Tag: God

What To Do When We Don’t Want to Praise God

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date February 3, 2013

When it comes to praising God, I like to praise him for who he is and thank him for what he does—most of the time. Sometimes, though, I just don’t feel like it. Intellectually, nothing’s changed; spiritually, he’s the same, but emotionally, I don’t want to.

What do I do in those cases?

I praise and thank him anyway. As some people say, “fake it til you make it.”

Does this seem foolish? Will the Almighty strike me down for being disingenuous, for putting on a false front?

If I’m being phony to impress others, I’m on shaky ground, but if I push through because it’s the right thing, I suspect he approves—and delights in me.

Throughout our lives, we do all manner of things we don’t feel like doing:

Eating right
Exercising
Working
Getting enough rest
Helping others
Doing housework and yard work
Finishing homework
Keeping our promises

For each, we realize the benefits of the activity regardless if we felt like doing them or not:

We grow healthier
Our body becomes more toned and we lose weight
We earn money needed to live (and keep our job)
We aren’t tired
We make the world a bit better
Our living area becomes a more pleasant place
We learn and earn good grades
We become respected as a person of integrity (and avoid guilt in the process)

In each instance, the results are the same regardless if we felt like doing the right thing or not. The same is true for our relationship with God.

We need to push through, praising God and thanking him, when we feel like it—and when we don’t. Either way, the result is the same.

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 God, thank God

Bible Insights

Have You Ever Been Overwhelmed by the Glory of God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 17, 2013

When Solomon dedicated the temple, the people praised God with much fanfare and then something strange happened.

A cloud formed—inside the building. But there’s more. “The Glory of the Lord filled the temple.” It became so intense that the priests couldn’t even work; God’s presence was that strong. It was extreme.

They became overwhelmed with God’s presence and his glory. But what exactly does that mean?

It could be the awe of God engulfed them to such an extent that nothing else mattered.
It could be that fear of being so close to God effectively paralyzed them.
It could be the cloud was so thick—that is, God’s presence was so heavy—that they literally couldn’t see what they were doing, or
It could be that with God in the house nothing else mattered.

Regardless of the explanation, we can conclude that God’s presence was so significant that all activity ceased.

Can you imagine worshiping God and collectively feeling his presence to such an extent that all the singers stop singing and all the musicians stop playing?

Silence fills the room and nothing else matters. Then the highest form of worship becomes to simply do nothing and bask in his presence.

Have you ever been that overwhelmed with the glory of God?

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Tags God, King Solomon, temple

Christian Living

Why Do We Worship God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 25, 2012

Today is Sunday and many who love God will worship him today. But why?

Because that’s what we’re supposed to do
Because we like the music and it uplifts us
Because the Bible says to
Because it gives us joy when we do it right
Out of habit
Out of fear
To feel good about ourselves
To avoid feeling guilty
To please him

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.

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Tags God, worship

Christian Living

Do You Love God or Fear Him?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 21, 2012

For the past two weeks, I’ve been sharing a progression of thought about God as it relates to love and fear.

Consider:

We are to fear God, which begins to produce understanding and wisdom. We grow to understand that God is love and ultimately that perfect love—as embodied by Jesus—removes our fear.

Though we may start with fear, God’s perfect love (Jesus) removes it.

It is the love of Jesus that supersedes our fear of God.

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Tags fear God, God, Jesus, love

Bible Insights

Do You Fear God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 9, 2012

The Bible says we are to fear God. But what does that really mean?

I don’t think it implies God is malevolent or waiting for us to mess up so he can zap us, which would be legitimate reasons to fear him.

Instead, God is benevolent and wants good things for us; there is no reason to fear him for that.

Some translations render fear as “worship” or “revere.” That helps some. We are to worship God and to revere him. I can do that. And although I have a healthy respect for his power, it’s not one the produces fear.

That’s a good thing, isn’t it?

Perhaps a hint of understanding is that of the 13 times the phrase occurs in the Bible, most are in the Old Testament.

I will post more on this next time.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Ecclesiastes 10-12, and today’s post is on Ecclesiastes 12:13.]

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Tags fear God, God, Old Testament, worship

Christian Living

What is True Church?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 30, 2012

On a blog I follow there was a drawing for a free book. I’m all about books and it’s even better when they’re free. To enter, I needed to share “what the theological vision for your church is in two sentences or less.”

Now the word “theological” repels me, even though theology is simply “the study of God”—and God captivates me.

Pushing that aside for a chance at a free book, here’s what I posted:

“Church isn’t about message or music; those are often distractions or settling for less than the best.

“True church is about community, where we are all priests, with each one giving and receiving, mutually edifying and encouraging one another on our faith journey.”

There was more, but I had to shorten it to two sentences. I like what I wrote; it resonates with me and communicates my deepest passion.

What I penned was a greater reward than the book I won.

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Tags church, God, theology

Bible Insights

Why Do We Ask For Our Daily Bread?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 11, 2012

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 whole year, but for only one day, today. Tomorrow we will need to ask again.

The instruction to ask daily isn’t because God is only powerful enough to supply our need for one day, but because God doesn’t want us to take him for granted. And if we seek him each day, that’s not likely to happen.

Plus, I think he enjoys hearing from us each morning.

[Exodus 16:14-32, Matthew 6:11]

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Tags daily bread, God, Jesus, manna

Christian Living

Do You Appreciate Nature?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 2, 2012

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 heard me, but at once all three looked in my direction, freezing in time and place. For an eternity of seconds, we stared at each other.

They were wary, but not afraid; they were cautious, but not fearful. They did not know to fear man and this man was in complete awe of them.

Sensing it was again safe to proceed, they sauntered towards the woods. The fawn was not keeping up and once he realized this, it took only a couple of graceful leaps to restore contact with his parents.

As a group they continued meandering towards the border between field and forest.

At the fence separating meadow and woods it took one mighty bound, seemingly effortless but extraordinary in power, for the first to clear it. Then the second and finally the third; they were gone.

I thanked God for letting me witness the wonder of his creation and to be in awe of him for his created things.

And then I sensed something extraordinary: God appreciates his creation even more than I.

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Tags creation, God

Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: The Meaning of Life

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date August 3, 2012

By James Rutz (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

In The Meaning of Life, author James Rutz takes a new look at some of the standard thinking about God.

He examines anew God’s creation, corrects common misconceptions about what heaven and hell are really like, revisits history to address its central theme and approaching conclusion, addresses the problem of evil, and takes aim at clarifying some of the Bible’s perplexing passages.

His purpose in doing so is to remove the intellectual stumbling blocks to faith. However, all this is merely a prelude to his main objective: offering “an enticing alternative to old-fashioned, Sunday morning Christianity.”

Although The Meaning of Life is a standalone book, Rutz does make multiple references to is prior work, Megashift, which was published the prior year.

Both works take vastly different approaches and cover a different theme to arrive at the same place: house churches.

Toward this end, Rutz first suggests that it is time to “reboot the church”; then he encourages readers to “make an end run around the church” by starting their own (their own church, that is, not their own religion).

Rutz proceeds to reel off a string a house church benefits where participants can experience “team life,” with “24/7 support”; “have mutual accountability”; “form deep, loving relationships”; “find solutions to many…deep seated problems”; realize “tremendous empowerment”; “gain a new authority”; discover freedom and a “greater identity as part of the royal priesthood”; and be offered “the ultimate challenge – daring high-stakes, history-changing adventure.”

In addition, there will be the free worship of God, where his presence is clearly felt.

“When the [church] meeting is open,” Rutz notes, “the Holy Spirit is allowed to direct things as he wants, His presence can be heart-stopping—like nothing you’ve ever experienced.”

Rutz then offers a dozen rules for those who desire more out of life. He concludes The Meaning of Life with five keys to help readers understand the problem passages found in the Bible.

[The Meaning of Life, by James Rutz. Published by Empowerment Press, 2006, ISBN: 9780966915846, 138 pages.]

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Tags author, God, house church, life

Bible Insights

The Power of the Finger of God

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 19, 2012

The phrase “the finger of God” occurs four times in the Bible.

The first is when the Egyptian magicians cannot duplicate the feats God is doing through Moses and they say, “This is the finger of God.”

The second and third times are when God gives Moses the Ten Commandments inscribed on stone tablets. What tool was used to etch the message in stone? None other than “the finger of God.”

The final use of the phrase is recorded by Luke. Jesus, when verbally sparring with his detractors, says his power to cast out demons is “the finger of God.”

So “the finger of God.” is sufficient to perform wondrous acts that cannot be duplicated, etch messages in stone, and empower Jesus to cast out demons.

If the finger of God can do all that, imagine what the arm of God can do—image what all of God can do.

Now that’s powerful.

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Tags God, Luke, Moses