Quotes of Note: Martin Luther—Master Pastor, Part 4

Note: You’re reading Part 4 of a blog mini-series sharing Quotes of Note derived from my Ph.D. dissertation: Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.  

Luther sought to help people to face suffering face-to-face with God. He did so by encouraging people to encounter God through the written Word (Scripture), the living Word (Christ), and living epistles (Christians).

The Medicine for Healing the Mind: A Faith Perspective on Suffering

“We must turn our faces to the unseen things of grace and to the hidden things of comfort, hoping and waiting upon these; and our backs to things that are seen, that we may accustom ourselves to leave these and depart from them, as St. Paul says: ‘Who look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen’” (2 Cor. iv. 18) (LSA, p. 160).

“Bear, then, the stroke of the dear Father’s gentle rod in such a way that you may find in his gracious and paternal will towards you a comfort deeper than the pain; and, in the conflict of your grief, let the peace of God, which soars above all our reason and senses, be triumphant, however the flesh may sob and whimper” (LSA, pp. 156-157).

“Heavy is Thy rod God, but I know assuredly that thou art Father still” (LSA, p. 158).

“But it is a much greater comfort, that Christ has formed you in his likeness, to suffer as he suffered, i.e., to be punished and distressed, not alone by the devil, but as though by God, who is and must be your comfort” (LSA, p. 158).

“Therefore, he often withdraws from us the comfort of visible things, in order that the comfort of the Scriptures may find room and opportunity within us, and not remain standing uselessly in the bare letter without exercise” (LSA, p. 158).

“Therefore, when we feel pain, when we suffer, when we die, let us turn to this, firmly believing and certain that it is not we alone, but Christ and the Church who are in pain and are suffering and dying with us” (LW, Vol. 42, p. 163).

“This is the school of Christians. They take lessons daily in this art and cannot comprehend it, much less learn it thoroughly, but they always remain children, spelling the A B C of this art” (LSA, pp. 160-161).

Life said that God had forsaken them; “faith responded that He had not forsaken them as flesh and blood would imagine” (LSC, p. 82).

Relational Healing: The Peace of God and the God of Peace 

“It is enough that we have a gracious God” (LSC, p. 69).

Trust in “the inscrutable goodness of the divine will” (LSC, p. 69).

“In the phrase, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (8:33, 34, 35), he shows that the elect are not saved by chance, but by God’s purpose and will. Indeed for this reason, God allows the elect to encounter so many evil things as are here named, namely, to point out that they are saved not by their merits, but by His election, His unchangeable and firm purpose (of salvation in Christ)” (Commentary on Romans, p. 128).

“One should therefore banish from his mind and heart the grievous thoughts of sin and of the wrath of God, and cherish the very opposite thoughts” (LSA, p. 183).

“I have known many such, who, when very great and sudden temptations such as these have assailed them, did not understand the art of despising and casting out these thoughts, and in consequence lost their minds and became violently insane; and some, when their minds had become too severely strained by these startling thoughts, took their own lives” (LSA, p. 187).

Compassionate Commiseration: Viva Voce—Personal Encounter/Cure by Company

“Perhaps your temptation is too severe to be relieved by a brief letter; it can better be cured, God willing, by a personal encounter with me and my living voice” (LSC, p. 101).

I could not refrain from writing to you and, in so far as God enables me, sending you these lines of comfort since I can well imagine the cross which God has now laid upon you through the death of your beloved son sorely oppresses and hurts you. It is natural and right that you should grieve, especially for one who is of your own flesh and blood. For God has not created us without feeling or to be like stones or sticks, but it is his will that we should mourn and bewail our dead. Otherwise it would appear that we had no love, particularly in the case of members of our own family” (LSC, pp. 72-73).

The Rest of the Story

In Part 5, we’ll learn the heart of Luther’s counsel: turning people to the heart of God.

Join the Conversation

Which of today’s Quotes of Note impact your life and ministry the most?

Note: These quotes are derived from Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. The entire 212-page dissertation is available in PDF form at the RPM Store.

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: Biblical Counseling, Luther, Martin Luther, Quotes, Reformation

Quotes of Note: Martin Luther—Master Pastor, Part 3

Note: You’re reading Part 3 of a blog mini-series sharing Quotes of Note derived from my Ph.D. dissertation: Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. Read Part 1 and Part 2.  

In Parts 1 and 2, we enjoyed quotes regarding Luther’s ministry of biblical sustaining: bringing people God’s comfort by empathizing with their suffering. In Parts 3, 4, and 5, we learn from Luther’s ministry of biblical healing: bringing people encouragement and helping them to find Christ’s healing hope.

To promote spiritual maturity, Luther pointed people away from relief and to God. Luther was less concerned with “solutions” and more concerned with “soul-u-tions”—Christ-dependence.

The Spiritual Significance of Suffering: God Shouts to Us in Our Pain—Delicious Despair

“By these vicissitudes He teaches us not to be arrogant, as we might be if we were always strong. We are best off when we ourselves acknowledge that we are framed of dust and are mere dust” (LSC, p. 41).

“I believe that this trial comes to you, as it does to other brethren who occupy high stations, in order that we may be humbled” (LSC, p. 41).

“Therefore, we should willingly endure the hand of God in this and in all suffering. Do not be worried; indeed such a trial is the very best sign revealing God’s grace and love for man” (LW, Vol. 42, p. 184).

God sends pain and suffering because He “wishes to break your will. He is apt to lay His hand upon us just where it will give us the most pain, in order to slay our old Adam” (LSA, p. 172).

“Whether man believes it or not, it is most certain and true that no torture can compare with the worst of all evils, namely, the evil within man himself. The evils of sin within him are more numerous and far greater than any which he feels. If a man were to feel his evil, he would feel hell, for he has hell within himself” (LW, Vol. 42, p. 125).

Suffering: God’s Healing Medicine against the Disease of Self-Trust

“This is the school in which God chastens us and teaches us to trust in Him so that our faith may not always stay in our ears and hover on our lips but may have its true dwelling place in the depths of our hearts” (LSC, p. 56).

“The most dangerous trial of all is when there is no trial, when everything is all right and running smoothly. That is when a man tends to forget God, to become too independent and put his time of prosperity to a wrong use. In fact, at this time he has more need to call upon God’s name than in adversity” (LW, Vol. 44, p. 47).

“Inasmuch as tribulation serves the same purpose as rhubarb, myrrh, aloes, or an antidote against all the worms, poison, decay, and dung of this body of death, it ought not to be despised. We must not willingly seek or select afflictions, but we must accept those which God sees fit to visit upon us, for he knows which are suitable and salutary for us and how many and how heavy they should be” (LSC, p. 165).

Reinterpreting Suffering: Viewing Life with a Scriptural Lens 

“The Holy Spirit knows that a thing has only such value and meaning to a man as he assigns to it in his thoughts” (LW, Vol. 42, p. 124).

“By the help of God I have learned how to heal those under temptation and by experience I have learned how one should act when afflicted with sadness, despair or other heart sorrow, or has a worm gnawing in his conscience. Let us first lay hold of the comfort of the divine Word and then seek the conversation of pious Christian people and we will soon be better” (LSA, p. 175-176).

“Human reason cannot be content until it has looked about for human help” (LSA, p. 176).

“Therefore, whenever anyone is assailed by temptation of any sort whatever, the very best that he can do in the case is either to read something in the Holy Scriptures, or think about the Word of God, and apply it to his heart. The Word of God heals and restores again to health the mind and heart of man when wounded by the arrows of the devil” (LSA, p. 178).

“Christ heals people by means of his precious Word, as he also declares in the 50th chapter of Isaiah (verse 4): ‘The Lord hath given me a learned tongue, that I should know how to speak a word in season to the weary.’ St. Paul also teaches likewise, in Romans xv 14, that we should obtain and strengthen hope from the comfort of the Holy Scriptures, which the devil endeavors to tear out of people’s hearts in times of temptations. Accordingly, as there is no better nor more powerful remedy in temptations than to diligently read and heed the Word of God “(LSA, p. 179).

Without the Word, a Christian is like a soldier, “entering upon conflict naked and unprotected” (LSA, p. 180). With the Word, the Christian could defeat even the “most practiced and experienced warrior” (LSA, p. 180).

The Rest of the Story

In Part 4, we’ll learn from Luther how to gain a faith perspective on our suffering.

Join the Conversation 

Which of today’s Quotes of Note impact your life and ministry the most?

Note: These quotes are derived from Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. The entire 212-page dissertation is available in PDF form at the RPM Store for $15.

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: Biblical Counseling, Luther, Martin Luther, Pastoral Care, Quotes, Reformation, Suffering

Quotes of Note: Martin Luther—Master Pastor, Part 2

Note: You’re reading Part 2 of a blog mini-series sharing Quotes of Note derived from my Ph.D. dissertation: Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. Read Part 1.  

In Part 1, we enjoyed quotes regarding Luther’s ministry of biblical sustaining: bringing people God’s comfort by empathizing with their suffering. Foremost in this process was helping people to turn their eyes to the cross of Christ and the Christ of the cross.

Having turned people to Christ for His infinite comfort, Luther then became “Jesus with skin on” by empathizing with his hurting spiritual friends.

Participation in Suffering: I Suffer with You

“I wish to write this to you because I am anxious about your illness (for we know not the hour), that I might become a participant of your faith, temptation, consolation, and thanks to God for his holy Word . . .” (LSC, p. 31).

“So I pray that the Lord will make me sick in your place.” (LSC, p. 48).

“We must support one another and be supported” (LSC, p. 40).

“I know that your trials contribute to the glory of God and to your profit and that of many others. I, too, suffered from such trials, and at the time I had nobody to console me. When I complained about such spiritual assaults to my good Staupitz, he replied, ‘I don’t understand this; I know nothing about it.’ You now have the advantage that you can come to me, to Philip (Melanchthon), or to Cordatus to seek comfort . . . .” (LW, Vol. 54, pp. 132-133).

“Accordingly we all are deeply grieved by his death . . . As is natural, your son’s death, and the report of it, will distress and grieve your heart and that of your wife, since you are his parents. I do not blame you for this, for all of us—I in particular—are stricken with sorrow” (LW, Vol. 50, p. 51).

Permission to Grieve

“It is quite inconceivable that you should not be mourning. In fact, it would not be encouraging to learn that a father and mother are not grieved over the death of their son. The wise man, Jesus Sirach, says this in ch. 22: ‘Weep for the dead, for light hath failed him . . .’” (LSC, p. 61).

“Grace and peace. My dear Ambrose: I am not so inhuman that I cannot appreciate how deeply the death of Margaret distresses you. For the great and godly affection which binds a husband to his wife is so strong that it cannot easily be shaken off, and this feeling of sorrow is not so displeasing to God . . . since it is an expression of what God has assuredly implanted in you. Nor would I account you a man, to say nothing of a good husband, if you could at once throw off your grief” (LSC, p. 62).

“Grace and peace in Christ. My dear Cordatus: May Christ comfort you in this sorrow and affliction of yours. Who else can soothe such a grief? I can easily believe what you write, for I too have had experience of such a calamity, which comes to a father’s heart sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the marrow, etc. But you ought to remember that it is not to be marvelled at if he, who is more truly and properly a father than you were, preferred for his own glory that your son—nay, rather his son—should be with him rather than with you, for he is safer there than here. But all of this is vain, a story that falls on deaf ears, when your grief is so new. I therefore yield to your sorrows. Greater and better men than we are have given way to grief and are not blamed for it” (LSC, p. 60).

“When I asked him about the passage in which Jeremiah cursed the day in which he had been born and suggested that such impatience was a sin, he (Martin Luther) replied, ‘Sometimes one has to wake up our Lord God with such words. Otherwise he doesn’t hear. It is a case of real murmuring on the part of Jeremiah. Christ spoke in this way. ‘How long am I to be with you?’ (Mark 9:19). Moses went so far as to throw his keys at our Lord God’s feet when he asked, ‘Did I conceive all this people?’ (Num. 11:12).’ Accordingly it is only speculative theologians who condemn such impatience and recommend patience. If they get down to the realm of practice, they will be aware of this” (LW, Vol. 54, p. 30-31).

“The Scriptures do not prohibit mourning and grieving over deceased children. On the contrary, we have many examples of godly patriarchs and kings who mournfully bewailed the death of their sons. At the same time you ought to leave room for consolation” (LSC, p. 67).

Comfort in Community: Do Not Grieve Alone

“‘He’s gnawing at his own heart, said Luther. ‘I, too, often suffer from severe trials and sorrows. At such times I seek the fellowship of men, for the humblest maid has often comforted me. A man doesn’t have control of himself when he is downcast and alone, even if he is well equipped with a knowledge of the Scriptures. It is not for nothing that Christ gathers his church around the Word and the sacraments and around prayer and hymns and is unwilling to let these be hidden in a corner. Away with monks and hermits! These are inventions of Satan because they exist apart from all the godly ordinances and arrangements of God. According to the plan of creation every man is either a domestic or a political or an ecclesiastical person. Outside of these ordinances he is not a man, unless he is miraculously exempted. Accordingly a solitary life should be avoided as much as possible’” (LW, Vol. 54, p. 268).

“The papists and Anabaptists teach: ‘If you wish to know Christ, try to be alone, don’t associate with men, become a separatist.’ This is plainly diabolical advice which is in conflict with the first and second table . . .” (LW, Vol. 54, p. 140).

“Thereupon he entreated Weller to cultivate the company of men when he is afflicted with such melancholy and not live alone. ‘Woe to him who is alone,’ the preacher says (Eccles. 4:10). When I’m morose I flee above all from solitude” (LW, Vol. 54, p. 276).

“Be very careful not to leave your husband alone for a single moment, and leave nothing lying about with which he might harm himself. Solitude is poison to him. For this reason the devil drives him to it” (LSC, p. 91).

“This is my only and best advice: Don’t remain alone when you are assailed! Flee solitude!” (LSA, p. 277).

“Seek the company of others who may be able to rejoice with Your Grace in a godly and honorable way. For solitude and melancholy are poisonous and fatal to all people, and especially to a young man. No one realizes how much harm it does a young person to avoid pleasure and cultivate solitude and sadness” (LSC, p. 93).

“All Christians truly are of the spiritual estate, and there is no difference among them except to office. Paul says in I Corinthians 12 that we are all one body, yet every member has its own work by which it serves the others. This is because we all have one baptism, one gospel, and faith, and are all Christians alike; for baptism, gospel, and faith alone make us spiritual and a Christian people” (LW, Vol. 44, p. 127).

The Rest of the Story 

In Part 3, we’ll see how Luther, having first turned empathized with and comforted others, next encouraged others to find Christ’s healing hope.

Join the Conversation 

Which of today’s Quotes of Note impact your life and ministry the most?

Note: These quotes are derived from Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. The entire 212-page dissertation is available in PDF form at the RPM Store for $15.

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: Biblical Counseling, Luther, Martin Luther, Pastoral Counseling, Quotes, Reformation

Not Your Father’s Pastoral Counseling Class

The first week of 2012, I’ll be teaching a modular (Tuesday-Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM) Pastoral Counseling class at Moody Theological Seminary.

After some personal introductions and connecting as a class, I begin with the phrase, “This is not your father’s pastoral counseling class.” 

In the past, Pastoral Counseling classes sought to give a person a fish, but not to teach a person how to fish.

Typically, they focus their energies giving students an eclectic smattering of resources on about a dozen typical pastoral counseling issues. This might spend two hours each on pre-marital, marital, family issues, depression, anxiety, suicide, financial, conflict, anger, pornography, abuse issues, and general spiritual growth.

A fine list. All important topics.

But they’re all fish.

Teaching Care-Givers to Fish

I prefer teaching people to fish, rather than simply giving a person a fish.

When we know how to fish, then we can develop our resources for a lifetime.

How do I do that in a one-week course?

We address life’s seven ultimate questions. Anyone who gains biblical insight into these seven ultimate questions will be able to:

• Develop their own biblical resources for addressing any specific life issue.

• Assess extra-biblical resources written about any specific life issue.

Life’s Seven Ultimate Questions That Every Pastoral Counselor Must Address 

Here’s what you need to ponder and probe to be a competent and compassionate soul physician.

1. Do I know how to use God’s Word to change lives?

• Nourishing the Hunger of the Soul: Preventative Medicine—God’s Word

2. Do I comprehend how the Trinity serves as the foundation for how I relate to others?

• Knowing the Creator of the Soul: The Great Physician—The Trinity

3. Do I understand people—biblically?

• Examining the Spiritual Anatomy of the Soul: People—Creation

4. Can I diagnose problems—biblically?

• Diagnosing the Fallen Condition of the Soul: Problems—Fall

5. Can I prescribe God’s solutions (soul-u-tions)—biblically?

• Prescribing God’s Cure for the Soul: Solutions (Soul-u-tions)—Redemption

6. Do I grasp how our eternal future makes all the difference in present living?

• Envisioning the Final Healing of the Soul: Home—Glorification

7. Am I able to dispense God’s care for others by caring like Christ?

• Caring Like Christ/Dispensing God’s Care for the Soul: Spiritual Friends—Sanctification

These seven biblical categories are essential for developing a theology and methodology of soul care and spiritual direction.

In the class, and in my book Soul Physicians, we examine these seven categories meticulously, as a physician would the skeletal structure of the human body.

Join the Conversation

Are you equipped to care like Christ?

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: Biblical Counseling, Life's Seven Ultimate Questions, Moody Theological Seminary, Pastoral Counseling, Soul Physician

Reflections After 30 Years of Biblical Counseling

Note: This post was originally posted at the Biblical Counseling Coalition under Lessons Learned as a Biblical Counselor.

I Am Learning That Biblical Counseling Is About Scripture and Soul

If there is one verse that captures the heartbeat of my biblical counseling ministry after three decades it is 1 Thessalonians 2:8. “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”

Right out Bible college and in seminary, I was 90% Scripture and 10% soul. I was predominantly focused on truth and not enough on love (speaking the truth in love—Ephesians 4:15).

I don’t think the answer is a “50% + 50% balance” of truth and love.

I’m learning that the biblical model is 100% truth and 100% love. Paul says it powerfully in Philippians 1:9. “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.”

As a biblical counselor, I want to make Paul’s prayer my prayer. I want my love for my spiritual friends to abound more and more as my biblical knowledge and depth of insight abounds more and more. I want to enter people’s lives deeply with Christ’s love and wisdom and engage people deeply with Christ’s grace and truth.

I Am Learning That Biblical Counseling Is About Suffering and Sin

A quote I display in my office captures well the next lesson I’m learning:

“Pastoral care is defective unless it can deal thoroughly with the evils we have suffered as well as with the sins we have committed.”

Again, right out of Bible college and in seminary, I was focused on “noutheteo” but limited in my focus on “parakaleo.” That is, I was predominantly about confronting heart sins, but not equally attuned to comforting people in their suffering.

Paul tells us eight times in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 that God calls and equips us to comfort one another (parakleo). Similarly, he tells us in Romans 15:14 that God equips us to care-front one another (noutheteo). It is both/and, not either/or.

I needed to learn the lesson of John 9:1-3 that much suffering is not due to our own personal sin, but rather due to living in a fallen, sinful world. I needed to learn it so much that I ended up writing a book on it: God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting.

I Am Learning That Biblical Counseling Is About the Intersection of God’s Story and Our Story

Coming out of Bible college and seminary, I knew more about the pulpit ministry of the Word than the personal ministry of the Word. I was better prepared to preach God’s Word than I was to engage my brothers and sisters in Christ one-to-one.

Decades ago I used to rush in with God’s Word and expect people to listen to me before I had listened deeply to them. I’m learning that in biblical counseling I need “pivot feet”: one foot always standing in and entering into my friend’s earthly story, and one foot always standing in and traveling with my friend to God’s eternal story.

I’m coming to understand that biblical counseling is not preaching at an audience of one. Biblical counseling is not a monologue; it’s not even a dialogue; it’s a trialogues: the counselor and the counselee listening together to the Divine Counselor through the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

I Am Learning That Biblical Counseling Is About You and Me 

I wasn’t quite sure how to word this header as a both/and. Here’s what I mean. Counseling is not one-size-fits-all. We need to care for, know, and relate to each unique counselee in a unique way.

My first pastoral counseling ministry was in an urban mega-church of over 3,000 people. We had a long history of “excellence” and “professionalism” in ministry. Before a counseling session, people completed a four-page Personal Information Form. Nothing wrong with that…in that setting.

My second pastoral ministry was in a small rural church. My first week of ministry a “Sr. Saint” came to see me. I whipped out my Personal Information Form. This dear saint took one look at it, looked at me with knowing, wise, aged eyes and said, “Pastor Kellemen, I’m not sure how they did things where you came from, but we don’t do things like that around here.”

I’m so glad for this seasoned saint.

I learned then and I’m continually learning that I don’t plop a “model” of counseling on people. I don’t pull “skills” or “methods” out of my counselor’s “toolbox.” Rather, I engage people relationally, soul-to-soul, as together we explore how God’s Word relates to their daily lives.

God fearfully and wonderfully hand-crafted and designed each of us—body, soul, cultural background, family background, life experiences, etc., etc., etc. I want my counseling to be one-another relating—my unique self with another unique image bearer.

I Am Learning That Biblical Counseling Is About Christ and the Body of Christ 

To say that counseling is about you and me is not to say that we stop at the two of us. Frankly, I don’t want to point people to myself.

I want to point people to Christ. He is always there for them (Hebrews 4:14-16). He is perfectly there for them (Hebrews 2:14-16).

I also have learned over the past thirty years that biblical counseling is about the Body of Christ. A parishioner or counselee can’t become dependent upon me. I want them mutually dependent with God’s people on Christ. That’s why I always require counselees to attend at least morning worship and an Adult Bible Fellowship (Sunday School) and/or a small group.

I’m learning that for biblical counseling to have lasting impact beyond the brief time we spend together each week, those receiving counsel must be engaged in spiritual fellowship with the Body of Christ and practicing spiritual disciplines as they connect to Christ.

Join the Conversation 

What lessons have you learned about biblical counseling and one-another ministry during your years of ministry?

Tags: Biblical Counseling, Pastoral Care, Pastoral Counseling

re-Focus: 2011 Moody Bible Pastors’ Conference 

Tuesday through Thursday, May 24-26, I will be speaking five times at the Moody Bible Pastors’ Conference. This year’s theme is re-Focus. 

I’d appreciate your prayers as I attempt to help pastors to re-Focus on: 

• Ministering to Grieving People: God’s Healing for Life’s Losses

• Equipping Their Church for One-Another Ministry: Leaving a Legacy of Loving Leaders

• Marriage Counseling: Building Oneness in a Christ-Centered Marriage

• Cultivating Christ-like Intercultural Ministries: A Theological Primer or “Why Bother?”

• Counseling Parishioners Struggling with Anxiety: The Anatomy of Anxiety

Later this week, check out the Free Resources section of the RPM website for free downloads of each of the five PowerPoint lessons. Look under Moody Bible Pastors’ Conference Documents (2011).

Join the Conversation

Which of the five topics would you want to re-Focus on?

Tags: Anxiety, Equipping, Marriage, Moody Bible Pastors' Conference, re-Focus, Speaking