Recommendations, Consumerism, Family, Gratitude, Parenting, Spiritual Growth, Suffering, Wisdom, Worship
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. Suffer and do not sin: Andrea Mathews says, “Our suffering has stretched us. It has caused us to cling to Christ. It has brought us a deeper awareness of our dependency on God and dismantled the illusion of control we once thought we had over our lives. But suffering also has brought a particular array of temptations to sin, and I have often succumbed.

  2. How does wonder lead us to worship and wisdom? Eric Lynum says, “To wonder, in the biblical sense, is to think about God doing what only God can do. We sense the magnitude of his creativity as we stand beneath a canopy of trees,

This Week's Recommendations
Christian Living, Consumerism, Relationships, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Oatmeal Cookies Don't Make You Healthy

Trigger warning: I love oatmeal cookies. I don’t just put up with them. I like the average oatmeal cookie better than the average chocolate chip cookie.

If I haven’t lost you yet, I’ll admit that beyond loving the taste and texture of oatmeal cookies, I’ll confess there is also the ancillary benefit of feeling healthy when you eat oatmeal cookies. I mean, you’ve got your whole grains, your dried fruit, your nuts. They’re practically health food, right?

A quick search on the internet proves otherwise: one Costco oatmeal cookie clocks in at 230 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 20 grams of carbs.

Oatmeal Cookies Don't Make You Healthy
Faith, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
When God Shows Up and You Miss Him

It took me nine years after the terrible incident to recognize that God was present. At the time, the experience felt more like an attack from the enemy than a gift from God. But as I processed the event with others who had been there, a lightbulb went on. When I began to see the good fruit that had come from that nightmare, I recognized God at work in ways I had previously missed.

Have you ever missed God at work?

The disciples were certainly not immune to this. Jesus was ministering in Galilee when a great crowd followed him into a desolate place.

When God Shows Up and You Miss Him
Recommendations, Counseling, Family, Nature, Parenting, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

    1. How to have a soft heart: Katie Laitkep says, “When the season you expected to be brief stretches from months to years, layered with added pressures in other areas of your life, the weight of it all doesn’t just exhaust your body; it changes how you see the world. You grow more guarded. You lower your hopes, expecting disappointment and attempting to protect yourself from anyone or anything that could cause more pain, whether it’s people, circumstances, or God Himself.”

    2. What is wrong with the world? Paul David Tripp answers, “When we are looking for answers to the world’s problems, we can begin in an unlikely place: the doctrine of sin.

This Week's Recommendations
Christian Living, Faith, Spiritual Growth, Wisdom
John Beeson
The Spirit's Voice

“Pastor, I was really touched when you said…”

One of my favorite parts of pastoral ministry is hearing how Scripture, sermons, Bible studies, and blog posts are shaping the lives of people in the congregation.  

A common occurrence in these conversations is when someone tells me I said something in a sermon that I did not actually say. What happened? Usually, it’s not because the person was inattentive.

The Spirit's Voice

choice

, ,

Can We Choose Our Identity?

, ,
Can We Choose Our Identity?

I was fourteen years old, 5’9” and 130 pounds. My backpack hung loosely over my shoulders and butterflies filled my stomach. It was the first day of high school. I navigated the path from my fourth period class toward the cafeteria in a sea of three thousand mostly new faces. Who would I sit with? I saw the group of guys I had hung around with in middle school: jocks who had made those three years fairly miserable for me.

I scanned the grass and picked out the groups: band kids, several kids playing chess, kids playing pick-up basketball. I saw one gathering playing Dungeons and Dragons.

, ,

Tempted and Able

, ,
Tempted and Able

The first thing Lauren told me after I was baptized, besides, “I'm proud of you,” and, “I love you,” was, “Be prepared.” I thought that odd, considering.  At that time in my walk with Christ, I was no stranger to naïveté and had reassured myself in the quiet place that baptism would scare away all my demons, that I would be made whole by the water grave, never to fall from grace again.  On the contrary, my bride's words bore much truth.  I had not prepared myself in the least.  I did not understand the battle that was being waged over my flesh.

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!