Temptation - Book Review

Temptation: Applying Radical Amputation to Life's Sinful Patterns by Jay Adams is a short book, only about 32 pages in length, and is part of a series of books providing Resources for Biblical Living.

Facing ongoing sin in one's life can be a troubling and frustrating part of Christian Living. I would doubt that there is a Christian out there that would honestly say that they haven't had struggles, or battles, with sin. In this book, Jay Adams begins by inviting the reader to consider sins in their own life that they may be struggling with, then he describes the two main tendencies offered in Christian circles on how to face sin.  These two options are: "(1) inaction on your part in lieu of contemplation and prayer; or (2) obedience to biblical commands that leads to growth."

Both of these methods, though often set as opposing methods, are actually missing the correct approach.  In other words, there are aspects of both that are true, but they must be taken together. I agree with this basic premise, true Biblical change is an absolute dependence on God, that we are working whole heartedly to accomplish. What many misunderstand in this is that since my sanctification (spiritual growth) is entirely dependant on God, then I can work with confidence!  Consider this passage of scripture:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13, ESV)

Can you see these two concepts working side by side?  It is not, "... God is doing his part and I am doing my part." Instead it is, "God is doing all of it so that I can do it!"

My issue, like most, is that instead of truly working, with the confidence that God is working, I want to gradually eliminate sin from my life when he calls me to stop sinning today.  This is where this little book is especially helpful. The main focus is on the concept of "radical amputation" which is pictured in Christ's teaching in Matthew 18 about the cutting off of hands and the poking out of eyes. What Jesus actually says is,

And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. (Matthew 18:8-9, ESV)

Cutting off is so abrupt. It is so final. So much I want to hang on to the availability to sin in my attempt to stop sinning. I want to be gradual in the process. I don't want it to cost me very much.  That is not Jesus' approach. On this gradual walking away from sin, Jay Adams said something that was quite helpful in putting it into perspective:

"The proposal to 'wean' oneself from sin is as offensive as if one were to cut off a dog's tail, one thin slice at a time."

He goes on to say, in response to a Let God... mentality:

To many, the unbiblical (though seemingly spiritual) manner of putting off sin is to follow a quietistic course of action. In the final analysis -- without going into methods of various sorts -- what quietism is saying, 'God has promised to eliminate sin in my life, and only he can do so. I will therefore leave the matter in his hands. In his time, he will do so.' But this is nothing more than a pious cop-out. God has already told you the time -- it is now. The sin is to cease at once.

If you are struggling with sin in your life, then I want to recommend that you get this book. It is direct and to the point, which is what those who are in sin are needing and wanting to hear.

(This book was provided by NetGalley.com for reviewing purposes.)

Praying Biblically

I just found an article by David Powlison, a well-known Biblical Counselor.  The article deals with introducing Biblical Counseling in the local church.  He says he comes at it by adjusting how we take prayer requests in the church.  Though this article is about Counseling, I felt that the comments made about Biblical prayer were worth reading and sharing.

Here is a snippet of that blog post:

... the Bible’s prayers are rarely about health, travel mercies, finances, doing well on a test, finding a job, or the salvation of unsaved relatives. Of course, these are legitimate things to pray for, but they are a minor emphasis in Scripture. Even so, these topics typically dominate most church and small group prayer requests. They easily miss the real action of God’s dealings with his beloved people. 

In contrast, the driving focus of biblical prayer asks God to show himself, asks that we will know him, asks that we will love others. It names our troubles. It names our troublesome reactions and temptations. It names our holy desires. It names our God, his promises, and his will. When someone asks you, “How may I pray for you?,” imagine the impact of responding in a manner such as this: “I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, and have been inattentive and irritable to those nearest and dearest to me. Please pray for me, that I will awaken and turn from my preoccupation with work pressures, recreations, health problems, or money. God promises to help me pay attention to him. Ask him to help me remember and focus. Ask him to help me to take my family and other people to heart. Pray that I will take refuge in him when the pressure is on. The Lord is my refuge, but I’ve been taking refuge in TV and food.” This kind of prayer gets things that matter on the table—things that matter both immediately and eternally.

How true these thoughts are!  Most of my own requests are for people and things, and they aren't prayers for God to show Himself and make Himself real in my life.

Tonight at our mid-week prayer meeting at Edgewood, I will introduce some of these ideas.  Our church has shown some growth in numbers, but it is important that we remember that this is God's church and His work.  You can pray for us at Edgewood, that we will see God clearly, and that His Spirit will be poured out on the people who come to this small local Church.

The rest of the article is worth reading.  You can find it here: Prayer is a Great Place to Begin Biblical Counseling

conflicting

Here is the difference between a disease and a mental disorder. Great straight-forward explanation. The thing that intrigued me the most about this particular clip is that it (as far as I can tell) did not come from a Christian site.



[HT: A former student]

Diagnosis

I was talking about disorders with some people the other day.  Somebody mentioned that there was a disorder for everything... I have to agree.

I don't think that it is wrong at all to give a name to a set of problems.  It isn't even wrong to use a nice psychological name, and tack the word, "disorder" onto the end of the title.  Isn't that what we are all about anyway?  Aren't we all a little marred from the original order? (...therefore, we are in a state of "dis"order...)  To hear another description of our messed up psychological state, try reading Romans 3:10-18.

Well, I wanted to share the name of a disorder with you, and its description.  The name of this disorder is Paranoid Personality Disorder.  Here is the description:

Paranoid personality disorder is listed in the DSM-IV-TR as 301.00 Paranoid Personality Disorder.

According to the DSM-IV-TR, this disorder is characterized by a pervasive distrust and suspicion of others such that their motives are interpreted as malevolent, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four (or more) of the following:

• Suspects, without sufficient basis, that others are exploiting, harming, or deceiving him or her
  
• Is preoccupied with unjustified doubts about the loyalty or trustworthiness of friends or associates
  
• Is reluctant to confide in others because of unwarranted fear that the information will be used maliciously against him or her
  
• Reads benign remarks or events as threatening or demeaning.
  
• Persistently bears grudges, i.e., is unforgiving of insults, injuries, or slights
  
• Perceives attacks on his or her character or reputation that are not apparent to others and is quick to react angrily or to counterattack
  

Many disorders are described (and diagnosed) by the behaviors.  Jesus tells us that all behaviors come from the heart, so I believe that it is important to attempt to tack-on a Biblical description for the disorder that drills down to the root of the problem.  In the case of Paranoid Personality Disorder, I would diagnose Pride, complicated with fear and the desire for control.

What say you?

Counseling Class - Week 2

I taught the counseling class again this week, but it didn't go as well as I was hoping.  I was covering the second half of the Six Basic Elements of Biblical Counseling, but there was an entire 15 minute span of time where I felt disoriented in my notes.  (In case you were wondering, it is really bad when the teacher feels disoriented!)  I know that I was following my notes, I just had a moment where I didn't feel like I was connecting with the class.

I know that this probably came from the lack of adequate preparation.  The last few weeks have been some pretty challenging weeks and haven't allowed for much prep time, so I don't feel that I could have done any better than I did... It is just that I really like to be prepared.  And more importantly, I really like to connect with the class that I am teaching.

The people in the class didn't seem to be disoriented, which is a good sign, so it wasn't a total loss.  I even had several really good comments and questions after class.  Some questions about how to help someone struggling with depression opened the way for some good discussion.  There was even a bit of time in class with good discussion going on.  

Anyway, I thought I would update those of you who follow this blogger's life.

Whoa!

I was guessing that there would be, maybe, 10 people in the counseling class. At 5:30 there were 7 people in the room. I thought that was going to be alright. Nice small intimate crowd... By 5:40 I had almost 50 people in the room.

That wasn't expected.

Counseling 101 Notes

Here is the Power Point for the first week.

(Please don't let the number of slides frighten you. That is actually the number of clicks to get through the whole presentation.)

Preparing

Today I am preparing for my "Life Ed" class.

I mentioned before that I am teaching a class at my church titled Counseling 101. I have done some prep for this class, but the last few weeks have been challenging to my time table. In fact, the other day my oldest son said, "Daddy, all you do is work. You get up and you work, you go to school and you work, you get home and you work, we go to sleep and you work... That's all you do!"

It was a sad commentary on my current state. Mostly because I was just feeling that way when he said it. I was thinking that it was all in my imagination, but I guess not.

So, anyway, I am putting the final touches on the notes for this class. The topics that I am covering this week are Building Involvement (Saying, I Care!), Gathering Data (Gathering the information you need), and Determining the Problem (Making sense of the data).  This will be the first time teaching through these particular topics, so that always adds the extra element of infamiliarity.  

I just keep trusting that God will see me through this.  That it will be His ideas and His thoughts.  I want there to be as little of ME as possible.  So, I pray that He will increase and I will decrease, even as I prepare the notes.

Don't listen too closely...

I am preparing some lecture notes for the in-service week at school.  I was asked to do a little teaching on Communication or Conflict Resolution, and I was assigned a 30-minute time slot.  (Which is coincidentally right before the session on blood-borne pathogens.  What is that supposed to mean?)

In the process of refreshing my memory and revising my notes, I ran across a verse that has never jumped out at me before, but I thouroughly  enjoyed it, so I am passing it along to you.

Do not pay attention to every word people say,
     or you may hear your servant cursing you-

for you know in your heart
     that many times you yourself have cursed others.

(Ecclesiastes 7:21-22)

Isn't that just a great verse? What verses have you had jump out at you lately? Maybe they were more like a smack than a jump...

Counseling 101

In addition to the beginning of another school year, I am also gearing up for the beginning of another round of Counseling 101.  I am still team teaching the class with Jim Phillips, but this will be the last time that I share the responsibility. He is only covering one topic, and that is at my request.

Here is the description of the class from my church's website:

God’s Word gives us wonderful insight into such heart issues as anger, depression, guilt, fear, anxiety, and more. Join Matt Harmless and Jim Phillips as they share sound Biblical truth you can use to help counsel yourself and others. Counseling 101 is offered during the fall and winter Life Ed. sessions. This training is vital for those desiring to minister words of encouragement or exhortation in obedience to Scripture (Romans 15:1-3a; Galatians 6:1-3, 9-10; Hebrews 10:23-24, etc.). (Room 106)

I am looking forward to the class already.  Not just because I love to teach (Which I do), but also because I always learn so much during the preparation process.

I doubt that anyone who reads this blog lives in the area, but if you do, I would like to encourage you to join the class.  The class runs from September 14th to November 16th at 5:30 pm.

Find my church by clicking here.

The Slowest Ever!

I have been asked to teach the counseling class again. I was really hoping that this would happen, because I really enjoyed the last time that I was able to do that. (And, I have to say that it is a good sign, when you are asked to do something again... It means that they must not have hated me the first time I did it.) This time the topic is Progressive Sanctification in Counseling.

First I have to say that every time I am given a topic, I seem to be hit with all kinds of things in my life to help remind me of why God has really allowed me to teach this class. I can assure you that God has not allowed me to teach because of my great knowledge on a particular subject, or because of my amazing ability to present a lesson. No, no, that is most definitely not the case. The reality is that God allows me to teach because of my great need to learn and grow myself. Quite humbling, if you ask me.

When I was given the Idols of the Heart topic, God began to reveal in me all of these idols! I was full of them! I thought I was doing pretty good on this idolatry thing, but no! Far from it!

Well, this topic has been no different. From the time the teacher told me that I was going to be teaching Progressive Sanctification to this exact moment, as I am typing this post, God has shown me over and over again in these last few weeks, that I have not arrived. I am still in great need of Sanctification myself.

Second, I also have to tell you that I am the absolute slowest note writer -- ever! I hate to sound childish, but it takes me forever to complete a set of notes. As you can tell, it is Saturday night, and I have to teach tomorrow, and I am still making revisions. Crazy. I find that the most difficult thing is just coming up with a basic outline that makes sense to me. I will spend hours trying to formulate the flow of the lesson: all of the transitions between points, nice illustrations, etc. When I was a school teacher, I just needed the basic material, and I could wing the rest. It always came so naturally.

Truth is, I probably over prepare, but hey, these are adults that I am speaking to. It just seems so different!

Anyway, I better get back to work. I still need to practice teaching this thing 100 more times before I feel comfortable.

g'night...

Idols of the Heart - Week 4

Here is the final week of the teaching.


powered by ODEO

To listen to all four weeks of the teaching visit my odeo podcast.

Idols of the Heart - Week 3

I have added the third week of the Idols of the Heart lesson. Here is a link to my podcast, where you can find the other two lessons and download the mp3's for listening to on your ipod.

Or, you could listen to it here:


powered by ODEO

another podcast

I haven't had any time to do any typing lately, but I just uploaded another podcast for your listening pleasure. It is the second in the series on Idols of the Heart. Check it out here.

Wondering what this is all about? Find out here.

podcasting

I have ventured into the podcasting realm.

I found a free podcasting service called Odeo a while back, but I didn't give it a try until last week. I titled my podcast The Goatee Speaks and did my first recording just to see if everything was working the way it is supposed to work.

Then I figured out that you can actually upload pre-recorded audio as well, so to see if that worked, I uploaded the first lesson in my Idols of the Heart series that I am teaching at my Church.

Everything seems to be working really well. If you get a chance to listen to the teaching, let me know what you think. I even have the notes available if you are really interested.

Anyway, thanks for dropping by.

Idols of the Heart

When [Moses] relates that Rachel stole her father's idols, he is speaking of a vice that was common. From this we may gather that man's nature... is a perpetual factory of idols.
-John Calvin (as quoted by Elyse Fitzpatrick in her book Idols of the Heart)

I can remember as a child thinking about the whole idol concept. (I know... weird kid, right?) I mean, who was the guy who originally thought up the idol. There had to be a first guy that did this. There had to be some guy who thought to himself, "hmm... I think that I am going to make a god."

If you make your own god, how do you actually bow down to it. You know that it is just a piece of stone or some carved wood. I can understand how people generations later can live in a deceived state. Their whole lives they have been worshipping this idol, but what about the first guy.

Maybe, though, his original idea wasn't to make a god. Maybe it was to bring God to himself. Maybe, he was trying to understand the one true God, and decided to make an image to represent Him. That is what the Israelites did. When Moses went up to the mountain, and all of the smoke and thunder was going on up there, it must have been absolutely spectacular. It must have been something that was beyond their comprehension. So to try and understand this dreadful and awful God, they decided to make an image that they could understand.

The Israelites chose a calf, a golden calf. I can't say exactly why they chose a calf, or who decided it would be a calf. Maybe there was a committe formed, and after the manna and bird stew potluck, they took a congregational vote.

In their efforts to make God tangible, they picked a calf. The calf could have represented provision, because of all of that God had done for them. This calf was also controllable, unlike the God of the thunder and clouds that was at work in the mountain. The God that had said that if anyone even touched the mountain, that they would perish. Oh yes, a calf was much better for them. It would represent God to them, but in doing this, they had created their own God.

One of the matriarchs of the Israelites, so to speak, was Jacob's wife, Rachel. Many years earlier she had stolen some idols from her own father. We don't have all of the details as to why she did this, but Elyse Fitzpatrick makes some possible suggestions. Here is what she says of Rachel:

Perhaps she believed that there might be a god that ruled over the earth, but he was too far away and too unmanageable for her comfort. She couldn't trust him to order life as she desired. She needed a tamer, more docile god -- one she could control. She wanted a god that would give her what she needed. She wanted a god she could steal; one she could hide. She wanted a god she could keep in her purse.

She goes on to say that an idol isn't simply a stone statue or some carved replica, an idol is anything that takes the place of the one true God. I have heard others say that "...if you are willing to sin to obtain your goal, or if you sin if you do not get your goal, then your desire is sitting in the place that only God should hold."

Idolatry is not a dead concept in the lives of the civilized world. Maybe it is even more prevalent than ever. We might not have little statuettes sitting around our houses, but the idol might be there all the same.

Near the end of the Bible, during a time when you would have thought that idolatry was near extinction, the apostle John states in one of his letters, "Little children, guard yourselves from idols." (I John 5:21) I think that this warning is just as valid today as it was nearly two thousand years ago.

A day in the life of...

...an attendee of the Biblical Counseling Training Conference.

Two words for you... Brain Fried. I have been attending this thing for about a half of a day, and already I am brain fried. I just finished the session on Building Spiritual Maturity in Your Men. And it was great. Gave me several ideas about what I could be doing in my Bible Class, but more importantly it gave me some ideas for my own life.

Around here the phrase, "...growing and changing..." is heard more than you want to admit. But it is true. We all need to be growing and changing. None of us has arrived, and none of us will arrive on this side of eternity.

Last night Doc Smith, one of the speakers for the conference, taught the session on the superiority of Biblical Answers. (Which, by the way, was really good!) During that session he commented on the word normal. And to sum up, none of us is normal. Because of the curse of sin, we are all abnormal. The only one who is normal is Jesus Christ. I have always thought of that the other way around, like Christ was abnormal, and we were the ones who are normal, but that contradicts the Word of God. We were created to be pleasing to God, and that is our very purpose of existence... The very reason why those certain genetics came together, those very genetics that God before time preordained to come into existence, was for you to please God. And to not do that is going against our very purpose of existence!

Maybe I should write about "a day in the life of a human being." It would be short, and the only things of value would be those things done for eternity.