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Weekend 1 Session Reflection
CNSLN 1003-A Intro to Biblical Counseling
830-930:
Introduction
This section was critical for me. My thought has always
focused on the outreach by taking the Gospel to the displaced at East
Lancaster; however, I never thought of them as “My People.” In fact, we call
them many titles and names: Homeless, Houseless, Displaced, Poor, & many
other derogatory names. This keeps me at distant from them. However, this
introduction unveiled a sense of responsibility, not so much taking the Gospel,
but seeing these folks as “My People” and seeing them as my story. Hence, their
stories are my story. They are my responsibility; I am accountable to them as
much as I am accountable to my Lord. Matthew 25:40, “The King will reply,
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and
sisters of mine, you did for me.” My heart dropped as I came to the
realization of what this means: I’ve been seeing Jesus at East Lancaster, in
fact, many of them.
945-1045:
Introduction to Biblical Counseling
Fundamentally, “For all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) The reality of my existence is defined by
the bible and no matter how much I can sugar code it, simply, it won’t go away
because I am a sinner in need of a Savior. Therefore, I must first look inward;
the demands of this responsible is to ensure that I am fully always walking
with Christ as a new person in Him. Matthew 7:5 “You hypocrite, first take
the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck
out of your brother’s eye.” The goals of Biblical Counseling are: 1.
Glorify and honor God. 2. Show God’s Love. 3. Be Salt and Light. Moreover,
these are the goals of every Christians; hence, anyone that goes through
Biblical Counseling must be evangelized and be transformed “in Christ, he is
a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). If the person does not come to Christ
and be transformed, the attempt is futile. How can someone sincerely accept
instructions from a bible that he/she does not believe in? The bible is the
ultimate source of truth. If the counselee does not accept the principles
derived from the bible, it will be very difficult for the counselee to live a
Christ-centered life.
11-12:
Counseling and the Church
One of the main functions of the church as a community is
to support one another, Act 2:42 “And they devoted themselves to the
apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to breaking bread and the prayers.” This
is necessary for the spiritual growth of the counselee. The counselee can be
equipped by Church members as they fulfilled their own callings. The Church take
on many roles: 1. teacher, 2. equipping the new believer, 3. accountability
partnership, 4. practicing and demonstrating compassion, 5. building community
of believers, and 6. many more biblical principles. The growth of a counselee
will depend on how and where it is fed. In secular counseling, this is often
call “support group;” however, in a church community, it is a community that
will do life with the counselee. This is a community that will love the
counselee as Christ does. This is a community that is committed to ensure that
the counselee, not only, heals but secure his/her eternal salvation. Thus,
Biblical Counseling is more than just counselling, it is a community that is
committed to demonstrate Christ’s Gospel of grace to the lives of other
peoples—this is the demonstration of how God’s has worked in their lives.
130-230:
Culture
Our cultural norm has progressed through some sort of fluid
evolution as it has shaped and reshaped itself by molding societal behaviors
away from a biblical foundation. Some may call these cultural evolutions as improvement
for humankinds while others see these as the deterioration of Judeo-Christian values.
Perhaps we can all agree, as follower of Christ, that the behaviors that were
once consider sinful from yesteryear are now common everyday occurrences. Mass
media via radio, social media, and television has desensitized our senses; consequently,
we have learned to accept these trends as normal behaviors. As we witness throughout
decades, many television shows went from two parents’ household to single
parent and at times, three adult living together is accepted. Television Shows
like “Morden Family” demonstrated the shift away from the Christian ideal of a
family. These trends have brought distractions to our journey. In fact, turned
many of our lives to accepting things that are detrimental to our Christian
lives. These things lead us to idolatry as we always seeking after more and
more things. Prayers has been removed from the schools; Ten Commandments has
been banned from public places; hence, anything that resemble Christianity
seems to have been pushed aside. We now say “Happy Holiday” instead of “Merry
Christmas” because we may offend the other person. The bottom line is our
cultures are not very supportive of Christian values. Perhaps Romans 12:2 said
it best, “Do
not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind.”
245-345:
History of Soul Care
Perhaps the critical
question is: When does soul care begin? From the very beginning of our creation,
God was a counselor: And the Lord God commanded the man saying: “you may eat
of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you
shall not eat, for the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 2:16-17. God counsel has 5 critical qualities: 1. True 2. Loving 3. Protective
4. Sufficient 5. Fitting. These qualities should be the model of our biblical
counseling. However, we must be mindful of the existing alternative counseling. The woman said to the serpent,
“We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not
eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not
touch it, or you will die.” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to
the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Gensis 3:2-5. As we witness
from the event at the Garden, God’s counsel has opposition from the very beginning.
These oppositions to God counsel are characterized by: 1. Insufficient 2. Promote
Sin 3. Ungodly living 4. Sees themselves as God. Historically, God has always
provided counsel for His people through the Prophets, Priests, Judges, and
Kings and today, the Holy Spirit through the Church.
4-5:
Critique of Secular Theories
Secular alternative to Biblical Counseling rooted in the discipline
that was developed by Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner which mainly focus on the
learning behaviors of their subjects. Some of their founding ideas included the
concept, that all we are as human is a “Highly Developed Animal.” Freud
developed principles that were considered by some as scientific based method
derived from Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism, and Humanistic. These methods asserted
that the problems of the counselees were developed early during their childhood,
stored in the unconscious mind which was driven by their environment. The
problem with the “Environment,” there is a high tendency to blame the environment
for the problems and not take responsibility. Contrary to the biblical description
of man as sinner, Romans 3:23-24 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus,” with the psychology, we have an out.
Hence, the secular theories aimed at changing behaviors, contrary to biblical
counseling which aimed at changing lives for the salvation of their soul.
