Being Cross-centered has been a very popular expression the past few years. Not only is it popular, but it is charged with some explosive, transformative teaching that I believe every Christian should avail themselves to. Paul said he had made the decision to know nothing among the Corinthians, but Jesus Christ and him crucified. (See 1 Cor. 2:2)

The beloved apostle was communicating a very powerful message to the Corinthian believers because they needed something better than what they had. They needed a better understanding of the Cross of Christ.

I suppose if First Corinthians was all we had of Paul’s writings we could make a strong case for the Cross-centered life. But Paul’s theology is more robust than just being Cross-centered.

As a former Cross-centered fanatic, there was always a tension between me and my resurrection fanatics that I could not really settle in my soul. The solution for me was to choose to be Cross-centered 51-weeks out of the year and then be resurrection-centered on Easter Sunday.

This appeased the doctrinal tension only slightly because on Easter Sunday I felt as though I was not thinking highly enough of the Cross.

Over the past few months I have been coming into a fuller awareness that the tension between the Cross and the resurrection is really an artificial tension that does not need to exist. In Paul’s theology it was not an either/or doctrinal choice. Paul was Cross-centered AND resurrection-centered. Both of these strong doctrinal, Christological ideas are best found articulated and folded into the term “Gospel-Centered.”

To say that Paul was primarily Cross-centered truncates his comprehensive theological understanding and practical outworking of the complete Gospel in his life. To say that Paul was resurrection-centered does similarly. It would be more accurate to say that Paul was Gospel-centered. This term removes the artificial tension that could exist between the Cross-centered and resurrection-centered groups.

Christ is not just about the Cross and the Tomb

Gospel-centered goes even further than the Cross and the Tomb. The term Gospel communicates our understanding of the person and work of Christ from eternity past to eternity future. It is all that Christ was and all that he will be. The word Gospel is far better.

In First Corinthians Paul was very clear that he decided to know nothing, but Jesus Christ and him crucified. However, in Second Corinthians Paul’s focus in chapter one was on the resurrection of Christ. It was his understanding of the resurrection of Christ NOT the Cross of Christ that helped him through one of the more difficult times of his life.

Being Gospel-centered opens all the vistas of the Savior (past, present and future) and brings more power and dimensions to any situational difficulty. The Gospel offers me hope as I learn about the pre-incarnate Savior who planned my salvation. (See Eph. 1:3-10) The Gospel unfolds the crucified Savior to me as I wrestle through personal suffering and the need for redemption. Or it may be more appropriate to bring the resurrected Savior to bear when I’m despondent or depressed. And still yet, the Gospel brings encouragement to me when my longing is for the ruling Savior in eternity future.

Paul was more than Cross-centered. Paul was Gospel-centered. The more I have come into a better and fuller understanding of this Gospel, the more I have grown in my sanctification. The tension between the Cross and the Tomb does not exist for me. Thankfully, neither have been reduced in my thinking, but both are coexisting in an explosive and transformative way.

Read this article on how Paul thought through the resurrection in order to give him hope during one of the most difficult times in his life.

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

This is a true story. The name has been changed, but the circumstances have not. I have “Jean’s” permission to share her story.

In 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 we read Paul’s journey from depression to recovery.

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. – Apostle Paul

Sentence of Death

Things were going so bad for Paul and his team that he had judged the situation by placing a death sentence on himself and the team. This is not an unusual occurrence for people who feel pressed beyond their strength to overcome. When things get so bad, in certain situations, death seems like a viable option for some. To continue in life, muddling along from desert to desert is exhausting, hopeless and has an inevitable end, so they think. This is the judgment of death that we can place on ourselves and Paul was such a person who felt the full force of this judgement.

Jean has also been pressed beyond measure, to the point where she is despairing of her life. The challenge of dying seems easier than the challenge of living. Her position is not as hopeless as she feels, but the counselor will have to remind himself that it is her perceived position nevertheless, and it is very real to her regardless of his more objective assessment of the situation. Therefore, counseling her from her illogical and unwise position will be very hard and will take much patience.

For example, the obvious counsel for a depressed person is to go take a walk, enjoy the sunshine, stop watching so much TV and engage the culture around her. The problem with this kind of counsel is that it is impossible for a person with a self-proclaimed death sentence.

Paul said, “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.” To be utterly burdened beyond [your] strength means you are beyond your ability to do anything about it. Therefore, taking a walk in the park or reading a book is nearly impossible.

Anti-Self-Reliance

Paul understood what was happening to him. He said that the things that were happening to him were to make [him] rely not on [himself] but on God who raises the dead. Paul got it. He probably didn’t like it, but he got it. Paul was a doer, a get-it-done kind of guy, but he felt himself sinking beyond his ability to help himself.

The problem with this kind of get it done, self-sufficient, do it my way worldview is that if you persist in it, you’ll end up trusting and glorying in yourself rather than God. This can never be.

Therefore God, in his kindness to us, brings us to a place where there are no other options for us, but to trust in someone who is outside of ourselves. And though the psychology of what is going on is easy to understand, it is one of the more challenging situations to walk a person through.

Reliance in the Gospel

Almost all counsel seems too small, too trite, too wrong and generally inadequate. And to say that Jean’s problem is a lack of reliance on the Gospel sounds more appropriate for a bumper sticker on a car than a solution in the counselor’s office. Nevertheless, it is the solution that Jean needs to hear more than anything else.

Paul got it. He said the reason the things were happening to him and his team was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. Paul found the solution for his despair in the Gospel. He knew, as noted in Romans 1:16, that the Gospel was the “power of God.” And in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 Paul further unpacked his theology of suffering even more, where he said that his weakness was God’s kindness to him that allowed God’s strength to be made perfect.

The Gospel is the person and work of Christ that is working effectively in the life of a person to give him something that transcends the circumstances of his life. The Gospel, in this case study with Paul, encouraged him by telling him that if God can raise his Son from the grave then he is completely trustworthy and powerful enough to not only teach him to stop relying on himself, but to rely on Him who has incredible power, as demonstrated through the resurrection of the Savior from the grave.

Perfect love does cast out fear and the greatest witness to perfect love is the Gospel. (See 1 John 4:18 & John 3:16)

Conclusion

Jean would rather hear more about 7 Habits for Overcoming Depression, though she knows intuitively that whatever you ask her to do from a practical perspective, she probably wouldn’t be able to do anyway. But to tell her to trust God is even worse than trying to motivate her to practical achievements. The Gospel will fall flat for Jean. She will tell you that she can’t do the practical things you ask and that to apply the Gospel to her life makes little sense to her. Nevertheless, the counselor must stand firm and not be ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God.

He will have to be incredibly patient. Her self-focused and problem-centered mindset will seem unmovable to the counselor and any attempts to move her will be met with resistance. But he must be determined to graciously and compassionately lead her to a clearer understanding and appreciation for the Gospel while practically helping her see it in ways that were not clear to her before.

Truly, the Gospel is a stumbling block to the Jew and foolishness to the Greek and, in the beginning, Jean will not get it either. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.

Articles in this series

1. A Case Study on Suicide
2. Suicide – 1.0
3. Suicide – 2.0
4. Suicide – 3.0
5. Suicide – 4.0 The End

Related Articles on the Dangers of Self-Esteem

1. Loving Me: The Hidden Agenda of Self-Esteem, 1.0
2. To Lower Your Self-Esteem is Good, 2.0
3. Self-Esteem & the Tale of Ugly Betty, 3.0
4. The End of the Road for High Self-Esteem is Suicide, 4.0
5. Case Study: Sally’s Search for Self-Esteem, 5.0
6. Did J. B. & Paul Struggle with Self-Worth, 6.0

Related Articles on Big Sinners vs. Little Sinners

1. Problem: Big Sinners vs. Little Sinners – 1.0
2. Churches with Big Sinners & Little Sinners – 2.0
3. Adult Sinners with Big Problems – 3.0
4. Acknowledged Sinners with Inexpressible Gratitude – 4.0
5. Big Sinners, Little Sinners & the Worst Sinners – 5.0

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

In the last post I discussed one of several reasons why a Child May Rebel Against Their Parents and God. Kids, like us, are made in the image of God and parents have a responsibility to shape the child for God, with the hope and prayer that when the kid is old enough to understand, he/she will ask God to regenerate them. (See John 3:7)

I mentioned in the earlier post that sometimes we parents can hinder the child from getting to God. We can do this in several ways. Here is a sampling, that is meant to be in no way an exhaustive list: parents can be distant, angry, abusive, critical, divorced and impatient with their children.

Someone may ask that if the weight of the kid’s salvation lies to such a degree on the parent, how can any kid be saved? Truly, this is not only an excellent question, but it is a humble acknowledgement that we all are flawed. At our best, we are broken images of God’s original design. But this is where we can find wonderful encouragement in the power of the Gospel. There is no kid so messed up that he/she cannot be saved, whether his/her parents got it right for the most part or royally botched things up.

I was reminded of this recently when I read a brief excerpt about the childhood of Ravi Zacharias…

I came to know Christ on a bed of suicide when I was seventeen–desolate, desperate. My father just finished telling me I’d be a total failure in life. I was born a failure, he said. Somebody brought a Bible to my bedside. I’m so thankful to my heavenly Father that my dad lived long enough to write a letter to me–my dad died fairly early–and said, “Will you ever forgive me for the things I said?” And yet, in the dark of the soul, I found the heavenly Father to be closer than I’d ever realized.

In Paul Miller’s book, A Praying Life, where I found the quote, Miller followed up by saying,

Because we live in a fallen world, God has to use broken images of himself, such as a father. In fact, all the images God gives us of himself in Scripture are flawed…The fact that we know our king or father is flawed means we know what a good father should do. Because we are created in the image of the triune God, we have the instinctive knowledge of how a father should love. If we didn’t know what a good father was, we couldn’t critique our own. Modern psychology can unwittingly trapped us in our pasts. It is just another form of fatalism that kills our ability to see the story God is weaving in our lives. pp. 177-178, A Praying Life, by Paul Miller

The Gospel is the hope for any parent who may be struggling with the guilt of what they have done to their children. God is greater than our biggest failures. And the Gospel is also the hope for any kid, who thinks there is no salvation for him, because of what he has done. The Gospel is bigger than our most abominable sins.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. -Romans 1:16 (ESV)

Related Articles

• A Reason Kid’s Rebel Against Their Parents and God
• The Focus of Your Marriage

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Sandra was relieved and encouraged to know that she did not have to please God to gain his good opinion and that her standing before God is as secure today as it was when he first acted upon her at regeneration. However, because her life has always been wrapped up in people-pleasing, she was unclear as to what Gospel-motivated obedience looked like.

This kind of thinking was a complete paradigm shift for her. Because of her legalism, she learned rote behavior. She did what others did and made sure she never deviated from what others did while self-righteously judging those who did not hold to her list of dos and don’ts. She lived in a fear-based culture that did cookie-cutter religion.

Sandra was breaking the mould, but still perplexed as to how to practically obey God just for the joy of it. Once the counselor understood the real problem, he took a series of verses and showed her how the Bible writers connected practical behavior to the Gospel. Here is a short list:

Gospel Motivated Mercy

Then his master summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? -Matthew 18:32-33

There is an assumption from the Master that this guy should have remembered what happened to him in the courtroom. If he had remembered the Gospel, he would have gone out and modeled that same kind of Gospel-mercy to the man who owed far less than what he owed. The Master is asking him a rhetorical question that could be paraphrased this way:

Because I had mercy on you by the Gospel, you should have done the same to your friend. You should have been obedient because I had mercy on you. That is what I would expect from any of my children. And that kind of obedience would please me.

Gospel-Motivated Forgiveness

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. -Ephesians 4:31-32

In the verse above, Paul is also teaching us that our motive for obedience is tied to the Gospel. We should not be bitter or angry or slandering because of the model we see through Christ, who forgave us (the Gospel). A person who understands the Gospel rightly will forgive.

Gospel-Motivated Love

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… – Ephesians 5:25

A husband who understands the Gospel will love his wife sacrificially. He will learn her, love her and then properly lead her. His sacrifice for her would be unending and his affection for her would be unceasing. In short, he would be like our dying Savior.

Gospel-Motivated Humility

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. – 1 Timothy 1:15-16

Quite frankly if you do not see yourself as the biggest sinner you know, then you need to do some Gospel-work in your soul. Paul considered himself to be the chief of sinners. He was #1 in his book. He who is forgiven much is thankful much. The most thankful Christians are those who never forget that God did not get a good deal when he got them.

Gospel-Motivated Suffering

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. – 1 Peter 2:21

Peter connected personal suffering as a thing that brings pleasure to God, particularly when our suffering is not because of our sin. It is the Christian’s privilege and opportunity to share in the sufferings of Christ. And Christ is our model for our suffering. The more we understand the Gospel, particularly the suffering aspect of the Gospel, the more we will be motivated to glorify God while we suffer.

Christian Maturity Begins When We Can Make Gospel-Connections

For the first time in Sandra’s life she is beginning to make Gospel-connections to her practical life. She now understands that the Gospel was not just for her to get saved (Justification), but the Gospel has a huge impact on how she lives (Sanctification). Today, she reads the bible with a “new pair of glasses” as she recently said. Sometimes she gets frustrated when she thinks of all the years of “Cross-less” Bible reading and living.

Now she gets it. She is resting in the Gospel because God saved her and she is motivated to serve him because God saved her. Whenever she feels self-righteous, unforgiving, unloving or when she begins to complain because of some form of suffering, she immediately preaches the Gospel to herself and very quickly rights the ship.

Sandra is free in Christ!

Other Articles in This Series

1. A Case Study: Poor Counseling Advice: You Need to Please God
2. The Danger of Trying to Please God, 1.0
3. The Blessing of Not Trying to Please God, 2.0
4. Pleasing God is Not Primarily About Your Obedience, 3.0
5. Pleasing God Through Gospel-Motivated Obedience, 4.0

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

What Pleases God?

It would be better to say, “Who pleases God?”

And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. -Mark 1:11

Christ pleases God. Anything the Son does pleases the Father. Jesus came to do the will of the Father and he completed that task perfectly. The Father received the finished work of the Son and now a way has been made for us to please the Father by accepting the Son’s work.

A Christian, who is madly in love with the Son, is pleasing the Son’s Father. The way we fall madly in love with the Son is by accepting his finished work on the Cross.

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. -Isaiah 64:6

Sandra is a Christian. However, she is not living in the good of the Gospel reality. Rather than accepting what is pleasing to God (the Son), she is trying to please him by her obedience. For example, she will tell you that she feels more spiritual when she goes to the church meeting. Sandra is a legalist. She believes her activity for God gives her more of God. She feels more spiritual when she is doing. Therefore, when she misses her prayer time or bible reading, or a church meeting she feels less spiritual.

To Do or Not To Do

If she has her morning prayer time and things go well that day, she will subtly contribute God’s favor on her day somewhat based on her prayer-time-obedience. Conversely, if she does not have her prayer time and things don’t go well, she feels as though her lack of prayer caused her day to go bad. This is heresy.

Her friends will jokingly reveal their heretical theology as they observe her bad day by saying, “You must not be prayed-up today.”

As you can see, when her biblical counselor gave her a list of things to do to please God, Sandra initially was excited about the list because she is a people-pleaser. However, as time went by, she could not juggle her list of spiritual disciplines with the rest of her life and, therefore, discouragement and then depression set-in. From her perspective, God was not pleased with her and she was basing this on her poor performance.

According to Sandra’s functional theology, she could control God’s pleasure by what she did rather than what the Son did. The best way she could please God would not be by doing more work for him, but by repenting of her work and accepting the Son’s work.

Comprehension Test: do you understand what you just read

If you have processed this series correctly (you’ll need to read 3.0 & 4.0 as well), then you will conclude the following: Nowhere in this series have I said we should not please God. This series is not primarily about what we do for God, but why we do what we do for God. Do we keep his commandments? Of course we do. That is not the main point of these posts. Do we seek to please the Father? Of course we do.

The BIG IDEA of these posts is that in counseling most people believe that the Gospel is for salvation and obedience is for sanctification. This is untrue. The Gospel is for salvation AND for sanctification and if you have the Gospel right you will not only be saved right, but you will obey right.

If the title of my blog post was longer it could say something like this, The Blessing of Not Trying to Please God by Our Works, As Though Our Works Merit God’s Favor. We do not obey because we are trying to please God. We obey because of our crazy love for the Savior’s obedience. And our crazy love for the Savior (Read: Our Obedience) pleases the Father. At the end of the day, the Father is pleased with our obedience if our obedience is biblical.

Other Articles in This Series

1. A Case Study: Poor Counseling Advice: You Need to Please God
2. The Danger of Trying to Please God, 1.0
3. The Blessing of Not Trying to Please God, 2.0
4. Pleasing God is Not Primarily About Your Obedience, 3.0
5. Pleasing God Through Gospel-Motivated Obedience, 4.0

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Sandra has struggled all her life with people pleasing. She said she cannot ever remember a time when she has been free from thinking about what others think about her. The way she dresses, the car she drives, the technology she carries on her waist and the house she owns are all controlled, to some degree, by what others think of her.

More accurately stated, Sandra struggles with her perception of other people’s perception of her.

A Peek Into Her Weekly Drama

Drama #1 – She is fanatical about working out because of her keen awareness of what a “nice looking body” should look like according to her opinion of the culture’s perception of her.

Drama #2 – Many times she has caught herself lying. She says she spins her stories because she feels the real story would not be as interesting.

Drama #3 - She is fearful of bringing a bag lunch to the office because everyone else goes out to a local restaurant to eat. She’d rather go further into debt than feeling like the “odd man out” as she said in one of her counseling sessions.

Drama #4 - She has this low-grade anger toward her boyfriend because he pressured her to have sex with him. She felt he would leave her if she didn’t have sex with him. She sees herself as a person who needed to be loved by someone. Having a boyfriend is one of her ways of being approved.

At her first counseling session, her biblical counselor quickly discerned that her problem was fear of man, according to Proverbs 29:25, and told her she needed to be more concerned with pleasing God than others. The counselor then laid out a plan of prayer, bible study and service oriented activities to aid her in her attempt to practice a lifestyle that was pleasing to God.

Idol Swapping: From Pleasing Man to Pleasing God

The mistake the counselor made was not carefully unpacking what pleasing God meant to an idolator. Sandra is an idolator who has been living in a performance-driven lifestyle as long as she can remember. Quite frankly, people’s opinions matter to her and she bends over backwards to please others.

When she was told that she needed to be more willing to please God than man, it was not a difficult thing for her to do. People pleasing is what she does best. Unfortunately, she was not told what pleases God so she did what she has always done: performance-driven living to garner the approval of others.

What Pleases God?

It would be better to say, “Who pleases God?”

Other Articles in This Series

1. A Case Study: Poor Counseling Advice: You Need to Please God
2. The Danger of Trying to Please God, 1.0
3. The Blessing of Not Trying to Please God, 2.0
4. Pleasing God is Not Primarily About Your Obedience, 3.0
5. Pleasing God Through Gospel-Motivated Obedience, 4.0

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Julie is trapped in a bad marriage. You can read her Case Study here: Exchanging Prisons: From Singleness to Marriage.

You can also read her first counseling session here: Desperate Housewife & Her Theology. The word Theology means the Study of God.

Once you unpack and walk her through her understanding of and relationship with God, or what is called Theology Proper, you will now want to introduce her to the Gospel. The Gospel sits upon her view of God or Theology Proper. You are rebuilding from the ground up.

(Note: Julie will not be satisfied with your approach. She wants real and practical answers today. Though she has spent 20 years messing her life up, she wants a fix NOW. Impulsivity, impatience and anger will be three sin issues that you will have to deal with as you do reconstructive counseling.)

She will tell you that she understands the Gospel, because that is how she became a Christian 23 years ago. And, on one level, she will be telling you the truth.

However, you are not talking about the Gospel as it pertains to salvation, though you never want to assume a person is a Christian. For the sake of this case study, we will say that Julie is a Christian and she gets the Gospel as it pertains to being born again. But she has a limited understanding of how the Gospel should be ruling her life as it pertains to her sanctification.

Though she knows better and would probably disagree with you, her functional theology would run along this line of thought:

You need the Gospel to get saved but you then live a life of obedience after you are saved. Rather than the biblical model, which says you need the Gospel for salvation and you need the Gospel for sanctification.

Julie has an academic understanding of Ephesians 2:8-9, but functionally she is a legalist. She is rule-oriented rather than relationally-oriented.

What is the Gospel?

If I wanted to use one word to describe the Gospel, the word would be Jesus. Jesus is the Gospel. When I asked Julie what the Gospel was, she said it was the good news. Though this is right in a sense, she never saw the Gospel as a person. The Gospel for her was more about a proclamation. This is why she believed the Gospel was for salvation (it was proclaimed) and could not see it as necessary for sanctification.

The Gospel is not a proclamation. It is a person! The person is Jesus. The Gospel is Jesus. Jesus is the Gospel.

If you want to expand your understanding of the Gospel, you could say it this way:

The Gospel is the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the person of Christ and everything he has done in eternity past and everything he will do in eternity future and the centerpiece of all this activity is the Cross.

The Gospel has nothing to do with me or my response to it. The Gospel is Christ. Once Julie has this understanding, then you can begin to walk her through how she should respond to the Gospel/Christ.

How Does the Gospel Apply to Julie Today?

The Gospel is God’s most extravagant outpouring of his love to the world. There is nothing more profound that the Father could do to prove his love than the execution of his Son on the cross. The Gospel is God’s final and most complete answer to the question, “Is God good?”

He is good. He is profoundly good.

Unfortunately, though Julie will tell you that God is good, there is an objective disconnect between what she knows and how she lives. She has not and does not “marinate” her mind in the Gospel, in God’s goodness to her specifically. She has not consistently lived in the good of the Gospel. Her affection for Christ was sporadic during the good seasons and non-existent during the uber-dry times.

Because Julie does not have a comprehensive understanding the Gospel, she has a weak view of God’s goodness. To not experience God’s goodness on a daily basis will tempt you to find your own version of goodness. This is what Julie did. Rather than trusting and resting in the awareness that God is good, she trusted in her ability to find what she thought was good. She made an awful decision.

The concern now is that she will make another awful decision in her endless pursuit of goodness.

Other posts in this series

• Desperate Housewife & Her Theology
• Desperate Housewife & the Gospel
• Desperate Housewife & Faith
• Desperate Housewife & Fear, Anger, Ignorance
• Desperate Housewife & Suffering
• Desperate Housewife: Freedom in Captivity

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

If you are looking for some excellent worship music, then let me make a suggestion. One of our favorite CDs is Songs for the Cross-Centered Life.

good homework assignment for counselees

If you want to keep the main thing the main thing, then the main thing you need to be focused on is the Cross of Christ.

Paul reminded us in 1 Corinthians 2:2 that he had made a decision to know nothing, but Christ and him crucified. Paul knew a lot of things. Therefore, if he considered this news to be the best news and the news he must remember first, then it behooves me to do the same.

There is no news more important than this news: Christ died for our sins. If your music selections are not theologically rich, such that they bring your heart and mind to the Cross, then I suggest you rethink your music selections.

Let your music know nothing but Christ and him crucified. Nothing is more refreshing, motivating and life changing.

From The Pastor’s Priorities, p. 133

In all our preaching, we must never lose sight of the hill called Calvary, where the Son of Man was killed in our place. Regardless of the text or topic at hand, there must be some view of Calvary in every sermon.

Your congregation should experience the amazing and comforting sight of the crucified Savior each and every time you preach. They should anticipate the sight of Calvary in every sermon and rejoice when it comes into view, and all the more when the cross is not immediately obvious in the text.

“Where is the hill?” they should be asking. ”Where is that blessed hill on which our precious Savior died?”

We should exalt Christ’s finished work in our sermons so as to comfort the converted and to convict the unbeliever.

Spurgeon’s example should inspire us:

“I received some years ago orders from my Master to stand at the foot of the cross until he comes. He has not come yet, but I mean to stand there until he does.”

Let us stand with the prince of preachers, gentlemen. As we preach the whole counsel of God, let us keep the cross central. By doing so, we will indeed be watching our doctrine.

To purchase this CD, click HERE

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Here is a trick question. Which would you prefer?

Would you prefer a leader who is going to live? Or would you prefer a dying leader?

The disciples had an idea of what their leader should be like. But Christ had another idea and he needed to deconstruct their idea.

The disciples wanted a living leader, but the Savior was a dying leader.

God’s economy is counter-intuitive to our way of thinking and Jesus was bringing his friends into this new way of thinking about what it meant to live for him. The dying Savior will eventually transform them into dying Disciples.

In Mark 10:45 we see the heart of Christ’s self-revelation of why he came and what he was about. He came to give his life away. The way of Christ and the way of this world are polarizing.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. – Mk. 10:45 ESV

The great and highly esteemed ones of this world exercise authority over others. They prevail by power or rank over others as they have selfish desires that are generally centered on self-glory in this life. This is what is trumpeted as great leadership.

• Does your leadership style lead others away from yourself, to Christ and heaven?
• Or are you self-promoting, bending people toward yourself for earthly profit?

A biblical leader will lead others beyond themselves to a greater view, appreciation and affection for the Savior. This kind of leading is epitomized by radical self-denying. Christ modeled this. He modeled radical self-denying. He led us to God. He did this by giving his life away.

He did not draw attention to himself the way most people in this world draw attention to themselves. The “lords” of this world receive all the attention, praise and adulation. But Christ chose not to exalt himself and he appealed to his followers to do the same.

He was asking them to die as he was going to die and in this they would find life. To lord is to lose your life. To be the servant of others and the slave of all is the way of Christ.

Giving away our life is true leadership.

Our addiction to selfishness is squashed at the foot of the Cross.

An excellent leader is an excellent servant. The reason we experience so little of the Christ life is because we are trying to experience his life some other way, e.g. not taking up the cross and living on his terms, but living on our terms.

Giving yourself away to others is the way to experience the true life.

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Let’s free associate…

Name two people in your life that you cringe when you think about them. What about a person you generally get frustrated with? Or how about the person you would rather not be around?

Do you have a person or persons in your mind? A friend? A church member? A relative?

Great!

Now go and serve them. Go and give your life for them.

This is the heart of the Gospel. Jesus came for the worst kind of people. He sought the baddest, the worst, the lowest and the helpless. He did not seek the righteous, the best, the highest and the sufficient. The first category of people includes me. It also includes Paul.

Paul said he was the chief or foremost of all sinners. In his mind there was not a worst sinner than him. And God showed mercy to him. God also showed mercy to me. I trust he has shown mercy to you.

If you have been born again, you have been the recipient of the greatest act of undeserved love ever known. Jesus died for you. Jesus became your servant. The undeserving received the love, affection and life of another. Jesus was a slave to all he has regenerated.

Now let’s go back to that person you don’t care for. Remind yourself that you were, at one time, an enemy of God. Now think about the Gospel. What did Christ do for you?

• He pursued your wicked and undeserving self.
• He gave his life for you.
• He shed his blood for you.
• He forgave you of all your wickedness.
• He cleaned you up.
• He never holds your past against you.
• He changed your bad ways and your bad attitudes.
• He gave you the Spirit to go with you along the way because you don’t have the ability to make it alone.
• He gave you a promise that, though you are not worthy and completely incapable of finishing the race, he will take you to a favorable conclusion.
• Lastly, he has given you a place in heaven and even considers you as being there now.

All this is your inheritance because you are in Christ. And you were a person who did not deserve such mercy. You were an enemy of God whom he pursued. This is the Gospel.

And because of the Gospel, we have the extraordinary privilege of going and doing the same to those who are not our friends.

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site