Tag: The Gospel Coalition

Links for the Weekend (2026-01-30)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

5 Reasons You Need Sabbath Rest

The Sabbath helps to reorient our lives and hearts. Megan Hill urges us to pay attention to the Sabbath.

The disruption of Sabbath rest is a chance to remember that even our schedules are under the Lord’s authority. Once a week, the Lord breaks into our routine and reminds us that our appointments and plans aren’t ultimate, nor are they prioritized according to our desires. When the first day of every week belongs wholly to him, it reorients every minute of every day that follows.

Fruitful to the End

Beth Ferguson writes about fruitfulness and aging.

Years temper us; hardships deepen our prayers; losses refine our loves. Have you noticed that some of the most joyful people are not the youngest, but those who have walked with God for decades? They know storms, but they also know the One who calms them. Their laughter has layers, and their peace has been tested. Abiding through time transforms us. With age, we may not move as quickly, but in Christ we ripen more fully.

Resources to Help You Meditate on Scripture in 2026

Here is a link to a bunch of free resources to help you read, study, and meditate on the Bible. (It’s a Crossway link, so you’ll also find resources they want you to buy, too!)

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 (2026-01-09)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Gospel-Centered Resolutions

This is a helpful explanation of how the gospel can reshape our approach to resolutions.

The gospel challenges our normal approach to resolutions. Rather than starting with our desires, it reminds us that our desires are deceitful. We need to look elsewhere for our goals. Rather than telling us how to find value, the gospel reminds us that our value has been established by the blood of Jesus on the cross. Rather than telling us to try harder and be better to accomplish our goals, the gospel is the “power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). A gospel-centered approach is simply truer. It is more life-giving. It is powerful. If you’ve given up on resolutions before, don’t lose hope. Instead, give up on “you-centered” resolutions and replace them with the gospel.

5 Habits for Better Prayer in 2026

This writer offers suggestions for mindsets toward prayer in the context of maintaining a relationship with God.

Prayer is, first and foremost, being in our Father’s presence. One of the most common hindrances to prayer is the fear of not “doing it right,” like a student hesitant to attempt a tricky math problem. Yet prayer is about cherishing a relationship, not cracking a formula. It’s not the eloquence of our words but the posture of our hearts that the Lord considers.

The Key to Finding the Author’s Emphasis When You Read the Bible

Jon Nielson offers some suggestions to find the structure of Bible passages.

This tool operates on the basis that every passage in the Bible has a clear structure, and the structure is important because it shows us the focus or thrust of the passage. In other words, the way the biblical author puts a passage together can show us what that author means to emphasize, highlight, and bring out for his readers. Very often, the structure of a passage is the main key to interpreting it well, understanding it rightly, and applying it faithfully to our lives. This is why the construction tool is so important—it helps us see what the biblical authors want us to see.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called The Bible Is Not About 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 (2025-12-19)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Note: We will take a break from posting links next week (December 26) and will return with plenty of goodness on January 2, 2026. Merry Christmas!

Make Repentance Part of Your Holiday Preparation

This short Advent meditation, written by Betsy Childs Howard, helps us reflect on the call of John the Baptist: repentance is the best way to prepare for the kingdom of heaven.

Repentance may be a kind of death, but it leads us to new life. The heart of the Christian faith isn’t making ourselves look better on the outside but having God truly cleanse our hearts.

Cultivating Christmas Wonder

John Stonestreet uses T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Cultivation of Christmas Trees” to help us think about Christmas. He urges us to cultivate wonder and expectant waiting.

A childlike faith will allow us to see Christ’s birth in view of His death and Resurrection, as well as our roles as reconcilers in God’s unfolding story of reality. We thus can live in view of His return and triumphant reign. As Eliot put it, may Christ’s first coming fill us with hope for His second, when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Four Advent Villanelles from Anna A. Friedrich

Our poem(s) of the week: Four Advent Villanelles, by Anna A. Friedrich. All four of these are worth reading slowly and savoring.

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. 

Links for the Weekend (2025-11-28)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Dependence on Christ Is the One Thing That Can’t Be Taken from You

Trevin Wax writes about what remains for Christians when profound suffering strikes.

The life of faith is the life of dependence—childlike trust. Suffering may ransack your world, but as a child of God, you cannot be kidnapped. When everything falls and fails, your dependence remains.

Even when your lips can no longer whisper, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner,” the voice of your Savior will say, “You are mine.”

Holy Leisure in an Age of Hollow Rest

Cara Ray reflects on how we might rest in a way that’s beneficial to our souls.

While we’re entertained by funny videos, latest trends, and the news, too much infotainment leaves us feeling restless, not restful. The problem is that we enjoy the little hits of dopamine our phones provide, while the algorithmic undertow sucks us in with a constant diet of both trivial and critical content. The system is designed to capture our attention and affection, but by the time we  put the phone away, we often feel more anxious, unsatisfied, and disgusted. This hollow form of leisure promises one thing but delivers another, leaving us to wonder if there’s a better, more satisfying way to find the rest our hearts long for. 

What advice do you have for Christians who struggle with cynicism?

Here’s a short (less than 2 minutes!) video where Dan Darling gives advice to Christians who struggle with cynicism.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called The Old Testament Teaches Us About the Holy 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 (2025-11-07)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Wellness Cannot Save You

The impulse to seek out wellness is everywhere. Alan Noble has a good caution for us: wellness cannot bear the weight of being our savior.

The appeal to wellness is the allusive dream that one day you may be holistically well enough to live at perfect peace with the universe. It is a desire for shalom. And people will spend billions of dollars a year chasing after it. But as I said earlier, health cannot bear the burden of godhead. It is insufficient. It will come crashing down on us.

Speak with a Christian Accent

Trevin Wax writes about the way we tend to talk like the people we spend time around. He urges us to keep our Christian accent.

At the same time, the Christian accent isn’t merely about abstaining. It’s about adding—words of blessing when others curse, words of encouragement when others tear down, words of peace in the middle of conflict. Our conversations should taste different, seasoned with the salt of grace.

Why the Leaves Fall

Here’s a nice video from The John 10:10 Project about why and how tree leaves fall in the autumn. The Christian perspective on this is refreshing!

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 (2025-10-31)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Fear is Not a Sin

Ed Welch writes about fear and our response to it. He emphasizes Jesus’s compassion in caring for those who are fearful.

Fear and grief are part of most every day. We do not apologize for them; we speak them. Then Jesus immediately responds with his most intimate words and promises. Fear and anxiety, in turns out, are first steps to knowing God’s kingly authority over all things and his heart of compassion for you.

Why We Need to Talk About Body Image in Women’s Discipleship

Andrea Lee is a counselor and she write about the importance of addressing body image for women.

When want to change our bodies, it’s because we think it’ll get us something we value. We may want to lose weight so we’re noticed and praised. We may want to have strong, defined muscles so we’re seen as powerful. We want something that we believe a “better” body can get us. It’s not always wrong to seek changes in our bodies, but we need to consider our motivation. The reason we want to change our bodies tells us something about who or what we worship.

Plant in Peace

Our poem of the week: Plant in Peace, by Ashlyn McKayla Ohm. This is a poem meditating on a famous passage in Jeremiah 29.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Never Leaving, Never Forsaking. 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 (2025-09-26)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Rise with the Sun: A New Song with CityAlight

Tim Challies teamed up with CityAlight to write a song connected to his latest book project. This link has the video and the lyrics.

“Rise with the Sun” is meant to call Christians to marvel at the wonder of what God does each Sunday as saints across the world rise and gather together to worship God. As a new day begins, Christians begin a chorus of praise that soon circles the globe until my church and yours join in. “There’s a song that’s sung through the nations,” says this song. And God means for each of us to “Join in the song and sing out his praise.”

When a Holding Pattern is Your Homework Assignment

Laura Patterson writes about anxiety and faith.

I never told my children to eat their tomatoes as a moral issue of right and wrong. Instead, I wanted to use the food on their plates as a training ground to teach them that their preferences, their likes and dislikes, are flexible. I wanted them to learn that they could teach themselves to prefer things they didn’t previously like. This training, I prayed, would be helpful in the future as they tried to line up their affections with the priorities of the kingdom of Christ—a matter of great moral consequence.

The ‘2 Roads’ Approach to Evangelism

Joe Carter writes at The Gospel Coalition about an approach to evangelism that combines the Romans Road presentation with a new method using texts from Ephesians.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach that will always work, I want to recommend a framework that presents two powerful evangelistic pathways—the Romans Road and the Ephesians Road—and demonstrates how this combination can work together to create a more complete and compelling gospel presentation.

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 (2025-09-19)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Struggling to Keep Up in Motherhood? Let the Spirit Set Your Pace.

Aimee Joseph writes about keeping in step with the Spirit when it comes to motherhood.

Make no mistake about it, motherhood has always been a massive job. I love how G. K. Chesterton captured its staggering scope: “A woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.” While motherhood’s scope hasn’t changed much over time, its pace has. Aided by technology, compelled by memes, and informed by influencers, modern motherhood feels like a frantic race. The amount of things a mom and her family are expected to do in a day, a week, or a year make our days so full that I’ve often had to double my desired pace to barely keep up.

4 Ways the Church Helps You in the Fight for Purity

It’s all too easy to think that one needs to battle for sexual purity by themselves. Garrett Kell points us to the church for help.

God gives the church to help you resist temptation and draw you in a better direction, toward a better country. Our journey of faith is marked by the joyful assurance that God is with us and that soon we shall be with him. But this journey cannot be made alone; we make it together. You need other Christians, and they need you. Consider how God wants to use the fellowship of a church to help you fight sexual sin and endure in faith.

How is God Unchanging?

This is a short video from Reformed Theological Seminary Charlotte on the topic of God’s unchangeableness, featuring Dr. Blair Smith.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called How Short, O Lord? 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 (2025-08-22)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

Don’t Misread Proverbs

Jen Wilkin offers us some helpful tips on reading the book of Proverbs.

In our therapeutic, self-help age, we may be tempted to reduce it to a reference book for successful living. But by correcting a few simple misconceptions, we can access the poetry and richness (and yes, usefulness!) the book has to offer. Here are three guidelines to shift our perspective for a better reading.

Inner Experience as the Ultimate Sexual Authority

So many in our age use their inner experience to dictate their sexual ethics. Alan Noble offers a corrective.

What I was taught by the world was that my feelings were supreme. That love is over all. That love is an internal emotional that no one can challenge and is defined by the individual. That who you were attracted to and what you desired and who you loved were intimately tied to your identity which was and is profoundly sacred. I was taught all this by a thousand songs, a million movies, and a billion TV shows. Whatever my heart desired, my heart desired. End of story.

The Gamblers

Our poem of the week: The Gamblers, by Zina Gomez-Liss. This poem is about aging, family, and pastimes.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Training That Only Grace Provides. 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 (2025-08-08)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

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

How Can We Help Our Kids Grow in Grace?

Andrea Hoglund emphasizes God’s role in our children’s growth in grace, and she advises parents to “bring them near” and “give them support.”

As parents, we raise little apple trees, souls that bear fruit only with time and patience. Yet how often do we, unlike the farmer, expect to find mature fruit too early as we scrutinize our children for signs of spiritual growth? For all our efforts to train our children well — opening God’s word, bowing in prayer, and worshiping with God’s people — we often find something is missing in the middle of it all: peace of mind.

Want to Grow in Wisdom? You Need Gospel Friends.

Courtney Doctor describes what she means by “gospel friends” and encourages us to seek out friends like this.

Think about whom you most often ask for advice. Do you have a group of friends you go to? Do you scroll social media to see what the “experts” say on any given topic? Do you ask your neighbor, mom, or aunt? What voices have the greatest influence in your life? To faithfully navigate the Christian life, we need more than good advice. We need gospel friends who help us walk in wisdom.

When God’s Promises Feel Untrue

Esther Liu offers some advice for when we read God’s promises in Scripture and they don’t feel true.

How many times have we read a passage of Scripture and had no idea how to make sense of it—not because it was hard to understand theologically or the language was confusing—but because it seemed to directly contradict our life circumstances? It left us wondering, “Does God keep his promises?”

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Contentment Doesn’t Come Through Comparison. 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.