Recommendations, Christian Living, History
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. How do I help someone see their anger when they can’t see it themselves? Ed Welch answers, “It’s difficult for at least two reasons. One is that angry people tend not to see their anger as a problem, because anger tends to feel like a righteous reaction against some kind of injustice. Another is that angry people, they can combust in a moment.” 

  2. How were the biblical Psalms originally performed? Marek Dospel asks, “How much do we really know about how biblical psalms were originally performed? What might a psalm performance have looked like in the First Temple period, around 900 B.C.E.?” 

This Week's Recommendations
Christian Living, Church, Consumerism
John Beeson
Can't We Just Be the Church?

“Don’t go to church, be the church,” urged an influential Christian leader whom I respect.

I understand his call to action. If you must choose between attending a weekly service or demonstrating Christ through service, you might want to opt for the latter. It’s better to joyfully steward our God-given gifts rather than sliding in and out of the back row every Sunday. Caring for the orphan, widow, and the jobless outweighs downing an (admittedly delicious) New Life Bible Fellowship donut and coffee.

But God doesn’t ask us to choose between going or being! In fact, making a choice to be the church without going to church robs us of the power Christ has offered us as he calls us outward to serve.

Can't We Just Be the Church?
Family, Parenting
John Beeson
Who Wants to Play!?

“I’ll sleep when I die,” a type-A friend of ours joked. They laughed. I pondered.

The joke squirreled its way into my heart. I was 21 and already had tasted the first fruits of my labor. It was sweet. My hard work had earned me esteem from my college professors. Their glowing comments were my drug. Late nights in the library were my payment.

“Who wants to play?” was the refrain of my school-teacher dad when I was a kid. My sister and I leaped when my dad arrived home from work and joined us for a football game with our neighborhood friends.

Who Wants to Play!?
Recommendations, Christian Living, Parenting, Suffering
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. The better way of Christian parenting: Casey McCall argues that appeasement benefits neither the parent nor the child, “Rather than grant your child’s every desire, your job as a parent is to use your God-given authority to redirect those desires toward righteousness (love of God and neighbor) and to train your child to righteously handle the common human experience of coping with the disappointment of unfulfilled desires. In other words, the wise parent prepares the child for adulthood by training the child to be content in all circumstances.”

This Week's Recommendations
Church, Culture, Death, Fear, Politics, Theology, Wisdom
John Beeson
Why Didn't We Preach About Charlie Kirk's ...

Last week, on the eve of the anniversary of 9/11, Charlie Kirk was assassinated. The founder of Turning Point, USA, Kirk was an outspoken Christian conservative.

On Sunday, before our sermon, we prayed for our country in light of the assassination, the religiously motivated shooting in Minneapolis, the racially motivated murder in Charlotte, and the school shooting in Denver. We kept the rest of the service as planned. We preached on the planned text in 1 Corinthians 7 and shared the same announcements that had been planned.

On Sunday afternoon, I spent an hour and a half with a family member processing their upset that their church spent most of their Sunday service focused on Kirk’s murder.

Why Didn't We Preach About Charlie Kirk's Assassination?

Hajime Miura

, ,

This Week's Recommendations

, ,
This Week's Recommendations

  1. How do I help someone see their anger when they can’t see it themselves? Ed Welch answers, “It’s difficult for at least two reasons. One is that angry people tend not to see their anger as a problem, because anger tends to feel like a righteous reaction against some kind of injustice. Another is that angry people, they can combust in a moment.” 

  2. How were the biblical Psalms originally performed? Marek Dospel asks, “How much do we really know about how biblical psalms were originally performed? What might a psalm performance have looked like in the First Temple period, around 900 B.C.E.?” 

Sign up to get The Bee Hive delivered to your inbox and receive a free 50 Books That Changed My Life (and Might Change Yours, Too) download!