Sometimes we're quicker to judge than to comfort.This hit me recently on the streets of Philadelphia, where I live. I walked by a young homeless person begging on the street and immediately thought to myself, "I wonder what they did to get themselves here."Wow. That's about as far from a gracious response as you can get!
I love Easter.I love the celebratory music we sing at church. I love the passages of Scripture we read during worship. And most of all, I love the visual image of the empty tomb.I’m deeply persuaded that the empty tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ reveals three fundamental character qualities about God.
Are you a person committed to change? This time of year, we’re all thinking about change. We’re going to change our diet, go to the gym, and finally lose that unwanted weight. We’re going to change our spending, budget more tightly, and finally save up that extra cash. We’re going to change our schedule, make […]
We all do it, probably every day. It has a huge impact on the way we view ourselves and the way we respond to others. It’s one of the main reasons we experience so much conflict in our relationships. The scary thing is: we barely recognize that we’re doing it.
Passivity is rarely the result of a conscious decision. You don’t wake up one morning and say to yourself, "I’m going to begin to view myself as powerless. I’m going to look on God as small. So from now on, I’ll just close my
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.
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.
"But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord my refuge..." (v.28) The experts say that there are only three things to consider when buying a piece of property; location, location, location. The same could be said about life. Life is about about location, location, location, and when you understand this you live in a radically different way. Confused? Let me point you to four ways in which location matters.
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px; font-family: franklin-gothic-urw-n4, franklin-gothic-urw, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(60, 60, 60) !important;"> We're in the middle of looking at three mentalities that are essential to creating and sustaining a healthy relational lifestyle. Last week we discussed what it meant to live in our relationships with<a href="http://paultripp.com/wednesdays-word/posts/relationships-a-harvest-mentality" style="color: rgb(110, 176, 186); cursor: pointer; -webkit-transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out;">A Harvest Mentality.</a></p> <p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px; font-family: franklin-gothic-urw-n4, franklin-gothic-urw, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(60, 60, 60) !important;"> Here's the second mentality:</p> <h2 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; font-family: tablet-gothic-compressed-n7, tablet-gothic-compressed, sans-serif; color: rgb(110, 176, 186); text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <strong>2) YOU MUST LIVE IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH AN INVESTMENT MENTALITY:</strong></h2> <p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px; font-family: franklin-gothic-urw-n4, franklin-gothic-urw, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(60, 60, 60) !important;"> We're all treasure hunters. We all live to gain, maintain, keep, and enjoy things that are valuable to us. Our behavior in any given situation of life is our attempt to get what is valuable to us out of that situation. There are things in your life to which you have assigned importance, and once you have, you are no longer willing to live without them (these principles are laid out in Matthew 6:19–33).</p>
Apart from an active faith in God’s sovereignty and grace, it’s easy to throw up our hands and adopt a “What’s the use?” mentality. If it’s going to be so hard to make really significant
