Unity in Relationships

“Feasting on the Seven Hopes of the Heaven-Bound Saint” One of our greatest needs is hope, or we do not live well (1 Tim 4:10).  In my counseling experience, I have found that the following seven biblical hopes are key to promoting biblical change.  God has given us hope of forgiveness (1 Jn 1:9), hope of transformation (2 Cor 3:18), hope of strength and provision (Heb 4:16), hope of spiritual influence in the lives of others (2 Cor 2:12-14), hope of eternal rewards (Matt 25:21), heavenly dwelling (1 Cor 2:7), and glorious perfection (1 Jn 3:2).  God has promised these things to us, his children.  Stir your faith and desire for these things by listening to the following audio, memorizing and studying the promises in the passages listed. Cross reference them to other verses that repeat the promises. Find songs that echo the amazing hope of these.  Speak to others about what you are learning. Pray for a heart to believe and a heart to desire these promises...

The following document is from "Men Discipling Men" - a yearly conference for men presented by The Master's College Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling Program. It can also be found at the following link: http://www.mdmconference.net/resources/Notes/MDM2011_Bigney_General_Session_Devastating_Pride_Cultivating_Humility.pdf

One of the issues that can hurt the unity of a home more than anything else is a child whom is a real challenge to bring under the Lord's control.  Our Tuesday night series entitled, "Eight Essentials in Child-Training" covers in detail biblical child-training procedures and principles like the following and inspire you to put them into practice. (You can take this in a distance learning format or on site.   For more information, click here .) Many children are often like dry gun-powder waiting to explode when they are given a command from a parent or authority. In my ministry of counseling parents, it is parents with children like these that come most often for counseling. Unfortunately, many of the biblical books on parenting do not take into account these extreme cases of child rebellion or give a specific detailed approach to handling these children. Whether the extreme rebellion is contributed by the child’s health, genetics, personality weakness/strengths is be...

A Four-Week Biblical Counseling Assignment to Help You Establish New Habits in How You Talk If you are going to influence a good relationship with a spouse, child, co-worker, etc, you are going to have to learn to put off speech that hinders, and put on speech that helps.   Communication is the life-blood of all relationships.   God gave us the ability to speak for the purpose of helping others, not hurting them. Even though there are times in many relationships we have to say tough things to each other, the Bible instructs us to say them graciously in the context of a demonstrated heart of love (Eph 4:15).   Prayerfully evaluate how you have been relating/communicating with this person in the light of the following truths.     Based each verse consider how you have or have not been obedient to God’s Word in your relating and communications. Choose a few of the verses that seem to relate with ways you need to improve most and begin memorizing those ve...

What we do in word and deed toward others, we have already done in thought and desire before God.  David after committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband killed said in Psalm 51:3, "Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, and done what is evil in Thy sight." David committed at least two major sins that caused major human pain, yet the painful sins against man are eclipsed in David's mind by sin against God. This is evidenced by David saying that these sins of murder and adultery were sins against God and God only. This means that all sin against others is primarily sin against God manifested in sins against others.  There are many other passages that reveal the truth that all sin against others is sin against God - Leviticus 19:14 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD. (The reason a person would do such a cruel thing to a deaf or blind person from a biblical perspective is...

Take time each week to have a date night. With part of this time ask each other 4 or more of the following questions. Share back with your spouse what they have answered so that you will better remember and so that your spouse will feel better heard.  Enjoy this time discovering one another in deeper ways through communication.  You are encouraged to close the time of question with prayer for each other.     1.      What are your 3 favorite foods with the most favorite first?   Why? 2.      What are your 3 favorite activities (recreations, hobbies, etc.) with the most favorite as first?   3.      What are your 5 favorite recreations with the most favorite first? 4.      What gifts have you received that you like most?   Why? 5.      What is your favorite book or verse(s) of the Bible?   Why? 6.      What is...

The Bible says we are to "preserve" unity not "produce" it - "being diligent to preserve the unity" (Ephesians 4:3).  When we try to make our spouse be more unified and pleasant toward us we begin to have wrong actions and attitudes.  Our goal must be instead to influence change not make things change.  We do this by diligently applying the four attitudes mentioned in the previous verse (Ephesians 4:2), "with all humility, gentleness, patience, and forbearance in love".  But this is not easy to do when things are going so very poorly – when the love given is not returned - when indifference, selfishness and disappointment is the norm.  Certainly there are many times God's Word instructs us to speak to our spouse about such things. (Ephesians 4:15, 26-27, 29-30). But what will motivate loving responses like humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance as we decide how and when to speak and to deal with all this? We do this by having a he...