4 Biblical Compass Points for Biblical Counseling, Part 1: Parakaletic Counseling for Suffering

1. 4 Biblical Compass Points for Biblical Counseling, Part 1: ParakaleticCounseling for Suffering

2. What Do We Do After the Hug? What Do We Say After We Pray?

3. Helping Hurting People Can Feel Like a Maze!

4. We Need a Biblical GPS

5. Pastor Carl’s Story • How would you minister to Pastor Carl in his suffering? How would you minister to Pastor Carl in his struggle against sin? Where would you start and why? • What “map” or “model” would guide you as you helped Pastor Carl?

6. Our GPS: Scripture and Soul for Suffering and Sin Pastoral care is defective unless it can deal thoroughly both with the evils we have suffered and with the sins we have committed.

7. Biblical Counseling for Suffering and Sanctification • Sustaining: “It’s Normal to Hurt”—Empathize (Romans 12:15) • Healing: “It’s Possible to Hope”—Encourage (Ephesians 3:20)

8. Biblical Counseling for Sin and Sanctification • Reconciling: “It’s Horrible to Sin, but Wonderful to Be Forgiven”—Enlighten (Romans 5:20) • Guiding: “It’s Supernatural to Mature”— Empower (Philippians 3:10)

9. Biblical Counseling: Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding

10. Gospel-Centered Comfort For Suffering & Sanctification • Comfort: Co-fortitude • Parakaletic: Called along side to help • Suffering and Sanctification: “God is good even when life is bad.” • Hope: Finding God even when we can’t find relief.

11. Sustaining • “It’s normal to hurt.” • Permission to grieve. • “Life is bad.” • The earthly story.

12. Listenwith Gospel Ears to Their Earthly Story “It was in the fall of 1879 that I met Charlotte Brooks. I have spent hours with her listening to her telling of her sad life of bondage in the cane-fields of Louisiana.” Do Not Be Ignorant of One Another’s Suffering: 2 Corinthians 1:3-8

13. EmpathizeLike Christ with Their Earthly Story “Poor Charlotte Brooks! I can never forget how her eyes were filled with tears when she would speak of all her children: ‘Gone, and no one to care for me!’” Climb in the Casket!

14. EmpathizeLike Christ with Their Earthly Story “Aunt Charlotte, my heart throbs with sympathy, and my eyes are filled with tears, whenever I hear you tell of the trials of yourself and others.” Compassionate Commiseration

15. Olaudah Equiano:ComfortThem with Christ’s Comfort in Their Earthly Story

16. Comfort Them with Christ’s Comfort in Their Earthly Story “The only comfort we had was in being in one another’s arms all that night, and bathing each other with our tears.” People Need Our Christlike Presence

17. Comfort Them with Christ’s Comfort in Their Earthly Story “Are the dearest friends and relations still to be parted from each other, and thus prevented from cheering the gloom of slavery with the small comfort of being together, and mingling their sufferings and sorrows?” Shared Sorrow Is Endurable Sorrow

18. EnterTheir Earthly Story Incarnationally “Happy should I have ever esteemed myself to encounter every misery for you, and to procure your freedom by the sacrifice of my own!” Incarnational Suffering

19. Point Them to Jesusin Their Earthly Story “La, me, child! I never thought any body would care enoughfor me to tell of my trials and sorrows in this world! None but Jesus knows what I have passed through.” Jesus with Skin On!

20. Engage in Sustaining Gospel Trialogues • Trialogues

21. Engage in Sustaining Gospel Trialogues • “I’m so sorry for all that you’re going through…” • “I can only begin to imagine what you might be feeling and experiencing...” • “If it were me, I think I might be feeling _______. How does that relate to how you’re feeling?” • “Let’s look at what the Bible teaches about feeling and expressing anger and even doubt in a situation like yours…” • “Let’s explore how Paul turned to Christ and the Body of Christ for comfort in 2 Corinthians 1…”

22. Engage in Sustaining Gospel Trialogues • “Jesus wept. He cares. He collects your tears in His bottle. What would it be like for you to cry out to Christ for His comfort?” • “In the garden, Christ fully expressed His heart to His Father. What would it be like for you to do that?” • “In 2 Corinthians 1, the Apostle Paul admitted that he despaired. How do his feelings compare to yours?” • “If you penned a Psalm 13; Psalm 88; or 2 Corinthians 1, what would it sound like?”

23. Maturing As a Gospel-Centered Comforter • Who has sustained you by helping you sense that “it’s normal to hurt”? Who has “climbed in the casket” with you? How? How did it minister to you? 2. How could you use these 6 compass points of sustaining to empathize with and provide gospel comfort for God’s people? 3. How can we equip God’s people to offer one another biblical counseling sustaining?

24. Healing • Healing—“It’s possible to hope.” • Encouragement to grow. • “God is good.” • The eternal/heavenly story.

25. Stretch Them to the Larger Redemptive Story • When Life Stinks, Our Perspective Shrinks. • Crop Christ Back into the Picture! • Ask: “What is God up to in this?” “How is Christ at work in your life in this?” • Celebrate the Empty Tomb!

26. Stretch Them to Christ’s GraceStory

27. Stretch Them to Christ’s GraceStory • “They were exhorting the people, warning them to remember the judgment of God, asking them to be witnesses of the prisoners’ joy in suffering…because of Christ’s love.” Cling to Our Image of God’s Holy Love

28. Stretch Them to Christ’s GraceStory • “Perpetua followed with a quick step as a true spouse of Christ, the darling of God, her brightly flashing eyes quelling the gaze of the crowd.” Cling to Our Image of Who/Whose We Are in Christ

29. Stretch Them to the ResurrectionStory • “Her friends were equally sad at the thought of abandoning such a good friend to travel alone on the same road to hope.” Travel Together on the Road to Resurrection Hope

30. Stretch Them to the ResurrectionStory • “The day of their victory dawned, and with joyful countenances they marched from the prison arena as thoughon their way to heaven. If there was any trembling, it was from joy, not fear.” Weave in the Truth: We Are More Than Conquerors!

31. Stretch Them to the Eternal Story • “Perpetua was singing victory Psalms as if already crushing the head of the Egyptian.” See Life with CrossEyes

32. Stretch Them to the ScripturalStory: Engage in Healing Gospel Trialogues • “God’s timing and ours are often light years apart. What are you experiencing as you wait on God? As you hope in Christ?” • “Satan wants to use your suffering to suck the life out of you. How can you connect to Christ’s resurrection power to find new zeal for God? How can you not only survive, but thrive?” • “How could you relate Paul’s gospel perspective on his suffering in Romans 8:17-39 to your life? How could taking on his perspective alter yours?”

33. Stretch Them to the ScripturalStory: Engage in Healing Gospel Trialogues • “How could knowing the end of the story in Revelation 19 impact your life today?” • “God is all-powerful, holy, and loving. What impact do these attributes of God have on you as you face this difficult situation?” • “Like David in Psalm 27, how have you been able to worship God in the midst of this?” • “How could the eternal perspective of 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 impact your response to this painful situation?”

34. Picturing Gospel Conversations

35. Maturing As a Gospel-Centered Encourager • Who has joined you in the healing process by helping you to sense “it’s possible to hope”? Who has “celebrated the resurrection with you” and stretched you to Christ? How? How did it minister to you? 2. How could you use these 5 healing compass points to encourage God’s people to see life from Christ’s resurrection perspective? 3. How can we equip God’s people to offer one another biblical counseling healing?

36. 4 Biblical Compass Points for Biblical Counseling, Part 1: ParakaleticCounseling for Suffering