This week, the Biblical Counseling Coalition and the Institute for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship have both featured interviews with Nate Brooks & Anna Mondal, authors of the new LifeLine Mini-book Help! Our Sex Life is Troubled by Past Abuse. Check them out at the links below. You can buy the mini-book here. Why we wrote Help! Our Sex Life is Troubled by Past Abuse Nate Brooks: I want readers of this book to know that they are not alone, that their struggle is not a “weird” one, and that the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and its implications offer them hope in the midst of sexual struggles due to past abuse. Sexual difficulties are rarely spoken of in the […]
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Why does your life (and mine) often trend toward that which is trivial? Because the default mode of the human heart is bent toward triviality. Unless intentional action is taken, you are always going to lean in the direction of pursuing that which is trivial. Just as your computer settings will operate under their default mode unless directed by you to do otherwise, so will your life. It’s not hard to pursue triviality because you have naturally done it your whole life. But what if there were some kind of work-around, intentional reset or deliberate action on your part to move away from triviality, to a life of meaning and purpose? What if you could push back against the default […]
Shepherd Press is pleased to announce When Disability Hits Home: How God Magnifies His Grace in Our Suffering and Weakness by Paul Tautges with Joni Eareckson Tada, a book to nurture practical faith in people who are directly or indirectly affected by disability. In disability, the heart of man becomes tethered to pain, thereby providing an unusual opportunity for God’s grace to be magnified and faith is trained to be dependent upon the Lord. In this book, written with compassion and sensitivity, Paul Tautges, with Joni Eareckson Tada, draws upon key biblical principles to nurture faith. Includes a Study & Discussion Guide. Pre-order here – expected to ship in late October / early November 2020. Also available for pre-order are […]
Two weeks ago, we became aware that the Wise Words for Moms App for iOS was no longer available on the iOS App Store. Worse, customers who had purchased the app found that it had disappeared from their devices. We investigated the issue and were able to resolve it yesterday. The Wise Words for Moms App is once more available for purchase from the App Store, and customers who have previously purchased should be able to reinstall it if it does not reappear on their devices automatically. We apologize for the lapse in availability and will do our best to keep it from happening in the future. Wise Words for Moms is also available as a calendar-sized chart and functions […]
Continued from Beholding and Becoming Life in the New Creation Paul describes the change believers have experienced as a new creation. In Ephesians 2:10, he says that we are the workmanship—the masterpieces!—of God “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Similarly, Paul reminds his readers that when they “learned Christ,” they were taught to “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:20–24).26 A parallel passage in Colossians 3 says the new man, “is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (v.10). And 2 Corinthians 5:17 exults that, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” […]
Continued from Restoration: New Man, New Creation The question this book aims to answer is how do we become like Jesus? How does the restoration of the image of God within our hearts take place? In the following chapters we will explore how Scripture gloriously answers this question. For now, let’s consider a passage that compellingly describes the transforming power of gazing at God’s glory revealed in Jesus. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory […]
Continued from Redemption: The Gracious Rescue In contrast to Adam, the first man, Jesus came as the second Adam, the true image-bearer of God. Paul, looking forward to the final resurrection, says: Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the […]
Continued from The Fall: Shattered Mirrors The good news is that God is reforging the shards! When he is finished, no trace of the breakage will remain. For God has formed a rescue plan. Not willing to abandon his creation to evil, God has purposed to redeem and restore the world by setting a new people apart for himself. Although hints of this plan are given even before the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden (Gen. 3:15), God’s redemptive mission truly began to take shape when he called Abraham.13 God promised to give Abraham two things: A son (and descendants) through whom the world would be blessed (Gen. 12:1–3), and a special land that would belong to his heirs […]
Continued from Created in His Image: Reflecting, Relating, Reigning The tragic reality, however, is that the mirror itself has been shattered. We rebelled against God and now live under his judgment and wrath (Gen. 3:16–19; Rom. 1:18). The image of God is therefore distorted. In Calvin’s words, God’s image is deformed, vitiated, mutilated, maimed, disease-ridden, and disfigured. This is true for all of us. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). We have failed to glorify God by not loving his person, obeying his laws, and delighting in his glory. Rather than exclusively worshiping our glorious Creator, we have served and worshiped created things (Rom. 1:21–23). We are “alienated from the life of God” […]
Continued from Creation: Images of His Glory Reflecting To be created in the image of God means we are designed to display God’s nature, character, and glory. As a mirror is made for reflection, so God created us to be mirrors of his character, instruments for reflecting his glory. Created in God’s image, we are invested with special dignity and entrusted with particular duties. Our distinct worth as human beings springs from being God’s image-bearers, the unique reflectors of his character on earth. The rest of creation declares God’s glory, speaking of it vividly in a great variety of ways (Ps. 19:1). But we reflect it, actually making it, in small part, visible and tangible. One of the supreme ways […]