The rocking horse pictured in the featured image has been in Shirley’s family for almost 70 years! Shirley enjoyed it as a child. Our children enjoyed it. Our granddaughters enjoyed it. We really didn’t want to sell it, but we added it to the moving sale items. It did not sell. Then Shirley was praying that we could find a family that would love it. So…we were putting everything away hours after our moving sale…and a family drove up—a Christian couple with a young family, a major family health need, and some financial needs. They took, for free, many of our items. And then their little daught ..read more

Pondering…  I’m pondering a fresh interpretation of segments of the modern biblical counseling movement’s worldview. I’m wondering if a common biblical counseling understanding of people (“theological anthropology”) may, perhaps, be “a bit off.” What Do You Think?  Let me know what you think about my ponderings. Here goes… More Than Just “Volitional”  Here’s my pondering: Could it be that we’ve made “volitionality” an “idol of the heart”? We seem to make much of “just choose to do right; just choose to feel right!” This mindset puts our will/volitional capacity on the throne—exa ..read more

As biblical counselors, we have something of a checkered history with research. For more about what I mean by that, you can read my blog post Biblical Counseling and Scientific Research. As biblical counselors, we will sometimes say, “I quote from research. Here’s an example!” But read the examples closely and you’ll note that often we are quoting a secular researcher debunking another secular researcher. There’s a label for doing this: the co-belligerent use of research. We wage war against a common enemy by quoting those who we might otherwise disagree with. It follows the adage ..read more

A new book by Abigail Shrier is all the rage: Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up. As the title and subtitle suggest, Shrier opines that bad therapy, especially in the form of “gentle parenting,” is ruining the current generation of children in America. I have been posting about the book on my X (Twitter) account and in my Facebook Gospel-Centered Biblical Counseling group. I’ve seen a number of online mentions of Shrier’s book, some predominantly positive, especially by fellow biblical counselors and evangelical Christians. I’ve seen several negativ ..read more

“He is risen!” “He is risen, indeed!” The Fountain of Life Opened Up Just what happened at Easter? What difference does Easter make? Easter changes everything. Easter makes all the difference in the world. John Flavel’s (1671) Easter sermon, The Fountain of Life Opened Up, teaches us what happened to Christ and what happened to us because of Good Friday and Easter. May his words pierce our hearts and prompt praise for the glorious Easter exchange.   The Glorious Easter Exchange Lord, the condemnation was Yours, that the justification might be mine. The agony was Yours, that the ..read more

A Word from Bob  I shared this thread on X (Twitter) yesterday, and I thought my RPM Ministries readers might find it of interest. 1. A Thread: A thread on the modern biblical counseling movement and “spokespersons,” or, “Who could take up the ‘mantle’ of #BibleCn #BiblicalCounseling leadership now that Jay Adams and David Powlison are with Christ?” 2. Current Context: The modern nouthetic biblical counseling movement has had two primary spokespersons. First, Jay Adams. Second, David Powlison. The question some have rightfully raised is, “Who is the current Jay Adams or David Powlison?” O ..read more

Pastor S. M. Lockridge  S. M. Lockridge (March 7, 1913 – April 4, 2000) was the Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in San Diego from 1953 to 1993. He was known for his preaching across the United States and around the world. His Easter Meditation, “It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming!” is part of one of one of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard. YouTube Message You can hear his moving message here on YouTube. Written Message It’s Friday. Jesus is praying. Peter’s sleeping. Judas is betraying. But Sunday’s comin’! It’s Friday. Pilate’s struggling. The council is conspiring ..read more

Nate Brooks on David Powlison and Eric Johnson  This morning on X (Twitter), Nate Brooks posted an insightful thread about humility and charity in biblical counseling. Nate used David Powlison’s interactions with Eric Johnson as an example of humility and charity in biblical counseling. With Nate’s permission, I am reposting his thread. Nate’s Thread on Humility and Charity in Biblical Counseling “A thread on biblical counselors interaction with other approaches to counseling.” “Starting with Jay Adams, biblical counseling has often had a polemic edge to it. Perhaps such is the case for a ..read more

An Often Asked Question  It’s an often discussed question in the Evangelical Christian world in general, and specifically in the modern biblical counseling world. Are anxiety and fear sin?  Here are links to 10 resources that ask and answer that question biblically. 10 Resources From CCEF and Ed Welch: Fear Is Not Sin From Ligonier Ministries with Nathan Bingham and Ed Welch: Is My Anxiety Sinful? From The Gospel Coalition and Joe Carter: Ask TGC: Is Anxiety Sin? From SBTS and Jeremy Pierre: Is Worry a Sin?  From Brad Hambrick: When Is Depression-Anxiety Sinful?  ..read more

Heath Lambert and the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor Heath Lambert is in the midst of a series of blog posts about the sexual abuse crisis in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Today, he released Part 2. While I am not a Southern Baptist, I am a biblical counselor who has written on sexual abuse counseling and who does a great deal of counseling with sexual abuse victims. So I follow these important issues in the SBC with interest. In Part 2, Heath proposes three tests for discerning and interacting with others about how best to address the SBC’s sexual abuse crisis. In my post today ..read more