Year: 2025

Links for the Weekend (2025-02-21)

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 Let Your Fears Hold Back Your Children

Melissa Edgington writes about trusting God in our parenting.

This is why we shouldn’t hold our kids back from going to far away colleges, from pursuing careers outside of the areas where we live, from following the callings that God has placed on their lives just because those callings make us scared. A big part of raising children is God teaching us to trust Him, and when it comes to experiences and adventures that are reasonably safe, we shouldn’t hold on so tightly that our kids aren’t allowed to see what reliance on God feels like. They won’t need to rely on Him if we keep them so bound to our own side that they never have to make a decision or figure something out without us.

Wikipedia Founder Embraces Christianity: Larry Sanger’s Testimony Highlights

It seems the founder of Wikipedia has become a Christian. Trevin Wax has read his testimony and points out a few features from which we can all learn.

Last week, Larry Sanger, the man who started Wikipedia in 2001, published a lengthy essay laying out his journey from skepticism to Christianity. For most of his adult life, Sanger was a committed skeptic, trained in analytic philosophy—a field dominated by atheists and agnostics. Though he spent 35 years as a nonbeliever, he never saw himself as hostile to faith, only unconvinced, and his testimony is geared toward those who share that rational, open-minded skepticism.

Not All Fear Is The Same

Here’s a link to an episode of the Ligonier Ministries podcast Renewing Your Mind entitled “Not All Fear Is The Same.” Michael Reeves speaks about the fear of the Lord on this podcast, and interested readers might want know that the following four episodes of this podcast feature Reeves diving deeper into this topic.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Ask Questions to Expose Idols. 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. 

Ask Questions to Expose Idols

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

What is an idol? I’ve addressed this at greater length elsewhere, but here’s a quick definition. An idol is anything we worship that is not the true God.

This definition of an idol includes the statues and poles shaped from wood and metal that we read of in the Old Testament. But it also includes more common things—even good things—we see and enjoy around us every day.

Family. Church. Reputation. Lack of conflict. Influence. Wealth. Knowledge. Success.

Because our hearts are expert in twisting and fashioning idols from good, God-given parts of our lives, identifying idols is a difficult task. In fact, it’s a task we cannot do on our own.

Idols Kill Relationships

Andy Crouch’s book Strong and Weak has some excellent advice for Christians who long to kill their idols.

The first things any idol takes from its worshipers are their relationships. Idols know and care nothing for the exchange of authority and vulnerability that happens in the context of love—and the demonic powers that lurk behind them, and lure us to them, despise love. So the best early warning sign […] is that your closest relationships begin to decay. It is those relationships, after all, that could grant you the greatest real capacity for meaningful action. But they also demand of you the greatest personal risk. — Andy Crouch, Strong and Weak, pp. 106–107

The more we give ourselves to an idol, with its false promise of success or peace or power or happiness, the more our closest relationships wither.

Exposing Idols

Relationships may be a casualty of idolatry, but they also offer a strong defense against the same. The strategy is as simple to state as it is difficult to implement.

Ask your friends, consistently, about their closest relationships.

By asking your friend about her relationships with her sister, her mother, her best friend at work, or her husband, you may help her identify some idol currently gaining a foothold in the dark.

Part of the beauty of the church of God is that we’re not alone in the battle against sin. Indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we have a valuable role to play in our friends’ spiritual lives. Having these conversations can be uncomfortable and awkward—they involve real risk!—but these interactions are a tangible way for us to “encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thess 5:11).

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Links for the Weekend (2025-02-14)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Never Too Busy to Pray

What does it look like to prioritize prayer in our lives? Scott Hubbard points to Jesus for lessons.

The idea of prioritizing prayer sounds wonderful — until prioritizing prayer means not doing something we would very much like to do. We can talk about prioritizing prayer all we want, but we don’t truly do so unless we regularly set aside second-best priorities, some of them pressing, to get alone with God. The life of our Lord provides the best illustration.

To Those Living in Secret Sin

Esther Liu pleads with those living in secret sin, reminding them of the gospel and assuring them how much better it is to walk in the light.

Yet, I plead with you. I know what it can feel like to live in secrecy—the way it deadens your soul. And whether you are ready to face it or not, you are not truly doing well. You live a fractured life. As gratifying as your sin may be in the moment, when all is said and done, this life you are living doesn’t feel full. Imagine the joy of having a clear conscience, not because you are sinless, but because your lifestyle is one of honest confession and repentance. Imagine being able to have people in your life walk alongside you to support and encourage you in your struggles—you won’t have to face it all alone.

Club Escape

Our poem of the week: Club Escape, by Aaron Poochigian. This is a short poem which raises the question about where real satisfaction can be found.

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 (2025-02-07)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Your Phone Habits Aren’t Just About You

Trevin Wax writes about our phone habits and the way they affect people around us.

You’ve likely seen this phenomenon elsewhere. If you’re on a hike with friends, enjoying conversation and the beauty around you, the moment someone pulls out a phone to capture the moment for social media, the dynamic shifts. The scenery is no longer just scenery—everything is potential for content or a possible background for a selfie. The hike is no longer only about you and your friends—it’s something to be broadcast, something open for evaluation and discussion online.

To (Almost) Die is Gain

Heidi Kellogg reflects on a scary surgery and how she was affected by the prospect of facing death.

Weeks after my craniotomy I received a call from the doctor’s office. A new patient was asking to speak with someone who had faced a similar diagnosis. I happily agreed to talk with her. She was close to my age and, like me, she had a husband and two young-adult sons. She asked me, “How do you prepare to die?” I couldn’t help but think it’s best to start long before you get a diagnosis like ours. Four days was not enough time for the most important preparations, but thankfully, I had been preparing for a long time.

Near Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Our poem of the week: Near Vanderbilt University Medical Center, by A.M. Juster. It’s a short, punchy poem about our finitude as humans.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Sorrow: An Engine of Christian Hope. 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. 

Sorrow: An Engine of Christian Hope

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Hope may not be a fruit of the Spirit, but it is a Christian virtue. And the authors of the New Testament presume that those who are in Christ will grow in hope just as they grow in love and faith. (See Romans 15:13, 1 Peter 1:13, and Hebrews 6:11, for example.)

How therefore do we grow in hope?

The Christian life—and human life in general—offers scores of opportunities to increase our hope reflexes. In this post we’ll address the path to hope through sorrow.

Recognizing All That is Not Right

Here’s my definition of Christian hope: hope is the joyful expectation that God will keep his promises. Some events in our lives offer a brief taste of those kept promises, making us aware of the great fulfillment that is to come. (This will be the subject of a future post.) Yet some circumstances make us see just how far we are away from that fulfillment.

In a world marked by sin, we are bound to see misery and sadness all around us. God does not expect us to pretend that everything is fine; he has given us lament as a category of prayer for just these confusing, dispiriting, and gut-wrenching times.

However, properly understood, lament ends in hope. So, these times of great sadness can be opportunities to grow in this powerful Christian virtue.

Injustice

We do not need to search very hard for examples of injustice in the world. Many Christians have been the target of unjust actions or policies, and all of us have observed gross acts of injustice throughout the world.

We rightly cry out when the wicked flourish and the righteous are victims of hatred and violence.

God is just, and he promises that justice will rule one day. A key part of growing in hope is learning these promises, resting on them, and expecting God to keep them.

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
    I have put my Spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations.
    He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
    or make it heard in the street;
    a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.
    He will not grow faint or be discouraged
    till he has established justice in the earth;
    and the coastlands wait for his law. (Isaiah 42:1–4)

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23:5–6)

Additionally, the notion of hell depends in part on God’s justice. Because God is holy and humans sin against him, these offenses must be dealt with. For Christians, the wrath of God was satisfied at the cross (1 Peter 2:24), and for unbelievers, God will be vindicated in hell (see Matthew 25:31–46, Revelation 21:8).

Sickness and Death

Sickness and death are one of the greatest causes of our sorrow. And we rightly lament this reality because this is not the way things should be. And, of course, this is not the way things will be!

Jesus’s resurrection is the sure sign that resurrection is to come for those united to him. We have these sure promises.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:50–53)

The promise of bodily resurrection from the dead is fundamental to Christian hope. But we must not let familiarity with this promise dull its extravagant audacity. Raised from the dead! New bodies!

Loneliness

Many commenters have written about a modern epidemic of loneliness, but a sorrowful aloneness has been a part of the human experience for millennia. We rightly mourn the loss of relationships and the absence or coolness of friends, but our mourning can point us to a better day on the horizon.

Yes, God is present with his people now and has promised not to forsake them (Hebrews 13:5). But a greater sense of God’s presence awaits us.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. (Revelation 21:1–3)

God will be with us as our God; he will dwell with us—in fact, that will be his dwelling place.

For those in Christ, all loneliness has an expiration date. God has promised.

From Sadness to Hope

Sorrow is nothing to seek out, but rightly understood it is an opportunity to grow.

Our prayers of lament begin with complaint but they end in hope. We realize that our aching and sadness is a longing for something God has promised. We can build a solid foundation on God’s promises, joyfully anticipating the way he will keep them and turn our sadness on its head.

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Links for the Weekend (2025-01-31)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

If I Could Change Anything about the Modern Church

If Tim Challies could, he’d “return the graveyard to the churchyard.” He makes a compelling argument.

How would it change your worship if you were constantly confronted with the reality of death in this way yet also comforted by the proximity and the nearness of those who had gone before? How would it change your understanding of the church if the living and the dead maintained such a close distance? How would it change the way you prepare your heart to worship and prepare yourself to die? Speaking personally, I think it would be deeply moving and spiritually comforting. It would be a blessing to worship where my people are buried and to be buried where my people worship.

Enough with the Valorization of Doubt!

Trevin Wax laments the way many praise religious doubt as a virtue.

Of course, the life of faith isn’t easy. Thomas doubted the reality of the resurrection. A number of disciples doubted the truth even after they’d seen the risen Lord. Struggle is to be expected. That’s why Jude tells us to “have mercy on those who doubt.” Honesty about our doubt is a virtue, but it’s the honesty that’s commendable, not the doubt itself.

For The Church Podcast: Contentment

I appreciated this episode of the For the Church podcast on contentment. You might too! (Note: I do not see a transcription for this podcast episode.)

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 (2025-01-24)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

The Spiritual Battles in Your Bible Reading

In January, many Christians are starting read-through-the-Bible reading plans. In this short podcast episode (there’s a transcript!), John Piper explains three spiritual attacks to expect surrounding your Bible reading and then nine benefits of Bible reading.

Expect opposition. Satan hates the word of God and will disincline you, blind you, distract you, bore you. He will fight with all his might to keep this from happening. So pray and fight and ask God to make all four of those things that Satan tries to do to backfire, to blow up in his face as you become a stronger warrior against him — your heart inclined, your blindness removed, focus instead of distraction, excitement instead of boredom. So, expect opposition.

A Template of Praise from Psalm 103

James Johnston writes about the first few verses of Psalm 103 and how they can help us remember what God has done for us and praise him accordingly.

Fifth, God “satisfies you with good” (Ps. 103:5). Satisfied is how I feel after Thanksgiving; I don’t need anything else. God fulfills our deepest hunger and longings. He says, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Ps. 81:10). He is not stingy and cheap with his people. “He would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you” (Ps. 81:16).

Rhymes

Our poem of the week is Rhymes, by JC Scharl in Ekstasis Magazine. This sonnet takes a lighter tone with a heavy topic; it works!

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 (2025-01-17)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Why Don’t We Read The Bible More? Three Common Misunderstandings

Ava Ligh looks at the real reasons (not just the stated reasons) we don’t read the Bible. She clears up some misunderstandings about the purpose of Bible reading to help us on our way.

Most sermons and Bible teachings tend to approach Scripture through a medical paradigm. The text is seen as offering a diagnosis and remedy for a specific problem within the congregation, and the sermon concludes with various prescriptions or applications to address the symptoms of that problem. However, Jesus encourages us to engage with Scripture through an agricultural paradigm, where the Word of God is compared to a seed that must be received (Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-15). 

Nearness is Enough

Kirsten Black writes about her experience in the hospital as one of her sons was dying. She honestly wrestles with the promise of God’s nearness and how or whether that’s a good thing in the midst of suffering.

So, what does the nearness of God look like amid our trials and our suffering? For years, I thought the nearness of God would mean that everything would be okay or, at the very least, feel okay. I hoped that his nearness would mean some sort of tangible presence, some sort of relief from pain. I hoped that it would act as a shield and protection around me, that it would stop the fiery arrows of the enemy from penetrating my heart. But that was not the nearness of God.

When

Our poem of the week is When, by Henry Lewis in Ekstasis Magazine. Brace yourselves—this one is about dying.

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 (2025-01-10)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

You Can’t Life-Hack Your Way to Holiness

Trevin Wax has written about how our culture’s obsession with techniques and results may have affected our approach to growing in holiness.

We live in an era flooded with life hacks—new exercise regimens, cooking recipes, productivity shortcuts, and self-optimization strategies. The message is clear: Find the right technique and everything will change. We’re bombarded with marketing, which influences how we think, even in spiritual matters. This hyperfocus on techniques and disciplines often drives our conversations about spiritual formation. We’re drawn to it because of our consumer society and our hearts’ inclination toward self-justification. The desire for self-optimization warps into the belief we’re responsible for our spiritual growth.

Answering Kids’ Hardest Questions: What Makes Me Special?

This post is relevant for all parents, but it is also important for all Christians who might talk to young people. (Which is all of us, hopefully!) When children ask what makes them special, Sarah Walton has some suggestions for how to answer. (This is available as a video and a written article.)

Especially for kids going up into junior high and high school ages, as they’re being flooded with questions of identity, this message is increasingly important. It’s so important to begin this conversation early to help them see that their identity is fixed in Jesus Christ, not in anything that they do or can accomplish.

It will be so freeing for them if we can help them build from there because the reality is, sometimes the gifts we have can be taken. That happened to me. I was an athlete, and I lost it all through an injury. It completely changed the trajectory of my life.

Two Poems

Here are two great poems which have Christmas or New Year connections. Enjoy!

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Why Isn’t Hope a Fruit of the Spirit? 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. 

Why Isn’t Hope a Fruit of the Spirit?

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

The fruit of the Spirit are familiar: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22–23). I doubt Paul intended this list to be exhaustive, but at least two Christian virtues are conspicuous in their absence from this hallowed group: faith and hope.

Given that faith and hope are both brought about by the Spirit and that Paul writes much about these qualities elsewhere, their absence from this list may surprising. In this short post, we’ll explore this mystery.

Looking to Calvin and 1 Corinthians 13

Allow me a slight detour. Most know 1 Corinthians 13 as “the love chapter” from its presence at wedding ceremonies. This chapter ends with sweet words that raise an obvious question.‏

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Why exactly is love greater than faith and hope? The answer can be found in the text, but it is nicely summarized by John Calvin.

For faith does not remain after death, inasmuch as the Apostle elsewhere contrasts it with sight, (2 Corinthians 5:7,) and declares that it remains only so long as we are absent from the Lord. We are now in possession of what is meant by faith in this passage—that knowledge of God and of the divine will, which we obtain by the ministry of the Church; or, if you prefer it, faith universal, and taken in its proper acceptation. Hope is nothing else than perseverance in faith. For when we have once believed the word of God, it remains that we persevere until the accomplishment of these things. Hence, as faith is the mother of hope, so it is kept up by it, so as not to give way. […] Faith and hope belong to a state of imperfection: love will remain even in a state of perfection.

In other words, love is the greatest of this trio because it remains into the fulness of the new creation. We have no need for faith or hope in heaven—these are virtues we need only in anticipation of our future home. (Calvin is on solid footing, as 1 Cor 13:8 asserts that “love never ends,” and then the rest of verses 8–12 discuss what will and will not pass away.)

Not Needed in the New Creation

In light of this argument, we see that faith and hope do not belong among the fruit of the Spirit. Perhaps the fruit of the Spirit are those qualities the Spirit grows within believers that will be needed for our new-creation lives.

There is some evidence for this argument within Galatians 5. After listing the “works of the flesh” in Gal 5:19–21, Paul writes, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:21). There is a link between life in the future kingdom of God and these works of the flesh/fruit of the Spirit.

Love One Another

There is another explanation for the absence of faith and hope from the list of the fruit of the Spirit. Interestingly, Calvin also touches on this in his commentary on 1 Corinthians 13.

For every one derives advantage from his own faith and hope, but love extends its benefits to others.

Paul is relentless in Galatians to show that embracing the true gospel of Christ leads away from slavery toward freedom—the freedom to serve one another through love. (See my fuller discussion here.) The entire earlier paragraph of Gal 5:13–15 is about loving neighbor as self.

While faith and hope affect the way we interact with others, they are called “theological virtues” because they primarily involve our orientation toward God. The fruit of the Spirit are mostly needed for our relationships with others.

Convergence

In the end, these explanations converge. Faith and hope are not properly considered fruits of the Spirit because they aren’t necessary for our interaction with others, either now or in the age to come.

Faith and hope are gifts of the Spirit and they are essential to get to that new age! But they are the ship which takes us across the river and drops us on the far shore. We no longer need the boat for the singing and dancing and living to come.

(Note: I focused on hope instead of both faith and hope in the title of this post because so much of my recent writing has focused on hope.)

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