Church, Family, Marriage, Orphan Care, Parenting
John Beeson
Blessed to Multiply

Weeks before I received my first calling as a pastor, the elders decided that they were going to seek tWho wouldn’t want to experience God’s blessing? So, then, how can we step into the blessing of God? One of the straightforward ways the Bible teaches us that he blesses us is through children. Look, for instance, at the book of Genesis, where blessing is directly correlated to having children:

 

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:28)

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Gen. 9:1)

The angel of the Lord also said to [Hagar], “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” (Gen. 16:10) acquire property and build a new facility for the church. They informed me that leading the relocation and capital campaign efforts would be part of my job. As a fresh seminary graduate, I had precisely zero requisite experience for the task. I had no experience in fundraising or contracting. And, of course, seminary did not include any preparation for the task.

 Over the course of those years, I had to learn a lot, but perhaps the most important lesson I learned was that leading a congregation through a capital campaign could be a significant spiritual blessing.

Blessed to Multiply
Church, Gratitude, Prayer, Religion
John Beeson
You and the Universal Church

Healthy Christians know that the Church is bigger than their church. We call this the universal church, the collective body of all followers of Jesus worldwide and across history. This spiritual entity is invisible, transcending denominations.

Unhealthy churches and denominations communicate directly and indirectly that they are the only true church. Unsound churches make the opposite error: not drawing any boundaries for who is outside of the orthodox church.

But what does this mean for the ordinary Christian? For many Christians, it doesn’t mean much at all. Their only meaningful connection to the church is with their church.

You and the Universal Church
Recommendations, Culture, Music, Prayer, Science
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. What ‘gentle parenting’ misunderstands about human nature: Michael Reneau and Megan Dent explain, “A core feature of Jesus’ gentleness to sinners was his understanding that they were trapped in a world in which the sinful parts of their nature were likely to be tempted and exploited, again and again. In this sense, sinners were indeed victims. But Jesus suggests that their problem was not that other human beings weren’t catering to their every emotional need (and in the process, eliding their own), but rather that they had become lost in a longing that Augustine called concupiscence: an immense desire, or ardent longing for fulfilment that often leads one astray, toward hubris, power, violence, lust, or material greed.”

This Week's Recommendations
Church, Finance, Generosity, Gratitude, Prayer, Wisdom
John Beeson
Fundraising for the Glory of God

Weeks before I received my first calling as a pastor, the elders decided that they were going to seek to acquire property and build a new facility for the church. They informed me that leading the relocation and capital campaign efforts would be part of my job. As a fresh seminary graduate, I had precisely zero requisite experience for the task. I had no experience in fundraising or contracting. And, of course, seminary did not include any preparation for the task.

 Over the course of those years, I had to learn a lot, but perhaps the most important lesson I learned was that leading a congregation through a capital campaign could be a significant spiritual blessing.

Fundraising for the Glory of God
Spiritual Growth, Church, Evangelism, Generosity, Worship
John Beeson
Worshiping Through Our Service

Most Sundays, like most churches, New Life Bible Fellowship gathers to sing, pray, and hear the Word of God preached. This is a beautiful, biblical rhythm (Acts 2:42). But what if, on occasion, the most faithful way to worship is not inside the walls of the church but outside, serving our community? Once a year, we gather to Love Tucson. Before we worship, pray, and hear God’s Word together, we serve at a partner school.

Love Tucson is one of my favorite Sundays of the year.

Worshiping Through Our Service
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Political Trench Warfare

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Political Trench Warfare

Just over a hundred years ago the world was mired in the Great War, what would come to be called World War I. Parallel trenches were constructed across Europe. Millions of young men with baryonetted rifles in hand lined the muddy ditches. Fighting was brutal with thousands of lives lost for gains measured in feet, not miles.

Trenches may be a thing of the past when it comes to warfare, but they are alive and well when it comes to political conversations. We line up shoulder-to-shoulder with our brothers-in-arms and fire rounds across no man’s land to the other side.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Maybe you don’t need a therapist: O. Alan Noble says, “I suspect that many people don’t need to see a therapist, or will only need to see one for a brief time to deal with an acute problem like the loss of a loved one. Everyone will suffer. Everyone will need wise counsel and encouragement and guidance and someone to talk to, but not everyone needs that guidance to come from a licensed mental health professional.”

  2. We can’t be friends: T.M. Suffield writes on the absence of deep male friendship and how to buck the trend, “And perhaps,

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The Untrustworthiness of Me

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The Untrustworthiness of Me

My car glided down our suburban streets when I noted the silver Civic maneuver a hurried U-turn a hundred yards or so in front of me. “That’s quite an aggressive driver,” I thought to myself. I watched as the driver floored their Civic and closely tailed the SUV in front of them in the right lane. “Oh wow,” I thought. That young man is in a hurry or is angry. The Civic kept tailing the SUV even though the left lane was empty. “This must be personal,” I thought.

 As we came up to the stop light, I was cautious.

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Are You Wearing Spiritual Spanx?

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Are You Wearing Spiritual Spanx?

$1.3 billion: that’s Sara Blakely's net worth. In 2000, Blakely began going door to door with an invisible product. Well, invisible to everyone but the wearer. Spanx was a very different kind of underwear, created to help shape the wearer's body: tucking, hiding, and shaping your body to make you feel better. No longer did you have to go to the gym to get the body you wanted. You could shape your body with your underwear.

If you are as old as me or older, you remember when gym clothes were bulky and formless. Sweatpants and oversized t-shirts were once the expected attire.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Outrage is not a fruit of the Spirit: Randy Alcorn with a timely reminder, “Outrage appears to now be a core value of some Christians. Righteous indignation is sometimes appropriate, e.g. when it involves the killing of children, or false doctrine promoted at the expense of the gospel. But when outrage/anger becomes our default, we lose all credibility and, in my opinion, become poor ambassadors for Christ.”

  2. Your holy deeds are not filthy rags: John Piper clarifies an oft-misunderstood verse. He says, “God does not despise the righteous deeds of his children done by faith. What verse 6 is referring to in calling righteous deeds “filthy rags” is the hypocritical works that flow from nothing.”

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Should My Counselor Be Licensed?

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Should My Counselor Be Licensed?

Looking for a counselor can be overwhelming. How do you know if they will be good? Are they properly trained? Are they a Christian? If they are a Christian, how much does their Christian worldview shape their counsel?

 

One of the most frequent pieces of advice I hear is to seek out a licensed Christian counselor. I recently finished a book by a counselor I respect who offered this advice a number of times throughout her book. Near the end of the book, she explained that she urges people to seek a licensed counselor because licensure certifies that the counselor has received proper training and isn’t offering faulty or half-baked advice.

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Why Are We All So Anxious?

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Why Are We All So Anxious?

Gallup recently reported that, “The percentage of U.S. adults who report having been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lifetime has reached 29.0%, nearly 10 percentage points higher than in 2015. The percentage of Americans who currently have or are being treated for depression has also increased, to 17.8%, up about seven points over the same period. Both rates are the highest recorded by Gallup since it began measuring depression using the current form of data collection in 2015.”

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. How Christians can fight the war on lies: Joe Carter lays out four fronts of the war on truth: emotional, narrative, institutional, and tribalistic. He concludes, “In following the way of Jesus, we preserve our witness and offer hope to a world drowning in deception. For in Christ, we find not just the truth that sets us free but the strength to stand firm in that truth, come what may.”

  2. Impossibly, gradually, miraculously changed: Glenna Marshall with a post that drips with hope! “They glint in the morning light, impossibly shiny and smooth. Where they lived and how they lived in nature made them what they are. Some have tiny holes in them where scavenging snails once drilled in through their delicate exterior for prey. The shiny surface tells the story, imperfections and all. Their bodies keep the score, if you will.

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What Do Teens Believe?

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What Do Teens Believe?

Are you encouraged or discouraged about teens? If you’re a teen, what is your perception of your peers? Are you hopeful? Or pessimistic? Not long ago, One Hope released a massive global study on the state of teens worldwide. In the report, we find reasons to be encouraged and causes for concern. 

Spending time reflecting on what teens believe and do ought to help shape the way we pray for them and relate to them. I’ll process five sections of the report: Christian practice, struggles, social media, sexuality, and the meaning of life in teens’ lives and then draw some conclusions.

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Impossible Forgiveness

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Impossible Forgiveness

I can still remember the slightly musty smell of my childhood church’s cramped library. It was there I discovered World War II memoir of Corrie ten Boom, the Dutch watchmaker, The Hiding Place. In ten Boom’s memoir the reader has to wrestle with the question, “how can we forgive?”

If you know ten Boom’s story, you’ll likely remember how God brought ten Boom face-to-face with a Nazi guard years after her imprisonment. If you haven’t heard this story, it’s worth your time and ten Boom’s account is posted below.

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