Biblical Studies, Leadership, Worship
John Beeson
Worship and Victory

We’ve all had moments in our lives where it seemed like all hope was lost. I remember sitting at my desk in high school, staring at an AP Chemistry test that might as well have been written in Latin. I felt so doomed. My mind spun. I was going to fail this test. I was going to fail the class. Would I have to take summer school? Would I be able to get into my dream college?  I catastrophized one test, thinking it would determine the trajectory of my future years.

We’ve all experienced failure and hopelessness: the creeping dread of loss.

Worship and Victory
Recommendations, Consumerism, Culture, Hospitality, Leadership, Relationships
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. The quiet grief of adult friendship: Pranav Jain reflects, “Somewhere between “Let’s catch up soon” and “Sorry, life has been hectic”, adult friendship became one of the most emotionally significant and least discussed losses of modern life.

  2. Created to play: Brianna Lambert says, “Scientists admit that of all creatures, humans play the most, noting, “We are built to play and built through play” (Stuart Brown, Play). And God does just that. He builds us through our hobbies and gives us his own titles.”

This Week's Recommendations
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
, , , , ,

Don't "Give Yourself Grace"

, , , , ,
Don't "Give Yourself Grace"

My friend was lost. Over cups of coffee, he shared what had been bottled up inside of him for months. It was hard to figure out which came first, his depression or his spiritual spiral. Secret porn and drug addictions were now coupled with a full-blown affair, culminating with his wife demanding that he move out. He was confused and hurting, hard-hearted and spiritually blind. “My girlfriend tells me I just need to give myself grace,” he shared.

“Give yourself grace” has become a common refrain in our culture.

, , , , , , ,

This Week's Recommendations

, , , , , , ,
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.”

, , , ,

Pest Control and the Human Heart

, , , ,
Pest Control and the Human Heart

I never thought much about the pest control industry—until that Saturday. As we prayer-walked the neighborhood adjacent to our church, I found myself chuckling at how many residents apparently worked for pest control companies. I began noticing and counting the trucks parked in driveways: Truly Nolen, Northwest, Greenshield, Responsible, Action, Western, Aptive, SOS. Eight pest control companies represented in a single neighborhood.

There are more than 34,000 pest control businesses in the United States employing over 167,000 specialists. Together, they generate upwards of $22 billion in annual revenue, and the industry is projected to grow steadily at a 5.7% rate annually. 

, , , ,

The Ring of Fellowship

, , , ,
The Ring of Fellowship

JRR Tolkien had an elevated view of friendship. For years, he met with an informal group of literary friends called the Inklings at the Oxford pub, the Eagle and The Eagle and the Child (or, as the group called it, “The Bird and the Baby). Tolkien and CS Lewis were fast friends. Tolkien’s Ent Treebeard was fashioned after Lewis, and Lewis likely fashioned his protagonist Ransom in his Space Trilogy on Tolkien.

Both were shaped by The Great War, their love of languages and myths, and by their devotion to Christ. Tolkien, in fact, was crucial in Lewis’s conversion.

, , , ,

This Week's Recommendations

, , , ,
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).”

, , , , ,

AI Isn't Your Mentor

, , , , ,
AI Isn't Your Mentor

…

more and more people have begun turning to AI as a stand in for God when they want comfort, guidance, or even something that feels like prayer.

But let me say this gently and clearly: please don’t pray to AI. Claude is not God, and it cannot take his place.  No matter how advanced it seems, the ‘A’ in AI still stands for “artificial.”

For many, AI has become a conversation partner. It is reported that 75% of teens  use AI companions, and for some, those AI companions are beginning to function like mentors

, , , ,

This Week's Recommendations

, , , ,
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.”

,

The Wrath of God Was Satisfied

,
The Wrath of God Was Satisfied

“I believe in God, but I just don’t know if I can trust the God of the Bible. How can a good God have Israel wipe out the Canaanites? Or send people to hell?” I was speaking with an acquaintance at the gym when he asked me a question that many people quietly carry: how can a good God also be a God of wrath?

There are many thoughtful defenses to explain how a benevolent God rightly administers divine judgment. Writers like Paul Copan (Is God a Moral Monster: Making Sense of the Old Testament God) help us answer the Canaanite question reminding us that God gave the Canaanites

, , , ,

Friendship, Courage, and the Making of a Hero: Reflections on Project Hail Mary

, , , ,
Friendship, Courage, and the Making of a Hero: Reflections on Project Hail Mary

Every once in a while, a movie surprises you: not just with spectacle or clever twists, but with heart. Project Hail Mary did that for me. Adapted from Andy Weir’s highly acclaimed novel, Project Hail Mary is one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve seen in a long time: funny, imaginative, and genuinely moving. What lingered with me most after the credits rolled wasn’t the wow factor of the production (although all $248 million of its production costs make the movie visually stunning). It was the friendship.

That might sound strange for a movie about saving the world from an extinction-level threat.

, , , , , , ,

This Week's Recommendations

, , , , , , ,
This Week's Recommendations

  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,

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!