In every relationship, every day you harvest what you previously planted and plant what you will someday harvest. When division and acrimony take place in a relationship, we aren't experiencing mysterious difficulty. No, sadly, we're harvesting what we've sown. In this fallen world, where we're always sinners in relationship with sinners, one of the most beautiful and protective things God calls us to is forgiveness. But forgiveness doesn't always look beautiful to us. Sometimes holding onto a wrong seems to us to be a better way. Isn't it amazing that we who rest in and celebrate the forgiveness we've been given,
Sorted by: Paul Tripp
<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;"> Marriages have needs. Two sinners reside together in a fallen world, and while the power of sin has been broken, the presence of sin still remains. This comprehensive, life-long relationship will require spiritual care.</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;"> No matter the size of your church, there will never be a staff large enough to provide for each marriage. Will many marriages be left unattended? Will the spiritual needs of couples go unnoticed?</p>
"For behold, those who are far from you shall perish." (v.27) I was not designed to be on my own to author my own story to compose my own rules to live with me in the center. I was not designed to look for life outside of You to treasure the creation to love people, places and things
The Magnitude Argument: “The Problem Is Too Big” Maybe you’re looking at the chaotic life of a loved one and are overwhelmed at all that needs to change. Or maybe you’re considering your marriage, and all the years that have poured over the dam, and it simply seems impossible to turn it around.
<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;"> Last blog we discussed what it meant to live in our relationships with <a href="http://paultripp.com/wednesdays-word/posts/relationships-an-investment-mentality" style="color: rgb(110, 176, 186); cursor: pointer; -webkit-transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out;">An Investment Mentality.</a> Here's the third and final 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);"> 3) YOU MUST LIVE IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH A GRACE MENTALITY:</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;"> When I got married, I didn’t understand grace. I had a principle-istic view of Scripture that caused me to bring a law economy into all of my relationships.</p>
Understanding and practicing prepared spontaneity can indeed enable you to live productively for God, but I’m not for a minute suggesting life will never be hard again. Every situation, location, and relationship of our everyday lives is in some way broken. As fallen creatures, the best we can ever do in this life is to know how to live in this broken-down house that’s our current address; nothing and no one but God himself, in the fullness of his time, can change where we live. So as we experience the reality of life in this house, sometimes it will leave us confused and overwhelmed.
God’s Word really does open up to us the mysteries of the universe. It really does make us wiser than we could ever be without it. And yet, having said this, it's sad that we don’t take more advantage of this wisdom God has given us. It's sad that we don’t think his thoughts after him, that we don’t require ourselves to look at life through the lens of his revelation. It's sad that we swindle ourselves into thinking that we are wiser than we are. We're not irritated by our foolishness, nor are we motivated to seek his help. One of the places you see this most clearly is in the struggles we experience in our relationships.
<p> If you’re to live productively in this broken-down world, it‘s absolutely critical that you humbly admit your limits as a human being and then live within them. The limits on our abilities are extensive and profound. For one thing, because you're a physical being, your life is limited by the laws of the physical universe. The ramifications of this are huge. <br /> <br /> You can only be in one place at a time. You can only be in one time at a time. You can’t propel yourself back into the past or launch yourself into the future; your existence is permanently anchored in the here and now.
<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;"> God’s Word really does open up to us the mysteries of the universe. It really does make us wiser than we could ever be without it. And yet, having said this, it's sad that we don’t take more advantage of this wisdom God has given us.</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;"> It's sad that we don’t think his thoughts after him. It's sad that we don’t require ourselves to look at life through the lens of his revelation. It's sad that we swindle ourselves into thinking that we're wiser than we are. It's sad that we're not irritated by our foolishness. It's sad that we're not motivated to seek his help.</p>
God’s Word really does open up to us the mysteries of the universe. It really does make us wiser than we could ever be without it. And yet, having said this, it's sad that we don’t take more advantage of this wisdom God has given us. It's sad that we don’t think his thoughts after him. It's sad that we don’t require ourselves to look at life through the lens of his revelation. It's sad that we swindle ourselves into thinking that we're wiser than we are. It's sad that we're not irritated by our foolishness. It's sad that we're not motivated to seek his help.