Thursday 19 December 2013

Journal of Biblical Counseling 27, 3 (2013)


The latest issue of the Journal of Biblical Counseling is now available ($10 for a year’s electronic subscription of three issues), this one containing the following pieces:

Editorial

Featured Articles

Matthew C. Mitchell
A Gallery of Gossips
We’ve all been guilty of talking about others. Stories about other people titillate us, tempting us to pass the story on to the next person. Matt Mitchell helpfully identifies five common types of gossips. He explores the potential motivations of each, and pinpoints how the gospel of Christ provides an escape from the temptation to gossip.

Joshua Blount
Lessons from Proverbs: Not Just a Collection of One-Liners
Josh Blount identifies a problem all minsters struggle with: how do the big truths of the gospel connect to the daily details of a person’s life? Blount finds help for this question in the book of Proverbs. He traces the connection between the larger story of redemption and those succinct, practical bits of wisdom in Proverbs and offers advice for pastors and counselors about how to help others live out their faith in the everyday.

Pierce Taylor Hibbs
Words of Counsel – Part 2: Letting Words Work
In Part 2 of ‘Words of Counsel,’ Hibbs provides practical helps and guidelines for how counselors can ‘let words work’ when writing to those who are hurting and struggling. Even if you don’t see yourself as a writer, you still offer written words to those you help – even if only in an email – and Hibbs will help you do that in increasingly thoughtful ways.

David Powlison
Revisiting Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair
David Powlison’s article ‘Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair’ has had a long shelf-life and has often been cited. Over the years, we have heard of how people understand and apply this article helpfully – and we’ve also encountered ways that people misunderstand and misapply it. Powlison has now written a companion commentary to address these misunderstandings and to offer you a reading strategy. It is included here along with the original article.

Counselor’s Toolbox

Alasdair Groves
When Should Counseling End?
Our Counselor’s Toolbox articles provide practical help that counselors can immediately use in their own counseling. This offering aims to answer the recurring question, when should counseling end? Alasdair Groves lays out a simple framework to help counselors answer this question, and he walks out implications both for vocational counselors and pastors.

Lives in Process

Anonymous
When It’s All Up to You
We continue our Lives in Process series with a story of a woman who suffered from anxiety due to unrealistic expectations for helping others. Recognizing her limits enables her to still care deeply for others, while learning to trust that God truly will take care of the rest.

Lauren Tapscott
Flawless? A Perfectionist Humbled by a Perfect God
This Lives in Process testimony comes from a young woman who, since childhood, was tempted to both devise and pursue her own standards of perfection. Lauren Tapscott offers us a keen look into the dynamics of her struggle with perfectionism. She captures how God is helping her to grow by becoming more concerned with loving him and others than by attempting to be perfect.

Book Reviews

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