This Week's Recommendations

This Week's Recommendations
  1. 3 core beliefs of the transgender movement: Samuel Ferguson with a helpful analysis, “We can’t understand the transgender movement if we don’t grasp how it relates to our culture’s obsession over the question Who am I? Traditionally, our identity was something we received, and it was therefore relatively stable.”

  2. The house seems large todayTim Challies with a poignant reflection I identify with as our children launch. “The house seems large today. Just a few years after we got married Aileen and I bought the only house we could afford at the time—a little townhouse in an older neighborhood. We never left, never moved on, never traded up. It was big enough for our needs and we happily raised our children here. Though it often seemed too small, today it seems a bit too large.

A New Identity for the New Year

A New Identity for the New Year

As youngsters grow into teenagers and teenagers into young adults, it is more likely that roles become substitute identities. The amorphous blob of elementary children separates into distinct groups—the geeks, jocks, thespians, musicians, punks, emo kids, mean girls, preps, and church kids. What teenage movie doesn’t riff on the interplay among these groups? Despite what they say, every teen longs to embody a label. We want to be able to make sense of who we are and where we fit in this world.

I remember one summer when my parents took our family to a one-week camp in New Mexico. During the day, we divided into our respective age groups. I went off with the eleven- and twelve-year-olds.

The Best of the Bee Hive in 2023

The Best of the Bee Hive in 2023

Writing is part of the ministry God has entrusted me with. I blog first to pastor my dear congregation New Life Bible Fellowship through the ministry of words. My hope is that the three additional touchpoints during the week allow those God has entrusted to me as an under-shepherd to grow in their love for God, their wisdom, and to foster unity. I’m grateful for the many who read who aren’t part of New Life. I pray that my writing encourages and strengthens you in your walk and in your heart for your local church.

This Week's Recommendations

This Week's Recommendations
  1. 5 ways the world would be worse without Christianity: Sharon James with an excellent rebuff of this cultural push-back, “Christians are instructed to “check their privilege” and “do the work” to repudiate Christianity’s toxic legacy. But what would the world really be like without Christianity?”

  2. How Asian artists picture Jesus’ birthI just loved these pieces that are so different from Western portrayals.

  3. A church is not just a truth-dispensing centerSam Allberry and Ray Ortlund conclude, “Our love for one another is not only meant to be clearly observable by the watching world. It’s to be so strikingly Godlike that it cannot be explained except by the reality of the gospel. The gospel doctrines of the incarnation (“you sent me”) and of justification (“and loved them”) will become more visible and nonignorable through the love we show one another in Christ.”

What I Read in 2023 (and perhaps some books you might want to read in 2024)

What I Read in 2023 (and perhaps some books you might want to read in 2024)

This year, Angel and I celebrated the release of our first book, Trading Faces. Any author knows how much of their heart they pour into writing and the blessing it is to have people interact with what you’ve crafted on the page. We’ve been so encouraged by those who have written us to share ways the book has impacted them. Laboring over the art of writing has made me a more charitable reader. I know how easy it is for my writing to become aimless, for ideas in my mind to become muddled on the page.

Christmas Songs: Song of the Lamb

Christmas Songs: Song of the Lamb

The majestic High King of Heaven came in human flesh to be born among livestock. As if to emphasize the connection between Jesus and sheep, God announced the birth of his son to shepherds. Not long after his birth, a flock of sheep surrounded the newborn. 

The babe born among the lambs is the Lamb who would be slain.

John the Baptist picked up on this connection. Seeing Jesus coming toward him, he declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). These words that announce Jesus’ ministry, will echo in eternity.

This Week's Recommendations

This Week's Recommendations
  1. Candlelight: Scott Schuleit considers candlelight and Jesus’s birth, “And further back in the sanctuary, something was veiled, hidden—a single, tiny radiating spot of fire, a whisper from heaven, perfect convergence of candle and flame. The uniqueness of its presence swallowing up a sense of the vastness of space as if all eternity, the great weight of it, stood hushed, gazing.”

  2. Five myths about mental healthTom Karel begins, “Mental illness. For many, that is a scary term. ‘You have a mental illness.’ This statement borders on terrifying! It brings up many unsettling thoughts and complicated fears in our hearts and minds. This subject is further confused by the many differing opinions swirling around the internet. Moreover, in the post-Christian era in which we live, Christians may wonder if the advice they find is true, scientific, or Biblical?”

Christmas Songs: Simeon's Song

Christmas Songs: Simeon's Song

There are some who spend hours at their church a week because they are fearful to be outside her walls. Then there are those who are a fixture because they are so thirsty for the presence of God. Simeon was the latter. He was a righteous and devout man. And he yearned for the coming of his Savior.

Christmas Songs: The Angel's Song

Christmas Songs: The Angel's Song

It seems God gets particular satisfaction in pouring out his breathtaking beauty in the unlikeliest places. Consider the absurd beauty of the Aurora Borealis, which only a tiny fraction of the world’s population has ever beheld. Consider places of remote and stunning beauty that only a few humans have ever witnessed: caves, Antarctica, the Amazon rainforest, and the ocean. Or things that no human has ever seen in person, such as the Sombrero galaxy or interstellar clouds that can be seen from the edge of the Milky Way. God delights in putting his glory on display for small audiences.

There was an audience who beheld the glory of God in a way we can scarcely imagine the night of Jesus’s birth.

This Week's Recommendations

This Week's Recommendations
  1. Strength and support: addressing domestic abuse within the church: Chris Moles suggests, “In the journey to healing from domestic abuse, it’s important to recognize the importance of God’s church and the community of believers. We are not designed to struggle alone. This community can provide survivors with spiritual, emotional, and practical support as they seek to escape the cycle of abuse and rebuild their lives.”

  2. 5 reasons not to follow your heartThaddeus Williams explains, “Under the trendy orthodoxy of expressive individualism, life is no longer about bringing our inner selves into the tempo and key of beauty, goodness, and truth. It’s about finding our own inner tune, marching to our own beat, and conducting those around us to play along with our anthems of autonomy.”