Effective Biblical Counseling For You, For Everyone In Your Family And For Your Other Loved Ones

Effective Biblical Counseling For You

For Everyone In Your Dear Family And For Your Other Loved Ones

Rev. José R. Rivera, Retired Ordained Minister and Pastoral Counselor, Presbyterian Church in the United States of America

Valuable Biblical guidance for every person and all members of his or her beloved family and other loved ones, regarding the material, moral, emotional and spiritual problems and other difficulties that may happen in the course of their daily lives. This counseling is based on healthy and universally practical recommendations that have helped many millions of persons through the centuries. These can be equally helpful in modern life. They can help each participant to invigorate its personality, to maintain the integrity of its soul, to reanimate its spirit, to avoid disastrous difficulties; as well as to correct whatever defects or problems the participants may be suffering from. Persons who faithfully follow these efficacious recommendations will be able to live a peacefully abundant life in its material, emotional, moral and spiritual aspects. They will be enabled to enjoy life and be happy, moving on in harmony with God, with themselves, with their neighbors and with their surroundings wherever they be situated. Start putting these recommendations in practice now and rejoice as you advance along the way and your life’s situation improves

Dear Reader: ¡Thank you for visiting this page! Here you will find information of real and practical value that may help you strengthen your personality and move forward towards the goal of a life plentiful of peace and happiness. I hope that you enjoy this information and that it be greatly beneficial to you.

The fish, whose image is at the head of this page, was the symbol which the primitive Christians used to identify themselves. During the times of the great persecutions to kill them, they had to meet hiding in the forests and catacombs. To secretly identify themselves, they would trace in the sand the figure of a fish, pointing its head towards the place of their meeting. It is interesting to know and to understand that from time immemorial the wicked have tried to subjugate the virtuous, but these, with God’s blessing, have succeeded throughout time in continuing disseminating the seed of peace, good will and fraternal love among all peoples in the whole universe. The figure of the identifying fish transforming into the empty cross of resurrection to a better life is a fitting emblem for this personal labor of moral and social redemption wherever we are.

Before considering in details the whirlwind of problems and difficulties that might show up in the course of our daily living, it will be good to keep in mind some of the fundamental concepts about the Christian life and the role which each one of us plays in it.

To begin with, it is good to take into consideration that the Christian religion is devoted to teaching the spiritual and material truths of life; both those that can be seen and those that are not visible, but which, however, are as true and operable as those that are visibly known. This concept is not so difficult to understand, for, as we all know, oxygen, as an example, cannot be seen. Nevertheless, without it we would be unable to survive more than maybe two or three minutes. This is to say that, albeit it is invisible, oxygen keeps us alive and, although some other undesirable factors can damage our health, we still can feel the good effects that oxygen produces in our organism. The air that surrounds us and carries the oxygen that we breathe cannot be seen either. Although both are invisible, the two of them are as real as the life itself that they contribute to sustain. And that life, which is so precious and marvelous to each one of us, cannot be seen as a material object of any sort, but manifests itself in an intangible manner too, through our thoughts, attitudes, words and deeds, in our relationships of mutual understanding with all our other Heavenly Father’s creatures.  Remember that God does not work in a vacuum, but in personal and eternal communion with all His creatures in the universe, whom He loves and enables with the necessary potential to live with good will and in peace and harmony with Him, with themselves, with their environment and with their fellow creatures.

On the other hand, psychology and psychiatry take care of the mental, emotional and practical problems that may be intelligently discerned and could be measured with the resources that may be available at the time of prognosis, and a proper application of those resources be made for the correct treatment of the problems at issue.

Jointly, these three branches of the tree of human knowledge take care of restoring the strength of character and the virtues of the human personality with which God equipped us and that by nature belong to each of us. The Holy Christian Scriptures tell us that when our Heavenly Father created the human being he made it from the dust of the  Earth and, upon transmitting His Spirit to him, He made the person a living being (Gen 2:7). However, due to human errors, to deviations from His way, to our own or other people’s vices, or to circumstances of our environment, that strength of character and those virtues of the human personality can be lost or debilitated.

Consequently, the Christian advice that you will see further ahead can be of much value to you. Read it and think about it with the same Christian love that I offer it to you. When you finish studying the advice, and for your own well-being and the benefit of other gracious readers who may see it, be kind enough to include a personal commentary in the space provided for that purpose further ahead, saying if you understood it or not. You can also briefly comment on what that advice says to you in relation to your own feelings, thoughts and conduct; as well as about the language and the actions of the people in your surroundings; specially the politicians, public officials, and other prominent people in your community. Take into account also the words and the conduct of those people near you like your relatives, friends, neighbors, acquaintances and any other person you may know about. You do not have to make a formal literary dissertation on the subject, but simply explain briefly and in your own way, in your own words, whatever you may have suffered as far as your own personal integrity is concerned, or you may have observed as far as the personal integrity of those government officials and other persons in your surroundings.

In connection with this subject, we must understand what personal and social integrity is. Briefly, the people who are spiritually healthy and mentally sane consider personal and social integrity as a virtue that enables a person to be a charitable and good human being. In Christian terms this is equivalent to sanctity. This means that a person says and makes things in a way that is satisfactory to God, who is our Creator and Heavenly Father. Other expressions that help to explain the meaning of integrity and sanctity are: honesty, rectitude, morality, uprightness, purity, decency, honorability. The opposite of integrity is, among other things, corruption, depravation, degeneration, perversion, vice, licentiousness, libertinism, badness, indecency, cruelty, dissipation. Perhaps you know other words that serve to explain what integrity means.

Acting with integrity in everything that concerns our daily living and human task in relationship with God, with ourselves and with others, saves us and our families from catastrophic vicissitudes in our private lives. Consequently, the common interests of society and the state at large are benefited as well.  On the other hand, whoever says and does things that are unsatisfactory to God reveals to be a thoughtless person who, with his or her words and actions, participates in upsetting everything in the environment and impoverishing everybody.

Integrity is the highest quality of our words and actions; of what we say and do; of our personality. We receive this personal quality by the grace of God, who gives it to us as a result of our modest requests and help to others, which we faithfully offer in His Name for His love towards us. We learn what His holy will is for us by scrutinizing the Holy Scriptures, as well as by observing and carefully accepting His natural laws that are in constant operation in the universe.

The happiness and progress of each human being, and consequently of the society and the state which they created, consist in saying and doing things in harmony with God’s plans. Each one, without distinction of persons, can do this since God, of His own good will, has enabled everyone to say and to do, and consequently to have for them, everything needed to achieve happiness and progress, as well as to promote and help to achieve the well-being and development of the others. If you understood this, let us go on to this other point.

It is indispensable for all of us to recognize that, unfortunately for some, since ancient times there have been vices that distort the personality and produce unhappiness. This has been more prominently obvious in the modern lifestyles of some persons. Those dangers and temptations we continuously bump into in our daily living, create unhappiness and affliction not only to all those who are directly affected, but also to their loved ones and to the community in general. Consequently, all of us should learn what to do in order to avoid such personality distortions and general unhappiness from happening to us or to any one else, and what to do to correct those vices once they have taken place

Some examples of those disorders are these: selfishness, greed; excessive love of money, fame, power and self; lack of maturity, disposition to be maintained and to get everything without obligation of repayment (infantilism); radical and aggressively cheap patriotism  (sophism and political demagoguery); sexual libertinism and the consequent venereal diseases; wasting of one’s own  and the other people’s belongings, lack of due respect to others and of good manners in general; dishonesty with oneself and other people. May be you know other examples that could be added to this short list. Consuming alcoholic beverages and narcotic drugs as an excuse to calm this type of suffering, not only worsens those personality disorders, but can also produce greater criminal offenses.

Frequently, the people who suffer these moral defects and personal disorders impose great aguish on other people, particularly on persons very dear to them, who worry for the person they love, whose life is upset by these moral disturbances.

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If you are one of those people, whether you are the direct victim or one of its beloved persons, my advice at this time is for you to immediately find someone who may be able to help you. It is never too late for learning to follow Jesus Christ’s steps of love and good will for self and for others. That is the only correct way of living. Millions of persons who have experienced these critical moments have found that way, which has led them to serenity in the soul and to internal growth, which is truly the only way to grow.

If you wish to meet with other Christians in your community, to share with them your thoughts and feelings, and mutually help one another to resolve the problems of daily living, find in your local telephone directory the name of your favorite Christian church. Call them and inquire if they have a Christian Pastoral Counseling Program that may be of help to you, or they might refer you to some other church which sponsors such a program. Generally, the Presbyterian Churches have very good Pastoral Counseling Programs. Some Roman-Catholic churches sponsor similar programs too.

Now then, there are unforeseeable circumstances in our lives that contribute to define our personality and to decide our trajectory in life. Take for example the birth of Jesus Christ. He was not born by chance in a stable. The Roman emperor’s proclamation ordering each citizen to be in his own town to register in the census, and the agglomeration of people in the little village of their parents, which caused them not to find a room where to lodge in the inn; were the unforeseen circumstances that served to fulfill God’s intention that such an admirable event, which changed human history, would happen precisely there (Lc. 2:1 – 7).

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The birth of Jesus Christ offers a model of life to the modern family. His birth, life and help to the needy have a close relationship with the disquieting problems of the modern life. Studying what He taught we can learn to face those problems more effectively and make a better use of His many blessings, which we all have available around us. What for the wicked is a problem that disturbs their spirits, for the faithful Christians it can be a coincidence that allows them to obtain peace objectives, good will, reconciliation, understanding, happiness and correspondence with God, with themselves, with their surroundings and with everybody. I hope that thus it happens to you and to those dear to you.  God bless you!

If you understand what has been said in the previous paragraphs, I recommend that you do the following this very day. Tonight, when you go to bed to have a rest after the chores of the day, and every one in your house has retired to sleep, and there is silence and calmness in your home; open your Bible and silently and quietly read the letter of the Apostle Saint Paul to the Christians in Ephesus 4:17 – 32. It is in the New Testament.

When you finish reading it, close your eyes and go to sleep. Let those words from the Apostle be the last thing to enter your mind before falling asleep. You will see how your mind is relieved from the heavy loads of the day. Commit your spirit to God, and you will see how happily you spend the night. In the morning you will feel spiritually strengthened to face with determination and confidence whatever may come up that day.

When you get up in the morning, before the chores and concerns of the day begin to occupy your mind, let your thought concentrate in what you read in the Bible before falling asleep. Think about what you learned. Let those words be the first thing to enter your mind when the day begins. You will notice that this helps you to spend the hours that wait for you ahead during the day. You can do this at the same time that you are doing what you routinely do every day upon getting up from bed. The important thing is that the Word of God be the first thing to enter your thought and your conscience.

That is my Biblical advice so far for you and your dear ones. As you and the other dear readers of this Webpage enjoy the blessings that God may grant to all who read and meditate on the topics that are discussed here, and offer your kind comments, this webpage will be updated with specific issues of interest and of particular benefit for you and all members of your dear family, friends and acquaintances.

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Never forget that, in an amazing manner, God often uses life’s adverse circumstances to create events of great moral and spiritual value that produce joy and happiness for us to enjoy and to share with others. Bear in mind that He keeps in his hands the beginning, the end and the interval of everything that exists; that which moves through the cycle of nature until the end. Those who desire happiness accept God’s standards for living with humility and a calm semblance. On the other hand, whoever violates those standards suffer the consequences. Those who disobey with vanity; with pride in material wealth or social rank, or in the foolish presumption of youthful beauty; or who burn on the inside with irresponsibility as if not needing someone to govern them, or guide them; but are rather disposed to go ahead of others; such persons remain alone, separated from God, without His protection. In their running away those persons drag with them others like themselves. With their desperate race they produce general confusion. For some, those persons appear to be somebody, but that impression does not last much. In the meantime, they do not make the slightest effort to correct the total ruin that they have turned out to be, or the damage that they have produced to their homes and to society in general. So, all of us must clearly understand that God is our only true and supreme reference point for everything we might think, say or do.

We must also remember that science and medicine are God’s blessings which He provides for our health and well-being. If any of your sufferings, regardless of what kind they may be, requires a medical diagnosis or treatment, do not delay in requesting and applying them as soon as possible to improve the condition, heal you or prevent the illness; and thank God that there are competent Christian physicians and properly qualified hospitals to treat all kinds of illnesses.

In order to summarize what we have been speaking about; and without entering into theological or religious depths; in scientific, philosophical or metaphysical investigations; in psychological or medical distinctions, nor in cultural or popular details; we can say with certainty that, of everything that the human being has, the most divine, appreciable and excellent possession; which each person certainly owns, is his or her soul. A noble and pure soul does not admit wickedness or falsehood. Any person who blemishes his or her soul with bad thoughts, words or actions; or that somehow tries to let wickedness or falsehood enter therein, in any form or size that these might manifest themselves, dishonors his or her own self and looses personal integrity.  We can be sure, then, that no person who wants to have a happy and peaceful life would burden this most precious part of his or her being with bad thoughts, words or actions.

Think about it, if Jesus was born in the impure and unpleasant-smelling surroundings of a cattle stable and his cradle was a manger where the animals ate; and if a beautiful and fragrant flower can grow in a manure pile, how could not any person, regardless of who he or she might be, be able, with God’s blessing, to overcome any sort of misfortune or corruption that he or she might meet? May it be like this with you and God bless you.

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Now, will you share your impressions with us and make your comments in this special space for that?

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