Culture, Fear, Identity, Prayer
John Beeson
Shame and Single Serve Vodka Bottles

What is the most frequent item I pick up during my prayer walks around our campus?
Mini vodka bottles.

They’re everywhere — three billion of them are sold annually in the U.S. I’ll find them tossed onto the roadside, likely flung from moving cars. But more often, I find them in quiet clusters, tucked into corners of our church parking lot. Every bottle tells a story. Every bottle raises questions.

Why is the most common brand I find unflavored vodka?

Why would someone throw a mini bottle out of a moving vehicle?

Why pull into a church parking lot…just to drink?

Shame and Single Serve Vodka Bottles
Recommendations, Culture, Death, Suffering, Wisdom
John Beeson
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.”

This Week's Recommendations
Christian Living, Gratitude
John Beeson
How Hard Is Your Heart?

You can tell a good piece of fruit or vegetable by its color and by its feel. The avocado, though, is tricky. A novice might think that a bright green, hard avocado is the best, but counter-intuitively, the best avocados are dark, with shades of brown, giving easily to the touch. The heart of a growing Christian also gives easily to the touch.

When we seek out counsel, the state of our hearts can resist the very thing we want. A soft heart can turn mediocre counsel into pearls of wisdom. A hard heart will turn the wisest counsel into sawdust.

How Hard Is Your Heart?
Prayer, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Is Jesus the Chaplain of Your Status Quo?

When was the last time you prayed for a miracle?

Do you ever find yourself struggling to pray boldly in your prayers? I do.

Recently the New Life elders had the blessing of praying for a man with multiple sclerosis. I found myself battling over how assertive my prayers for healing ought to be. Should I be praying more for physical healing, or more for strength and faith as he battles the autoimmune disease?

We hold both of these impulses in prayer. To only pray for the miraculous and neglect the formative aspects of suffering is to fall into the lie of the prosperity gospel…

Is Jesus the Chaplain of Your Status Quo?
Recommendations
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. Some therapists aren’t telling you the truth: Christopher Cook begins, “Somewhere along the way, a cadre of therapists stopped telling people the truth. What began as a space for self-examination, emotional healing, and forward movement has slowly morphed into a mirror, one that reflects dysfunction and calls it authenticity.”

  2. School choice participation up 25%: Adam Wittenberg reports that, “These gains mark a seismic shift in how America educates its children.”

This Week's Recommendations

Heaven

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This Week’s Recommendations

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This Week’s Recommendations

  1. Why it Matters to Be Human: I have been wanting to write a similar post. Phil Cooke wrote it better. He talks about science, faith, and Covid. He begins, “One of the most tiring arguments on social media these days are from people who debate science versus religion. In so many cases, they don’t understand the purpose of each, and as a result, look in the wrong place for the answers they seek. It’s one of the reasons people who have no religious faith look on those who do as ignorant and backwards.”

  2. Have You Tasted Heaven? Tim Challies shares a simple story of a poor boy who tastes an orange for the first time. Have you ever tasted something so sweet you long to visit where it is from? There is a truth here for all of us.

  3. Americans Most Want to Avoid Fear and Anxiety, Gain Freedom and Safety: Lifeway Research’s recent poll reveals what Americans run to and run from. Asked what feeling they avoid most, “4 in 10 U.S. adults (41%) say fear. Far fewer say shame (24%) or guilt (22%). Around 1 in 10 aren’t sure.”

  4. What Motivates Sin (and How to Fight it): Amy Hall begins by explaining that sin is “…when you think you’re missing out on something good that you try to grab things God hasn’t given you in a way he hasn’t allowed. You think you’re missing out on something wonderful and that you need to rectify that situation in order to have a truly fulfilled life, when in reality, the only way to truly miss out is by not being obedient in the situation God has you in right now.”

  5. Will God Really Praise Us? John Piper answers this question, “What did you mean that we will be praised and glorified? Isn’t this for God alone? If not, what Bible verses would help this make sense to me?”

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This Week’s Recommendations

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This Week’s Recommendations

  1. Can Our Loved Ones in Heaven See Us? Randy Alcorn concludes that, “So, I believe Scripture clearly suggests our loved ones now in Heaven are witnessing, in at least some capacity, God’s unfolding plan on earth. They live in a place where joy is the air they breathe, and nothing they see on earth can diminish their joy. Their happiness doesn’t depend on ignorance, but perspective, drawn from the Christ in whose presence they live.”

  2. Joy and Idol Smashing: Glenna Marshall reflects on 18 years of marriage. She says, “Nothing kills a marriage like idolatry,” I heard my husband say recently. Healthy, Christian marriages require a lot of idol-smashing. Being angry, being right, money, intimacy, parenting, miscommunication—there’s no end to the ways we can idolize ourselves and what we want from our spouses.”

  3. 4 Ways to Fight Sexual Temptation: J. Garrett Kell begins by telling us, “The Scriptures liken Satan to a closely crouching snake or lion who is provoking passions within us that war against our souls.2 We must choke temptation to death—it is the only way out.”

  4. Learning to Enjoy Rest: Laura d’Entremont shares a story every parent identifies with, of trying to comfort a child who needs rest but refuses to sleep. She speaks to her boy, “’Baby boy,’ I whispered. ‘You’re tired; you need sleep.’” She shares how similar we are.

  5. A Vision for Engaging Post-Christian Culture: Samuel James concludes, “When we look out and see our post-Christian society, we should not see an impenetrable wall of secularism. We should see what’s actually happening: worship, worship, worship. The soul-cries of those who live haunted by the specter of transcendent truth could scarcely be louder.”

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Should I Be Baptized?

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Should I Be Baptized?

Tears frequently flow in my office. Usually the tears don’t come before entering my office, though. I met Diane[i] in the lobby and all it took was a gentle introduction to start the flow of her tears. Her son, about my age, had died from a meth overdose a few weeks ago.

In every season, Diane prayed and cried out to God for him to rescue her son. She believed that one day her son would return to his faith. He never did so definitively. In his final days in the hospital, Diane begged her son to receive Christ and be baptized. He was in and out of consciousness. At first, he seemed to resist Diane’s faith conversations. Later, as he slipped away, it seemed to Diane like he gave indications through hand squeezes and facial expressions that he wanted her to continue reading scripture, singing worship songs, and praying. And then he died.

As she concluded her story, Diane asked me a direct question, “How can I know if he is in heaven if he was never baptized?”

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Happy Dependence Day!

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Happy Dependence Day!

This week we celebrate Independence Day. I am grateful to be an American for many reasons. I appreciate the protection I have of writing without the fear of censorship hanging over me. I am thankful that we gather together weekly in corporate worship: an act for which I’ve never been threatened. I am blessed to have had the opportunity to vote for local and national officials at every election since I’ve turned 18. Democracy is a gift. There’s much to be grateful for this Independence Day.

But my national citizenship is not ultimate. When God rescued me, I was granted new citizenship. The Kingdom of Heaven is of infinitely more value than the United States of America. A perfect King rules the Kingdom of Heaven: its laws flawless, and its systems just. None live in poverty. Its citizens wake up every day with joy.

As an American citizen, I celebrate my rights and freedoms. As a citizen of the Kingdom of God, I celebrate the one to whom I have surrendered my rights and liberties. As a citizen of Christ’s Kingdom, I acknowledge my profound dependence, not independence.

If your faith is in Christ, you are a subject of the King. We are dependent on him for life, for hope, for all things. Independence, spiritually speaking, is spiritual death.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. The COVID Vaccine Has 666 Written All Over It: But That Doesn’t Matter: Matthew Halsted provides helpful clarification for the context of the Mark of the Beast. He begins with the question, “[I]sn’t there enough evidence that the vaccine is the “number” of the beast, including a bill currently before the House of Representatives (6666) and the very letters “C-O-R-O-N-A” themselves?”

2. Why is There Only One Way to Heaven? This is such a great article by Tim Challies. He begins, “It is an audacious claim of the Christian faith that there is only one way to heaven. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” we believe. Not most, not some, but all. Since all of us have sinned, all of us are lost and in need of saving.”

3. The Teachable Will Lap the Gifted: Oh my are AW Workman’s words true! He shares, “The unassuming, the unpretentious, the ones who didn’t have to lead, but who eventually led anyway because of their steady faithfulness and consistency – these friends are the ones who quietly got started in ministry, have so far persevered, and are now harvesting righteousness (James 3:18).”

4. Grief Should Always Make Us Better: Tim Challies lost his son to unforeseen and unknown medical issues late last year. He’s had a number of powerful posts on the experience. If you like this one, you should read his other posts. Challies begins, “Death is the great interrupter. Death is the great interrupter because, far more often than not, it strikes when it’s least expected. When death comes it invariably interrupts plans, dreams, projects, goals.”

5. 11 Incredible Species of Insect in Flight: Most of these look fake. Remarkable!

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1. Will We Remember Our Life in Heaven? Even the Trauma? Wyatt Graham answers this question well. He begins, "Imagine entering into heaven. Joy fills your soul. But you see some object that triggers a traumatic memory from your life. What happens to that joy now? Or say you had lived a life without trauma, yet your loved one did not share your faith. Can you rightly enjoy heaven when your spouse, child, or loved one perdures in eternal perdition?"

2. The Pornography Pandemic: Rosie Makinney reports on a much quieter spiritual pandemic sweeping the world. On just one porn site, traffic increased between 21.5%-95.3% worldwide.

3. Gaining Victory Over Temptation: H.B. Charles Jr. offers ten pieces of sound advice on how to be victorious over temptation in your life.

4. Religion and Households Around the World: Pew Research provides an interesting look at the difference of households around the world. The report begins, "Worldwide, Muslims live in the biggest households, with the average Muslim individual residing in a home of 6.4 people, followed by Hindus at 5.7. Christians fall in the middle (4.5), forming relatively large families in sub-Saharan Africa and smaller ones in Europe. Buddhists (3.9), Jews (3.7) and the religiously unaffiliated (3.7) – defined as those who do not identify with an organized religion, also known as “nones” – live in smaller households, on average."

5. How to Stack Playing Cards: I dare you to not want to try to stack cards after watching Wired’s profile of Guinness Record holder Bryan Berg.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.     Just How Big is the US Economy? This visual chart is a reminder of just how big the economies of the US and China are. Wow.

2.     5 Misconceptions About Heaven and the Afterlife: This is quite the read, with a lot loaded in here, but if you enjoyed my series on heaven last year, I think you will enjoy this more academic version. J. Richard Middleton's has several pointed moments including this one: "For many decades now I have been asking my students—whether in Bible studies, Sunday School, or in my college and seminary courses—to find even one biblical passage that clearly says that Christians will live in heaven forever (or that heaven is the eternal destiny of the believer). I have even offered a reward for success. So far no one has ever found such a passage."

3.     Why God Delights to Forgive: Scott Hubbard shares this wonderful news with us, "[D]eep down, where roots sink into soil, we wonder if God is really that happy forgiving us. Our suspicions easily replace the Bridegroom’s pleasure with pursed lips, the Shepherd’s song with a lecture, and the Father’s robe with the elder brother’s hand-me-downs. If we are going to feel and not just confess that God delights to forgive those who come to him through Jesus, we will need to grasp why he forgives."

4.     Don't Downplay Your Suffering: Regan Rose with a counter-intuitive admonition: " One of the biggest mistakes believers can make when facing a tragedy is to minimize it. I think so many of us do it because we are lacking a robust theology of suffering. So, our first reaction to a tragedy is to try and explain it away. “Hey, it could be worse!” “Everything will be okay.” “This is just a season.” Like a doctor slapping a smiley face sticker over a cancerous tumor, all some Christians know to do in the face of true calamity is to pave it over with platitudes."

5.     Crowder's Happy Day: How can you not smile when you watch this?

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Heaven Won't Be a Picnic

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Heaven Won't Be a Picnic

The Garden of Eden was no picnic. When God created Adam and Eve, he placed them in the Garden not to vacation, but to work. Before sin ever entered the picture, God formed Adan and Eve in his image, and called them to exercise dominion in the Garden of Eve.

We are called to create order from disorder, to cultivate, and till, and build. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden not just to sip Mai Tais and binge on Netflix (not that there is anything wrong with that!); they were put there for the sake of dominion. God wanted caretakers who would craft, build, and create order.

We were made for work. We were made for dominion.

There are some interesting studies that reveal the impact of not working. It has been well documented that there are significant negative mental and emotional outcomes for those who are unemployed.[i] Anxiety rises and self-confidence drops which leads to an increase in substance abuse and violence against self and others.[ii] Consider, for instance, the unhealthy of the lives of those whose profession is to be famous, like the Kardashians.

We were made to work.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

1.      What Americans Think About the Afterlife: Aaron Earlys reports that, "According to Pew Research’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study, 66 percent of American Christians say many religions can lead to eternal life." 

2.      Should Christians Arm Themselves? John Piper weighs in on the issue of nonviolence. His answer is similar to mine, “The issue is about the whole tenor and focus and demeanor and heart-attitude of the Christian life. Does it accord with the New Testament to encourage the attitude that says, ‘I have the power to kill you in my pocket, so don’t mess with me’? My answer is, No.”

3.      Younger People Decidedly More Pro-Choice: Discouraging news for Pro-Lifers. Carol Pipes reports, "A new survey from Public Religion Research Institute shows a widening generational divide on reproductive health issues and abortion, with one-quarter of young people ages 18 to 29 saying they’ve grown more supportive of abortion rights over the past few years."

4.      Rediscovering the Lost Art of Lament: Stephen Um reflects, "The Bible is not ashamed of lament. In the Psalms, 60 of the 150 are categorized as lament psalms—40%. There is one book in the Bible that is devoted to laments, and it is aptly named Lamentations. Why does the Bible embrace a lament? Because it is honest about human experience. It doesn’t settle for some superficially shallow way of describing what’s going on, as if to pretend that suffering is not serious or that it is just an illusion. We, too, must learn to meaningfully and honestly express the anguish of our hearts, if we are to avoid superficiality or pretense."

5.      Heaven Would Be Hell Without God: Randy Alcorn reflects on a thread of some recent talk about heaven: God is absent. That is a significant omission. 

6.      Nutella: a Tasty Snack Created by the Necessity of War: Interesting History of a delicious treat. 

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Anticipating Heaven

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Anticipating Heaven

“How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” This absurd question is attributed to William Chillingworth[i], who was mocking the penchant of some medieval theologians for expending their energy debating meaningless topics.

It has been famously said “Don’t be so heavenly minded you’re no earthly good.”

We’ve expended a number of weeks discussing heaven. Do these conversations and dreaming about heaven diminish our earthly usefulness?

Is talking about heaven the equivalent of debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? What does it have to do with your life? With my life?

Dreaming about heaven is no worthless theological debate over angels on the head of a pin! Our anticipation of heaven has the power to radically re-shape our lives to be more like Christ, looking toward the joy set before us.[ii]

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