September 24, 2026

Recommendations, Culture, Biblical Studies, Nature, Prayer, Science

John Beeson

This Week's Recommendations

Three things stress reveals: Michael Kelley says, “And maybe you, too, know what that bursting feels like – it’s when something small that ordinarily shouldn’t have bothered you as much as it did just sets you off. And you find yourself overreacting to that single incident because of the accumulated pressure from the other circumstances.”
Seraphim may be flying serpentine creatures: Wyatt Graham challenges how we envision these angelic beings, “The word saraph occurs only seven times in the Hebrew Bible. Its verbal form means “to burn,”

September 22, 2026

Christian Living, Culture, Identity

John Beeson

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.

September 19, 2026

Biblical Studies, Christian Living, Culture, Faith, Fear, Hell

John Beeson

The Mark of the Beast and The Mark of God

We are all familiar with the mark of the beast. Fear and confusion surrounding it seem to swirl around it. As a child, I remember hearing a preacher declare that the birthmark on Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s head was the mark of the beast. We were warned that Visa cards or barcodes might be the mark. Today, rumors abound that the mark is a QR code, a vaccine, or something connected to artificial intelligence.

Such speculation dramatically misunderstands John’s explanation of the mark of the beast in the book of Revelation.

The Mark of the Beast and The Mark of God

September 17, 2026

Recommendations, Biblical Studies, Gratitude, Wisdom

John Beeson

This Week's Recommendations

The exhausting work of being your own foundation: Christopher Cook says, “And as much as I wish it were different, the Word of the Lord from Isaiah does not promise the storm will lift on your timeline; it promises a foundation that will not move while the storm within (and without) rages. The counterfeit tells you to become stable enough to stop being afraid.”
Our motive for obeying God shouldn’t be gratitude: John Piper says, “There is an impulse in the fallen human heart—all our hearts—to forget that gratitude is a spontaneous response of joy to receiving something over and above what we paid for.

September 15, 2026

Counseling, Identity, Relationships

John Beeson

How To Waste Your Counseling

Our counselor sat behind his oak desk, a wide smile peeking out from under his white mustache. “Where do I know him from?” I asked myself. His gentle eyes reassured me. Angel and I slid into the love seat facing him. It was my first counseling session. Angel’s, too. We were here for pre-marital counseling.

My anxiety grew as I placed where I knew him from. I had taken his daughter to winter formal a few years back. My heart rate rose a bit. Any chance of genuine transparency went out the window with that connection.

sensory cortex

John Beeson

September 24, 2026

Recommendations, Culture, Biblical Studies, Nature, Prayer, Science

This Week's Recommendations

John Beeson

September 24, 2026

Recommendations, Culture, Biblical Studies, Nature, Prayer, Science

Three things stress reveals: Michael Kelley says, “And maybe you, too, know what that bursting feels like – it’s when something small that ordinarily shouldn’t have bothered you as much as it did just sets you off. And you find yourself overreacting to that single incident because of the accumulated pressure from the other circumstances.”
Seraphim may be flying serpentine creatures: Wyatt Graham challenges how we envision these angelic beings, “The word saraph occurs only seven times in the Hebrew Bible. Its verbal form means “to burn,”