Links for the Weekend (2025-06-13)

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

How Do I Leave My Sin at the Foot of the Cross?

Katie Laitkep offers some advice related to this common Christian expression: leaving your sin at the cross.

You must continue to rely on Jesus for everything—day by day, moment by moment. This is the part we often get wrong. We start out at the cross, knowing we’re in need of God’s mercy, but then we begin to drift––trying to manage, fix, or perfect ourselves apart from the grace that saved us. We proclaim the first part of Galatians 2:20 with our lips: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” But if our lives told the story, they might read more like this: “The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God controlling everything myself.”

Taking a Closer Look at Psalm 22

Daniel Stevens offers a helpful overview of Psalm 22 and then looks at the way the author of Hebrews quotes this psalm. (There is a video accompanying this article.)

And even for apologetic purposes, Psalm 22 often gets used because here, in this psalm of David, we do seem to have a description of Jesus’s death at the crucifixion—that his joints are stretched out, his heart melts away like wax, and we even find within it people dividing his garments and casting lots (Ps. 22:18). So Psalm 22 does meet us with the crucifixion scene. It is a prophecy, even as it is a psalm, telling us of how Jesus was to die. And Jesus wanted us to see it that way.

Battling Negative Body Image

Many Christians—indeed many humans—struggle with negative body image. However, Christians have tools to combat such negative messages.

The trouble is that a negative body image rarely remains contained to occasional frustration—it quickly grows to impact how we function. Adverse thoughts about how our bodies look often spur negative feelings about ourselves—about our value, our ability to contribute to society, and even our perception of our worth to others. To make things worse, those feelings may even lead to bodily harm as a way to cope with difficult emotions or to force our bodies to measure up to the desired ideal.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Joy: 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. 

Links for the Weekend (9/11/2020)

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

3 Questions about Self-Care

Spend twenty minutes online these days and you’ll probably run into someone talking about self-care. It’s natural to wonder if this is a helpful category for Christians. Jen Oshman helps us think about self-care as Christians.

The best advice or wisdom I can offer when we are exhausted, burned out, disillusioned, or stressed beyond our own ability to cope is to turn to Jesus. This is no trite sentimentality. When we turn to Jesus, we acknowledge what is true; namely, that we were created through him and for him (Col. 1:16). God is our beginning and our end—he made us for himself. We cannot run on any other fuel. The early church father Augustine of Hippo was right when he said, “Our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you” (Confessions).

What Happens When a Christian Dies?

It’s good to read solid, biblical teaching on a subject as important as death for a Christian. This article is adapted from a sermon by Colin Smith.

The Christian is a person with two houses. The contrast between them could hardly be greater. The first house for your soul is your body, which is like a tent – a fragile structure that will be destroyed. When this house is pulled down, you will move into your other house, which is heaven – an enduring building to live in forever. Heaven is the eternal home into which your soul will enter when its present house is destroyed. In the earthly tent there is groaning, but in the “house not made with hands” what is mortal is swallowed up by life (2 Cor. 5:4)!

What the World Needs Now

Scotty Smith writes about love by way of introducing us to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

Though I grew up going to church, I primarily thought of God’s love as the incredible goodness he shows us when we die—taking believers immediately to heaven. That most certainly is a grand generosity. Ephesians has helped me understand, however, that God isn’t just committed to getting us into heaven after we die; but also getting the life of heaven into us while we live. Through the gospel, our Father is committed to freeing us for a life of living and loving to his glory—in our families, the church, and his world.

If Not for Ben

Andrea Sanborn writes about her son Ben, who has special needs. While the world may think Ben has only brought her added grief and stress, she describes all she would have missed without Ben.

If not for Ben, I would have missed the miracle of watching his life change the hardened and the proud. I would have missed seeing the “bad boys” lay down their armor to treat him with special tenderness. I would have missed a thousand acts of kindness from children as well as adults. I would even have missed the uncanny understanding that animals show him.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called When God Promises His Presence. 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.