Psalm 27: Productive Delay

Posted on 1/23/2012 by Paul Tripp

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

For years I just didn't get the biblical concept of waiting. Waiting seemed a meaningless drag, forced onto us by the fact that Someone else is in charge of the narrative that is our lives. We hope, we dream and we wait. We cry, we plead and we wait. We run, we work and we wait. We minister, we serve and we wait. We think, we study and we wait. Sometimes we wait, we wait and we wait.

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Psalm 27 and Everyday Life

Posted on 1/2/2012 by Paul Tripp

1 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear? 
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid? 
2 When evil men advance against me 
to devour my flesh, 
when my enemies and my foes attack me, 
they will stumble and fall. 

3 Though an army besiege me, 
my heart will not fear; 
though war break out against me, 
even then will I be confident. 

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Sad Celebrations

Posted on 11/28/2011 by Paul Tripp

In normal life your celebrations don't usually intersect with your sad times and your sad times aren't typically your times of celebration. When you are sad, you don't really feel like celebrating anything much. The opposite is also true, when you are celebrating, you don't want your good spirits dampened by reasons to be sad. We try our best to keep our sadness and our celebration separate. It just makes life less complicated.

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Relationships: Can You Relate?

Posted on 11/21/2011 by Paul Tripp

Have you ever wondered if the people around you deal with the things you do in your relationships? Have you ever wondered if other marriages deal with petty differences, or with the collision of differing agendas? Have you ever wondered if other parents struggle with resistant children and the impatience that greets you when it happens? Have you ever wondered if other people get in trouble with their neighbors or fall out of favor with a friend? Have you ever wondered if other people experience harmless conversations suddenly turning angry, or misunderstanding getting in the way of an otherwise productive friendship? Have you ever wondered if other people get as exhausted as you do with the mess of relationships? Have you ever wondered if other people say to themselves, "Christians; you can't live with them and you can't live without them?"

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Psalm 51: Somebody Else

Posted on 10/24/2011 by Paul Tripp

I really wish I could blame
somebody else.
I wish I could place the responsibility
on somebody else.
I would love to point the finger
at somebody else.
I wish I could convince myself
that it was somebody else.I tried to feed myself the logic
that it was somebody else.
For a moment I bought my argument
that it was somebody else.
There is always another sinner
who can bear my fault.

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Psalm 51: What Does It have to Do with Me?

Posted on 10/3/2011 by Paul Tripp

So what does it have to do with me, this poverty child? What does it have to do with me, this homeless birth in a busy town? What does it have to do with me, these shepherds searching for angel-announced hope? What does it have to do with me, this little boy wandering among the shavings of newly-planed wood? What does it have to do with me, these dirty feet from dusty paths of middle-eastern villages? What does it have to do with me, this unremarkable vagabond? What does it have to me, this traveler with his motley pack of men? What does it have to do with me, these weird sayings and mysterious stories?

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Mercy Me: Psalm 51 and Everyday Life

Posted on 9/26/2011 by Paul Tripp

It was one of those moments you want to take back. It was one of those times when you go where your desires and emotions are leading you. It was one of those situations when you know you should stop or walk away but feel you can't. And it was one of those moments when afterward you are confronted with the sin that still lives inside of you. Yes, it was one of those moments.

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Psalm 73: Where do you Run? Where do you Hide?

Posted on 9/5/2011 by Paul Tripp

"...I have made the Lord God my refuge,..." (v.28)

When it all becomes confusing,

when what is good seems not so

clear, when wrong seems like its winning, 

where do you run, where do you hide?

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