None of this is helpful, but it’s what most people do in their struggle with pornography and lust. Mental punishments are not helpful because they deal with sin in a self-centered way instead of a Christ-centered way. Meditating on how miserable and pathetic you are only perpetuates the sinful self-centeredness that led you to look […]
Remind Yourself
“So, in practice we should constantly be reminding ourselves who we are. We need to learn to talk to ourselves, and ask ourselves questions: ‘Don’t you know? Don’t you know the meaning of conversion and baptism? Don’t you know that you have been united to Christ in his death and resurrection? Don’t you know that […]
Blind Interpretation
Our world is fallen, and so are we. Therefore, secular psychology is like a game of hide-and-seek played by the blind. Secular social scientists search a dark world with darkened eyes looking at darkened image bearers. The “facts” that they research do not portray life as God originally designed it. They then filter their interpretations […]
It had all been taken and hung on a tree
He was my expert whenever some adventure story required knowledge of planes. He was a man who faced bullets and bombs and storms, who was willing to end his life story in the service of his country, his family, his men. And he came close. But even after two wars, the heaviest burden he ever […]
GAINING TROUGH LOSING
Remember when I said suffering is having what you don’t want and wanting what you don’t have? Subtract your wants and you’ll have contentment. It’s a way of equalizing your desires and circumstances. The apostle Paul was an expert at this arithmetic. For example, he was glad his Philippian friends were sending him gifts. “I […]
Eclectic or Affinity-based Small Groups
As fallen people, we want a group to meet our needs and keep us from getting uncomfortable. Jesus, however, brought together fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, and Pharisees. He challenged them to look beyond the external and their own comfort. He drew people together who had to be reconciled through his blood in order for them […]
THE PSALMS: A FABRIC OF FEELINGS
Emotions are one of the least reliable yet most influential forces in our lives. One day we are hopeful; the next, we hate. Despair at one time; delight, the other. Emotions are the surging, restless tides that keep ebbing and flowing, drawing us up, then pushing us down. The Psalms are a gyroscope, keeping moving […]
He is the answer and we need him
“In order to suffer without dwelling on our own affliction,” Thomas Merton once contemplated, “we must think about a greater affliction, and turn to Christ on the cross. In order to suffer without hate, we must drive out bitterness from our heart by loving Jesus. In order to suffer without hope of compensation, we should […]
Sunday’s coming
Highlight Longings: God created us for Paradise, but we now live in a desert. So we thirst (John 7:37-39), we suffer (John 16:33), and we groan for home (Romans 8:18-25). Biblical discipleship counselors keep their hearts and ears attuned to the discrepancy in the soul between what people were designed for (Paradise) and what they […]