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Have You Forgotten Who You Really Are?
TAKE THE QUIZ TO DISCOVER WHAT FALSE IDENTITY YOU ARE DRAWN TO
Trading Faces is an important book for our cultural moment. John writes as an experienced pastor, and Angel as a wise counselor. Together, they expose false identities, leading readers to Christ and the revolutionary new life he offers. John and Angel’s work is biblical, honest, vulnerable, and worshipful. I believe it will help many find freedom and joy in Christ.
- Kevin P. Halloran, author of When Prayer Is a Struggle
Whether through vocation, family, marriage, political party, gender, economic status, or even what grocery store we frequent, we lean toward these identity substitutes, beginning from childhood. As a counselor and pastor, John and Angel walk with people who wear masks and are engaged in identity battles every day. In Trading Faces, they bring personal experiences and life stories, so readers will know they are not alone.
“To answer the question “Who am I?” is to set the true north of your life. Who you are in Christ is unchangeable and nonnegotiable. Understanding that your true identities are in Christ allows you to step into being who you were made to be and living how you were designed to live.” says the Beesons.
In Trading Faces, the Beesons deep dive into ten identities that masquerade as truth, and give readers help and hope that they exchange those false labels for true identities. From shame to good works to individuality to careers, they leave no identity stone unturned in the life of the reader. Each of the chapters end in a heart-felt prayer. Trading Faces also includes other helpful resources, like a Now What? section helping readers know what to do next, and an appendix, Our Biblical Identities, that breaks down who we are collectively, and what we are called to as believers. Perfect for individual or small group study, Trading Faces is a life-changing and life-giving resource for the times we are in, when knowing who we are is more important than ever.
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The tide of public opinion on abortion has ebbed dramatically over the past two years. On Friday, June 22, the Supreme Court handed down one of the most critical decisions in our lifetime: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Forty-nine years of nationally enshrined abortion rights were pushed down to the states. The battle was not over, but had just begun. Pro-lifers who thought this was the beginning of a new pro-life era were in for a disappointment. The reaction from the pro-choice community was strong and their response led to a wave of support for their cause leaving many pro-lifers flat-footed.
Suicide—when hope runs out: Jonathan Noyes, “Suicide rates have climbed 36 percent in the last 20 years, according to the Center for Disease Control.[4] Recent studies show that 13.6 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds have seriously contemplated ending their lives.”
The real reason the unchurched do not attend (and what you can do about it):Sam Rainer with an article that ought to spur us to action, “The unchurched start attending regularly because of spiritual prompts: growing spiritually (32%) and God told me to go (20%). The spiritual prompt is coupled with the personal prompt. The unchurched also start attending regularly because someone invited them (22%) and a spouse wants them to go (17%).”
Across the street from our home is the holiday house. You probably have one in your neighborhood. They go all out for every holiday. On Saturday, cars stacked up on the main road leading into the neighborhood as families drove by slowly, taking in the massive display that must have cost the owners thousands of dollars.
Last week I drove by a home whose Halloween decorations weren’t as massive or ostentatious, but the lawn display was undoubtedly the eeriest I’ve ever seen. A life-like severed head hung from a tree limb. A decapitated corpse with a visible spinal cord jutting out between slumped shoulders sat underneath.
In 2023, 46 horror movies were released. 75 million tickets were sold, and the industry made $798 million in domestic revenue alone. It’s been argued that horror movies remain a draw for many in the contemporary West because there is so little actual danger in most of our lives.
Atheist Steven Pinker in The Better Angels of Our Nature argues that we live in the most peaceful era of human existence: wars have decreased, human rights have expanded, and rates of starvation and lifespans have improved. Drawn to conflict, we now have access to global news coverage, which gives us the dopamine hit of feeling like we are in conflict.
When borders change, stay settled: Trevin Wax offers, “The descendants of Spanish settlers remain in New Mexico. Over the centuries, the borders have shifted over their heads, putting them under the rule of New Spain, or France, or Mexico, or Texas, or the United States. While the boundary markers changed, the settlers continued with their unique cultural attributes, their Spanish dialect, their old buildings and landmarks, their traditions and artifacts. There’s a lesson here for the church in unsettled times. Boundaries may shift, but we remain settled because of enduring truths.”
Who was ‘i’ without my iPhone? Luke Simon shares, “As I aged, I never grew more comfortable with myself. Instead, I spent more and more hours each day as luk3simon. It was easier that way.
BOOK REVIEWS
I confess: I was never the biggest fan of the book of Proverbs. The 31 chapters chalk full of aphorisms always felt a little too self-helpy for my taste. I struggled with the lack of grace in the book, the apparent void for the need of the redeeming work of Christ. It felt like it bordered on the prosperity gospel: big promises without nuance. I found myself scratching my head in response to verses like “A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich” (Prov 10:4), and asking, “But what about the diligent born in Venezuela?”
But now I get it! Here is how my perspective on the Proverbs has changed.
Every Sunday at 7:30 am I join a small group for prayer before the day’s activities begin. It’s such a great way to start a Sunday morning. There is something special about praying together. I love praying on my own, but I have found that in the presence of others, God often blesses me with focus that I lack on my own, with a sense of his presence that I sometimes miss on my own.
Many have had negative experiences with corporate prayer. Perhaps people droned on about distant relatives’ needs, and little time was spent in prayer. Or maybe you experienced an emotionally manipulative prayer gathering.
God made Adam and Eve to have dominion over his creation (Gen. 1:26-27). Plants were planted, cultivated, trimmed, and harvested. Delighted in his work, God rested on the seventh day “and made it holy” (Gen. 2:3). This is God’s rhythm: we are invited to work with him for six days and then rest on the seventh. Which is harder for you? Working the six or resting on the seventh?
Rest has been a consistent challenge in my life. As a type A overachiever, the do’s of Christianity come more naturally than the invitation to rest. Our culture struggles with rest. What passes for rest is usually recreation and entertainment. Good things, but not rest.
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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.