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

Worship

, , , , , , , , ,

What I Read in 2021 (and Maybe What You Should Read in 2022)

, , , , , , , , ,
What I Read in 2021 (and Maybe What You Should Read in 2022)

I’ve been able to hit the 100-plateau of books the past few years. This year I read 111 books (the symmetry of that number made me smile). If you wonder how I read that much, this post might help spur you on and provide some practical pointers in your reading journey in 2022. I love reading for many reasons. It’s a gift to be in conversation with a multitude of wise voices, to be invited into the imaginative worlds of some of the best minds of our time, and to grow in empathy and understanding as I step into the shoes of those very different from myself.

I love the gift of reading books with friends. Most of the books I read are recommended by friends and I love it when friends read a book I recommend. If you read any of the books recommended below, I would love to hear what you think. And I would love to hear what your favorite books of 2021 were. If you want fuller reviews on any of the books listed above or just want to connect on an ongoing basis about reading, I encourage you to friend me on Goodreads.

Let me start with my three favorite books of 2021, and then we will get to the rest of the action:

, , , , , , , , ,

This Christmas Week's Recs

, , , , , , , , ,
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.

, , , , , , ,

This Week’s Recommendations

, , , , , , ,
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?

,

The Dust Mite and the Spider

,
The Dust Mite and the Spider

One day the spider and the dust mite met in the cool of the underside of a misshapen pillow.

Out of the pleasantries, an awkward silence grew. Intimidated by the size of the spider, the dust mite boasted, “Have you ever noticed how similar I am to an eagle?”

“You? Like an eagle?” the spider questioned.

“Oh yes,” the dust mite responded, gaining confidence. “An eagle. Like an eagle, I have a head, legs, and I lay eggs.”

A condescending smile grew across the spider’s jaws.

“Foolish, mite,” chuckled the spider. “You are nothing like an eagle! I am the one like an eagle.”

, , ,

Top Posts of 2019

, , ,
Top Posts of 2019

I’ve always written for others. Whether it was creative writing in elementary school where I was excited to share my stories with my teacher and classmates or college when I came home and shared my writing projects with my patient parents.

When I started The Bee Hive, I started it in part because I felt that I needed to steward the gift of writing God had given me. But gifts are stewarded not for our own sake, primarily, but for the sake of the recipient (1 Corinthians 12). My desire was to expand my pastoral reach beyond Sunday morning to serve the church.

If I were to be faithful in stewarding my writing gift but no one were to show up, it would be a struggle to feel the impact of that faithfulness. In my first year of blogging, 2017, I was so encouraged to have 1,767 unique visitors to my website with 3,939 page views. I was so glad that my writing was being read and hopeful that it was helpful. I was concerned, though, that maybe after an acquaintance reading a couple times, maybe 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. This year I was shocked to have those numbers double again with 8,500 unique visitors and over 13,600 page views. On top of that are my faithful subscribers (thank you!) who read via email. This past year over 10,800 posts via email were read.

My five most-read posts of 2019 follow.

,

Merry Christmas!

,
Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas friends!

I’m praying that you experience the rescue of the light who has come in the darkness in a special way today.

As you celebrate the coming of the King, enjoy this new worship song by New Life’s worship team (Sonorous Worship) that points to the profound truths at the heart of Advent.

God’s blessing to you this Christmas!

John

, , ,

In Defense of Love Songs to God

, , ,
In Defense of Love Songs to God

“God isn’t your boyfriend!” It doesn’t take much Googling to pick out an assortment of articles skewering intimate love songs inappropriately parading as worship. “He is the almighty God, not your lover,” the criticism goes. “Don’t trivialize our holy, incomprehensible God.”

Is it really appropriate to sing, “I could sing of your love forever” or reprise again and again, “your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me”? Or how about “Revelation Song” where we sing, “You are my everything and I will adore you”? And of course, the most obvious offender: please tell me we should nix the embarrassing “How He Loves Us,” where we belt out, “And I realize just how beautiful you are, and how great your affections are for me,” and then the cherry on the sundae, “And heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss.”

Let me stand up against the pitchforked crowd in defense of the modern worship love song. That isn’t to say that there aren’t plenty of songs out there that are weak theologically or that our diet of worship should be comprised primarily of love songs to God, but I do believe there is a place for us to sing love songs to God.

, , ,

In Defense of Modern Worship

, , ,
In Defense of Modern Worship

It was during a family dance party to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” that our patriarch commented about the vapid lyrics. “They just don’t make them like they used to,” he concluded. I teased back: “Sure, because ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ and ‘Tutti Frutti’ and ‘Duke of Earl’ were so profound!

Musical preferences are profoundly etched into us. One generation’s trash is another generation’s treasure.

Modern worship has a bullseye on it. It’s a fairly regular occurrence that I read a blog or a reflection in a book decrying the insipid lyrics we sing in our churches or hear a complaint from a congregant about modern worship.

Last week I defended the treasure of hymns for the church. This is my defense of modern worship.

A few disclaimers:

1)      I am not claiming that all modern worship is good: there is a plenty that isn’t good;

2)      I am not making an argument that modern worship is any better than any other era of music;

3)      I am not making an argument that your church should primarily sing modern worship; there’s nothing wrong with a church that chooses songs that are several decades or several centuries old.

With that said, here are four reasons that we should enjoy modern worship:

, ,

In Defense of Hymns

, ,
In Defense of Hymns

It is probably because of my background that hymns never felt boring or old to me. I grew up in a megachurch where we sang the popular fare of choruses of the day. “Awesome God,” “As the Deer,” and “Shout to the Lord” were the songs of my childhood.

It was in college that I really experienced hymns for the first time and they felt so fresh and different from what I grew up with. I attended an historic Congregational church replete with eighteenth century pews, an organ, and a hymn board. It was there that I began to learn of the rich treasure trove of hymns the church had been blessed with by centuries of saints.

The church I attended in seminary and then went on to be a pastor at for eight years incorporated at least two hymns in every service, sung in the traditional style, with organ accompaniment. New Life, where I currently serve as a pastor, has a modern style of worship, but even so, we still have not set hymns aside. While we typically sing updated versions, we still sing hymns about twice a month.

In the coming weeks I will defend modern worship, but before I go there, I want to defend holding onto hymns. Whether or not you sing modern worship as well, I would encourage you to continue to sing hymns.

Why would we hold onto music that is so antiquated? We don’t still wear wigs and corsets, why would we sing music from a bygone era?

Sign up to get The Bee Hive delivered to your inbox and receive a free 50 Books That Changed My Life (and Might Change Yours, Too) download!