Dynamics of Biblical Change

with DR. DAVID POWLISON

presented by
THE SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL COUNSELING
 !!!!Dynamics!of!Biblical!Change!
CCEF Course Notebook

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Lecture 1.................................................................................................................1

Lecture 2.................................................................................................................5

Lecture 3...............................................................................................................10

Lecture 4...............................................................................................................14

Lecture 5...............................................................................................................19

Lecture 6...............................................................................................................23

Lecture 7...............................................................................................................27

Lecture 8...............................................................................................................33

Lecture 9...............................................................................................................39

Lecture 10.............................................................................................................44

Lecture 11.............................................................................................................50

Appendix A.............................................................................................................i

Appendix B.............................................................................................................ii
Lecture 1

I. Introduction to Dynamics of Biblical Change (00:00:00)

A. No other model of change or approach to counselingbesides a biblical onehas worship as the goal. The
end of everything you seek to do is to love and adore God.

B. The change process is not self-referential but moves us out of ourselves.

II. Reflection on the hymn

A. Fair means beautiful, full of splendor, glorious, honorable, and radiant.

B. This is a creation hymn, a nature hymn. The flow of the hymn:

1. The first stanza speaks of Jesus as the Creator.

2. The second and third stanzas adore Jesus because he is greater than all other beautiful things.

3. The fourth stanza expresses the personal nature of our relationship with Jesus.

4. In the fifth stanza, Jesus stands as the Redeemer, the One in whom all things are brought together
by the power of his Word. He not only creates all things but also is the One who redeems us and
who gives us reasons to be joyful.

C. In the first, fourth, and fifth stanzas of the hymn, we sing directly to the Lord. In the second and third
stanzas, we sing about the Lord.

III. Hymn: Fairest Lord Jesus1 (00:09:13)

Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature,

Son of God and Son of Man!
Thee will I cherish, thee will I honor,
Thou, my souls glory, joy, and crown.

Fair are the meadows, fair are the woodlands,

robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Fair is the sunshine, fair is the moonlight,

and all the twinkling, starry host;
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
than all the angels heavn can boast.

1 Mnster Gesangbuch, Fairest Lord Jesus, Hymn #170, Trinity Hymnal (Philadelphia: Great Commission Publications, 1990).

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 All fairest beauty, heavenly and earthly,
wondrously, Jesus, is found in thee;
None can be nearer, fairer or dearer,
than thou, my Savior, art to me.

Beautiful Savior! Lord of the nations!

Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
now and forevermore be thine.

IV. The opportunity you have in Dynamics of Biblical Change (00:15:50)

A. Humans are intended to mono-task, not multi-task. We have the privilege to focus on a few important
things.

B. T.S. Eliot: Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? Where is the wisdom we have lost in
knowledge?2 We cannot consume wisdom; it has to be built. We aim for nothing less than wisdom.

C. Specific application: You have to unplug from the airwaves. There are a thousand temptations that can
distract you from the purposes of this class.

V. As you begin to think about the dynamics of change, consider your destination. (00:21:33)

A. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, Deliver us from evil. We will be delivered from evil in all its forms.

B. What will you be?

1. You will be alive, strong, and healthy forever. Life will triumph.

2. You will be liberated from all fears.

3. You will have no more sorrows nor will you experience loss. Every tear will be wiped away
(Revelation 21:4).

4. You will be blessed. Biblically, blessed means to have radiant happiness and deep joy. We see tastes
of this in Psalm 33 (Our heart is glad in him) and Psalm 36 (You give them drink from the river
of your delights). C.S. Lewis on the sheer happiness of our future destination:

The faint, far-off results of those energies which Gods creative rapture implanted in matter when he made the
worlds are what we now call physical pleasures; and even thus filtered, they are too much for our present
management. What would it be to taste at the fountain-head that stream of which even these lower reaches prove so
intoxicating? Yet that, I believe, is what lies before us. The whole man is to drink joy from the fountain of joy. As St.
Augustine said, the rapture of the saved soul will flow over into the glorified body. In the light of our present
specialized and depraved appetites we cannot imagine this torrens voluptatis [torrent of pleasure], and I warn
everyone most seriously not to try. But it must be mentioned, to drive out thoughts even more misleading

2 T.S. Eliot, T. S. Eliot: Collected Poems, 19091962 (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963), 147. Choruses from The Rock (1934), part I.

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 thoughts that what is saved is a mere ghost, or that the risen body lives in numb insensibility. The body was made
for the Lord, and these dismal fancies are wide of the mark.3

5. You will be beautifulspectacular in re-creation. C.S. Lewis on our future beauty:

The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbours glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only
humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible
gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a
creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such
as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or
other of these destinations. It is the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the
circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves,
all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts,
civilizationthese are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with,
work with, marry, snub, and exploitimmortal horrors or everlasting splendours.4

6. You will be a truly good person without sin.

a. Jesus died to make us good.

b. B.B. Warfield on our transformation into the living character of Jesus Christ:

It is not to mere self-denial that Christ calls us, but specifically to self-sacrifice: not to unselfing ourselves, but to
unselfishing ourselves. Self-denial for its own sake is in its very nature ascetic, monkish. It concentrates our whole
attention on selfself-knowledge, self-controland can therefore eventuate in nothing other than the very
apotheosis of selfishnessSelf-denial, then, drives to the cloister; narrows and contracts the soul; murders within us
all innocent desires, dries up all the springs of sympathy, and nurses and coddles our self-importance until we grow
so great in our own esteem as to be careless of the trials and sufferings, the joys and aspirations, the strivings and
failures and successes of our fellow-men. Self-denial, thus understood, will make us cold, hard, unsympathetic,
proud, arrogant, self-esteemingfanatical, overbearing, cruel. It may make monks and Stoicsit cannot make
Christians. He [Christ] was led by His love for others into the world, to forget Himself in the needs of others, to
sacrifice self once for all upon the altar of sympathy. Self-sacrifice brought Christ into the world. And self-sacrifice
will lead us, His followers, not away from but into the midst of men. Wherever men suffer, there will we be to
comfort. Wherever men strive, there will we be to help. Wherever men fail, there will we be to uplift. Wherever men
succeed, there we will be to rejoice. Self-sacrifice means not indifference to our times and our fellows: it means
absorption in them. It means forgetfulness of self in others. It means entering into every mans hopes and fears,
longings and despairs: it means many-sidedness of spirit, multiform activity, multiplicity of sympathies. It means
richness of development. It means not that we should live one life, but a thousand livesbinding ourselves to a
thousand souls by the filaments of so loving a sympathy that their lives become ours. It means that all the
experiences of men shall smite our souls and shall beat and batter these stubborn hearts of ours into fitness for their
heavenly home. It is, after all, then, the path to the highest possible development, by which alone we can be made
truly men.5

3 C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1949), 14.
4 Ibid, pp. 1415.
5 Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, ed., Samuel G. Craig (Philadelphia: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1950),
563575. Citation from pages 571, 573, 574575.

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 c. God reveals his communicable attributes in Exodus 34:6-7! He is our Redeemer, and we
will reflect these attributes of his goodness.

7. You will be like Jesus when you see him (1 John 3).

VI. Three questions as we journey to become like Jesus: (00:56:43)

A. How far away from this are you now? We are a long, long way from where we are going!

B. What direction are you heading? This question keeps us oriented no matter how far we are away from our
destination.

1. Jack Miller: The measure of Christs glory is the difference between what you would be by nature
and what you are because of Christ.

2. John Calvin on direction: No onehas sufficient strength to press on with due eagerness, and
weakness so weighs down the greater number that, with wavering and limping and even creeping
along the ground, they move at a feeble rate No one shall set out so inauspiciously as not daily to
make some headway, though it be slight... Let us not despair at the slightness of our success; for
even though attainment may not correspond to desire, when today outstrips yesterday the effort is
not lost. Only let us look toward our mark with sincere simplicity and aspire to our goalthat we
may surpass ourselves in goodness until we attain to goodness itself.6

C. Where is your hope?

1. God restores us for his names sake. We see this in Psalm 23, Psalm 25:7, Psalm 109:21, Isaiah 43:25
and Isaiah 48:11. God acts because of who he is and that is the absolute foundation of any
confidence we have. His mercy is our only hope.

2. The essential dynamic of a living faith starts with Lord, be merciful, and ends with Praise be to
God.

VII. The essential nature of ministry (01:10:50)

A. Public Ministry: the teaching and reading in this class fall into this category of ministry. The application
happens in the heart between the person and God.

B. Private Ministry

1. The processing that you do as you read and work on the assignments falls into this category of
ministry.

2. Ask yourself each week, What is the one thing that most strikes me?

3. Our private ministry leads to interpersonal ministry.

C. Interpersonal Ministry (counseling; friendship; one-anothering; discipleship): Talk with others about
what you are learning in this class!

6 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), III:6,
p. 689.

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Lecture 2

I. Goal of this lecture (00:00:00)

A. Create a way of understanding and sorting through all that comes at us when we encounter complex
people. We want insight so that we stay oriented and do not become disoriented. In our strugglesjust like
those with whom we seek to ministerwe become disoriented. Therefore, one goal of a biblical dynamic of
change is reorientation. Reorientation means knowing where we are (location) and where we are heading
(direction).

II. Reflection on the hymn (00:03:00)

A. Themes:

1. Notice dual evilour sins and our sorrows.

2. Notice the invading and merciful God.

3. Notice the two voices of faith: the voice of need and the voice of gratitude. These are the two voices
in the Psalms as well.

III. Hymn: Psalm 130 (From Depths of Woe)7 (00:10:38)

From depths of woe I raise to thee a voice of lamentation.

Lord, turn a gracious ear to me and hear my supplication.
If thou iniquities dost mark, our secret sins and misdeeds dark,
[lead] O who shall stand before thee?
[echo] Who shall stand?
[lead] O who shall stand before thee?
[echo] Who shall stand?
[Together] Who shall stand before thee?

To wash away the crimson stain, grace, grace alone, availeth.

Our works, alas, are all in vain; in much the best life faileth.
No man can glory in thy sight, all must alike confess thy might
[lead] And live alone by mercy
[echo] Live alone
[lead] And live alone by mercy
[echo] Live alone
[Together] Live alone by mercy.

Therefore my trust is in the Lord and not in mine own merit.

On him my soul shall rest; his Word upholds my fainting spirit.
His promised mercy is my fort, my comfort, and my sweet support.
[lead] I wait for him with patience
[echo] Wait for him
[lead] I wait for him with patience

7 Martin Luther, From Depths of Woe I Raise to Thee, Hymn #554, Trinity Hymnal (Philadelphia: Great Commission Publications, 1990).
Contemporary melody & arrangement by Christopher Miner. Stanzas 4 & 7 added by David Powlison.

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 [echo] Wait for him
[Together] Wait for him with patience.

And though my sorrows dark may be, Christ is my consolation.

He is my refuge day by day, high fortress of salvation.
Hell take away my tears of pain, wash dust of death away with rain.
[lead] And now I sing before thee
[echo] Now I sing
[lead] And now I sing before thee
[echo] Now I sing
[Together] Now I sing before thee.

And though I wait the livelong night, until the dawn appeareth,
My heart still trusteth in his might; it doubteth not nor feareth.
Do thus, O you of Israel's seed, you of the Spirit born indeed,
[lead] And wait till God appeareth
[echo] Wait till God
[lead] And wait till God appeareth
[echo] Wait till God
[Together] Wait till God appeareth.

Though great our sin and sore our woes, his grace much more aboundeth.
His helping love no limit knows, our utmost need it soundeth.
Our Shepherd good and true is he who will at last set Israel free
[lead] From all their sin and sorrow
[echo] All their sin
[lead] From all their sin and sorrow
[echo] All their sin
[Together] All their sin and sorrow.

On heights of joy Ill raise to thee a voice of exultation.

Lord, turn thy glorious face to me; receive my adoration.
Thy mercies triumph full and free through Jesus Christ who rescued me.
[lead] I gladly stand before thee
[echo] Gladly stand
[lead] I gladly stand before thee
[echo] Gladly stand
[Together] Gladly stand before thee

IV. Clyde Case Study (00:16:50)

A. Overview

1. Organizing questions to consider: How do we make sense of all we have heard? How do we think
about this man? Where do we enter in so that we can offer him help?

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 2. Do not jump into Clydes life by just tackling his marquee sinswe will get to those. Instead, we
want to first locate his troubles in a comprehensive understanding of Clyde and his world. Who is
he on the inside? What sort of world does he live in? How does he put his world together?

3. We will begin with his circumstances. The things Clyde faces do not explain him, but do locate
him on the significant stage in which God has placed him.

4. People live within a cacophony of voicesboth internal and external. To the degree we respond to
these voices, we will live out their logic.

5. Ask yourself, What kind of a person am I dealing with? Consider the categories in 1 Thessalonians:
the unruly, the fainthearted, and the weak. Clyde is not fundamentally unruly, though his marquee
sins are unruly sins. He is in the category of the fainthearted at this moment: discouraged and
confused. This category shapes how we think about Clyde and how our ministry proceeds.

6. The issue of the past poses a challenge to Christians. Our culture says that our past (nurture) and
genetics (nature) are determinative. Christians reject determinism but know that people are always
located in an unfolding story. The past is not determinative but it is significant.

7. Do not only look at negatives. Look at positives as well.

a. The good situations and circumstances can be just as much of an occasion for our
sinfulness (or our graces) as the bad ones.

b. We are open to see the significance of everything. Nothing in the case study is
insignificant.

B. What are Clydes broader patterns that normally play out?

1. Consider how he acts/reacts in various situations:

a. in relationship with his mother

b. in relationship with his wife

c. in relationship with his children

d. in work life and interactions with colleagues

e. in the ethics committee

f. when he has free time at home

C. We seek to answer the question: What is Clydes problem? This is a trick question because there is not just
one problem, but many. We do him a disservice if we boil it down to one problem. The heat places
pressure on a persons lifeit is what comes at us from outside of us. Those situational variables can be
either past, immediate, or future events.

D. Two questions to answer in order to understand a person

1. What is his lifestyle?

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 a. Consider the horizontal dimension of a persons life. Scripture teaches us horizontal
relationships reflect the vertical relationship with God.

b. When you think about the horizontal dimension, consider Clydes problematic actions,
words, thoughts, feelings, fantasies, cognitions.

2. What are his motives? What is Clydes reality map? How does he interpret his various
circumstances? How does he interpret himself? Why does he do what he does?

c. The vertical dimension asks the question, Why? Our motives have to do with how we
are relating to God.

d. The two most common doors into how we think about human motivation:

i. A worldview (reality map) tells you what the world looks like.

ii. A set of purposes and intentions describes what you want as you proceed into the
world.

1)Scripture searches us (Hebrews 4:12-13).

2)Our hearts deceive us (Jeremiah 17:9).

E. Consider four of Clydes motives:

1. Fear of man

2. Mammon

3. Pride is the establishment of ones own kingdom in the world and says, I love getting my way.

4. The love of pleasure

a. Clyde drinks as a way to find a refuge from the threats of his world.

b. The book of Psalms says, Life is hard and there is a refuge.

F. Where do we begin with Clyde?

1. Take stock of what you hear.

2. Take stock of your commonalities with Clyde. A biblical worldview knows we all have the same
sin-sickness and troubles (1 Corinthians 10:12-13). Our differences are matters of degree, not kind.

3. Take stock of the relationship between you and Clyde.

a. Questions counselees implicitly ask:

i. Do I trust you?

ii. Am I going to be honest with you?

iii. Will I listen to what you say?

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 iv. Do I want to change according to Christs goals for biblical change?

4. Take stock of Clydes assets. Notice what is good in Clydes life.

a. Clyde has an accurate conscience.

b. The particulars of his sinfulness have changed. He is not the man that he was before he
was a Christian.

c. Clyde came and asked for help.

d. He is a Christian who has known the mercies and goodness of God.

5. Discuss possible starting points with Clyde. There is flexibility in this.

G. What happened with Clyde?

1. Clyde and Powlison started with the ethics committee as their laboratory of change because all of
Clydes struggles were present in that context.

2. Clyde and Powlison used Psalm 40. This psalm gets at the relational seeking that is at the heart of
change. All biblical change moves in the vertical and horizontal. If you stay only horizontal, you
drift toward moralism. If you stay only vertical, you drift toward pietism.

3. Clyde made headway in every area.

V. New case study: You have an important appointment that you have to get to. Traffic comes to a grinding halt.
You left your cell phone at home. (02:07:50)

A. The Eight Questions give categories of thought in which to process and understand the dynamics of
biblical change:

1. Question #1: What is happening to you that brings pressure, temptation, beguilement, etc? (This is
all situational. Nothing here predicts your response.)

2. Question #2: How are you reacting?

3. Question #3: What rules you and hijacks your heart?

4. Question #4: What are the consequences and ripple effects? How do your reactions affect
relationships, work life, mood, finances, situation, health, etc.?

5. Question #5: Who is God, relevant to this struggle?

6. Question #6: Respond to God from the heart. How will you have a candid, intelligent, pointed
conversation with God?

7. Question #7: Respond constructively into your situation. How will you show intelligent love for
others?

8. Question #8: What are the consequences? How do God (#5), faith (#6), and love (#7) create ripple
effects in relationships, work life, mood, finances, situation, health, etc.?

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Lecture 3
I. Reflection on the hymn (00:00:00)

A. We sing hymns together because of the fundamental continuities between counseling and worship. There is
tremendous pastoral insight in many classic hymns.

B. We do not crown Jesusto crown Jesus is to recognize his glories and to joyously proclaim the many
wonders of Jesus Christ.

II. Hymn: Crown Him with Many Crowns8 (00:12:05)

Crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon his throne;
Hark! how the heavnly anthem drowns all music but its own:
Awake, my soul, and sing of him who died for thee,
And hail him as thy matchless King through all eternity.

Crown him the Lord of love; behold his hands and side,
Rich wounds, yet visible above, in beauty glorified:
No angel in the sky can fully bear that sight,
But downward bends his burning eye at mysteries so bright.

Crown him the Lord of peace; whose powr a scepter sways

From pole to pole, that wars may cease, absorbed in prayer and praise:
His reign shall know no end; and round his pierced feet
Fair flowrs of paradise extend their fragrance ever sweet.

Crown him the Lord of years, the Potentate of time;

Creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime:
All hail, Redeemer, hail! For thou hast died for me;
Thy praise shall never, never fail throughout eternity.

III. Building a model (00:17:30)

A. Last week, we began to sort out the variety of things going on in a persons life at any particular moment.
We used the Eight Questions to orient us.

B. Jeremiah 17 will organize our thoughts regarding the dynamics of biblical change. This passage develops a
metaphor for what life is like and where our core dilemma lies. We will borrow this metaphor to build our
model, and then extend its range to implications beyond the texts original meaning.

C. Reflection on Jeremiah 17 that bears in mind The Eight Questions.

IV. The Three Trees Diagram (Appendix A) is the metaphorical picture that will organize our semester (00:39:05)

A. The three trees are as follows: the tree on the right is a thorn bush; the tree on the left is a fruit tree; the tree
in the middle is our Redeemer.

8 Matthew Bridges, Crown Him with Many Crowns, Hymn #295, Trinity Hymnal (Philadelphia: Great Commission Publications, 1990).

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 B. The heat (baking sun) is our circumstances. The heat is both the voices that beguile us and the threats that
assail us. (Question 1)

C. The triune God is present in the world he created. (Question 5)

1. God is the sovereign speaker. He rules all things, he made all things, he judges all things, and he
speaks to all things. His word illumines who he is, and reveals what is unsearchable.

2. The Redeemer is the ultimate fruit tree who entered our plight to lay down his life for us. Jesus
Christ is the man of wisdom and love.

3. The Holy Spirit mediates the living presence and power of Christ. The Spirit indwells us
individually and corporately.

D. Our diagram represents Gods world where there are consequences: we reap. (Questions 4 & 8)

E. We use this picture to orient us. We talk in metaphors because God made us to understand things by
analogy and to think pictorially.

F. The heart (Questions 3 & 6)

1. It is easy to think of the heart as a psychological category, but here we use it as shorthand for the
vertical dimension of our lives.

2. To understand what is happening in the vertical dimension, the following types of questions help
reveal the heart:

a. Who is your God at this moment?

b. Who do you love? What do you love?

c. Whose voice are you listening to?

d. Do you want the will of the Spirit or the will of the flesh, world, and devil?

e. Ultimately, humans are not psychological; we are fundamentally relational. What goes on
in our psyches has to do with how we are relating either to God or to falsehood. Everyone
is doing something with God.

f. Horizontal dimension- fruit and thorns is ultimately a relational category.

(Questions 2 & 7)

V. Discussion of comprehension questions asked by the students (00:54:30)

VI. Complementary truths (01:10:50)

A. One goal in this course is that you have a needy side and, at the same time, a confident, joyous side.

B. The greater part of wisdom is to understand the relationship and interplay between complementary
truths. Richard Gaffin

C. Every scene in the Gospels show clear, unmistakable revelation that Jesus is God and that Jesus is a man. He
is the God Man. The Bible forces us to wrestle with this reality about Jesus.

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VII. Three vignettes (01:22:40)

A. Each vignette is a self-contained scene.

B. Think big picture and, at the same time, live in the details of the vignette. Change happens in the vignette.
Real change works out in moments when we are different than we would be by our nature.

C. Vignette #1: Five-year old Gwenyth confesses to her dad (David Powlison) that she told a lie.

1. Fear of man rules Gwenyths heart in the lie.

2. Right from the start, we see good fruit: Gwenyth is honest, she has an accurate and active
conscience, and her conscience is cued to the right set of standards (i.e., telling a lie is wrong).

3. David operationalized Proverbs 29:25 for his five-year old.

D. Vignette #2 (two days later): Gwenyth does not want to go to her school play because she is afraid of being
laughed at. Different situation and different fruit than the first vignettebut the same heart.

E. Vignette #3 (one week later): Gwenyth tells her dad a story of how she prevailed in a tempting scenario.
Gwenyth has experienced the liberty to not be controlled by the fear of man.

VIII. Implications we can draw from these vignettes: (02:02:40)

1. Thorns and good fruit arise at the intersection of heart and heat.

2. The issues of the heart are relational. Fear of man means to abandon God and orient my life to
another person. To turn away from fear of man is to turn back to God and relate to him. This is not
a cognitive rehearsal of truthit is a relational change.

3. Jesus meeting a person in real life is the best evangelism. One-on-one ministry gives us the
privilege of providing a personalization of the gospel.

4. Change is progressive and heads in a specific direction. There are certain kinds of sinslike
murder or adulterythat can be dealt with in a one-and-done way. But when you are dealing with
something subtlelike fear of man or pridethen you will fight it until the day you die.

IX. Clair Davis yo-yo metaphor (02:14:18)

A. The Christian life is like a yo-yo held in the hands of a man who is walking up stairs. There are ups and
downs but, in the long haul, you are going somewhere. As time passes, the downs do not remain the same
as they were in the past.

B. The goal is not to get God to throw the yo-yo to the second floor; the goal is to shorten the string.

C. If the goal is to shorten the string, then what defines growth?

1. Learning to ask for forgiveness more intelligently

2. A quickness to repent

3. Lessening frequency of outbursts

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4. Lessening intensity of outbursts

5. Appreciating the grace of Christ

6. A willingness to do the repair work in relationships

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Lecture 4

I. Reflection on the hymn (00:00)

A. Notice that God is the one speaking in this hymn. In most worship songs, you do the talking, either to
God, or about God, or to yourself, or to others.

II. Hymn: How Firm a Foundation9 (00:02:00)

How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord,

is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He has said,
to you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

Fear not, I am with you, O be not dismayed,

for I am your God and will still give you aid;
Ill strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call you to go,

the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
and sanctify to you your deepest distress.

When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,

my grace, all-sufficient, shall be your supply;
the flame shall not hurt you; I only design
your dross to consume, and your gold to refine.

Een down to old age all my people shall prove

my sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
and when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,

I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
Ill never, no never, no never forsake.

III. Self-counseling project (00:08:25)

A. The first self-counseling project addresses suffering. One corresponding article you will read is Gods
Grace and Your Suffering.

B. Stop and ponder significant suffering in your life. Then, wrestle through the interplay of your suffering and
Gods mercy.

9 Anonymous, How Firm a Foundation, Hymn #94, Trinity Hymnal (Philadelphia: Great Commission Publications, 1990). Sung to Adeste
Fidelis, tune of O, Come All ye Faithful

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 C. Recap on the metaphor from Jeremiah 17 from last week

D. The Eight Questions reveal the two sidedness of a person in his situation in light of the living God.

IV. 2 Corinthians 1:1-12 (00:14:00)

A. Verse 4 has an astonishing promise: You are able to manifest effective counseling wisdom that will help you
deal with other peoples troubles. (Question 7)

B. How do we gain such wisdom? How do we learn to talk about troubles?

1. Paul begins with his own personal troubles, the hardest troubles he had experienced. (Question 1)

2. Usually when people speak of their own troubles, they tend to grumble and complain.
Complaining thereby allows troubles to become excuses for wrong living.

3. Paul sets a radically different example here. Paul shows he gained wisdom, and how he learned joy
and perseverance of faith.

4. Counseling wisdom is gained through suffering. The mishandling of suffering is how we show
ourselves to be fools.

5. Paul uses the same words over and over again to describe his troubles: suffering, affliction, and
comfort.

a. Affliction means extreme pressure in life: Its hard.

b. Suffering means you are in pain: It hurts.

C. Paul moves from general (verses 4-7) to particular (verse 8). He expresses the experiential weight of his
burden; he does not leave it at generalities.

D. The wisdom of the flesh manifests when fallen people instinctively respond to pressure and pain.
(Question 2) Examples of horizontal fleshly responses:

1. Grumbling and complaining

2. Anger, fighting, and conflict

3. Confusion, anxiety, and fear

4. Escapismranging from those escapes that appear innocent to those that are obviously guilty.

E. There are consequences when we react to suffering out of fleshly wisdom (Question 4). In the very least, it
sabotages your ability to help another person.

F. Horizontal responses reveal the vertical dimension of what rules a person (Question 3). The instinct of our
foolish wisdom is to trust ourselves and control our situation.

G. There is a sovereign God who is over and in all things (Question 5). Our sufferings fundamentally have
meaning. God is with us in our suffering and he is up to something good: these things happened in order
that

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 H. The fundamental shift from a foolish response to a wise response is, when your life is threatened, to trust in
the God who raises the dead. This is not an abstract promise. It is a relevant promise that meets the need of
the moment (Question 6).

I. Understand the relationship between behavior and the heart (Question 7).

J. The fruit of trusting God is joy, gratitude, endurance, and counseling wisdom (Question 8).

V. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (00:44:40)

A. The chapter ends with the promise that God is the one who establishes us in Christ and gives us the
immediate presence and transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

B. The Holy Spirit is the agent of change. He is the counselor who writes the promises of life on the human
heart.

VI. More thoughts on suffering (00:46:37)

A. Transformation through significant suffering is the goal.

1. Intense suffering

2. Pervasive suffering

B. How should we understand comfort and encouragement biblically? Comfort is usually when you put your
arm around a persons shoulder. Encouragement is usually when you give a person a pep talk. But biblical
comfort and encouragement is wider. The Greek word is parakaleo. It is actually the word for the Holy
Spirit in the gospel of John. The Spirit is the one who comes alongside a person with immediate aid for the
need of the moment. This kind of biblical comfort brings relevant mercies and actual truth.

C. Closing comments on this topic

1. Notice Pauls mutual dependence in verse 11. The prayers of the body of Christ were effectual in
Pauls life.

2. Biblical counseling aims for the wonderful goal found in 2 Corinthians 1: We can have joy in our
troubles and the ability to help anyone in any situation.

3. Biblical counseling has methodological implications that are radically different from secular
counseling:

a. Pauls candid self-disclosure is a controlled expression of love. It is appropriate candor.

Paul avoids two polar opposites: clinical detachment and morbid self-disclosure.

b. There is a frank identification in a common struggle. We are in this together. We face the
same things in life. We have a common condition and a common Savior.

c. In secular counseling, the counselor is passive, and the counselee either seeks or is
referred for help. But Paul is on the initiative relationally. He is pastoral, and moves
toward others, imitating the ministry of Jesus.

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 d. Honest two-way interdependency means we bear the burdens of one another. Paul is their
apostle and pastor, but he still seeks their aid, too.

VII. Thinking about complex cases (00:59:42)

A. Christian reflection on severely broken lives and complex situations is rare. One disempowering lie is that
our Christian faith is sufficient for easy cases, but does not apply to the hard cases.

B. Our goal is not to minimize the weight of complex issues. Instead, our goal is to probe wisely and biblically
into broken aspects of human life.

C. Discussion about the PBS interview with the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Americas top psychiatrist: The Director is a thoughtful, careful, and properly humble humanist. As he
considered psychiatrys role in our culture, he said, We have been given an impossible task to perform,
because our medications can sometimes alleviate symptoms, though there are side effects that can be quite
deleterious. But we as a profession cant give people what they really need. People need meaning and
relationship. This sounds exactly what the church would do if she would come into her vibrant reality.

D. David Powlison shares his experiences working in a locked ward.

VIII. Case Study of a paranoid schizophrenic, a man who thought he was John the Baptist (01:08:10)

A. Counselees background story

B. How do you minister to someone who is obviously insane? How will you love an extremely troubled
human being in less than an hour?

C. The session plan was to spend the first 30 minutes getting the young mans story and spend the next 30
minutes going for the heart.

D. The turning point in the conversation was when the counselee opened the door for interaction by agreeing
to receive feedback.

1. The rules of human interaction do not change because a man is insane; you still treat him with the
utmost respect.

2. This young mans identity is not reduced to his diagnosis.

3. We must normalize the abnormal.

4. At first, the counselees struggle was identified with grandiosity and terror and then the counselor
moved to the synonymous language of pride and fear of man.

5. A paranoid schizophrenic who lives in pride and fear of man lives in a hermetically-sealed ball.
Everything that happens in life acts as confirmation and proof of the universe he has constructed.
Our only hope is that someone could invade our hermetically-sealed ball from the outside. Jesus
invades dark worlds to turn on the lights.

E. As a way to continue to respect the counselee and communicate well, the counselor asked, What are you
thinking? The counselee responded in faith, I have never heard that before, would you tell me more
about it? Amazing honesty and insight followed in the next hour and a half.

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F. Are there social and physiological aspects to schizophrenia? We remain agnostic on this issue though we
are willing to grant new discoveries. We operate with ignorance to particular things and continue on in
ministry because, no matter what is discovered, new findings do not remove people from the sphere of
humanity.

G. A discussion of the counselees discipleship

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Lecture 5

I. Hymn: Be Still My Soul10 (00:00:00)

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on your side;

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to your God to order and provide;
In evry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: your best, your heavnly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: your God will undertake

To guide the future as he has the past.
Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,

And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shall you better know his love, his heart,
Who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears.
Be still, my soul: your Jesus can repay
From his own fullness all he takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastning on

When we shall be for ever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

II. Reflection on the hymn (00:06:05)

A. The article on Psalm 131 discusses this hymn in greater detail.

B. This is a hymn about suffering.

C. Notice there is only one specific suffering mentioned by the writer: when dearest friends depart. The rest
are general categories and metaphors.

D. This hymn, like the psalms, speaks in metaphors. Katharina invites us to personalize the experience with
our own specifics.

1. Vivid metaphors evoke the experience of torture and sheer anguish:

10 Katharina von Schlegel, Be Still My Soul, Hymn #689, Trinity Hymnal (Philadelphia: Great Commission Publications, 1990). Based on
Psalm 131: Surely I have composed and quieted my soul.

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 a. the cross

b. thorny ways

c. the waves and winds

d. all is darkened in the vale

2. General categories of human experience in this hymn:

a. Grief

b. Pain

c. Change

d. Mystery

e. Tears

f. Sorrow

g. Fears

h. Things taken away

3. There is no mention of sin in this hymn because the focus is on sorrow.

4. An application of The Three Trees Diagram to this hymn.

III. The heat (00:13:26)

A. We want a practical theology of lifes situations and contexts because it is a significant part of the Bible and
of every pastoral situation you will face. Christian text books often do not include this category, yet every
story in the Bible is located with a situational backdrop. We all live on a stage of significant events and
influential forces.

B. Ephesians, 1 Peter, and James are wide-sweeping and general. Each tells us to resist the devil but focuses on
a different aspect of the devils work.

1. In Ephesians, the situational backdrop (the heat) involves lies, false values, and false belief systems.
The danger in Ephesians is being enslaved or deceived by lies. (See Ephesians 5:6; 4:14.) Deceptive
and lying voices around us play a crucial role in our cultures situational backdrop. Part of a
counselors role is to be equipped to help people see through the fog of deception in their lives.

2. In 1 Peter, the situational backdrop involves being overpowered, wronged, and hurt by those who
abuse their power. The danger in 1 Peter is being used, misused, and abused. (The word abuse in
our culture is radioactive and is embedded in a world view that has just concerns mixed in with
falsehoods.)

3. In James, the situational backdrop involves various trials that James unpacks into specific
illustrations of poverty, sickness, and interpersonal conflict. These are general hardships and
fundamental human experiences.

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 4. Other books of the Bible that deal with the heat in a general way:

a. Proverbs is more like Ephesiansthe focus is on the influence of false value systems, peer
pressure, companions.

b. Psalms is more like 1 Peterthe focus is on people who harm you.

IV. Illustration of the heat: A glass of water held in a hand (00:30:54)

A. The hand is the situation. When you knock the glass of water, why do you think the water falls on the
floor? The knock was like being attacked, sinned against. In classic Christian philosophy, this is called the
instrumental cause. Why is water on the floor? The answer ultimately is because the cup was filled with
water. If the cup had another substance in it, then the other substance would have fallen on the floor
instead of the water.

B. Think about the way lies work. Why is water coming out? Its not the lie, but because I take the lie to heart.

C. Think about the pressures that weigh you down. These are general life hardships.

D. Think about being sinned against.

V. Joe Case Study (00:36:00)

A. The janitor at Joes high school struggled with multiple disabilities. The students were ruthless in their
taunts and jeers. After Joe became a Christian in college, he went back to the janitor to confess he was part
of the mockery and apologize. His apology was somewhat filled with pity and the janitor responded so
wisely that he put Joe to shame.

B. The situation does not make us who we are. The situation reveals who we are.

C. This story should profoundly impact your counseling ministry toward others. We learn that the situation is
significant, and that the situation is not determinative. When you put these two truths together, you walk
through the minefield where contemporary culture gets confused.

1. Secular culture tends to overemphasize situational factors.

2. Christian culture tends to overlook situational factors.

D. Situations are diverse. In upcoming lectures we will look at eight different situational factors that we need to
incorporate into our thinking.

E. Comments on scientific research, the historical development of psychological theory, and the movement
between fads. Christian thinking can be flexible and curious without getting walled into fads.

VI. The million-dollar question: Why do certain things bring out good or ill responses? (00:52:43)

A. If another person violates me, how will I respond?

1. Will I forgive or be filled with wrath? (the issue of rage)

2. Where will I take refuge? (the issue of escapism)

3. Is there a basis in which to have courage in the face of evil? (the issue of despair)

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 4. What will it mean to have hope? Where does hope come from? (the issue of fear)

B. Scripture acknowledges that if we treat a child badly then it will result in certain responses in and by the
child. There is a reason Scripture tells parents not to provoke their children. (See Ephesians 6 and
Colossians 3.)

VII. The process of growth continues in our lives (00:57:40)

A. Justification is by faith.

B. This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but
becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process
is not yet finished but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory
but all is being purified.11

11 Martin Luther, Defense and Explanation of All the Articles, Luthers Works, Second Article, Vol. 32 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1958).

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Lecture 6

I. Hymn: It Is Well With My Soul12 (00:00:00)

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

It is well with my soul

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and has shed his own blood for my soul.

My sin O the bliss of this glorious thought!

my sin, not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more;
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,

the clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,
Even so it is well with my soul.

II. Reflection on the hymn (00:05:54)

A. This is a major key hymna hymn of faiththat asserts what we believe and where we are going. Still
there are striking undercurrents of tension and sorrow throughout the hymn because Spafford suffered
greatly in his lifehe tragically lost his four daughters.

B. As we think about the theology of our situation, we recognize the totality of our life situations are
composed of diverse factors. This hymn includes that diversity.

1. peace like a river

2. sorrows like sea billows roll

3. whatever my lot

4. Satan

5. though trials should come

6. my helpless estate

7. haste the day

12 Spafford, Horatio

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 C. If you give someone a free association with my sin, they will almost always have a negative response. In
contrast, this hymn has an amazing free association and transition from my sin to O the bliss of this
glorious thought!

D. In the final line of the hymn, Spafford quotes the end of Revelation: Even so, come Lord Jesus (Rev 22:20).

III. Continuing last weeks discussion about the heat (00:12:42)

A. The eight aspects of The Heat Diagram are significant for counseling and for life in general. The human
heart often generates problems when interacting with any of these aspects.

1. The following three aspects are waiting for you: marketplace of options and opportunities; reality
of human differences; observing sufferings and shortcomings of others.

2. The following aspects come at you: general hardships, troubles, and limitations; voices and images
of misleading counsel; sinned-against, wronged by others; evil one, liar and murderer; dew of
blessing.

B. Eight aspects of The Heat Diagram (Appendix B)

1. Marketplace of options and opportunities: The heat not only comes at us, we go after the heat. We
are actors in our world.

2. General hardships, troubles, and limitations: The sorrows are things that come upon us and make
life hard in a fallen and broken world.

3. Voices and images of misleading counsel: Lies destroy, and can take ten thousand forms. Hardships
are the weight of the world on our shoulders.

4. Reality of human differences: We make a big deal about differences and live by comparison. We
envy other people because of simple human differences.

5. Sinned-against, wronged by others: Interpersonal sin is like a sharp edge that rips apart our life.

6. Observing sufferings and shortcomings of others: How we respond is the litmus test of who we are.

7. Evil one, liar and murderer: Behind the lie there is an arch-liar. Behind the oppression and
violence in this life, there is a murderer. Think of Satans hand in Jobs sufferings.

8. Dew of blessing: The critical part of a Christians gaze is to recognize the blessings and goodness in
a situation that also function to reveal the human heart.

C. Introductory comments about the situation

1. The situation is always significant. The situation helps us understand our struggles.

2. The situation is not determinative.

a. Matthew 12:33-37

b. Mark 7:15-23

3. Your ultimate situation is the Living God. Van Til said, God is mans environment.

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 D. Jesus enters every aspect of the heat on our behalf.

IV. Marketplace of options and opportunities (00:45:30)

A. This aspect of heat is the most dominant and pervasive in any situation a person faces. The world is waiting
for you, and what you choose reveals who you are.

B. As a counselor, your goal is to know the person. You ask about struggles, and you also ask about the kind of
music the person likes. Peoples tastes are revelatory.

C. Vignette: one snow storm and four different reactions

V. General hardships, troubles, and limitations (00:57:58)

A. Our challenge as counselors is to draw out the stories of others. One easy door into another persons life is
the category of general hardships. People make regular prayer requests about this aspect of the heat.

B. Grumbling and complaining are topics people are willing to discuss. This is where you can get hold of a
persons struggles and help them to see biblically.

C. Two tempting types of general hardships

1. Outer-circumstances: e.g.,

a. Job/Finances

b. Family

c. Bereavement

2. Inward-circumstances: e.g.,

a. Allergies

b. Hormones

c. Heath issues

VI. Grumbling and complaining in Numbers 11:1-21:9 (01:08:30)

A. This section of Numbers contains the grumbling chapters.

1. There are ten different vignettes in this section.

2. Two aspects of our wiring are seen clearly in this section.

a. Our beliefs (unbelief, questioning the Lord)

b. Our intentions (desires, cravings)

B. Four vignettes as examples

3. Vignette #1: Numbers 11:1-3 is the first image of Christ as the mediator who stands in the gap
between Gods just anger at sin and our sinfulness.

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 4. Vignette #2: Numbers 11:4 says, They desired a desire. The people grumble about manna, which
showcases the interaction between the heart and the heat.

5. Vignette #3: In Numbers 12, Aaron and Miriam are jealous of Moses prominence. They speak
slanderously against him because of human differences; Moses has a different gift and calling.

6. Vignette #4: In Numbers 20:1-13, the people quarrel with and oppose Moses. This passage shows
that the heart tailors its desires depending on the circumstances of the situation.

C. Cravings distorted Israels view of reality. (01:26:15)

1. These particular desires highjack the human heart.

2. These involve particular false views of God. When the people grumble, they have forgotten that
God is good.

3. These involve false views of self. When the people grumble, they believe they are justified in
complaining against God.

4. These involve a false view of the past. In their grumbling, Egypt was the Promised Land. In reality,
Egypt was a place of degradation.

5. These involve a false view of the future. They have been given specific promises by God. They
forgot the supreme blessing in the true Promised LandGods presence.

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Lecture 7

I. Reflection on the hymn (00:00:00)

A. The goal of a proper, self-reflective look at our shortcomings is not introspection, but worship. This hymn
has a torrent of pictures, images, and truths of what it means to love, know, seek, and serve God.

B. The voice of this hymn is the submissive imperative. In utter submission, we tell God to do something.

C. The fight is a combination of our sins and sorrows.

D. In all times, we stand in need of someone to help us.

E. Riches and what people think of me (mans empty praise) are two of the core idolatries of the human
heart. When I do heed riches, they have the effect of creating the anti-hymn: riches become my vision and
my best thought. If I have enough riches then I have light; if I do not, then I have darkness.

F. By presenting the positive and where we are going (the submissive imperative), we also, by implication,
learn something profound about our apostasy: our turning to the Lord is the exact mirror of how we turn
away from him. We saw the same dynamic in Jeremiah 17. What is my vision? What is Lord of my
heart?

II. Hymn: Be Thou My Vision13

Be thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart,

Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art;
Thou my best thought by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word,
I ever with Thee and Thou with me Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my souls Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor mans empty praise:
Thou mine inheritance, now and always;
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart;
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heavens joys, O bright Heavens Sun!;
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

13 Anonymous, Be Thou My Vision, Hymn #642, Trinity Hymnal (Philadelphia: Great Commission Publications, 1990).

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III. The Book of James (00:10:35)

A. Why James?

1. This letter, in a unique way, is written to you and to me. It is about the basic things that comprise
the Christian life.

2. James is a savvy pastor and knows how people work. The book of James has a wonderful pattern to
it: He alternates general truth with examples. He talks about how life works, gives orienting
perspectives, and then shows an example of how it works out. Then, by implication, we are invited
to press into that general truth with our own specifics. This makes application to individual lives
intuitively relevant.

3. James starts out by talking about general life hardships. Various trials are general and therefore
invites personalization and application right on the spot. It has something similar to what we saw
in 2 Corinthians 1: the powerful sense that God is working purposefully for our good, joy,
steadfastness, and wisdom. James can say count it all joy because there is a larger purpose in the
hand of God.

4. We all lack wisdom. We are in a hard fight and when the heat hits us, we struggle and show our
foolishness. Yet there is this overwhelming sense in the letter that we serve a God who gives and is
generous. He meets us in our need. (See James 1:5.)

IV. What is your situation? (Question 1): The heat (00:19:45)

A. The specific for-instances of general life hardships that James deals with are among the most basic, difficult
human situations. He maps out how hardships are occasions to receive grace from God. Difficulties exist
within the context of Gods greater purposes. James for instances:

1. Money (a universal hardship), differentials of wealth and poverty

2. Interpersonal conflict (4:1-2) and the poisonous tongue (3:1-12)

3. Ill health (5:14-16)

V. How are you reacting? (Question 2): The lifestyle of anti-wisdom (00:33:55)

A. James sets up a two-sided worldview: Will you choose wisdom or folly? False wisdom is earthy, unspiritual,
demonic (3:15); it is in the image of Satan and contrary to the Holy Spirit.

B. Chaos and every evil practice is a general category. Again, it invites us to personalize it (3:16).
Interpersonal conflict is a for instance that falls under this category.

C. Dirty hands are metaphorical for what you do, for the horizontal dimension of your life and the lives of
the people with whom you work, love, and seek to help (4:8).

D. Judgmental is when you speak against other people and think thoughts that judge others (4:11-12).

E. What causes quarrels and conflicts, wars and fightings? It is not the other person. We tend to point to the
heatthe situation, the other personas the cause of the war, but James takes the veil off the human heart
(4:1-2). Visual metaphor of two colliding books: Why are they coming at each other? Each thinks the
conflict is because the other book is hitting it. James sets out to open each book and see what is going on

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 inside you. When you open the book, you find the cause of fighting is in you. If you participate, then you
are an agent of war.

VI. What rules you? (Question 3): Motives (00:44:00)

A. James discussion of motives is the most intense and focused one we have in Scripture.

1. Motives that capture the hearts themes of grasping, self-exaltation, betrayal of love, the demonic
nature, and playing God:

a. Bitter zeal is desire going wrong in the heart (3:14, 16). Bad zeal causes thorny
behavior. We can be zealous for the wrong thing. For instance, in the case of interpersonal
conflict, this could be a zealousness to be proved right. This hits one of the themes of the
heart: we grasp at and want the wrong thing and that thing owns the agenda inside.

b. Selfish ambition means we self-exalt (3:14, 16). The grasping captures the wanting and
the ambition captures the exalting.

c. Sinful cravings mean you lust, crave, want. When you do not get, anger and
interpersonal conflict come (4:2). Sinful cravings reiterate the theme of grasping.

d. Pleasure is what pleases me (4:1, 3). For instance, I am pleased to be proved right.

e. You adulteresses! refers to adultery against God, which captures the theme of the
betrayal of love (4:4). We are made to live in the love of God and when my zeal goes bad,
and I exalt myself, then I betray God.

f. Friend of the world describes our loyalty (4:4). The world is a place where what I want
reigns; I am zealous for self-affirmation. A friend of the world is an enemy of the God who
has loved us.

g. There is a devilish quality to the fallen human hearteven among those who are
recipients of grace. Something devilish drives the human heart.

i. John Calvins metaphors for the human heart:

1)There is a cinder of iniquity even in the most godly people.

2)The human heart is a factory of idols that gushes forth.

ii. The desires inside us are ready to fight. There is something in the fallen heart that
is prepped for lust, self-exaltation, betrayal, etc. In this, we see the congruence
between our fallen hearts and Satan. Satan is grasping, self-exalting, and a
treacherous betrayer. So when James says oppose the devil, he is not talking
about exorcism; he is talking about the moral conflict for your life (4:1). It is
about the battle inside of us that bears an uncanny resemblance to our former
father, the devil.

h. Cleanse your handspurify your hearts continues the theme of betrayal (4:8).

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 i. The theme of playing God is captured in 4:11-12. If you judge your neighbor, you are
playing God.

VII. Who is God? (Question 5) (00:58:40)

A. James wants us to reckon with what is wrong so that what is rightand what can go rightwill really make
a difference in our lives.

B. James 4:6 is one of the most astonishing one-liners in the Bible: But he gives more grace. As dark as
everything James just discussed is, God gives more grace.

C. We are given a comprehensive vision of the redeeming God (but none of the Pauline details):

1. He is God, the generous giver (3:15, 17; 4:6, 10).

2. He is God, the fair and final judge (4:11-12).

3. He is God, the jealous lover (4:5). Gods jealousy is wonderful and an essential part of love; it is not
petty or possessive. Gods jealousy is meant to call us to the confidence that he loves us and gives us
grace. As a result, the atrocity of betraying him heightens when we do not love him in return.

4. He is God, the purposeful sovereign (1:2-5, 18; 5:11).

D. The revelation of Gods grace is found in Numbers 6:24-26 and threads throughout the rest of the Bible.
Numbers 6:24-26 is a DNA promise, a core promise.

1. All the promises of God are yes in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). The life and career of the
Messiah is an expression of Numbers 6.

2. He gives more grace is the basis of your relationship with God and the heartbeat of your prayer
life. This is what we trust, plead, sing, delight in, and are thankful for.

3. Gods DNA promise of I will never leave you nor forsake you is fulfilled in Christ (Deuteronomy
31).

4. Numbers 6 describes Gods communicable attributes and therefore reveals a picture of Christ that
is to be ours. Gods intent for our lives is that, in some small manner, we will be light and shine on
our brothers and sisters. The DNA of the Redeemer that is at the center of the Bibles genetic code
and walked in the life of Jesus will become Christ in us. We become grace givers to other people.

VIII. What are the consequences? (Question 4) (01:21:51)

A. James amps question 4 up to the ultimate bad consequences, which is that God opposes the proud (4:6) and
God destroys (4:12). Our sins lead to death (1:15).

B. James uses vivid imagery: misery, rot, fire, and slaughter (5:1-5).

C. There are immediate consequences that are metaphorical death (e.g., when Gwenyth told a lie, a chill came
into the relationship with her friend). These little negative consequences are signposts to the ultimate
consequences. James orients us by pointing to the big, ultimate consequence.

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IX. How will you have a candid conversation with God? (Question 6): The new heart (01:24:50)

A. Unlike our tendencies to see the bad stuff graphically, the good stuff has a hard time going technicolor.
Scripture makes the good stuff technicolor.

B. James describes the new heart as the meekness of wisdom, which is the foundation of all that is beautiful
that can come out of a persons life (3:14, 4:6, 1:21).

1. Meekness is at the center of the Christian life. (See Matthew 5:3.)

2. Meekness is the fundamental sense of being under someone else. It is not weakness or sappiness; it
is a sense of ones life forces and strength mastered by another. It is a sense of being needy, of being
attentive to the voice, reign, and will of another.

3. Meekness is to die to self. It is life from the dead.

C. The core of the solution to sin is repentancecoming back, in need, to the One who promises to give more
grace.

1. James 4:6-10 contains the lengthiest didactic teaching on repentance and faith. It is an honest
reckoning with a gracious God. James is not abstract. He communicates a sense of a living
transaction taking placeGod cares, so cast your cares on him. Go to him and name your
anxieties in light of his care.

a. The psalms live this transaction by bringing the real life struggle with the problem of evil
to the God who is merciful and powerful.

b. The psalms are largely tilted to the renovation of our lives in the vertical dimension. On
the inverse, the Proverbs have the opposite balance and drive toward how we live.

c. We always have a vertical problem and there is always a vertical solution. The vertical
solution is rooted in the core qualities of God.

X. How will you show intelligent love for others? (Question 7): A wise lifestyle (01:42:50)

A. Good conduct may be thought of as a beautiful life (3:13).

B. The end of Chapter 3 emphasizes peacemaking graces.

1. Constructive anger and constructive conflict are aspects of peacemaking and love. Peacemakers get
into the conflict and their work is therefore messy.

2. Wisdom from above is both pure and peaceable (3:17). It is pure vis--vis God; it is a restored
relationship with God and it is oriented toward others.

3. Gentleness has an evident kindness of intention. Metaphor: you see something wrong in my life; I
am blinded by a speck. What is it going to take to allow someone to stick a finger in my eye to get
out the speck? Gentleness. Gentleness treats others with the utmost consideration.

4. Open to reason marks a person who can be approached and appealed to (3:17).

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 5. Impartial is a wondrous attribute in relationships (3:17). Case Study: Woman with anger. In her
marriage, she was the attacker and the husband was the withdrawer. She knew God wanted to
work on her. She had the ability to talk about his issues honestly but without condemnation, and
the ability to talk about her issues honestly but without excuse-making. She was fair-minded and
grace giving. She was impartial. (A counselors job is to be impartial; we are not on anyones side
but Gods. We want each person to grow.)

XI. What are the gracious consequences? (Question 8) (01:57:50)

A. We receive the crown of life (1:12).

B. We have a full revelation of the outcome of the Lords saving compassion and mercy (4:12; 5:11).

C. James is always aware of the positive consequences.

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Lecture 8

I. Hymn: Amazing Grace!14 (00:00:00)

Amazing Gracehow sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace, my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares

I have already come;
'Tis grace that brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.

And when this flesh and heart shall fail,

And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

When we've been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

II. Reflection on the hymn (00:04:32)

A. This hymn captures the strong sense of life as an unfolding history. This gives meaning to your lifes events
and patterns. None of the images, voices, and role models in our world can give that meaning to people.

III. Socio-cultural influences (these are the images, voices and role models from The Heat Diagram)
(00:06:00)

A. This area of heat is one of the most neglected parts of the whole counseling endeavor. Social values and the
voices, images, and role models that surround us exert a more fundamental effect on counseling issues
(woes, troubles, temptations, and blind spots) and are probably about ten times more significant than the
bodys effect on us. We live in a biologically obsessed period in history but the pendulum will swing back to
recognize the huge significance of socio-cultural influences.

B. We live absolutely awash in disinformationthings that are true enough but mislead us to the wrong
conclusions. They change how you evaluate the meaning of something (interpretation) and then what you
do about it (implication).

C. In-house idols15 create expectations.

14 John Newton, Amazing Grace, Hymn #460, Trinity Hymnal (Philadelphia: Great Commission Publications, 1990).
15 Dick Keyes of LAbri Fellowship

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 1. Three case studies: the Intervarsity worker, the Campus Crusade worker, and the Navigator worker.
For each, something good had become a false law, had defined value, and then created stigma as an
alternative. Something good slipped and became an in-house idol.

2. Students have idols that get in the way of the reason for why they became a student in the first
place.

D. Physical appearance is an example that vividly shows how we swim around in a cacophony of beguiling
voices, images, and role models.

1. Guy example of male pattern baldness: We laugh at the infomercial, which is an appropriate
response in the sense that we want to disarm the power of the lie that comes at us. In Isaiah, we are
taught to mock the idols because they tend to blind us, capture us, and bid for our hearts. This
infomercial shows us the inverted value system.

2. Girl example: We live in an image culture where meaning is often carried in pictures, which then
set our standards.

a. The value system says you must be perfect and without defect. The standard is a ladder
with good at the top, and bad at the bottom.

b. A certain shape is prescribed, and normal creational differences become a curse that takes
on a negative cast (e.g., the pear shape).

c. Wealth and lifestyle implications: An increasing small sliver of women can live up to our
cultures particular standard. You cannot work in a factory, work in a field, or even have
babies and live up to the standard. The image does not allow for these life situations.

d. Racial norms: There is a Caucasian bias in our culture.

e. Age curse: It is as though every single woman is on the down escalator that will end in the
basement. This shapes life choices and how money is spent.

f. There is historical and cultural variability to standards of beauty.

g. Fashion models have unrealistic bodies.

h. These standards of what a woman should look like effect men as well. Women aspire and
men desire.

3. How does God speak into this?

a. 1 Peter 3:3-6 warns about over-prioritizing physical beauty.

b. Proverbs 11:22 is meant to make us lurch into a fundamentally different worldview.

c. Proverbs 31:30 gives a radical restructuring that bids us to renew our hearts from the
distorted way we think about beauty.

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IV. The issue of human differences (00:56:35)

A. Human differences refer to the spectra where people vary. We are different from each other. There is a
horizontal range in the differences between people. For example, the Bible talks about how, on a scale of
human beings, there is a range from small to great. There are differences between rich and poor, between
the strong and the weak, the beautiful and the plain, the able and the disabled, the talented and untalented,
masters and slaves, old and young, healthy and sick, male and female. Differences are realitythe way the
cards get dealt by the Lord of heaven. The key becomes what people do with those differences. Sinful people
tend to take purely horizontal differences and turn them into vertical measures of good and bad. A
difference that is simply a given can be turned one way or the otherto value or stigma.

B. Human differences have huge counseling implications because it is the issue our culture deals with as self-
esteem. What values are you weighing yourself by? To whom are you comparing yourself? Where is the
measurement?

C. The value system gets tilted from horizontal to vertical and there is always the interplay between the heat
and the heart. If you do not buy the value system, you are unaffected by it. You are only affected by it if you
either erect the ladder yourself or if you buy the value system from the surrounding culture (usually it is a
combination of the two).

D. A lying culture gives you ladders to nowhere, false systems of value and stigma. You can be at the top of the
ladder and you are nowhere. People erect the ladders, climb the ladders, and compare themselves to others.
Fear of man and pride plays here as you rate yourself by these ladders.

E. Scripture is concerned to knock down the ladders to nowhere so that they are horizontal again. Truths that
knock ladders down:

1. God is the creator and he is sovereign. He creates differences. God chooses to place us in a context
where we are different from others.

2. There is nothing creational or providential that is ever a vertical issue of value and stigma. The
verticalizing of things is a lie.

3. God shows no partiality. Compare Colossians 3:25 and Ephesians 6:9!

4. Before the living God, all of us are stigmatized. We are poor, strangers, weak, disabled, dying,
slaves, children, sick, and refugees. The Bible takes degraded meanings and makes them signs of
relationship with Goda complete inversion of the way the false cultural values operate.

5. Everyone loses everything. We cannot take our wit, athleticism, etc. with us; they do not last.

6. There is a ladder that gets us somewhereto heaven and life eternal. In the one sense, this ladder is
harder than being beautiful or rich because you have to be obedient and fulfill the image of the
redeeming God. In another sense, it is easier because that is what humans are created to be and
who we actually are.

a. We get up the ladder that leads somewhere because the One who redeems us comes down
the ladder. When he comes down the ladder, he enters our plight, bears our shame, dies
for our guilt, and then carries us up the ladder with himself, by mercy.

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 b. The ladders to nowhere that distort human differences are no-win propositions. But the
one ladder that takes you somewhere is a no-lose proposition.

c. The freeing gospel gets people off the low self-esteem trip that is configured to a false
standard. It lets us live with our differences and actually be eye-to-eye with other people
no matter how different we may be.

V. True images, voices, and role models teach us how to live and rightly orient us (01:20:36)

A. Introductory Comments

1. When a family in ministry was in crisis with their child, the father said, There are many people
whose commitments and character and ministries I respect, but there are only a handful of people
that I really trustThe circle of people I respect is far larger than the circle of people I trust. This
comment raises the following questions: What makes us trust someone? What are the implications
of trust for what happens next in the situation?

2. The issue of trust is massive when it comes to any ministry, including counseling ministry.

3. The tendency is to start with Scripture and work our way forward in timeto go top down. But
Scripture usually works from the bottom up, from the standpoint in life, and, in this context, God
reveals himself. We see this in the Genesis creation story.

4. Our Suffering and Refuge assignment invited us to start in life, with the heat, and push back up
into Scripture.

B. The relational categories from a prior classs set of 95 papers about the people they most trust (in order of
frequency):

1. Spouses (32)

2. Friends (23)

3. Parents (10 said dad, 7 said mother, several said their parents together)

4. Other family members (10)

5. People from a church or ministry context (8)

6. Counseling relationship (3)

C. Organizing categories about what was said in the papers

1. There is some common ground in the relationships where trust is present.

2. Trustworthy people act in such ways that the person knows they are loved. Other attributes that
fall under the category of love:

a. Trustworthy people forgive.

b. Trustworthy people have the best interest of others in mind.

c. Trustworthy people are for the other person.

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 d. Trustworthy people see the good in others even when there are sins and struggles.

3. Trustworthy people really know and understand others.

a. The communicable attributes of Jesus Christ experienced in others are what cause us to
trust them. We get tastes of Christ in fallible people.

b. Our knowledge of another person is built when we actively listen, ask questions, and
respond by engaging.

4. Trustworthy people keep confidences and do not gossip. There is a shielding of the other persons
reputation.

5. Trustworthy people give feedback and respond.

6. Trustworthy people point others to Christ and pray for others.

7. There is some kind of mutuality in trusting relationships.

a. In counseling relationships, you want to have a mutual corrective dynamic within the
conversation so that you get to know each other. The aim is for a real, personal
relationship that has this mutual back-and-forth.

8. When you trust a person, you feel free to talk about anything that really matters.

a. The things that matter from Psalm 119: our sins, sorrows, and our joys. When people talk
about these things, you have a relationship.

IX. What is at the center of the counseling process:16 (02:17:38)

A. YOUR WALK

1. The initial aspect of every single constructive relationship starts with who you are as a person
your life, walk, character, integrity, faith, honesty, humility, kindness, and willingness to forgive.

2. The single most influential factor in whether or not you are able to help another person is who you
areyour walk, life, and faith.

B. LOVE

1. The question to the person offering help: Do I give you reasons to trust me?

2. The reciprocal question asked by the person seeking help: Do I trust you?

C. KNOW

1. The question to the person offering help: Do I know you?

2. The reciprocal question asked by the person seeking help: Will I be honest with you?

16 Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands (Phillipsburg: P & R Publishing, 2002).

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 D. SPEAK

1. The question to the person offering help: Am I willing to speak into this persons life?

2. The reciprocal question asked by the person seeking help: Will I listen to you?

E. DO

1. The question to the person offering help: Will I embrace the change purposes of Christ?

2. The reciprocal question asked by the person seeking help: Will I embrace the change purposes of
Christ?

X. Given all that has been discussed, two questions press on each one of us: (02:23:38)

A. The first question is, Do you trust God? Is the quality of your conversation with God up to what it is with
people? This question stirs the pot in the vertical dimension.

B. The second question is, Am I trustworthy? Are those qualities we have talked about characteristic in my
life? This question stirs the pot in the horizontal dimension.

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Lecture 9

I. Reflection on the hymn (00:00:00)

A. The Lord is come is a statement that means Christ has come and is still here.

B. This is a hymn about the glory and mercy of Christ. It is relevant throughout the year, not just at Christmas.

C. The hymn helps locate our self-counseling project. The darkness of the world and the darkness of our own
lives can be preoccupying. In the third stanza, the hymn puts in perspective our two-fold struggle with sin
and suffering.

1. Sorrows that grow are an example of heat.

2. Thorns that infest the ground refers to the curse and its negative consequences.

3. Far as the curse is found reflects a combination of our sins, sufferings, and the consequences.

4. This stanza essentially says that Christ comes to make blessings flow as far as the curse is found.
The hymn is meant to fill us with the joyous awareness of where we are heading. This joy prevents
tunnel vision onto the hurts, hardships, and sins in our lives that would result in self-focus. Joy to
the world helps us turn out of ourselves.

D. Outline of the hymn

5. The first two stanzas speak of our living faith, our call to joy, our call to worship, and our call to
gladness.

6. The third stanza reminds us of what has been solved by the mercies of the Lord.

7. The final stanza proclaims where we are heading.

II. Hymn: Joy to the World!17 (00:04:50)

Joy to the World! The Lord is come;

let earth receive her King;
let every heart prepare him room,
and heavn and nature sing,
and heavn and nature sing,
and heavn, and heavn and nature sing.

Joy to the earth! The Savior reigns;

let men their songs employ;
while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
repeat the sounding joy,

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

nor thorns infest the ground;
he comes to make his blessings flow

17 Isaac Watts, Joy to the World, Hymn #195, Trinity Hymnal (Philadelphia: Great Commission Publications, 1990).

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 far as the curse is found,

He rules the world with truth and grace,

and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness
and wonders of his love,

III. The heart (00:09:05)

A. So far in our class, the heat has been the main door into the heart. There are two reasons for this: The heat
is often the first thing people are aware of and the theology of the situation is a weakness of the church
(though the Bible teaches a rich view of the situation). We have seen that the heat, the situation, is
significant but not causative or determinative. The wellspring of life and the wellspring of death both
emerge out of the heart and not from the situation.

B. Scripture has a rich view of people. The thorn bush and the fruit tree each have a vertical and horizontal
dimension. What happens in one dimension affects the other; they are intimately connected to each other.

C. The X-Ray Questions article by David Powlison gives a slew of ways to essentially ask the same question
that aims for the heart. A shorthand way to ask the question is to look at the law of Godthe two great
commandments. The first great commandment deals with the question of who you love and the second
great commandment deals with the issue of how you love and how you live. These two commandments are
the great mirror into which we see the most ultimately profound issues of the human being.

D. We want you to have many doors in to understand the issues of the heart. Do not simply think that
everything is unbelief, or idolatry, or false love, etc. The measure of our wisdom is the ability to not get
hung up on one particular way of seeing heart struggles. Rather, you need the flexibility to understand
what the concept points to. Ask ultimate questions like, What masters you? or What is in the control
room of your lifethe living God or god substitutes?

IV. Desire (00:14:20)

A. This lecture zeros in on the notion of desire, lust, craving, demand, felt-need. Think about this topic in
regard to the question of the essential nature of sinfulness. Think about the core of sin as a diamond.

1. Unbelief erases God.

2. Pride exalts self.

3. Fear of man exalts others.

4. The lust of the flesh and desire language lets you get specific because desires have an object. Our
desires are open-ended: You desire (fill in the blank). What did you want? What were your
expectations? What were you after?

B. Galatians 5 has a rich description that links our heart to how we live. This chapter describes the opposition
between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit. The works of the flesh express obedience to the
desires of the flesh. The fruit of the Spirit expresses submission to the desires of the Spirit. Our fundamental
anthropology is captured in this passage. Similar passages:

1. Titus 2:11-13

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 2. 2 Timothy 2:22

3. James 1:14-15

4. Romans 13: 12-14

C. The summary term for the sin nature in the epistles is desire. (The Old Testament uses idolatry.) Desire is a
term to answer the question of motivation. Why do you fight? It is your desiresyou want something and
you cannot get it.

D. What is wrong with wanting things that seem good? This is an important question that comes up all the
time in pastoral ministry. Usually, Christians want a good thing so why is it that the desire for good gifts
destroys peoples lives? The answer has to do with the status of the desire. John Calvin describes how the
evil in our desires is often not what we wantthe objectbut that we want it too much.18 This idea is basic
but people often get deceived in this. The inordinate desire is the lust and it leads to anxiety, fear, paranoia,
obsessions, and so on.

E. Case study: Married couple, the wife has committed adultery. The husband realized that his desire to
control his wifes fidelity could become a monster and turn him into a monster. The desire (fidelity) is, of
course, for a very good thing, but it can begin to control the person.

V. The deceitfulness of sin (00:34:25)

A. People do not see that desires can be inordinate. The lusts of the flesh are deceitful (Ephesians 4:22). Our
desires seem so plausible that they are deceitful.

B. John Calvin writes, The natural man refuses to be led to recognize the diseases of his lust, the light of
nature is extinguished before he even enters upon this abyss. Philosophers take no account of the evil
desires that gently tickle the mind. 19

1. The Christian faith is so different than any other psychology; we have a different read on the
meaning of desires. The world sees them as needs that must be met, or neutral drives that get
conditioned for good or ill, or instincts that are in conflict with each other.

2. Calvins assessment of the Greek philosophers ports straight into contemporary culture where the
single biggest defect of personality theories is that they do not understand desires for what they
actually are. They are incapable of understanding because they themselves are deceived by their
own lusts.

C. This notion of the deceitfulness of our desires has another huge implication for how we think about the
nature of sin. The average person thinks that for sin to count as sin it must be consciously chosen. But if our
desires deceive us then for most of our sin we are not even aware we are doing it. Conscious, high-handed
sin is a part of sin but the greater part of sin is blind willfulness when you do not even know what you are
doing. Biblical metaphors for this: drunken, asleep, like an unreasoning animal, madness in our hearts.

18 See, for example, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III:iii:12, p. 604.
19 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volume II. (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 1959), II: ii:24, p. 284.

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 D. John Calvin writes, We have to repudiate the opinion of those who suppose that there is deliberate malice
and depravity in all sins.20

E. The heart patterns its desires to generate tailor-made cravings according to the particulars of each situation.

F. It is important to talk about these things because human beings are active verbs with-respect-to-God. We
either want the things God wants or we want our own will to be done.

1. We saw in James 3-4 that interpersonal conflicts are, in fact, also with-respect-to-God problems.
The reason there is conflict is because of something that anchors in the vertical dimension.

2. The heart here is a metaphor for the vertical dimension. It is not a psychological category but a
relational category. (The Bible uses heart more broadlyfor the entirety of our inner life.)

G. There are all sorts of particular implications for practically understanding how the idea of lusts of the flesh
tracks into peoples deepest problems. We tend to think of lusts too narrowly.

H. Love of money is an example that broadens our view of the works of the flesh (1Timothy 6).

I. One desire can give you an understanding of multiple bad fruits, but the other direction is also true: one
particular bad fruit can come from many different possible desires.

1. Case study of a single mom who almost fell into fornication

2. Case study of a Christian woman whose boss came onto her

VI. Questions about the heart (01:01:35)

A. Does every person have only one root sin? You get the sense in Scripture that there is a great multiplicity of
desires.

1. Cigarette machine metaphor: All the lusts are possible but one person may buy one brand more
consistently. Peoples typical desires may have patterns but people are flexible so there may be many
underlying desires.

2. The One who searches hearts does not give us privileged access into the human heart but we can
probe, observe, note patterns, and ask questions.

B. How can you tell if a desire is inordinate rather than natural? We know the motivation is off if the behavior
is off. If what is coming out is sinful, then the desire was inordinate. What rules you comes out; what comes
out reveals what rules you.

C. Is it right to even talk about the heart since the Bible teaches that the heart is unsearchable and known to
God only (1 Samuel 16:7, Jeremiah 17:9)? No one but God can see, explain, or change the human heart. We
do not see anyones heart, we cannot explain why anyone would have the patterns that they do, and we have
no power to change another persons motives. But we can describe the human heart and the Bible teaches
us how to do it.

20 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volume II. (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 1959), II: ii:24, p. 284.

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D. Does the word lust properly apply only to bodily appetites? We follow desires of body and mind (Ephesians
2:3). Clearly some desires have aspects of being bodily rooted (gluttony, sexual desire). But lusts for things
like human approval, power, or to control are desires of your mind and exist nowhere in your body.

E. What about fears? Fears are desires turned on their heads. An inordinate fear is, I do not want that to
happen.

F. How does talking about lusts of the flesh relate to lots of other ways of talking about the heart? Think of this
discussion as a progressive chart of descending lines.

1. At the top you have general categories (pride, fear of man, unbelief, autonomy, foolish, evil, and
self). These are the categories of what makes a person go astray.

2. If you slice the pie, you get major slices/categories: desire for control, love of pleasure, mammon
worship, desire for self-righteousness, fear of man.

3. Under each thematic category, you get specific desires.

G. Can you change what you want? Your desires can change, and this is a major part of the Christian message.
The work of the Holy Spirit is to transform what we want so that we want different things.

1. Steven Charnock on the expulsive power of the new affection

2. Every single prayer in the Bible manifests a different set of desires than the things that naturally
wire people.

3. The prayer of St. Francis of Assisi: Grant that I would not so much seek to be understood as to
understand, that I would not so much seek to be loved as to love. This prayer captures the
fundamental, upside-downness of Christs redemption that changes what we want (even though
we still struggle with renegade desires).

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Lecture 10

I. Reflection on the hymn (00:00:00)

A. The hymn is attributed to St. Patrick, the man who brought Christian faith to Ireland in the fifth century.

B. The hymn communicates the essential aspect of faith: I join myself to Christ. It is a statement and
affirmation of our union with Christ.

C. I bind unto myself captures a sense of being joined both in need and conviction to the God of the gospel.
The word religion has the same sense of the word addiction and both mean what you are connected to
and tied to. Addiction was originally used positivelyas in being addict to God. Religion is also linked
with ligament and also connotes being joined to God.

D. Thematic outline of the hymn

1. First stanza: I put on and join to the Lord. It is a prayer for Gods protection, shielding,
strengthening, and personal care to be over us.

2. Second stanza: Gives the sense of being woven into the story of the gospel; we bind ourselves to the
story of Jesus.

3. Third stanza: We join ourselves to the servants of the Lord. This is the sense of the community of
faith that we join.

4. Fourth stanza: Gives the sense of joining myself to the power and glory that is revealed in the
creation.

5. Fifth stanza: We are joined to Gods present care.

6. Sixth stanza: A call for Jesus Christ to be with us.

7. Final stanza: A recap of all that the Lord is.

II. Hymn: I bind unto myself21 (00:07:20)

I bind unto myself today the strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same, the Three in One, and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever, by power of faith, Christs incarnation,

His baptism in the Jordan river, His death on cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicd tomb, His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom: I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power of the great love of cherubim,

The sweet Well done in judgment hour, the service of the seraphim,
Confessors faith, apostles word, the patriarchs prayers, the prophets scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord, and purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today the virtues of the starlit heavn,

21 St. Patrick; trans. Cecil Frances Alexander

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 The glorious suns life-giving ray, the whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free, the whirling winds tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea, around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today the power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay, His ear to hearken to my need;
The wisdom of my God to teach, His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech, His heavnly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name, the strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same, the Three in One, and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation, salvation is of Christ the Lord.

III. This lecture focuses on being sinned against (another aspect of the heat) as our door into
understanding core dynamics of the transformation process. (00:12:38)

A. There is something about inter-human evil that violates the pact of love that is meant to exist between
human beings. Being wronged by another creates a major crucible experience, and the heat is on high.

B. God never minimizes the temptation to either react or respond in kind to extreme evil. But, from that same
crucible, the brightest graces that a human being is capable of emerge. The fragrance of Christ appears in
the context of being sinned against and is seen as mercy, forgiveness, courage, endurance, and the ability to
persevere in hope.

C. The Bible teaches many complementary truths about this tough issue, and it is essential that we hold all
pieces together in the right balance. Here are some of the pieces that go into a comprehensive
understanding of being sinned against:

1. To be sinned against is expected in a fallen world. It is normal in that it always happens. It is such
an important topic that entire books of the Bible are dedicated to this issue of being wronged:

a. The book of Psalms (people are out to get you and wrong you)

b. 2 Corinthians

c. 1 Peter (comes at the Christian life through the lens of being wronged)

d. Hebrews (largely a book on suffering)

e. Chapters 5 & 8 of Romans

f. Revelation (deals with false teachers and the overall theme of facing malice)

g. We see it in Jesus life and in his battles with those who wrong him.

2. God engages the situation of being sinned against in a multivalent way.

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 a. God is exceedingly tender to sufferers of wrong. He is a Refuge and Deliverer of the poor,
afflicted, oppressed, innocent, orphan, and weak.

b. God is hostile to the cruel. In the Bible, mercy to the oppressed and wrath against
evildoers appear hand-in-hand. The wrath of God in this context is that he rights wrongs,
which is a hope for his children who are suffering. We do not have to be vengeance takers
because we know he will deal fairlyand sometimes mercifullywith evil.

c. God is tough-minded toward us when we return evil for evil. That tough mindedness is
transformative; it is a redemptive warning.

3. God is in it and he is up to something good. This reality is seen in multiple places in the Bible:

a. Even the evil of persecution purifies our faith because it makes us set our hopes on the
only place our hope can be set (1 Peter 1).

b. In the story of Joseph, a long-term good comes out of the situation.

c. We learn to counsel and comfort others because of the way we receive comfort in our
situations (2 Corinthians 1:4-7).

d. In the context of suffering, we gain a settled hope and a transformed life. In the context of
being wronged, we learn that God is for me (Romans 5, 8).

e. In Jobs story, Job grows in wisdom when Gods glory and Satans shame emerge.

f. In the book of Psalms, refuge is sought and found.

g. In the book of James, wisdom and endurance are learned in the context of suffering.

4. How you treat your enemies is a litmus test of your heart.

a. Are you a vengeance-taker or are you transformed to do courageous good in the context
of evil (Romans 12:14-21)?

b. Matthew 5:9-11, 38-48

c. Luke 6:20-49

5. Biblical teaching on how to deal with brothers and sisters who sin against us and act enemy-like:

a. Luke 17:1-10

b. Matthew 18:15-39

c. Matthew 7:1-5

d. Colossians 3

6. How will you react to being sinned against? Two dominant themes:

a. Refuge

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 b. Repentancethe transformation and dynamic of biblical change. The instinctive way we
express displeasure is transformed into the constructive displeasure that glorifies God and
expresses the person and character of Christ.

7. A time is coming when there will be no more evil. Good will triumph.

a. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

b. Romans 8

c. Revelation 21:4

IV. The first big arrow from The Three Trees Diagram focuses in on the dynamics of repentance and
faith; it is vertical and unto God. Extraspection (looking outside of ourselves) #1 is when faith
awakens and seeks the power and mercy of God. (00:47:45)

A. The wake up: There is something fundamental about the transformation of our lives that involves an
awakening from the dead. This awakening happens by grace. What used to be dull, religion, and old-
fashioned starts to explode with life.

1. When you wake up, you have a growing persuasion that life is a moral drama. In principle, it is an
either/or: I am either thorn bush or fruit tree. I am either a fool or wise.

2. When you wake up, you have a growing persuasion that God is truly gracious. He comes to us
when we do not even know he exists. Graces precedes and threads through everything.

a. Three tenses of grace:

i. Past-tense grace shows that God is for you. You are persuaded that his mercies are
yours. Emphasized in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15.

ii. Present-tense grace demonstrates God is with you. You are persuaded that he is
on-scene with powerful, necessary help. Emphasized in the book of Ephesians
with prayers of power and presence.

iii. Future-tense grace promises that God will come for you. You are persuaded that
he will make right all wrongs and bring all joy. Emphasized in 1 Peterin
suffering, you set your hope fully on the glory that is to be revealed.

B. Own up to the total picture: see, think, and feel accurately.

1. Identify what is happening to me (the heat). The goal is to cut through tendencies to spiritualize or
moralize versus the incurving (curvitas in se) amid suffering and temptation

2. Identify what is wrong specifically and accurately. Are there inner evils that are expressed
outwardly? The goal is to cut through tendencies to blindness, vagueness, euphemisms, and
generalities versus the incurving of idolatry and the anti-shuv [Hebrew for turn] of turning from
God to seek falsehood.

3. Recognize that I want what I want and I do what I do. Nothing or no one makes me live the way I
do. The goal is to cut through tendencies to the buts & becauses versus the incurving of self-
justification.

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 4. Sin is serious before God. The goal is to cut through tendencies to see problems before my own
eyes or before others eyes versus the incurving of guilt or shame.

C. Shift your weight. Transact. Say and do what needs to be said and done to the One whose opinion matters
and whose mercy helps. (This is the fundamental from - to dynamic of change.)

1. Minor key faith

a. Confess and name the problem.

b. Seek tangible and needed mercies.

2. Major key faith

a. Rely and trust. Become a refugee who finds refuge.

b. Have joy & give thanks. A third way between activism (energies go outward) and
introspection (energies go inward) is accurate self-knowledge that leads to faith and love.

V. The second big arrow from The Three Trees Diagram focuses in on the dynamics of obedience and
walking wisely. It is horizontal. Extraspection #2 is when faith works through love as you act into your
world, situation, and heat. The result is sweet and surprising fruit. (01:56:00)

A. Live with personal integrity. This is how redeemed people become redemptive agents and truly human.

1. Gain a framework for biblical self-knowledge. Clear thinking and clear self-understanding moves
you out toward God and others, which is the goal of the The Three Trees Diagram.

2. Ask for help (one another cuts both ways).

3. Be courageous to go to hard places.

4. Express honest, godly emotion.

B. Create a climate of grace in relationships. Redemptive people give mercy because they are given mercy.

1. Approach others with a fundamentally merciful and constructive attitude.

a. 1 Corinthians 13:4

b. Colossians 3:1214

c. Ephesians 4:2, 32

2. Three ingredients to asking forgiveness when you are wrong:

a. Take responsibility for your wrong with specific honesty.

b. Recognize the effect of your wrong and express compassion and sorrow.

c. Ask for forgiveness as an interpersonal transaction. I was wrong when I said/did _____. I
am sorry for the pain Ive caused you. Will you forgive me? (Forgiveness is for sins;
apologies are for accidents.)

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 3. Go forward with purposeful patience, endurance, forbearance, long-suffering, perseverance, and
steadfastness. What are the common threads of these good fruits? The heat remains, and each is on
every single list of what God wants to do with our lives. They are communicable attributes of our
Lords essential characterthis is what he is like when he deals with a broken world. We want to be
in it for the long haul just as God is (1 Corinthians 13:4a).

4. Forgiveness as an attitude (Mark 11:25, Matthew 6:12-15, Ephesians 4:32).

5. Plan and act to give in tangible ways (Romans 12:14-2, 1 Corinthians 13:4b).

C. Move to pointed, clear-minded actions and words. Redemptive people act with courageous grace and
constructive truth.

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Lecture 11

I. Hymn: Jesus! What a Friend22 (00:00:00)

Jesus! what a friend for sinners!

Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
He, my Savior, makes me whole.

Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Hallelujah! what a friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.

Jesus! what a strength in weakness!

Let me hide myself in Him;
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
He, my strength, my victry wins.

Jesus! what a help in sorrow!

While the billows oer me roll,
Even when my heart is breaking,
He, my comfort, helps my soul.

Jesus! I do now receive You,

more than all in You I find,
You have granted me forgiveness,
I am Yours and You are mine.

Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Hallelujah! what a friend!
Save me. Help me. Keep me. Love me.
You are with me to the end.

II. A summary of the class through a reflection on the hymn (00:07:10)

A. A letter from a student

B. Weakness in stanza two gets at the core of the human dilemmathe struggle with dual evil (our sins and
sorrows).

C. Dual reference: we are tempted and tried by what happens to us and from what arises within us.

D. Faith always responds to a revelation of a God who enters in. We see who Jesus is and what he does. God
does something! He saves, helps, keeps, loves, and is with us until the end. This is the DNA of who God is.

E. We respond to fundamental promises of the grace of God: You have granted me forgiveness, I am yours
and you are mine.

F. We see the movements of faith in action: Hallelujah!, Let me hide myself in him, He hears my cry, I
do now receive you, more than all in you I find.

22 Wilbur J. Chapman, Hymn #498, Trinity Hymnal (Philadelphia: Great Commission Publications, 1990).

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 G. We sing a rich portrayal of the different species of faiththe way that faith operates in minor key (need)
and major key (joy and gratitude).

1. The pattern in the first four stanzas: we express need in the light of who Jesus is. The refrain
expresses joy.

2. The final stanza is joy and confidence in relationship.

3. Notice the spiritual logic in the content of the words and in the thematic unfolding. It embodies a
great deal of wisdom about the fundamental nature of human life.

H. This hymn captures the present tense ministry of Jesus Christ to you, interceding for you, and working out
a living salvation in you. We see this throughout the Bible. Two places we see Christs ongoing mediatorial
work:

1. The revelation of the Lamb (Revelation 5)

2. The eternal Priest willingly chooses to become the offering (Hebrews 7:25, 8).

a. We have better promises, a better covenant, a better High Priest, and an effectual calling.
The difference between the Old and New Testaments is the difference between intimations
and reality (8:5). That difference is the ministry Christ has obtained, which is an ongoing
ministry to us as his children.

I. This is a first person hymn yet we want our appropriation of the hymn to segue toward others. Others need
the same strengthening and shielding that I need. This fact shapes our ministry to others and our prayer life
(e.g., Lord, make her whole, Hear him). The ingredients at the heart of your personal faiththat Christ
is for us and gives us what we needbecome the ingredients of Christ in us so that we are for others.

III. Recap of Lecture 10 (00:35:16)

IV. Appendix to Living With Personal Integrity (Second big arrow): (00:39:28)

A. What is it to be truly human? Christian faith and true humanness are the same thing. At the center of
Christian life is the redemption of creation, which means the redemption of our humanity (e.g., biblical
self-knowledge, asking for help).

B. Consider how Scripture portrays what God is interested in. For example:

1. Scripture says more about how to greet people than it does about how to have a quiet time. The
latter is implied in the whole of Scripture but how we greet people and the attitudes that lie behind
our greeting reflect that life is bigger than just you.

2. Think about how much God says about the redemption of our emotional life.

3. The Bible says more about paying taxes than it does about seeking and finding religious
experience. Taxes are a significant barometer of who you are.

4. The Bible speaks much about the redemption of sexuality and food, and says little about small
groups and accountability.

5. The Bible speaks much about the normality of everyday life (e.g., death).

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 6. The Bible shows a keen eye for history, plants and animals, current events, agriculture, and
construction, etc.

7. Scripture embodies a rich aesthetic sensibility.

V. Move to pointed, clear-minded actions and words (Extraspection #2, point #3). Redemptive people
act with courageous grace and constructive truth. (01:01:40)

A. Constructive candor in pursuit of peace and blessing, willingness to confront, to stand up, and engage in
constructive conflict

1. Candor, straightforwardness, and frankness have high value in the Bible.

2. When someone is truly set on harm, the call is not to have a candid, mutual conversation but to
have objective consequences, which are actions of love.

B. Forgiveness as an interpersonal transaction.

1. Much of ministry life is spent helping people who have been wronged. As such, we need to get the
quantities right in what Jesus says in Matthew 18:15-17.

a. Jesus likens being sinned against to 100 denarius. This is meant to capture a huge
amount. Remember, Jesus audience is a subsistence culture and a denarius is a days
wageso 100 denarius are wages for one hundred days.

b. Picture a seesaw that is tipping because 300 pounds of sand are on one end. The purpose
of the parable in Matthew 18 is to give you a reason to tip the scales back. The hard
cases are ones when 300 pounds of sandbag are at one end of the seesaw and what you
have done in return seems mild in comparison. These are the people who get stuck
when they are sinned against. The parable does not say that what you are doing back is
just as bad as what happened to youthat is absurd at a human level. The parable
teaches us that the equation is not in the horizontal level at all. The thing that makes the
balance tip back and thus provides the motivation and logic to be able to forgive is the
awareness that something has gone askew on the vertical level in my relationship with
God. Scripture talks about this not only metaphorically but concretely:

i. Romans 12:19

ii. The logic of James 4:12 tips the scale the other way and brings the
dynamic that enables a person to forgive.

2. Forgiveness is not forgetting but it is what you do with what you remember. It is the reshaping of
your fundamental stance and attitude toward it.

3. Forgiveness, at heart, is a promise (Ephesians 4:31; cf. Leviticus 19:16-18).

4. We can go three directions that will lead to bitterness toward the person who wronged us:

a. Go to the other person: wrath, anger, attack, criticism, or vengeance.

b. Go to third parties: slander, clamor, and gossip.

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 c. Stay to yourself: hate in my heart, brood, and bear a grudge.

5. Scripture speaks against these three misdirections and restricts us in such a way that there is only
one door out of the room of bitterness: it is toward God to find mercy and toward the person to
give the constructive displeasure of mercy.

C. There is a place in the vocabulary of godliness for No.

1. Learn to say No, Different, or Later because faith working through love says Yes to Gods
purposes.

a. Jesus ultimate goal is to elicit faith in people.

b. Cases of sexual violation are always a No! and that no can sometimes be creative (e.g., as
in the case of the woman who was sexually abused by her father).

c. There are times to call the police.

d. Church discipline and disciplining children are cases of saying a loving no.

D. Walk as a wise counselor of others.

1. Everything we learn becomes something we are to give away. It becomes the content, wisdom, and
attitude to be able to reach out to another person.

2. Becoming wise as a counselor creates this fundamental movement toward people with constructive
intent. This is what Jesus does and what he is making his church become so that we also do it. (See
Ephesians 4:29.)

3. Where do you begin in counseling ministry? One of the best ways to start to enhance the quality of
your conversations is to think about the way you make prayer requests. When we make a request,
we are telling each other what we want God to do. What tends to be missing in usual prayers is the
personwhere are you in the request? Take the example of a prayer request for health: If Sally is
having surgery then, yes, we pray for it to be successful, but we also know that she may feel fear,
and so we ask God to guard our sister from fear. This gets to what is playing in the theatre of
reality.

4. The Bible gives powerful examples of prayers for situations, but they are often woven with prayers
that ask God to change me.

a. James 5:13-18 envisions a pastoral counseling moment when we not only pray for the sick,
but we also confess our sins to each other.

b. Examples of prayer requests from a small group member going home for the holidays.
Combine heat requests with thorn-become-fruit requests. Name your problems in such a
way that they point toward a goal that our Redeemer desires to lead us to.

VI. Introducing three more facets of the heat: observing the suffering and shortcomings of others, Satan,
and the dew of blessing. (02:03:45)

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A. Scripture says a lot about the sufferings and shortcomings of others that you observe but do not directly
affect you. What you do in these cases is revelatory of who you are. Our fundamental call is redemptive
engagement that brings mercy and light. Think of these examples in the Bible:

1. The Good Samaritan...what are you doing about someone elses suffering?

2. The human high priest deals gently with the ignorant and wayward (Hebrews 5:2-3).

3. The prayers of Daniel and Nehemiah over the sins of others

4. What do you do when you see your brothers fault (Matthew 7:1-5)?

B. Satan, the evil one

1. In the Bible, demonization is linked almost exclusively to physical affliction.

2. In a way, our entire course has been about spiritual warfare. Satan is the liar behind the lies, the
luster behind the lust, the murderer behind the sinning against, and the slave master behind the
things that enslave people.

3. World, flesh, and devil are portrayed as intimately interwoven with each other.

C. The dew of blessing

1. Everything is revelatory, including blessings.

2. Scripture captures the sense that the situation is significant but never determinative. Good and bad
situations always reveal our master. (See Proverbs 30:8-9.)

3. Deuteronomy 8:2-20 warns that both the deprivations of the desert and the blessings of the land
are equal occasions for our heart to be either grateful or lustful.

4. Any situation can serve as a crucible in which good or evil comes out of the heart.

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 [ Appendix A ]

The Three Trees Diagram

2012 CCEF / The Dyamics of Biblical Change Course Notebook is a publication of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF). All rights reserved. All content is protected by
copyright and may not be reproduced without written permission from CCEF. / ccef.org

55
i
 [ Appendix B ]

The Heat Diagram

marketplace of options
dew of blessing and opportunities

evil one, liar & general hardships,

murderer troubles, & limitations

Heat
observing sufferings &
shortcomings of others voices & images of
misleading counsel

sinned-against, reality of human differences

wronged by others

2012 CCEF / The Dyamics of Biblical Change Course Notebook is a publication of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF). All rights reserved. All content is protected by
copyright and may not be reproduced without written permission from CCEF. / ccef.org

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ii