Author: Ryan Higginbottom

Ryan lives in Washington, PA with his wife and two daughters and teaches mathematics at Washington & Jefferson College. You can connect with him on Substack.

Links for the Weekend (2026-04-24)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

I never felt like reading the Bible. Here’s what changed.

Reagan Rose grew up in a church that emphasized the importance of reading the Bible. But he never enjoyed doing it. Read his article about how he grew to look forward to reading the Bible.

I guess if I were to try and sum all of this up in a single word, that word would be faith. The thing that drove me to consistently reading the Bible daily was faith. It was faith that the Bible could be read and understood that got me to open it up. And it was faith that reading the Scriptures wasn’t a heavy burden but an immense privilege. And that faith was blessed with fruit, as the Word did its work in my life. 

Heaven Will Forget None of Its Heroes

Tim Challies compares the way countries treat their military heroes to the way God’s people will be honored in heaven.

There will be many surprises on the day the Lord calls us all to give an account. I am convinced that one of the greatest surprises will be this: that those who have received the least acclaim on earth may receive the most acclaim in heaven. In fact, God’s Word tells us that many of those who are first will be last and many of those who are last will be first. The least names on earth may be the greatest in heaven, while the greatest names on earth may be the least in heaven. 

4 Reasons Why Fasting Is Worth It

Cassie Achermann writes about four blessings that come along with fasting.

By stripping away the comforts our culture tells us are essential, we see that they’re only cheap imitations of God’s comfort. Fasting isn’t reserved for those with great self-control; it’s also for those who see their need for self-control. It’s not reserved for those who walk closely with God; it’s also for those who lament their distance from him. If you’re tired of relying on yourself, if you’ve experienced the emptiness of worldly comforts, if you desire a deeper relationship with God—fasting is for you.

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 (2026-04-17)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

The Danger of AI Isn’t Misinformation. It’s Mis-Formation.

If not used thoughtfully, artificial intelligence has the potential to damage our spiritual formation.

The real issue is what habitual AI use does to us. It turns into muscle memory that, over time, will reshape basic Christian habits like what we pay attention to, what we expect, and where we look for counsel.

How Ben Sasse Is Living Now That He Is Dying

You may or may not be familiar with former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse. He is an outspoken Christian with ties to our denomination. He received a diagnosis in December that he is dying of pancreatic cancer.

This is a podcast episode he did with Ross Douthat of the New York Times. A good chunk of this podcast is about politics, artificial intelligence, and higher education. If you’re not interested in those topics, skip to about 55 minutes to hear Senator Sasse’s thoughts on his top priorities as he is dying. (There is audio, video, and a transcript available at that link.)

We Have Seen You

Our poem of the week: We Have Seen You, by Kate Bluett. This is a poem about believing in the resurrection of Jesus, whether we have seen it with our eyes or not.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article written by Meghan Watt called Good Stewards of God’s Grace. 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 (2026-04-10)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

The Bible Isn’t a Smartphone

I enjoyed reading T. M. Suffield’s thoughts on the difference between instruments and devices, particularly as it relates to the way we read the Bible. I think you’ll benefit from his exploration of how we read the Bible and how that forms our expectations of our interaction with the Bible.

I think we do the same thing in much subtler ways too. Do we come to the Bible expecting to find answers provided to us, or expecting to have to work to discover what it would say to us? Do we come to the Bible as though it doesn’t require anything of us to understand, or do we expect to have to change to become the sort of people who can read it? Does the Bible act on our behalf, or do we by the Holy Spirit use the word of God to engage differently in the world?

What is the Unforgivable Sin?

Gavin Ortlund tackles this question about the “eternal sin” and he reads the Bible closely to arrive at his answer.

Meditation XX

Our poem of the week: Meditation XX, by Mark Rico. This poem is an exploration of the way God waits and how we long for his presence while we wait.

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 (2026-04-03)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

The Resurrection’s Centrality

Patrick Schreiner has written a nice article about the necessity of the resurrection in the gospel message.

A gospel message that does not include the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is no gospel at all. To quote another author, “At the heart of Christianity is a cross; and one of the most significant things about it is that it is an empty cross.”

Hell to Pay: What Truly Happened to Jesus on the Cross?

Understanding exactly what happened between the Father and the Son on the cross is not easy! Here’s an article by Nick Batzig with an attempt to explain.

Some have insisted that Jesus didn’t truly endure hell on the cross, because his human nature didn’t experience complete annihilation. Others have rejected the teaching that Jesus experienced the equivalent of hell on the cross because his sufferings were temporary rather than eternal in their endurance. The answer to both of these objections is, of course, found in the mystery of the union of the two natures of Christ.

A Sonnet for Easter Dawn

Our poem of the week: A Sonnet for Easter Dawn, by Malcolm Guite. This is a poem about the discovery of Jesus’s empty tomb. Here’s a bonus, seasonally-appropriate sonnet from Malcolm Guite: This Breathless Earth. This one is about Jesus’s appearance to the disciples in the Upper Room.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called God’s Fleeting Gifts. 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’s Fleeting Gifts

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

The signs of her are everywhere. From inspirational sayings on the fridge to masking-tape labels on spice jar lids, we see her handwriting all over the kitchen. No matter how much sorting and donating we’ve done, she’s still a huge part of that house.

Rightly so. My parents were married for almost 50 years, spending close to 45 years in that house. Mom has been gone since the fall of 2023, but I can still smell her distinctive scent when I walk in the front door.

I spent some time with my dad this past February, and I felt those now-familiar feelings that I know accompany loss and grief: sadness at my mom’s absence and gratitude for the time I had with her. That time was not short—I am not young!—but good relationships rarely last as long as we’d like. We’re finite, but we crave the infinite.

We don’t raise the topic much in conversations at work or at the coffee shop, but our death is inevitable. Famously, this is the great equalizer, the one experience (aside from birth) all humans will share. Here’s one among many obvious implications: all of God’s gifts are temporary.

It’s easy to acknowledge the temporary nature of some gifts—an ice cream cone, a garden bloom in the spring, a favorite band’s concert. We know we can’t hold onto these for long.

But we treat some other gifts differently. A best friend or spouse, an energizing career, a well-loved home—if we tilt our heads at the right angle, we might convince ourselves these will last forever. Whether our ignorance is willful or naive, we’re still ignoring the obvious. We’re going away, and so is everything we ever lay eyes on.

God’s gifts aren’t the problem, of course. He gives good gifts to his children (Ps 84:11, 34:10, 103:5). Our problem is the weight we misattribute to these gifts. We want them to be and to bear too much. When we hoist a crane on the back of a horse, we shouldn’t expect any galloping around the pasture.

One correction we can offer each other is to receive these given things in the way they are intended: as good but temporary gifts. We might think this will lead us to devalue or ignore the people and things in our lives. That’s possible, but this perspective should actually help us love them better. No spouse was made to be the object of worship; no friends were intended to be eternal sources of encouragement. We love these people and things best when we agree with what God says about them: they are good, and they (like us) are dust.

Some of my mother’s labels and notecards have been in my childhood home for decades. Her memory still lives on in that house and with her loved ones. But from the perspective of centuries, it won’t be long before those index cards, that house, and everyone who ever knew my mother’s name is gone. This may sound like a downer, but it’s actually a necessary perspective if we want to relate well to God’s gifts.

There is one of God’s gifts that will last, only one that can bear the weight of our desire, our hope, and our worship. Only one gift that will actually satisfy the desire for permanence that stands like a pillar at our core. That gift is God himself. The incarnation of Jesus was a preview of what is to come (Rev 21:3). God gives himself to his children freely and gladly—without hesitation. And we will enjoy him forever.

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Links for the Weekend (2026-03-27)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

What Unity in the Church Really Is

We don’t always have the right idea about unity in the church. Here’s a brief article describing what unity isn’t, then what it is.

I love the realism of the Bible. The writers of the New Testament held no delusions about the easiness of church and church leadership. In fact, they recognized that unity is exemplified when people with seemingly unassailable differences come together as one in an unexplainable way. True Christian unity demands diversity, difference, and dissent.

Blessed Are the Empty

Here’s a great guide to reading the Beatitudes. You’ll learn about how the Beatitudes are invitations, the OT background of the Beatitudes, and the structure of the Beatitudes themselves.

The structure of the Beatitudes teaches us that in the sermon Jesus invites the empty to come and be filled. Jesus doesn’t offer ultimate happiness to those who trust in themselves for spiritual riches, restoration, and righteousness. Rather, Jesus offers the life of the kingdom to those who are empty and in faith look to him for their eternal good. And in doing so, Jesus promises that he won’t leave his followers empty but will infallibly fill them. 

How do I walk well with someone when they are grieving and they do not share my Christian faith?

Lauren Whitman (CCEF) has a video answering this question. (A transcript is also available.)

Ode to Dawn

Our poem of the week: Ode to Dawn, by Thomas McKendry. This poem is a delightful description of the sunrise. Enjoy the rhythm and rhyme!

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 (2026-03-20)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Embrace Your Life by Enjoying Quiddity

Come for the chance to learn a new word (quiddity!), stay for advice on enjoying life exactly where you are.

How do you become a deep person? You can hear it in the word itself—it’s the desire to mine, uncover, excavate. That doesn’t happen in 14 seconds. One method, then, is through reading great books, but it’s not the only way. Lewis presents a method available to any person at any point in his or her day—practicing attentiveness.

What Is Fasting?

Cassie Achermann has written a nice overview of fasting: what it is, where it shows up in Scripture, and why you might consider doing it.

I began fasting out of a sense of deep need for God. A Bible study I had worked through left me yearning for God to bring revival in my heart as well as in my church. I started small, skipping lunch once a week and instead spending that half hour praying. Not long after, I added a second day in the week. These weren’t aimless, wandering prayer times; I was asking the Lord urgently for help in two specific areas: first, for a breakthrough in an area of ongoing sin, and second, for spiritual revival in my church, where I’d been facing discouragement and difficulty for a while.

Righteousness

Our poem of the week: Righteousness, by Kate Bluett. This is a meditation on hungering and thirsting for righteousness, as Jesus spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called 3 Poor Reasons to Read the Bible. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Thanks to Cliff L 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. 

3 Poor Reasons to Read the Bible

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

On this side of our glorified bodies, Christians have two natures that wrestle within. Our “old man” persists until we see the Lord, and as a result, even our good behavior can be laced with sin.

We rejoice at the opportunity to help our neighbor, but we recognize the pride of self-congratulation on the walk back home. We try to give money generously, but we catch ourselves scheming how to work our latest donation into a dinner conversation. Our hearts have graduate degrees in dusting sour, selfish powder on the wholesome bread of obedience and love.

Bad Reasons for Bible Reading

Reading the Bible is no exception. We can exploit even this act of devotion for selfish gain.

I’ve seen this in my life. The reasons I have for sitting down with God’s word are often mixed. The more we can identify and repent of our bad impulses, the better.

Read the Bible to Have a Great Day

Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of encouragement to exercise in the morning. I’m told this active start to the day will make me feel amazing and will set me up for success in every other area of my life.

Some people advocate Bible reading in the same manner. Fifteen minutes in the Psalms will give you the spiritual equivalent of endorphins. If you start your day with God, what could possibly bring you down?

This approach to the Bible is stained with the prosperity gospel. Yes, obedience to God brings blessing, but “blessing” does not mean a smooth path and a fat wallet. We must not tie our ease and comfort to God’s favor or our obedience.

Those who push the Bible as a vaccination against trouble also speak a lot about how “inspiring” the Scriptures are. Call me a downer, but we need this sobering truth: The Bible is not always inspiring. It isn’t supposed to be.

In the Bible we find the self-revelation of the holy God of the universe, and this revelation is not always intended to make us feel good. God has designed something much better.

Read the Bible so Others Know You’re Holy

Social media has multiplied our opportunities to broadcast our spiritual practices. And the dopamine hits from likes and shares can transform a posture of humble worship to one of gold-nugget hunting.

But Instagram did not create this temptation. From my earliest days as a Christian I have wanted others to praise me for my piety. I would read God’s word with an eye toward sharing my devotional discoveries with my friends.

Most people want others to think well of them, and in the church, this can take the insidious form of spoiling genuine time with God by an obsession with one’s reputation. Time set apart to think about and worship God becomes more time to focus on me.

Read the Bible to Earn God’s Love

Christians need to hear the gospel of grace over and over and over. The news is so stunningly good, we have trouble believing and remembering it.

We doubt that God’s love is as deep and steady and present as he says. We know the devotion God desires, and we think his love for us must be proportional to our obedience. We pick up the Bible either in the fear that we have sinned too much or in the hope that God might, finally, be pleased with our latest offering of worship.

This thinking is pervasive, but it is nowhere in the Bible itself. For Christians, God is a good father whose love cannot be improved. Our accounts are at maximum capacity. Whether we read the Bible, or how well we read the Bible, does not change God’s affections toward us.

One Good Reason to Read

These poor reasons to read the Bible are focused on self. A great reason to read the Bible is to focus on God.

In the Bible, God shows us himself. He shows us his holiness and his law and his mercy. We see the background and setting for the life of Jesus, the central act of history. We hear the cosmos-rocking implications of his death, resurrection, and ascension.

We read the Bible because God commands we love him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. But the transformed people of God long to worship their loving father and hear from him.

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Links for the Weekend (2026-03-13)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Edgelords Won’t Inherit the Earth

This one is especially for parents or friends of young men or teenage boys. Joe Carter writes about this moment’s cultural figures who influence young men and contrasts it with a biblical perspective on being a man. He offers three ways for the church to help.

The tragedy of our moment is that young men are starving for such mature masculinity and often can’t find it because the platforms that dominate their attention are structurally hostile to it. When the loudest voices in a young man’s life are those modeling immaturity, he’ll assume immaturity is what strength looks like.

​​6 Tactics for Your Fight Against Sin

This article from Brad Wetherell presents some help in the battle against sin and temptation.

When temptation comes, don’t think to yourself, “Sin is inevitable. Its pull is too powerful for me. What’s the point of fighting?” Instead, tell yourself, “Sin has lost its authority over me. I belong to Christ. Therefore, I will resist. I will not act as if sin reigns.”

Whatever Is

Our poem of the week: Whatever Is, by Sarah Chestnut. This poem is a wonderful meditation on Philippians 4:8.

Thanks to Leeanne E 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 (2026-03-06)

    Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

    Six Gospel Antidotes to Anxiety

    As this article says, “We live in an anxious world.” But the Bible speaks to anxiety! Brady Hanssen writes about the portions of the Sermon on the Mount relevant to those who are anxious.

    In verse 27, Jesus asks, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” The answer is obvious: nobody. Anxiety accomplishes nothing; in fact, it is counterproductive. Psalm 139:16 reminds us, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” The Lord has sovereignly ordained the number of our days before we were even born. Worrying about our life will not extend it beyond the days that God has given us.

    How Do You Know If You Are Called to Write a Book?—Five Questions Every Artist Should Ask

    Andy Patton had a conversation on a podcast with Will Parker Anderson about vocation and calling. (At that link is a written summary of the highlights.) Even for non-artists and non-writers, this might be helpful for thinking about what God might have you do.

    God is personal, present, and near. He wants us to walk in His way, and He has given us means of discernment. Some people have dramatic, unmistakable moments of calling. Most do not. For most of us, calling is discovered through prayer, patterns, community, Scripture, desire, slow obedience—and, to be honest, simply trying things and stumbling around.

    Hillside Vigil

    Our poem of the week: Hillside Vigil, by Thomas McKendry. This is a quiet, sobering poem about a man mourning by a grave.

    On the WPCA Blog This Week

    This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Context Matters: Bear One Another’s Burdens. 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.