Identity, Spiritual Growth, Worship
John Beeson
God's Names and Our Identities

There was a season of worship music from my childhood where a flood of songs were released reflecting on the names of God. El Shaddai, Jehovah Jireh My Provider, and Emmanuel all spring to mind. Interest in the names of God appears to making a comeback in worship as demonstrated by the popularity of Jireh, Yahweh, and Yahweh Elyon.

The names of God have always been dear to his people. The first person in scripture to give God a name is Hagar, who calls God El Roi, “The God who sees”

God's Names and Our Identities
Recommendations, Church, Identity, Nature, Theology
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. A theology of leisure: Reagan Rose with an important piece. She says, “Many Christians have unthinkingly adopted a view of leisure that sees rest time as synonymous with me time. But this is a historical anomaly.”

  2. The church’s unsung hero: the persevering Sunday School teacher: Can we get an amen to Trevin Wax’s post? God bless our amazing faithful teachers! “Committed Sunday school teachers are a big part of what makes discipleship effective. Yet how often do we let weeks and years go by without lifting up their example or celebrating their faithfulness?”

This Week's Recommendations
Christian Living, Church, Leadership, Wisdom
John Beeson
The Danger of Driscoll In Me

A few years ago Christianity today released a podcast series entitled “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” It’s as gripping as it is sobering. In it, Mike Cosper chronicles the history of the formation of Mars Hill Church. The podcast follows Mark Driscoll’s beginnings as a church planter in 1996 when he launched Mars Hill in Seattle to his quick rise to fame to the church’s ultimate collapse. The details are excruciating. It’s heartbreaking that such an influential community could have gone from leading such a huge cultural wave to closing its doors in a matter of years (Mars Hill ceased to exist in 2014).

The Danger of Driscoll In Me
Christian Living, Spiritual Growth
John Beeson
Resolving To Do Less

I enjoy this time of year. New Year’s resolutions are right up my alley. I love the challenge of improving spiritually, emotionally, and physically. In James Clear’s Atomic Habits, Clear popularized the idea of habit stacking: linking a new habit you want to form with a habit you already faithfully perform. 

In past years, I’ve added the habits of reading through the Bible in a year, memorizing scripture, working out, and other disciplines. This year I will try something different: I’m resolving to do less.

Resolving To Do Less
Christian Living, Generosity, Gratitude, Hospitality, Marriage, Recommendations, Wisdom
John Beeson
The Best of the Bee Hive Honeycomb in 2024

Our is an Esau world. We exchange our birthright for a pot of stew, God’s Word for an endorphin hit, the eternal for the ephemeral.

My hope is that by stewarding my ministry of Words, I can help push back against that tide just a little bit. I blog first to pastor my dear congregation New Life Bible Fellowship through the ministry of the written word. 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…

The Best of the Bee Hive Honeycomb in 2024
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Are Your Resolutions Slipping?

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Are Your Resolutions Slipping?

Did you set any New Year’s resolutions for yourself this year? Perhaps you committed to a diet, to a workout plan, or to regular devotional times.

 

Are you as devoted as much now to your resolution as you were four weeks ago?

 

Perhaps you’ve dropped the ball and become frustrated with yourself. Or you decided not to even make resolutions this year because you have failed to keep them in past years. So why not just give up on making resolutions forever? Because a good and wholesome character is the outcome of consistently and healthfully formed habits. Author James Clear encourages us, “Every action you take is a vote for the kind of person you wish to become.” Educational expert Sean Covey doubles down, “We become what we repeatedly do.”

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. The question your kids shouldn’t be asking: Melissa Edgington begins, “Sometimes Christian parents feel a bit lost in the culture while raising kids. You wonder how to handle the internet, social media, shows, and music. You wonder how much to tell your kids about some of the things they’re encountering in their social circles, like gender and sexuality. You aren’t even sure what you think about some of these things or what a biblical response is to some of the more complicated questions and demands of the culture they’re experiencing. But there is one decision you can make as a Christian parent that is easy.”

  2. America’s abandoned megaprojects: Did you know that a dome was almost built over Manhattan?

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A Persecuted, but Thriving Church

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A Persecuted, but Thriving Church

We just returned from two weeks in southern India. Down is still up and up is still down. And I’m not just talking about jet lag (although that is very real, too). India is a country that is not only physically distant, but also spiritually distant. That is both a hard thing and a good thing.

India is one of the most antagonistic nations on earth toward Christians. In Open Doors’ recently published World Watch list, India is listed as the 11th most persecuted nation on earth for Christians, including a 99% rating for violence.

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Why You’re the Best Church in the World (for me)!

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Why You’re the Best Church in the World (for me)!

Our minds and hearts naturally wander. We order a meal only to watch someone at a nearby table get their order and a flash of envy stirs in us, “What is that? I should have ordered that!” We park our car and stroll into the grocery store and eye the cars that put our own to shame. Ingratitude makes our hearts grumble. Ambition turns our eyes green. “If only…” we think.

When my heart turns inward, when I allow my sin to go unchecked, I go to this place too.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Almost a quarter of the world feels lonely: Ellyn Maese shares, “Global results indicate that the lowest rates of feeling lonely are reported among older adults (aged 65 and older), with 17% feeling very or fairly lonely, while the highest rates of feeling lonely are reported among young adults (aged 19 to 29), with 27% feeling very or fairly lonely.”

  2. Q&A about assisted reproductive suicide: Aaron and Jennifer Wilson tackle some difficult issues here, “In the United States alone, there is an estimated surplus of 1 to 1.3 million human embryos—many of whom are available to be adopted.”

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Why I’m a Better Pastor (for you) than…

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Why I’m a Better Pastor (for you) than…

You have access to the best pastors in America.

At your fingertips you can access a trove of virtually endless content by some of the wisest and most powerful thinkers and speakers on the planet. As soon as you finish this post you can have them piped into your office, car, or living room and be impacted by their words. And I hope you do!

What an outrageous gift we have! If you were born five hundred and fifty years ago in Europe, in all likelihood not only could you not read the Bible, but it was likely that your parish priest didn’t own a whole copy of the Latin Bible and since he knew only a handful of Latin words, he couldn’t even read the Bible

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Don't Floss Before You Go To Church

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Don't Floss Before You Go To Church

We’re moving quickly. “We’ve got just enough time. Let’s go!” My wife and I had run an errand on our day off and had a dentist appointment in 45 minutes. If we didn’t get caught in traffic we would just be able to get home, brush, floss, swish some Listerine, and then head to our afternoon dentist appointment. Why? Because in our world, you don’t show up to a dentist appointment without your teeth in their best condition.

Two days later I drop my car off at the shop. It has a strange squeak that has me nervous. I haven’t so much as popped the hood. The car isn’t washed and a fine powder of crumbs dusts the backseat.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. When you long to know the ‘why’ behind your sorrow: Tim Challies asks, “It’s very hard to see why it has happened. Why would God allow this unremitting pain? Why would God permit this distressing sickness? Why would God take that person I love? If God cares and God loves and if God ordains and God controls, why would this be his will? How could this ever make sense?”

  2. Six things women in your church wished you knew about pregnancy loss: Mary Holloman offers us some wisdom in comforting those who have suffered loss (Angel and I are among the many who have suffered the loss of a child in pregnancy), “The overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters in Christ cared for me so well during that difficult time. However, I was shocked at the number of insensitive comments and platitudes I received from others

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How Can We Help the Hurting?

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How Can We Help the Hurting?

Hard news surrounds us. Health issues. Wars. Famine. Persecution. How can we help? The needs can feel overwhelming.

 

When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett, one of the most impactful books written about poverty alleviation from a Christian perspective in the past two decades. The book is written from the perspective of economists with significant experience in ministries seeking to make a difference in the lives of those born into poverty. As the title suggests, Fikkert and Corbett make a persuasive argument that most of the well-intentioned aid efforts of the West actually hurt those they are seeking to help.

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2023 Through God’s Eyes

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2023 Through God’s Eyes

The dawning of a New Year naturally leads to reflection on the year that has passed. It is a wise practice to pause and reflect on the ups and downs of our stories. What might God think of 2023?

I would love to be able to view the previous year from God’s perspective. Wouldn’t you? So, how can I acquire God-shaped lenses to reflect on the last year of my life?

 Every year Vox releases a video of the year in review. As I watched their 2023 review, I empathized with the creators of the video. What a dark, godless world, they appear to live in. In frame after frame of this progressive apocalyptic review, the viewer is bludgeoned by the hopelessness of it all.

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