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
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

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Hiding God's Word Away in 2022

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Hiding God's Word Away in 2022

“How can a young man keep his way pure?” the Psalmist asks.

“By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps 119:9-11).

In a world where temptation presses in at every side and lures us to follow its path, we ask, “how can I keep my heart pure?”

In a world where Christians are deconstructing their faith because of their disappointment with the Christianity of their fathers, we ask, “how can I keep my faith pure?”

In a world where what is right and wrong seems to shift like sand beneath our feet, we ask, “how can I know what is true?”

The answer comes back to us, “by listening to God’s unchanging Word.”

The analogy has been offered many times: how do you teach someone to detect counterfeit bills? By pouring themselves into the study of authentic currency.

There are many competing voices for what true faith should look like in today’s confusing world. May none have a louder voice in our lives than God’s.

How should we store up God’s Word in our hearts? I would encourage two ways:

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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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The Best of the Bee Hive in 2021

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The Best of the Bee Hive in 2021

My heart with my blogging ministry at The Bee Hive is to pastor through words. When I launched The Bee Hive, I wasn’t sure how many I would be able to shepherd through my writing.

In my first year of blogging, 2017, I was encouraged to have 1,767 unique visitors to my website with 3,939 page views. I was glad that my writing was being read and hopeful that it was helpful. I was concerned, though, that maybe after an acquaintance read the blog a couple times, the interest would diminish, and the impact would wane.

That fear was answered in 2018, when I saw the first year’s numbers nearly double, with 3,463 unique visitors and 6,398 page views. In 2019, I was shocked to double those numbers again with 8,500 unique visitors and over 13,600 page views. In 2020, those numbers grew to 12,000 unique visitors and 17,000 page views. And this year, my blog grew to 28,000 unique visitors and 49,000 page views.

On top of that are my faithful subscribers (thank you!) who read my posts via email. Mailchimp tells me 59% of you often read my posts, which means that in this past year, around 46,000 posts were read via email.

All of this is a surprise and a great encouragement to me.

Sometimes readers will ask how they can support me. That is a kind question. I would offer four meaningful ways to encourage me as a pastor-writer:

  1. Subscribe. Subscribing to my emails lets me know you’re in. In a context where social media outlets depress the visibility of bloggers, subscribing helps me know my blog is reaching my readers. You can subscribe at the top of the home page.

  2. Share. It’s so encouraging when you share content with your friends that is meaningful to you.

  3. Comment. Your words of affirmation mean so much to me.

  4. Support. The elders of New Life Bible Fellowship are generous enough to allow me to write as part of my role as pastor. It is for that reason I do not ask for personal financial support. If you have felt blessed by this ministry of New Life, I would encourage you to consider supporting our church. You may do so here.

My seven most-read posts of 2021 follow. It is always interesting to me which of my posts resonate with readers. If any of these posts blessed you, would you share it with a friend?

Please know how grateful I am for you. Thank you for your support and for investing your time and energy in reading The Bee Hive.

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This Christmas Week's Recs

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This Christmas Week's Recs

  1. My Christmas Gift Bought With a Child’s Heart: Sylvia Shroeder has a beautiful post. Of the wise men she says, “What greater treasure could they bestow than to fall down at the feet of the divine Christ and worship? The true gifts of the magi didn’t come because of the place they acquired them or the amount they spent. The glint of gold or fragrant scented air could never have equaled the response of their hearts. In an obscure village, to a child lacking world’s fame or prestige, they fell down and worshipped.”

  2. When the Soul Feels Its Worth: Andrea Sanborn reflects, “Jesus was born to a simple girl, lived in humility and sacrificed Himself to find me at my kitchen sink; to find you where you are, meeting us in our obscurity and our wondering.”

  3. 5 Major Concerns About the State of the Bible in the US: Eric Geiger concludes this list with this discouraging fact, “According to the research, only 9% of youth in Gen-Z are engaged with the Scripture. And the youth in Gen-Z are significantly less engaged with the Scripture than Millennials.”

  4. Vaccines, Mandates, and Disagreements: Justin Hale responds to this question, “I have a close friend who recently told me their views on vaccines, mandates, and masks, and now I see them differently. They were vocal and opinionated. I would be lying if I said it hasn’t affected our interactions. I really like my friend, but I feel they aren’t being reasonable or rational on this topic. And every time I think about talking with them, I get annoyed and irritated. What can I do?”

  5. The Spiritual Choir: 4 Carols 4 Christmas: You’ll love this.

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The Four Villains of Christmas: the Gifts of the Magi

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The Four Villains of Christmas: the Gifts of the Magi

Does anyone have an extra $886 you don’t know what to do with? Too late. Your Christmas shopping already decided for you where that’s going. This year Americans predicted they would spend an average of $886 on their Christmas shopping.[i]

Enter the third villain this Christmas season: the gifts of the Magi.

The Magi are an iconic part of the Christmas story. Unbelievably, a group of philosopher-astronomers from the East (probably Persia) had knowledge that only a handful in all of Israel had: a Savior-King has been born in Bethlehem. Following the prophecies, they made their trek to Bethlehem to meet this Savior-King. When they arrived, “they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.”[ii]

And they do not come empty-handed. They come bearing three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Each of these gifts has meaningful symbolism befitting the child-King. Items of great value, each gift proclaimed that Jesus was the King who would restore Israel.[iii] Isaiah predicted that nations and kings would come and “bring gold and frankincense and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord” (Is 60:6). Many scholars believe that the gifts point to the nature of the reign of this Messiah: the gold symbolizing his kingship, frankincense representing his priestly role, and myrrh pointing to his death.

Those gifts, according to many, were the impetus for the tradition of gift-giving at Christmas time.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. A Pillar of Salt: TM Suffield warns us of nostalgia during Christmas season, “Advent tells me that my idea of Christmas is manufactured nostalgia, a good portion of which is created by people who want to sell me things. They don’t want me to be satisfied, or to learn to wait, or to wrestle the darkness—they want me just the right sort of sad to buy more things.”

  2. The Middle Years: Melissa Edgington begins her reflection on mid-life, “These days I feel a little as if I’m grieving for a younger me. I look in the mirror, and I contend with the greying hair and the imperfections that come with age, always shocked to remember that my neckline sags in the way of grandmothers and old great aunts. I have come to middle age, and I must say that it’s a difficult stop on this journey of being a woman.”

  3. 7 in 10 Women Who Have Had an Abortion Identify as Christian: This is an eye-opening report that ought to remind us that we need to care not just for the unborn, but for those who have to navigate the tragic decision of abortion. We need to be vulnerable places of care and support. The findings state, “For half of those regular churchgoers (52%), they still haven’t told anyone at their church about their abortion. Less than 2 in 5 (38%) say someone at their church knows they had an abortion. Women likely haven’t told people at their church because most don’t see the church or the people there as safe and feel they will be judged, not loved.”

  4. Our Dog’s Annual Performance Review: Caroline O’Donoghue’s article had me cracking up. “You are a terrible employee. But you’re a very, very good girl.”

  5. Sexual Abuse, Sexual Brokenness, and the Gospel: Preston Sprinkle interviews Jay Stringer on his podcast “Theology in the Raw.” Stringer shares his findings in his book Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing. The book shares significant research that reveals the key drivers of unwanted sexual behavior: from pornography to infidelity.

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The Four Villains of Christmas: The Innkeeper

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The Four Villains of Christmas: The Innkeeper

Every self-respecting children’s nativity play has Mary and Joseph greeted by the gruff Innkeeper who rudely tells Mary and Joseph that there’s no room and then, for good effect, slams the door in their faces. What was the motivation of this heartless hotel manager? Why didn’t he find a place for this pregnant woman? Today we met the second villain of Christmas: the Innkeeper.

The biblical story isn’t nearly as clear as to the backstory of this Innkeeper. There is a just a fleeting reference to the incident and that reference only occurs after Jesus’ birth. Luke tells us simply, “And [Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”[i]

Unlike last week’s obvious villain: Herod, the Innkeeper is trickier to understand. In the ambiguity, though, we find ourselves and the reality that Christmas reveals in us the sneaky villain of a lack of prioritization. Surely the Innkeeper should have been able to find a place for Mary and her child.

Let’s first briefly consider who this Innkeeper might have been and why he didn’t have room for Mary and Joseph. While we naturally think of the Innkeeper in a modern setting (perhaps you picture a hotel manager in your mind’s eye), that isn’t quite right.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Science Can’t Answer Transgenderism’s Deepest Questions: Shane Morris says, “The transgender movement has taken the primary question of this cultural debate completely out of the realm of science. By every identifiable physical trait, a person may be a member of one sex. But if, despite all of this, he identifies as the opposite sex, that is what he really is, according to the transgender movement.”

  2. Where Doctrine Meets the Desolate: Lara d’Entremont begins her powerful post, “I cried in my home office with only the moon providing streaks of light for me. My sobs distorted my words so much I’m sure only God could understand my prayers—pleas for relief, a sign, a moment of comfort, or his fatherly touch—anything to carry me just one more step forward.”

  3. Should We Pursue Self-Love? Randy Alcorn might overstate his case a bit here, but the core argument is solid. He begins, “I’ve often heard it said in evangelical messages, books, and articles that God’s Word teaches three kinds of love—love for God, love for others, and love for self.”

  4. Know Yourself and Speak: Pierce Hibbs begins with these sobering statistics, “According to a recent study, one in ten men struggles with anxiety or depression, but less than half of these seek help. Men die 3.5 times more often than women from suicide. They’re also twice as likely to binge drink. Perhaps most disturbing, another study found that 45% of men believe their mental health problems will resolve themselves, and so they admit to never talking to anyone else about their issues. In light of those truths.”

  5. Abortion Battled at the Supreme Court: Last week one of the most significant cases in our lifetime was argued before the Supreme Court. It’s worth listening to the entirety of the arguments that were made.

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The Four Villains of Christmas: Herod

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The Four Villains of Christmas: Herod

Advent has arrived. It’s a time for joy and generosity and hope and celebration. But threats lurk. Over the next four weeks we will consider four villains of Christmas. The first villain is King Herod. King Herod fought for power. The yearning for power in our own hearts endangers Christmas.

Herod was the villain at the first Christmas. He was a politician’s politician. He was oily and underhanded, vicious and cold-hearted. Born in 73 BC, Herod rose to power quickly (in his mid-twenties) by maneuvering his way through the Roman political machine. He was ultimately given the title “King of Judea” by the Roman Senate.[i] Upon rising to power, Herod murdered anyone who might be his rival, including three of his sons and his first wife, Mariamne.

Herod’s paranoia served him well and allowed him to rule for 37 years—far longer than most. His political savvy extended well past his paranoia. A half-Jew himself, Herod was a master of alliances, eventually taking ten wives, each gaining him a strategic political advantage. And he knew the power of tangible change. Herod took on massive building projects throughout Judea including the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima, the Second Temple, the fortress at Masada, and Herodium. Many of these can still be seen in Israel today. In fact, most beautiful ancient buildings that remain in Israel are Herod’s handiwork. To fund these projects, Herod levied massive taxes on the people that created animus between him and the people (and also helps us understand just how hated the tax collectors we meet in the Bible were).

One day in the final years of Herod’s life, a group of Magi from the East requested an audience with the King of Judea.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. The Anxiety of Perpetual Yearbook Day: Eric Geiger likens social media today as a perpetual version of the day yearbooks came out. It’s a great analogy. He shares, “One of the most anxious days each year for me in high school was yearbook day – the day when yearbooks were passed out to all the students.”

  2. 3 Reasons for Hope in the Midst of Grief: Alaistair Begg writes, “You do not have to live long as a believer to discover that faith does not insulate us from feelings like grief and the fear of it.”

  3. 7 Healthy Ways to Resolve Conflict: Carey Niewhof opines, “I’m increasingly convinced many churches simply don’t grow because they suffer from conflict and that many teams never thrive because there’s simply too much tension.”

  4. Defending Sound Doctrine Against the Deconstruction of American Evangelicalism: Jonathan Leeman’s post is lengthy, but worth the time to read for those who are disconcerted by evangelicals deconstructing their faith. His conclusions are thoughtful and nuanced. Note his suggestion of having race consciousness but rejecting race essentialism.

  5. What’s Love Got to Do With It: Hope you’re not tired of my Walk off the Earth recs 😊!

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