CCEF Podcast: Where Life & Scripture Meet

"Anything that presses us forward towards each other with a desire to know the Lord and know his people and know how to love better is going to be helpful. Better to be thinking and reflecting more rather than less if you’re doing it with love and humility and the desire for wisdom.” How do we think biblically about personality tests? Are they helpful, harmful, or potentially both? Does Scripture have anything to say about personality? In this episode, Alasdair Groves discusses these questions and more.   Related resources: “Personality Tests” podcast episode by Ed Welch: https://www.ccef.org/podcast/personality-tests/ “What does temperament have to do with biblical counseling?” video by David Powlison: https://www.ccef.org/video/what-does-temperament-have-do-biblical-counseling/ “Psychological Tests: Are You For or Against?” blog post by Ed Welch: https://www.ccef.org/psychological-tests-are-you-or-against/ “Describe a Person Well and You Win that Person” blog post by Ed Welch: https://www.ccef.org/describe-person-well-and-you-win-person/

What is conversion therapy and how do we think biblically about it? How do we engage with and offer the hope found in Christ to those struggling with same-sex attraction, transgenderism, and other LGBTQ+ issues? How do we navigate our role as disciplers in a world where the definition of “counselor” is increasingly broad? In this episode, Alasdair Groves discusses these questions and more through the lens of a biblical counselor.   Check out other CCEF resources on these topics: “The Silence is Deafening: Understanding and Welcoming Those with Same-Sex Attraction” conference talk by Mike Emlet: https://www.ccef.org/shop/product/the-silence-is-deafening-understanding-and-welcoming-those-with-same-sex-attraction/ “Gender Identity” podcast episode by David Powlison and Alasdair Groves: https://www.ccef.org/podcast/gender-identity/ “When Your Child Says ‘I’m Gay’” conference talk by Michael Gembola: https://www.ccef.org/shop/product/child-says-im-gay/ “Five Ministry Prioriites for those Struggling with Same-Sex Attraction” JBC article by Mike Emlet: https://www.ccef.org/shop/product/five-ministry-priorities-struggling-sex-attraction/ “A Recent Question I Was Asked About Homosexuality” blog by Ed Welch: https://www.ccef.org/question-i-was-recently-asked-about-homosexuality/

Through the specific example of video game addiction, Alasdair Groves illustrates a broader skill fundamental to biblical counseling: learning to see and draw out what is good, even in the midst of someone making a mess of their life.   “In Hebrews 10, the Lord calls us as Christians to spur one another on to love and good deeds. That's an invitation to an incredible wealth of creativity as believers in thinking about how to apply this passage. Finding the traces of good in someone's bad decisions is one way of growing and being able to spur people on to love and good deeds. It’s a microcosm for seeing the surprising-ness of the hope and power of the gospel.”   Related Resources: “An Open Letter to a Discouraged Saint” blog by Mike Emlet: https://www.ccef.org/an-open-letter-to-a-discouraged-saint/ “Seeing the People in Front of You” blog by Darby Strickland: https://www.ccef.org/seeing-the-people-in-front-of-you/

"We are never outside of the tender care of God. It's true when we sleep. It's true when we struggle to get out of bed. It's true when we fail to read the Bible. It's true when we aren't eating healthily. It's true when everything just feels bleak."

"Leviticus is probably not the first place that people think about life meeting scripture. Most of us don't get to January 1st, planning to read through the Bible this year, and put the day on their calendar that we get to start Leviticus. That's not how most of us tend to function. Of course, if you have read the entire Bible, you have a sense that the book of Leviticus is quite important."

"Think about Psalm 103. That beautiful phrase, "For the Lord knows that we are dust." He sees our frailty, He knows how fragile we are, and He meets us in that." 

"The problem is not that our desires need to stay constantly small and in check to make sure they don't threaten our feeble love for Christ. It's rather, we want our love for Christ to grow and grow"

“Biblical hope is, God is with you. You are not alone in the wilderness. God is with you and that changes everything.”

“If we are people of the God of grace, and the word of God is utterly full of grace, then any true words we say ought to be full of grace as well.”

“The Bible offers one central way of dealing with our negative emotions: we pray them. We take our deeply distressing emotions and we run to the Lord, placing them in his hands."