A counselor friend asked how you encourage someone when they are angry at God for what happened to them. The lady is mad because Sovereign Lord did not protect her from horrific victimization. He has been meeting with her for weeks and wondered if he… Continue Reading …
Traditional biblical counseling does not work well if a counseling session, sprinkled here and there, is all you have. That strategy places the burden of change on the counselor rather than on the individual who needs a new kind of habituated lifestyle. Biblical discipleship happens… Continue Reading …
One of the unintended consequences of the biblical counseling movement is that counseling is for a select number of Christians. Though God has blessed the biblical counseling movement over several decades, one of the problems with the unprecedented growth is that we forgot to tell… Continue Reading …
You have heard the saying, different strokes for different folks, right? It is a practical perspective when it comes to assessing people because every person presents a unique opportunity to figure out so you can care for them according to who they are. This concept… Continue Reading …
A biblical counselor interviewed Rick Thomas about a situation he is counseling with parents who discovered their child is watching porn. The counselor asked questions that are in italics with Rick’s responses underneath. The fictionalized, flattened version of the story is the dad came to… Continue Reading …
One-to-one interaction is the most efficient way to help another person change. For too many believers, discipleship in a community, in the context of a local church, is not the norm. Favorite books and preachers become our disciplers, which is not God’s best no matter… Continue Reading …
Some relationships can become so painful that you must retreat while implementing self-protective measures to prevent being hurt again. The unintended consequence is that the strategies for protection can imprison you, which is what happened to Mable. Her husband was harming her so she did… Continue Reading …
Sometimes stereotypical counseling can get in the way of what you want to do with an individual, especially when the counselee has a preconceived, pessimistic instinct about where you want to go with him. You’ll see this with some teenagers, for example, because they sense… Continue Reading …
All Christians have one common problem that sits foundationally at the core of their being; it is the biggest struggle in their lives. It makes sense, right? If each person’s mightiest battle were unique to them and dissimilar to everyone else, you’d have to be… Continue Reading …
In any discipleship situation, the discipler’s theology needs to inform the discipleship process. If not, the temptation of the discipler can cause the discipler to lose hope and even sin during the process. Let me share with you a case study to make this point.… Continue Reading …