[PTC 301-Ed Welch] What are five distinctive features of biblical counseling? (final exam study guide)

1. What are the distinctive features of biblical counseling?
**Make one of those features its approach to secular literature.

1) Coram Deo - Regardless of circumstances, we live all of life before God (and His word).
· God has spoken, not in every detail of life, but to the heart of every human problem.
§ **Open to reading all secular literature, but Scripture as foundation/standard over all.
§ We don’t live in a bifurcated world Or a tripart body.
People’s actions/attitudes towards others say something about their relationship to God.
God speaks profoundly on these issues and accessibly.
2) Christ and Him crucified is the answer to all counseling problems.
· The deepest human problem is sin, not suffering.
· Suffering has become the solution for becoming truly human in a world of sin
3) All people are essentially the same, and struggle with the same basic problems.
Mystifying cases have some root connection to these basic human problems.
4) Our approach is profound and highly accessible. A child can do it.
5) Active heart. Battlefield for worship. Progressive sanctification.

[PTC 301-Ed Welch] ANOREXIA: final exam study guide - outline

5) Anorexia

a) Brief Description
• Anorexia is an expression of the heart to refuse to be in need, and a desire to be in control.

b) The Most important Question/Feature/Issue to consider
Control. A person uses food to find a system how to do life apart from God and apart from others. It’s a secret world where a person is their own god.

c) Issues you need to be particularly alert to in your relationship with the counselee
• Perfectionism/Legalism. They are burdened by expectations and laws of other people. They want a world where they can set their own laws.
• Privacy. They want a world under their control apart from others. Eating has a public social dimension with its own customs/expectations.

d) One significant biblical text relevant to the problem area, why the text is relevant.
• Galatians 2: withdrawal from table fellowship.

e) A biblical conceptualization (Causes? Roots?)
• Attention.
• Sexlessness. I want to get rid of my feminity.
• A means to be in control. Victim to being overly-controlled.
• Guilt – self-punishment.

f) Two homework assignments showing awareness of uniqueness of the problem.
1) Asking them to pray publically acknowledging their need for Jesus.
2) Set small goals to gradually increase food eating and eating with others.

g) Your basic method of approach

1) Have they been victimized? How does has life been treating you?
2) Talk about God – offer a path/vision to come along side.
His sovereignty/sufficiency vs. autonomy/legalisms.
They don’t need laws/structure.
They need Jesus.
His grace in establishing righteousness vs. perfectionism.
His beauty vs. beauty is only physical.

revised chiastic structure for Sermon on the Mount

Here is my revised chiastic structure for the Sermon on the Mount. I'm not sure it's possible to be satisfied with one, since there seems to be multiple overlapping parallels.

[4:23-25] <Narrative> Great crowds follow Jesus for healing.
A. [5.01-02] <Narrative> - He ascends to catechize his disciples.

B. [5:03-10] Final blessing-mercy-peace for persecuted bearers of God's rule in Christ

C. [5:11-16] New covenant prophets/priests/kings to yield God's glory among men

D. [5:17- 48] Christ came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets in us.

E. [6:01-18] Give, Pray, Fast in secret towards our Father.
E. [6:19-34] Store-up treasure in heaven / Seek first His Kingdom.

D. [7:01-12] Do unto others...for this is the Law and the Prophets.

C. [7:13-20] Beware of false prophets known by their fruits

B. [7:21-27] Final destruction for those who turn away from Christ's word

A. [7:28-29] <Narrative> - The crowds marvel at Jesus' authority.
[8:01] <Narrative> - Great crowds follow him for healing after he descends.

Another viable chiastic structure I've heard is to take the first eight beatitudes (5:3-10) as an outline for the entire sermon on the mount. Thus, the rest of the sermon on the mount as an exposition of each of those points in reverse order.

[PTC 301-Ed Welch] FEAR: final exam study guide - outline

4) Fear
a) Brief Description
Fear is the result of threatening circumstances in which it doesn’t seem like God’s presence matters, He doesn’t care or He is powerless to deliver. Thus, fear provides opportunity to trust in God to be with us to deliver from danger, or to deliver us through it.

b) The Most important Question/Feature/Issue to consider
Idolatry.
• Cause: People who trust in something that cannot provide eternal power/security will live in fear of losing it.
• Effect: People who are afraid of being in danger or feel threatened will often seek security in something other than God (e.g. medication).

c) Issues you need to be particularly alert to in your relationship with the counselee

• Idolatry. Trusting anything in the world to protect/deliver/gain-success.
• Fear flees, forgetting God. Fear wants to run, it doesn’t pause to remember God’s character and promises.
• Self-protection. A fearful person will be tempted to protect something he loves, even if means harming others or neglecting to help others.

d) One significant biblical text relevant to the problem area, why the text is relevant.
Matthew 5-7. (Sermon on the Mount)
Allegiance to Christ will result in persecution/loss of status/property. The sermon provides a host of reasons why we can trust our Father with our obedience to Christ in all circumstances, namely favor with God provides a kingdom that can never be lost.

e) A biblical conceptualization (Causes? Roots?)
1) fear of enemies, real & perceived.
2) death and its associates.
It feels like God is far away, like he is not protecting me.
3) trusting in Idols
Something I depended upon let me down.
4) the past being repeated.
I’ve been hurt before, and don’t trust you.
5) being alone.

f) Two homework assignments showing awareness of uniqueness of the problem.
1) Journal seeing the evidence of God in your life.
2) Study “I will be with you” passages.

g) Your basic method of approach
• First, I would determine the prominent cause of fear, if possible.
• Then I would re-imagine about what it would look like to trust and obey God when that occasion arises and grace is needed for that moment, looking for the Spirit’s progressive sanctification.
• Then, I would establish a study for focusing upon what it means for God to promise to “be with you” in the midst of the situation, and the response that entails for the person.

x) God gives grace for today. Don’t worry about not being able to face fears tomorrow.

[PTC 301-Ed Welch] ANGER: final exam study guide - outline

3) Anger
a) Brief Description
Anger exposes the heart’s allegiance to what a person considers is right and wrong. It says that your allegiance is primarily for your own welfare and pleasure. Usually anger against others reveals anger against God. Anger says, “God is not good/just” or “God does not give me what I want, when I want it.” God’s anger is not comparable with human experience: slow, loving, directed towards Jesus.

b) The Most important Question/Feature/Issue to consider
Anger illustrates the noetic effects of sin: Anger makes people foolish.
Anger blinds. Angry people often don’t know they are angry.

c) Issues you need to be particularly alert to in your relationship with the counselee

• Humility/Love. Angry people will tend to make you angry or cower.
• Thermometer. Anger has different degrees: hot (overt) anger; cold (covert) anger.
• Righteous indignation tends to be short-lived.
• Self-righteousness. Anger is usually saying more about what a person wants to bring about for himself.

d) One significant biblical text relevant to the problem area, why the text is relevant.

• Anger against a brother can feel right, or indifferent to your relationship with God, but actually reveals your relationship to God.

• 1 John 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness…
• 1 John 2:11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

e) A biblical conceptualization (Causes? Roots?)

What is anger saying?
A. (Victim) I am afraid, I have been hurt, I feel alone, powerless.
B. Expressing a moral judgment, I am right, you are wrong.
C. … and I am authorized to punish you.
D. I am jealous: I deserve it, you don’t.
E. I am guilty.
F. I want to treat others how I’ve been treated.
G. Leave me alone. I am tired.

f) Two homework assignments showing awareness of uniqueness of the problem.
1) Ask others “how have I been angry today?”
2) In anger, ask how you can still love the person.

g) Your basic method of approach

1) First, I would determine what anger is saying. Why are they angry? This would help determine whether anger is the root problem.
2) Then, I would invite them to understand how their anger affects other people around them, since they probably don’t see the damage they are doing.
3) Then, I would have them focus on their relationship to God; remind them of God’s character: his goodness, love, righteousness, graciousness, humility in Christ. What is God’s anger like? What is Christ like?
4) Then, I would look for little ways in which that Christ-likeness can make a change in how he relates to others over time, and point out the work of the Spirit in these areas.

[PTC 301-Ed Welch] SUFFERING: final exam study guide - outline

2) Suffering
a) Brief Description
Suffering tests our heart to trust God’s presence in purposing good and God’s faithfulness to show mercy. God has revealed Himself particularly through human suffering. The Son fully experiences suffering to bring about salvation. God uses suffering to make us more like Christ and to give us the hope of a new creation.

b) The Most important Question/Feature/Issue to consider
• Practical Deism. In suffering God may seem like He is hiding or doesn’t care about mercy and compassion.
• Can I trust Him?
• Who is this God?

c) Issues you need to be particularly alert to in your relationship with the counselee

• Compassion: Be compassionate, regardless of cause of suffering. Be careful not to ignore/minimize it.
• Judgmentalism. Resist the temptation to be quick in making definitive connection between a person’s suffering and personal sin, unless it’s obvious to everyone.
• Sin. Suffering will always seem to eclipse the problem of sin. Forgiveness/cleansing of sins runs a bit deeper than the alleviation of suffering.
• Christ suffered. A person’s suffering will seem to eclipse the suffering of Christ. Christ’s suffering is greater than our own. He draws near to sufferers.

d) One significant biblical text relevant to the problem area, why the text is relevant.

• Hebrews 2:10 – “In bringing many sons to glory it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.”

• Jesus’ obedience as a Son was perfected through suffering so that He might know how to minister to us in our sufferings and temptations. Suffering is a sanctifying agent.

e) A biblical conceptualization (Causes? Roots?)
a) There are multiple causes for each grief.
A prominent cause is not always known.
b) God, Satan, other people, Adam’s curse/disease, human heart.

f) Two homework assignments showing awareness of uniqueness of the problem.
1) use Psalms to direct our faith in suffering to God who hears.
2) Study “suffering” passages in relationship to hope/joy for future.
g) Your basic method of approach

1) First, I would towards the person in love/compassion, to mourn, pray, encourage, help.
2) Then, I would try to determine a prominent cause for a place to start in counseling.
3) Then, I would encourage a person to speak their suffering to God (esp. through the psalms.)
4) Then, I would encourage a person to recognize Jesus’ experience of suffering as representing/fulfilling human suffering so that the ministry of His Spirit might change human suffering into a means of life/hope/glory.

of men and angels

forgiveness separates the men from the angels. sometimes i think it is well worth the fall.

culture shock: a new jersey farewell

On my way back to Philly from a Check-IT-Out conference in Hudson Valley, NY on Sunday, Jim Moore and I stopped at a full-service gas station to fill our rental vehicle up. I was confused, since I had thought we had planned to come down I-95, and I had planned to rendezvous with a friend on the north side of Philly. Jim had made alternate plans, but we hadn't discussed it. So I asked Jim to ask our attendant where we were on the map, just to make sure we were as far south as he thought we were. The attendant shook his head saying, "Ah, Jeez. Look, go down the road to exit 3 and ask someone there where you are in the map."

Quite a different response from what I've been accustomed to in Texas and Oklahoma. If you're lost you ask people at gas-stations. That's just common sense. And people who do full service are typically very friendly and helpful, tip-worthy service. I later discovered that NJ enforces full-service pumps by law. So, I guess the guy's just "doing his job."

grace and glory

Trying to find a relationship is like stepping in front of a train and praying that God will bless you with transportation and not annihilation. Marriage must be trying to change the tires on the highway while steering the car. The more you mature, the more you realize you're never ready or worthy for such things. But such is grace and glory.

pokerface love

what are we

thinking too much

silence is safety

sound the trumpet's

King trumps

the suited hearts

dual'n cards