Spiritual Guidance through Godly Counselling

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From this chapter, God wants you to be aware of three typical steps to spiritual decline so that you may be on guard for your own soul, and repent where necessary. Listen to the sermon, Spiraling Downward, here. Last Sunday, as we continued our From Garden to Garden sermon series, we spent our time with Solomon at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8. Together, we took note of six responsibilities we must embrace in order to maintain God-centered worship.

To be God-centered in our worship we must….

You may listen to the sermon here. But He can use our failure to tell an incredible story of grace and redemption, encouraging others to seek Him in their failure. Some Scriptures seem to say God changes His mind:. At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.

Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. And rend your heart and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil Joel 2: When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them.

And He did not do it Jonah 3: These seemingly conflicting statements often create questions in the minds of Christians. If God is immutable unchanging and omniscient knowing all , how can He change His mind? In answering these questions, two foundational truths must be stated.

Therefore, the statements that seem to indicate God changes His mind are expressions of the conditional nature of some of His commands or threats of judgment. In other words, His threats of future judgment upon His disobedient people or His promises of blessing upon His obedient people were tests of the heart intent of man.

Under these circumstances, when man changed for the good or the bad, God dealt with him accordingly. Repentance is for man not God. However, defining it can be another story. Defining anxiety, and understanding how it works, sometimes seems like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. Anxiety is an emotion. So what is anxiety , exactly?

The writers of the New Testament employ two different, but related, words. Care is a noun that is connected to a verb which means to draw in different directions, or distract. So, to be anxious means to have a distracting care, to have our mind and heart torn between two worlds. For example, Jesus uses the noun form when he warns against thorns choking out the Word of God which is intended to produce faith.

These Scriptures reveal that anxious cares are typically earthbound; that is, they are tied to our earthly life. In other words, the cares that most often accompany anxiety are temporal, not eternal. Consequently, these cares divide our mental energy and cloud our spiritual vision; they keep us focused on the here-and-now instead of the future-promised-but-not-yet. Anxious cares form cataracts over our spiritual eyes. These anxieties cloud our sight; they hinder us from keeping heavenly things in clear focus, or keeping diligent watch for the return of the Lord Luke To sum things up, anxiety distracts us from what is most important.

It trains our eyes to see only what is before us at the very moment. It exerts great effort at keeping our vision fixed on the horizontal—on the things of the world—instead of vertical, on the things of God.

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Pastoral Counseling

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? By looking at the birds of the air, and the flowers of the field, we can jog our memory and shift our focus to the heavenly Father who promises to provide better care for us than he even does for them. As we discipline our mind and heart to keep eternal matters at the center, the earthly distractions will gradually fade.

Yes, some may remain in our peripheral vision especially if they pertain to our responsibilities , but they will not distract us from what is most important. This post is from a day devotional, which I am currently writing. The book will be released sometime in In this exposition of Psalm , we learned of three aspects of biblical worship, and two attributes of God which motivate us to worship. Listen or watch to Life-Transforming Worship.

They continued to give generously, even when their checkbook balance and net worth said they were crazy. Sacrificial giving of their finances resulted from the offering of their lives and bodies to God as a living sacrifice. If our hearts and lives have not been surrendered to God as a living sacrifice Rom. When our life is surrendered to God then our money comes along with it. If we love the world and the things in the world then our love for God is superficial 1 John 2: What ministry involvement and spiritual blessings are we saying No to because of being handcuffed to our creditors?

What is sacrificial giving? A Grief Journey with Jesus And not only is Jesus acquainted with your grief, he is always with you in your grief—he walks with you in the cool of the day, and he journeys with you in the ups and downs of your grief see John Jesus is a suffering Savior who is intimately acquainted with our grief. Jesus is a compassionate Savior who lovingly consoles us in our grief. Jesus is a healing Savior who compassionately speaks eternal truth into our earthly wounds. Jesus is an empowering Savior who mightily enables us to comfort others with the comfort we receive from God.

Test your own faith Signpost 2: Treasure God and His word Signpost 3: Train them to fear the Lord Signpost 4: Teach them God is awesome Signpost 5: Thrill them with the gospel Signpost 6: Tell them God has a plan for their life Signpost 7: Team up with a faithful church Signpost 8: Amazon has the book in Kindle, but the softcover can be purchased from these excellent online stores: Disregard for the Word of God leads to a diverted heart vv. Displeasure from God invites His discipline vv. To be God-centered in our worship we must… Recognize the priority and authority of the Word of God vv.

Respect the glory and presence of God vv. Remember the promise-keeping character of God vv. Request a listening ear, and forgiveness, from God vv. Respond with sacrifice and gladness in God vv.

Helping you grow in God's all-sufficient truth and grace

Some Scriptures seem to say God changes His mind: But others seem to contradict: The immutability of God applies to His nature, essence, attributes, and preordained purpose. The Bible makes it clear that the character of God does not change Ps. His counsel and purpose stand forever Ps. So it is clear when the Scriptures refer to God as changing His mind, it does not mean that God Himself changes. The immutability of God does not prevent Him from changing his dealings with changing men.

However, this in no way makes man sovereign or God dependent upon him. It is clear, first from a Christian point of view, that no one has a right to judge another human being; the command, judge not, is an incontrovertible, particularly since it was given a dynamic by Jesus' own life. So when a person commits what the Bible calls sin, he is not accountable because he is sick. He can't help it, just like he can't help having a brain tumor or a heart attack.

Christian Counseling

It's not his fault. He is not a sinner but is a victim of his conscience and mistreatment by others. This approach may be applied to alcoholism, homosexuality, and even stealing and adultery. But it follows that there is nothing the person can do about his problem. If he didn't cause it, then he can't cure it.

If the trained counselors can't help, then there is no solution. He is left in sin with despair and hopelessness. People sin because something allures, attracts, or appeals to them. They want to do it. People sin because they find sin more attractive than doing right. Moses had the power to choose to sin or not sin. People contract diseases because they are overcome by germs, etc. And they rarely rationalize continuing a disease; they want to be cured! But sin is a matter of choice, whether or not people consciously realize it. Sometimes people continue a sin because the habit has captured them - they are "hooked" and find it very difficult to quit.

But they began the sin because they chose a pattern of life that led to the habit.

Choosing a Christian Counselor

We have the power to stand against all his wiles and quench every fiery dart temptation. The Bible claims that God provides everything we need to overcome sin. Resisting temptation is always within our power, if we use the means God provides. If we fail to do so, it is because we failed to use God's power.

Therefore, sin is without excuse. When society exercises the kind of freedom advocated by many counselors, that society is doomed to sink deeper and deeper into moral degradation and eternal condemnation. It is true that some people are not accountable for knowing and obeying God's word: Likewise, some erratic behavior is caused by a physical impairment or malfunction of the brain or glands, such as a good physician might diagnose. But most grown people could do right if they would choose to do right. When we participate in sinful behavior, we cannot excuse ourselves saying we could not help ourselves.

Therefore the Lord does not accept them; He will remember their iniquity now, and punish their sins. They sin because of bad choices, so He holds them accountable and will punish them unless they repent. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. When a person can act right whenever he wants to act right, he demonstrates that he could do right all the time The problem is that at times he simply does not want to do right. In other words, it is a choice.

It follows that God is right to hold him accountable for his conduct. And we should hold him accountable too. If there is an all-wise, all-powerful God who made us for the purpose of serving Him, then His word is the absolute standard. Our duty is to accept and obey what He says. If we don't, then we are wrong, we ought to feel wrong, and if we don't change He is right to punish us.

Even when a person is not generally accountable, so they are not counted guilty of sin or ready for baptism, nevertheless we should still teach them Bible principles and expect them to follow Bible teaching to the full extent of what ability they do have. Faithful preaching requires us to rebuke error. Instead, many who people turn from the truth will want preachers to justify their sin, which is exactly what many counselors do.

Therefore be zealous and repent. Despite what many people and psychologists claim, no one was more directive, more authoritative, or more outspoken against sin than Jesus. Read the Bible and see for yourself! The fact God tells people to cease sin proves that they can quit and that they are accountable to do so. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. A child of God who sins must repent and pray for forgiveness - Acts 8: Not all problems in life are spiritual problems. Not all problems a person has are because he committed sin. But many problems do have spiritual consequences or causes.

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