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
Recommendations, Culture, Gratitude
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. Two ways to worry about AI: Alan Noble begins, “If you’ve followed some of the news in AI recently, you might be feeling scared. Concerning stories have been coming from two leading AI companies this summer.”

  2. What gratitude was never meant to do: Tracy Harper says, “We run into problems with gratitude, though, when we use it as a countermeasure to avoid the thoughts and emotions that disappointment brings to the surface. God was prompting me to sit with the deeper question of why this mattered so much to me, and I couldn’t use my list of blessings to avoid going there with him.”

This Week's Recommendations
Christian Living, Consumerism, Culture, Generosity
John Beeson
How Can I Excuse Myself

You’re running a day care center that closes at 5pm. You notice a handful of parents pick up their children late. Every time a parent arrives late it impacts you: you must stay late—family dinners and events are lost. What do you do? Realizing that your honor system isn’t cutting it, you start charging a fine for arriving late.   

And then the unexpected happens: the number of late-arriving parents doubles.

This experiment was run by economists trying to help an Israeli daycare. The results confounded the researchers.

How Can I Excuse Myself

Spiritual Growth

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When God Shows Up and You Miss Him

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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.

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This Week's Recommendations

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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.

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The Spirit's Voice

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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.

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Can Discovering Ourselves Help Us Discover God?

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Can Discovering Ourselves Help Us Discover God?

There is no topic we love discussing more than ourselves. The self-discovery industry has never had more pull than it does in the contemporary West. In the immortalized words of the country singer Toby Keith, “I wanna talk about me, wanna talk about I, wanna talk about number one, oh my me my. What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see.” We laugh because it’s true and we laugh because it reveals our narcissism.

Christians might be tempted to push back on all of the obsession of self-discovery and reject it as narcissistic and ungodly. John Calvin

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Why Do I Have to Keep Forgiving?

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Why Do I Have to Keep Forgiving?

“Why do I have to keep forgiving them?” It’s a question I’ve heard many times as a pastor, said in different ways and sometimes meaning different things.

It can be said with weariness and hurt, or anger and bitterness, or confusion and longing.

It can mean, “It hurts too much to keep forgiving them for repeated sins.”

It can mean, “Can’t I just overlook their sin against me?”

It can mean, “They hurt me so deeply they don’t deserve any more forgiveness.”

It can mean, “Why am I still hurting over a particular sin when I said I forgave them?”

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The Cost of Awkward

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The Cost of Awkward

The next day, the extended family hosted a party for us. As we drove up to the farm, the pressure of meeting a whole group of strangers began to mount. I felt like the boyfriend from the city visiting his girlfriend’s family farm in a Hallmark movie. To quote Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell), I was “shaking in my custom baby-seal leather boots.”

The men headed outside to lawn chairs while the women stayed inside. I drifted outside with a group of men I had never met and sat down. I had a beer in my left hand like the rest of the guys, but unlike everyone else…

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The Bee Hive In Video

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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

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Strange Questions for Your Future Pastor

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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

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Destructive Play

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Destructive Play

Any parent knows that before a child learns to build, he learns to tear down. Our children are two years apart. I still remember our eldest, Camille, running into our room with tears when she was four years old. Her little brother, Soren, had just knocked down her latest block creation.

Psychologists describe this stage as destructive play. Before toddlers can construct something with intention, they are learning cause and effect, physics, spatial reasoning, and fine motor control. Every parent remembers the stage when their toddler begins throwing the spoon, fork, or bowl onto the floor, watching with fascination as gravity does its work.

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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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