Sorted by: Paul Tripp
It’s Not Your Party
Author: Paul Tripp Category: Uncategorized
Back in my early days of ministry, I was a kindergarten teacher at a Christian school. Those were the four longest years of my life...actually, that's not true. They were four great years, because I was finally with an age group that I could relate to!
Keep ReadingStrengthening Marriages
Author: Paul Tripp Category: Uncategorized
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. 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?
Keep ReadingPsalm 27: Breathing Violence
Author: Paul Tripp Category: Uncategorized
"...for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence." (v.12) "Breathing out violence," perhaps no two words in Scripture more dramatically capture the powerfully damaging presence of sin than these two words. Imagine a human being, who was made in the image of God, made for loving worship of the Lord and loving community with others, getting to the place where they've fallen so far from God's original intention that they actually exhale violence! You don't have to look very far to see the dramatic damage that sin does
Keep ReadingParenting: The Joyful Impossibility
Author: Paul Tripp Category: Uncategorized
It was eleven o'clock on a Sunday night and I was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot exhausted and overwhelmed. After we’d put
Keep ReadingPsalm 51: Somebody Else
Author: Paul Tripp Category: Uncategorized
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.
Keep ReadingPsalm 51: Big Grace
Author: Paul Tripp Category: Uncategorized
What a devastating and hard to swallow description! Maybe you had it happen to you? A friend tells you they want to talk to you, and when you get together, you realize that what they really wanted to do was confront you. You're not really excited about being told bad things about yourself, but this is your friend, so you're willing to listen. As they begin to lay out their concerns, you begin to feel pain inside. You can't believe what you're
Keep ReadingPsalm 73: Getting It Right
Author: Paul Tripp Category: Uncategorized
"But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." (v.28) It is a grace to get it right because so often I get it wrong. No, I don't mean that I fall into gross and willing sin and I don't mean that I am seduced by the old arguments of new atheism. No, I don't mean that I occasionally question the tenets of my faith or question whether ministry is really worth it. No, getting it wrong is much more subtle than that.
Keep ReadingA Welcome to Honest Living
Author: Paul Tripp Category: Uncategorized
The Bible is honest about life in this fallen world. This honesty is a sign of God’s love. He’s the wise and gentle father preparing his child for that
Keep ReadingRelationships: Something Bigger
Author: Paul Tripp Category: Uncategorized
This is the fourth devotional in an 8-part series on Relationships. We were surprised. We simply didn't see it coming. We thought things were going well. We thought we'd built a good relationship. We thought that we'd been good neighbors.
Keep ReadingYou Have Limits, You Really Do Pt. 2
Author: Paul Tripp Category: Uncategorized
Three Inescapable Limits So let’s take that big laundry list of limits from the last post, plus all the ones I didn’t name, and bring them down to something a little easier to recall. Every human being is essentially subject to three foundational limits. We are limited in wisdom, in power, and in righteousness. It doesn’t take a great deal of humility to agree with this statement, does it? Think of it this way. What would it mean if, in any one of these areas, you weren’t limited, but unlimited ... infinite? You really would be the fourth person of the Trinity! Knowledge and acceptance of these three limits is essential to productive living in this fallen world. What a testimony to our foolish pride that we have any trouble accepting them!
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