Living Righteously

Peter tells us in I Peter 4:1-2 “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will…

Adams’ core elements in Biblical Counseling

God is at the center of counseling Commitment to God has epistemological consequences Sin, in all its dimensions is the primary problem counselors must deal with The gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer The biblical change process which counseling must aim at is progressive sanctification The situational difficulties people face are not the random…

Biblical Counseling and Inducement

Inducement means to motivate counselees to make biblical decisions conducive to change.  Here are some steps Wayne Mack states in his chapter from John MacArthur’s book Counseling: How to Counsel Biblically. Help counselees to accept personal responsibility for their desires and motivations, thoughts, attitudes, feelings, words, and actions. Bring counselees to the realization that biblical change involve…

What does it mean to pastor?

I just finished Richard Baxter’s “The Reformed Pastor” and suffice it to say I found myself underlining a multitude of sentences on every page, as well as writing “wow”, “ouch”, and many other words conveying some emotional response due to the biblically insightful pastoral rebuke or encouragement he offered.  If you haven’t read it I’d encourage you…

Preaching Christ-centered holiness

This is a brief summary of Dr. Tony Merida’s words at the Indiana Shepherd’s Conference when he preached I Peter 1:13-2:3. Character is an indispensable part of a preacher’s ministry. God doesn’t call men to exemplify great talent but great character.  Spurgeon said, “God will use a fool if he is holy.”  Here are seven charges Tony gave from…