Tag: New Verse Review

Links for the Weekend (2024-10-25)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

5 Things You Should Know about Union with Christ

The older I get, the more essential I view the doctrine of union with Christ. Here is a quick overview at Ligonier.

The Bible speaks of disciples as people who are “in Christ.” This is the language of union with Jesus. By nature, we are all “in Adam,” which means spiritual death. By grace, God puts undeserving sinners “in Christ,” which is life everlasting (1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 5:12–21). This is the reality that the Apostle Paul addresses in Ephesians 1, where the phrase “in Christ” appears repeatedly. To be without Christ is abject misery. To be in Christ is true salvation. To be like Christ is real holiness. To be with Christ is joy beyond compare. He is the root and source of every blessing. We need, therefore, to grasp certain sweet realities about the Christian’s union with Christ Jesus.

A Midlife Assessment

Faith Chang has written a thoughtful reflection on following Christ in middle age.

I’m in the thick of the woods now and though the path diverges every so often and the decisions I make at these crossroads still don’t come easy, I choose with a better sense of what the cost might be to walk the harder roads, how God has created me to walk, what load he has called me to bear, what pace is sustainable, and more confidence knowing his grace has proved sufficient thus far. I have a more realistic sense of my constraints, a greater contentment regarding roads not taken, a growing inkling of what a “convergence” (as one of my professors put it) of passions, gifting, and experience might look like for me vocationally. Still, I have some questions, ones that are less of the “Which mountain should I climb?” nature and more of the “We’ve been going the right way, right?” variety.

Quick

Our poem of the week: Quick, by Erica Reid. It’s another poem about autumn; I can’t help myself.

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 (2024-10-18)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

What does an idol promise?

This post from Brad East helped me think through some of the attraction of idols.

I am tempted to say that an idol cannot bless, cannot impart gifts at all. But that cannot be true simpliciter. If, sometimes, demons lie behind idols, then it stands to reason that, as living beings, demons can exchange gifts for sacrifices, blessings for devotion. All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. The false note is not that Satan’s offer is a lie without remainder but that, as always, it is intermixed with the truth; whether or not Satan can give what he offers, worship is due God alone regardless.

How Heaven Changes Your Life on Earth

Cameron Cole started thinking a lot more about heaven after the tragic death of his young child. He wrote a book and talked about the book on this podcast. (There’s a transcript available as well.)

Imminence

Poem of the week: Imminence, by Carla Galdo. It’s about autumn, objectively the best season of the year.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called No Good Tree Bears Bad Fruit. 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 (2024-08-30)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Your Pain Has an End Date

Vaneetha Risner writes about how much difference it makes, when suffering, to know that the pain will not last forever.

Yet even when our suffering feels endless, God knows exactly how long it will really last. It has an end date, an exact day and time predetermined by God. My pain will not last forever; it is not random or indeterminate. God has fixed all the details of this trial and will give me everything I need to endure it.

Following Jesus in the Desert of Mental Illness

Samuel James reviews a book in which the author writes about his experience being a Christian with mental illness.

John Andrew Bryant’s A Quiet Mind to Suffer With is the first book I’ve ever read that tries to answer that question from the inside. Bryant’s experience with OCD, hospitalization, and a lifetime of horribly intrusive thoughts is harrowing enough. What sets his particular work apart is the way he invites the reader into these experience with prose that tries to simulate, if any prose could, the turmoil of mental disorder. But then Bryant does something remarkable. He narrates his own discovery of how the gospel anchors him in the midst of (though it does not protect from) mental illness. The insights that follow are all the more powerful because they are so dearly bought.

A Suit for Grandfather

Our poem of the week: A Suit for Grandfather. This is a moving poem about the speaker’s tobacco-farming father.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here.