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

Job

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Does Bach’s music prove the existence of God? Trevin Wax thinks so, “The inconsolable longing we feel when we encounter true beauty, when the soaring symphony swells toward a melody’s resolution, is the window to another world, whispering to us, singing to us, ‘There is something more.’”

  2. Lessons from a Job season: Travis reflects, “Whether you have suffered more, suffered less, or your suffering is still to come, none of us lives a life free from the difficulties that are part of a world marred by sin and curse. Sometimes the troubles seem unexplainable, uncontrollable, and unending. Like Job, we may relentlessly call out to God, and, like Job, we may not receive quick relief or quick answers.”

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. What to Say to Someone Suffering Like Job: Eric Ortlund encourages us, “First, remember that your friend might be so shell-shocked in the early days of his ordeal that he can barely hear you. Lecture him, and all he’ll give you is a glassy stare. Remember as well that he is probably receiving “help” from other Christians that is distinctly unhelpful. If your friend does not respond as well as you would like, or does not respond at all, it may be because he is simply unable to.”

  2. Hearts Painted by the Word Again and Again: Courtney Yantes compares reading the Bible to painting the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s a helpful analogy. She begins, “The job of painting the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is never-ending. I heard once that they paint it end-to-end, but by the time they get to the end—however many years that may take—it is time to start over. In reality, though, sections and portions of the bridge are prioritized according to need. Regardless of strategy, the bridge is never not being painted. It is one of the primary maintenance jobs.”

  3. 11 Doctrines Pastors Can’t Assume Church Attenders Understand: Based on recent surveys, Marissa Postell urges pastors not to presume that those they are speaking to understand the basics of Christian faith. For instance, “53% of Americans say Jesus was a great teacher but not God. While fewer evangelicals say the same, many still believe Jesus is not God. Only 54% of evangelicals disagree with the statement: ‘Jesus was a great teacher, but He was not God.’”

  4. 5 Myths about How We Got the Bible: Peter Gurry and John Meade take on popular disinformation about the formation of the canon, for instance that a council chose the books in the New Testament, “ There was no vote on the canon at Nicaea, and Constantine never decreed what books belonged in the Bible.”

  5. Your Tears Have Good Company: Chris Thomas answers the question “Why would Jesus weep?” this way, “Because he knows your pain. He understands your sorrow. He shares in your loss. He is familiar with separation.”

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The Worst Hall of Fame Ever

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The Worst Hall of Fame Ever

Hardcore fans of sports and music argue about whether or not individuals deserve to be in the Hall of Fame or not. Baseball fans will throw down over whether or not Pete Rose and Barry Bonds ought to be in the Hall of Fame. Some Rock and Roll fans are outraged that Stevie Nicks and Percy Sledge are in the Hall of Fame while Tina Turner and Lionel Ritchie are not. Football fans clash over whether Ray Lewis and OJ Simpson ought to be in the Hall of Fame and whether it’s fair Reggie Wayne and Roger Craig aren’t.

You might know that the Bible has a Hall of Fame as well. Tucked away at the end of Hebrews, it contains a list far more controversial than any list in Canton, Cleveland, or Cooperstown.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. Why Was Jesus Crucified? Have you ever wondered why God ordained that Jesus would die by means of crucifixion? Here is a thoughtful answer by JA Medders. His four answers are that it was because of the shame of crucifixion, because of the criminal and legal ramifications, because of the public nature of crucifixion and because deaths were certified by Rome in crucifixion. It’s well worth the read.

2. Scholars Now Believe Job’s Friends Were First-Year Seminary Students: This satirical piece from Babylon Bee had me laughing out loud. “Scholars analyzed the level of annoyingness of the speech patterns of Job's friends and compared it with someone who just started studying the Bible, theology, Greek, and Hebrew.”

3. Faithful in Obscurity: Barbara Lee Harper asks us to identify who Bartholomew, James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot were (do you know?). She then makes this admonition, “Don’t fret over whether your work seems “important.” Faithfully do what God has called you to do, for His honor and glory.”

4. Cohabitation Among Evangelicals: A New Norm? A discouraging report by David Ayers at the Institute for Family Studies. He says that, “cohabitation is a “new norm among young, professing evangelicals.” It is stunning that this has quietly come to pass among adherents to a form of Christianity that emphasizes radical obedience to an inerrant Bible, forbids all sex outside marriage, and emphasizes being distinct from ‘the world.’”

5. Weird Al Yankovic’s Weirdly Enduring Appeal: This is one of my favorite podcast episodes of 2021 (you probably need to already appreciate Weird Al to truly enjoy it, though). Sam Anderson claims Weird Al Yankovic is not just a parody singer — he’s “a full-on rock star, a legitimate performance monster and a spiritual technician doing important work down in the engine room of the American soul.” I loved learning more about Weird Al’s backstory.

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How to Avoid Being Satan’s Miserable Comforter

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How to Avoid Being Satan’s Miserable Comforter

The heavenly host surrounds the Almighty. The Enemy enters. “From where have you come?” God asks the Opposer. Satan sneers, “From going to and fro on the earth.” God asks him to consider his servant Job, “a blameless and upright man.” Satan mocks, “Does Job fear God for no reason?”

Like Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry, the Adversary saunters across the scene and challenges his foe, “Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?” Unlike Dirty Harry, Satan does not work alone. He manipulates, coerces, and cajoles us to join him in his cause to multiply the ranks of those who curse God.

Job’s wife is the first to be lured by Satan, “Curse God and die!” she urges husband. Job’s friends soon join in. “Miserable comforters are you all[!]” (Job 16:2) Job sputters, provoked by their arrogance and lack of empathy.

You’ve been there, haven’t you? You were passed over for a promotion and it stung. “God has something better,” your friend assures you before empathizing. Miserable comforter.

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God is big and God is good

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God is big and God is good

A few years ago our staff created a staff culture document (you can read more about that journey here). It was a vital part of our journey for our staff. It helped changed the course of who we are.

Last year we began to take that same journey with our church. We created a church culture document. The purpose of this document is to express who we are at our best and who we aspire to be in the future, by the grace of God.

Elders and staff were engaged in creating a list that reflects our unique DNA as a church. We are excited to unveil it this summer. Our prayer is that the list both encourages us and exhorts us.

Our 9 distinctive cultural values at New Life are:

1: God is big and God is good

· God is most glorified when we most enjoy Him.

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We are Poor, Wayfaring Strangers

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We are Poor, Wayfaring Strangers

Two weeks ago, we watched the poignant movie 1917. The film follows two soldiers' one day mission to try to save 1,600 of their comrades from a trap the German army had sprung on the British forces in WWI. Filmed intimately through a single camera that follows the harrowing trek of the two young men, 1917 immerses you in the brutality and despair of war.

During one scene, having escaped death narrowly by jumping into a river, Corporal Schofield looks up to see cherry blossoms gently falling overhead. They swirl in the river's current and surround him. Schofield's eyes widen as he takes in the moment. But the heavenly reprieve comes to an abrupt end as Schofield floats into a mass of corpses.

As Schofield stumbles out of the water, he hears a single voice singing in the distance,

I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world below
There is no sickness, no toil, nor danger
In that bright land to which I go

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.       Free Throws Should Be Easy. Why do Professionals Miss? I enjoyed this story from Wired: " On paper, the free throw could not be more straightforward. It's a direct, unguarded shot at a hoop 18 inches across, 10 feet off the ground, and 15 feet away."

2.       Have you Talked to Your Kids About Sex? Helpful encouragement: "The sex and gender conversations in your home don’t have to be big, awkward productions. They don’t have to be embarrassing. And they certainly don’t need to be all planned out. But they do need to happen. The sooner the better. And they need to continue, the more often the easier. They absolutely must be rooted in biblical truth about how God designed our bodies and gave us the gift of gender and sex."

3.        How Relationships Spark Spiritual Growth: This is a really helpful matrix that will help any leader consider how they can grow their group relationally. Dan Mancini says that this process will, "remove hurdles to your growth... And you’ll get down into the root of the junk you’re carrying around in your life, and it will reveal motivations, appetites, and beliefs that no one (including you) knew you were carrying around.

4.       3 Things to Do When Someone is Suffering: Chris Hulshof considers what we can learn from Job's friends: " What does it look like to show up when someone is suffering? It looks like joining them right where they are and getting dirty with them amidst their grief and sorrow."

5.       8 Questions You Must Ask as you Fight Pornography: Deepak Reju offers great counsel. Two of the eight questions are "what lies are you believing?" and "will you be radical or passive about cutting out your sin?"

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