The question is an important one because there are too many out there who don’t know how to help other Christians to solve their problems God’s way. They offer advice which they can’t even pretend to have biblical roots. They suggest whatever seems best to them—or what they have learned in some psychology class years ago.

This sort of thing is going on all over the Christian world. And it needs to be remedied.

Because those who have good desires don’t always have the right information, while intending to help, they actually hinder.

“So what should a person like me do?”

You can read books. There are plenty of them available—see our online bookstore. You can take courses (you should be sure, however, that they are biblical and comprehensive). You can study with us at INS, where you will find a truly biblical, in-depth program.

The main thing is to harness your basically good desire to that which will give you the ability to achieve it in ways that please God. As important as helping people is concerned, your deeper concern ought to be to honor God and His Word in what you do. There are too many out there trying to solve others problems when

1. They haven’t solved them themselves
2. They haven’t thought through what to do ahead of time
3. They don’t know how to go about it
4. They have too little scriptural and theological understanding
5. They have uncritically adopted views and methods of unbiblical sources.
6. They know little of how to locate in the Bible passages that are pertinent to a wide variety of problems
7. They have only a meager ability in confronting others
8. They are unwilling to face and overcome resistance
9. They become discouraged when things go wrong
10. They find it difficult to talk about sin.

These, and many other factors need to be dealt with before you will truly be able help others. If you’re earnest about this desire—you will find the help you need.

Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and  The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to counseling others:

1. Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
2. The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
3. How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
4. The Use of Scripture in Counseling by Jay Adams
5. Sanctification and Counseling by Jay Adams
6. Critical Stages in Biblical Counseling by Jay Adams
7. Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post Is All Help Truly Help? appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

A second benefit of biblical counseling is that to improve his counseling ability he is able to study the Bible as His guide. What a rich blessing! Contrast that with those, who in order to gain further information about their counseling, must study the wearisome works of psychologists. Not only are the concepts of such men frequently base and unedifying, but often even their language is disgusting. While a biblical counselor who studies regularly, in contrast, is afforded an opportunity to grow by grace through his biblical studies; the one who is not biblical fills his head and heart with the errors of men that can only be detrimental in their effects.

So, why not do biblical counseling? There is every advantage for a Christian himself, not to mention the benefits that his counselees derive from it. But, beyond that—think how the one glorifies God and the other glorifies man.

Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and  The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to counseling others:

1. Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
2. The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
3. How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
4. The Use of Scripture in Counseling by Jay Adams
5. Sanctification and Counseling by Jay Adams
6. Critical Stages in Biblical Counseling by Jay Adams
7. Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post What Biblical Counseling Does for the Counselor appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

How so? When a Christian changes in ways that do please God it is by

1. Doing so because he wants to obey and honor Him. He seeks to make a certain change because it is God’s will for him to do so—as he finds it in the Bible; by
2. Doing so by replacing sinful ways with righteous ones (or as the apostle Paul put it: by putting off the former and putting on the latter; Colossians: 3:9); by
3. Doing these things through seeking the help of the Spirit a) enabling him to understand God’s will in the Word; b) empowering him to make the changes involved (cf. Philippians 2:13).

Thus, in essence, it is change that one makes in consort with God Himself. Thus both the motive and the method are of God as well as of the believer.

[1] To be in the flesh is to be without the Spirit of God.

Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and  The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to counseling others:

1. Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
2. The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
3. How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
4. The Use of Scripture in Counseling by Jay Adams
5. Sanctification and Counseling by Jay Adams
6. Critical Stages in Biblical Counseling by Jay Adams
7. Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post Here it is . . . appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

Are you ready to begin training to care for the souls of men and women in God’s way? Click this link to find out more -> Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling

The post Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

What, in particular, do you want to know?

“Oh, you know—just what you do when you counsel someone.”

Well, I’m afraid I don’t know how to answer that question. There is a lot to counseling—one way of approaching people will not do—one size simply doesn’t fit all.

“Yeah, but what do you do?”

The fact is I do all sorts of things—a lot more than I could begin to mention in this Q&A session.

“Let’s say the person is considering getting a divorce. How do you handle that—do you tell his wife or not?”

Well, since I’d have both of them present [if possible], I wouldn’t have to tell her. Counseling people who are both involved in a problem apart from one another is foolish; you don’t bring people together by taking them apart.

“Yeah, but what do you say? How do you go about the counseling itself?”

Listen, friend, you don’t seem to understand how much goes into counseling or I expect you’d get more specific in your questions. I say all sorts of things depending on the situation. They just have to be biblically based.

“But counseling is so much easier than preaching–you ought to be able to tell me what to do.”

I guess this has gone far enough. Let me suggest a few things at the outset:

1. Counseling is much tougher than preaching. A preacher knows what he is going too talk about (at least, he ought to). On the other hand, the counselor never knows what will come up in a session–so he has to be ready to handle anything—indeed, everything!

“Oh—I never thought about that!”

2. A counselor also has to gather lots of information before he is able to begin following a particular course of counsel. That’s why I can’t answer the sorts of questions that you’ve been flinging at me. I believe in serious data-gathering. Sometime, read and consider Proverbs 18: 13, 15, 17 and I think you’ll see what I mean.

“Hmm . . .I’ll have to do that.”

3. Let me just mention one more thing (I could go on listing lots of other points): But consider this: before I can really begin (assuming the person is a Christian) I will want to know whether or not he is interested in getting relief from his problem(s) or (at bottom) he is interested in learning how to please God in his handling of the problem—whether he gets relief or not.

“I never thought of that.”

And I can tell you there probably are many other things that I can see you haven’t thought about as well.

“Yeah—probably there are.”

Let me suggest that you take our course in nouthetic counseling and systematically learn about some of them.

“How do I do that?”

Thought you’d never ask—the answer is contact Donn Arms at donnarms@nouthetic.org. He’ll lead you the right way.
“Thanks.”

The post Tell Me What to Do appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

Nouthetic counseling is biblically-based, seeks to be faithful to the principles of Scripture which are integrated with one another (not with extraneous materials), and formed into a practical system designed to help Christians who have become stymied in their spiritual growth to be able to overcome the obstacles (whether self-imposed or otherwise) that stand in their way. The emphasis is upon applying the Scriptures, exegetically interpreted (not merely “used” for one’s purposes), in the power of the Spirit to the lives of believers.

The concern we have is to help pastors, many of whom were not properly instructed in the practical application of the Bible, to learn how to do more than preach. It is not our concern to help begin counseling centers. Every church by definition (whether it owns up to it or not) is a counseling center by divine fiat! God expects pastors and elders to minister to the needs of the problems of their flock. Too many are not doing so—principally because they do not know how to use the Scriptures in such work. Hence, INS. If you are a pastor or elder who is interested, please contact us—we may be able to help!

Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and  The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to counseling others:

1. Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
2. The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
3. How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
4. The Use of Scripture in Counseling by Jay Adams
5. Sanctification and Counseling by Jay Adams
6. Critical Stages in Biblical Counseling by Jay Adams
7. Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post Isn’t It About Time? appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

Habits are . . .

• Comfortable—Like old shoes, one puts them on easily.

• Automatic—One rarely has to decide to do something habitually—you just drift into it.

• Unconscious—So you don’t have to think about what you are doing; you just do it.

• Skillful—habits (take lying, for instance) are performed with alacrity.

• Entrenched—It takes careful, continual, prayerful effort to replace them with their biblical alternatives.

Keeping these five characteristics of habit in mind can help you to deal with sinful ways of living. They can also show you how the new life can be assisted by learning biblical patterns that become habitual.

Check out our online course, The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

1. Winning the War Within
2. What to do on Thursday
3. The Christian’s Guide to Guidance 
4. A Call for Discernment

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post Habit appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.