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

Prayer

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Church Abuse and the Lies We Tell Ourselves About the Dark

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Church Abuse and the Lies We Tell Ourselves About the Dark

Last week an atomic bomb hit the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, with an estimated 14 million members across more than 47,000 churches. An in-depth investigative report demonstrated that the Executive Committee of the SBC was aware of pervasive sexual malfeasance in their ranks over the past fifteen years and refused to act. The Executive Committee swept sexual abuse allegations under the rug, perpetrators were moved from one congregation to another to hide their abuse, and earnest appeals for reform were denied.

What is the reputation of a denomination when the reputation of Christ is at stake? What is the world's perception worth when the hearts of the vulnerable are on the line?

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Intercessions for Life

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Intercessions for Life

My heart has been conflicted since the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked last week. I praise God that states will have the opportunity to protect the lives of unborn children. I am hopeful that many will step forward to care for children who are put forward for adoption. I prayed for three couples at our church who are currently hoping that God would allow them to adopt and considered how they might hear this news. I was disheartened by the attack on our democratic system by the leak of the decision. I was frustrated by many politicians’ lack of honesty in the explanation of what the ruling means for women. I was aghast by the blatant disregard for the welfare of the conservative justices by the pro-choice group who spread their home addresses.

Have mercy on us, sinners, Wounded Savior.

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How do You Pray for Someone Who is Hurting?

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How do You Pray for Someone Who is Hurting?

“How are you?” you greet your neighbor at the park. You ask the question like you mean it.

“Okay,” she responds. But the crease between her eyebrows and the slump of her shoulders lets you know that she is most definitely not “okay.”

“What’s the matter?” you ask, lovingly responding to her body language instead of her words.

She begins to open up. She and her husband got in a fight last night. Tears begin to flow. She’s worried about her mom’s health. She’s anxious about work. The conversation winds to a close. You would like to pray for her, but how do you cross that bridge? How do you pray for someone in need?

Perhaps the only thing stronger than our natural impulse toward the spiritual and religious is our reticence toward public displays of our religion. Last week we talked about five reasons we ought to press through our discomfort to pray for those in need. Those reasons were:

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So Much More Than “Sending Good Thoughts”

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So Much More Than “Sending Good Thoughts”

Your co-worker has just shared with you that her husband was just diagnosed with cancer. You press in and provide a listening ear. But as the conversation closes, what do you say? Nothing? That you will pray for her family? Or do you ask if you could pray with her right then?

I’ve done all three, and there are circumstances where all three are wise and godly responses. But usually praying for a friend with a request then and there is the best response. There have been far too many times when I have not prayed with someone who needed prayer or told them I would pray for them later when the most loving thing I should have done for them was to pray with them right there.

Offering to pray for someone in the moment can feel awkward. Your mind races: do they even believe in God? What god do they believe in? Are they going to be offended if I ask?

Why is it worth the risk to pray for someone in need? And how do you do it?

When we pray for someone, we demonstrate Christianity is so much more than mere platitudes.

One of the most frequent responses I’ve observed on Facebook from unbelievers when encountering difficult situations with others is their promise to “send good thoughts.” The statement itself concedes that it is nothing more than a platitude. What does it look like to “send good thoughts”? Will the one who promises to send them follow through? What happens when those “good thoughts” are sent? Will they have any impact? On all counts: no, and assuredly not. When we say “I’ll pray for you” for many non-Christians, they hear a promise as empty as “sending good thoughts.” By actually praying with them then and there, you are demonstrating that you are not just offering a sentiment, not just dropping an empty platitude, but you will follow through.

When we pray for someone, we demonstrate we have really heard our friend.

Praying out loud with your friend shows that you have really heard them. As you ask God to intervene in the situation and you echo back specifics they mentioned and reflect to God emotions they may not have even stated out loud, your friend can hear your attention to them.

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Have You Given Me the Fountain, but Deny Me the Stream?

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Have You Given Me the Fountain, but Deny Me the Stream?

Six times in the book of Hebrews, the author urges us to draw near to God. In Hebrews 4:16, the author encourages us about what awaits us as we approach the presence of God. He says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

God offers us himself fully to us not just in the accomplishment of our salvation, but also daily in prayer. God not only grants us the fountain of life, but also the streams of his mercy. But, with my muddled mind and divided attention, how do I draw near to his throne of grace with confidence?

My Co-Lead pastor, Greg Lavine, and I lead discipleship groups that run concurrently through the school year. We take a group of men or women through a year of study that includes theological and spiritual formation. Currently we are in a stretch focused on the practice of prayer. In one of the weeks we use two books of compiled Puritan prayers: Valley of Vision and Piercing Heaven. The idea of utilizing Puritan prayers might sound as exciting as watching someone else fill out their tax returns, but I have found these books vibrant guides.

Why would we use someone else’s prayers to help us pray? Wouldn’t that make our prayer life stilted and formal? Wouldn’t praying the words of someone who died several hundred years ago create distance between God and us? These concerns haven’t been realized in my own prayer life.

As I read the prayers of those among the cloud of witnesses, I find myself nudged out of the ruts of my typical extemporaneous prayers. When I pray along with the meditations of the Puritans, my prayers tend to focus more on spiritual realities. These brothers help me see the glory of Christ and my sin more clearly.

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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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Do You Struggle With Prayer?

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Do You Struggle With Prayer?

Whose prayer life is what they want it to be? Mine certainly isn’t what I hope it will be one day. Just this morning I decided that I would take out my earbuds during my workout and use the time for prayer. Minutes later I found my mind wandering, counting my reps, and even checking my phone for incoming messages. Why would I deny listening to and talk with my Creator and Savior? And yet I refuse this opportunity more frequently than I would care to admit. I want to say yes, but I say no. How do we improve our prayer lives? This is the question that Kevin Halloran tackles in his practical book, When Prayer is a Struggle.

Halloran invites us to experience the life of prayer God longs for us to have with him. Halloran reminds us that our prayer life and our faith are interrelated. The health of my prayer life is directly connected to the strength of my faith. He says, “Prayer is the natural overflow of a growing faith.” We don’t pray as we ought because we struggle with our faith. Does my life depend on the active work of God today, or is it mere intellectual assent to his existence? My prayer life reveals it is too often the latter.

Halloran encourages us to lean into our prayer life with God not trying to get it “right,” but to engage God and grow our faith. I love the quote from Jared Wilson he shares, “You may think your prayers are nothing to write home about. That’s fine. You are not writing home, but heaven. God is merciful. He accepts your lame prayers. What he wants is not your eloquence but your heart.” Our prayer life isn’t meant to be a demonstration of our eloquence or intelligence or spirituality, but the expression of a vibrant relationship with the Caretaker of our souls.

Halloran wants us to utilize the Bible in our prayer life. Scripture ought to feed our prayer life. It gives us words to say to God when we don’t know what to say, it directs us to God’s heart when we feel distant from him. If you want to dive into this particular topic more, I would encourage you to read Praying the Bible by Donald Whitney alongside Halloran’s book.

My favorite chapter is probably Chapter 4 where Halloran engages the question, “Why doesn’t God listen?”

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A Prayer for 9/11

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A Prayer for 9/11

Twenty years ago terrorists brought down the Twin Towers. Our nation had to come to grips with the brazen evil set against it. Today, fears of terrorism have spiked as the mishandling of the pull-out in Afghanistan has empowered the terrorist organizations again.

In the face of grief and danger, our hearts naturally turn to fear, anger, and blame. Instead, God invites us to turn to him.

Would you join me in using Psalm 10 as a prayer for our hearts today?

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,
and the one greedy for gain curses[a] and renounces the Lord.

God, it is so hard to understand why you would allow evil in this world. It is such a challenge to see those who are wicked prosper. We come to you and ask why? Why do you not bring justice? Why do you not protect the defenseless?

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This Week’s Recommendations

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This Week’s Recommendations

  1. How Parents Can Help Kids Navigate Transgender Ideology: Maria Baer packs lots of wisdom into this post. She says, “This is a complicated calling for Christian parents. But whatever else we do in response to the normalization of transgender ideology, we can’t not talk about it with our kids. Make no mistake: they are hearing about it—in entertainment, online, at school, and from their friends.”

  2. My 30 Second Sermon as We Prepared for a Crash Landing: Kyle Donn shares his brief, but harrowing story. He begins, “Last Sunday I thought I was going to die. ‘Brace! Brace! Brace!’ The flight attendants prepared us for impact. The pilot of American Airlines Flight 2775—which had just taken off from Charlotte and was heading to Seattle—announced moments earlier that our plane was experiencing engine failure and that we needed to prepare for a crash landing. The attendants ran frantically up and down the cabin, preparing us.”

  3. Does Your Prayer Life Need to Change: Forrest McPhail’s article is loaded with helpful practical tips. He concludes, “Prayerlessness is not an option for one of God’s children. Find a way. Be creative. Worship God by maintaining fellowship with Him in prayer.”

  4. A Hidden Beauty: Chris Thomas invites us to see beauty as God sees it. He begins by considering the beauty of his native Australia, “The stone is clothed in ochre red, a brilliant protest against the azure sky that casts a blanket of suppression over the land and is stitched seamlessly into an unbroken line where the two meet. Below the ancient stone, a throne of fissured rock falls away in fearful wonder to jade depths of tepid water rich with life.”

  5. We Keep Stumbling Forward: How cute is this? And how true is this of our faith?

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