. Just make sure it’s a faith-friendly read. For nonfiction you may want to consider Women of the Bible or The Friends and Foes of Jesus.

Whether you do a Bible study or a book discussion, this will last for several weeks. At the end of the study or discussion, ask what they’d like to cover next. Along the way, encouraged them to invite their friends.

The short-term goal of these should be to forge deeper relationships, with a long-term goal being to invite your friends to follow Jesus. This can either happen through your words or through your actions.

Invite Them to a Service Project

If a Bible study or book discussion makes you uncomfortable (or isn’t of interest to them), consider doing an activity together.

Tell your friend about a service project you’re involved in and ask if they’d like to go with you. This could be at your church, a parachurch organization, or a community nonprofit. Most people are open to help others.

The purpose of this shouldn’t be the overt evangelism of your friend but to serve others. Give your friend space to ask questions. Let them guide your discussions.

This will happen when they’re ready, so it might take time. As you wait, pray for them, be patient, and let God work in their lives. Some label this approach as one way to do friendship evangelism.

As you serve others with your friend, this may provide the opportunity for you to invite them to follow Jesus. Or it may be an opportunity for you to invite them to take the next step, such as a Bible study or a book discussion, as we discussed above.

Moving Forward

You may have the gift of evangelism and find it easy to invite friends to follow Jesus. Yet most of us do not and are gifted in other areas.

But inviting them to a Bible study, book discussion, or service project are all straightforward ways to engage with others and invite friends to follow Jesus.

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

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Tags Bible Study, evangelism, follow Jesus, Jesus, witness

Christian Living

Are You Reluctant to Invite Friends to Church?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 26, 2023

The Service that Members Want Isn’t What Unchurched People Need

Over the years I’ve wanted to invite friends to church. Too often I don’t. This isn’t due to a lack of courage on my part but a fear that the church service would drive them from Jesus instead of drawing them closer.

And for those times I took the risk and invited friends to church, I can’t ever remember once when the outcome was positive. They came once and never returned. When I asked why, they often cited an aspect of the service that confused them, turned them off, or offended them.

I may have been more successful at pointing them to Jesus if I hadn’t invited them to go to church with me.

Dogmatic Preaching

At one fundamental church I attended, the teaching pastor delighted in decrying sinful behavior. He was legalistic to the extreme. He had a lengthy list of things we should not do as followers of Jesus. And the list of things we could do was short and dreary.

He had the zeal of a Pharisee. And he seldom mentioned God’s grace or mercy. Given this, why would anyone want to follow Jesus?

When we invite friends to church, they need to hear a compelling message, not a repelling one.

Miserable Music

The worship music at many churches struggles to speak to unchurched people. Sometimes it’s a dated style that’s irrelevant in today’s world. It’s out of touch and inaccessible, sending the wrong signal about Jesus and his church.

Other times it’s a quality issue. True, from a worship standpoint, it’s what’s in the musicians’ hearts that matters to God, not the sound of their voice or the skill of their playing. Yet to someone on the outside, unprofessional music is a huge turnoff.

When we invite friends to church, they deserve, and expect, to experience professional music that connects with them and draws them to God—not makes them cringe.

Unfriendly People

What happens before and after the service, of course, is critical too. Some churches are friendly toward visitors and welcome them well. But most people at most churches don’t talk with those they don’t know. This means they ignore visitors.

When we invite friends to church, we shouldn’t be the only ones to talk to them. But too often we are.

A Seeker Sensitive Solution

This problem of inviting people to church is not a new issue, but one that’s been around for a while. It’s just that it’s become more pronounced in recent years. There is now a bigger comprehension and expectation gap between people who go to church and people who don’t.

If you decades ago, the pronounced solution was to have a seeker sensitive service. The goal was to recast what happened on Sunday morning to appeal to the unchurched who showed up.

The vision was that members would invite friends to church, and the church would give them a service that connected with them and drew them in.

Though this was an insightful vision, it neglected to address the spiritual growth of members, directing everything that happened on Sunday morning to those on the outside. A seeker sensitive service addressed one problem and created another one.

The Purpose of Church

As we grapple with this problem, we should consider the purpose of church. Let’s look at the early church as recorded in the New Testament of the Bible. The churches were a gathering of believers.

Their goal wasn’t to invite friends to church to encounter Jesus. Instead, they first invited their friends to follow Jesus. Then they would go to church to receive encouragement from other believers and grow in their faith.

The purpose of church wasn’t to bring about their salvation but to help them grow in it.

Therefore, our goal shouldn’t be to invite friends to church, but to invite them to follow Jesus first. Church comes later.

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

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Tags church services, follow Jesus, worship

Christian Living

Are You a Person of Integrity?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 21, 2023

Righteousness is Another Word for Integrity

Someone once surprised me, catching me off guard by calling me a “man of integrity.” Though honored by their perception, I shook my head. Yes, I aspire to be a person of integrity, but I’m not there. I have a long way to go and will never fully arrive. Still it’s a worthy pursuit.

Do You Cheat at Solitaire?

I recall someone saying that integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking. I suspect most of you have never played solitaire old school, using a deck of cards, but it’s an easy way to understand this idea of integrity in private.

As someone who has played solitaire with cards, I understand this too well. Holding cards in our hands makes it all too easy to peek at what lies ahead.

Yes, there have been times of integrity when I refused to cheat. And there have been other times when I gave in because I felt that peeking was my only chance to win.

That’s a lack of integrity.

How we play solitaire seems like a small thing with little consequence. But it’s indicative of the whole person. If we maintain our integrity in small things that no one sees, we’re much more likely to do so with the important things that people do see.

It takes conducting both our private and public life well to be a person of integrity.

Are You Honest and Moral?

Two key components of integrity are honesty and morality. Honesty speaks truth even when it’s difficult to do so.

Dishonesty can occur by saying what is untruthful. But it can also occur by not saying what needs saying. Withholding needed information is just as dishonest as speaking lies.

Morality is doing the right thing. It means living the right way. The Bible calls this righteousness, which is not a very popular topic in today’s culture. In fact, morality is not very popular either.

Both honesty and morality are integral requirements for a person of integrity.

Do You Wrap-up Things Well?

I’ve often said that a person reveals their true character by how they leave a job.

Do they quit without notice, leaving their employer in a difficult situation? Or do they give their two-week’s notice and then work hard until the last hour, striving to wrap up their projects and leave on the best possible terms?

That’s integrity.

But this goes beyond ending well each time we leave a job. It’s finishing everything with excellence. It’s completing what we start. When you launch into a project do people suspect you’ll never finish? Or do they know they can depend on you to complete what you said you would do?

That’s a person of integrity.

Will You Finish Strong?

The final wrap-up occurs at the end of our lives. Will we finish the race strong? That was Paul’s goal (Acts 20:24 and 2 Timothy 4:7). Too many people coast toward the finish line of life, and some even give up or make a U-turn to head in the wrong direction.

As for me, I don’t want to lose sight of the goal. I want to run hard to get there. I want to finish strong. I want to be a person of integrity when my life here on earth winds down.

Be a Person of Integrity

Becoming a person of integrity is not a grand, one-time decision. It’s a series of little decisions, moment by moment, day by day. Each one of these helps us establish a habit of integrity. Each one helps us move toward the goal of being a person of integrity.

The opposite is also true. Each time we fail to do what is right, each time we take a shortcut because it’s expedient, and each time we spew a white lie because it’s easier than speaking truth, we move away from integrity.

These also combine over time to lessen our integrity. We then risk becoming dishonest, immoral, and corrupt.

When I think of integrity, I think of righteousness. The opposite of righteousness is unrighteousness. The Bible talks a lot about that—and warns against it.

Each day I strive toward the goal of righteousness, with the intent of becoming a person of integrity. This is not only to serve as an example to others, but also as an act of worship to God. I long to one day hear him say, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

May it be so.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Acts 20-22 and today’s post is on Acts 20:24.]

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

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Tags Paul, righteous, righteousness, servant

Christian Living

4 Tips to Hear from God

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 19, 2023

God Speaks to Us through His Written Word and His Spoken Word.

Everyone Can Hear from God

People sometimes ask me how I hear from God, and I share with them about when I learned to do this. Yet there were some basic steps I already had in place before I started down this path. I don’t do these perfectly, but I do lean into them and pursue them.

Here are the four steps of how to hear from God, with each one building on the prior one.

1. Read the Bible

Anyone—everyone—can find the written word of God in Scripture. It’s waiting for us, and all we need to do is read it.

Though you could open the Bible only when you have a question you want answered, the better approach is that it should be regular, whether you have a question or not. I recommend daily.

Pick a time each day and commit to reading, studying, and meditating on the Bible. The amount of time isn’t as important as it is to be intentional and regular. Make it a habit.

Start small and build upon it. Here are my 7 Tips to Form a Bible Reading Habit. And here are some Bible reading plans to guide you.

Reading the Bible is the simplest way to hear from God. Anyone who can read can do it. For those who can’t read, there are many options to have the Bible read to you, such as on Bible Gateway. And if you don’t have a Bible, you can read that online too.

2. Do What the Bible Says

Reading Scripture, however, isn’t enough. It’s also critical to put into practice what we read. If we don’t do what the Bible says, what’s the point of reading it in the first place?

Reading the Bible puts information into our head. Obeying the Bible puts that information into action.

As we do what the Bible says, we grow closer to God, and we serve as an effective witness for Jesus to a world who needs him.

Doing steps one and two prepares us to move to step three. Though not everyone is able to excel at the next step, everyone can and should try. And they should keep trying until it works.

3. Listen for the Holy Spirit

Once we’re reading the Bible and obeying what God’s word tells us to do, we’re ready to move to the next step. Now we need to open ourselves up to hear from God. We need to listen.

Before you dismiss the idea of listening for the Holy Spirit, remember that if you follow Jesus, you already have the Holy Spirit within you. He’s not distant. He’s present and ready.

Most people want to start with this step. But if they’re hearing from God as they read his word and aren’t putting it into practice, why do they think he’d be interested in talking to them through the Holy Spirit?

In this way, reading and obeying God’s written word stands as a prerequisite for hearing God’s spoken word.

To hear from the Holy Spirit, we must first put ourselves in a posture of listening. This means removing the noise from our lives, the things that distract us. When we’re in the posture of listening and ready to receive, that’s when God is most likely to speak.

People who hear from God experience his voice in diverse ways.

After years of practice, I hear from God throughout the day. This usually happens with ease and quite quickly. But it wasn’t always that way. I had to work up to it.

Read my experience when I first learned to hear from God. Perhaps it will work for you too. But this isn’t the only way. So if this doesn’t produce results, explore other options to hear from God.

I often initiate the times when I hear from God, yet this isn’t always the case. Sometimes the Holy Spirit talks to me when I’m not seeking his input. He’ll tell me to do something or to say something.

4. Do What the Holy Spirit Says

When we hear from God, it’s critical to obey. We must do what he tells us to do. If we don’t—or won’t—what reason does he have to keep speaking?

Though some of the times when I ask the Holy Spirit for insight, it’s to help me understand a portion of Scripture or to direct my words as I struggle to write a challenging passage.

Sometimes I ask the divine to help me remember something I forgot or find something I’ve lost. He guides me in those situations too.

Yet other times I’ll ask what to do in a situation. Sometimes I don’t like the answer. It seems embarrassing or doesn’t make sense. Though I wish I could say I obey right away regardless of what I think about it, the truth is that I sometimes delay.

Though in most cases, my delay is temporary and becomes obedience, but other times I talk myself out of doing what God tells me to do. My logic results in disobedience. This dismays me, and with his help I’ll do better in the future.

I’m also painfully aware that if I disregard what the Holy Spirit tells me, he may stop talking to me. May this never be.

Summary

Follow these four steps to hear from God: read the Bible, obey the Bible, listen for the Holy Spirit, and obey the Holy Spirit.

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

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Tags Holy Spirit, obey God, read the Bible

Christian Living

Learning from Jesus’s First Words

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 15, 2023

When Christ Speaks, We Should Be Ready to Listen

What Jesus says is important to us as his followers. The passages in the Bible that we need to pay the most attention to are the words of Jesus. Some Bibles even highlight Jesus’s words by putting them in red.

We call these red-letter editions. People often focus on the final words of Jesus. But what about Jesus’s first words?

Let’s look at what the Bible records as Jesus’s first words. This doesn’t occur when he first learns to talk, and it’s not the first words he speaks when he begins his ministry. Jesus’s first words recorded in the Bible happen between these two times.

Twelve-Year-Old Jesus

Jesus’s first recorded words occur when he’s twelve, and it’s the only story the Bible gives us about Jesus’s youth. In this account we see the balance between his divine side and his human side.

Jesus goes with his parents to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. When the festival ends, his parents head home, traveling with a group of others headed in that direction. They assume Jesus is with the caravan. He isn’t. He stays behind without their knowledge.

After traveling all day, Mary and Joseph discover that Jesus is missing. They’ve lost their son, one of a parent’s most dreaded nightmares. Yet for them it’s even worse. They also lost the Son of God.

Panicked they head back to Jerusalem. They search. And they search. After three days they finally find him.

He’s in the temple having a deep spiritual conversation with the religious teachers. He listens to what they say and asks insightful questions. The twelve-year-old amazes everyone with his depth of understanding.

His parents are astonished too. Yet they’re also irritated with him for causing them needless worry.

Jesus’s First Words

Young Jesus responds incredulously. “Why were you searching for me?” he asks. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49, NIV).

These are the first recorded words of Jesus.

From the perspective of tween Jesus, his parents shouldn’t have spent three days looking for him. The temple should have been their first stop. In his mind, it was a given. In their mind, it was the last place they expected to find their twelve-year-old son.

Jesus doesn’t address the fact that he didn’t head home with them and caused them untold worry for three days. Like many who aren’t yet fully mature, he knew he was safe, so there was nothing for anyone to worry about.

The human side of Jesus missed spending time with his Father, Father God. The temple may have been where he best felt he could make a spiritual connection with Papa.

It was also an ideal place to find other like-minded Jews who could teach him about Scripture and guide him forward on his spiritual journey.

But Jesus’s parents don’t understand what he means. Regardless Jesus obediently returns home with them. He grows in wisdom and stature, enjoying the favor of both God and men. This prepares him for ministry, which he’ll start in eighteen years, when he’s thirty years old.

Where do we go to best connect with God and spend time with other like-minded believers? When our friends look for us, where will they find us?

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

Tags community, Heavenly Father, Jesus, Joseph, Mary, temple

Christian Living

What Does Hope Mean?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 12, 2023

The World’s Understanding of Hope Pales in Comparison to the Bible’s

As followers of Jesus, we put our hope in him. But what does it mean to hope? The world’s understanding of hope isn’t very comforting. And the dictionary doesn’t do so well at aligning its definition with how Scripture uses the word.

Hoping Is Not Wishing

The dictionary defines hope as to “wish for an event to occur.” It also talks about a “longing or desire.”

In this context, we may hope for a particular gift for our birthday. We may hope our most recent purchase accomplishes what we want it to. Or we may hope to have a good day or a safe trip.

In each of these examples, this hope is little more than a wish. These types of hopes are just a longing or a desire.

Yet when the Bible talks about are hope in God, it’s much more than a wish. It’s more than a longing or a desire. Yes, an expectant hope may at some base level be a wish, a longing, or a desire, but to be of any significance, our hope must transcend these basic understandings.

Believe

The thesaurus tells us that two synonyms for hope are believe and belief. This gets us closer to a biblical hope. When we hope in God, we believe in him and what he says. We believe in his promises.

Yet too often today when we use the word believe it’s a little more than a wishful expectation, a desire to realize a certain outcome, a longing for what we want to see happen.

Confident Trust

Interestingly, a secondary meaning for the word hope occurs in the dictionary. It’s listed as archaic, meaning that this understanding of the word has fallen out of normal usage. What is this archaic definition of hope? Quite simply it’s to have “confidence” or “trust.”

When we place our hope in God, we have a confident trust in who he is and what he will do for us and through us. This sounds very much like faith. Faith is a belief in God, confident and unquestioning.

Hope in the Bible

The word hope occurs throughout the Bible, equally distributed between the Old and New Testaments. Psalms, with its many faith-filled songs of praise to God, leads the Bible with the most occurrences of hope at thirty-four.

Consider “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long” (Psalm 25:5, NIV). This confident declaration certainly transcends wishful thinking. So it should be when we place our hope in God.

In the New Testament, Romans is the most hope-filled book, with the word appearing in fourteen verses.

Here are two of them: “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:24-25, NIV).

Or how about “We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5, NIV).

Hope in God

When we place our hope in Jesus, for both now and for eternity, it’s not just something we wish will occur or that we long for. It’s much more. Our hope is something we believe in with a confident trust that it will occur, that we can count on it.

This is real hope.

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

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”

Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

Tags believe, hope, trust