Saturday, January 13, 2007

Biblical Counseling Conference - Session 1

Last night was Session 1 of our Biblical Counseling Conference here at Crosswell Baptist Church. The conference runs from Friday night until Sunday night. Dr. Frank Catanzarro, Associate Professor of Counseling at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary was our guest speaker.

The conference is titled, Doing Life God's Way. Last night was the first session and was called "Doing Marriage God's Way." Dr. Catanzarro did a wonderful job explaining how our culture has become de-synsitized from the Truth of God. We often mix and match parts of our me-centered culture with the Bible, which is God-centered. One of his premises that under-girds his entire philosophy of counseling is that our culture is self-centered and teaches us to become independent. However, this philosophy stands in direct opposition of two of the major themes of the Bible, which is to be God-centered and to become dependent on Him, not ourselves.

Catanzarro then applied this biblical truth to our marriages. Instead of setting up "performance standards" for our spouses ("if he would only be like this," or "if she would only do this") we are called to love our spouses despite if they are horrible to us or not. Our main, and only "goal" in life should be to glorify God in all that we do. Therefore, when we treat our spouses a certain way or expect certain things from them, we should ask ourselves, "How does this behavior, thought, belief, or action glorify God?"

Session 1 was a wonderful time of conviction and reflection on why we live the way we do and act the way we act. Tonight, in Session 2, Dr. Catanzarro will be discussing "Raising Children God's Way."

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