Pride, that epidemic vice

After a week of fall break, or “fall reading days”, things are once again back in full swing here at Southern.  Our latest lecture in Biblical Counseling concerned the putting off of pride, and the putting on of humility.  Dr. Scott, I believe, very accurately described pride as an “epidemic vice”.

The question we have to ask ourselves is not whether or not it exists in our lives, but where and how much.  Amy Carmichael once said, “Those who think too much of themselves don’t think enough.”  We can see this is a huge problem in our culture, and modern therapeutic methods have only thrown gasoline onto the proverbial fire.

The definition we used for pride is the mindset of self: a focus on self and the service of self, a pursuit of self-recognition and self-exaltation, and a desire to control and use all things for self.  (See any key terms here??)

We went through 31 different manifestations of pride, including

3 Views on Sanctification

We recently discussed the differing views of sanctification in our class.  Since biblical counseling is all about changing to become more like Christ, it is all about sanctification!  I did not realize the different views about sanctification commonly held by evangelicals.  Continued below…

The Wesleyan View

The first view is known as the Wesleyan View, or Christian Perfection.

Comparing Counseling Methods

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11 )

When it comes to counseling, we must be very careful when we suggest that we can integrate secular psychological theories with a biblical counseling model.  As we will see, these theories have very little common ground among them.  Whenever we are exposed to counseling, or counseling models, we need to be good Bereans, to see if this is what the Scriptures actually teach us.

I’m going to examine four different counseling methods here: Freudian, Neo-Freudian, Rational-Emotive, and Biblical.  I’m not going to go in-depth with these but I just want to illustrate how these theories are diametrically opposed to the Biblical view. 

Defining Biblical Counseling, and a Word about Epistemology

A Bat on the Ceiling

Much thanks to Barry and everyone else who prayed for me.  Swamped is a pretty good description of where I am at right now, needing to read God’s Greater Glory (Ware), The Problem of Pain (Lewis), and Leading the Team-Based Church (Cladis) this weekend.  I’m grateful for the grace of no classes on Friday and not being scheduled to work this weekend!  Highlights from the day included hearing Bruce Ware preach at chapel (watch the video), and getting to tell Dr. Russell Moore, “There’s a bat on the ceiling…just thought you should be aware.” (Exhibit A)

Defining Biblical Counseling

Last week, I laid out some examples of what biblical counseling isn’t, so this time we will explore what biblical counseling is.  A good summary of the definition we discussed in class would be that it is empowered by the Holy Spirit and consists of one Christian giving wise counsel to a brother/sister in need, that they would have a fuller understanding of how the Gospel relates to every area of their life, and respond in obedience.

That being said, one of the most helpful pictures we discussed in class was the relation of the physical and the spiritual aspects of whatever is going on that necessitates counseling.  The physical issues that can contribute to a problem are numerous and include sleep deprivation, illegal and legal drugs, hormones, diet, and many others.  Spiritual issues can include testings and trials, discipline, faking it, and guilt/cover up.  In almost every problem there are several physical and/or spiritual factors going on.  Spiritual factors will influence the physical, and physical factors will also influence the spiritual.  We have to be incredibly careful about giving pat-answers when someone comes to us for counsel. 

What Biblical Counseling Isn’t

First off, wow, thanks for all the comments and discussion from my opening post.  Blogging is way more beneficial (and fun) when there are comments and mature discussions, so keep ‘em comin’.  I once heard that asking the right questions is a sign of intelligence.  I stink at asking questions.  So, I value any questions you ask for my own training and edification.

Wow, seminary is difficult.  It easily consumes my day and I don’t even have a job or kids.  By this time next week I’ll need to read David Powlison’s Seeing With New Eyes and The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis in their entirety, read about 90 pages of Grudem’s Systematic Theology, not to mention probably 5 other chapters from other books.  For those interested I’ve put our required reading list for this class at the end of this post.  I’ve also realized that 88 credit hours is not the typical amount of hours for a masters degree.  That’s like, 3 masters degrees.

In one of our first lectures, we learned what biblical counseling is by first looking at what it is not.  There are many false assumptions about biblical counseling (some I had in my own mind).  Some of these false assumptions are that biblical counseling is simplistic, superficial, anti-science and anti-medicine, harsh, and that people’s problems are all due to their sin.

So, let’s look at what Biblical Counseling is not…

An Insider’s Look at Southern Seminary

As you probably know, I am the new guy here at the “who am i?” blog.  If you missed out back in July, check out Barry’s interview with me here.

My wife and I have just recently moved to Louisville, Kentucky and I am now in my second week at Southern Seminary.  There are a lot of exciting things happening in and through Southern Seminary, and it’s exciting to be right in the middle of it.  I am pursuing my Masters in Divinity through the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism.

This is the first in a series of blogs I will be posting throughout this semester.  The concept was birthed from a series of short conversations between Barry and I, and a lot of dreaming and brainstorming.  There are a lot of people out there who would love to go to seminary and attend these classes but that is just not possible and not where God has called them.  These are the people I have in mind during this series.  Not that I would in any way offer anything resembling seminary teaching, but that you would be able to get an inside view of what class is like, and hopefully contribute to some issues brought up in class.

We both thought it would be intriguing and beneficial to blog through a class for a semester.  My vision is that once a week I would discuss that week’s lecture and my general impressions on it.  I think this will be a pretty creative form of studying!  I very much would love to receive questions in the comments section that I can ask the professor or the teaching assistant.

We all agreed when looking at my schedule that the best class for the endeavor would be Introduction to Biblical Counseling: Methods and Skills, taught by Stuart Scott (not the ESPN Sportscenter Stuart Scott. I know…disappointing!). 

Turning sorrow into worship

Guest post by Isaac Johnson, who blogs at Doulos Reviews and Building a Better Me

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll remember Barry’s post on forgiveness and Corrie Ten Boom. It reminded me of one of the letters Mark Driscoll wrote in Death by Love. It was addressed to a young man who was a Christian. His father often beat him up while he was growing up. Many times the son would put himself in harms way so that he would take the worst of the beating to protect his sisters. He had so many scars from childhood and the pathetic father he had. Then, the father becomes a believer. Now the son is left with many questions and a myriad of emotions. Now that his father is a brother in Christ, how does he let go of the past? Is he just supposed to forget everything and act like it never happened? And how does the father live with what he’s done? It was definitely one of the most powerful chapters in the book. This theme of forgiveness has caused me to look deep inside my own heart.

On one hand, I’m happy to say I’ve never really been wronged to such an extent that I’ve felt it hard to forgive someone. The person that I’ve had the hardest time forgiving is myself. Even after I have received the forgiveness of the person I have wronged and have asked for and received forgiveness from my heavenly Father, I have difficulty forgiving myself.

And then, there is the cross.