Paul David Tripp

CONFESSION

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DISCIPLINE

Screen Shot 2015-10-22 at 4.14.34 PM…FATHER, lead me to the correct understanding of discipline so I may not only appreciate it but joy in it. My first thought when You present me with a painful, difficult, situation is that You are punishing me because You think I should know better.

I am quite aware that I commit many and varied sins, but I don’t need discipline because I’m a sinner, I need to be disciplined because I’m human (ref#5, p40). It is my prideful humanity You are attempting to root out of me; You are not attempting to discourage me from a particular sin.

Keep reminding me Your reproof is an indication that You care enough to teach me (Job 5:17). Certainly at the moment all discipline is painful rather than pleasant but it yields the fruit of righteousness (Heb 12:11).

FATHER, I will praise You because You discipline me in just measure (Jer 30:11). You promise I can always endure whatever circumstances You put me in (1 Cor 10:13). You are with me to save me (Jer 30:11). You give me power to keep myself calm in the days of adversity (Ps 94:13). Enduring the disciplinary trial proves my faith and produces perseverance and steadfastness and patience (James 1:3).

FATHER, commit to my understanding the fact that You issue discipline because You love me (Heb 12:6). When I go astray You call me back to You with discipline. Your steadfast love will not depart from me (2 Sam 7:14-15). You will not be false to Your faithfulness, nor violate Your covenant or alter the word that goes forth from Your lips (Ps 89:33-34). You chasten and scourge me because You cherish me (Heb 12:6).

“Divine love chastens because it sees the necessity for the correction. The Lord’s love is not blind affection….It is our mercy to know that love marks our iniquity, and that love and not justice, grace and not vengeance, holds the rod and administers the correction….those stripes of His rod are as much…the expression of His love as are the ‘kisses of His mouth’…” (ref#61, Jan 16th).

Submitting to Your discipline is good for me so I may share in Your holiness (Heb 12:10). I desire to be trained by it because it yields peaceful righteousness for me (Heb 12:11). Thank You for Your discipline.

VALLEYS TO MOUNTAINTOPS

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The LORD’s Progression

  1. HE MOVES; I TRUST

    GOD the FATHER, GOD the SON, and GOD the HOLY SPIRIT took seven days to create the earth—no “poof” and it was done.

  2. GOD’s covenant to His creatures started in Genesis 3:15 with only the promise of a Savior and was built upon throughout the Old Testament Scriptures until its culmination in JESUS CHRIST.
  3. Now GOD continually conforms His people progressively into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).
  4. I’ve rewritten this post at least 10 times.

So very frequently the Unchangeable GOD changes my situations.  He asks me to trust Him (Romans 1:17) as He leads me down to valleys and up to mountaintops—down, up—down, up. In valleys my FATHER is looking to see if I turn to trust Him. On mountaintops my FATHER is looking to see if I continue to trust Him.

Progression, progression, all is progression.

These Monday posts are journal entries of how GOD progresses me. Note that it is GOD Who provides the progression; I don’t progress. Some days my faith is strong, other times, not.

“Few understand that the Christian life is a process of change, neither perfection nor defeat” Paul David Tripp (ref#5, p340).

Whether you are presently a superstar-saint or a common-sinner Christian, consider joining me, for together we are all a people for God’s own possession (1 Peter 2:9) being built by Him as a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5).

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