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

Hell

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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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Will You Open the Door

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Will You Open the Door

Over and over again belief is directly connected to us becoming children of God, being given eternal life, being saved, and pleasing God.

But that raises an important question: what is belief? Most of us, when we think of belief, we think of it as accepting something as true. Merriam-Webster offers three definitions of belief. The second and third definitions reinforce our instinct: (2) “something that is accepted, considered to be true, or held as an opinion.” (3) “conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon, especially when based on examination of evidence.”

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How to Battle Lust

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How to Battle Lust

Sexuality saturates our culture. The human heart, already an engine inclined toward  malformed desires, has plenty of fuel available via the internet alone to propel it toward disaster. How can we remain pure in a world bent on dragging us into impurity?   

 

Indeed, the world is partial. The battle against lust is a three-pronged battle against our flesh, the world, and Satan. Paul warns us to “not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16) by later specifying some of those desires: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality” (Galatians 5:19). Our flesh lures us into believing that we can take a shortcut to joy and intimacy.

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The Crucifixion of Jesus: An Eyewitness Account

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The Crucifixion of Jesus: An Eyewitness Account

On this Tuesday of Holy Week, we consider the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. What follows is a compilation of the eyewitness crucifixion accounts of Jesus Christ as told by the four authors of the gospels. They have been edited together to maintain the flow of the narrative. The accounts are framed by the words of the 8th century BC prophet, Isaiah. On Sunday I will share the resurrection account of Jesus from the eyewitnesses.

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Believer, beware

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Believer, beware

I grew up in the age of Neil Anderson and Frank Peretti, two Christian authors who used their pens to try to enlighten their audiences about the power and pervasiveness of the spiritual world. I can still picture the claws descending from heaven on the cover of Peretti’s This Present Darkness that spooked me as a child.

 As I developed theologically, especially through the influence of Reformed thinkers, I began to set aside these influences, which now felt naïve. To focus on the demonic forces of the world seemed to leave people with magical worldviews, where they held very little power over their own actions, and diminished the importance of mortifying the flesh as disciples of Jesus.

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Could lust send me to hell?

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Could lust send me to hell?

Our culture toys with lust. We know the power of sexual desire so well that we use it to sell hamburgers, cars, and beer. I mean, seriously. Step back and consider how crazy that is. We take things that are already attractive and then add sex to them to sell them better! Burgers, sports cars, and beer! We crave these things on their own! And yet advertisers are still compelled to add an ingredient to make them even more desirous: sex. On the flip side, you never see sex requiring anything else to sell it. Your local strip club isn’t trying to lure people in with their mouthwatering hamburgers.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. They will never understand how much I love them: Jacob Crouch speaks to the heart of every parent. “God has now given me five children, and with each new birth, a strange thing happens.

  2. Jesus said more about hell than anyone in the Bible: Speaking of love, how do we square Jesus’ love with this hard truth?

  3. The list on the door: Andrea Sanborn asks us to consider eternity

  4. Which is the best position to sleep in?

  5. Nature inFocus photography festival winners: India’s annual photography festival has some amazing shots.

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Do You Have A Holy Saturday Faith?

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Do You Have A Holy Saturday Faith?

Six freshmen squeezed around a cafeteria table during orientation week, voices competing with the din in the room. We were all posturing in our own ways, trying to impress our peers. A moment of rare silence passed, and then she shared about her parent’s recent divorce. Her voice wavered, and her eyes welled with tears. It was a crack of vulnerability in a conversation marked by ego and self-protection.

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Why Would God Make People Suffer Forever?

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Why Would God Make People Suffer Forever?

What is hell? Throughout the years, many Christians have responded that hell can be summed up in three words: eternal conscious torment. But how could it possibly be fair for God to make people suffer eternally for a finite number of sins?

It’s a good question and a hard one at that. I’ve wrestled with the doctrine of hell for a number of years. While believing that hell exists, I’ve wondered if the classic historic teaching on hell might have misstated scripture’s teaching. While I’ve come to believe that hell is eternal conscious torment, I’m sympathetic to those who struggle with the doctrine and who see other possibilities.

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Why Does Jesus Talk About Hell?

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Why Does Jesus Talk About Hell?

What was Jesus’ personality like? If our culture were to create Jesus’ personae, it might look like Mr. Rogers’s personality: gentle, unassuming, two-dimensionally meek and mild. In short, a sweet pushover of a man. There is truth in our culture’s depicture. When sharing the nature of his heart, Jesus says that he is “gentle and lowly” (Mt 11:29) So he is. He is patient and merciful. He is kind and caring.

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