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 at his blog.

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. 

The Difference Between Optimism and Biblical Hope

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Depending on your perspective, an optimist in your life might be spring sunshine in a dreary room or a stubborn fly, banging against the window.

The Bible speaks a lot about hope, not so much about optimism. That doesn’t mean optimism is necessarily bad! (The Bible doesn’t mention pie, and only a monster would insist we avoid that.) However, both inside and outside of the church, there is confusion about hope and optimism.

What is Optimism?

Optimism is a “tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.”

Have you met an optimist? They see the silver linings of dark clouds and always hold onto the possibility of things turning out well. They rarely seem discouraged or gloomy. Even when life is hard, good things are right around the corner.

It’s interesting to ponder why. On what basis does an optimist expect a sunny future?

The optimist would probably chalk their outlook up to natural disposition or upbringing. Some optimists likely base their positivity on experience—life seems more likely to go well in the future if it’s generally gone well in the past.

What is Biblical Hope?

Without clear definitions, the lines between optimism and biblical hope might appear blurry. If Christians are called to be hopeful people, are we therefore called to be optimistic?

As I’ve tried to argue previously, biblical hope is distinctive. It doesn’t depend on one’s personality or experience. Hope relies only on God.

Biblical hope is the glad expectation that God will keep his promises. In the New Testament, this hope is almost always tethered to the second coming of Jesus and the new heavens and new earth.

How is this different from optimism?

God’s promises include outcomes that are not intrinsically positive. In fact, God promises persecution and suffering for those who follow Jesus (2 Tim 3:12, John 15:20).

A hopeful Christian is confident that God is good and has ultimate good in store for each of his children. But the outcomes along the way may not be good; in fact, there might be terrible pain, loss, and sorrow for Christians in this life.

And yet, because God cannot break a promise, the Christian is absolutely sure of a glorious ending. We will see God as he is; we will dwell with him face to face; we will inhabit a new creation with glorified bodies. The curse will be no more.

Called to Hope

Hope is not incidental for the Christian—it is at the very heart of how we are to live in the world. The resurrection of Jesus gives us “a living hope.”

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pet 1:3)

We are commanded to set our hope completely on forthcoming grace.

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet 1:13)

Hope is something that God has called us to (Eph 1:18), and it is fuel for our joy (Rom 12:12). God is the “God of hope” and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we “may abound in hope” as well (Rom 15:13).

It is far too easy to get caught in the riptide of motivational sayings and empty, “you can do this” platitudes. God has not commanded us to be optimists; rather, he has give us all we need to abound in hope.

As we get to know our God, we see how faithful and trustworthy he is. As we learn and rehearse his promises, we grasp the riches of the gospel—Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col 1:27).

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Links for the Weekend (2023-08-04)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

The House of Mourning Is Good for the Soul

This article takes a close look at Ecclesiastes 7:2 (“It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart”). Why is mourning better than feasting?

Two houses are contrasted: the house of mourning and the house of feasting. The house of feasting would be understandably appealing. Feasting denotes celebration, liveliness, fellowship, joy. Haven’t you been at a table with friends or family and thought, “I don’t want this to end. The joy is so palpable, the company so delightful”?

On Preparing Yourself for Corporate Worship

Here is some advice on preparing your soul for Sunday morning worship.

Some Christians bemoan, “But I just don’t get anything out of the church service.” Maybe so. But often when believers express these kinds of sentiments, it’s because we don’t personally prepare ourselves for worship. We think we can haphazardly enter a worship service and assume it will be engaging because it’s a spiritual activity. We assume it’s entirely on the leaders of the church to give us a good worship experience; if we don’t have one, it must be the pastor or the music leader’s fault. But this is not the case. 

What Is Sloth?

Sloth is one of the “seven deadly sins” of antiquity. But that word might sound strange to modern ears. This article provides an explanation of sloth.

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 (2023-07-28)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

The Goal of Scripture Memorization is Not Recitation

I appreciated Glenna Marshall’s article about the purpose of Scripture memorization.

As I’ve grown up in the faith and studied God’s Word, though, I’ve realized that the goal of Scripture memorization is never to recite it for the applause of men or to win a competition. Though the programs of my childhood smartly utilized games and competitions to encourage us to memorize, the goal was to store up God’s Word like a treasure so that when we needed to remember the gospel or God’s character or how to live as His people, the words of the Bible would already be buried deep within us. The point of Scripture memorization, I realized, was to remember.

How Were the Books of the Bible “Chosen”?

This article makes an important distinction about how books came to be included in the Bible.

The problem, however, is that the wording of the question already presumes the answer (or at least part of it).  Most people don’t realize this, of course. They are just honestly asking a question, probably using words that come most natural to them (or that they’ve heard others use). But, this particular framing of the question has a number of built-in assumptions that need to be recognized.

Ten Reasons the Old Testament Matters for Christians

It might be tempting to focus only on the New Testament, but this article gives ten reasons why the Old Testament matters.

To understand the Old Testament fully, we must read it as believers in Jesus, with God having awakened our spiritual senses to see and hear rightly. That is, we read through Christ. Then, as Christians, biblical interpretation reaches its end only after we have found Jesus and experienced him transforming us into his image. We, thus, read for Christ.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called How to Make Sense of the Bible. 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. 

How to Make Sense of the Bible

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

As Christians, we know that we’re supposed to focus on the Bible. Most of us are okay with reading the Bible, and sometimes we even work on Scripture memorization.

But the thought of studying the Bible can be daunting. We might wonder why we need to do such a hard thing when we have both paid professionals (pastors) to do this for us and an abundance of explanations of the Scriptures (study Bibles, commentaries, etc.).

Christians should study the Bible in order to know and love God more. The Bible is primarily about God and how we’re to relate to him—this is the most important topic in the universe! So, the better we understand and know him, the more we will be who he created us to be. (And, as it turns out, the more joyful we will be as well!)

The Bible is not Written in Code

At times in history, including these current times, some people talk about the Bible as though it were written in code. They imply that we have this communication from God available to us, only the very smartest and most clever people can decipher its meaning.

If we follow this logic, we must conclude that God is hiding who he is from us—that he does not want to be known or loved.

But this is NOT what God is like!

In addition to creation itself declaring the glory of God (see Psalm 19:1–6), we know that God wants to be known because of the incarnation of Jesus. God sent his son to make him known!

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (John 1:14–18)

Now, just because the Bible is not written in code doesn’t make the whole thing obvious or easy to understand. But it does mean that the Bible is knowable. And, as veteran Bible-readers can attest, the Bible rewards repeated reading and repeated study. There is spiritual nourishment available whether you are reading the Bible for the first or the ten-thousandth time.

Resources for Learning to Study the Bible

No matter how many times you have previously studied the Bible, it can be helpful to have some guidance and resources in your toolbox. I have one book and one website to recommend in this regard.

The book is Knowable Word, by Peter Krol. It introduces the OIA (observe-interpret-apply) method of Bible study in a clear, short, easy-to-understand way.

The website is associated with the book: Knowable Word. Much of the content of the book can be found on the website, though the book is certainly a tidier, neater package. To begin, I’d recommend this brief introduction to OIA and then this more detailed description. You may also find this page of resources helpful as you study the Bible. (I like to print out some of the OIA worksheets to aid my study.) I’ve also produced a one-page summary of the OIA method which could be used as a reference sheet.

(I need a whole pile of disclaimers here, because Peter is a good friend of mine and I contribute articles to this website myself. These aren’t the only resources around to help you study the Scriptures, but they are aimed at ordinary people and many have found them helpful.)

Studying the Bible in Community

As with much of the Christian life, God didn’t intend for us to learn about the Bible in isolation. Bible study for personal devotional time is good, but you’ll likely learn and grow even more when you also gather with a small group of friends to dig in to the Scriptures. (If you’d like to know how to connect to such a group at our church, feel free to ask any member or regular attender on a Sunday morning!)

Studying the Bible may feel like an uphill climb, but it is a worthy hike! In this lifelong work of walking with and loving God, he has given us the Scriptures for our comfort and instruction. Let’s do our best to learn faithfully from him.

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Links for the Weekend (2023-07-21)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Hospitality is an Everyday Endeavor

I appreciate the way this article points out unexpected areas where we can show hospitality. (And hospitality is not limited to opening your home for a meal!)

It’s such a common thing for biblical concepts like hospitality to be skewed by the lesser things that we tend to default to: pretty houses, pretty tables, fancy food, and pride. It can be easy to start believing that hospitality is only possible if we can cook or if we have children who don’t make messes or if we have “entertaining space.” HGTV doesn’t define what God calls us to. We could easily host a beautiful meal for strangers and friends and then spend the next day ignoring text messages and making receptionists at the dentist’s office miserable. If hospitality isn’t an everyday, all day endeavor, then we’re confused as to what we’re meant to be as representatives of Christ. Once we move hospitality out of the kitchen and into the overall attitude of our hearts, then we may be amazed at what God can do in that fast food joint or doctor’s office or texted conversation.

He Gives To His Beloved Sleep

When your three-week-old is rushed to the hospital in an ambulance because he has stopped breathing, you might think about sleep a bit differently. I enjoyed this meditation on Psalm 127 and its lessons about sleep for the children of God.

So as I looked at my sweet baby and wondered about his health, obsessively Googling his breathing patterns, and working myself into an all out panic, I was reminded of Psalm 127, he gives to his beloved sleep. Rest is contingent upon trust in the Lord. I am that beloved, I am the one who eats the bread of anxious toil. But I don’t have to. We have been given the precious gift of rest as we trust in an abundantly worthy God.

How Can I Encourage Without Flattering?

The difference between encouragement and flattery is an important one for Christians to understand. John Piper does a good job with the explanation, highlighting the motivations behind each. (This is an episode of a podcast for which a transcript is available, so whether you prefer to read or listen, you are all set!)

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 (2023-06-30)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

How Does the Doctrine of the Bodily Resurrection Shape the Life of the Local Church?

No surprise here: the doctrine of the bodily resurrection is important in many ways for the Christian life!

By teaching the doctrine of the bodily resurrection, local churches will be casting a more accurate vision of future life. Better than going away to heaven is being raised to dwell forever with the Lord in a new creation. The new creation will be material, not just spiritual, so a life of embodied immortality fits with the future consummation.

Hospitality Is About More Than Food

I appreciated this article about hospitality, which addresses who hospitality is for and what it can look like.

We were once alienated from the people of God, strangers from the covenant of promise, and yet God brought us near through the blood of His Son (Eph 2:12-13). As the hymn goes, “Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me from danger interposed His precious blood.” We get a chance to love the stranger as a beautiful gospel picture to the lost world.

God’s Pleasure is Not Reserved for a Particularly Faithful Few

In this article, the author meditates on the commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Who exactly might expect this greeting from the Lord?

But there is sometimes a subtext behind these words. A subtext that makes us wonder whether we will hear such words. Have we been good and faithful servants? Have we done enough to get this commendation from Jesus? The worry for many of us is that we don’t consider ourselves to be as godly as the people to whom we typically apply this. Some of us definitely aren’t considered as godly as them by other onlookers either. Perhaps this commendation isn’t for us? The subtext is that only those who have been good and faithful servants will hear these words.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Connecting Biblical Hope to Promises. 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. 

Connecting Biblical Hope to Promises

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

It would be hard to deny the importance of hope in the Christian life. Along with faith and love, Paul lists hope as one of three essential virtues (1 Cor 13:13).

Additionally, Paul calls Jesus “our hope” (1 Tim 1:1). Peter gets in on the action, reminding Christians that they have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

So, hope is crucial to followers of Jesus. What, then, is hope?

Basic Ideas About Hope

We use “hope” in conversation with enough frequency that we may not have a solid definition in mind. When we tell a friend that we hope they have a good day or that we hope we can cut the grass before it rains, we’re expressing a strong desire. In this usage, “hope” means something close to “wish.”

But this isn’t how the Biblical authors use the Hebrew and Greek words that come into English as “hope.”

Before we dive too deeply, let’s establish some basic ideas about hope. First, hope is forward-looking. It is about the future, events yet to come. Additionally, in almost every New Testament instance, the use of “hope” is eschatological. That fancy word just means that hope refers to “last things” or “end things.” Here are some examples.

Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” (Acts 23:6)

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Cor 15:19)

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. (Col 1:3–5a)

Word Studies

In some circles, “word studies” are a popular approach to the Bible. Such a method involves a concordance or a digitally searchable form of the Bible, and every occurrence of a word is gathered and analyzed with the goal of finding the one true meaning of a word.

This is a flawed approach to Bible study, as it often considers words out of their literary context. Additionally, it assumes that words are used uniformly by different authors and at different times. This isn’t the way we use English words, and we shouldn’t project that onto the Biblical authors. Analyzing the use of a word in different parts of the Bible can provide us with a range of usage, and clearly a word cannot mean anything we want it to mean. But there is rarely a single narrow meaning of a word.

Hope and Promises

With all this being said, we can draw one conclusion about many uses of the word “hope” in the Bible. Hope depends on what God has promised.

We can see this in several places in the New Testament, notably in Hebrews 6:9–20. The writer calls attention to Abraham as one who obtained the promises of God through waiting (Heb 6:15). Because it is “impossible for God to lie,” we can “hold fast to the hope set before us” (Heb 6:18). Hope is described as “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Heb 6:19). The argument in verses 13–20 is made so that the hearers of this letter might “have the full assurance of hope until the end” and “inherit the promises” (Heb 6:11–12).

We see the connections between hope and God’s promises throughout this passage. We must conclude that the Christian’s hope is built on God’s promises. As one Bible dictionary says, “Hope is the proper response to the promises of God.”

Reading Backwards

If what I have claimed is true—that Christian hope is built on God’s promises—then we can profitably read other references to hope with this in mind.

When Paul refers to the “God of hope” who will make the people “abound in hope” (Rom 15:13), we know that it is because God makes and keeps promises. (The connection is explicit here, as the previous verse quotes a promise given in Isaiah.)

In 2 Corinthians, Paul hopes that the people will be comforted (2 Cor 1:7) and that they will be delivered from present suffering (2 Cor 1:10), because these are promises God has made.

God is a promise-making and promise-keeping God. And so many of his promises are designed to give us strength, encouragement, and clarity to press in and press through the hard things of life. We can abound in hope as we learn, remember, and trust in God’s promises.

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