Tag: Open the Bible

Links for the Weekend (2023-10-27)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

How to Mourn Over Your Sins

This article is a great explanation of the discipline of “spiritual mourning.”

When you mourn your sins, seeing them for what they are, it can be easy for you to despair. Instead remember that when God shines the light on your sins, his great purpose is to lead you to Jesus, the friend of sinners. In him you will find hope. Hope is a signature mark of spiritual mourning, and it arises from faith in Christ and all that he has accomplished through the cross.

A Word to My Inner Perfectionist

Amy Medina has some really helpful thoughts about the difference between our sin and our finite limits as humans.

And in this Truth, there is freedom. I don’t need to get it all right. I can’t. I never will. In fact, when I insist on impossible standards for myself, I’m trying to pretend to be an infinite God. Taking time to rest, depending on others, and giving myself grace when I make mistakes are not signs of weakness, failure, or sin. On the contrary, accepting my finiteness is an expression of humility. I am not God. 

That Time the Bible Said to Follow Your Heart

How do we reconcile parts of the Bible which seem to be at odds? The answer is usually some form of pay attention to the context! This article is a good example of context-sensitive Bible reading.

The larger context is always important for any verse. When the author of Ecclesiastes exhorts his readers to any action, he is always doing so with a view toward wise behavior. When he says “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God” (5:1), or “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart” (9:7), or “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days” (11:1), these are calls for wise living.

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 (2023-10-13)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Beware the Corrosive Quest for Respectability

Here’s a bracing exhortation for Christians not to seek out acceptance from the broader culture. The article lists some common arenas in which this temptation shows up and offers some advice for resisting.

Whatever credibility your constant digs at “those other Christians” earns you in the eyes of cultural elites, it’ll all be lost the minute they find out you actually believe what the Bible says about sexuality or the exclusivity of Christ (among other things). That’s perhaps the greatest reason efforts at “respectability” are a fool’s errand. Even if you say and do all the right things, if you believe a few wrong things, respectability will be elusive and elite access will be denied.

Dad, Where Are You Going?

How does a father discuss his terminal cancer diagnosis with his young sons? Tim Albert writes about the ways God has helped him grapple with this question using Psalm 77.

My son’s innocent question strikes at the core of my fears. He hardly knows what cancer is, let alone that his dad has it. I’ve avoided the conversation to this point, but spend a significant portion of each day replaying what seems inevitable in the theater of my mind: life cut short and my boys growing up without their father. 

Seven Blessings for Empty-Handed Believers

Colin Smith writes about what it looks like to turn to the Lord and let go of our pride.

People who feel they have something to offer God come to him with their hands full, but as long as our hands are full, we are not in a position to receive. As Thomas Watson says, “If the hand is full of pebbles, it cannot receive gold.”

People who are poor in spirit drop the pebbles because they want the gold, and they know that it can only be received by empty-handed believers. When you know that you have nothing to offer God, you are in a position to receive all that he offers to you. When you accept that you cannot claim his blessing as a right, you are in a position to receive it as a gift.

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 (2022-10-14)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

A Manifesto for Times of Suffering

You may remember that Tim Challies lost his college-aged son tragically within the last couple years. As he was coming to grips with his loss, he wrote a manifesto for his suffering to which he could return for strength and a reminder of his calling and commitment.

I will receive this trial as a responsibility to steward, not a punishment to endure. I will look for God’s smile in it rather than his frown, listen for his words of blessing rather than his voice of rebuke. This sorrow will not make me angry or bitter, nor cause me to act out in rebellion or indignation. Rather, it will make me kinder and gentler, more patient and loving, more compassionate and sympathetic. It will loose my heart from the things of earth and fix it on the things of heaven. The loss of my son will make me more like God’s Son, my sorrow like the Man of Sorrows.

Love Your Unorthodox Neighbor

Why do we find it hard to love people with whom we disagree? What does this say about our definition of love?

This approach to doctrine is attractive because we’ve fallen for the notion that love requires agreement or approval. It’s hard to imagine we might love—deeply love—people with whom our disagreements are fundamental. We assume we must shift the foundations if we’re to love someone, when instead a better understanding of foundational Christian truth shifts us into a posture of love across chasms of difference. 

Bible Q&A: How Can We Trust the Bible When It Contains Inconsistencies?

Here’s a helpful answer to a common question about inconsistencies in the Gospels.

God is the only eyewitness that sees every detail. The rest of us are limited by our point of view. We believe the Bible was written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV). If the words of the Bible were breathed out by God, then they are true.

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