Recommendations, Marriage, Prayer, Vocation
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. What it means that Christ is praying for you today: Dave Harvey says, “Now, because of our Advocate, we receive what Christ deserved: a full hearing before our loving Father. We are not beggars hoping heaven might notice us. We are beloved children invited to make our requests known to God (Phil. 4:6). Christ was forsaken so we could be heard. His advocacy means our prayers reach the throne.”

  2. One at a time: Andrea Sanborn wants us to consider something about how Jesus performed his miracles, “Most of his healing miracles were simply performed for one person.

This Week's Recommendations
Church, Prayer
John Beeson
Quietly Fighting the Most Important Battle

Christians know that the realities of this world are beyond what we see. Paul reminds us that, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 4:12).

But what do we do with such knowledge of an invisible war being waged?

May I suggest one very simple way to participate in this war? Join your pre-service prayer team.

Every Sunday at New Life at both campuses, we gather at 7:30 to spend time in prayer for the day ahead.

Quietly Fighting the Most Important Battle
Recommendations, Spiritual Growth, Christian Living
John Beeson
The Bee Hive In Video

Greetings, faithful readers!

Do you know that we publish The Bee Hive in video and podcast form? Check out The Bee Hive’s playlist on New Life Bible Fellowship’s YouTube page or search for New Life Bible Fellowship on whatever podcast platform you use.

Here are a few samples of the videos on YouTube. Enjoy!

The threat of passivity
 The croucher
Why we don’t trust pastors

The Bee Hive In Video
Recommendations, Christian Living, Faith, Fear
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. Let me dwell in your tent forever: Wes Bredenhof explains how to understand David’s cry  in Psalm 61:4, “Let me dwell in your tent forever!” “Now here’s an important detail about the tabernacle:  no one was allowed to dwell in it.  It was God’s dwelling and God alone.  By God’s command, the High Priest came into the Most Holy Place once per year.”

  2. The body keeps score. But the mind and heart do too: Beth Claes says, “Being a Christian doesn’t prevent trauma or eliminate body-mind responses to it. But recognizing that God created us with an interconnected body, mind, and heart informs how we understand trauma

This Week's Recommendations
Church, Leadership, Religion, Spiritual Growth, Wisdom
John Beeson
Strange Questions for Your Future Pastor

So, you’re looking for a church.  

I hope you’ve prayerfully considered why you’ve left your former church (I’ve written about the ten reasons to leave a church here). You’ve already watched a service online, read the church’s doctrinal statement, and visited the church. What comes next?

You will, of course, want to understand the church’s doctrine and affiliation. If you have kids, you will definitely ask, “Are the children’s and students’ ministries biblically grounded, safe, and engaging?” You might want to know about their outreach strategy.

What if I told you that while these issues are important, there might be a different set of questions

Strange Questions for Your Future Pastor

prayer

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. What it means that Christ is praying for you today: Dave Harvey says, “Now, because of our Advocate, we receive what Christ deserved: a full hearing before our loving Father. We are not beggars hoping heaven might notice us. We are beloved children invited to make our requests known to God (Phil. 4:6). Christ was forsaken so we could be heard. His advocacy means our prayers reach the throne.”

  2. One at a time: Andrea Sanborn wants us to consider something about how Jesus performed his miracles, “Most of his healing miracles were simply performed for one person.

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How To Spiritually Lead Your Family

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How To Spiritually Lead Your Family

‍Our kids are 22 and 20. Our daughter, Camille, just graduated from college, and our son, Soren, is engaged and preparing for his wedding in December. This has been a season of reflection for Angel and I as parents.

I have experienced ebbs and flows of successes and failures as the spiritual leader of our family. By God’s grace, our kids are faithfully following Christ and vibrantly living out spiritual lives. Angel and I give God all the credit and glory for the ways in which we have been able to encourage Camille and Soren’s spiritual development;

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Soul is making a comeback: Wyatt Graham begins, “Everything seems to suppress soul. We live to catalyze efficient products. Our labour is counted, quantified, and measured. Human resource departments view us as human resources. They measure our performance by mechanical standards, and our salary relies on whether or not we have added value to a corporation. Work commodifies humans as resources; it is why HR departments exist. You are coal to be mined.”

  2. Gen Z women struggle to find their way in Christian faith and community: A recent Barna study reports, “Currently, young adult women report the lowest rates of Bible reading, prayer and church attendance among their peers.”

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A Prayer for the Loud Lord

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A Prayer for the Loud Lord

Today I have the opportunity to share another one of my daughter, Camille’s poems. She wrote this poem during her time serving at the Grand Canyon this past summer. –John

a prayer for the Loud Lord

 

You are loud here. winds wind through royal blue stone, drowning my breath.

so small. so fleeting. so futile. but the vapor of a whisper.

i don’t need to go anywhere to find you. You are here. 

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Is Jesus the Chaplain of Your Status Quo?

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Is Jesus the Chaplain of Your Status Quo?

When was the last time you prayed for a miracle?

Do you ever find yourself struggling to pray boldly in your prayers? I do.

Recently the New Life elders had the blessing of praying for a man with multiple sclerosis. I found myself battling over how assertive my prayers for healing ought to be. Should I be praying more for physical healing, or more for strength and faith as he battles the autoimmune disease?

We hold both of these impulses in prayer. To only pray for the miraculous and neglect the formative aspects of suffering is to fall into the lie of the prosperity gospel…

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Have You Given Me the Fountain, but Deny Me the Stream?

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Have You Given Me the Fountain, but Deny Me the Stream?

My co-lead pastor, Greg Lavine, and I lead discipleship groups that run concurrently through the school year. We take a group of men or women through a year of study that includes theological and spiritual formation. Currently we are in a stretch focused on the practice of prayer. In one of the weeks we use two books of compiled Puritan prayers: Valley of Vision and Piercing Heaven. The idea of utilizing Puritan prayers might sound as exciting as watching someone else fill out their tax returns, but I have found these books vibrant guides.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. Don’t scratch the itch: Brittany Allen begins, “I have a weird problem. When I get in the shower, my legs inevitably begin to itch like crazy. I cannot for the life of me find the self-control it takes to not scratch. I have a condition called dermatographism that causes my body to react to scratching with hives. By the time I step out of the steaming hot water, my thighs are covered with wheals. I scratched the itch and the itch only intensified.”

2. Should Christians plead the blood of Jesus? Wanjiru Ng’Ang’A explains the history of this prayer and then offers a warning,

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What if Paul Could Coach You on Your Prayer Life?

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What if Paul Could Coach You on Your Prayer Life?

Most people pray. Many of those don’t even consider themselves Christians. In a recent survey, 61% of Americans said they pray.

If your prayers were recorded and played back to you, what would they sound like? How do you refer to God when you pray? Do you have ruts in your prayer life? What do you pray for most? 76% of Americans said their prayers focus on loved ones in crisis. What don’t you pray for?

What if I were to tell you that you could be coached in prayer by the Apostle Paul. If you’re like me, you’d pay a pretty penny to go to that seminar!

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You and the Universal Church

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You and the Universal Church

Healthy Christians know that the Church is bigger than their church. We call this the universal church, the collective body of all followers of Jesus worldwide and across history. This spiritual entity is invisible, transcending denominations.

Unhealthy churches and denominations communicate directly and indirectly that they are the only true church. Unsound churches make the opposite error: not drawing any boundaries for who is outside of the orthodox church.

But what does this mean for the ordinary Christian? For many Christians, it doesn’t mean much at all. Their only meaningful connection to the church is with their church.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. What ‘gentle parenting’ misunderstands about human nature: Michael Reneau and Megan Dent explain, “A core feature of Jesus’ gentleness to sinners was his understanding that they were trapped in a world in which the sinful parts of their nature were likely to be tempted and exploited, again and again. In this sense, sinners were indeed victims. But Jesus suggests that their problem was not that other human beings weren’t catering to their every emotional need (and in the process, eliding their own), but rather that they had become lost in a longing that Augustine called concupiscence: an immense desire, or ardent longing for fulfilment that often leads one astray, toward hubris, power, violence, lust, or material greed.”

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