Perhaps, sometime recently you’ve been thinking, "Life is hard. I don’t know if I have what it takes to live God's way.” Or maybe you’ve wondered how in the world you can do what God calls you to do as a husband or wife, a parent, friend, relative, worker, neighbor, citizen, or member of the body of Christ in the middle of the busyness of your schedule and the catalog of other responsibilities you carry. Maybe you’ve been thinking, “It seems exhausting just to maintain the status quo let alone working to make things in my life better!” Maybe God's street-level call of daily self-sacrificing love for God and neighbor has left you a bit hopeless and discouraged. Or maybe you’ve had to face the fact that you simply don’t have it inside you to fight the good fight in this fallen world. Perhaps yesterday's failure has left you despondent and discouraged. Maybe a situation, relationship, conversation or a book has given you a lens on yourself and, sadly, you’ve realized that things aren’t what you thought. Perhaps you’re feeling the standard is too high and the work too hard.
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Have you ever wondered if the people around you deal with the things you do in your relationships? Have you ever wondered if other marriages deal with petty differences, or with the collision of differing agendas? Have you ever wondered if other parents struggle with resistant children and the impatience that greets you when it happens? Have you ever wondered if other people get in trouble with their neighbors or fall out of favor with a friend? Have you ever wondered if other people experience harmless conversations suddenly turning angry, or misunderstanding getting in the way of an otherwise productive friendship? Have you ever wondered if other people get as exhausted as you do with the mess of relationships? Have you ever wondered if other people say to themselves, "Christians; you can't live with them and you can't live without them?"
Sometimes it’s the simplest things that make the biggest difference. For many years I’ve used the 3 R’s I learned from Ben Patterson to pray through Scripture. This simple tool has helped me pray the Bible more than any other single strategy. I’ve used in my devotional times and have employed it often in leading others in prayer. 1. Rejoice 2. Repent 3. Request
Have you noticed that everything in your life wears out? The sweater that you loved so much and wore winter after winter, is now stuffed in the bottom drawer of your dresser, threadbare, unused, and unwanted.
I am excited to feature a guest blog by Dr. Mary Ann Block, great insights on good treatment of ADHD symptoms. Attention and Behavior Problems Are Not ADHD, by Dr. Mary Ann Block I have never seen a child that actually has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In my medical practice, I have seen thousands of children that have been labeled
Nothing strikes fear into the heart of counselor faster than hearing our counselee threaten to harm herself or someone else, or even worse, disclose that they have already have. How do we respond? What should we do? Or not do? Even if you are a church based counselor, it is critical that we are familiar with the ethical and legal dilemmas involved in such cases. Briefly, here are four areas we must be vigilant so we will handle these difficult situations in a clinically sound and ethically responsible manner.
During the last four years, the Lord has brought a variety of new opportunities into my life some of which have included the birth of two beautiful daughters, forming a new counseling ministry in D/FW, working with a team to develop the Association of Biblical Counselors, and designing a dissertation project to finish up my Ph.D. work.
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.2em; color: rgb(54, 53, 46); font-family: Bitter, georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 32px; background-color: rgb(247, 246, 239);"> What you believe about God changes everything.</p> <p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.2em; color: rgb(54, 53, 46); font-family: Bitter, georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 32px; background-color: rgb(247, 246, 239);"> It affects how you love, work, live, marry, parent, evangelize, purchase, and worship. Is God an impersonal blob, distant and disinterested in the world except for figuring out who the good and bad people are? Is “god” a karma vibe making sure everyone gets what they deserve? Is God a myth that weak, stupid, or oppressive people use to console themselves or dominate other people? Is God a cosmic cheerleader who is concerned mainly with helping you achieve immediate happiness and self-actualization? Or is God someone else?</p>
Cherie Hill, a modern author, wrote that we love God's grace, but we don't like his watch. Her statement convicts me as I know how I respond to what I consider is God's slowness. 2 Peter 3:9 states, "The Lord is not slow
Last blog we discussed what it meant to live in our relationships with An Investment Mentality. Here's the third and final mentality: 3) YOU MUST LIVE IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH A GRACE MENTALITY: 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.