Our Emotional Well-being Comes from a Relationship With God
Without Christ, [man’s] unregenerate mind is not capable of fully comprehending spiritual truth because he does not have the Holy Spirit indwelling him (1 Cor 2:14). The Holy Spirit and God’s Word are the Christian’s source of all true emotional health (Rom 8:6).
The Grace of God: His Word, Prayer, and Fellowship
Those of us who proclaim Jesus as their Lord and Savior have comfort in knowing that everything we experience in life is used for developing us into people who act and respond as Jesus modeled (Romans 8:28-29). God provides us the ability to become more like Jesus through the grace He provides. God provides His grace to us even though we don’t deserve it. Three ways that God shows us His grace to us are through His Word, through prayer, and through fellowship with Him and other believers.
True Hope, Joy, Peace, and Love Comes From A Relationship With Jesus
The Advent Season is a wonderful time for us to reflect on the gracious gift that has been given to us by God. When we celebrate Advent, we are celebrating the coming of the Messiah as a baby, as well as His second coming as our Righteous Judge and King. The four candles that represent the four weeks of the Advent season have special significance. The first candle for the first week represents hope. The second candle represents peace, the third candle joy, and the fourth candle represents love.
God’s Grace and Our Thankfulness
Have you ever really taken the time to consider the grace that God shows you every day? If you’re like me, it’s easy to go about your daily affairs and not really consider that all that we have, our families, our finances, our intelligence, our homes, our friends, our “stuff”… everything has been given to us by a God who loves us and is working for our good.
Waiting on the Lord
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Showing Others Who We Belong to…
John 13:34-35 – A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.”
Counseling the Deceptive Counselee
The only way to see through deception is to ask more intensive questions throughout the counseling process. Spending focused time in data-gathering, as well as providing homework that will ensure the counselee spends time in God’s Word, can be effective tools in attempting to uncover the motives of those who hope to deceive us.
Returning Counseling to the Church Part 2
The sufficiency of Scripture means that the Bible contains all the words of God that He intended his people to have at each stage of redemptive history, and that it now contains all of the words of God we need for salvation, for trusting Him perfectly, and for obeying Him perfectly. The Word of God contains all that we need to know His will and live a life pleasing to Him.
Returning Counseling to the Church
In his book The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams, Heath Lambert explains that “’counseling’ is the word our culture uses to describe what happens when people with questions, problems, and trouble have a conversation with someone they think has answers, solutions, and help.” Counseling is something that ministers of the Gospel do every day. As a ministry and a “theological task,” it must be based in God’s Word, the Bible.
A Perspective on Biblical Counseling
Helping suffering people has been a ministry of the church since its inception. We read throughout the Scriptures how the power of the Word has helped the suffering and provided hope for those who are hurting. The early church fathers wrote in detail about the usefulness of the Scriptures to address hopelessness, problems, and suffering. As evangelical Christians we acknowledge “true truth” to be that which God reveals. Furthermore, we believe that what He reveals to us corresponds with His comprehensive knowledge of all things. Therefore, the information we recognize and declare as truth is in conformity with what God claims is true in His revelation.