Recommendations, Christian Living, Culture, Finance
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. Jesus is awkwardly exclusive, radically inclusive, and stubbornly objective: Rebecca McLaughlin says, “Jesus never ruled an empire, raised an army, or even wrote a book. Most of his followers were poor. They weren’t the power brokers of their day. And yet, the Christian movement spread like wildfire after Jesus’s death, and it’s been growing ever since.”

  2. It’s not about you: Laura Story says, “We have to admit that oftentimes our spiritual lives tend to be self-centered rather than God-centered… If God answered every one of your prayers, would it change the world or simply change your world?”

This Week's Recommendations
Biblical Studies, Leadership, Worship
John Beeson
Worship and Victory

We’ve all had moments in our lives where it seemed like all hope was lost. I remember sitting at my desk in high school, staring at an AP Chemistry test that might as well have been written in Latin. I felt so doomed. My mind spun. I was going to fail this test. I was going to fail the class. Would I have to take summer school? Would I be able to get into my dream college?  I catastrophized one test, thinking it would determine the trajectory of my future years.

We’ve all experienced failure and hopelessness: the creeping dread of loss.

Worship and Victory
Recommendations, Consumerism, Culture, Hospitality, Leadership, Relationships
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. The quiet grief of adult friendship: Pranav Jain reflects, “Somewhere between “Let’s catch up soon” and “Sorry, life has been hectic”, adult friendship became one of the most emotionally significant and least discussed losses of modern life.

  2. Created to play: Brianna Lambert says, “Scientists admit that of all creatures, humans play the most, noting, “We are built to play and built through play” (Stuart Brown, Play). And God does just that. He builds us through our hobbies and gives us his own titles.”

This Week's Recommendations
Biblical Studies, Faith, Suffering
John Beeson
Faith Is Not Anonymous

She was desperate. The bleeding started 12 years ago. It began as a typical period and then just didn’t stop. The perpetual loss of blood left her weak and with constant cramping. Ceremonially unclean, she couldn’t go to the temple or the high holy days. She wasn’t allowed to touch her friends or family as she would make them unclean. Loneliness crept in. She went to doctor after doctor. She took herbs and minerals and oils. Her finances diminished as her desperation increased. She was lonely and depressed.

And then she heard about him: Jesus of Nazareth.

Faith Is Not Anonymous
Family, Faith, Parenting, Prayer, Wisdom
John Beeson
The De-Centering Joy of Parenting

Back in our children’s hometown of Princeton, New Jersey, our son Soren and his girlfriend, Viki, walked hand in hand down streets he had not visited in a decade. When they first started dating, he promised her he would take her there one day. On this rainy afternoon, that promise was fulfilled.

We sipped local coffee… as we wandered through familiar streets, greeted by linen-white dogwood blossoms. We shared memories as we passed childhood homes, old landmarks, and favorite gelato shops... We pulled over at the Princeton Battlefield and let Soren and Viki walk ahead as we hung back.  

The De-Centering Joy of Parenting

Faith

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Faith Is Not Anonymous

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Faith Is Not Anonymous

She was desperate. The bleeding started 12 years ago. It began as a typical period and then just didn’t stop. The perpetual loss of blood left her weak and with constant cramping. Ceremonially unclean, she couldn’t go to the temple or the high holy days. She wasn’t allowed to touch her friends or family as she would make them unclean. Loneliness crept in. She went to doctor after doctor. She took herbs and minerals and oils. Her finances diminished as her desperation increased. She was lonely and depressed.

And then she heard about him: Jesus of Nazareth.

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The De-Centering Joy of Parenting

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The De-Centering Joy of Parenting

Back in our children’s hometown of Princeton, New Jersey, our son Soren and his girlfriend, Viki, walked hand in hand down streets he had not visited in a decade. When they first started dating, he promised her he would take her there one day. On this rainy afternoon, that promise was fulfilled.

We sipped local coffee… as we wandered through familiar streets, greeted by linen-white dogwood blossoms. We shared memories as we passed childhood homes, old landmarks, and favorite gelato shops... We pulled over at the Princeton Battlefield and let Soren and Viki walk ahead as we hung back.  

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. When fear dresses up like help: Loads of parenting wisdom packed into this post from Stacy MacLaren, “He was not only trying to become his own person. He was also trying to do that without hurting me. And at some point, I think he realized that in order to do the next right thing, he was going to hurt me no matter what.”

  2. Stop keeping score: Andrew Noble says, “Envy is at the root of modern comparison games. When someone does a good moral act toward us, such as paying our bill, driving our kids, or folding our laundry, we should receive and enjoy their good gifts.

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Why We Don't Trust Pastors

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Why We Don't Trust Pastors

Americans have spoken. We don’t trust pastors. A recent Gallup survey found that only 27% of Americans ranked pastors as “high” or “very high” regarding their honesty and ethical standards. We are outpaced by accountants, bankers, and mechanics with those in the military or medical professions more than doubling our score. Twenty years ago, pastors were ranked among the very highest.  Why the shift?

Over the past two decades, there has been a steady flow of news that has exposed leaders and institutions for sexual scandals and power abuses.  Thus, this shift as disheartening as it is, is not very surprising.

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Workers of Lawlessness

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Workers of Lawlessness

Have you ever struggled wondering if your salvation is secure? Has anyone ever come to you wrestling with whether or not they are saved? How secure should we be in our salvation? It depends.

One of the most disturbing passages in all of Scripture comes at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus warns,

 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name….”

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Why so many Christians never grow up: Christopher Cook says, “Sound doctrine without obedience leads to intellectual pride. Obedience without truth leads to misguided zeal. Community without truth becomes sentimentality. Truth without love becomes harshness. But when truth, obedience, and love converge under the authority of Christ, something remarkable begins to happen: believers begin to grow up.”

  2. Spaghetti again: Andrea Sanborn reflects on the faithful life in the mundane. S

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The Man Who Loves One Woman

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The Man Who Loves One Woman

There is an ancient proverb that says, “The man who loves all women loves no women. The man who loves one woman loves all women.” There is real wisdom in that saying. True love is faithful and sacrificial; flirtatious love is selfish and shallow. We all know people who love the idea of love more than the actual people they claim to love.

There are several ways this disordered desire can show itself. Psychologists have described three common patterns: serial love addiction, seduction addiction, and limerence.

Serial love addiction is a compulsive pursuit of the experience of "falling in love" and the emotional high that comes with romantic excitement. 

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Blessing the voyage: launching them without losing them: My friend and colleague Stacy MacLaren with a timely piece, “We don’t raise our children to keep them. We raise them to release them.”

  2. An unremarkable life: Jonny Pollock says, “The modern mantra appears simple. Be remarkable. Whether through career achievements, our social media feeds, or our personal brands (don’t roll your eyes, we all have them!), the pressure is relentless.”

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The Madman

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The Madman

Has religion disappointed you? Has God let you down?

How do we make sense of God and the world when we feel so hurt by them? Doesn’t the world make more sense without a God who would allow the evil that we see and experience?

Friedrich Nietzsche, a prophet ahead of his time, saw the allure of the modern rejection of God. But he also recognized the serious consequences of such a conclusion. If Soren Kierkegaard demanded the Christian to take a “leap of faith” toward God, Nietzsche demanded that the atheist take a leap of faith into the abyss.

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