Fear, Forgiveness, Identity, Wisdom
John Beeson
Breaking the Power of Shame

Shame has power.

Shame is one of the most destructive forces on this earth. Shame is harmful because it attacks our spiritual and emotional life. Unlike guilt, shame can come from actions that aren’t even wrong. People experience shame over their body and over their family of origin. Shame is a visceral and physical experience that can manifest itself in depression and self-medicating. Shame tells us totalizing truths about ourselves, often truths that cannot be remedied. “You’re always,” “you will never” shame whispers.

Shame is different from guilt in that where guilt is connected with our actions, shame is connected to our identity.

Breaking the Power of Shame
Biblical Studies, Reading, Spiritual Growth, Wisdom, Worship
John Beeson
The Transforming Word

With a new year comes new resolutions: aspirations for improvement. If you could add just one discipline to your life, which one would make the most impact? Diet? Exercise? Meditation?

The answer might be reading the Bible.

If you think about, it’s not surprising that God’s Word is so transformative in our lives. Do you remember the first novel you cried when you read? Do you remember reading a book that changed the way you think about life? I have a distinct memory from seventh grade. A frayed paperback copy of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men shook in my hands as I wept over the final scene with George and Lennie.

The Transforming Word
Recommendations, Church, Death, Family, History, Vocation
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. The dignity of ordinary work: Alastair Herd says, “When researchers examined what actually predicts whether workers feel their jobs are useless, they discovered something profound. The strongest correlation was with a single factor: whether workers felt respected by their immediate manager.”

  2. What Martha’s problem really was: Cindy Matson asks, “But what if Martha’s problem didn’t have anything to do with hospitality or domestic chores? And what if you and I struggle like Martha far more often than we think?”

This Week's Recommendations
Gratitude, Reading, Recommendations, Vocation
John Beeson
The Best of the Bee Hive 2025

“Gracious words are like a honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and health to the body.”

Proverbs 16:24

I write because I believe these words to my core. Following a forty day fast, Jesus responds to Satan’s temptation to turn loaves into bread, by quoting Moses’s admonition to the Israelites who had seen that very type of miracle every day for forty days, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4/Dt. 8:3).

Israel had depended on God’s miraculous hand to bring manna for forty years—what could be more important than this daily bread?

The Best of the Bee Hive 2025
Forgiveness, Identity, Counseling, Religion, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Your Heart Is Not a Toy

“That isn’t a toy!” parents warn a child playing with a knife or a hammer.

Pharaoh thought he could play a game with God and win. He lost.

Your heart is not a toy.

The story of God’s battle with Pharaoh in the book of Exodus is the story of the consequences of a hardened heart. It’s the story of someone who thought they could toy with God and with their heart. We cannot.

In the first five plagues, Pharaoh’s hardens his heart three times and his heart “is hardened” (it’s ambiguous who is doing the hardening) twice.

Your Heart Is Not a Toy

Wisdom

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Breaking the Power of Shame

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Breaking the Power of Shame

Shame has power.

Shame is one of the most destructive forces on this earth. Shame is harmful because it attacks our spiritual and emotional life. Unlike guilt, shame can come from actions that aren’t even wrong. People experience shame over their body and over their family of origin. Shame is a visceral and physical experience that can manifest itself in depression and self-medicating. Shame tells us totalizing truths about ourselves, often truths that cannot be remedied. “You’re always,” “you will never” shame whispers.

Shame is different from guilt in that where guilt is connected with our actions, shame is connected to our identity.

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The Transforming Word

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The Transforming Word

With a new year comes new resolutions: aspirations for improvement. If you could add just one discipline to your life, which one would make the most impact? Diet? Exercise? Meditation?

The answer might be reading the Bible.

If you think about, it’s not surprising that God’s Word is so transformative in our lives. Do you remember the first novel you cried when you read? Do you remember reading a book that changed the way you think about life? I have a distinct memory from seventh grade. A frayed paperback copy of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men shook in my hands as I wept over the final scene with George and Lennie.

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Wanderlust and the Christian Life

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Wanderlust and the Christian Life

“Oh the places you’ll go!” Dr. Seuss believed that the true achiever is an adventurer: “You’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air. Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.”

“We’re taking a vision trip to Florida,” our friends shared. Tired of the heat of the Sonoran Desert, they set out to find the perfect place for their family to settle. I’ve been part of several similar conversations. It’s healthy for couples to dream together. I’ve seen God weave those dreams into something that honors him and blesses others.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Go ahead, bring a knife to a gunfight: Tim Challies says, “They say you should never bring a knife to a gunfight. It’s a colorful little proverb that emphasizes the value of proper preparation, yet I’m not sure it’s a proverb God cares much for. I sometimes think of the biblical judge Shamgar, who entered a battle armed with only an ox-goad—a stick used to poke oxen to get them to comply with directions. Shamgar brought an ox-goad to a sword fight, yet emerged victorious and with 600 Philistines dead at his feet.

  2. Help! I think I’m a bad parent: Adam Griffin says, “Our inadequacy in parenting is a great gift. If we weren’t inadequate, when would we run to Jesus?

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A Prayer for the Loud Lord

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A Prayer for the Loud Lord

Today I have the opportunity to share another one of my daughter, Camille’s poems. She wrote this poem during her time serving at the Grand Canyon this past summer. –John

a prayer for the Loud Lord

 

You are loud here. winds wind through royal blue stone, drowning my breath.

so small. so fleeting. so futile. but the vapor of a whisper.

i don’t need to go anywhere to find you. You are here. 

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Are we the idols? Andrew Noble says, “It is strange to become an idol, isn’t it? It’s hard to wrap your mind around. Yet every day, people are morphing into something like mud. Instead of functioning as images of God, they worship idols and turn into lifeless dust. Life goes wrong when we don’t worship right.”

  2. Weakness in God’s economy: Kirsten shares, “As I consider my heart, my struggle does not come in whether or not I believe that God is able to heal; I believe that God is able to do all that pleases him. Rather, my struggle comes in believing whether or not God is willing; at least in the timeframe I am hoping and praying.”

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Why Didn't We Preach About Charlie Kirk's Assassination?

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Why Didn't We Preach About Charlie Kirk's Assassination?

Last week, on the eve of the anniversary of 9/11, Charlie Kirk was assassinated. The founder of Turning Point, USA, Kirk was an outspoken Christian conservative.

On Sunday, before our sermon, we prayed for our country in light of the assassination, the religiously motivated shooting in Minneapolis, the racially motivated murder in Charlotte, and the school shooting in Denver. We kept the rest of the service as planned. We preached on the planned text in 1 Corinthians 7 and shared the same announcements that had been planned.

On Sunday afternoon, I spent an hour and a half with a family member processing their upset that their church spent most of their Sunday service focused on Kirk’s murder.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. When safety becomes a god: Christopher Cook warns, “We’re living in a cultural moment where safety has been enthroned as the highest virtue. You hear it everywhere: “I need to feel safe here.” “I need to feel seen.” “I need to feel welcome.” On the surface, these phrases sound kind. Compassionate, even. But beneath the sentimental polish, there’s often an unspoken expectation: ‘Don’t challenge me.’”

  2. A biblical pathway to emotional wisdom: Dan Brewer says, “Our emotions are not a flaw in God’s design. They are not a curse either—they are a gift.

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Johnny Depp and the One in Sixty Rule

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Johnny Depp and the One in Sixty Rule

What do you want in life? Fame? Power? Money? Beauty? There are few who check off more of these boxes than Johnny Depp. One of the most recognizable people on the planet, Depp is one of only four men to be twice named the Sexiest Man Alive. His net worth peaked at over $800 million.

Who wouldn’t want to be Johnny Depp?

And yet, all it takes is a quick scroll through the web to see that this man’s life inspires more pity than envy. A few year’s ago Johnny Depp’s ex-wife, Amber Heard accused Depp of domestic abuse. Depp fought back with a lawsuit charging Heard with abuse.

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Servant Leadership and Decision Making

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Servant Leadership and Decision Making

What do you want for dinner tonight?

What do you want to watch?

What do you want to do this weekend?

Do you ever feel exhausted by making decisions? More than a few times, Angel and I have come home from hard days at work and looked at each other, “Would you please make a decision about what we are going to eat for dinner?” Researchers note that “by the time the average person goes to bed, they’ve made over 35,000 decisions and all of those decisions take time and energy.”

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