Sometimes, if we are honest, we just want to complain. We want a listening ear and someone to sympathize with us. What we really want is someone else to solve our problem for us. That is often the case when people come for counseling. Without the client being fully on board, taking ownership of what they are responsible for and doing their work, things will not change. Problems will not go away simply by talking about them. Expressing issues and concerns aloud to someone is a place to start. But then what? We must ask ourselves important questions like: how did I get to the place I am in right now, and what am I going to do about it? It is important to speak or journal how we are feeling and what we have learned. What are the “take ...

We see it all around us. It bombards us through television, social media sites, magazines, virtually everywhere. What am I writing about? I’m focusing on the values and standards of the world. They all reflect the values and standards of the devil. We all know the devil is “the thief who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10a), but how does he go about doing that? What is his playbook for working his nefarious purposes? I would suggest to you that in Romans 1:18-32, the Apostle Paul pulls back the curtain to give us a glimpse of the devil’s playbook. Let me walk you through each play that he uses to bring the utter destruction of God’s highest creation.

Play #1:  Eradicate the internal ......

“Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him . . . the world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John2:15, 17a).  The world does not think like Christians think. Their values are different; their beliefs are different; their destinies are different. Christians cannot afford to emulate the world and its values lest they become like them. James 4:4 warns Christians, “. . . Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” You can’t live with one foot in each camp. You have to ...

I only met with them one time when they came for marriage counseling. Gilly Gilbert and his wife, Lyla, were having troubles with their three sons. The two adult sons, who had moved out of the home, were drinking heavily and carrying .38 caliber guns. They were in trouble with the police and were wanted for questioning in a number of incidents. The youngest son was still living in the home.

Gilly was a rough customer. He was a construction worker who bragged that he had killed two men in a bar fight in his past. He threatened to kill both his sons if he caught them. I believed him. Lyla was the polar opposite of Gilly. Lyla was a five foot tall woman in her early fifties with mousy brown hair. Lyla was so quiet that she rarely spoke during...