John and Carol were in counseling for over year. Their presenting problem was identified as communication issues and difficulties agreeing on how to discipline their teenage son. John was a deacon in their church and managed security for a large corporation. Carol was a homemaker. They were married seventeen years, their son just turned fifteen and they had two younger daughters. During their bi monthly counseling sessions Carol would often defer to John for the answer to the counselor’s questions. She seemed very anxious to get help as they were concerned that their teenage son was
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<p> Working for over 30 years with couples attempting to recover from serious marital sin, I have often heard one of them say, “Why can’t you just forgive and forget?” or “You’re holding onto the past? </p>
I remember when I graduated from seminary my dad said, "You know, you're still in school, it's just a different kind of school than you've been in the last three years. Pay attention and learn your lessons well." Dad was right; we're all being schooled every day. So it's appropriate to ask in the never ending learning center that’s human life, who is schooling you? There’s never a day that passes without you being taken to school in some way. Life is really all about teaching and learning. And there’s a way in which neither stops from the first day until the last day of your life. So perhaps one of the most important diagnostic questions that each of us should be asking is this: “Do I approach life as a student?”
I woke up this morning troubled by yesterday’s failures. In fact, I spent most of the night last night, trying to drown out the voice of my inner slave driver who incessantly told me that I’m still the same and that I might as well give it up. More confessions: The truth is that I wasn’t primarily troubled this morning about my sin before God. Yes, of course, there was that, but I was mostly concerned about my reputation before others. The question, “Why did I say that?”
<p> I’ve heard it said that the most important thought you will ever think is what you think about when you think about God. Not only is that a potential tongue twister (try to say it three times in a row fast!), it is a VERY true statement.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: Georgia, Cambria, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">It’s interesting to ponder the Psalms and how they view “depression.” It is such a rich view. Honestly, it makes a DSM-V view of depression seem quite flat and shallow by comparison.</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: Georgia, Cambria, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b style="box-sizing: border-box;">Richness in Definition/Descriptions of Depression</b></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </b></span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: Georgia, Cambria, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In the Psalms we discover a great variety of descriptions of depression.</span></p>
A church member knocks on her pastor’s door early Monday morning. She’s in tears over her teenage son’s suicide attempt. Her pastor greets her with a loving, gentle welcome, ushers her into his office, and opens in prayer. Together they’re ready to engage in the art of arts: spiritual friendship.
NOTE: Guest authors from our TEAM in Zambia Africa. Chris and Joy Wells; Aaron Hunt and Rachael Rosser After about year of being away it is so nice to be back in Zambia again! Yesterday we went back to the church and met with some of the Zambians we will be teaching over the next week. It was great to see Pastor Peter again and talk to him about what the the Lord had done through the Biblical counseling material. One of our primary prayers regarding our trips has been that the church in Zambia would become a safe place for both sufferer and the sinner. There are plenty of examples in both Zambia and the U.S. where the church, rather than being a place of of healing, encouragement and safety, is a place where they will be shamed, ostracized and gossiped about.
I don’t know if modest is hottest, but I do know that modesty is biblical. It is one of the marks of the confusion of our age that so many teenagers and young adults are more ashamed to dress with modest reserve than to very nearly undress entirely. Even after we give full throat to the necessary caveats–being pretty (or handsome) is not a sin, working to improve your appearance does not have to be vanity, the line between modest and immodest is not always black and white–we are still left with the undeniable biblical fact that God considers modesty a virtue and its opposite a vice.
<p> Somewhere in my spiritual journey I picked up this saying: <em>The most important thought you will ever think is what you think about when you think of God.</em> That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? No other occupation of the mind is more central to our existence than what we think of God. It affects every other thought and action that we undertake. It informs our relationships. It drives our work ethic. It colors our emotional state. It gives wings to our desires, passions, and purposes. Whether you are deeply religious or a devout atheist—what you think about when you think of God is critical to how you navigate life on this planet.</p>