Biblical Studies, Family, Suffering
John Beeson
Yesterday's Promise Might Be Today's Curse

Where would the bread come from?

Jacob heard his grandchildren’s whimpers as they rustled in the neighboring tents. He knew tears were running down their faces as their tiny empty bellies cried out.

Where would the next meal come from? The drought had devastated the crop.
Travelers from the North had spent the night. They carried bags of grain and shared news that the Pharaoh had storehouses of grain. They had met with his right-hand man, Zaphenath-paneah.

Seven years earlier, the Pharaoh was troubled. He couldn’t shake the nightmares. Skinny cows devouring fat cows, thin stalks of grain consuming fat stalks.

Yesterday's Promise Might Be Today's Curse
Christian Living, Gratitude, Relationships, Wisdom
John Beeson
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.

Wanderlust and the Christian Life
Recommendations, Family, Identity, Parenting, Relationships
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. I’ve studied over 200 kids—here are six magic phrases that make kids listen to their parents: Good things to tell people, not just your kids. Reem Raouda says, “Parents are constantly searching for ways to get their kids to listen. But a lot of us focus too much on trying to get them to obey in the moment, rather than building genuine long-term cooperation.”

  2. Seven lies about our love lives: Eric Geiger shares, “’It’s just between us’: The world, especially in the West, paints relationships as just between the two people.

This Week's Recommendations
Biblical Studies, Christian Living
John Beeson
Unbelief Isn't a Sin, or Is It?

An earnest interlocutor responded to me, “God wouldn’t hold it against me if I don’t believe in him, would he? If he hasn’t made faith clear enough, isn’t that his responsibility?”

Is unbelief a sin? Surely not!

Culturally, we don’t take unbelief very seriously. We tend to think of unbelief as a neutral characteristic, if not even something that might show a particular strength of character. We might consider someone who doesn’t believe as being sharp minded, thoughtful, or not gullible.

Many Christians even diminish the nature of unbelief. I recently read a book by a popular pastor who claimed that Jesus didn’t call his followers to believe,

Unbelief Isn't a Sin, or Is It?
Biblical Studies, Christian Living, Evangelism
John Beeson
Who Do You Critique Loudest

What comes to mind when you think of a Pharisee? A self-righteous finger-wagger? An arrogant rule follower?

Jesus was a Pharisee.

There were two major Jewish groups during Jesus’ time: the Pharisees and the Sadducees (a smaller number of Jews were part of the Essenes, a separatist group). The Pharisees and Sadducees both emerged after the Hasmonean dynasty (The Jewish rulers who gained independence after the Maccabean revolt (167-160 BC) were known as the Hasmoneans).

The Sadducees controlled the Temple and had political favor with the Romans. They accepted only the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and rejected oral tradition.

Who Do You Critique Loudest

Jacob

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Yesterday's Promise Might Be Today's Curse

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Yesterday's Promise Might Be Today's Curse

Where would the bread come from?

Jacob heard his grandchildren’s whimpers as they rustled in the neighboring tents. He knew tears were running down their faces as their tiny empty bellies cried out.

Where would the next meal come from? The drought had devastated the crop.
Travelers from the North had spent the night. They carried bags of grain and shared news that the Pharaoh had storehouses of grain. They had met with his right-hand man, Zaphenath-paneah.

Seven years earlier, the Pharaoh was troubled. He couldn’t shake the nightmares. Skinny cows devouring fat cows, thin stalks of grain consuming fat stalks.

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Cactus Spines and Groaning

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Cactus Spines and Groaning

Spine: that’s the technical word for the pointy things that come out of cacti. Most Arizonans use more colloquial expressions like prickers or stickers when referencing them. Either way, they’re nothing to laugh at. If you’ve lived in the Sonoran desert for any length of time, you’ve used a pair of tweezers to yank them from your skin.

After my parents moved to Tucson, my grandfather visited from Florida. Amazed by the beautiful and seemingly soft “fur” covering prickly pear cacti, he stroked the fuzz. The prickly pear gifted him with a few hundred spines that pierced his fingertips. He groaned.

Recently I was doing some yard work and got too close to a saguaro’s spine as I tried to weed around the base of the cactus. The spine pierced my fingernail. I groaned.

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The Enemy Speaks To You In Your Father's Voice

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The Enemy Speaks To You In Your Father's Voice

Have you ever felt forsaken or rejected by a parent like one of Joseph's brothers? Could you imagine the claws of envy that would clutch at your heart wanting to be loved as deeply as your sibling? Do you hear negative scripts play in your head? "You'll never be as good as him." "Father will never love you like that." Even the names of their moms likely played into the trap of jealousy. Rachel (Joseph’s mother) was the "ewe lamb," but Leah was the "wild cow," and the two maidservants' names also spoke diminishment: Zilpah the "drop," and Bilhah, "trouble."

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