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Elements Biblical Counseling Session

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Elements Biblical Counseling Session


121107 BCD101-Week 9 Mans vs. God’s.docx

Lesson 3: Man’s Way & God’s Way

 

Welcome to Lesson 3: Man’s Way & God’s Way

 

The heart of Biblical Counseling is that it is counseling that flows from God’s Way and not Man’s Way. This month’s lessons will be all about our spiritual orientation and Biblical priority for understanding and living life.

 

First, we need to work on our mutual accountability with the G.R.O.W. card. This card states that we are maintaining our daily walk in four areas:

 

G (My Devotions):  Get the Word into our lives on a daily basis. This means I choose to take over my schedule and plan a daily application of the Word to my life (My Devotions);

 

R (My Prayers):  Reach out for the power of the Spirit by faith. This means I choose to focused, regular prayers for the grace and power to see God change me, and the others into whose lives I am called to investing my life (My Prayers);

 

O (My Sanctification):  Open my life to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. This means I choose to plan regular memorization of the Word for Spirit-filled meditation, so that He can change me a little bit more each day (My Sanctification);

 

W (My Ministry):  Willingly opening the Word to others. This means I choose to prayerfully look for others that God will prepare and help me to nurture and admonish; which are the two elements of Biblical Disciple making and Counseling (My Ministry).

 

Now, open to Lesson 3 and page 48. Look at the boxed summary and follow along as I read:

 

Learning to live God’s way requires you to respond to God’s salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. Then, you are to begin a new way of living based on the Lord’s truth, resources, and wisdom rather than your own or anyone else’s wisdom, philosophy, or experience (based on Proverbs 3:5-6; John 14:6, Romans 10:9-10, 13, 17; 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Colossians 2:6-10; James 3:13-15).

 

Last month we ended with a look at:

 

The Elements of a Biblical Counseling Session

 

Step One: Determine Their Spiritual Orientation

 

Establish the person’s orientation about their spiritual life.

 

  • God says we are an immortal spirit that lives within a temporal human body. We are waiting the time when we’ll be clothed upon with our celestial body when we see Christ and become like Him (I Cor. 15).

 

  • This orientation explains many facets of how we view life. If problems are seen in the long view of eternity, they are just a small part of the picture (Paul called life a “light, momentary affliction” 2 Cor. 4:17).

 

Step Two: Check out their Spiritual Life Priority

 

Establish whether the person has come to view God and His Word, or culture and other humans as the Alpha and Omega of their life (Rev. 1:8; Mat. 6:33).

 

  • Do God and His Word have the “first and last” place in their life?
  • Is their first place to look for help, comfort, guidance, wisdom, direction and strength: God through His Word, or mankind and society’s advice?
  • Is God the first and most important advice as well as the last word and most weighty voice in their life?
  • Jesus spoke of the house built upon the Rock. Paul talked about being carried away by every wind that blows by (Eph. 4:14). James says beware of double-mindedness (James 1:8).
  • Who we listen to and follow their advice determines so much about our condition emotionally, spiritually, and ultimately physically.

 

For each of us, we need to do a check of where we look for the guidance, the foundational truths that guide us as we interpret life events.

 

Is Jesus Christ the Alpha & Omega of our Spiritual Lives?

 

Do we start our day with God? Is He the One we look to and check in with, and ask for His help, direction, strength, and peace? Or do we start with a dose of the news, the weather, the social media, and the goals of our material world life that dominates so much of our schedules and energies?

 

Do we end our days with God? Do we measure our successes or failures by His unchanging standard of His Word? Do we allow Him to correct us, encourage us, renew and redirect us? Do we cast all of our cares one by one upon Him as a loving and caring father, and rest in His protection and care before we slip into the defenseless, helpless unconsciousness of sleep?

 

A life that begins and ends with God as Master, Savior, Redeemer, and Friend is hemmed in by truth, and is very likely to not unravel when troubles come.

 

Is the Bible Foundational to All We Are?

 

Now, look at the boxed summary at the top of page 49:

 

You can live God’s way because of the abundant resources and provisions He has graciously and mercifully given to you (based on John 14:26; Romans 8:11; 2 Corinthians 1:20-24; Ephesians 1:13-14; Philippians 4:13; Colossians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; James 1:5; 1 John 5:14-15).

 

The Bible is Adequate (Principle 4): Since God’s Word is the only authority for faith and conduct and is the sole, legitimate standard by which all aspects of living are evaluated, you are to rely on no other source. God’s Word provides hope and gives direction for change in deeds (thoughts, speech, and actions) and is adequate to equip you for every good work (Psalm 19:7-11; Pr. 30:5-6; Col. 2:8; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Peter 1:2-4) and to develop a Christlike attitude of servanthood within you (2 Cor. 3:5-6; Phil 2:5-8).

 

Study on Psalm 19:7-11

 

Psalm 19:1-6 is all about God revealing Himself in nature. Every detail of this vast and intricate Universe speaks of an amazingly glorious Creator God.

 

Psalm 19:7-11 is all about God’s Special revelation through His Word. When we read these words from God we find:

 

  • Six statements:

 

  • Six titles for Scripture, law, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear, and judgments.

 

  • Six characteristics of Scripture. It is perfect, sure, right, clear, clean and true.

 

  • Six effects, it restores the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures forever and produces comprehensive righteousness.

 

  • All six have the phrase, “of the Lord”. Six times, “of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord,” just in case someone might question the source. This is the law of the Lord. This is the testimony of the Lord and so forth. This has divine origin. It is the inspired revelation of the Lord God himself.

 

Insights[1]: And as you break it down and look at each of these phrases, you begin to accumulate a sense of the power and the greatness of Scripture. Take the first one in verse 7. “The law of the Lord is perfect restoring the soul.” The word law looks at Scripture as God’s law for man’s conduct. How we are on this earth to live our lives. If you will, this is sort of the manual on maximum human behavior. In other words, if you want to enjoy life in the fullest sense that God has designed it, then you follow his law. His law is the binding standard by which we are to live. He says it is perfect. Perfect, not in the sense of flawless, although that is absolutely true, but perfect in the sense of completeness. That is to say it is all-sided. It is sweeping and complete and leaves nothing out. The effect of this is to restore the soul. The word restore basically means to transform. In fact, it can mean to totally transform.

And the word soul, nefesh, means the inner person. The Old Testament using from 18 to 22 different English words, translates this word sometimes mind, sometimes person, but it always means the inner person.

Scripture, is fully complete and comprehensive so as to totally transform the whole inner person. It is a sweeping statement about the Bible’s power to convert, to transform, to regenerate by the work of the spirit of God through its own testimony.

Nothing has the power of the Word of God. No story, no human insight, no philosophy. The word is the only power that can totally transform the whole inner person.

 

Counseling Workshop

 

Phone Call, Sunday 4PM. Details: grandmother said grandson, baptized at 9, left church as teen, wayward, divorced, fired from job, now unemployed, foreclosed house. Please talk to him.

 

What would you say?

Where would you start?

Does God have a plan for him?

 

[1] A summary from John MacArthur, The Sufficiency of Scripture.


Check Out All The Sermons In The Series

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