Wheeler Road Church of Christ

From Labor Day to New Year’s Day, I experience my heaviest load in counseling. People seem to place their personal problems on hold during the summer months, and when the time in the sun is over, darkness seems to invade many hearts.

The number one problem I address in the lives of other people is loneliness. With the holidays approaching the problem seems to be even more acute. The next several weeks we will be studying “The Four Faces Of Loneliness.”

We will examine this struggle through the lives of four Biblical character. The key principle I want to emphasize is that Jesus meets us in the midst of our problems. We have His Word on it!

This Sunday is a wrap on our seven week series on Disciplines For Discipleship. It is my opinion that waiting is the hardest work of hope, and we’ll talk about why.

This is not a culture that likes to wait whether it be the super market, in traffic, the doctor’s office, anywhere.

The God of the Bible, however, uses waiting for the good of His people and purpose. Abraham had to wait; so did Moses.What about Simeon and Anna in the New Testament?

We will need tools for this discipline, and we’ll lay them out as we exercise in God’s gym.

Daily I am battered by an array of stimuli. 

A glance at my desk reveals files, books, emails, lists, magazines, and DVDs that call for my attention. At times I feel myself immobilized by the diversity and complexity of stimuli. 

Daily I have to choose what to do based on priority and commitment.  It occurred to me that my desk is a picture of our culture - cluttered lives filled with daily important decisions that demand to be first in line. 

I'm reminded that Scriptures have a way of confronting us, and that's what Joshua was doing in Joshua 24.  He was bringing clarity to the choices before the people then and today.

The sixth discipline to consider is confession. Western culture has embraced cyber confessions which allow persons to talk, but not experience transformation. The believer talks as a means to transform.

Modern confessionals of dialoguing-only offer no healing to the inner scars that fester deep in the spirit that causes all kinds of troubles. Every discipline is designed for a practical purpose in the quest to mirror the image of our Lord.

Sunday, October 26th, we will address what confession really is, the history of confession, and a classic form of confession from a great man of the past.

Forgiveness is one of the most difficult disciplines for the disciple. People offend and hurt us in many ways.

We’ll talk this Sunday why it is so important to remove the trash of un-forgiveness from our hearts.

Jesus shows the way and the Epistles gives us a glimpse of what it looks like.