Darryl Dash – Washington Presbyterian Church

Don’t Stock the Pantry with Temptation

We are used to preparing for almost everything. We prepare our clothes, our food, our vacations, and more. Paul is saying that whatever you do, do not prepare to sin. Instead, actively take steps to cut temptation out of your life. Deliberately arrange your life so that sinful desires are harder to satisfy. Avoid certain environments. Put a filter on your phone. Cancel that streaming service. Throw away those books. Cut out influences that tempt you toward sin.

Identity & Literature: Eeyore is Worse Than You Remember

Justin Poythress writes about some of the dangers of pride.

Pride tells you that you are worth a lot more than you’re getting. You’re amazing, brilliant, talented, kind, considerate, and self-sacrificing—it’s just no one ever sees. No one recognizes how exceptionally humble and valuable you really are. Poor you.

How do I help my children who are constantly arguing with each other?

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.

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

The Ever-Present Search for an Easy Christian Faith

Does anything about the Christian faith make you uncomfortable? Trevin Wax proposes that should probably be true in some area of your life.

We should test ourselves. Do we pledge our allegiance to God as he truly is, or do we settle for fashioning a god of our own imagination? Are we shaving off the rough edges of his revelation to suit our preferences? Or are we willing to submit to what he says about himself—even when we don’t understand (or don’t want to)?

The Problem With Habits (and Why We Still Need Them)

Darryl Dash has a good perspective on habits (and a good analogy for them too). He writes: “habits alone cannot transform us, yet we cannot grow without them.”

God has established means of grace. They’re ways through which he promises to work in our lives. When we seek him through Scripture, our hearts are changed. The transformative power lies not in our routine of Bible reading, but in the living word itself. God’s Spirit actively works through his word. God’s word has the power to change our lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The same applies to prayer. God promises that those who seek him will find him (Matthew 7:7-8). The power isn’t in habits; habits just get us to God’s means of grace.

In Waiting

Our poem of the week: In Waiting, by Joshua Fullman. This is a poem about visiting a loved one in the hospital.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called 3 Essential Ingredients for Understanding the Bible. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!