rambling rosemarie

For those of you praying for my long awaited check to arrive, it has. For those of you praying for my spiritual health, sense of humor and general well being, please continue. As I said in an earlier post my distress is so not about the mail... it was just the vehicle God used to show me how desperately I need His grace and mercy and to remind me that sanctification isn't painless.... lest I forget when counseling others.

I follow Dr. Albert Mohler on Twitter. He has a keen eye seeing things clearly, especially when it comes to culture and its effects. One of his tweets was about a young woman in a graduate counseling program at Augusta State University being challenged to silence her views on homosexuality and gender identity. Here is the story Dr. Mohler linked to his tweet. I dropped out of college as a young and foolish woman. I pursued a career in public safety and since I did not want to be a cop, (I don't have the temperament. I figured if you run from a cop you're guilty of something awful and shooting you to stop you is probably going to keep you from hurting someone. I have mellowed with age. ) I didn't think there was a major I could use to help me in my pursuit. Like I said, I was young, foolish and without good counselors. I had a great career that paid well but when I was no longer able to work due to injury, I had thousands of dollars of specialized training and no for...

Paul Tripp, author of several of my favorite resources for nouthetic or biblical counseling, will be answering questions tonight in a live event on Desiring God . I am hoping to be able to sit long enough to read the questions (posed on twitter and in email) and answers. His work has been invaluable to me as a counselor and I recommend you stop by Desiring God Any Plans This Wednesday Evening and have a look.

As a counselor I have determined that when God puts me in a position to teach on a subject it's a sure bet that the topic is going to be an area I most need some soul work. I have been studying fear and anxiety for the past several weeks and it has been invaluable to me, both in equipping me as a counselor and equipping me for life. You cannot study anxiety and fear without studying their remedy, grace. God's cleansing grace found only in Jesus' atoning sacrifice. The grace extended to believers on a moment by moment basis is the balm for our souls but we too often don't recognize it. We think deliverance from fear and anxiety should look like deliverance from trial and suffering and dark things that bump our souls. "It is good to understand that Christ's service never did secure a man from all the ills that flesh is heir to and never will. If you are a believer, you must reckon on having your share of sickness and pain, of sorrow and tears, of losses an...