Christian Leadership Training Institute

1-1-12-The Bible

(Mt. 7:20)
"Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."

We should evaluate teachers' words by examining their lives. Just as trees are consistent in the kind of  fruit they produce, good teachers consistent in the kind of fruit they produce, good teachers consistently exhibit good behavior, and high moral character as they attempt to live out the truth of Scripture.  This does not mean we should have witch-hunts, throwing out church school teachers, pastors, and others who are less than perfect.  Every one of us is subject to sin, and we must show the same mercy to others that we need for ourselves.  When Jesus talks about bad trees, he means teachers who deliberately teach false doctrine.  We must examine the teachers motives, the direction they are taking and the result they are seeking.

(Mt. 24:23-24)
"At that time if anyone says to you; 'Look here is the Christ!!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it.  For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect-if that were possible."

Jesus' warnings about false teachers still hold true.  Upon close examination it becomes clear that many nice-sounding messages don't agree with God's message in the Bible.  Only a solid foundations in God's Word can equip us to perceive the errors and distortions in false teaching.

Goals:

Participants may:

1. Discover with the group the Bible's potential as a caring resource.

2. Practice using the Bible as a tool for caring.

3. Gain increasing familiarity with the content of the Scriptures.

4. Learn to prize the Bible the Bible as God's Word to us.

5. Discover other ways in which God communicates with us.

6. Experience Christian community with the group.

Opening Prayer

Blessed Lord, you have caused all of the Bible to be written for our instruction and growth.  Help us diligently to read it, hear you speak through it, and take its message to heart, so that by its comfort we can comfort and care for others.  Amen.

The Bible

Many of the guidelines for prayer covered in the previous chapter also apply to the use of the Bible in a training relationship.  For example, as with prayer, your use of the Bible needs to fit in as a natural part of your total conversation.  Just as you need to choose prayers to meet the specific needs of a person, so should you gear the sharing of biblical principles and passages to people's specific needs.  There are two additional points to make namely why and how you can use the Bible  effectively in your training relationships.

Why Use the Bible

The Bible  is an excellent resource for training people because it records how God has trained His children through the ages.

The Bible summarized the work of Jesus, saying, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).  The people you train are people experiencing the bad news of the world.  They live in the midst of suffering, oppression, conflict, grief, sickness, tragedy, and finally death itself.  They could use some good news: they could use the gospel.

Therefore, you use the written Word of God because it contains the message people need to hear.  You use the written Word of God because it is practical: it deals with the same kinds of concerns people still have.  But there's a third reason to use the Word of God: it's alive!  To paraphrase St. Augustine: "What the Scriptures say, God says."  The Word of God works in the hearts of believers for good.

This is not to suggest that you should administer the Bible in large doses at every opportunity.  A physician with a good drug does not prescribe it for every illness.  You listen, you diagnose, and you use the Bible as a resource when it is appropriate.

How to Use the Bible Effectively

Choosing a Translation

The Bible translation you decide to use in your training will depend on your personal preference.  Sometimes people you train will feel more comfortable with a certain translation, and in such instances you might want to honor their preference.  But there are also times when a good modern translation breathes fresh meaning into Scripture for someone.  If you know which version an individual prefers, bring it with you, or ask permission to use the person's Bible; this is preferable.  It will help the trainee become familiar with it.

Carrying a Bible

If you carry a Bible with you, it is a good idea to mark appropriate passages ahead aof time with slip of paper so you won't have to thumb around frantically trying to find a passage.  A smaller sized Bible might be the best to use, one you can slip into your pocket or purse.  A large Bible can create the impression that you came to bludgeon the other person into insensibility with a flurry of verses.  If you do carry a larger Bible, keep it at your side rather than setting it down between you and the other person.  In this way it will not interfere with the conversation, yet will be handy when you're ready to use it.

Knowing Passages Ahead of Time

In order to use the Bible effectively, it is important to know passages relevant to some typical situations.  You can begin by keeping a list of appropriate passages as you do your own reading and collect verses from others.  You might ask the people you care for if any verses are especially significant for them.  That will not only equip you to be a better trainer to them, but also will allow them to give you something.

Knowing some passages beforehand enables you to choose appropriate ones quickly and easily, matching them to the needs of the person.  You might want to mark some of these passages in your Bible, or commit them to memory.

Introducing Scripture

When you think it would be helpful to refer to Scripture, you might say:

What should you say after sharing a selection from the Bible with someone?  Sometimes no further comment is necessary, since a passage might have spoken clearly and directly to the person's need.  Other times you might wish to share a few of your thoughts about the passage and how it relates to an individual.  Or you can simply ask the person, "Does this spark any thoughts or feelings in you that you'd like to share?"  Be open to discussion.

Sometimes you and the other person will want to spend time discussing a passage.  It is not a waste of time to spend much of a visit talking about one of more biblical selections if these center around the needs of the individual.  In this kind of discussion, avoid extensive monologs.  As you talk about a passage, be sure you do a lot of listening.  This will help ensure that your discussion meets the needs of the other person.  Your comments about the passage should guide the person toward understanding it relative to his or her own life situation.

The Bible is not to be used to lambaste, manipulate, or bombard people with your own judgments.  Instead, share the Bible with them to bring reassurance, to confront when necessary, to deepen understanding, and to strengthen their relationship with God in the midst of their current situation.  Your use of the Bible is another way in which your kind of training - Christian training will help them live their life.

Training by the Book

(Coffee Cup Counseling - Harold Sala)
"An  experiment was conducted recently by psychologist at Vanderbilt University who wanted to know if the advice of untrained, nonprofessionals who were warm and cordial was as effective as that of trained psychotherapist.  The group of professionals, some of the best in their area, had an average of twenty-three years experience behind them.  The second group were college professors who had no formal experience or training in counseling.

"Both groups worked with troubled people for no more than twenty-five hours, and at the end of that time comparisons were made.  The results: 'Patients undergoing psychotherapy with college professors showed...quantitatively as much improvement as patients treated by experienced professional psychotherapists.

"In an unrelated article the Washington Post's magazine, Insight, decries the impotence of psychoanalysis saying, 'Where surgeons to have the same cure rate as psychoanalysts, there would be no surgery:  they would all be in prison on malpractice charges.'"

Psychiatrist Garth Wood, in his book The Myth of Neurosis: Overcoming the Illness Excuse, breaks with the traditions of his profession, arguing that non-trained professionals are some of the best sources of help for people.  He's convinced that you who have in intimate knowledge of another person can be a powerful force and catalyst for good in the life of a trainee. After all, you know the strengths and weaknesses of your trainee; you know the habit patterns, idiosyncrasies of personality, and what motivates that person.  You start with an edge that the professional can gain only by hours of conversation and prodding.

For you who know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, there is an additional source of wisdom and insight: the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  During Passion Week Jesus spoke of the coming Holy Spirit four times.  He used a term which had not previously been used for the Holy Spirit, paraklatos, a word which is translated as "counselor" in  the Bible.  Jesus told the disciples that He would ask the Father to send them another Counselor, who would guide them into truth and show them things to come.  This is the same One who indwells the child of God today and can give him insights that he would never have otherwise.

Perhaps you are asking, "Do you really believe that?"  I am convinced, on the basis of my own experience, that the Holy Spirit will help you focus on things that people say which lead to vital issues.  "It just happens!" you say.  I don't think so.  God knows the future; He also knows the past in ways that you do not, and as you train.  He will prompt you to ask questions and give you new insights that you would otherwise not have.  The Holy Spirit serves as the Trainer who guides you and helps the person you train move into the will of God.

The Holy Spirit and Training

The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is holy because holiness is part of the nature of God.  Behind the word "holy" are two concepts: purity and separation.  he is not an abstract or a philosophical idea, but a person with the will and mind of God.  He brings conviction.  He guides us into truth.  He is the agent of conversion; and when it comes to training.  He is the source of lasting personality change as our old nature gives way to Christlikeness.

For centuries people have debated the issue of nature versus nurture - heredity versus environment, yet it matters little when the Holy Spirit begins to work in a life, a process which is described as "sanctification" in the New Testament.  Three times we are told this work of "knocking off the rough edges" of our old nature is the work of God's Holy Spirit.

This grand work of sanctification by Good's Holy Spirit in the lives of people is something that cannot be understood or duplicated in the secular world.  It is the victory of the Spirit over both heredity and environment.

The Holy Spirit works through men and women who are in touch with Him - which means God uses you as you help people work through their problems.  In his book Competent to Counsel, Jay Adams says, "The use of human agency in counseling... does not in itself by pass the work of the Spirit; to the contrary, it is the principal and ordinary means by which He works."

In other words, God, through the agency of His Spirit, works in and through us to bring people into conformity with His will.  You have an important part to play in restoring the order in the kingdom of God that was lost as the result of sin's dark entrance into the world.  This is why you need to work in harmony with the Holy Spirit, and not against Him, in guiding people toward the will of God.

The contrast between the mentality of the secular person and the individual in whom the Spirit of God dwells is nothing new.  Paul experienced this struggle in Corinth as he tried to communicate the difference that a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ really makes.  Almost as though he was giving up trying to relate to the secular mind, he says, "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; not can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14)

What difference does this Christian attitude make as we strive to help people?

Training in Cooperation with the Spirit of God

Biblical Training is God-centered

Most secular counseling is man-centered and deals with "felt needs."  The temptation for the Christian who has been trained in a secular environment is to keep man at the center and bring God into his life in such a way that God becomes a spiritual "band-aid" to get man off the hook when he is in trouble.

The whole focus is wrong!  We must understand there will never be enough pieces to fit the puzzle of life's problems together apart from a relationship with God.  This is why Jesus Christ came.  God's plan is to bring us into harmony with His divine will and thus to change our natures through the new birth.

As long as thinking is fuzzy in this regard, we will never use the larger picture, and our image of God will only be a reflection of our own natures.  Our God will be too small!

Biblical Training Recognizes the Sinfulness of Human Nature

This is not to imply that anyone who struggles with a problem is suffering from sin, but it does recognize that most of the problems that require training are the result of man's sinful nature.  Notice the cataloging of the characteristics of the flesh or man's sinful nature recorded in Galatians 5:19-21), the very factors creating unhappiness today.  Among the list are "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licetiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions (arguments), jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.

When the Bible says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," and "There is none righteous, no, not one," (Rom. 3:23, 10), it becomes obvious that even the best of people bear the incipient dregs of rottenness which are found in the worst of people.  And, inversely, in the worst of people there will still be certain qualities which reflect the fact that man was made in the image of the divine.

Have you ever had the experience of going to your garden to till the soil and finding a boulder or an old rotten board that had to be moved?  As You picked it up, dozens, possibly hundreds of creeping, crawling bugs and slugs began to squirm.  Such is what is dredged up from the recesses of the heart because of our old natures.  Speaking of the heart as the seat of our affections and choices, Jeremiah wrote, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; Who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9).

How else can you explain the humiliation and devastating consequences which have followed the poor choices some Christians make, choices which resulted in actions totally out of character with the lives these individuals had lived over the years?  To their dying days they will regret the decisions which embodied the sordid thoughts within.  Realizing  that none of us is  immune from the same, Paul warns, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12).

Biblical training recognizes that a person, no matter who he is, sins because of the pull of his earth child nature, as well as because of his personal choices, so that none may say, "I'm not responsible; I couldn't help it!"  We sin by nature and by choice;  the end result is problems which create situations that we just can't handle without outside Help.

Though sin is a spiritual problem, the emotional natures of our lives, our relationships with each other, and how we feel about ourselves are affected.  All of this is part of our mental image and health.

Discouragement and despair are the marks of the mentally ill, who have struggled with their problems month after month, in some cases year after year.  To tell people that their behavior is perfectly normal, and that they must simply learn to accept it, is to sentence them to a life of perpetual despair.

To tell someone, "Look, your problem is sin!  But there is an answer to this problem!"  is neither cruel nor devastating.  It defines the malady and offers a solution.

Your job as a trainer-leader is not that of a surgeon (removing the problem), but rather that of one who holds the flashlight so the person himself can see the problem.  Then let God's Spirit do the surgery.

In dealing with problems which have taken people outside the will of God, you don't have to berate or condemn them, but help them identify the problem and correct it by following the next guideline.

Biblical Training Follows the Principles of God's Word, the Bible

Many of the situations which cause people to reach out to others for guidance are situations which merely necessitate decisions of one kind or another.  We live in a world of stress, and at times we need someone to say, "Look, you are on the right track; keep moving," reinforcing what the person feels is the will of God for his or her new life.

Few people who fill the pews of churches today understand what it really means to be forgiven, to be a child of God, and brought into the family of God.  Having never been confronted with  the sovereignty of God, they are overly concerned with the multitude of worries which drive them into the asphalt.  Not understanding the will of God, they struggle, often against Him, in trying to put things together which are not really in their best interests.

Vast resources in the Bible can be brought to bear on our personal needs.  The greater our knowledge of God's plan for our lives, the less will be the need for individual training.

Biblical Training Results in Liberation, Not in Further Bondage

"For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6).  God's Principles really work.

Homework

1.  Using the Tool-10 minutes
A friend has a child who has just been killed in an auto accident.  You are sitting outside the emergency room, and your grief is aggravated by the fact that you had a rather poor relationship with him or her.  You have the job of ministering in this situation.  A tool I would like to suggest you use in your ministering (when appropriate) is 2 Sam. 18:33, where David grieves over his son's death.  Give yourselves 30 seconds or so to get mentally prepared and then begin sharing with the class as if they were the friend.

2.  Now take five minutes to discuss your role play.  Discuss the following two questions: How did you know if it was appropriate to use this scripture passage?  Was it possible to introduce the Bible passage in a way that sounded smooth and natural?  If so, what made that possible?  If not, what could have been done differently to make a smoother transition into the passage?

3.  God with Me-
God communicates in many ways.  For some it might be through the Bible.  For others, in dreams or through other people.  Take about three minutes to share an experience in your life when it seemed to you that God was speaking loudly and clearly to you through the Bible.

4.  Give a one-sentence prayer of thanks to god that he communicates with his people.

Closing

God speaks and things happen: People are

confronted,
Challenged,
Healed,
forgiven.

God speaks and things happen: People are

helped,
motivated,
transformed,
made whole.

God speaks: Let's celebrate!

Amen.

[ Home ] [ Up ]

Send mail to george0361@netzero.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: June 10, 2000