Tag: holy

What Are Your Sunday Practices?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date August 13, 2023

Keep the Sabbath Holy and Don’t Do Any Work

In my post God Rested, I talked about the Old Testament command to keep the Sabbath holy and not do any work (Exodus 20:8-11). Yet Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament law, so it doesn’t apply anymore (Matthew 5:17).

However, God rested on the seventh day of creation and declared it holy (Genesis 2:2-3). So, what should our Sunday practices be?

Our Conscience and Our Freedom

My parents taught me not to work on Sunday. It’s a Sunday practice that has stayed with me. Even though I no longer believe I must adhere to it with legalistic zeal, I still mostly do.

I let my conscience guide me. Like Paul, I want to keep my conscience clear (Acts 23:1). And later, in Paul’s teaching about food sacrificed to idols, we get a principle about following our consciences (1 Corinthians 8:1-13). That is what I do.

Yet, I don’t judge anyone whose conscience gives them a different path to follow for their Sunday practices (1 Corinthians 10:29). After all, Jesus gives us freedom (Galatians 5:1).

My key guide in my Sunday practices comes from Jesus. He said the Sabbath—which most people now apply to Sunday—was made for us, not the other way around (Mark 2:27).

Sunday Examples to Consider

For my Sunday practices, which I share only for consideration, I treat it as a set apart day. A holy day, if you will. I want it to be different than the other six days of the week. It’s a special day, that I get to experience once a week.

On this set-apart-day, I go to church with family, enjoy time with them afterward, and do things that give me joy. I don’t do any regular work, but I do pursue activities that relax me. These activities give me a Sabbath rest.

I might watch a limited amount of TV, take a short nap, go for a walk, listen to a podcast, or work on a crossword puzzle.

I also look for a project to do, that although it may look like work, will fill me with joy and provide a sense of accomplishment, fulfilling a personal need I have.

I especially relish when I can immerse myself in God’s creation and worship him through nature. This is often when we connect at the deepest level.

A friend enjoys a Sunday afternoon of weeding in her garden; it is a holy time that draws her to God. A pastor likes to go fishing after Sunday dinner; it gives him rest and helps prepare him for the week ahead.

Though neither of these Sunday practices would work for me, I’m happy it does for them.

Pursue a Sunday Practice

It’s worthwhile for us to consider our creator’s blessing on the seventh day to make it holy, along with his example of rest.

Yet it is up to us to figure out the best way to do it as we develop our own Sunday practices.

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.

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Tags creation, holy, podcast, Sabbath rest, Sunday, worship

Bible Insights

Be Holy Because God is Holy

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date February 14, 2023

The Bible Gives Us a Framework for Why We Should Be Holy

Reading through the book of Leviticus challenges most people. Its words fail to engage our imagination as they drone on with seemingly repetitious commands.

But there are gems buried within its verses—if our minds aren’t too glossed over to see them.

In today’s verse, God tells us to be holy, but then he tells us why.

The idea to be holy—to live with God-honoring words and actions—both compels and confounds me. I like this ideal, but I fall short on the implementation. Holiness is easier said than done.

Sometimes I wonder why I should even bother to try to be holy—as if I can accomplish it on my own, anyway. Fortunately, Leviticus gives us some insight into this holiness thing.

Following another string of things to do and not to do, God inserts this overarching thought. He says, “Therefore be holy, because” . . . wait for it . . . “because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45, NIV).

Be Holy Because . . .

Notice that God doesn’t say, “Be holy because I said so,” even though he has every right to. Instead he gives an explanation. Knowing the why behind the command helps me a lot.

I’ll take an explained instruction over a blanket edict any day.

In this explanation we have a reminder that God is holy. As we pursue a relationship with him, we’ll become more like him. A bit of God will rub off on us. We will, in fact, become more holy.

This doesn’t mean we must be perfect before we approach him, but it does remind us that he appreciates a little bit of holiness. Our motivation to be holy doesn’t come because God says so.

It comes from a desire to be more like him and be in a closer relationship with him.

And that’s a holiness I want to strive for.

[Read through the Bible this year. Today’s reading is Leviticus 10-12, and today’s post is on Leviticus 11:45.]

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Bible Insights

How Should We Observe the Sabbath?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date February 7, 2023

God Intended for Us to Take a Day of Rest Each Week

The Old Testament talks a lot about the Sabbath. God wants his children to work six days and then rest on the seventh. In fact, he commands that they observe the Sabbath.

But lest we think this is an Old Testament thing, God says it’s a lasting covenant for generations to come.

That makes it sound like it applies to us today, that he expects us to observe the Sabbath too.

Let’s unpack what this entails.

The Sabbath Is Holy

First, God says that we are to observe the Sabbath because it is holy. He doesn’t state why it’s holy. He merely decrees that it is. He’s sovereign, so he can do that.

Because the day is holy, it’s sacred, belonging to him. We are to regard it with reverence, a day deserving our respect. Many of us have lost sight of this fact. It’s time to reclaim the Sabbath as holy.

The Sabbath Is a Day with No Work

At the time when God says to observe the Sabbath, the Hebrew people have just ended a time of enslavement, working continuously, toiling every day without a breather.

Taking a break would emerge as a welcome respite, giving them a chance to recover from the week that was and recharge for the week that will be.

The Sabbath Is a Day of Rest

Though slavery still exist today, most of us aren’t under its evil grasp. Yet many in the modern world still act like we’re enslaved. We’re a slave to busyness.

We need a break from our jumble of continuous activity. We need a Sabbath rest, a day set apart from the other six.

Those Who Don’t Observe the Sabbath Deserve Death

So that we know how serious God is about this, he says that everyone who doesn’t observe the Sabbath deserves to die. Yikes!

We can debate if this is an immediate physical death or an eventual spiritual death or something else, but that discussion misses the point.

God wants us to know he takes observing the Sabbath very seriously.

What the Sabbath Doesn’t Entail

Though I’m still looking for it, I haven’t found a verse where God commands his people to go to the temple (church) on the Sabbath (Sunday).

Yes, he does prescribe certain religious observances where the people go to the temple, and some of those days fall on the Sabbath. But I haven’t found a verse where he tells them to go to the temple every Sabbath—only special ones.

How Can We Observe the Sabbath Today?

How can we apply God’s command to observe the Sabbath to our life today? This is up for each person to determine. We have three biblical principles we can use to guide us.

1. Holy

First, it’s a holy day, set apart from all others. What should we do to treat the day as holy and not like the other six days of the week?

2. No work

Second, we are to do no labor on the Sabbath. What constitutes work is up for us to determine. A task that gives us joy is not work and may be an opportunity to worship God on this holy day.

3. A Day of Rest

Third, the Sabbath is a day of rest. What constitutes rest? Taking a nap? Spending time with family and friends? Going to church? Any activity that recharges us may apply as rest.

We need to reclaim the Sabbath as a holy day of rest without work. The details of how we do this are up for us to decide.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Exodus 29-31, and today’s post is on Exodus 31:14-16.]

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

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Tags church, holy, Sabbath rest, Sunday, worship

Christian Living

What Is Sanctification?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date August 28, 2022

We Are Sanctified in Jesus and by the Holy Spirit

I don’t often use the word sanctification, but I should. It sounds too much like a theological construct that someone made up to explain God. Yet it’s in the Bible. So is sanctify. Therefore, it’s worthwhile for us to understand and embrace its meaning.

Let’s look at sanctification, the act of sanctifying. By definition, sanctify is to set apart, refine, or make holy. A related word is consecrate, which means to declare or set apart as sacred. Though they sound synonymous, and the dictionary uses one in the definition of the other, we need to make a distinction.

Consecration

The word consecration appears a few times in the Old Testament, but it’s root word, consecrate, occurs many more times throughout the Bible, though mostly in the Old Testament.

The main context for consecrate is for people to set someone or something apart for God or for religious service. This includes consecrating priests, God’s people, clothes, offerings, bread, animals, the temple, and temple furnishings.

Sanctification

The word sanctification occurs less often and is not in all translations of the Bible. Sanctification—along with sanctify—is a New Testament word. Whereas consecration is something that God commands his people to do, sanctification is something that God does in us. He sets us apart and makes us holy. We can’t sanctify ourselves; God does.

The Amplified Bible explains sanctification as “being made holy and set apart for God’s purpose” (Romans 6:22). This is a most helpful illumination. Therefore, it’s a process of God making us—his children—right and therefore ready to carry out his intentions.

In Jesus and by the Holy Spirit

The Bible makes it clear that we are sanctified in Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:2) and by the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:16). Both occur in 1 Corinthians 6:11. To realize that sanctification comes through Jesus and by the Holy Spirit, it makes sense that the word only appears in the New Testament.

When we follow Jesus as his disciples, we are sanctified in him and by the Holy Spirit to be set apart and made holy for our Lord’s purpose.

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

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Tags holy, Holy Spirit, Jesus, sanctification

Bible Insights

How to Approach Holy Communion

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date August 17, 2022

In my prior post, entitled Cannibalism, Holy Communion (aka the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist) was seen as a spiritual invitation to salvation.

Communion is a symbolic rite reminding us of Jesus’ sacrificial death for us as the solution for the wrong things we have done.

This is all good.

However, Paul warns against the abuse of this important ritual. He is critical of those partaking in the practice of communion in “an unworthy manner” and “without discernment.”

The result of this mistaking is “judgment” and becoming “weak and sick,” even dying.

Paul advises the proper approach to Communion is via self-examination, the result of which will most likely be proceeding with reverence and humility.

Perhaps that’s why it is often called “Holy Communion.”

Learn more about Communion.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is 1 Corinthians 11-13 and today’s post is on 1 Corinthians 11:27-31.]

Read more in Peter’s book, Love is Patient (book 7 in the Dear Theophilus series).

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

Tags communion, death, holy, Jesus, Paul

Christian Living

Why Should We Go to Church on Sunday?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 5, 2022

Discover What to Do on the Sabbath

Most Christians have a practice of going to church on Sunday. Some people even go twice. Why do we do that? Why do we go to church every Sunday?

The quick answer that most people would give is that’s what the Bible says to go. But I don’t see that in the Bible. Yes, it does say that we should not give up meeting together (Hebrews 10:25), but this says nothing about church or Sunday. It just says to pursue spiritual community.

Why Sunday?

It’s always perplexed me why we meet on Sunday and not Saturday. Granted, Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, on Sunday. And his followers happened to be together on that day, but they were hiding out of fear, least they too be captured and crucified (John 20:19).

And Paul did tell the people in Corinth to set money aside on the first day of each week for a special collection for the people in Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:2). But this was a command to one church for a short-term initiative.

When it comes to Sunday, that’s about it. By the way, the word Sunday doesn’t appear in the Bible. So meeting on Sunday seems more of a tradition than anything else. I certainly don’t see this commanded in scripture.

What about the Sabbath?

The word Sabbath occurs 150 times in the Old Testament. God gives a lot of instructions about the Sabbath. Two themes reoccur.

Rest: First, the Sabbath is a day of rest (Deuteronomy 5:14 and about fifteen more places). God tells his people to do no work on the Sabbath. The other six days of the week are for work and the seventh, the Sabbath, our Saturday, is for rest.

This is what God did when he created us. Six days of work followed by a day of rest. There’s a nice rhythm to this. Work and then rest. Our rest on the seventh day gives us a break from our work. This prepares us to work more effectively for the next six days.

Holy: The second key element of the Sabbath is that it’s holy (Exodus 20:8 and about twenty more places). The Sabbath is set apart. The Bible also says to execute anyone desecrating the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14). That’s some serious stuff.

But what does it mean to keep the Sabbath holy? Though we can find some guidelines in the Bible, it’s up to us to determine what this means for us today and how to apply it.

Supporting Thoughts: Here are some secondary biblical versus about the Sabbath.

Observing and celebrating the Sabbath is a lasting covenant (Exodus 31:16).
The Sabbath is a sign between God and his people (Ezekiel 20:12 and Ezekiel 20:20).
Every Sabbath required a burnt offering (Numbers 28:10), but Jesus fulfilled this.
We should delight in the Sabbath (Isaiah 58:13).

Yet to Isaiah, God also says, “I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.” This includes their Sabbaths (Isaiah 1:13). And in Hosea, God says he will stop the Sabbath celebrations (Hosea 2:11). This certainly gives us something to contemplate.

What Should We Do?

Interestingly, just as I’ve found no command in the Bible to meet every Sunday, I’ve yet to find a verse that tells us to meet every Sabbath.

Though some of the Old Testament’s celebrations did fall on the Sabbath, which required the people to have special observances on those days, this certainly wasn’t an every-week occurrence.

If we’re going to do things according to the Bible, the one essential command is that we must not give up meeting together. This doesn’t necessarily mean church, Sunday, or weekly.

It simply means pursuing intentional spiritual community, and though Sunday church may be one way to accomplish this, it’s not necessarily the best way.

Next, if we want to factor the Old Testament into our thinking, we should set aside one day for rest and keep it holy. That’s about it.

How we do this seems up to us to determine.

Read more about this in Peter’s thought-provoking book, Jesus’s Broken Church, available in e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.

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 church, church attendance, holy, Sabbath rest

Christian Living

A Kingdom of Priests

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 29, 2021

God Is Still Waiting for Us to Obey Him and Minister to Others

It’s interesting to connect the Old Testament with the New Testament, to see what changes and what remains the same. Let’s look at what God says about his people being a kingdom of priests.

A Kingdom of Priests in The Old Testament

In the Old Testament we see Moses on Mount Sinai, hanging out with God. They’re having a spiritual confab of the highest order. God has some words—many words, in fact—for Moses to give to the people. In one instance God says they will serve as his kingdom of priests, a holy nation (Exodus 19:6).

Really? I never caught that before. And I’ve never seen any evidence of them as a nation serving as priests. What happened?

It could be the people were afraid. Just one chapter later in the book of Exodus, the people see a display of God’s power. They pull back in terror. They keep their distance. They’re terrified of God and don’t want to hear what he has to say.

Instead they ask Moses to function as their intermediary between them and God. He essentially serves as their first priest (Exodus 20:18-21).

After this, God seems to switch to plan B. Instead of his people being a kingdom of priests, he sets aside some of them—descendants of Aaron—to service priests, functioning as the intermediary between God and his people.

This is something far different than what he originally wanted with everyone being a priest.

A Holy Priesthood in The New Testament

Though we do see priests throughout the Old Testament, we never see the nation of Israel or Judah emerge as a country filled with priests. Will this change in the New Testament?

According to Peter, in his first letter, it will—or at least it should. As followers of Jesus and through Jesus, we’re his chosen people, priests of a royal order, and a holy nation. We are God’s special envoys to tell others about him (1 Peter 2:9).

Individually we are parts of a building—living stones—used to construct a spiritual home, which we can collectively think of as his church, the church. As such we are a holy priesthood. We offer spiritual sacrifices to God through our right standing with Jesus (1 Peter 2:5; also see Ephesians 2:22).

A Kingdom of Priests Now

This is a grand vision: as followers of Jesus we are his priests, a holy priesthood, a nation of priests. Are we doing this? No.

We hire clergy to work as our modern-day priests, serving as our intermediary between God and us. We’re not functioning as we should, as priests. We delegated this holy responsibility to a select few who have gone to seminary and received their ordination.

Even today, God expects us to obey his call to serve as his holy nation of priests. What are we waiting for?

Read more about this in Peter’s thought-provoking book, Jesus’s Broken Church, available in e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.

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

Tags Aaron, holy, minister, priest

Visiting Churches

Reflecting on Church #23: A Church Business Meeting Overshadows the Service

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 17, 2020

Don’t Hold a Church Business Meeting After the Service

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 #23.

It’s challenging to get members to attend a church business meeting during the week, as it requires an extra trip to church that’s squeezed into an already busy schedule.

So it’s understandable when churches hold business meetings at the end of their service.

52 Churches: A Yearlong Journey Encountering God, His Church, and Our Common Faith

However, conducting church business as part of a Sunday service often provides an uncomfortable experience for visitors. This church business meeting is no exception.

One member questions the makeup of the pastoral selection committee. Other members, either aroused or emboldened by this first comment, join in to voice their dissent. As emotions rise, so does the tension in the sanctuary.

Just as civility threatens to escalate out of control, a conciliatory remark ends the discussion. Then they approve the committee slate with only minor murmuring.

The leader dismisses us, and my final memory of the church service is the rancor of their business meeting, not their worship of God. In the spirit of expediency, they forgot the purpose of church.

Church Business Meetings on Sunday

It’s a common practice at many churches to conduct church business on Sunday at the conclusion of the church service. We do this to our shame.

We forget the Old Testament commands to keep the Sabbath holy (which today’s church now views as Sunday) and not do any work. By my account, holding a church business meeting on Sunday violates both of these commands.

Jesus, however, came to fulfill the Old Testament Law and prophecies. That means these two Old Testament commands may no longer apply.

In this way, some may now feel the freedom to work on Sunday and not regard it as holy. In doing so they freely conduct church business after a church service.

Even so, tacking a business meeting onto a church service removes us from a worshipful connection with God and replaces it with an often-contentious connection to worldly concerns.

We must save our church meetings for during the week and not detract from our Sunday experience.

[See my reflections about Church #22 and Church #24 or start with Church #1.]

My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

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

Tags 52 Churches, church services, holy, reflecting on church, work, worship

Bible Insights

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 29, 2020

Celebrate the Holiness of God

The prophet Isaiah has a dream, a vision. He sees into heaven. God sits on his throne over the temple. Six-winged angels, seraphim, hover above him. They sing out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. Earth fills with his glory.”

As their voices ring out, the temple shakes and fills with smoke.

What’s Isaiah do? He shakes in fear. “Woe is me.” He trembles before God because he knows he is unworthy. So unworthy. The sight of the Lord God Almighty overwhelms him. He becomes undone.

If Isaiah would cower before God with a feeling of complete unworthiness, how much more will we?

Yet God offers Isaiah grace and takes away the guilt of his sin. Then God sends Isaiah on a mission.

Does the words of the seraphim, “Holy, holy, holy,” sound familiar?

It also appears in Revelation 4:8. Again, six-winged creatures hover around God. They worship him 24/7, saying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.”

Three Times for Emphasis

These are the only two passages in the Bible that repeat the word holy three times. Saying that God is holy isn’t enough. Saying that he’s holy, very holy still falls short. Instead the Bible records that God is “Holy, holy, holy.”

Bible scholars tell us that the repetition of three gives emphasis. Today, it would be like bold, italic, and underlined all at the same time. God’s holiness is that significant.

We may gloss over the first holy and even miss it twice, but it’s hard to overlook it when we hear it three times.

The Lord God Almighty is holy, holy, holy. He was, and is, and is to come.

Let’s join the heavenly beings who worship God as holy, holy, holy.

God deserves our praise, and we will do well to offer it, always and forever.

Our Lord God is holy, holy, holy.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Isaiah 5-7, and today’s post is on Isaiah 6:3.]

Read more about the book of Isaiah in For Unto Us: 40 Prophetic Insights About Jesus, Justice, and Gentiles from the Prophet Isaiah available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

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

Tags angel, glory, God, holy, worship

Christian Living

The Significance of Synagogues

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 8, 2019

Discover the Origin of Having a Local Place of Worship

Another interesting word that occurs only in the New Testament is synagogues. Appearing sixty-six times, it’s in all four gospels, a lot in the book of Acts, and twice in Revelation. That’s it. Notably the word synagogue does not appear in the Old Testament.

Where did it come from? Why did something nonexistent in the Old Testament become a place of prominence in the New?

The Old Way

In the Old Testament God establishes the tabernacle and later the temple as the only place to worship him. It’s a center of their national religion: one place for the whole nation.

To encounter God, the people go to the temple, which they believe is his earthly residence.

The New Way

In the New Testament, the temple still exists as the national destination for religious celebration, but local synagogues also exist. It seems there’s one in every city that has a Jewish population.

The people meet at their local synagogue on the Sabbath.

On Paul’s missionary journeys, he often first goes to the synagogue to talk to the Jews in that area. If they don’t accept his message, then he goes to secular locations to talk to the Gentiles.

The Transition to Synagogues

The Bible doesn’t explain why they’re synagogues in the New Testament. Nor does it explain the shift of emphasis, which makes each synagogue a local gathering place for Jewish worship.

However, history does provide an explanation. Babylon conquers Judah and forcibly relocates the people. They can’t go to their temple anymore. It’s too far away. In its stead they establish a local meeting place in each city they find themselves in.

This becomes the focal point of the Jewish community: a synagogue in each city.

When they receive permission to return to Judah seventy years later, they take this idea of having a local meeting place with them. When they get back, they go about building synagogues in each city. And they meet there each week on the Sabbath.

God’s Commands

God never commanded his people to build a local place of worship in each city. Of course, he never prohibited it either. What he did command is a central place of worship for the nation, the temple.

Though I’m still looking for it, I’ve not found any place in the Bible where God commands his people to worship him on the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath.

What he does say about the Sabbath is that we are to keep it holy and not do any work (Exodus 20:8-9).

I don’t see anywhere where he says we need to go to church. Instead, this practice seems to have emerged as a manmade tradition.

Though the temple was a place of worship, it was for various festivals and celebrations that God established. Indeed, going to the temple each Sabbath would pose a hardship on most people who would have to travel long distances to get there.

Though God’s people built synagogues and went there each Sabbath, it wasn’t his idea. He gave no command for them to do so.

Today this tradition persists. We build local houses of worship and go there each week to worship God. I wonder if we should instead focus on God’s command to honor him by keeping the Sabbath holy and not doing any work.

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

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Tags church attendance, holy, Sabbath rest, worship