What is your mentality when you sit down to counsel someone? Do you seek to be kind, loving, compassionate, merciful, quick to confront, ready to offer solutions, or eager to give the answers you know are in the Bible? Do you place pressure on yourself to have it all figured out within an hour so you […]
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When Emma first met Rick, she was instantly smitten by his handsome features, strong masculine build, his take charge personality and over the top charm. Ten months later they were married in a fairy tale wedding in front of over 200 friends and family. Once they returned home from their honeymoon, Rick made it clear […]
Sexual infidelity is betrayal of the deepest kind and most marriages don’t fully recover. That’s why Jesus said it was one of the few grounds for divorce (Matthew 19:9). For a marriage to heal both the unfaithful spouse and the one betrayed must fight hard to rebuild their relationship. After disclosure, couples may seek pastoral or professional help. This is important because without outside accountability most couples will not do the work necessary to heal the damage even if they choose to stay married...
"Portions of this post were adapted from Catching Foxes: A Gospel-Guided Journey to Marriage"I now realize that any good discussion about the roles and responsibilities of husbands and wives in marriage should first and often highlight our deep need for the grace of God. Fulfilling the roles is fruit. God reigning in our hearts is the root.
Critics who doubt the reliability and trustworthiness of the biblical accounts of Jesus’ life have issued a make-or-break challenge to the church. They ask us: “How can we be sure the Bible can be trusted as accurate?”
Now that the Supreme Court has issued its sweeping ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, we can expect an avalanche of commentary, analysis, and punditry. I’m not a law professor, a politician, a talk show host, or a public intellectual (whatever that is). I’m a pastor. I study and teach the Bible for a living. Which means, among all the things I may not be an expert on, I may be able to say something meaningful from the Scriptures. So as we pour over legal opinions and internet commentary, let us not forget what the Bible says.
Sometimes we're quicker to judge than to comfort.This hit me recently on the streets of Philadelphia, where I live. I walked by a young homeless person begging on the street and immediately thought to myself, "I wonder what they did to get themselves here."Wow. That's about as far from a gracious response as you can get!
When our Christian counselee says something like, “I just can’t forgive myself” as biblical counselors how do we respond? Perhaps it’s a client who has committed adultery or had an abortion or done something contrary to Scripture and despite asking for and receiving God’s forgiveness, she refuses to forgive herself.
Whenever counseling Christians looking for assurance of salvation, I take them to 1 John. This brief epistle is full of help for determining whether we are in the faith or not. In particular, there are three signs in 1 John given to us so we can answer the question “Do I have confidence or condemnation?”
On several occasions I spoken on the topic of sexual abuse and the shame associated with it. Shame is such a pervasive part of any kind of abuse or any sin. What has profoundly impacted me as I’ve thought about all this is how my brothers and sisters are overwhelmed by the sin of sexual abuse and the shame that accompanies it.