Maturing in Christ: Recent Episodes
Mike Lawyer
Maturing in Christ is a podcast from the Center for Biblical Counseling, a ministry of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, hosted by Pastor Mike Lawyer. Dr. Lawyer is certified by ACBC and ABC, has a DMin in Biblical Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary, and has over 30 years of pastoral experience. Our prayer is for this podcast to be a helpful and practical resource in understanding methods to Biblical Counseling and ultimately to encourage and present everyone mature in Christ. All of Christ for all of life!
In the final installment of this multi part series Dr. Lawyer lays out the manner in which Christians should discipline their children while further emphasizing what the ultimate goal of discipline should be.
For more information and resources, please visit: https://www.cbcmoscow.com/
In this multi part series Dr. Lawyer lays out the manner in which Christians should discipline their children while further emphasizing what the ultimate goal of discipline should be.
In this multi part series Dr. Lawyer lays out the manner in which Christians should discipline their children while further emphasizing what the ultimate goal of discipline should be.
For more information and resources, please visit: https://www.cbcmoscow.com/
In this multi part series Dr. Lawyer lays out the manner in which Christians should discipline their children while further emphasizing what the ultimate goal of discipline should be.
For more information and resources, please visit: https://www.cbcmoscow.com/
It is important to notice all the emotions Jesus felt and exhibited. It is important because as we work to be like Christ, we need to also imitate his emotions. We tend to have a very cerebral Christianity, sometimes working hard to eliminate any culturally unacceptable emotions. But Jesus feared, he laughed, he cried, he was angry, he had lots of emotions and he had them all strongly. But he also felt them for the right reasons and expressed them in the right ways.
God gives authority to parents to lead and discipline their children, and He takes that authority seriously. In this podcast Dr. Lawyer further discusses biblical elements related to the God given authority of parents. For more information and resources, please visit: https://www.cbcmoscow.com/
God gives authority to parents to lead and discipline their children, and He takes that authority seriously. In this podcast Dr. Lawyer discusses biblical elements related to the God given authority of parents.
For more information and resources, please visit: https://www.cbcmoscow.com/
Pastor Mike talks about more reasons for the need to discipline our children: The eternal direction of our kids requires it; the temporal direction of our kids requires it; the love we have for our kids requires it; and the command of God requires it.
One of the things about Biblical Counseling that people tend to think not that important is theology. But theology is behind everything we do and is especially important in the Counseling process. What the Biblical counselor thinks about God, man, salvation, and sanctification (upward change) is extremely important if he or she is to be a faithful representative of Christ to hurting people. So, today, we want to talk about theology.
This is the first episode of a series on Child Discipline. It is about the context of discipline which is love. Love needs to fill the home and characterize the home or discipline will not work and in fact, will produce ugly children. Pastor Mike refers to Doug Wilson's book, Standing on the Promises and Jim Wilson's article, Saturation Love (found in How To Be Free From Bitterness).
When we come to Christ we get to start our lives all over again. All clean and pure. This is so that we can worship and walk with God. But also, after we are in Christ, every time we sin, we get to go to God and start all over again. But what this means is that we need to extend this same grace to others and let them start over again. And, if we refuse to forgive them, it shows that we might not have actually believed that God has given us this great gift.
Pastor Mike Lawyer talks about an approach to take to be a Biblical Counselor or a better one if you are one already.
Several fellows have asked me recently what my opinion is about them joining the military and/or police force. Today's podcast gives nine points to think about before joining up.
We often hear that God wants us to be happy and that blessing is often equated with being happy. But is this what blessed means and does God want us to be happy? And where does joy fit into this scenario? These questions are what Dr. Lawyer will be answering in this episode of Maturing in Christ.
This is my response to, one of the major criticisms of Biblical Counseling is that we talk about sin too much. “Someone comes to your office and you almost immediately start talking about confession of sin and repentance and not getting angry and on and on.” “That’s bad,” they say. “You’re so judgmental,” they say. “Who do you think you are, making everyone feel bad all the time,” they add.
Even after seeing and living in many and various miracles of God, the Israelites still grumbled about and against everyone around them including God himself. People moving to Moscow are tempted to grumble, complain, or simply be dissatisfied with what they find or don’t find when they move here. And in marriage, couples can, even though they just married the love of their life, quickly become dissatisfied with their new situation and can grumble against their spouse and their God. These situations can be very similar to the Israelites situation. In this chat, I want to talk about these things and give a short remedy for a dissatisfied soul.
Sometimes and some sense our context drives our obedience. If we think we have been wronged, we act in certain ways. If we think we are privileged, we act in other ways. If we know that God loves us and that Jesus died for us, we’ll also act in certain ways.
How we set up the context of a counseling session will serve to help our CEs think about their lives in different ways and thus if we are godly and set up the counseling session in a godly way, perhaps we may have better reception by our CEs to serve God better.
This week Pastor Mike explains how to think about one another before you get into a fight so that you can fight the right way. If you need to fight at all.
Today, I want to talk about what I generally do in the second session of Biblical Counseling.
Books referred to in this talk:
Reforming Marriage, Douglas Wilson
Strengthening Your Marriage, Wayne Mack
When Sinners Say I Do,
Shame Interrupted, Ed Welch
Finally Free, Heath Lambert
This week Pastor Mike Lawyer talks about how to structure the first counseling session.
Sometimes, maybe often, when we are presented with people and their problems, we are tempted to be sucked into the problem with them and to try to “help” them by resolving what we see right in front of us. If someone is having difficulties with their wife or husband, for example, we try to help them with their wife or husband. But what we forget is that the family problem is really a problem with their relationship with God. Sometimes we just need to submit to God and do what he says, even if we don't want to or we think it doesn't make any sense.
We live in a world of differences: opinions, looks, ideas, thoughts, behaviors, etc. We often run into one another and don't have all that great a time doing it. Today Dr. Lawyer us going to talk about how to disagree with folks agreeably.
Biblical counselors need to remember that they represent God. Today we're talking about why that is and some ramifications of this understanding.
This week we talk about some ideas for how to proceed in being a better, more skilled and qualified Biblical counselor.
Today we’re going to talk about what Nouthetic Counseling was/is and what Biblical Counseling is, why we changed the name, and why I like the change.
I didn’t mention in the podcast a couple of books you might read if you want a much more detailed representation of the history of Nouthetic Counseling and the Biblical Counseling movement since Dr. Adams. First is, The Biblical Counseling Movement, by David Powlison. The second is The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams, by Heath Lambert.
Pastor Mike Lawyer defines and expounds on what every person has, which is presuppositions. How do our presuppositions affect the way we look at the world? How we view God? Why are presuppositions important to understand in regards to Biblical Counseling? Listen in on the Maturing in Christ Podcast!
On February 21st, 2020, the Center for Biblical Counseling hosted a mini-conference on Examining Depression. Part 1 introduces the conference by defining what depression is and how should Christians counsel through depression biblically.
Pastor Mike Lawyer talks about the topic of prayer: What is prayer, how to pray, what to pray for, and much more! Book recommendation: Prayer: Conversing with God by Rosalind Rinker
This week Pastor Mike talks about our response to the Gospel and what true faith looks. Book Review: Ploductivity by Douglas Wilson
Pastor Mike Lawyer talks about God's love being efficacious. Book recommendation: Disciplines of a Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes.
Pastor Mike Lawyer expands in this episode on what it means "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3).
What is the reason for the good news? Why did God send His only begotten Son into the world? Pastor Mike Lawyer expands from the previous episode on the reason for this glorious Gospel message as well as the application to Biblical Counseling.
This week Pastor Mike Lawyer explains what the gospel is as well as how all of Scripture points to Christ and this gospel. In the second half, Pastor Mike gives a summary of how Biblical Counseling relates to the gospel, doubt, and unbelief.
Welcome to Maturing in Christ, a podcast from the Center for Biblical Counseling, a ministry of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, hosted by Pastor Mike Lawyer. Dr. Lawyer is certified by ACBC and ABC, has a DMin in Biblical Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary, and has over 30 years of pastoral experience. In this brand new episode, Dr. Lawyer introduces the podcast by answering the question: What is Biblical Counseling? As well as how did the Biblical Counseling movement start? Join in on a brand new podcast to bring everyone mature in Christ!