Tag: Crossway

Links for the Weekend (2025-03-21)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

The Best Source of Stability on an Emotional Roller Coaster

Lois Flowers encourages us to cling to the anchor of God’s character when we’re in life’s storms.

What is true about God doesn’t change according to our circumstances. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. As believers, our names are engraved on the palm of His hand. He loves us with an everlasting love. He goes before us and is with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

These are truths, not clichés. They are not metaphorically hidden in the pages of scripture. They are spelled out clearly and plainly.

Even though we may sometimes think otherwise, God’s love does not cease to apply to us when something in our lives goes wrong. We are not the exception to His promises, His truth or His sovereignty. When trials come, as He explicitly promised they would, His character does not bypass us or our loved ones.

In Sanctification, Where You’re Going Is More Important Than Where You Are

Kevin DeYoung wrote some helpful words for us on how we progress in holiness.

Which brings us to one of the most important axioms about holiness: when it comes to sanctification, it’s more important where you’re going than where you are. Direction matters more than position. Your future progress speaks louder than your present placement. So cheer up: if you aren’t as holy as you want to be now, God may still be pleased with you because you are heading in the right direction. And be warned: if you aren’t as holy as you used to be, God probably isn’t impressed with yesterday’s triumphs when for the last few months you’ve done nothing but give up.

March Sonnet

Our poem of the week: March Sonnet by Chelsea Fraser. This is a poem about the arrival of spring (with a hint of resurrection thrown in too).

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Reading the Bible for the First Time. 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 (2025-03-14)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Life Will Not Get Easier

Stephen Witmer uses the book of Nehemiah to puncture the lie that life will just get easier if we can get past the current challenge. He shows how this story offers help for our current seasons of life, not just the future.

You’ve probably seen medication commercials featuring ridiculously fit and happy older people with silver hair and perfect teeth playing tennis and laughing in a carefree fashion. That’s the lie. It’s not true. In many years of pastoral ministry, I’ve seen numerous people work hard and honor God through their childrearing years and careers only to retire and face increased challenges. Friends move away. Misunderstandings with grown children occur. Spouses die. Medications multiply. Often, retirement isn’t a quiet harbor but the open ocean.

How to Be Confident in the Resurrection: Look to Its First Witnesses

With Easter happening next month, it’s not too early to think about the resurrection of Jesus. This is the center of the Christian faith, and one of the best arguments for the resurrection is the testimony of those early witnesses.

How can anyone be confident that the resurrection really happened? The first followers of Jesus didn’t claim their leader rose from the dead because of gullible ignorance or blind faith. They knew dead people stay dead. Especially after they began to be persecuted, they had nothing to gain by persisting in their claim that Jesus had returned to life.

Yet some of these women and men had encountered an event so momentous they were ready to die rather than deny they saw a once-dead man alive. These initial eyewitnesses declared what they experienced, and in some cases they died for what they declared. At least a few of their firsthand testimonies eventually found their way into the New Testament.

dalliance

Our poem of the week: dalliance, by Chris Wheeler. This short poem is about a morning commute and the ways we pass by one another.

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 (2025-01-10)

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. 

Links for the Weekend (2025-01-03)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

How Healthy Is Your Soul? Six Questions for a New Year

At Desiring God, Scott Hubbard provides some questions to help us take our spiritual temperature at the start of a new year.

So no, the purpose of these questions is not to condemn, but rather to expose any area where we have cooled insensibly, by degrees, by little and little. And therefore the purpose of these questions is to draw us nearer to the Lord who has warmth enough to melt our coldness, if only we bring ourselves close to him.

3 Illustrations That Help Us Understand What It Is to Be “in Christ”

I linked to several articles related to union with Christ last year. Here’s another one, with a link to a book that looks to be good.

Without an understanding of what it means to be in Christ, our view of the Christian life becomes blurry. The ideas will still be there, of course—we’ll know that we’re justified through the death of Christ alone, that we will one day join him in resurrection life, that in the meantime we’re to commit ourselves to walking in holiness, and that all this is to be understood and worked through in the context of a local church. The pieces will be in place, but they won’t fully cohere—they’ll seem like separate elements, each of which we admire in its own way but which, like Lego bricks poured out onto the table, are meant to fit together and make a whole. Union with Christ is the lens through which all these parts of the Christian life can be seen most sharply and beautifully.

Bible Reading Plans for 2025

Ligonier has rounded up more than 20 Bible reading plans for 2025. Check them 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 (2024-11-29)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

How Do I Raise Grateful Kids?

Sam Crabtree has some advice on raising grateful children.

So if our kids are born thankless, how can we raise kids to recognize with heartfelt gratitude that they are served by an endless conveyor belt of divinely supplied benefits including life, breath, and everything? How can we help them see that God is working all things together for the good of those who love him? How can we help them see that he is good all the time and that our pleasure in him is enlarged and deepened and gladdened when we consciously thank him? How can we raise grateful kids?

We Thank You, Lord

It might be good to read this one slowly. Andrea Sanborn gives thanks to the Lord and invites us to join her.

A Liturgy for Rest

This liturgy for rest is a prayer for weary, hurried Christians who need to slow down and visit with God.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Giving Detailed Thanks for Coffee. 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 (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 (2024-09-20)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Why a Good God Commanded the Israelites to Destroy the Canaanites

It’s an important question we should consider when talking to unbelievers: How could God command his people to destroy the Canaanites?

To drive a wedge between God and goodness, I’d point to God’s command to the Israelites to “utterly destroy” every person living in the Canaanite cities God was giving them. They were instructed to “not leave alive anything that breathes”—to kill every man, woman, child, and animal (Deut. 20:16–17). Why would a good God have the Israelites exterminate entire groups of people, including women, children, and animals? Here are four principles to remember the next time you encounter this issue.

“Why Have You Forsaken Me?” Understanding Jesus’s Cry on the Cross

This is a helpful, theologically deep article about Jesus’s famous cry on the cross. The authors approach the question from a number of angles.

The crucifixion is a good case study in showing how a careful Trinitarian framework can help work through thorny issues related to the Trinity and salvation. Not only does it bring to the surface the difficult question of what the Father was “doing” (or not doing) while Jesus hung on the cross, but it also raises the question of the Spirit’s seeming absence during the event.

Podcast: Why Christianity Is Not Just about Being a Follower of Jesus (Sam Allberry)

Here’s a helpful interview with author Sam Allberry about the doctrine of union with Christ, which is the subject of his newest book.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called No Images. 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 (2024-09-06)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

You (Still) Need the Gospel

Jared Compton writes about a wonderful discovery he and his wife made at church early in their marriage: the gospel is for Christians, not just unbelievers!

Maybe you know this already. Maybe you don’t. But if you’re a Christian, the gospel is for you. It’s full of good news about your past and future — and your present day-to-day life. It’s full of good news for today. And to live in the goodness of this news, there are precious truths you simply must learn to rehearse, to preach, to yourself.

A Parent’s Guide to Talking with Kids about Technology

Here is a helpful list of principles about God and technology along with conversation starters to use with children.

It goes without saying that technology, particularly all of life in the digital age, is presenting us with a dizzying array of possibilities when it comes to where we spend our time, how we understand who we are, and how we perceive the world around us. No stone is left unturned when it comes to technology. Technology is not just a “thing” we use; it colors virtually every interaction we have in the world today. We use technology but then technology shapes us into the types of persons that further technology’s demands. It’s an unending cycle of compulsion-desire-formation.

Crumbs on the Kitchen Table

Poem of the week: Crumbs on the Kitchen Table, by J.C. Scharl. This is delightful little poem about creation.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called The Fear of Man Will Crush You. 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 (2024-08-23)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

3 Reasons Heaven Doesn’t Affect Us as Much as It Should

Cameron Cole has lost a child, so these thoughts about heaven are the fruit of going through the fire.

Heightened heavenly mindedness has given me greater contentment, provided strength to persevere in suffering, and inspired me to focus on mission and evangelism. The pain of my son’s death isn’t something I would’ve chosen, and I won’t completely outrun it in this fallen world. But the heavenward shift the Lord brought has been one of the greatest blessings of my life.

How (and How Not) to Talk with Your Kids about Sexuality

It is increasingly important for parents to talk with their children about sex. But the thought of such a conversation can cause anxiety. Here is some wise counsel.

As we think about parenting in this cultural moment, few issues are more urgent and fraught to talk about with your children than sexuality and sex. This is urgent because if you do not talk about it first, the culture certainly will; it is fraught because as our culture changes in how it understands sexuality, it has unhelpfully elevated it to a status that sexuality was never meant to hold, biblically speaking.

How One Family Navigated Smartphones and Social Media in the Teen Years

Here’s another article about parenting, though like the best articles, it has much to offer even to those who aren’t parents. Without insisting on specifics, this family reports the decisions they made and their recommendations regarding technology.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called The Golden Calf Reveals the Goal of the Exodus. 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.