Tag: The Gospel Coalition

Links for the Weekend (2023-08-25)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

On the Crushing Guilt of Failing at Quiet Time

Much of what we think about “daily devotions” is cultural (even if it can be good). Kevin DeYoung writes about what the Bible teaches about a devotional life.

I am not anti-quiet time or anti-daily devotions or anti-family worship. All of these disciplines serve God’s people well and have been around for a long time. What does not serve God’s people well is the unstated (and sometimes stated) assumption—put upon us by others or by ourselves—that Christianity is only for super-disciplined neatniks who get up before dawn, redeem every minute of the day, and have very organized sock drawers. Spiritual disciplines are great (and necessary) when the goal is to know God better. Spiritual disciplines are soul-crushing when the aim is to get our metaphysical workout in each day, knowing that we could always exercise more if we were better Christians.

Love Is the Greatest Apologetic

The love between Christians can point outsiders powerfully to Jesus.

I’ve long pondered why the epistles contain fewer exhortations to evangelize than I’d expect. They contain a great deal more about sound doctrine and how Christians are supposed to conduct themselves in the church, the family, and society. I’ve concluded this is because our lives and relationships with each other are integral to reaching the world. Word and deed accompany each other for full evangelistic effectiveness.

How to Build (or Break) a Habit

This article gives some insight into habit formation and helps us to consider how habits can affect us spiritually.

We’ve all been taught that if we want to achieve something, we need to set goals. In principle, that’s true. Yet how many goals have you set that have gone unachieved? Why didn’t they work for you? In part, because defective systems trump good aspirations. In other words, your habits undermined your goals. Goals get us nowhere without the good habits required to achieve them.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Impressive or Known. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2023-08-11)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

You Must Be Weak to Be Sanctified

This is a good discussion of weakness and sanctification.

Why does the apostle reference weakness? Because he’s convinced coming to grips with one’s limits and depending on the Spirit is how sanctification works. After all, God does the sanctifying work. That’s the second qualifying clause: “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work” (v. 13). We work out our salvation fearfully and humbly, knowing we’re not strong enough—but God is.

The Godliness of a Good Night’s Sleep

Like the author of this article, I too once associated exhaustion with living for the Lord. How good to be corrected! Read about how we can relate to sleep as Christians.

When we leave our beds to walk in love, we do not leave our God. His help is stronger than sleep’s healing, his wisdom deeper than sleep’s teaching, his generosity greater than sleep’s giving. He can sustain us in our sleeplessness and, in his good time, give again to his beloved sleep.

How to Become a Tech-Wise Family

This article is a distillation of Andy Crouch’s book, The Tech-Wise Family. Read about three fundamental choices and ten commitments that will help your family grow in wisdom as you interact with technology.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called The Difference Between Optimism and Biblical Hope. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Thanks to Phil A for his help in rounding up links this week!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2023-07-14)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

4 Questions to Answer Before Giving Your Child a Phone

The time will soon come for all parents when they need to face the prospect of giving their child a cell phone. This article offers some questions to consider before making that decision.

Most parents affirm that kids should be spending more time outside playing, enjoying nature, and hanging out with friends instead of being occupied by screens. But even the practice of meeting up with friends is arranged through text—such is life in the 21st century. So asking the related question—“Are there creative solutions to situations where we think he needs a phone?”—can also prove helpful.

How do you disagree like a Christian?

Why are Christians so bad at constructive disagreement with each other? How can we improve? This article helps to point the way.

The secret to disagreeing like a Christian is best described as convictional kindness. Convictional kindness means having a firm belief or opinion while also being willing to genuinely listen to the views and perspectives of others. It is the natural outworking of both humility and tolerance, and in another time this would have been called by another name: charity. Charity is a lost virtue of our culture, one that disappeared as rapidly as our love of hot takes appeared, but has long been valued, especially by Christians.

In Your Race of Faith, Run Together

In this article, Lindsey Carlson reminds us of our identity as a body of Christ and shows us what “running the race of faith” together might look like.

As a runner in the race of faith, what is the goal of your race? Do you desire encouragement in order to get ahead? Or do you desire encouragement in order to work together with your fellow runners? As a follower of Jesus, you are a member of the body of Christ; every other Christian in the body is a fellow team member whose name is recorded on the roster and who runs alongside you in the same race of faith. You have pledged to run together with the people of God under the headship of Christ.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article written by Sarah Wisniewski called The House No One Could Love. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2023-07-07)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Your Gender Is God’s Good Design

There is a lot of cultural confusion about gender and sexuality at the moment. Here is an article by Rachel Gilson about the goodness of God’s design in our bodies.

When the Son of God took on a human nature, he underlined forever the dignity and value of human embodiment, because he shared it—and still does. He did not leave his human nature behind; he is still fully human and fully God, seated at the right hand of the Father. Additionally, he affirms sexed human embodiment—that is, being female or male. Jesus did not appear in his resurrection as an androgynous being but as he had been in his earthly life: as a male.

What Happened to Historian Molly Worthen?

I don’t often run across testimonies of academics who come to faith in Jesus mid-career. The Gospel Coalition recently ran a podcast interview with historian Molly Worthen about her journey to faith. I found it fascinating and encouraging! (A transcript of the interview is available at that link for those who would prefer it!)

A Series of Articles/Letters on Motherhood

Risen Motherhood is running a series of letters this summer written by five “mentor moms” which address all seasons of motherhood. Here is the landing page for the series. The first entry is already posted: A Letter for the Little Years.

Have you ever wished for a “big sister” in motherhood that could guide you through the ins and outs of mom-life? The “Sincerely” summer series was created just for you.

Thanks to Maggie A for her help in rounding up links this week!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2023-06-23)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

How I Grew to Love the PCA

The PCA’s blog recently featured an article by Jamye Doerfler, a member at Redemption Hill Church in our presbytery. (Her husband, Peter, is the pastor.) Her article tells the story of growing up outside the PCA and finding her way in.

You may be wondering how a nice Reformed guy could end up with a girl like me in the first place. Peter and I met at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, which was once associated with the PCUSA but now has students of every Christian stripe. When we started dating in senior year, we had no intention of marrying. After all, he wanted to be a pastor, and I wasn’t interested in being a pastor’s wife (but that’s a story for another time). Our doctrinal differences weren’t as important as the fact that we were both committed Christians. We were out of college and living in different states when we decided to marry, so it wasn’t until then that the rubber hit the road.

2 Things the Church Must Do to Help Our Post-Christian Neighbors Trust Jesus

What does it look like to be a good neighbor who desires salvation for those nearby? This article points a good way forward.

This is what it’ll take to help our neighbors trust Jesus for salvation: faithful relational engagement over years. I long for the church in America to resource and equip Christians for that sort of long-haul witness. We need discipleship, spiritual formation, and life-on-life engagement more than we need evangelistic events or outreach meetings and strategies.

The Assignment I Wasn’t Expecting

As a college student, Andrea was ready to go to the farthest corners of the planet for Jesus. She has had to get used to the calling God has given her in her own family.

But somehow I didn’t expect it all to come down to this. With the ministry over and the children gone, to have my existence circled around the care of this man-child, “the least of these”, as Jesus described him. When I said I would go anywhere, I was imagining an exotic faraway land, not a remote town in northern Minnesota. When I said I would do anything, I imagined kingdom impact, not caring for a 30-year-old man who still refuses to change his socks.

Thanks to Maggie A for her help in rounding up links this week!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2023-05-26)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

The glory of weakness

This writer reflects on a documentary about Michael J. Fox and approaching human weakness as a Christian.

Our world celebrates triumph and strength. It shuns weaknesses, vulnerability, and frailness. But the Michael J. Fox story and my own story can testify to something else. Weakness, vulnerability, and frailness are inevitable elements of being truly human. In light of the Christian worldview, they are even redeemable qualities. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

The Freedom of Embracing My Weaknesses

I wasn’t intending to have a theme to this week’s links (weakness), but here we are! Tim Challies writes about the freedom that comes from recognizing the weaknesses and inabilities God has given him.

I used to see weakness as a trial I needed to challenge and overcome. I used to see weakness as an obstacle that stood between me and my purpose. I used to see weakness as one of life’s great discouragements. But now I see weakness as part of God’s plan for me. Now I see a realistic assessment of my weakness as what guides me to my purpose. Now I am encouraged by weakness, for it helps me understand and even become the man God means for me to be.

What Tim Keller Taught Us

Tim Keller, author and longtime PCA pastor, died last week. Even if you haven’t heard of him, you have most likely been influenced by him or by people influenced by him. The Gospel Coalition has collected some articles written to express gratitude for Tim Keller.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2023-05-19)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Don’t Give Up Too Quickly

We are told in Scripture to persevere in prayer. Here’s a short article about why that might be.

I’ve been thinking that our Heavenly Father handles our requests in a similar way. There might be something that we’re excited about. We hurry into prayer with the faith, excitement, and discernment of a child. Then the Lord doesn’t immediately answer. He doesn’t say yes and doesn’t say no. Instead, through his silence and apparent inactivity, he says that it’s time to wait.

Willing Spirit, Weak Flesh: The Real Meaning of Matthew 26:41

Here’s a great example of careful Bible study and reading Scripture in context. Zach Hollifield takes a look at the famous comment from Jesus, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”

Peter is forced to see that while he has all the right desire in the world to remain faithful to Jesus, there is also a chasm of weakness lying between that willingness and his actual carrying it out.

I’m So Glad It’s You

This link is a confession/prayer which is a wonderful model of looking to God as the sovereign one in the midst of suffering.

I’m so glad it’s You. None of it makes sense to me, but it was done in perfect wisdom. Who else could be trusted to wound like this? All Your works are perfect, and You are infinite in wisdom. I trust that Your ways are higher that my ways, and Your thoughts than my thoughts. I’m so glad it’s You.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called What Makes a Good Friend? If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2023-04-28)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out. (Just two links today; it’s been a busy week!)

Truths and Tips for Discipling Teens

I enjoyed this reflection by Jen Oshman on how she and her husband are raising several teenagers at once.

I don’t know the ins and outs of your relationship with your teen. I do know you want the best for your child and you’d do anything for him. Parenting teens is hard. Trusting the Lord is hard. But take heart. God knows our teens deeply and treasures them immeasurably. He desires that all our teens would come to him.

Two Sonnets for the Road to Emmaus

These two poems by Malcolm Guite reflecting on the resurrected Jesus’s encounter with disciples on the road to Emmaus are worth your while.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2023-04-21)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

What is Gluttony?

Here’s an explanation of what the sin of gluttony is and what it isn’t.

One of the keys to grasping gluttony and mortifying this sin is to know from the get-go that it starts in the heart, not in the stomach. Gluttony certainly involves the body, but it’s not limited to the body and cannot be reduced to bodily appetites and cravings.

Why We Need to Talk About Obedience

There are good reasons we hear so much about mercy and grace in the Christian life. But obedience is important too.

Avoiding legalism is a worthy endeavor as we follow Jesus. Certainly, he was no legalist. At the same time, obedience to the Father was of primary importance to him, and we walk in his footsteps when we prioritize obedience as well. Rejecting legalism and pursuing obedience aren’t mutually exclusive postures. Rather, they’re nuanced attitudes that work in tandem to produce a heart of wisdom.

Don Whitney on the Gospel in Spiritual Disciplines

In a short video, Don Whitney answers the question, “How is the gospel connected to the daily effort in the spiritual disciplines?“

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called What My Daughter Taught Me About Joy. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2023-04-14)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

3 Reasons to Believe in the Resurrection

Believing in the Resurrection might not be as absurd as some would want you to think!

Here are three features of our world that are already Easter-like. They already have a life-from-the-dead shape to them. I don’t offer these as watertight proofs of God. But I do raise them as suggestive pointers.

Humility and Overcommitted Busyness

I’m not sure I’ve connected busyness with a lack of humility before. This article might spark some good questions to ask yourself!

At first glance, the pathological busyness of our day seems disconnected from questions of humility, but it is precisely in caving to the pressure to be endlessly doing that our humility is most frequently vanquished. This often happens without a fight or even an awareness that we ought to be battling the temptation to arrogate to ourselves more activity than the Lord has handed us. Whether working on a job or a home, spending an evening with friends, or even attending to our spiritual growth, we so often live as if we could and should do more than we can and are called to.

What do you do when you are spiritually dry?

There’s some bracing common sense in this article. We need to hear it because we often do the opposite!

There are so many things that can be done, but I want to give one piece of advice with two practical applications for those who feel spiritually dry: Don’t stop going to the fountain. Often when we feel dry, we are tempted to neglect the one thing that will satisfy our souls. Think about it: When you feel dry, what things do you want to toss out? Bible reading, prayer, fellowship. But this is the problem. If you are dry, spiritually thirsty, the worst thing you can do is go to the desert! You need to go to the fountain!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here.