Death, Easter, Heaven
John Beeson
The Resurrection of Jesus: An Eyewitness Account

Happy Easter!

Today we consider the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. What follows is a compilation of the eyewitness resurrection accounts of Jesus Christ as told by the authors of the gospels. They have been edited together to maintain the flow of the narrative and do not include Jesus’ multiple appearances following his resurrection. The accounts are framed by Paul’s extended reflection on the importance of the resurrection.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

The Resurrection of Jesus: An Eyewitness Account
Recommendations, Easter, Death, Heaven, Nature
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. Eagles, fowl, and a Savior with wings: Kevin Burrell’s post makes my heart sing, “And a living, risen savior is still our covering today, to all those who by faith trust in his wings. In fact, we are clothed in his righteousness. He is oh-so willing to gather us under his wings.”

  2. Even to death: Jamaal Williams invites us to consider Jesus at the Mount of Olives, “Jesus models what it looks like to stumble into the presence of God—hurting but hopeful.”

This Week's Recommendations
Easter, Death, Heaven, Hell
John Beeson
The Crucifixion of Jesus: An Eyewitness Account

On this Tuesday of Holy Week, we consider the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. What follows is a compilation of the eyewitness crucifixion accounts of Jesus Christ as told by the four authors of the gospels. They have been edited together to maintain the flow of the narrative. The accounts are framed by the words of the 8th century BC prophet, Isaiah. On Sunday I will share the resurrection account of Jesus from the eyewitnesses.

The Crucifixion of Jesus: An Eyewitness Account
Christian Living, Church, Finance, Generosity
John Beeson
Why We Should Give to Financially Mismanaged ...

In 2007, the House Committee on Oversight investigated the “Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes and Help Hospitalized Veterans.” Something was seriously wrong with CEO Roger Chapin’s leadership (and it wasn’t just the absurdly long name of the charity). Chapin had raised nearly $170 million between 2004 and 2006, but only 25% of the money reached veterans. Over $125 million was funneled to Chapin and his cronies.

 

Whether at a national or local level, we don’t have to look long and hard for mismanagement of donations. There is nothing that breaks the trust of a donor more than seeing their hard-earned dollars misspent. We should care about where our giving goes. Churches ought to lead the way in financial transparency and accountability.

Why We Should Give to Financially Mismanaged Organizations
Recommendations, Nature, Evangelism, Parenting
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. 6 discouraging trends in global Christianity: Aaron Earls reports, “While Christianity continues to grow, Islamic growth continues to outpace the church’s growth. Christianity slightly outpaced the global rate of population growth (0.98% v. 0.88%), but Islam grew even faster (1.67%).”

  2. Wikipedia founder embraces Christianity: Trevin Wax reflects on Larry Sanger’s conversion, “Considering how many people are curious about the Bible these days, the increase in Bible sales, the interest in various philosophers and commentators providing their takes on the Scriptures,

This Week's Recommendations

Spiritual Growth

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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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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. The Dearest Ache: Loving a Teenager: Melissa Edgington shares about what the changing relationship with her daughter has looked liked as it has shifted into her daughter’s teenage years. Melissa captures the heartbeat of the relationship beautifully. She begins, “I remember when she was three. She confidently navigated the world with boundless energy, curls bouncing, so sure of herself. So sure of me. Those were the days when she radiated around me like I was the sun, and she was never too far from the safety of my warmth.”

  2. What Non-Christians Really Think About the Church: Carey Niewhof reflects on Barna research that reveals some discouraging information including the fact that only 21% of non-Christians have a positive perception of the local church. Niewhof offers some helpful encouragement of how to begin to shift the story.

  3. The Impact of Saying, “I’m So Busy”: Darren Bosch explains three problems of responding to the question, “how are you doing,” with “I’m so busy.” He says such an answer “reveals our leadership,” “drains our credibility,” “limits the God-story.”

  4. My Anchor Holds: Tim Challies reflects on how his anchor, Christ, has held him through the tragic loss of his son, “My faith, my anchor, has held, but not because I have been rowing hard, not because I have been steering well, not because I am made of rugged stuff, not because I am a man of mighty faith. It has held fast because it is held firm in the nail-scarred hands of the one who died and rose for me.”

  5. Rosaria Butterfield’s Conversion: Butterfield shares the story of God bringing her to faith from her context as an academic in a committed lesbian relationship.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Shame in the Public Arena: Stephen Freeman considers the sticky nature of shame. He urges us to stay far away from its use, “Shaming is easily justified by many. Whether it is doctrine, the Church, the state, the culture, whatever institution stands most in danger, shaming, like violence, is considered an effective tool in guarding the fort. However, it remains the case that shame cannot be used without causing damage to the one who uses it.”

  2. A Life on the Frontier: Chris Thomas tells his story about a conversation with his tattoo artist and a divinely ordained conversation. He shares, “My new friend proceeded to pour out her heartache. As she shaded in my arm, she filled in the gaps of yearning and seeking, of love gained and lost, of hopes she had, and anguish she lived with. And there, with this young woman holding a needle to my arm, I saw past the stereotypes and ink, and saw a frightened and broken girl who carries a fractured image of a God who formed and loved her.”

  3. Encourage and Be Encouraged: A great word from my friend Cassie Watson. I love her observation that we are to be those are called not only to encourage, but to be easily encouraged. She concludes, “Let’s be on the lookout today for the encouragement that God has prepared for us, so that his glory may abound among his people.”

  4. Tim Keller’s Wisdom on Navigating Social Media: Keller explains the sociological and psychological dimensions of new public square of social media. He concludes with advice that is so important for every Christian. His final point is, “Loosen the links between your ideas and your identity.” This post is indispensable for any Christian with a social media account.

  5. The Man on the Middle Cross Said I Can Come: Alistair Begg’s description of the thief’s welcome at heaven is funny and makes the gospel clear.

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Why You Shouldn't Give Up on the Church

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Why You Shouldn't Give Up on the Church

The blue screen of death: we’ve all experienced it. You’re plugging away on a paper or trying to load a website and whammo, your computer is toast. A few minutes and a hard restart later, you are back up and running, but not without consequences. You might have lost your train of thought or part of what you wrote. Ironically, I experienced the blue screen of death writing this post!

COVID-19 was a cultural blue screen of death. Work, school, and church rhythms were all disrupted. And all of them have changed as a result. People’s connection to church has changed. Nearly every pastor I’ve spoken with affirms that church attendance today is lower than it was 18 months ago.

For some, having the blue screen of COVID hit made them re-think how important church was for them.

More than a handful have decided that other spiritual practices can take the place of church. Jen Hatmaker recently shared about a conversation she had with her therapist where she came to the realization that “Church for me right now feels like my best friends, my porch bed, my children, and my parents and my siblings. It feels like meditations and all these leaves on my 12 pecan trees. It feels like Ben Rector on repeat. It feels like my kitchen, and my table, and my porch. It feels like Jesus who never asked me to meet him anywhere but in my heart.”

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Are You Wearing Spiritual Spanx?

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Are You Wearing Spiritual Spanx?

$610 million: that’s the net worth of Sara Blakely. In 2000, Blakely began going door to door with an invisible product. Well, invisible to everyone but the wearer. Spanx was a very different kind of underwear, created to help shape the body of the wearer, tucking you in at all the right parts and letting out the parts that you you wanted let out. No longer did you have to go to the gym to get the body you wanted. You could shape your body with your underwear.

If you are as old as me or older, you remember when gym clothes were bulky and formless. Sweatpants and oversized t-shirts were once the expected attire. Not any longer. Form-fitted, breathable, moisture-wicking, and apparently more technological innovation than my Scion, it isn’t unusual that what you wear to the gym is more expensive than what you wear to work. Blakely not only revolutionized the underwear industry, she also transformed the athleisure clothing industry as well.

But there is one thing Blakely didn’t do. We may look fitter, but we aren’t actually healthier. Spanx may make me look more tone, but they don’t change the reality that my midsection is flabby.

Spiritual Spanx are every bit as tempting as the Lycra version.

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40 lessons for 40 years

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40 lessons for 40 years

This past week my wife, Angel, turned 40. As an opportunity for reflection, she decided to consider what the most important lessons God has taught her. What follows captures her heart and wisdom well. I love seeing how these are lived out in her walk with Christ, our marriage, her parenting, and her counseling practice.[i]

May God’s wisdom through Angel abound to you.

John


40 Lessons for 40 years

  1. God is always for me.

  2. Sitting at the feet of Jesus is the most life-giving, soul-filling, peace-giving place to be. I walk in the overflow of my time with him. I don’t have to set an agenda for that space. I can just be and learn to wait in silence.

  3. I am not my own.

  4. To know who I am in Christ: beloved, adopted, chosen, a priest, a son, the bride, a sheep, free, a saint are non-negotiables in my life that no one and no thing can take away from me. This is who I am and it gives me permission and power to step into my role as wife, mom, and counselor.

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Do You Want to Change? There’s Only One Way

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Do You Want to Change? There’s Only One Way

Are you stuck? Do you fear that you will never be able to change, never break free from the sin that has you in its clutches? You can change! I promise. No matter what the sin is, you can break free from its clutches.

The most rewarding gift pastors and biblical counselors receive is the treasure of watching God transform hearts. God has blessed Angel (my wife, a counselor at Whole Hope Christian Counseling) and with the opportunity of seeing many break free from the shackles of sin.

Let me share with you one story of change. Kimberly (she has given me permission to share her story and her words, although I am changing her name), was trapped in bitterness toward God and her husband and ensnared by sexual sin. Her heart raged with hatred toward her husband: for the ways he had neglected her, not treasured her, and abandoned her spiritually, emotionally, and physically. In a desire to experience freedom and to make her husband pay for his neglect, she began to hook up with men and eventually had a series of affairs.

After years, the tip of the iceberg of her indiscretions were discovered. Despite her hardness of heart and spiritual blindness, Kimberly was willing to meet with her husband for counseling. Her rage so blinded her that she was unwilling to repent of her sin. She demanded that her husband repent to her, recounting detail by detail of his offenses to her numb husband. In fact, we would later learn that she was continuing on in her adultery even through our counseling. If you would have met Kimberly in this season, you would have likely thought Kimberly was a lost cause. Any time spent on her was wasted effort.

Many friends and family of hers voiced this opinion. Without the Spirit, they were right.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. What Is the Unforgivable Sin? How to Know if You’ve Committed It: Clear and concise explanation by Murray J. Harris. Harris compares the two different references to the unforgivable sin. He concludes, “In sum, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable, not because God is unwilling to forgive but because the repentance that is the necessary precondition for God’s forgiveness is absent. The heart has become so hardened that no need for repentance is recognized, and so no request for forgiveness is offered.”

2. Why Sexual Immorality is a Big Deal: Darryl Burling begins, “Western society argues that the human body is insignificant. We are told that our bodies are of no value in determining identity and that sex is purely a physical need—of no significance to our personhood.”

3. Only the Christian Faith Begins at the Top: Tim Challies with an astute observation, “A plumb line hangs from a point that has been fixed above it. As long as the laws of gravity remain intact, that line will always hang perfectly straight so that whatever parallels it will be equally straight…But imagine if the builder of that tower had taken that same line and anchored it below instead of above.”

4. What Do You Pick Up From Your Pastor’s Preaching? It’s true, isn’t it, that you pick up on what stirs your pastor’s heart? What do you pick up from my heart?

5. How to Respond to the Problem of Evil: In this brief video Greg Koukl illuminates why the existence of evil supports the existence of God.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. Meant to Be: How a World War II veteran cheated death four times to find love. Bonnie Allen’s story on Reg Harrison is absolute perfection. It begins, “Reg Harrison slides his leather wallet out of his pocket and removes a weathered black-and-white photo of a beautiful woman. ‘I've been carrying that since 1946,’ said the 98-year-old. ‘Our love story? I think it was meant to be.’”

2. iGeneration and iDentity: Kyle Borg with a sobering warning to Generation Z on what the impact of them being formed by social media will mean: “Young people aged 8 to 12 spend an average of six hours a day on technology, and teenagers aged 13 to 18 spend an average of nine hours a day streaming videos, looking at pictures, listening to music, and playing games. That's more social time in a given day than is spent with parents, peers, or sports teams.”

3. Americans Less Optimistic About Race Relations: Aaron Earls reports, “A new study from Lifeway Research conducted prior to the 2020 election finds U.S. adults are less likely now than in 2014 to agree with the statement “We have come so far on racial relations.” Today, 46% say we have made worthwhile progress—28 points fewer than in 2014 when 74% said the same.”

4. Just Keep Going: David McLemore urges us forward. He encourages us, “But God is not letting up on us because he’s not giving up on us. His call is not to take it easy when it gets hard but to press in all the more, especially when it’s hard. The Lord loves us deeply, but he doesn’t coddle us, and he won’t let us coddle ourselves either. He knows the cancer that time is to our zeal, but he has fresh mercies every morning.”

5. In Defense of Um, Er, and Like: Such an enlightening video on why we have verbal hesitations and how they can, like, help.

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Spiritual Disciplines and Blogging

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Spiritual Disciplines and Blogging

Today I’m thrilled to announce that our audiobook for Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World has hit the virtual shelves at Amazon. My co-author, Benjamin Vrbicek and I have lowered the price of the audiobook and the regular book for the launch, so grab a copy and share the link with someone who might benefit.

Below is a portion of one of the chapters in the book: Spiritual Disciplines and Blogging. I hope it whets your appetite! (And check out the very end of this post for an opportunity to win a free audiobook.)

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES AND BLOGGING

I was told not to equate preparing for sermons with devotional Bible reading. There is truth in that encouragement. If we professionalize spiritual disciplines, then our spiritual life tends to become stuffy and transactional from expecting that clocking in yields certain results. On the other hand, I’ve learned if the posture of my heart in my sermon preparation isn’t devotional, then my preaching becomes dry and academic. If I am not growing spiritually through my pastoral ministry, I’m not pastoring as God intended. I would say the same thing to engineers, teachers, stay-at-home moms, and salespeople. I’d say the same thing to bloggers.

Blogging ought to grow us in holiness. When we blog for God’s glory, the discipline of writing becomes integrated into the web of our spiritual disciplines. We believe blogging can be cultivated as a companion to spiritual disciplines and even as a spiritual discipline in its own right. Before we consider this, we want to send up a warning flare: challenges for the Christian blogger abound.

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