Pondering this at the beginning of the semester when we have much to read:
He that hath a good book in his hand, but not a lesson of it in his heart or life, is like that ass that carrieth burdens and feeds upon thistles…Profession without practice will but make a man twice told a child of darkness….He that makes not conscience of praying over what he reads, will find little sweetness or profit in his reading.
Thomas Brooks, Works, vol. 1, p. 291-2
Filed under Meditations, self-deception
Orientation today and time to meet the new cohort and see their bright faces and anxious hearts. The Fall always energizes me because of new beginnings and the crisp air outside. If only the leaves were as pretty as in New England and the Red Sox were in the hunt for October, things would be just right…
Can’t wait to start my course Helping Relationships on Monday. I love teaching this intro class as it refreshs my own counseling skills and reminds me that great counseling is not about my knowledge but about facilitating another’s connection to God. It reminds me that I do not have to be the sage nor am I in the driver’s seat (I’m not the Holy Spirit). When I remember these things, I can allow others to go at a pace that is right for them.
…
Soon, I will post some thoughts as to what is biblical counseling and where it could stand some growth and change.
Filed under teaching counseling, Uncategorized
Just came upon a copy of an address given last month at the APA annual convention by Nicholas Cummings, past President of APA. He offers a scathing review of the disconnect between APA and the rest of the sane world. His beef is that APA loses credibility when it tries to speak with authority from opinions rather than evidence. He gives several examples where there has been both a lack of study in areas deemed now politically incorrect and pronouncements of political correct stances without actual evidence (e.g., impact of single parenting on children, why girls who are sexually active are more likely to be depressed and suicidal than those who do not, the efficacy of reparative therapy—helping those who want to change their sexual orientation from gay to straight).
What makes this interesting is that Cummings is not a right wing whacko but an insider and long-time support of APA. He is coauthor of the book, Destructive Trends in Mental Health: The well-Intentioned Path to Harm. I suspect that readers will fall into two camps about the address: those that appreciate his willingness to say what they have wanted to for some time due to marginalization and power of those who run APA; and those who recognize that while he is correct on some accounts, he only wants to blast gay marriage and single mothers.
I can relate to his points. You can find a similar comment I made to a recent president to APA published in the Monitor on Psychology if you go to this link: www.apa.org/monitor/may03/letters.html
Filed under philosophy of science, Psychology
Yesterday’s Faculty meeting was spent ruminating on the character of the Gospel (multi-faceted) and how we have tendencies to focus only on one part (e.g., what are the minimum beliefs you have to have to be a Christian, penal substitution, etc.). What happens to our sense of the Gospel if we move away from easy believism and self-focused, individualistic aspects of the Gospel (am I really saved?).
Seems we need to be having some questions to help shape the Gospel:
1. What is God doing? (covenanting and reconciling a people for himself)
2. What does he call us to do/be as a people of God?
What passages might I use to articulate the core of the Gospel?
1. 2 Cor. 5:16f (reconciling the world tohimself, making us agents of reconciliation)
2. The 1st and 2nd Greatest commandments (love God, love neighbor)
3. 1 Cor. 15 gets some key ideas down (as was reminded by a colleague)
4. 1 Thess 1 gives the idea of the Gospel as believe, serve, and wait
What would you use to articulate the Gospel without missing key facets?
Filed under Doctrine/Theology, Gospel
I’m in an all day faculty meeting discussing the nature of the Gospel. Looking particularly at the issue of the relationship between justification and sanctification–a topic in many seminaries these days as “the new perspective” gets lots of attention, both positive and negative.
But here’s a quote from Chambers reminding me how best to fight besetting sin:
Never give way to reverie, imaginations or thinking over which you have no control; to do so is the surest way to slip into a relapse. Few of us realize the power God has given us to grip on the threshold of the mind as in a vice the things that ought not to be there.
Oswald Chambers, Notes on Jeremiah, p. 1396 (Jer. 4:14)
Filed under Repentance
A bit ago I wrote a short essay on the signs of true repentance for abusive individuals. The AACC published it in their Christian Counseling Today magazine (v. 13:3). In that essay I suggested that true repentance requires, honest in-depth admission, sacrificial efforts to repair the damage, and acceptance of helpful discipline and accountability. This Sunday, my pastor preached from Nehemiah 9 about repentance. Here’s a couple of points that Pastor Traylor made:
Filed under Repentance, Uncategorized
In clear idea stealing from Cavman’s Pensees, I’m going to include a few of my favorite quotes from time to time. These help me remember something important and keep me thinking on good things:
The problem is we want to sleep with God but not get married. We want intimacy [the blessings from God] without obedience.
From a sermon preached by Manuel Ortiz, pastor of Spirit and Truth Church and professor emeritus of Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.
Filed under Meditations, Uncategorized
Some initial thoughts about a common problem that brings folks to counseling. I’ll put more up on the topic, but I’ve noticed that a lot of counseling has to do with questions of guidance. Folks are asking about what their future will be like, what they should do now to avoid certain future pains. Did they make the right choice in career, spouse, etc. They want to know what God is up to and why he would have them experience the traumas and pain they have lived through. Some become paralyzed with fear, others angry or depressed. A friend of mine, Doug Howell, put some thoughts together on the topic that I think are unconventional but helpful in that they approach the subject in ways that maybe we haven’t thought of before. Here are some of his questions:
Seems like much of our reasons to know God’s will/plan for us is to avoid failure and being rejected by God. However John 17 really reminds us that Jesus has already kept all who were given to him and so that no matter what happens, we cannot shake the fact that Jesus is united to the Father and we are united to the Father through Jesus’ works. There are times when we may question our abilities, our faith, but do we really question Jesus’ confidence that he has kept safe all that God gave him as his own. Do we think we can blow Jesus’ work?
Filed under Guidance and Counseling, Uncategorized
We humans have powerful tendencies to label and categorize. It may even be something that Adam passed on to us. Notice that Adam got to name the animals as he saw fit. Does part of being in the image of God mean that we have an innate drive to name things as they are?
But what happens when things don’t fit our categories? We either have to expand our definitions or shove square pegs into round holes.
The color line comes to mind. Those who are biracial face the repeated question, “What are you?” And the “one drop” rule still is holds power (one drop of Black blood makes you black).
How about those who don’t fit gender stereotypes. I’ve heard the pain of many who were accused of being gay because they didn’t fit the image of a man or a woman. These labels were so powerful that they caused confusion that other’s beliefs must be true. “If being a man means…(fill in the blank), then I must not be one. Maybe I’m gay.”
Why belabor this point? Counselors have tremendous power to label. Biblical Counselors have even more. We label right and wrong, righteous and unrighteous. We label idols of the heart. We should do so and be in the habit of helping our counselees have the right labels for what is happening in their lives.
But, HOW and WHEN we label are very important, maybe even more important than whether our labels are actually correct. The temptation for counselors is to label too quickly, before the counselee is ready. If that happens, the counselee is passive and the counselor’s label is just one more among a chorus of opinionated acquaintances.
Take a look at how Jesus interacts with sinners and self-proclaimed holy men. Who is he more likely to label quickly. Who does he engage with deep questions? What is his means for helping others see themselves? Notice how the Pharisees were quick to label what was authentically Jewish and what was not. Notice that the Lord seems less interested in that and more interested connecting to others. He was not neutral about sin. However, he engages others in novel ways to show them the righteous path and their need for a savior.
I’ve been enamored with the late Paulo Freire, a liberation theologian from Brazil. He describes how unthinking, impoverished, people becoming empowered to name things as they are. They do not, he says (in Cultural Action for Freedom), learn by being filled up with words and labels by dominant culture individuals. If this were the case, then counseling would only be a matter of memorizing the right words and phrases. No, counseling is a dialogue where the counselee is an active, creative subject in the process of change.
Filed under biblical counseling, Uncategorized
Am reading Bryan Maier’s (my new colleague) recent dissertation-turned-book, The Separation of Psychology and Theology at Princeton, 1868-1903: The Intellectual Achievement of James McCosh and James Mark Baldwin. Don’t get put off by the long title (we like those in academic treatises because they really tell us what the book will be about).
In short, McCosh, the President of Princeton (1868-1888), was a man caught between the two worlds of science and evangelical faith. He held to the authority of Scripture and that the only way to have saving faith was the work of the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures. He also believed that inductive reasoning could uncover the nature and faculties of the human mind, apart from leaning on the Scriptures. In fact, he resisted appealing to Scripture as he felt (a) that he couldn’t rely on human interpretations of what God meant (too much possibility of distorting it for own purposes) and, (b) that he needed to use the philosophies of the day (materialism, realism, positivism) to have his views regarding metaphysics accepted by other scholars (but he failed to note the lack of objectivity within these forms of scientific inquiry). Maier’s conclusion is that McCosh, despite his evangelical faith, played a role in exiling God from psychology when he emphasized the powers of logical positivism to “find” facts over against the rigorous study of Scripture. By prioritizing scientific inquiry and marginalizing biblical theology, it was impossible for a true integration of psychology and faith—a problem he sees that has continued today in the integration movement. Continue reading
Filed under History of Psychology
Musings on Faith and Psychology 