Christian Living, Leadership, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Living Sacrifices Given to Christ...and the ...

“Are you all in?” It’s a question that was echoed by many youth pastors and speakers in many venues of my teenage years. It’s still a great question.

 

I know some of my peers had poor experiences growing up in 90s youth groups. For the most part, my time in the church was not only good, but significant to the trajectory of my life and formative for my calling to ministry. If “Are you all in?” was the most important question of my teenage years, Romans 12:1-2 was the most important passage. Paul urges the church at Rome,

Living Sacrifices Given to Christ...and the Church
Christian Living, Christmas, Leadership, Recommendations, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Best Books to Gift This Christmas

Few gifts are more meaningful than a thoughtfully chosen book. It’s a gift that can offer hope, wisdom, and even fun. As you consider your Christmas gift, here are a few books you might want to consider for loved ones.

Best Books to Gift This Christmas
Gratitude, Prayer, Spiritual Growth, Suffering
John Beeson
Thankful in 2024

Have you had hard 2024? Are you looking forward to the page turning to a new year? I think of dear people in our family at New Life who have lost loved ones, who are battling cancer, mental illness, whose marriages ended, or who have lost jobs. I’m so sorry if 2024 was a hard year for you.

May I invite James to one of the open seats at your Thanksgiving table? Let me warn you, though, James is the uncle who shoots straight. You might not like what he has to say. But you know he always speaks truthfully and with a heart of love for you.

Thankful in 2024
Christian Living, Culture, Politics, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Vulgar Authenticity

Who is your favorite celebrity? Your favorite political pundit? Your favorite politician?

Why are you drawn to these individuals? Maybe it is their personality. Perhaps it is because you respect their convictions. Possibly, it is because of their unique style.

Taylor Swift might be the most beloved celebrity in the world. Many have commented that one of the reasons that Swift has cultivated such a devoted following is her accessibility and down-to-earth qualities, from what she wears to the love stories she writes about in her music.

Vulgar Authenticity
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

Telling the truth

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This Week’s Recommendations

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This Week’s Recommendations

  1. The Depressing End of “Your Truth” Brent McCracken begins, “In her lifetime-achievement-award acceptance speech at the 2018 Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey said, ‘What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have.’ Your truth. Those two words are so entrenched in our lexicon today that we hardly recognize them for the incoherent nightmare that they are.”

  2. Will I Suffer More If I Serve Jesus? John Piper takes on this challenging question: “Why will God allow us to suffer as Christians if that suffering will harm our faith?” In response, he asks this question, “What if, instead of seeing Christian suffering as something added to our lives because we become Christians, we see our suffering as something that up till now was certain and deserved, but now, by the grace of God, has become suffering that is made to serve our salvation?”

  3. Exploring the Problem of Evil: Rhys Laverty explores the classical conception of the problem of evil: how can there be a God who is perfectly good and all-powerful when evil exists? Laverty explains that our problem is that we are still trying to conceptualize the problem from a human perspective. He says, “The LORD doesn’t simply say “look how much bigger I am!” but “look at how well I run the universe”. This is part of what lies behind the great promise that the Lord works all things together for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28).”

  4. The Touch: Tim Challies tells us about the power of the touch of Jesus, “Jesus left no one worse than he had found them. None left his presence without some blessing, some challenge, some enablement or encouragement to live for the good of others and the glory of God. And what a difference it would make in this world if we determined to do the same…”

  5. Aerial Sheep Herding: Mesmerizing. I love watching the behavior of the sheep that break away from the flock.

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