Month: October 2024

How Idols Hijack Our Hearts

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Idols are ridiculous. They are embarrassing. Believing and trusting idols is not just sinful, it’s moronic. For those who acknowledge God as good and sovereign, trusting ourselves to anything or anyone else is utterly foolish.

And yet, we’re all morons and fools in this regard, aren’t we?

In the moment, we don’t usually recognize our idolatrous motivations. And since our idols are less noticeable than statues and figurines, it’s easy to miss when our loyalties are bent in the wrong direction.

Idols Work

The main reason we are tempted to trust in idols, is that they work—at least for a time and in a meager way.[1] Christians may protest that this admission grants idols too much power, but the alternative grants idols far more influence. It’s better to drag the tyrant out into the town square than to let him bully from the shadows.

We see a silly example of this in the realm of sports superstitions. A player who wears a mismatched pair of socks in a standout game is compelled to wear those same socks for weeks. A fan accidentally mutes the television while her favorite team completes a stunning comeback and then won’t think of turning the volume up for the rest of the season. These small actions coincide with success, so we repeat the actions with hope of repeated outcomes.

Something similar likely happened with some ancient idolatries. A rain dance or a sacrifice coincided with healthier crops, so the practices and devotion continued.

This is more evident with our modern idolatries. We trust in modern medicine because it is so often able to make us feel better. We depend on our finances because we are able to make ourselves comfortable and happy by withdrawing funds from our accounts. Our good reputation gives us a connection for a job or promotion or favor, so we give undue energy to persuading other people to think well of us.

If what we ultimately seek is health or comfort or material happiness, then we have to admit that these idols are doing a decent job. From one perspective, it makes sense that we continue to rely on them.

Idols Make Promises

Our idols don’t make promises explicitly because they rarely speak. But we attribute promises to them—primarily that they would continue to deliver in the ways they have delivered in the past.

I started writing this post a number of weeks ago. Since then, Brad East has written a terrific post which is a better and more thoughtful version of what I wanted to say in this section. Please read it: What does an idol promise?

An idol promises its petitioners safety, power, a future, and/or a name. Unsurprisingly, these are echoes of God’s promises to Abraham and to his seed, the Messiah, and their fulfillment in Him and extension to all are in Him.

The promises our idols make are attractive because they are counterfeit versions of the promises we were made to need and believe. By virtue of a Christian’s union with Jesus, we are given the greatest promises by the most trustworthy person in the universe. Yet, we often ignore God’s engraved, golden promises in favor of fraudulent guarantees scribbled in canary-colored crayon.

Detection Within Community

We are almost helpless to identify, dethrone, and resist idols on our own. They are too powerful, deceptive, and effective. We need the communion of saints for this and every aspect of the Christian life. We need the church.

To be clear, the conversations we must have to detect our idols are uncomfortable. They are painful in the way that removing chewing gum from one’s hair is painful—wretched in the short term but wonderful in the long term. And it may take a while for the hair to grow back and cover that bald spot.

A small number of friends in my life have loved me enough to keep asking these important “why” questions. Thoughtful conversations like these have helped me see exactly what I was believing and on what I was relying.

Whether you pursue these discussions in a small group or one-on-one, please don’t resist the inquiries of those who care about you. This is one way the Spirit of God corrects us and turns our worship back to the Lord Jesus.

[1] The idea of idol worship “working” in the short term is something I am borrowing from Andy Crouch as he explained it on this episode of the Mere Fidelity podcast.

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Links for the Weekend (2024-10-25)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

5 Things You Should Know about Union with Christ

The older I get, the more essential I view the doctrine of union with Christ. Here is a quick overview at Ligonier.

The Bible speaks of disciples as people who are “in Christ.” This is the language of union with Jesus. By nature, we are all “in Adam,” which means spiritual death. By grace, God puts undeserving sinners “in Christ,” which is life everlasting (1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 5:12–21). This is the reality that the Apostle Paul addresses in Ephesians 1, where the phrase “in Christ” appears repeatedly. To be without Christ is abject misery. To be in Christ is true salvation. To be like Christ is real holiness. To be with Christ is joy beyond compare. He is the root and source of every blessing. We need, therefore, to grasp certain sweet realities about the Christian’s union with Christ Jesus.

A Midlife Assessment

Faith Chang has written a thoughtful reflection on following Christ in middle age.

I’m in the thick of the woods now and though the path diverges every so often and the decisions I make at these crossroads still don’t come easy, I choose with a better sense of what the cost might be to walk the harder roads, how God has created me to walk, what load he has called me to bear, what pace is sustainable, and more confidence knowing his grace has proved sufficient thus far. I have a more realistic sense of my constraints, a greater contentment regarding roads not taken, a growing inkling of what a “convergence” (as one of my professors put it) of passions, gifting, and experience might look like for me vocationally. Still, I have some questions, ones that are less of the “Which mountain should I climb?” nature and more of the “We’ve been going the right way, right?” variety.

Quick

Our poem of the week: Quick, by Erica Reid. It’s another poem about autumn; I can’t help myself.

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 (2024-10-18)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

What does an idol promise?

This post from Brad East helped me think through some of the attraction of idols.

I am tempted to say that an idol cannot bless, cannot impart gifts at all. But that cannot be true simpliciter. If, sometimes, demons lie behind idols, then it stands to reason that, as living beings, demons can exchange gifts for sacrifices, blessings for devotion. All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. The false note is not that Satan’s offer is a lie without remainder but that, as always, it is intermixed with the truth; whether or not Satan can give what he offers, worship is due God alone regardless.

How Heaven Changes Your Life on Earth

Cameron Cole started thinking a lot more about heaven after the tragic death of his young child. He wrote a book and talked about the book on this podcast. (There’s a transcript available as well.)

Imminence

Poem of the week: Imminence, by Carla Galdo. It’s about autumn, objectively the best season of the year.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called No Good Tree Bears Bad Fruit. 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. 

No Good Tree Bears Bad Fruit

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Jesus was a master of metaphor and illustration. Camels fitting through the eye of a needle! A woman turning her house upside down because of a lost coin!

He also spoke of trees and fruit. If you’ve been around the church, you’ve probably heard the saying, “no good tree bears bad fruit.”

So, what does this phrase mean?

Jesus the Preacher

While we hear much from Jesus in the Gospels, we must concede that Jesus preached far more sermons than the Gospel writers recorded. He likely talked with his disciples, preached to the crowds, or taught in the synagogues most every day of his adult ministry.

“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25).

The phrase “no good tree bears bad fruit” shows up twice in the Gospels, in Matthew 7:18 and Luke 6:43. (The ESV translates the phrase in Matthew as “a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit.”) This is one of several similarities between Jesus’s sermons in Matthew 5:2–7:27 and Luke 6:20–49. Matthew’s account has been called the “Sermon on the Mount,” and many have assumed that Luke’s version is an excerpt from the same sermon.

But a closer look calls this assumption into question. Not all of Jesus’s sermon in Luke appears in Matthew. (The “woe” pronouncements in Luke 6:24–26 are a prime example.) Also, where the sermons overlap in content they differ in important specifics. (In Luke’s Beatitudes, Jesus blesses the “poor” and the “hungry,” while in Matthew Jesus blesses the “poor in spirit” and those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness.”)

The most straightforward conclusion is that these are different sermons. Anyone who has spent time around a preacher knows that favorite phrases and illustrations show up in different settings for different purposes.

Matthew 7

In Matthew 7, Jesus uses the tree/fruit illustration to help his disciples spot false prophets.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15–20)

Consider the larger passage. In Matt 7:13–14 Jesus speaks about the wide and narrow gates leading (respectively) to destruction and life. In Matt 7:21–23 Jesus warns that not everyone who calls him “Lord” and claims to have worked in his name will enter the kingdom of heaven. Some he will throw out as “workers of lawlessness.” Jesus is teaching about the way to life—who’s in and who’s out?

Jesus wants his disciples to identify those who do not bear good fruit, especially when they claim to follow him. And what fruit did Jesus have in mind? “Judge not” (Matt 7:1). “Take the log out of your own eye” (Matt 7:5). Ask the Father for good things (Matt 7:7–11). Treat others the same way you want them to treat you (Matt 7:12). In summary, build a solid house by hearing and obeying Jesus (Matt 7:24–27).

Luke 6

Let’s take a look at the tree/fruit illustration in Luke.

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:43–45)

The word “for” at the beginning of verse 43 points to the previous section, where Jesus commands his disciples not to be hypocrites, but to remove the log from their own eyes before taking a speck out of a brother’s eye (Luke 6:41–42). This caution flows from Jesus’s warning not to judge others (Luke 6:37–38).

Significantly, there is no mention of false prophets in this section of the sermon. Instead, Jesus speaks of fruit as the overflow of the heart.

Coming on the heels of the exhortation to “take the log out of your own eye,” the implication is clear. Jesus’s disciples must examine their own hearts. When they see bad fruit, it is the result of lingering evil in their hearts.

Context!

Back to our original question. What does the phrase “no good tree bears bad fruit” mean? I hope by now the answer is clear. It depends!

Words and phrases have little to no meaning when lifted from their context. This is true for our own words; how much more is it true of Holy Scripture!?

So, when reading Jesus’s sermons, or any part of the Bible, pay attention to the context. Observe and interpret accordingly. And as you apply the truths of the Bible, you also will bear much fruit.

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Links for the Weekend (2024-10-11)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Church is Our Evangelism Strategy

What does it look like to bring Jesus into your conversations?

Church is the main event. Church teaches us how to live. The Church is where we learn to be ‘kingdom people;’ which really just means ‘what you learned and were trained in inside church done outside church.’ The Church is God’s plan A to rescue the world and for the Father to transform the world into the image of the Son by the Spirit.

The False Guilt We Feel When Our Quiet Time Falls Short

Here’s a video (with transcript) from Crossway in which Kristen Wetherell talks about daily devotional time.

This is our idea of quiet time and then when we don’t reach it, we feel guilty and we feel like we failed. The reality is there is no command in the Bible about having a daily quiet time—at least not as we think about it. God wants us to prioritize Jesus and spending time getting to know who he is through the power of his Spirit.

Angels Aware (A Villanelle)

Our poem of the week: Angels Aware (A Villanelle), by Ryan Elizabeth. The villanelle is a challenging form of poetry, and this example is just beautiful.

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 (2024-10-04)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

A Concise Theology of Failure

I appreciated Samuel James’ thoughts connecting the gospel to a theology of failure.

But what if you don’t get the life you wanted? In the digital age, you might as well not even exist. Failure is obscurity, and obscurity is death. In the post-religious imagination, without success, there is no meaning to one’s life. You can go on surviving, but each day that is spent contrary to what you actually want to be doing is a waste. If enough of these days accumulate, your very self disappears.

Growing Wise as We Grow Old

Jon Bloom reflects on a high school reunion and what Psalm 90 teaches us about growing older.

I know this all sounds a bit depressing. But our hope has to be real hope if it’s going to sustain us through real life, not the illusory hope of the mirage-like dreams my classmates and I likely had when we graduated. Real hope is only realized when we come to terms with the dismaying reality we all face in this age. Truly facing it is what forges in us “a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12), the kind of heart that Psalm 90 teaches how to cultivate.

Divine Immutability Explained

Here’s a short video in which Kevin DeYoung explains what it means that God does not change.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called God Gives Us Himself. 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. 

God Gives Us Himself

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Several years ago, I missed my oldest daughter’s birthday. A conference for work overlapped with her big day.

My wife made it special for her, and I called to chat. My daughter enjoyed the gifts and food and celebration. But when a loved one is absent, it’s just not the same.

A Rebellious People

In the book of Exodus, after rescuing his people and bringing them near, God is closer than ever before to Israel. He designs the tabernacle so he can dwell with them (Exodus 25:8).

But in a single act of rebellion, the covenant bond of peace between God and his people explodes like a light bulb.

While Moses is on the mountain, the people hunt for something – anything – to worship. They forget their Savior (Psalm 106:21), they disregard Moses, and they beg Aaron to make a god for them (Exodus 32:1). Don’t miss this—in this treacherous act, the Israelites are turning their back on the God who brought them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and to this holy, smoking mountain. The golden calf is not a slip of the tongue or an accidental offense; these people are rejecting God with a stiff arm and stiff necks.

Moses begs God not to destroy the entire nation (32:11–13), and though God relents (32:14), there are still consequences. Three thousand people die (32:28). The stone tablets – on which God wrote the ten commandments – lay in pieces. And Moses has to plead for Aaron’s life (Deuteronomy 9:20).

Would God forgive the people? Could he, after the people trashed his reputation and spit on his awesome deeds?

A Gracious Consequence

The drama reaches a climax in Exodus 33. God tells the people to go to the land of Canaan. This is the land promised not only to Abraham (Genesis 12:7) but also to Moses and Israel (Exodus 6:8). God told them that they would enter a lush, bountiful land, and now he sends them off to do just that. But, there’s a caveat.

God won’t go with them (Exodus 33:3). He can’t. The people are “stiff-necked.” Their sin is so odious that God says he would “consume them on the way.”

By his angel he will drive out the inhabitants (33:2). He’ll keep his promise. But God himself cannot go.

A Disastrous Word

To the Israelites, this is a “disastrous word” (33:4). Moses understands how empty the promised land would be without God. He declares, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here” (33:15).

Think about this! The Israelites have never had their own land. But for Moses, having land is worth nothing if God’s not there.

God isn’t withholding all his blessings. The land will still flow with milk and honey (33:3); the tribes will still be defeated (33:2).

But Moses wants God. And if God won’t give himself, none of his lesser blessings will do.

John Piper frames this issue for modern Christians:

The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there? — John Piper (God is the Gospel, p.15)

A Steep Price

In my honest moments, Piper’s question makes me squirm. Far too often I’d be satisfied without Christ himself. I’d take the blessings without the Blessed One.

Thank God my destiny is not determined by my desires! Our future is bright with the promise of God’s presence—in the new heavens and new earth, “the dwelling place of God is with man” (Revelation 21:3).

This presence of God – God with us for eternity – comes at a steep price. In our natural state, God’s presence would consume us.

But Jesus, the perfect son of God, is our shield. In our place, he felt the consuming fire of God’s wrath on the cross. For a brief time, Jesus experienced the absence of God (“Why have you forsaken me?”) so we could enjoy his presence forever. Jesus suffered so “he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

The Eternal Treasure

Moses clearly saw what we catch in glimpses: God’s gifts are wonderful, but they are nothing without God himself.

And we have God himself! Not just in the future, but right now. Because Jesus Christ reconciled us to God, he then gave the Holy Spirit to dwell in each Christian (Acts 2:38).

What does God’s presence mean for us? Exodus offers some answers.

  1. God’s presence means we can rest. We aren’t on a journey to find, achieve, or conquer a land like Israel. But we still go about our lives striving for blessings. We can be still and know that he is God, God with us. Because he has promised never to leave, we can cease our restless striving knowing God will provide (Exodus 33:14). This means we can sleep, we can worship, we can observe the one-day-in-seven pattern that God established for our good.
  2. God’s presence means he loves us. For Moses, God’s presence signified his favor (33:16). Because of Christ’s obedience, we have the perfect approval of our Father. The Spirit in us is the spirit of adoption by which we cry out, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15). When we feel lonely, lost, or abandoned, we replace the whispers of Satan with the clear truth of Scripture.
  3. God’s presence means he has called us. Moses tells us that God’s presence with the Israelites would make them distinct “from every other people on the face of the earth” (Exodus 33:16). In other words, God sets his people apart by his presence. The Holy Spirit now marks us as holy people, called for a purpose.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9–10)

God goes with us and trains us to talk to our friends and family. He sends us as the recipients of mercy to proclaim his free offer of mercy. In the midst of many blessings, God has given the gift of himself. He is our eternal treasure! And he equips us to declare God’s excellencies to a dark world that needs light.

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