Spiritual Disciplines for Todays People

I was an adult living in Cincinnati when I first heard the term, "Spiritual Disciplines". In my church we did not think about the disciplines that might help us grow up into maturity in Christ. In fact, there was very little emphasis on growth in maturity. We tended to think of it more as growing in our ability to resist sinning.

Over the past several decades I have attended seminars gone on spiritual retreats, sponsored spiritual retreats, fasted, wrote down my dreams and done various other things to learn how to use some simple disciplines to grow up into God. I am still a novice at this stuff but I probably know more than most Christians.

That is why I am leading a time of learning and practicing various spiritual disciplines. I have found several approaches to be extremely helpful to me personally and some of them are quite easy to learn and apply.

Come to the Life Way Counseling Center in Blue Ash on Monday, August 8 and learn about "Touching the hem of His garment". See the enclosed brochure and contact us today so you can sign up along with other spiritually hungry friends.

Norways Grief

The news from Norway is grim and full of agony for the people who lost family and friends and for all Norwegians. Norwegians are justly proud of their national emphasis on peace, love and Christian compassion. The State Lutheran Church as well as the Lutheran Free Church and other Free Churches that are not State Controlled are among the most open and caring groups on the planet. That fact alone makes the headlines which scream that the killer of so many was a "Christian Fundamentalist" seem unreal and fantastic.

At this moment my prayers and condolences go to the many friends Karen and I have there. I have made over forty trips to Norway and other Scandinavian nations and I love the people and the way they treat others with so much care. That is why the recent killings seem so out of place and so painful for the Believers there and here to comprehend.

People tend to jump to conclusions and the temptation to do immediate Psychiatric analysis about the killer and his family are too much for many to resist. After reading an interview with his father I wanted to think that he was getting even with a very liberal dad who abandoned him as a child and had not seen him for decades. But that may not be true. I have never spoken to these people so it is probably my projection rather than his inner hate.

So, let us refrain from judging anyone but the killer and pray for our friends and the nation of Norway. Their grief must be overwhelming.

Shalom my friends.

Misery Loves Me

The past three Sundays I have spoken at two different churches on the power to heal or harm our brain by the ways we pray, think and relate with God. Today I am posting a sure fire way to be miserable now.

Many of us know that passage from Proverbs that says, "As a person thinks in his heart so he will become". (Sweeten Summary) Over the years I have found that to be quite true. It is one more incident where the Bible's wisdom that came from writers who lived thousands of years ago were inspired by the God who created us and knows how we operate. (Many people suggest that the Bible is actually "The Owner's Manual!)

Now let us quickly admit that thinking ALONE will not solve all our physical and spiritual problems but Stinking Thinking can certainly cause a lot of them. We also need prayer, love and sometime medicine. But, we might need less medicine and less healing prayers if we thought about God and the world with more faith and hope and love.

For all of you who struggle with fears, anxieties, depression and anger listen up. The main cause is often the fact that we react to life by REACTIVELY RUMINATING rather than MEDITATING on God and His word.

To Ruminate means that we ponder, review, compulsively embrace the painful events in our lives. We capture them and think about them and twist and turn them into poison pills that eat at our souls. Meditate is the opposite. It means that we ponder, recall, enjoy, review and regale in the goodness of God.

I want to ask you to consider one action step. Only ONE thing. Agree that at least three days each week you will choose to Meditate on God's grace and mercy and not Ruminate on your misfortunes.

Meditation versus Rumination

Bible stories are full of commands and examples of people who encounter God. Today those experiences would likely be considered signs of a mental illness, and some are because we have not learned how to distinguish between the two very different events.

As a Mental Health Professional and a Christian I have had to deal with some people who are so distressed and unbalanced that they hear voices and see visions of things that are not from God. I have also encountered people who did hear from God and see things in dreams and visions that were at least "Holy Spirit inspired".

Like St. Paul who was compulsed to go here and there as an evangelist until he heard from God to "Come over to Macedonia, we human Christians are a mixture of ideas from both the flesh and the Spirit. That makes the gift of discernment critically important. Unfortunately, because of our lack of experience and bad experiences with unbalanced "spirituality" we find i9t difficult to find people with enough maturity and wisdom to discern whether an experience is from God or man.

One of our problems is the tendency of the human brain to focus obsessively on defending ourselves not hearing God's voice. This means that the default position of the brain is divisive, angry and negative. That kind of over focus on the fallen world rather than God's word can block our ability to face God with love, grace and mercy. A negative focus is RUMINATION.

Rumination is my brain's desire to think on sin, temptation, condemnation, pain, failures and God's displeasure. Meditation focuses on God's love, mercy and grace. Read David's desires as stated in Psalm 27: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear.

If we meditate as David did on God's light and my salvation we will enjoy his positiver presence.

As David said, "I want to gaze on God". That will allow us to be built up in the Spirit not torn down in the flesh.

Effectiveness of Peer Helpers

Since I worked on a Doctorate in Counseling Education in the Seventies I have been interested in research about who is an effective Helper and why. For example, when I studied for a Masters
Degree the emphasis about effectiveness was almost totally on the theories of different authors. Our professors had us read all the "great and famous writers" and choose the one we thought would be the most effective in helping people in psychological pain.

None of us had any idea, of course, because we were there to learn what was most effective and now they said we had to figure it all out ourselves. I came from a small town where agriculture was the main employment. The farmers, generally speaking, knew what kind of soil grew corn best and which grew tomatoes best. They tried different crops and took notes about what happened from crop to crop. And, they looked at the results of the yield and decided what was the best thing to do.

Some of them attended agriculture school and actually read books about how to raise the biggest crops and biggest animals. They knew clearly that the goal was bigger ears of corn, more bushels per acre and more money in the bank.

Graduate school for Counseling and Education was different. Many people held theories about what Counselors ought to do but none of them bothered to see if their theories worked. In fact, there was great confusion about the goals of Counseling.

This approach lasted even through my Doctoral program and I was looking for a dissertation topic when I attended a week long workshop on"What Works and Does Not Work in Helping".
I discovered that there are several "CORE SKILLS" that are always present in effective Helpers. No matter what we call the Helpers, if they relate with these skills, the Seeker/Client will get better; improve; experience relief; reach his goals. And, it matters not if they have an advanced education or not.

Here are the core skills and attitudes:

Genuineness, Respect, Empathy and Warmth.

Have you noticed that these skills are mighty close to what the Bible tells us to do? Read Galatians 5 and see the Fruit of the Holy Spirit are: Love, Joy, Peace, Gentleness, Kindness, Patience, etc. These are foundational to helping people get better. Now take a look at this recent research.

A very sound study was conducted by Bright, Baker and Niemeyer in 1999 that compared professional and paraprofessional groups for treatment of depression using two therapeutic approaches - Cognitive Behavior Therapy and mutual support which is a self-help format widely taught to peer-led support groups. The patients included in the study were suffering with severe depression (BDI scores of 20 to 23 pre-treatment).

Here’s what they found:

1. Type of therapy - (CBT vs mutual support) - no difference
2. Therapist background - (professional or not) - no difference (non-significant trend favouring professionals with CBT but not mutual support)

The study is:

Bright JI, Baker KD, Niemeyer RA: Professional and paraprofessional group treatments for depression: A comparison of Cognitive-behavioral and mutual support interventions. J Consult Clin Psychol 1999, 67:491-501.

So, lay persons can be every bit as effective with hurting people as educated ones.

Let God Heal Your Soul

Resting Together

The promises of God about healing the ways we think, feel and act are numerous in the Bible and even more numerous in real life. As John Newton wrote in Amazing Grace, "I once was lost and now I am found; was blind and now I see."

It took a long time after receiving Christ for Newton to get his eyes opened so he saw just how evil the slave trade in which he was a key factor was. He had been a professing Christian for years before God's Holy Spirit got hold of him and convicted him of the sin of selling men and women as if they were cattle.

But Newton did see the light. He did repent and now he is known as a hero of the faith because his testimony has been sung multiplied millions of times. Amazing Grace is the most often recorded song by the most different array of singers, bands and orchestras in history. why? Why are people so infatuated by those words? why are they so powerful that they almost always bring tears to our eyes when we hear it played?

The text and the tune are both powerful. The text is all about getting a second chance or a third or a fourth. No matter how big and strong we are another chance looks good to us because we know our weaknesses and frailties. Some preachers think we need to confront people with their sins. they think too many modern churches have "Watered down the gospel" by offering God's love and grace too much.

I disagree. In my 40 or so years of counseling I have rarely met anyone who was not aware of their weaknesses. That awareness might be so painful and shameful; that they will refuse to look at it fully, but they know they are sinners. They know they have missed the marks in life. They know they need amazing grace but they may NOT know it has a sweet sound. In fact, the preaching they heard was overly strong on the ages of sin and not too much on the wages of grace.

So, John Newton was evidently writing to himself. He knew he was a sinner with an evil heart. He had used female slaves sexually and abused all of them. He had made money off breaking human hearts. Thankfully, God's grace broke in and he tasted the sweet candy of forgiveness and a clean heart.

What is bugging you? Do you need a big dose of God's grace and love? If so, take your medicine. A spoon full of grace will make that medicine go down. Go to God and agree with Him about your needs. He already knows all about your sin so get rid of it immediately.


See our web for more good stuff.

Relationships Bring Life or Death

it was the summer of 1969 and I had a study leave coming from my position as Assistant Dean of Students at the University of Cincinnati. My boss, Dr. Bill Nester, had just appointed me as his assistant and wanted to get some training for me in group dynamics. I had seen a three week conference planned with Dr. Carl Rogers leading it at the University of Illinois, and I wanted to go be with the most famous Counselor in America.

So, off I went to join about 75 other Psychologists, Counselors, Pastors and Priests in Champaign, Illinois for three weeks. It was a life changing three weeks because I was thrown in with a wide variety of therapists from all walks of life and all kinds of beliefs.

As a committed Christian I was always looking for ways to integrate my faith and my profession as a Counselor and Dean. I was thrilled to know that Dr. Carl Rogers and his team would be there for part of the time. I knew he was seminary drop out and thought we might be able to have some interesting discussions about faith. That did not happen with Dr. Rogers but it certainly did with some others.

Before we get to that, let me say what was one of the most powerful statements and teachings I heard during those three weeks of lectures and small group practices. First, Dr. Rogers said clearly that Professional Psychologists, Counselors and Social Workers were no more effective than ordinary men and women who acted as friends and supporters.

This was dynamite. I was shocked and stunned. I had finished a Masters Degree just two years before that and I was working on a Doctorate at that time. In fact, I was getting credit for "Independent Study" because of my attendance at his seminar. Why spend thousands of dollars on graduate education if it does not help?

Second, Dr. rogers added prophetically that in a few years there would be so many distressed and broken people in the USA that there would never be enough money and Professionals to treat all of them. The answer was??? Training and releasing Peer helpers!!!!!

Another famous Psychologist was also in attendance as a guest speaker. I had never heard of him. It was O.H. Mowrer, former President of the American Psychology Association and a strong supporter of Peer Support Systems. I was in a small group with Dr. Mowrer for a week and chatted with him for many hours.

He said something even more startling than the statements by Dr. Rogers. "The early church was the most powerful healing community that the world has ever known. People came into the church broken, bruised and distressed and they became whole. As an atheist I don't know why they taught all that supernatural stuff but it was a powerful source of healing."

I returned to Cincinnati with a passion to once again make churches into strong healing communities by training Peers to care, love and pray. They are the key source of healing, growth and change in the world if we can unleash them from their bondage to leaders that insist that the members must follow a top down approach.

Let my people grow!

Let my people Go!

If you want to join the army of peace, love joy and healing go to our web page and read about what we do so you can come and be with us.