Christian Living, Christmas, Leadership, Recommendations, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Best Books to Gift This Christmas

Few gifts are more meaningful than a thoughtfully chosen book. It’s a gift that can offer hope, wisdom, and even fun. As you consider your Christmas gift, here are a few books you might want to consider for loved ones.

Best Books to Gift This Christmas
Gratitude, Prayer, Spiritual Growth, Suffering
John Beeson
Thankful in 2024

Have you had hard 2024? Are you looking forward to the page turning to a new year? I think of dear people in our family at New Life who have lost loved ones, who are battling cancer, mental illness, whose marriages ended, or who have lost jobs. I’m so sorry if 2024 was a hard year for you.

May I invite James to one of the open seats at your Thanksgiving table? Let me warn you, though, James is the uncle who shoots straight. You might not like what he has to say. But you know he always speaks truthfully and with a heart of love for you.

Thankful in 2024
Christian Living, Culture, Politics, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Vulgar Authenticity

Who is your favorite celebrity? Your favorite political pundit? Your favorite politician?

Why are you drawn to these individuals? Maybe it is their personality. Perhaps it is because you respect their convictions. Possibly, it is because of their unique style.

Taylor Swift might be the most beloved celebrity in the world. Many have commented that one of the reasons that Swift has cultivated such a devoted following is her accessibility and down-to-earth qualities, from what she wears to the love stories she writes about in her music.

Vulgar Authenticity
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

Culture

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The Seat of the Scoffers

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The Seat of the Scoffers

How loud are the voices of scoffers in your life? The mockers, the angry, the rude, the crass. How much ear do you give to those who tear you down rather than gently exhort or build you up?

Ours is the age of the scoffer. Hop on YouTube and type in anything remotely political and you’ll get a stream of scornful headlines:

  • Shapiro destroys feminist

  • Ocasio-Cortez slaps down Fox News

  • Jordan Peterson obliterates woke liberals

  • Whoopi Goldberg demands Meghan McCain stop talking

It’s not just YouTube. Briefly perusing popular shows over the past decade demonstrates just how harsh, dark, and biting our world is.

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Chasing the Rabbit

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Chasing the Rabbit

Bob Buford tells a story about dog races in his book Finishing Well that rattled my heart when I first read it and continues to shake me:

“One of my favorite stories is about the dog races in Florida. They train these dogs to chase an electric rabbit, and one night the rabbit broke down and the dogs caught it. But they didn’t know what to do with it. They were just leaping around, yelping and biting one another, totally confused about what was happening. I think that’s a picture of what happens to all sorts of people who catch the rabbit in their life

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. The $40M bet that made South Korea a food and cultural power: Fun story about Gastrodiplomacy (it explains the explosion of Thai restaurants as well). “Gastrodiplomacy, a term first coined by The Economist in 2002, happens when governments try to increase the value and knowledge of their nation through food.”

  2. Daniel’s three tips for surviving the university of Babylon: Catie Robertson and Andrew Selby offer lots of wisdom in this article, “As young men, Daniel and his friends in Babylon studied alongside unbelieving peers to receive a rigorous secular education under a regime that demanded obedience. Daniel’s story can help believing college students not only survive but thrive in their own Babylons. Let’s consider his advice.”

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. ·  Geopsychology: your personality depends on where you live: Take a look at where you live and have lived on this and see if it lines up. Agreeableness and conscientiousness stood out to me.

  2. ·  The professionals most likely to be paired up in marriage: Andrew Van Dam stuffs a lot more than you might think in this report. He begins, “The top spot goes to medical doctors, according to our analysis of responses to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey over the past decade. Not-that-kind-of-doctors, also known as college professors, come in second.”

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In Defense of the Love Song to God

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In Defense of the Love Song to God

“God isn’t your boyfriend!” You’ve likely heard a well-meaning critic 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”?

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In Defense of Hymns

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In Defense of Hymns

It was probably because of my background that hymns never felt boring or old or stodgy to me. I grew up in a megachurch where we sang the popular fare of choruses of the day, not hymns. “Awesome God,” “As the Deer,” and “Shout to the Lord” were the songs of my childhood.

It was in college, then, that I really experienced hymns for the first time. 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 (some of you knew exactly what hymns were being sung just by their numbers, didn’t you?). 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.

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Constructing Culture: Healthy Churches Multiply

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Constructing Culture: Healthy Churches Multiply

In the sixty-five-year history of New Life we’ve planted five churches intentionally and at least three unintentionally. I’ve heard the unintentional church plant called a “splant”—a conflation of “split” and “plant.” If you’ve been a Christian for a while, you’ve probably lived through one…

…Planting churches is taxing on the mother church. It takes time, energy, finances, and (most significantly) people. It’s painful. But it’s biblical.

Churches, like people, are intended to be streams not ponds, highways, not cul-de-sacs.

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Constructing Culture: Big Church, Small Feel

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Constructing Culture: Big Church, Small Feel

What’s the perfect size for a church? 50? 500? 5000?

You could argue why each of these church sizes is optimal. You will have an intimate relationship with your pastor at the church of fifty. You might be in the same small group, he will be there for your child’s graduation, and when you come to a worship service, you’ll probably know everyone (except that one new family) by name. You’re going to be able to step into leadership roles and shape the direction of the church even if you don’t have a lot of experience in leadership. You feel the blessing that your church is making a profound impact in the lives of a handful of people and you know their stories.

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Constructing Culture: Life Is Better Together

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Constructing Culture: Life Is Better Together

“Wilson, where are you? Wilson! Wilson! I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Wilson. Wilson, I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Wilson! I can’t!”

If you’ve seen Cast Away, this scene is likely etched in your memory. Chuck Noland (played by Tom Hanks) is on his rudimentary raft trying to paddle to freedom when his beach volleyball companion falls off and begins floating away. Stranded on a deserted island for four years, the volleyball is Noland’s only friend. Your heart breaks as Noland’s inanimate friend drifts away.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. How cancel culture points to the gospel: Marie Burrus says, “Like most cultural elements, cancel culture does get some things right. Throughout Scripture, we’re reminded that injustice and evil should be uncovered and eliminated. Though we may not affirm its methods, cancel culture points to the truth of human depravity and the prevalence of injustice in our world.”

  2. Think little: Darryl Dash with a related article, “So often, we’re focused on the big. I’m grateful for those who are faithful in big things. I just think it’s time we stopped overlooking what God does through the rest of us who aren’t powerful, connected, and leveraged. It’s time to move from focusing on what’s big and powerful to seeing what God can do through the ordinary, even when it doesn’t look like much.”

  3. When I was losing my marriage, Jesus taught me to forgive: Sheila Dougal shares, “Suffering when someone hurts you doesn’t save you or anyone else. But walking through this suffering with Jesus brings a miraculous change in our lives because of the blood of Christ which does save us. It’s the love of Christ that compels us to forgive others. As we look at Jesus and what he has done at the cross—bearing our unjust acts and wicked thoughts—his love grows in us and empowers us to forgive rather than begrudge.”

  4. An easier way to read Revelation: Have you ever felt stumped by the final book of the Bible? Jim Davis offers some helpful advice to the reader, “Revelation is notoriously confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. Yes, there are dragons, angels, antichrists, and (seemingly) multiple returns of Christ. But if we read this book through the lens of recapitulation, it becomes easier to understand.”

  5. Why do snakes have forked tongues? Isn’t our Creator amazing?

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