Having a Spiritual Role Model Is a Great Goal, but It’s Not Always Possible Who is your spiritual role model? Who do you look up to or strive to emulate? I can point to several biblical characters I admire. I attempt to follow their positive characteristics. I can also list some nonbiblical individuals from history […]
I often hear from aspiring writers who say, “I wish I had time to write.” Other people tell me, “I’m too busy to read my Bible.” Still others complain, “I’ve got too much going on to make it to church this week.” They give the same argument when asked to volunteer for a noble cause. […]
Read Through the Old Testament by Investing a Few Minutes a Day The Old Testament reading plan Bible guide is now available. By reading about 10 to 12 minutes a day, an average adult reader can cover the entire Old Testament of the Bible in one year. The schedule, however, does not make people read […]
Three Gospel Meditations on Jesus By Henri Nouwen (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)Heart Speaks to Heart is three prayers to Jesus from Henri Nouwen. The prayers were written in the days preceding Easter, with an eye towards Jesus’ death and resurrection. As such, the prayers are suitable for the Easter season, but they are also appropriate […]
Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out By Brennan Manning (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)This book was not written for people who have their act together, but instead for the “bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out.” It is for me and it is likely for you. A ragamuffin, by the way, is “a shabbily clothed, dirty […]
Spiritual Insights from a Real Shephard By Phillip Keller (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)The idea of a shepherd overseeing his flock is a powerful metaphor of the relationship between God and his people. Unfortunately, today’s world has largely lost touch with its agrarian roots, missing much of the deeper meaning of a shepherd’s watch and care over […]
Reviewed by Peter DeHaan Shot documentary style in the 1960s, A Time for Burning captures honest, balanced, poignant, and candid insights into race issues and segregation from a different era. In the decades since, some things have changed dramatically, while others are disappointingly the same. The film chronicles one minister’s attempts to nudge his all-white […]
By C. S. Lewis (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)C. S. Lewis’s book, Mere Christianity, is based on a series of BBC radio broadcasts in the early 1940s. Initially, published as three separate volumes Broadcast Talks (1942), Christian Behaviour (1943), and Beyond Personality (1944), the works were combined in 1952 to result in Mere Christianity, that is […]
How People Grow: What the Bible Reveals About Personal Growth By Henry Cloud and John Townsend (reviewed by Peter DeHaan) This book is intended to help people grow and is applicable even when other common approaches have fallen short. The underlying premise is that all growth is spiritual growth, therefore viable growth has a spiritual […]
Hope for the Flowers By Trina Paulus (reviewed by Peter DeHaan) Hope for the Flowers is a delightful allegory offering messages on multiple levels and applicable to all age groups. It is a short book that can be read in about fifteen minutes and is simply, yet effectively, illustrated by its author Trina Paulus. As […]