BIBLICAL COUNSELING
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

PART FIVE

THIS IS A 12 PAGE REPORT, SO FAR, AND I WILL POST THRU THURSDAY. I AM GOING ON VACATION FRIDAY THRU NEXT WEDNESDAY.

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SOME GENERAL REMARKS ABOUT BIBLICAL COUNSELING, ADMONISHING, INSTRUCTING, ETC.

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I am going to use some notes that I used while pastor/teacher of First Baptist Church in Altoona, Kansas for sixteen years.

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Biblical teaching about the needs of life is very tiring for the mind to bear up under for long. After one hour, one hour sessions, my mind becomes tired. (is it possible for your mind to be tired?) (I need to look up that question). There is at least a strain on my body’s physical functions.

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I had preached for years, since I was sixteen, so preaching was rather natural for me. I believed that in my preaching I was helping people learn about Jesus Christ and how He would have us to live in a secular world.
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My wife (Charity) first encouraged me to learn how to deal with people. Think of that. She felt I had a handle on theological principles but needed some help with dealing one on one with people. So I enrolled in Liberty University School of Life-Long Learning. Believe me it’s a lifelong process! The course was taught by Ron Hawkins, on "INTRODUCTION TO COUNSELING." Class was VCR tapes.
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Then for David Miller’s counseling class: "PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT", and I am thinking, what has this to do with biblical admonishing or instruction? Learning personality development is the systematic study of the person as they move through characteristic stages of growth and development. Oh! So we studied from a newborn child thru childhood and adolescence to adults.
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This is a whole other topic for a later study. I want to keep on the subject. But to say the need to understand the development of one’s personality does have a direct result on one’s behavior. You cannot ignore one’s upbringing in the process of learning what their problems are.
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SOME PRINCIPLES I LEARNED ABOUT BIBLICAL COUNSELING

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Compare the person’s experience to the Word of God. When they share a questionable experience that they believe to be true, evaluate it against the Word of God.

• Don’t give advice in areas you are not qualified in. i.e.
• Legal
• Financial investments, etc.
  
• Medical - Do not counsel people about medications prescribed by their doctor.
  
• Recognize the potential for medical problems to be the source of some of the problems.
  

Biblical counseling as we have learned, is addressing every issue in our lives with a biblical perspective.

Starting with a mindset that is focused on the teaching of the Scripture.
Gather information
Define the problem from a biblical perspective
Discover its root as to what the scripture would say it is
Find the biblical answer.

NOW I WANT TO ADDRESS THIS IDEA OF ‘NOUTHETIC CONFRONTATION ."
WHAT IS BIBLICAL COUNSELING

Discerning thinking and behavior that God wants to change.

• You want to view how you think about any issue in life with what God thinks about it. Your problem might be that you don’t agree with what Christ says.
  

Using God’s Word to Change Thinking and behavior

• You want to start with Scripture as the means of how you should think about living life.
  

For the benefit of the person and for the glory of God.

So how do you accomplish this process?

• it’s called nouthetic counseling

I had to first learn if the person who I am talking to understands that what I do is Biblical consulting. I am not trying to find out what the medical problem is, nor what the secular world would call their problems. I am not trying to give a secular solution but a biblical solution. I had to learn first if they were a believer, if they were willing to address their needs from the biblical point of view. Secondly, we had to discover if they were willing to at least learn what Scripture says about their problems.

What they were going to hear from me was what I understand the scripture is saying.

• "Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and confronting one another nouthetically." Col. 3:16.
  
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