From time to time I receive books about psychology or counseling. It is interesting that people think I will read and digest their systems—which are based entirely on worldly psychological views (with, now and then, a Bible verse thrown in)—and change from what I am doing to some patently non-Christian method. I find these books interesting because they indicate some of the trends of the times. And those trends are not encouraging!

What would really make me happy is—at least occasionally—to receive something about counseling that is exegetically based. How that type of book is needed! It would be a book in which some passage or passages of the Scriptures are expounded from solid exegetical work in such a way that they show us how to use the Bible to counsel in a more helpful way.

But, no. That sort of book is not coming off the press these days. I don’t see it in book catalogs, or elsewhere.

There’s plenty of superficial stuff that contains faulty (or, at best, no new) material in which the use of the Scriptures is so thin that there is nothing helpful to add to one’s counseling repertoire. Plainly, a lot of work needs to be done, but it won’t come from the pens of those who won’t learn how to use the Greek and Hebrew in such a way that they truly learn and use the passage to say what the Spirit intended it to say. My soul hungers for this sort of thing—doesn’t yours?