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
Recommendations
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. Do Americans think spiritual revival is coming? Barna’s report says yes: especially among young people. “Nearly 3 in 10 U.S. adults (29%) say a spiritual revival could be coming, with Gen Z the most likely of any generation to anticipate such a movement (38%).”

  2. Am I defined by who I am or what I do? Justin Poythress says, “Is your identity a deep and settled persona? Or is it what you do—the sum of your choices which you can always redirect? It’s both. The errors of these two identity convictions are self-determination and fatalism. Neither is true because internal and external identities interconnect.”

This Week's Recommendations
Church, Culture, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Diversity, Pentecost, and God’s Glory

There is a temptation for Christians to reject what the world values. Understandably, we would be suspicious of those things which secularism honors. But sometimes there is a baby in the bathwater.

There are few things more sacred in the modern West than diversity. But this is a baby worth preserving. Diversity was God’s before it was the world’s.

Let’s consider God’s glorious plan for diversity.

Ethnic diversity enters the biblical picture in a strange fashion, with the odd story of the Tower of Babel. As the descendants of Noah multiply, they form plans to protect their legacy.

Diversity, Pentecost, and God’s Glory
Book Reviews, Culture, Identity
John Beeson
Who Am I? Contrasting the Modern and Biblical ...

Our culture is certain that its worldview bestows ultimate dignity upon the individual. After all, what could grant more dignity than one choosing one’s own identity? What more could we ask for than to declare who we are and be affirmed for that choice?

Meanwhile, our culture would have us believe that what the Bible says about who we are ought to cause us to blush.

But we need to shrink back. The Bible’s explanation of who we are grants us far more dignity than the autonomous vision of the West.

Who Am I? Contrasting the Modern and Biblical Visions of the Self

Recommendatioins

This Week's Recommendations

This Week's Recommendations

  1. Do Americans think spiritual revival is coming? Barna’s report says yes: especially among young people. “Nearly 3 in 10 U.S. adults (29%) say a spiritual revival could be coming, with Gen Z the most likely of any generation to anticipate such a movement (38%).”

  2. Am I defined by who I am or what I do? Justin Poythress says, “Is your identity a deep and settled persona? Or is it what you do—the sum of your choices which you can always redirect? It’s both. The errors of these two identity convictions are self-determination and fatalism. Neither is true because internal and external identities interconnect.”

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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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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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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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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Is your fatherhood like a Rubik’s Cube? This equally pertains to moms, “I call this The Rubik’s Cube Effect. One side starts to come together, but in the very act of bringing order there, something else is thrown out of place.”

  2. The paradox of the brightening path: Trevin Wax begins, “There’s a paradox you’ll encounter the longer you walk with Jesus. The more you experience the light of his love, the more clearly you see the remaining spots and stains in your life. Progress seems lacking. Stumbles continue to mark your journey. The more you know the Lord’s love for you, the more you feel your unworthiness and your dependence on his grace.”

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. The case against social media: Jon Haidt and Zack Rausch say, “Across surveys in multiple countries, many young people report that social media has harmed them directly and indirectly. They describe widespread experiences of cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, sleep disruption, lower confidence, and worse mental health. They also express strikingly high levels of regret toward the major platforms they have used for years. In a Harris Poll survey of members of Gen Z, nearly half reported that they wish that TikTok, X (Twitter), and Snapchat were never invented — despite using those platforms for several hours a day.”

  2. Six selfish reasons to have kids: Kevin Kelly says, “Now after only two generations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. The birds and the bees, baby and me: Karen Swallow Prior says, “Childlessness can be a calling in the same way that being a parent is a calling, or as marriage or celibacy can be callings. Not to be called to something is inherently to be called to something else, even if that something else is elusive for a while.”

  2. Sabbath is more than self-care: Megan Hill says, “The Sabbath unplugs us from our daily work. But simply unplugging is only half the story. On the Sabbath, the Lord frees us from work and frees us unto worship.”

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Happy wife, happy life? Cindy Pickett takes on a popular adage, “On the surface, this common saying sounds harmless—perhaps endearing. But dig a little deeper, and the message is clear: A husband’s job is to keep his wife happy to avoid trouble. Is this what Adam thought when he stood by and let Eve take the fall?”

  2. How do you counsel someone who feels stuck in sin? Pat Quinn says, “A basic principle of biblical counseling is that gospel indicatives (statements of what God has done through Christ to save sinners by grace) motivate and empower gospel imperatives (commands to respond obediently to gospel grace).”

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Hell to pay: what truly happened to Jesus on the cross? Nick Batzig says, “If Jesus wasn’t truly forsaken—if he didn’t really endure the equivalent of eternal punishment on the cross—then substitutionary atonement is a legal fiction.”

  2. Before the snow returns: Andrea Sanborn with a brief reflection on “false spring” and the resurrection. She says, “This is the tug-of-war between the new life and the old, the cold bite of disappointment wrestling with the hope of better. Of more. Of failure and forgiveness, of discouragement and hope, of worry and contentment.”

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  1. What comes after expressive individualism? Trevin Wax says, “More and more people are shaping their sense of self through powerful group affiliations rather than as independent individuals. This isn’t a rejection of expressive individualism so much as its evolution…

  2. The surprising importance of shallow Christian friendships: Danny D’Aquisto with a helpful contrarian perspective,

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