Worry as Sin

A good friend of mine has posted an excellent series of blog entries on the subject of worry.

Excellent Counseling Article!

Check out this great article about counseling (which has implications for the entire Christian life) here. A little controversial...

New Affections!

I got this excellent Thomas Chalmers quote from Piper's book, Future Grace:

"There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love of the world-either by a demonstration of the world's vanity, so that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy it; or, by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment, so that the heart shall be prevailed upon not to resign an old affection, which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one. My purpose it to show that from the constitution of our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent and ineffectual, and that the latter method will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it."

So let us preach and counsel, yes, against sin and wickedness but also for the beauty and excellence of God and all the he is for us in Christ. Let us emphasize the greatness of God over the futility of the world.

Sale at Westminster Bookstore

The CCEF (Christian Counseling and Education Foundation) books are on sale at the Westminster bookstore right now at half price!

Connecting Two Blogs

I got a lot of feedback and wisdom from people on the last post regarding productivity organizations. I appreciate the help. Tonight I read the latest post on another guy's blog. I don't know how to do links or any of that yet, but his post was a simple, yet profound statement about our existence - 50 words that tell us why we were created. It inspired me to think more about my existence and to get more serious about this question: am I fulfilling the purpose of my life? All 50 of the words that he used were synonyms for proclaiming Him / magnifying Him / glorifying Him / enjoying Him, etc. How do the two blogs relate? Well, an organization like the ones we talked about on the previous post (as a result of God's common grace) can help one formulate mission statements, goals, fulfilling responsibilities, etc. If we are guided by scripture then we understand what the ultimate purpose for everything is, namely, spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ (or however you like to say it). Perhaps we could use more focus on being better stewards of God's time (redeeming the time) by reading some of this material or taking some of these classes. Or perhaps we would be more comfortable reading from someone in the Biblical counseling realm who has formulated some similar tools. James C. Petty has written a book entitled "Step By Step" and a smaller booklet entitled, "Priorities: Mastering Time Management." Both are in the "resources for changing lives" series. (this would be another good spot for some links and/or pictures of the book/booklet. If any of you want to offer some advice on how to do some of these techy things - I'm an accountant and we are usually behind on technology.) If any of you out there have not spent significant time formulating a mission statement, goals for your life, and/or resolutions, I strongly recommend that you do so. The same goes for churches and other organizations. Jonathan Edwards is one great example of a Christian who did this. I think he was a teenager (at least for part of the writing of his 70 resolutions). Two great things to keep in mind for a mission statement/resolutions/goals, etc:

1)What Edwards wrote at the beginning of his resolutions:

"BEING SENSIBLE THAT I AM UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING WITHOUT GOD' S HELP, I DO HUMBLY ENTREAT HIM BY HIS GRACE TO ENABLE ME TO KEEP THESE RESOLUTIONS, SO FAR AS THEY ARE AGREEABLE TO HIS WILL, FOR CHRIST' S SAKE."

2)Keep in mind is that we must regaulrly review them to see how we are doing. Again, Edwards is helpful here:

"Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week."

You could write the best mission statement known to man and never look at it again. This is not God-honoring. This is not redeeming the time. It is like being a hearer of the word and not a doer. I pray that we would be good stewards over this precious gift of time that we have been given. May God grant you resolve to glorify Him!

Productivity Organizations

I read a post on Justin Taylor's blog today regarding his friend (the director of radio and internet at Desiring God), Matt Perman. Perman was mentioned on the blog of productivity expert David Allen. In the blog, Allen quoted Perman's email that he had sent to him about the benefits of taking Mr. Allen's Minneapolis RoadMap seminar. Here it is:

"And thank you for the great work that you do. Getting Things Done and Ready for Anything have been paradigm-shaping books for me and several others I work with. It is so freeing to have a clear enough view of things that I can choose my work, rather than have it choose me. The GTD system has also taught our organization how to hold together our sometimes competing values of creativity and execution. In fact, the vision I now have for my department is: creativity, quickly executed."

Here is my question for you guys/gals: Is there anything wrong with Christians taking these types of courses (like Mr. Allen's or Franklin Covey's) to improve productivity and/or time management, etc? Some of you may think that this is a silly question to even ask because it seems like there is obviously no problem with it. I tentatively agree with you, but I just want to solidify my foundational thinking on this. The reason I even ask the question is because of two things:

1. Before I became a Christian I was really into the whole Franklin Covey thing - really into it. It was almost like a religion (I think it was an idol). It is something that you can get so wrapped up in that you find your happiness and satisfaction in "Getting things done". The problem is, what if you don't get things done? So when I became a Christian I think I shied away from it for fear of it becoming an idol. This may be unbalanced (I think it is), but you can help me with that.

2. I am a little leary of taking my cues about how I live my life from non-Christians. As someone with convictions about the sufficiency of scripture and the power of a nouthetic model of counseling as opposed to psychology sprinkled with Bible talk, it scares me a little to take courses like these and allow people with no Biblical foundation to counsel me as to how to live my life.

That being said, I have some other thoughts as to why this would not be a bad idea. Instead of me including my thoughts, I would like to allow you folks to help balance me out and point out where my thinking may be wrong in this regard. I'm hoping to get some good responses on this one. Perhaps you have benefited from these types of courses and would like to share why you wouldn't hesitate to read and/or practice some of the things that they teach. Talk to me...