The False Seducer's Story

Soul Physicians: Chapter Six Review
The False Seducer’s Story

Note: This is a guest blog by Pastor Mark Kelly who is working his way through Soul Physicians section by section and blogging along the journey. Thanks Pastor Mark! Visit Mark’s excellent, informative blog at: http://gracedependent.com/. Posted on August 31.

This is a review of chapter 6 of Dr. Bob Kellemen’s Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

Look in anyone’s photo album of their wedding day. There is no hint of upcoming disaster, affairs or illicit relationships. Rather there are broad smiles, couples enthralled with the beauty of their spouse…stars in their eyes, oblivious to those gathered to celebrate with them. What happens? Why is it that divorce rates are so high? Where did the commitment go? “How is anyone first lured into an affair?” (p.97)

How do we move from being captivated by the wonder of God to losing our love for Him?

In chapter 6, Dr. Kellemen describes the one that would seduce us and draw us away from our Worthy Groom. It is Satan, the once beautiful, glorious cherub, now accuser of man and destroyer of all that is good. It is in this chapter that Dr. K reveals the personality of our chief enemy:

*Diabolos is a Relational Being: The false seducer who allures others to divorce the Worthy Groom

1. “In our fallenness, we bear Satan’s image whenever we turn our backs on God, whenever we turn to anyone but God for ultimate satisfaction, whenever we worship anyone but God, whenever we choose to be self-sufficient, whenever we refuse to be needy” (p.98)

2. These are tough words to hear. They are even tougher to communicate in a loving way to those with whom we counsel. God will not give His glory to another. We are created to worship Him and bring Him glory.

*Diabolos is a Rational Being: The great deciever who blinds others to the Worthy Groom’s beauty and majesty

1. “In our fallenness, we bear Satan’s image whenever we choose to leave God out of the picture, whenever we choose to look at life with eyeballs only instead of looking at life with spiritual eyes – from God’s perspective. The essence of our rational sin is our refusal to maintain a biblical image of God” (p.98)

2. How easy it is to fall for Satan’s deceptions! We are constantly bombarded with the fact that we can’t trust God, that He does not have our best interest in mind – to believe that God’s glory is a myth.

*Diabolos is a Volitional Being: The man slayer who condemns to death the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve

1. “In our fallenness, we bear Satan’s image whenever we bite and devour one another (Gal.5:15). We bear his image whenever our tongues bitterly attack others (James 3). Who are we destroying with our bitterness? Who are we condemning and shaming with our judgmental accusations?” (p.99)

2. Satan not only seeks to destroy us individually, but to use us in the destruction of others. He is labeled biblically as a lion, a dragon and an accuser of the brothers. How often we resemble him more than Christ!

*Diabolos is an Emotional Being: The desperate hater who despises others

1. “We bear Satan’s fallen image whenever we search for satisfaction in the temporal and the sensual. When we do, we enslave ourselves to constant addictive dissatisfaction that leads to a continual lust for more – endless cravings to grasp, take, hoard, and clutch. However, the more we grasp, the more we shrink”. (p.100)

2. Why do we settle for so much less than what God has for us? Where are we seeking satisfaction? Satan would have us seek gratification in the temporal, God would have us seek gratification in the eternal.

This chapter was a difficult one to review. I would much rather read of the glorious nature of God than to be reminded of the evil that seeks to destroy me…or face areas of life where I bear Satan’s image more than the image of Christ. We must remind one another of the Truth that is our defense, the Light that dispels darkness and the Grace which restores when we fail.

Preview Soul Physicians here: http://bit.ly/7vaE

Soul Physicians Chapter Four Book Review

Soul Physicians: Chapter Four Review
Our Worthy Groom’s History

Note: This is a guest blog by Pastor Mark Kelly who is working his way through Soul Physicians section by section and blogging along the journey. Thanks Pastor Mark! Visit Mark’s excellent, informative blog at: http://gracedependent.com/. Posted on August 26.

Part 4 of an ongoing study of Dr. Bob Kellemen’s counseling resource: Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

Chapter four begins a journey in which Dr. Kellemen introduces the reader to “the Creator of the Soul”. The journey takes us to the core of our thinking when we counsel. It challenges our most foundational thought processes.

Too often the counselor (biblical counselors included…myself included) become “solution-focused” counselors rather than large story counselors.

What does Dr. K mean by that? “All secular models of counseling reduce life to a set of principles and procedures designed to help counselees manage life better without God. All truly Christian models of counseling expand life to God’s eternal perspective, assisting counselees to realize they cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God“ (p.59).

Kellemen proposes, and I agree, that Trinitarian theology presents the solution to our disjointed and deteriorating relationships. It does this by modeling the proper relationships for us. In order for us to totally grasp this, we must move in our counseling, not just to creation and the created purpose, but to what existed before creation. The Trinitarian relationship is what existed before creation existed.

To quote Dr. Bob, “…If we are going to learn spiritual friendship, then let’s look to the ultimate Spiritual Friend and the eternal Spiritual Friendship: the Trinity. The relationship within the Trinity models how we ought to relate. Father, Son and Holy Spirit demonstrate how love lives.”

Before God created…He related.

It begins to make sense then that as we use His word, our “relational manual”, and understand His communication to us on how relationships should exist – that we will then experience: “…engagement, enjoyment, playfulness, faith, hope, and love”. It would naturally follow that we would become “radically other-centered, totally unselfish” – just as He is. We should begin to ask in the midst of every circumstance, relationship and situation: “Where is God in all this?”

Kellemen ends each chapter with “Ministry Implications”, which I thoroughly enjoy because it puts feet to thought. Here are his implications from chapter 4:

*Expand life – Don’t settle for solution-focused counseling; be relationship-focused and character-driven, emphasizing internal and eternal issues

*Enter People – Cast off detailed “professionalism” and wade into people’s lives

*Enjoy People – Lovingly approach your fellow “image bearers” and take delight in them

*Emphasize God – Where is God is all this? Where do you see His sovereign hand? How is He conforming you into the image of His Son through what you are experiencing?

Preview Soul Physicians here: http://bit.ly/7vaE

Guest Blog: Mark Kelly on Soul Physicians, Part 3

Soul Physicians: God’s Passionate Romance Novel (pt.3)

Note: This is a guest blog by Pastor Mark Kelly who is working his way through Soul Physicians section by section and blogging along the journey. Thanks Pastor Mark! Visit Mark’s excellent, informative blog at: http://gracedependent.com/

Posted on August 25, 2009 by gracedependent

This is part three of an ongoing reading / studying of Dr. Robert Kellemen’s counseling resource: Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction

I’ve heard it stated this way before and was interested to see what Dr. Kellemen’s take on it would be: “God’s Word…is His love letter to you.” It is in Scripture that we find, not only that we are part of a Heroic Grand Adventure but, we are smack in the middle of a passionate romance novel. God is love – we know that; but how does that impact me on the morning that I get a pink slip at work, the doctor reveals that the dark spot on the lung indeed is cancerous, or I find myself choosing again to sin in a destructive manner? What are the things that pull at my mind and heart during these times? How can I make sense of it all? Does Scripture speak to any of that…and is God really loving if He allows all this?

Dr. K makes an incredible statement in this chapter: “For the Bible to make a difference in our lives, we need to understand the difference the Bible intends to make. The Bible is God’s love letter designed to melt our adulterous hearts.” When we truly live a life that is impacted by God’s love, we live dying to self and living for God and others. (All part of those “love” commandments that Jesus referred to). And the only way we can do that is through the grace found in Jesus Christ. We constantly make choices of “lovers” in our life: will I love Christ or will I be seduced by Satan?

As we journey through struggles and sins, Satan bombards us with fallacies, such as: “Doubt God/Trust Yourself” which leads to “Doubt God/Hate Yourself” and finally “Doubt God/Beautify Yourself”. These are expounded in this chapter – a must read.

Christ battles these fallacies and provides the ultimate “antidote” to these wrong ways of thinking through faith and hope. Faith destroys mistrust and Hope vanquishes condemnation.

It is through the pages of Scripture that we see the hope for ourselves and others as we “…understand that justification is [our] current standing before the Father, that sanctification is [our] ongoing promise by the Spirit, and that glorification is [our] future guarantee in Christ.

In the upcoming chapters (4-7) we’ll see how Dr. K describes “Knowing the Creator of the Soul: The Great Physician – the Trinity”. If you have not yet picked up a copy of Soul Physicians, please visit RPM Ministries today.

Preview here: http://bit.ly/7vaE

Mark Kelly Reviews Soul Physicians

Mark Kelly Reviews Soul Physicians: Chapter One

Mark Kelly blogs at Grace Dependent at: http://gracedependent.com/

He has started a series of post going through each chapter of Soul Physicians.

You can find his first post here: http://bit.ly/rqA3a which I have copied below.

Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction (pt.1)
Posted on August 20, 2009 by gracedependent

I received recently a wonderful package that I would encourage any pastor, counselor or lay leader to invest in.

Dr. Robert Kellemen has four books that I think will be key in anyone’s counseling ministry: Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, Beyond the Suffering and Sacred Friendships.

I am just now reading Soul Physicians and would like to blog my notes or items of interest from each chapter. Below you will find points of interest from chapter 1. (they may appear quite random apart from the context in which they are found)

Chapter One: The Soul Physician’s Desk Reference Manual:

*God’s Word is the “Soul Physician’s Desk Reference Manual”. We use it to “nourish hungry souls”. In it God tells His story, describing life as a war and a wedding:

*Life is a war in that God has called us to die daily.

*Life is a wedding in that Christ has called us to love intimately.

*As “soul physicians”, we must master 3 “core counselor competencies” in using the Bible:

*Trialogues – the counselor, counselee and the Holy Spirit interact via God’s Word

*Spiritual Conversations – the counselor and counselee explore how biblical principles relate to daily life

*Scriptural Explorations – the counselor and counselee explore the relevance and application of specific passages

*The quote below impacted me in a great way:

“At times we mistakenly counsel Christians as if they were non-Christians. We view our clients or parishoners only through the lens of depravity. This is like a heart surgeon transplanting a perfectly healthy heart into her patient, but then treating the patient as if he still has the old heart in his chest. We are new creations with a new nature: regeneration and redemption. God has implanted a new heart into the core of our being with new power to live godly lives. We have a new nuture: reconciliation and justification. Christ provides a new relationship of complete acceptance with God and freedom from condemnation. We are cleansed and forgiven.” (p.21)

*Every non-biological problem is a grace-deficiency problem.

Interesting thought there!

*Soul Care: The evils we have suffered

Sustaining: “It’s normal to hurt”
Healing: “It’s possible to hope”

*Spiritual Direction: The sins we have committed

Reconciling: “It’s horrible to sin, but wonderful to be forgiven”
Guiding: “It’s supernatural to Mature”

*Load the conscience with guilt and lighten the conscience with grace.

Something to remember when counseling – especially self-counsel.

There were a great number of things to take note of while reading just this first chapter. I urge Biblical Counselors everywhere to invest in these resources.