• Memories | Posted by Mart De Haan on Jun 23 2008

    Memories can haunt us. I was listening to a story on NPR’s StoryCorp recently and heard a tender conversation between an aged father who told his adult son that, all of his life, he regretted a moment when he had abusively beaten him in a moment of frustration. The son was moved by his father’s [...]

  • The Fear Factor | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 27 2008

    Los Angeles Lakers’ star, Kobe Bryant, is claiming today that his hyperdunk jump over a pool of snakes is for real. His stunt, that recently hit the internet, echoes a television series that aired for six years from 2001 to 2006.
    “Fear Factor” was the first reality show to be syndicated by a television network. As [...]

  • The Way Back | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 25 2008

    Some places are not a good spot to begin looking for God. With a smile, but in all seriousness, we talked about some of them in our last post.
    The pride by which we turn our backs on God can turn into a wounded pride that leads us to think that our sins are greater than [...]

  • Who Gets into the Kingdom of God? | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 21 2008

    Like Jesus, the Apostle Paul sets high standards for entering the kingdom of God. In his first letter to the Corinthians he writes: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites…will inherit the kingdom of [...]

  • Jesus and Sodom | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 20 2008

    No one could rightly accuse Jesus of having low standards. But he was accused in his day of being “a friend of sinners.”
    Religious leaders of the lakeshore community of Capernaum, for instance, would have criticized Jesus if he had befriended the kind of people who once lived on the shores of the Dead Sea, at [...]

  • What if God Couldn't Feel? | Posted by Mart De Haan on May 02 2008

    What if the Bible told the story of a God who was all-knowing and all-powerful–but who could feel nothing? In a relationship with such a God, I’m thinking a conversation might go something like this:
    “Hello, God… It’s me again… I need to talk to you about some things that have been on my mind.
    The more [...]

  • What Makes Jesus Authentic? | Posted by Mart De Haan on Mar 29 2008

    By every indication, Mr. Rogers’ advocacy and love for children were real. For over 30 years and 998 TV episodes, his relaxed “won’t you be my neighbor” approach helped a generation of kids to learn a lot about themselves and life.
    As a former Presbyterian minister, Fred Rogers would undoubtedly be the first to say, though, [...]

  • Forgiving Ourselves (3) | Posted by Mart De Haan on Mar 18 2008

    Why won’t some of us stop punishing ourselves for the wrongs we’ve done? I know the question. Long after I’ve asked God’s forgiveness, I have silently cursed myself for doing things that embarrassed me and hurt others.There was a time, though, that I wouldn’t talk this way. I assumed that forgiving me was God’s prerogative [...]

  • Forgiving Ourselves (2) | Posted by Mart De Haan on Mar 18 2008

    As we think together about how hard it can be to forgive ourselves, I took a chance to ask some co-workers, some of whom just happen to be counselors, why they think so many of us continue to beat ourselves up for past mistakes. I thought you might be interested in reading a summary [...]

  • Forgiving Ourselves (1) | Posted by Mart De Haan on Mar 18 2008

    Why do so many of us beat ourselves up for old regrets long after we believe God has forgiven us? How could it be possible for us to find it easier to believe that God has forgiven us than to quit punishing ourselves for what we’ve done?
    We’ve spent some time thinking about forgiving others. Now, [...]