James MacDonald, Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling: Changing Lives With God's Changeless Truth Quotes
A rebellion against God, even as believers, is fueled by the toxic fumes of unbelief.
You can't teach a person to love something. But you can get him to feel the heat of your love for something.
The counselee should be aware that you are not God. Better yet, she should be aware that you are aware that you are not God.
A soul that is happy in the things of God can overcome tremendous obstacles.
The body of Christ is about doing life together, and by doing life together sin is revealed.
We are less interested in the number of disciples and more interested in the quality of discipleship.
Counseling is ultimately not about the counselee or the counselor, but about the Divine Counselor.
Many pastors would rather preach God's Word and keep their distance than invest in a personal one-on-one counseling ministry. Most pastors counsel because they have to, not because they want to.
If our counseling is truly Christ-centered, then the topic of forgiveness will inevitably come up in the journey toward growth and change.
Small groups are the place to push past Bible knowledge and on to life application so that we can see people's lives transform more and more into the image of Christ.
So often, it's others around us who can see where God wants to grow us even before we see it ourselves.
Any counseling that does not pursue spiritual formation through an intimate relationship with Jesus by faith as one of its chief goals is not worthy to be called BIBLICAL counseling.
We must evaluate every person, place, product, perspective, position, or pleasure we have looked to in place of the promises of God, and turn away from those things accordingly.
In healthy churches, the pastors life, not just his words, sets the tone for the church.
At the end of life, each of us must answer the question, Whose story captured my soul?
While the United States is becoming the most culturally diverse nation in the world, less than 5.5% of Christian congregations are multiethnic.
One of the most frequent sins of omission is the failure to get adequate rest.
Reality is God-centered and all human beings are worshipers, whether or not they are conscious of this reality and its implications.
Spending too much time in one's individual silo can produce pride, isolation, and a stagnated ministry.
The role of biblical counselors is facilitate the discovery of a greater God awareness through spiritual eyes that look at life through scriptural lenses.
This is God's world, so everything, even if it intends to efface God, bears witness to God – understood and interpreted through biblical eyeglasses.
Our hearts are wired for worship, and our worship is directly tied to our sense of hope.
God's Word is especially suited to directing those who want to focus primarily on the nature and direction of their own hearts.
A continual diet of the Word satisfies, and it builds an appetite for more.
Who we are is not a question we can ask without seeking to understand the context in which we live. Biblical counselors seek to understand the influences that shape the responses of the human heart.
