Christian Living, Biblical Studies, Religion, Spiritual Growth, Theology
John Beeson
The Faith of Unbelief

Bart Ehrman has perhaps done more to undermine the credibility of the Bible than anyone else in my lifetime. But his story didn’t begin that way. Ehrman is a New Testament scholar and skeptic. Ehrman grew up in a Christian home, attended a conservative Bible school, and then found his way to a liberal seminary where his faith in the God of the Bible unraveled. That seminary happens to be the seminary I would attend a couple of decades later.

For Ehrman, everywhere he looks he sees holes in the biblical story. The inconsistencies that he sees have led him to determine that he cannot trust in the God of the Bible.

The Faith of Unbelief
Christian Living, Culture, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Don't Numb Your Feelings

“Don’t listen to your feelings; remember what Jesus did for you!”

“Don’t be guided by your feelings; listen to what God commands you to do!”

In just the past week, I heard both of these warnings. Two very different Christian speakers urged their audiences to shut down their feelings. These admonitions resonate. They contain truth. It is correct that our feelings don’t override truth, nor do our emotions negate what God has done. Neither do our feelings give us an out for what God commands us to do.

Don't Numb Your Feelings
History, Spiritual Growth, Suffering, Wisdom
John Beeson
Lord, Reach Your Justice Down

I had outsized emotions as a child. Games, especially, would get the best of me, whether cards or boardgames or sports. In response to a stroke of bad luck, a hot surge of anger would erupt, followed quickly by tears and then embarrassment.

Emotions are God’s gift to us in many ways. They are one of his kind ways of showing us where our deep attachments lie.

Our son started his freshman year at the University of Arizona this fall. It’s been a great experience for him, but not without its adjustments. The climate of a secular school is quite different than the Christian school he graduated from

Lord, Reach Your Justice Down
Culture, Generosity, Nature, Relationships
John Beeson
Marshmallows and Friends

Most have heard of the famous Stanford marshmallow experiment. In 1970, psychologist Walter Mischel invited kids into his lab. A child was offered a marshmallow that they could eat, or, if they waited until the researcher returned, they were given a second marshmallow. About one-third of the kids waited approximately fifteen minutes for the additional reward.

The study then tracked those children over time and found that children who waited for the second reward tended to have higher SAT scores and lower body mass indexes. Later tests have challenged those outcomes, but it hasn’t stopped parents everywhere from running the experiment on their kids, often with humorous results.

Marshmallows and Friends
Christian Living, Culture, Politics
John Beeson
Uprooting Our Political Identity

Happy election day!

In 2016, data scientists Eitan Hersh and Yair Ghitza analyzed data among registered voters to determine how often Democrats and Republicans married. They learned that 9% of marriages had the spouses registered in the two parties. Over the next four years that meager number would drop precipitously, down to 4%.

 As Jonathan Haidt and others have successfully argued, the ideological disparity between FOX News and CNBC are child’s play compared to the engineered social media algorithms that create hermetically sealed echo chambers for our political views.

Uprooting Our Political Identity

Brad Hambrick

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Monk or missionary? These are the only options now. Ian Harbor explains how our relationship toward social media boils down to one of these two radical options. He explains, “If you are not in control of your social media, social media will be in control of you. And your life will be worse off for it. Why would you subject yourself to a worse life, poor mental health, weak relationships, and a number of other damaging factors just to watch a few mildly funny videos? Count the cost.”

  2. The hardest part of overcoming addiction: Brad Hambrick’s post is as simple as it is important. So, before you click: what do you think the hardest part is?

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I Hope your Advent is In Tents

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I Hope your Advent is In Tents

Our girl arrived home for Christmas last night. Everything feels better when we are all together. Camille headed off to college in Southern California this fall, and we have felt her absence. We missed her laugh, her hugs, and her quiet presence in the house, crafting on a quiet Sunday afternoon. But now she’s home! My heart swells to be able to squeeze her, to wake her up with a kiss on the forehead, to listen to her laugh at my dad jokes. Even in an era where we have technology like Facetime, there is nothing like being face-to-face. I feel joy to worship with her this Christmas Eve and look forward to having our family whole, enjoying cinnamon rolls and coffee in our pajamas on Christmas day, unwrapping one another’s gifts, and squeezing each other in thanks.

God concurs.

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What I Read in 2022 (and perhaps some books you might want to read in 2023)

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What I Read in 2022 (and perhaps some books you might want to read in 2023)

How much would you pay to meet your favorite celebrity? $100? $1,000?? $10,000??? The number isn’t insignificant, is it? Listening to the stories and wisdom from those we trust is worth quite a bit, isn’t it?

This year Angel and I worked hard to bring our first co-written book entitled Substitute Identities to publication. Right now it is in the hands of our publisher’s copy editor, and we can’t wait to share it with you. The process of pouring our hearts into this book makes me reflect on just what gifts books are. While we might be willing to pay exorbitant sums to sit at the feet of the world’s best thinkers, it only takes $10-$20 to listen to these spinners of tales. Isn’t that amazing?

So, however many books you read in 2022, maybe you might be blessed to read a few more in 2023, and perhaps some of my favorites might point you to a few gems.

In 2022 so far, I’ve read 110 books and hope to read a handful more before the year closes. I’ve been blessed to read a wide variety of good books this year. I’ll begin with my four favorite books of 2022, followed by the entire list of books I read. I hope you find some gems for you in this.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. Money is Not the Problem: Paul Tripp with some important but hard truth about our relationship with money, "Money sanity does not begin with a budget but with humble, honest, and heart-level confession that is without excuse or shifting the blame. Where, when it comes to your money, is God calling you to honest confession of heart and hands?"

2. Pastors Identify What Idols Their Congregations Struggle With: Marissa Postell shares recent research in which "[M]ore than half of U.S. Protestant pastors believe comfort (67%), control or security (56%), money (55%) and approval (51%) are idols that have significant influence on their congregations." Parenthetically, perhaps most alarming to me was that the numbers were as low as they were… and that 14% of pastors said their congregations don't struggle with any (!) of these idols.

3. Five Questions I Wish My Accountability Partner Would Ask Me: This is surprisingly good, and I encourage you to incorporate it with your close friends. Brad Hambrick begins by explaining that he doesn't like the term "accountability partner." He says, "Can I contradict the title of this post in the first sentence? I don't like the word "accountability partner" any more than I like the word "diet," and I dislike them both for the same reason. They sound like an exception and a punishment rather than a lifestyle and a gift."

4. Ashamed Sinner, Unashamed Savior: Erik Raymond encourages us, "When you're in the midst of guilt and shame—which we should rightly feel in the midst of sin—we have to take all that he has done and his promises to God and see that he's actually not ashamed of us. It's not that he excuses sin, but he welcomes sinners."

5. Terrestrials: The Mastermind: This NPR podcast examining the intelligence of octopi is aimed at kids, but I had so much fun listening to it, and I bet you will also.

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Need a Book for the Pool?

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Need a Book for the Pool?

Summer is here! Looking for some good books to dive into this summer? Here are some of my favorite books I’ve read over the first half of this year that I think you’ll love.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Gentleness is a Christian Virtue: Craig Thompson reflects, “My greatest concern is not that our culture is angry. My greatest concern is that this sense of meanness has even invaded many corners of the church.”

  2. Deteriorating Mental Health and Elijah: Eric Geiger begins, “I asked our church recently how many have struggled with anxiety or depression in the last year and hands shot up throughout our gathering space. No one was surprised, of course, because we have seen reports and news stories about mental health deteriorating in our society…Poets, presidents, preachers, and prophets too. In the Scripture, in I Kings 19, we find Elijah under a broom tree, believing that his ministry is over and his life is not worth living.”

  3. Do You Ever Feel Rushed in Forgiveness: Brad Hambrick’s article is excellent. He asks, “[W]hat part of forgiveness is beautiful? The answer is, the last part. The early and middle parts of forgiveness are heinous.”

  4. Reign With Christ, Hold the Suffering: There is good news and bad news, “There is no reigning with Christ without suffering marking the life of a believer. It is not possible to order off the Christians menu, requesting to “hold the suffering”.”

  5. Reviewing Kids’ Movies: This made me smile.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. Can We Do Better Than the Enneagram? Psychologist Sarah Schnitker believes we can. She says, “At present, there is scant empirical evidence that the Enneagram accurately describes human personality or spirituality. The nine types do not align with any scientifically evaluated models of personality.”

2. The Dangerous Love of Ease: Greg Morse warns us, “We might assume that there is no danger in a world that feels so safe. If no one is violently banging at the door, we assume we don’t need the same strength as poor or persecuted Christians. We do. We too need Christ’s strength in the prosperity we face.”

3. Anger with God Amidst Great Pain: Brad Hambrick considers how to walk with someone who is angry with God. “As a theologian, our first question might be, “Is it right for our friend to be angry at God?” As a counselor, our first question would be better stated, “Do you mind telling me about the things that have been hard and the ways you see God being involved with your pain?” That doesn’t mean there is a contradiction between being a theologian and being a counselor. It does mean that the order in which topics enter the conversation is likely to be different.”

4. You Weren’t Meant to Be Isolated: Michael Kelley reflects, “COVID has robbed us of many things, but it also presents us as church leaders with this opportunity—to help people embrace the nature of the true community of the faith.”

5. YouTube Wins 2020 Teacher of the Year Award: From Babylon Bee (with a wink, of course), “"Where some teachers' unions have failed our students, YouTube has been there 24/7," said the event's emcee. ‘YouTube has done a better job than almost any schoolteacher in 2020, instructing kids in any practical topic they wish to know about. YouTube never gets tired or cranky or hungry, and if you don't like the worldview of a particular video, you can just turn it off instead of being brainwashed.’”

6. How Amazon’s Super-Complex Shipping System Works: Holy moly. Crazy stuff. The logistics involved are mind-boggling.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.      Good Grace from God with Us: Gretchen Ronnevik on parenting, true and cheap grace: “I don’t need cheap, well-intentioned grace. I need the resurrection-power grace. I need the grace that never asks me to pretend I’m fine when I’m not. I need the grace that’s there when I have nothing left to give.”

2.      Top 10 Discoveries in Biblical Archaeology in 2018: Gordon Govier reports on some fascinating discoveries including the possible signature of Isaiah the prophet and the seal ring of Pontius Pilate.

3.      Christianity Today's 2018 Books of the Year: Solid list. A number on here I want to read including Russell Moore's A Storm Tossed Family, Rosaria Butterfield's The Gospel Comes with a House Key, and, two from friends of mine: Amy Julia Becker, and Matthew Kaemingk.

4.      2018: A Christian Music Review: I appreciate Jeremy Howard’s year-end reviews. I actually disagree quite a bit with Howard, but he always introduces me to new music and has a high regard for strong theology in Christian music, which I appreciate.

5.      The Dark Before the Dawn: I love Andrew Peterson's music that is so rich lyrically. If you haven't listened to him before, this is a great place to start. 

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