Reflecting on Church #33: A Reminder of What’s Really Important With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #33. It seems the congregation of...
The Seven Transformations of Peter DeHaan A Personal Story of Growing in Faith and Action [This personal essay first appeared in The Transformation Project: A West Michigan Word Weavers Anthology.] A caterpillar turns into a butterfly; a tadpole...
Will You Pray for Us? The People of Israel Ask Samuel To Intercede for Them Throughout the Old Testament, the Philistines show up as a recurring nemesis for God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel. The Bible mentions the Philistines 191 times...
Micah, Stop: The Prophet Speaks Truth, but the People Won’t Listen The prophet Micah gives some strong words from God to his chosen people. Although Micah’s proclamation—his prophecy—should convict them, instead they take offense. At one...
Are You One of God’s Chosen People? Isaiah tells the people that God will choose them again, but did he ever stop? One phrase jumps out from today’s passage in Isaiah’s prophecy to God’s chosen people: once again he will pick Israel. God, through...
It Doesn’t Matter if You’re Worthy or Not There’s a story about a military leader, a centurion, who desires Jesus to heal his dying servant. The centurion doesn’t approach Jesus himself, but instead he calls in a favor, asking some...
Can You Be a ______ and Still Be a Christian? We Must Be Careful Not to Judge Others Based on Who We Are or What We Do Over the years I’ve heard many people wonder out loud about the validity of another Christian’s faith based on what they do or...
Does God Receive Our Actions as a Memorial Offering? Cornelius is a commander in the Roman army; he’s also a man of faith, who prays often and gives to the poor. One day, during his afternoon prayers, he has a vision. An angel appears to him and...
Are You the Criminal on the Cross Next to Jesus? When Jesus is executed, two criminals are executed with him, one on either side. While we don’t know what these two men did to deserve the death penalty, we can assume it must have been something...
Do You Say Bold Prayers or Safe Prayers? God Often Wants to Delight Us, If Only We’ll Ask Too many people say safe prayers, such as, “God, please guide . . .” These are safe because no matter what happens, our confidence in God...
