Christmas, Theology, Advent, Church, Hospitality
John Beeson
The Faithfulness of God of the Manger

Recently we had someone over and as the night came to a close Angel warmly offered, “Let’s do this again soon!” I wilted as I processed just how many things were on our calendar in the coming month. Just like Angel did, I wanted to be with them again and soon, but her invitation made me flinch.

 

My wife Angel and I are very different people. Angel brings light and life everywhere. People are drawn to her, and she is drawn to people. One of the many things I love about Angel is how she gets caught up in a moment with people. In that space, it’s not unusual that she shares hopes with those we are with of spending more time together. And she means it: there is no doubt of her genuineness.

The Faithfulness of God of the Manger
Advent, Christmas, Theology
John Beeson
A Humble God?

“I don’t compare myself with anybody, but nobody is better.” Michael Jordan

“They say the sky’s the limit, but I think my potential is beyond it.” Jay-Z

“I won’t be happy until I’m as famous as God” Madonna

“I won’t be a rock star. I will be a legend.” Freddie Mercury

“We’re more popular than Jesus now.” John Lennon

We tend to expect that greatest among us are also some of the most arrogant. And why wouldn’t they be? For many who make it to the top of their field, we can see how that arrogance can be a driving force for their greatness.

A Humble God?
Christmas, Forgiveness, Theology
John Beeson
The Just and the Justifier

God became flesh.

Let that sink in. Christianity asserts that God—sovereign, immutable, omnipotent, other—the eternal God who has no beginning and end—became a human being.

 Because many of us have had exposure to Christianity from our early years, it is easy to miss how massive the theological implications of the incarnation are. The incarnation lays the groundwork for a God who chooses to participate in his creation. The incarnation denies the existence of an abstract and distant God, unmuddied by his handiwork.

The Just and the Justifier
Advent, Christmas, Theology
John Beeson
The Theology of the Manger

“God did not, as the Bible says, create man in his own image; on the contrary, man created God in his own image.” Ludwig Feuerbach dropped this theological bombshell three years before Friedrich Nietzsche’s birth. Feuerbach, a name forgotten by most, but who influenced Nietzsche, wrote these words in his book, The Essence of Christianity (1841). He argued that human beings project their own attributes and desires onto an imagined deity, creating God in their own image. This for Feuerbach, is the essence of Christianity (and indeed all religions), the deification of our human ideals. “What man wishes to be, he makes his God… God is the outward projection of a man’s inward nature.”

The Theology of the Manger
Death, Gratitude, Prayer, Suffering
John Beeson
Go To a Funeral

We Westerners avoid death.

 

When was the last time you walked through a cemetery? When was the last funeral you went to? Our churches no longer have cemeteries, those who are older head to retirement communities and then to head to long-term care or assisted care facilities. The number of funerals held in churches has diminished. Death has become professionalized, antisepticised, and remote.

Go To a Funeral

goguzzo

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Grumbling to Gratitude

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Grumbling to Gratitude

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a time where God’s powerful and miraculous hand was impossible to deny? Such were the days of the Israelites who lived during Moses’s lifetime.

The books of Exodus and Numbers track God’s miraculous rescue of Israel out of the clutches of centuries of Egyptian enslavement. God isn’t only going to rescue his people; he is taking them to the long-awaited Promised Land.

There is only one obstacle preventing Israel from escaping from Egypt and seizing the Promised Land. That obstacle isn’t Pharaoh and his massive army. It isn’t the imposing Red Sea. It isn’t even the entrenched Canaanite forces.

The only obstacle is the grumbling hearts of the Israelites.

The two words in Hebrew that are translated “grumble” are lun and ragan. Lun has the connotation of growling. Ragan has the connotation of whispered rebellion. The word in Greek that is translated as grumble is a fun word to say: gogguzo. The word sits in the back of your throat and you have to spit it out. Just for fun say it out loud now (a nice scowl makes it even better).

Each of these three words captures the state of each of our hearts in the midst of our grumbling. When we grumble we growl against God. Recently a congregant showed me the 22 stitches he received when a dog thought he was a threat. Like an angry dog who misperceives your kind intentions to pet it, we growl against our gentle and kind Heavenly Father wanting to love and care for us. When we grumble, we rebel against God’s rule. Our grumbling declares our distrust of God’s sovereign rule over our lives. “Not good enough!” we spit at the Almighty.

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