Why attend DBCTC?

The Biblical Counseling Training I have and am continuing to receive from Faith Ministries in Indiana, Grace Fellowship Church in Kentucky and Emmanuel Baptist Church in Ohio have tremendously impacted my personal life and my ministry.  I am looking forward to helping West Cannon Baptist Church in Michigan equip our members and other area churches with the disciplemaking tools in the Biblical Counseling training.

On a personal level, Track 1 has been a huge influence on my marriage, parenting and personal walk with the Lord.  I am a firm believer that everyday and every minute I need to grow more and more into the image of Jesus Christ.  My salvation was an event.  My sanctification is a life-long process.  Biblical Counseling Training has helped me counsel myself with the truth of God's Word (Psalm 42:5, 11).

On a ministry level, Biblical Counseling Training has helped me grow in my ability to help others grow.  While I appreciate the solid, Biblical seminary training I received, I also recognized that I needed to grow in the area of counseling.  God has used Track 1 and other training to help sharpen my counseling ability.
The Biblical Counseling Training has also helped me think through the disciple-making ministry of the church.  Every time I have attended a Biblical Training class or conference I have been reminded of the authority and sufficiency of Scriptures.

There have been so many Biblically based resources that have been so helpful and encouraging to me throughout the years.  Here are a couple that have encouraged me and I hope encourage you.

A quote from the forward of Counseling the Hard Cases

“When godly people, armed with the confidence that God’s Word is entirely sufficient, prayerfully and skillfully, gently but firmly come alongside those who are confused, lost, hurting, or otherwise struggling with some personal or spiritual dilemma, the Lord is sovereignly disposed to use his Word through such counsel in ways that please him. His Word is the one thing that never returns void (Isa 55: 11).”

A video of one of the sessions at this year's Biblical Counseling Training Conferece

A blog post about some books that have impacted my life and ministry:

drodgersjr.blogspot.com/2017/09/unpacking-boxes-and-life-change.html

Trust and Delight

During the Wednesday night Bible Study at West Cannon Baptist church, I have been sharing teachings and resources to help me and others in the study learn and meditate on each week's Fighter Verses.  In these FIGHT NIGHT studies, we have been looking at the context and content of the Fighter Verses with the intent of personal application and prayer not merely information. 

I am very thankful for the opportunity to teach this Bible study but even more so I am thankful for what God has been teaching me during the preparation for these meetings.  

To gain a better understanding of Psalm 37:3 and 4, look at verses 1 and 2.

Fret not because of evildoer and be not envious of wrongdoers BECAUSE they will soon fade like gras and wither like the green herb.

What does it mean to envy?  This week's fighterverses.com devotional referred to two parts of envy.

• The first part, which could be good, is "somebody has experienced an advantage or benefit and you want that to happen to you.  That doesn't necessarily make you envious, however, because that kind of desire is okay when you're drawn to imitate saintly people."
• The second part is always bad.  "The desire is tinged with resentment that it's going well for the other person and not for you.  That's what makes it envy.

Verses 1 and 2 tell us not to worry or envy but rather, 
trust in the LORD and delight in the LORD

The bottom line of envy is 
a lack of trust in the LORD - He has given things to the wrong people.
a lack of delight in the LORD - I am not satisfied with God and what He has provided.

Do not find your joy in the circumstances of this life.
Do find your joy in the LORD.

Psalm 34

As I been reading and thinking about this Psalm I am reminded of one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 42, and a great book that talks about these verses, Spiritual Depression by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Here are the first 5 verses of this Psalm:

As a deer pants for flowing streamsso pants my soul for you, O God.My soul thirsts for God,for the living God.When shall I come and appear before God?My tears have been my foodday and night,while they say to me all the day long,“Where is your God?”These things I rememberas I pour out my soul:how I would go with the throngand lead them in procession to the house of Godwith glad shouts and songs of praisea multitude keeping festival.Why are you cast down, O my soul,and why are you in turmoil within me?Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,my salvation and my God. 

The writer of this Psalm talks to himself.

Here is an extended quote from Spiritual Depression that talks about this last verse of this passage.

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?  Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning.  You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday…Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says,: ‘Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.’”

For more about the Fighter Verses go to www.drodgersjr.com/p/fighter-verses.html

Chapter 15 Holiness

Welcome to the 15th week of reading the book Holiness.

This week's chapter is "Lovest Thou Me?"

I want to encourage you to continue reading this great book 

or to start reading it today.

For general info about the reading schedule go to 

http://drodgersjr.blogspot.com/p/t4g2018.html

Here are the questions for this fifteenth chapter.

GENERAL (Questions for each chapter)

1.  What is a quote or two from Chapter 15 that stood out to you?

2.  What was something this chapter said about God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?

3. What was something this chapter said about man?

4.  What was something this chapter said about how a Christian is to live?  

Think general and specific applications.

FINAL QUESTION

5.  What is the most significant thing that you learned from this chapter?

1 John Lesson 2

This week we had the second week of our 1 John study.

In class, we did not get through as much material as I planned but one of the great things about doing a study like this one is we can do some of the key Bible study work outside of class.

During class, 

• we reviewed the last week's by making observations from 1 John 2:7:11

• we explained the two homework words

propitiaton:  The death of Christ fully met the demands of God’s holiness, righteousness and justice.  Because of who God is, He cannot overlook sin.  There is no way one can pay this infinite debt.  The blood of Christ pays the price for our sin (1 John 2:2; 4:10).  Because this price has been paid, God’s wrath is turned away from the sinner (Romans 5:9).  Propitiation is the turning away of God’s wrath (Hebrews 2:17). 

This video has a great visual of what propitiation is at the 2:07 mark.

• fellowship:

HERE is a sermon that explains the basics of Biblical fellowship

Another great resource related to Christian fellowship is Life Together by Dietrich Bonheoeffer.

• Some Applications from last week's passage (Taken from The Books of 1st, 2nd and 3rd John by Tony Evans):
• Take a few minutes this week and specifically ask God to open your eyes to one way in which you can grow in fellowship with Him.  Write it down and pray that God would you work on it.
• Take ten minutes this week and write out a letter to yourself, describing what you hope to learn about your relationship to God and His people in this study.  Challenge yourself to in a specific area.
• Identify one other believer (at your church, work, in your family) that you haven't really connected with before.  Reach out to that person with a handshake and smile and show them the love that comes from Jesus.
• If you haven't already, commit 1 John 1:9 to memory.  Then, three times this week, recite the verse to yourself and spend two minutes confessing the sin that God's light shows in your life.
• Identify one area in your life where you've been less than loving toward someone else.  Confess that lack of love and then do one thing this week that to begin to show them love again.

• Made some observation from the next passage of 1John 

1 John 2:12-14

1 John 2:15-17

1 John 2:18-27 pt. 1

1 John 2:18-27 pt. 2

Meaning Homework:

What does "desires of the flesh" mean?  (to begin, look at Galatians 5:19-21)

What does "desires of the eyes" mean?  (to begin, look at Matthew 5:27-29)

What does "pride of possession mean?  (to begin, find at least one passage that talks about this)