Today, in the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving! But wherever you live, take time to give thanks for all we have.
In the US, however, Thanksgiving Day has morphed into a day of eating too much, watching football on television, and starting Christmas shopping in earnest.
No matter where you live or what you’re doing today, take a moment to thank God for what he’s done in your life over the past year and how he’s cared for you.
As we do this, we might want to consider what the Bible says about thanksgiving.
The word “thanksgiving” occurs twenty-two times in the Bible (thirty, if you include the headings that were added later).
Leviticus mentions offerings of thanksgiving.
In Ezra and Nehemiah, there is much thanksgiving as the people return to their homeland and rebuild the city.
Of course, Psalms uses the word, too.
Even the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah, which have little to celebrate, both mention thanksgiving, albeit as a future event.
Lastly, many of Paul’s letters include thanksgiving in them.
That’s a lot of thanksgiving to consider!
Wherever you live in the world, may you and your family have a happy Thanksgiving!
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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We Distort Scripture If We Try to Adapt It to Fit Society’s Views
I write about the need to be careful when reading Scripture to not interpret it through the lens of our experiences, perspectives, and practices. When we do so it clouds our understanding. We must likewise be careful not to read the Bible through the lens of the world we live in.
The world’s perspective is not a biblical one. Society is anti-God and anti-faith in most every way.
We’re bombarded with their messages all day long through music, movies, and television. We’re assaulted by advertisements and social media. It comes to us at work and sometimes even at church.
If we don’t guard our thoughts and our attitudes against these negative influences, we run the risk of buying into their warped perspective that runs counter to what the Bible teaches.
And as we slide into accepting their distorted mindset, it affects the way we understand God’s word.
We begin to interpret passages differently. We begin to put a slant on God’s truth to better align with society’s misguided perspectives. And we begin to ignore passages that don’t align with their secular views.
Yet this is what happens when we try to read the Bible through the lens of the world.
We must stop.
God doesn’t change and neither does the truth he proclaims (Numbers 23:19 and Psalm 55:19). When it comes to his word—which we read in Scripture—it’s the same today as it was a generation ago, as it was a millennia ago, as it was when it was first written.
The Lens of the World Says to Accept Everyone
Scripture doesn’t talk about accepting everyone, regardless of their lifestyle.
Instead, it teaches that we are to love everyone. Jesus tells us to love one another (John 13:34-35). Another time he says we are to love our neighbors—that means everyone who is in need—as much as we love ourselves (Mark 12:28-33).
One way we love them is to tell them the truth—even if they’re not ready to hear it.
The Lens of the World Says Each Person Decides What’s Right and Wrong
The world maintains there is no such thing as absolute truth, that everything is relative. They insist that each person should decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. But it’s not good when everyone does as they see fit.
It’s happened before and God intervened (Genesis 6:13). Then it happened again (Judges 17:6 and Judges 21:25) and repeatedly throughout the Old Testament.
The Lens of the World Says to Not Talk about Sin
The Bible teaches us what to do and what not to do. When we fall short of God’s expectation, it’s sin. We all sin and miss the mark (Romans 3:23).
But the world doesn’t want us to point this out. Talking about sin makes them uncomfortable. Yet they wouldn’t be uncomfortable if deep down in their hearts they didn’t know that what we say is true.
There is right and there is wrong, but they don’t want to hear it. They want to do what they want to do with no one telling them to stop.
We Need a Biblical Standard
Yet we dare not leave it to each person to decide what is right on their own. This is because one person’s right and wrong will inevitably conflict with another person’s right and wrong. Without a consensus on what is right or wrong, conflict ensues.
Without a moral ethic to guide us, society runs amok. People act with selfish intent. In the process they end up hurting one another.
Instead, we need a standard of what is right and what is wrong. God gives us this. It’s in the Bible. We’ve had it from the beginning.
All we need to do is believe what he teaches us and not attempt to filter it through the lens of the world, less we distort what Scripture says.
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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Advice that’s commonly given to writers is that we need to unplug from time to time to fuel our writing and feed our creativity. When we remove the distractions of our technology is when inspiration strikes. It’s when we solve writing problems and are best able to move forward with our words.
Unplug to Hear God
The same is true—even more so—with our faith. We need to unplug and have idle time—that is, available time—for us to best hear from God.
Yes, his voice can overpower anything and everything that surrounds us, but it’s much easier for us to hear when his message doesn’t have to compete with the barrage of information that we surround ourselves with and assaults us on a continuous basis.
Multitasking Divides Our Attention
I see too many people with their smartphones open when there’s no need for it. They’re engaged with their technology and miss much of the life happening around them. Though they think they can do both, they’re deluding themselves.
We can’t truly multitask. Though we can do one subconscious activity along with one conscious activity, we can’t fully do two conscious activities at the same time. One will always suffer, perhaps both.
Trying to multitask between a device and people disrespects others.
The same is true—with even more significant consequences—when we try to multitask our time with God. We can’t be fully present with him when we’re partially engaged with our technology.
To be with God we need to unplug.
Remove Distractions
But it’s not just our technology that contends with our time with God. Yes, the place to start is to put away our smartphones, turn off the television, and walk away from our computers. Yet, our busyness can also keep us from God.
When we pack every moment of our life with intention, we effectively remove God from our schedule—from our life. True, he can interrupt our plans to interject his own, but how open are we to do this? And how do we react when he tries to get our attention?
Though we need to be careful not to take this too far, sometimes we should unplug from life. This doesn’t mean to isolate ourselves or forgo social interaction, but it does mean that sometimes we need to be quiet to listen for God’s still and small voice.
Open Our Ears
The sons of Korah write that the Almighty says, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10, NIV). We start this when we unplug, stop multitasking, and remove distractions from our lives.
Then we can open our ears and hear what God wants to tell us. We can be in his presence. We can bask in his glory. And then we’ll have the best chance to hear what God has to say.
When people complain that they don’t hear from God, I wonder how hard they’re trying. If they unplug and be in a posture to receive, they’ll have a much better chance.
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.
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.
Greek Orthodox sits fourth on my mental list of churches to visit. Like Anglican Catholic, I’ve never talked to anyone who went to a Greek Orthodox church.
Historically, I understand they split from the Roman Catholic Church about a thousand years ago.
Consider these three discussion questions about Church 75.
1. What little I know about Greek Orthodox practices comes from what I’ve seen in movies and television. This is hardly an ideal source of information.
In what ways does the media incorrectly shape our views of spiritual practices we don’t know?
2. Inertia keeps me from visiting a nearby Greek Orthodox church. An element of fear over the unknown also conspires to keep me away.
How might inertia or fear hold us back from what God wants to teach us?
3. A degree of church-visiting fatigue keeps me stagnant. Similar issues may keep others home on Sunday and thwart them from finding a faith community to plug into.
Are we part of a supportive faith community? If not, what should change?
Get your copy ofMore Than 52 Churches today, available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
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.
We Should Be Careful What We Put into Our Minds Each Day
We know of toxic people. Because of their personality or character, they are just too hard to be around. Spending time with them threatens to drag us down with their negativity or their drama.
In the same way, a toxic environment is a place or a situation that causes us emotional or spiritual damage. We should avoid toxic environments, just as we avoid toxic people.
Toxic environments cause social tension. They produce an unpleasant atmosphere. They demean our spirit and damage our soul. We should avoid going there.
Two situations come to mind that are toxic to me. These are destinations my body doesn’t go physically, but where my mind goes intellectually.
Toxic News
It’s been years since I watched the nightly news on TV. Most of what they covered were negative events, highlighting humanity’s proclivity toward evil and the darker side of life.
Their negativity depressed me—not in a clinical sense but in a practical manner.
Seldom did they cover positive stories that inspired me or filled me with hope. When it came to the news, I turned off the TV. And I haven’t missed it.
More recently I stopped listening to the news on the radio. It’s been over six months since I tuned in to hear what was happening.
At first, I felt guilty for not knowing what was going on in the world. But I soon realized how much better I felt emotionally and spiritually by not listening to their biased reporting and their slanted opinions presented as fact.
I don’t know what happened to true journalistic reporting, but it’s absent in most all of today’s news broadcasts on television and radio.
Today’s news is a toxic environment we should avoid.
Toxic Social Media
Another area I’m pulling back from is social media, especially Facebook and Twitter. I only login once a day and then only on weekdays. This is to see if anyone has reached out to me, so I can respond to them.
I don’t scroll through feeds, and aside from family, I follow few people—only those I can trust to be an uplifting, positive source of information or insight.
The hate-filled rhetoric and unexamined parroting of vocal, but misguided, trolls have overtaken the pages of social media. I don’t need their voices screaming at me. I don’t want them encroaching on my daily reality.
If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. Better yet is to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).
I’ve not yet shut down my Facebook and my Twitter accounts, but I’m getting close to doing so. Oh, so close. This is because social media is a toxic environment, even worse than the news.
Pursue Positive Thoughts to Escape These Toxic Environments
Instead of enduring the negativity of the news and the unproductive time suck of social media, the Bible gives us eight things to think about.
We should focus our attention on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).
These eight positive traits seldom appear in the news or on social media. That’s why we must be intentional about pursuing what is good.
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.
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.
I dream in black and white. I’ve always assumed this was because I grew up watching black and white TV. Occasionally my black and white dream contains one item in color—a more recent cinematic effect that my dreaming has likely emulated.
A couple of times an entire dream scene is blasted with vibrant, blinding color. It comes as such a surprise that I instantly wake-up.
Since I dream in black and white and grew up watching television in black and white, it shouldn’t be surprising that I enjoy black and white movies.
(And for the record, I’m not a purest and I don’t object to the colorization of black and white films. A good movie is a good movie, regardless.)
In selecting older movies, I first consider those that are heralded as classics.
I also give consideration to the classic films that Netflix suggests, based on my ratings that I’ve given to other films.
A third reason why I will opt to partake in cinematic nostalgia is the people associated with a picture.
As far as directors, I opt for Alfred Hitchcock: North by Northwest, Vertigo, To Catch a Thief, and Rear Window are particular favorites.
Not surprisingly, the main actors in these films also capture my attention. For the males, it’s Jimmy Stewart and Carey Grant.
On the female side, it’s Grace Kelly, along with Myrna Loy, Barbara Stanwyck, and Audrey Hepburn. Often I gravitate to anything that includes one of these four ladies.
Several years ago, I was again watching “To Catch a Thief” (a triple bonus: directed by Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly).
There is a scene with Grace Kelly wearing a stunning white gown and adorned by a sparkling array of diamonds encircling her neck.
Just then, my son walked into the room. “What are you watching?” he asked. I provided more information about this classic tale than he wanted to hear.
I then gushed about Grace Kelly and concluded by saying, “Isn’t she incredible?”
He stood silently for several moments, shook his head, and said, “I just don’t get it.”
How could he get a black and white movie? He probably dreams in color.
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.
In Today’s Noisy World We Need to Reclaim the Ability to Deeply Listen
We live in a noisy world, with too many things vying for our attention. Though we can’t help some of it, much of the noise that permeates our existence is the distractions we create.
We can’t stand silence, not even for a couple seconds, so we fill that void with the clutter of sounds and activity: television, music, social media, and more.
It’s time we embrace the spiritual discipline of silence—the spirituality of silence.
Consider the Noisy World That Surrounds Us
Look around at social gatherings and public places to see how many people pull out their smart phones at an instant to occupy even the smallest of lulls in conversation or spaces in activity.
There’s a constant assortment of inputs that attack our ears and assault our minds.
And increasingly, one input is not enough. It’s checking email or social media, while having a conversation with someone else. Or it’s talking on our phone as we talk to the person sitting next to us.
There are even people who go down a rabbit trail on their smartphone as they listen to a sermon. There’s also a two-device mentality, such as watching TV and surfing the web.
With this constant deluge of sounds and attempt at multitasking, we’ve lost the ability to truly hear. We need to learn how to deeply listen and to recapture the gift of silence.
This is not only practical, it’s also spiritual. It’s the spirituality of silence.
When we can embrace a gap in sounds, we’ll regain the ability to listen to what happens around us. This readies us to hear anew.
Silence Prepares Us to Hear Others
How many times have you been talking to someone and sensed they weren’t really hearing you, that they had ceased listening? It’s like we’re having a one-way conversation in the presence of another person.
They stop responding and cease giving visual and verbal cues that they’re listening to.
When in the presence of others, turn off all devices and stifle distractions. Allow a moment of silence to be part of our interaction.
This provides time to think about what we’re saying before we open our mouth. It gives the space to hear, truly hears, what other people want to tell us.
And then it prepares us to properly react with thoughtful responses and insightful thoughts.
Silence Prepares Us to Hear Ourselves
Not only does our noisy world prevent us from truly listening to others, it also interferes with our ability to listen to ourselves. How often have we heard or thought, “There’s so much noise that I can’t hear myself think?”
For most of us, we surround ourselves so much with sights and sounds that we’ve overwhelmed our ability to think deeply. And most of the time, we don’t even realize we’ve done it.
While in a recent moment of downtime, an action plan to a longstanding dilemma formed in my mind, well clarity for several book concepts came into focus. This occurred in a minute or two.
It only happened because I had removed all other stimulus and opened myself to the possibility of truly hearing what I was thinking.
Silence Prepares Us to Hear God
Even more important than us hearing others and hearing ourselves is hearing God. God is always with us, and I suspect he’s always trying to tell us something. He’s always speaking, but how often are we listening?
Though he could shout at us over the noise that we surround ourselves with, he seldom does. It’s not his way to force himself on us.
To give God our full attention and open ourselves to listen to his still, small voice, we need to remove our world of distractions and immerse ourselves in silence. When we have settled our mind and focused our attention, we can listen to our Creator and Savior.
This is the spirituality of silence, as it opens us to hear what matters most. When we shut out our noisy world and embrace the spirituality of silence, we prepare ourselves to truly listen to others, ourselves, and to God.
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.
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.
Last week’s entry about the TV shows I watch reminds me of a trio of shows I watched in the past—all covering the same theme: “flipping” houses.
House flipping—which has no connection to cow tipping—is the art of buying distressed real estate, making quick improvements, and (hopefully) selling it for a profit.
The three shows are Flip This House on A&E, Flip That House on TLC, and Flipping Out on Bravo. To varying degrees, all fit the genre of reality TV.
“Flip This House,” an hour-long show, features businesses that specialize in house flipping and provides the most amount of practical information.
“Flip That House” is a half hour show, which restricts the amount of information that can be conveyed.
It generally features less experienced “flippers,” who are more prone to make errors and less likely to make a profit. Both shows have a degree to personal drama and conflict factored into each episode.
“Flipping Out” focuses on dysfunctional relationships of an obsessive-compulsive boss and his employees (who are sometimes treated like family and other times as pawns). The theme of flipping houses is secondary.
Watch it to be amused, but don’t expect to learn too much—at least about flipping houses.
The reasons these shows caught my attention was that I once flipped a house—some 20 plus years ago. Back then it was called “house recycling.”
Then the economies were different, the margins smaller, and you had to do the work yourself. I did make a small profit on my flip—if you don’t count my labor. It was a good experience, but once was enough.
My bride would ask why I watch those shows if wasn’t going to put it into practice. I would respond with “why do you watch hockey if aren’t going to play?”
Besides, with the kitchen area receiving prime attention in the flips, I think she was getting kitchen envy.
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.
Many people concur that at some point in the future we will receive all our television and movie transmissions over the internet. This is often called convergence. Personally, I’m ready and anxious for that to happen.
However, there is a stirring afoot that could dampen my enthusiasm—the elimination of flat rate internet access in favor of usage sensitive charges.
In other words, if you use the internet a lot—such as to watch TV and movies—you will pay more.
Time Warner Cable is conducting a test in Beaumont, Texas with new subscribers.
They will have a monthly allowance of sending and receiving 5 gigabytes of data each month. After that they will be charged $1 per gigabyte.
A standard movie is about 1.5 gigabytes and a high-def movie is about 6 to 8 gigabytes. Therefore watching a free movie could cost between $1.50 and $8.00.
It seems a lot like paying for shipping and handling on a free product.
Interestingly, they claim that 5 percent of their customers use 50 percent of the bandwidth. I suspect that these folks must be watching movies.
Given this stat, I suspect their real goal is to effectively eliminate high-usage customers.
Although there are a few other instances of cable companies toying with usage charges and usage caps, they are less likely to do so if there is competition in that market.
It is noteworthy, that the network topology of most cable systems is not conducive to high volume internet traffic, unlike DSL service.
Although this is a threat to watch, there is considerable historic evidence against such a move succeeding, as evidenced by the demise of usage-sensitive dial-up service—in favor of flat-rate service—in the late 90s.
So, until we need to pay to watch our free movies, let’s continue enjoying our movies online using flat-rate internet access.
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.
