THE MORAL EMOTION

'...anger is always makes a value judgement. Anger is always a moral matter. It has rightly been called "the moral emotion" because it makes a statement about what matters. Human beings make moral judgments, therefore human beings do anger. Period. Like God, you come wired to size things up, to feel displeasure at wrong, and to act in order to do something about it.' 

David Powlison, Good & Angry, p.41. 

THE SIMPLICITY OF ANGER

'At its core anger is very simple. It expresses "I'm against that."' 

David Powlison, Good & Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and Bitterness, p.39. 

SUFFERING

'God works on us in the midst of trouble, because trouble catches our attention. Difficulties make us need him. Faith has to sink roots, as profession deepens into reality. Martin Luther called tentatio - trial, ordeal, affliction - the "touchstone" of Christian experience and his greatest teacher. Hardships make Scripture and prayer come alive. The difficulties that we experience necessitate grace and awaken a sense of weakness - where the Spirit is working. People change because something is hard - not because everything goes well. Something - including myself - is off. Ministry traffics in trouble, because Christ enters trouble, lives through trouble, is unafraid of trouble, speaks and acts into trouble. Struggles force us to need God. And we only learn to love the way Christ loves by experiencing the hard things that he experienced in loving us.'

David Powlison, 'How Does Sanctification Happen?' in Journal of Biblical Counseling (Vol. 27 No.2), p.48.  

THE BIBLE

'In Scripture, God comes in person.'
David Powlison, 'How Does Sanctification Happen?' in Journal of Biblical Counseling (Vol. 27 No.2), p.47.  

GOD

'God is man's environment. We are continually under observation, continually needing and receiving mercies, continually disciplined. He interrupts us, protects us, leads us, afflicts us, encourages us.'

David Powlison, 'How Does Sanctification Happen?' in Journal of Biblical Counseling (Vol. 27 No.2), p.45.  

SUFFERING

'In suffering, I learned to need mercy. From suffering, I learned to give mercy.'
David Powlison, 'How Does Sanctification Happen?' in Journal of Biblical Counseling (Vol. 27 No.2), p.43.  

JESUS

'...Jesus never ministers by rote - because people and circumstances never clone. There is no boilerplate in his counseling or preaching. No distilled formula. No abstract generalizations. No "Just____" sorts of advice. Because situations and persons come unscripted, fluid, and unpredictable, Jesus engages each person and situation in a personalized way. It is no truism to say that Jesus really does meet you where you are. Always.'

David Powlison, 'How Does Sanctification Happen?' in Journal of Biblical Counseling (Vol. 27 No.2), p.36.  

PASTORAL CARE

'Every Christian's life story plays somewhat different music - variations in lyrics, melody, harmony, key, tempo, and instrumentation. Handel's "Messiah" and "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt and Beth Redman are both in the repertoire of Christian faith. Redemption in Christ plays out in every story. This is how it should be. Pastoral ministry - both preaching and counseling - should relish the variety. We serve a King who makes no two snowflakes alike, and his thoughts regarding each individual are more numerous than snowflakes in a blizzard. It would be most odd if he said the exact same thing to every one of us. It would contradict who he is and who we are.' 

David Powlison, 'How Does Sanctification Happen?' in Journal of Biblical Counseling (Vol. 27 No.1), p.63.  

PASTORAL CARE

'Ministry, Scripture, and the Spirit speak variously. This is also why any two wise, godly friends will speak differently into your life, even when addressing the same situation. Organic unity (balance) and infinite adaptability (unbalance) characterize the wisdom that sanctifies us. There is no formula or pat answer. When two friends say the same thing, or when you say the same thing to every struggler, it is probably a pat answer.' 

David Powlison, 'How Does Sanctification Work? (Part 1) in Journal of Biblical Counselling (Vol 27 No.1), p.59. 

THE PSALMS

'...the Psalms spur us to know and obey God in the trenches of life.'

David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes, p.142.

THE GOSPEL

'The Gospel is better than unconditional love. The Gospel says, "God accepts you just as Christ is. God has 'contraconditional' love for you." Christ bears the curse you deserve. Christ is fully pleasing to the Father and gives you His own perfect goodness. Christ reigns in power, making you the Father's child and coming close to you to begin to change what is unacceptable to God about you. God never accepts me "as I am." He accepts me "as I am in Jesus Christ." The center of gravity is different. The true Gosple does not allow God's love to be sucked into the vortex of the soul's lust for acceptability and worth in and of itself. Rather, it radically decenters people - what the Bible calls "fear of the Lord" and "faith" - to look outside themselves.'

David Powlison, 'Idols of the Heart and "Vanity Fair"', p.49.

HUMANKIND

'The Bible - the voice of the Maker of humankind, in other words! - speaks to the same set of issues with a uniquely unified vision. There is no question that we are morally responsible: our works or fruit count. There is no question that fruit comes from an inner root to which we are often blind. "Idols of the heart," "desires of the flesh," "fear of man," "love of money," "chasing after..," "earthly minded," "pride," and a host of other word pictures capture well the biblical view of inner drives experienced as deceptively self-evident needs or goals. There is also no question that we are powerfully constrained by social forces around us. The "world," "Vanity Fair," "the counsel of the wicked," "false prophets," "temptation and trial," and the like capture something of the influences upon us. Other people model and purvey false laws or false standards, things which misdefine value and stigma, blessedness and accursedness, the way of life, and the way of death. They sin against us. God quite comfortably juxtaposes these three simple which tend to fly apart in human formulations. I am responsibel for my sins: "Johnny is a bad boy." My will is in bondage: "Johnny can't help it." I am deceived and led by others: "Johnny got in with a bad crowd."'

David Powlison, 'Idols of the Heart and "Vanity Fair"' in The Journal of Biblical Counselling (Winter 1995), p.38.

PRAYER

'I've known many people whose relationship with God was significantly transformed as they started to speak up with their Father. Previously, "prayer" fizzled out in the internal buzz of self-talk and distractions, worries and responsibilities. Previously, what they thought of as prayer involved certain religious feelings, or a set of seemingly spiritual thoughts, or a vague sense of comfort, awe and dependency on a higher power. Prayer meandered, and was virtually indistinguishable from thoughts. Sometimes it was indistinguishable from anxieties and obsessions! Sometimes prayer was confused with the act of stopping to ponder and quietly collect yourself. But as a person begins to talk to the God who is there, who is not silent, who listens, and who acts, he or she begins to deal with him person-to-person. Speaking up is no gimmick or technique (and other ingredients also contribute to wise, intelligent, purposeful, fervent prayer). But out loud prayer becomes living evidence of an increasingly honest and significant relationship. As you become vocal, your faith grows up.'

David Powlison, 'Should We Really Call It a "Quiet" Time?' Available at: www.ccef.org/should-we-really-call-it-quiet-time

CRAVINGS

'If I crave happiness, I will receive misery. If I crave to be loved, I will receive rejection. If I crave significance, I receive futility. If I crave control, I will receive chaos. If I crave reputation, I will receive humiliation. But if I long for God and his wisdom and mercy, I will receive God and wisdom and mercy. Along the way, sooner or later, I will also receive happiness, love, meaning, order, and glory.'

David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes, p.161.

SIN

'Many counseling systems are obsessed with locating the reasons for current problems in the distant past. The Bible's worldview is much more straightforward. Sin emerges from within the person. The fact that a pattern of craving became established many years before - even that it was forged in a particular context, perhaps influenced by bad models or by experience of being sinned against - only describes what happened. For example, past rejections do not cause a craving to be accepted by others any more than current rejections cause that craving. The occasions of a lust are never its cause. Temptations and suffering do push our buttons, but they don't create those buttons. That brings huge hope for change in the present by the grace of God.'

David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes, p.155.

IDOLATRY

'Human motivation is not a theoretical mystery; there is no need to engage in introspective archaeological digs. Evil desires produce bad fruits that can be seen, heard, and felt (James 1:15; 3:16). For example a father who wants his child to grow up to become a Christian reveals the status of that desire by whether he is a good father or a manipulative, fearful, angry, suspicious father. In a good father, the desire is subordinate to God's will that he will love his child. In a sinful father, the desire rules and produces moral and emotional chaos. Similarly, a wife who wants to be loved reveals the status of that desire by whether or not she loves and respects her husband. Visible fruit reveals whether God rules or lust rules.

It is a serious mistake to engage in introspective "idol hunts," attempting to dig out and weigh every kink in the human soul. The Bible calls for a more straightforward form of self-examination: an outburst of anger invites reflection on what craving rules the heart that our repentance might be intelligent. The Bible's purposes are "extrospective," not introspective: to move toward God in repentant faith (James 4:6-10) and then to move toward the one wronged by anger, making peace in repentance, humility, and love.'

David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes, p.153.

KNOWING PEOPLE

'The simplest way to discover why a person does, says, thinks, or feels certain things is to ask, "What do you want? What desires made him do that? What yearning led her to say that? What longings animate me when I follow that train of thought and fantasy? What did they fear when they felt so anxious?"'

David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes, p. 145.

JESUS

'Jesus combines two qualities that rarely go together: true compassion and life-rearranging counsel. He intends to combine them in you. Some helpers care intensely, but don't know what to say. They feel helpless compassion. They offer platitudes. They reinforce the self-pity and entitlement of the victimized. Other helpers have advice to offer, but don't enter the plight of sufferers. They offer cold counsel. They become impatient when a sufferer is slow to change. They dismiss the significance of the affliction of the afflicted. Neither is able to really comfort; neither is able really to guide.'

David Powlison, 'God's Grace and Your Sufferings' in Piper & Taylor (Ed.), The Supremacy of God in Suffering, p.165.

SUFFERING

'So often the initial reaction to a painful suffering is Why me? Why this? Why now? Why? You've now heard God speaking with you. The real God says all these wonderful things, and does everything he says. He comes for you, in the flesh, in Christ, into suffering, on your behalf. He does not offer advice and perspective from afar; he steps into your significant suffering. He will see you through, and work with you the whole way. He will carry you even in extremis. This reality changes the questions that rise up from your heart. That inward-turning "why me?" quiets down, lifts its eyes, and begins to look around.

You turn oputward and new wonderful questions form. Why you? Why you? Why would you enter this world of evils? Why would you go through loss, weakness, hardship, sorrow, and death? Why would you do this for me, of all people? But you did. You did this for the joy set before you. You did this for love. You did this showing the glory of God in the face of Christ. As that deeper truth sinks home you become joyously sane. The universe is no longer supremely about you. Yet you are not irrelevant. God's story makes you just the right size. Everything counts, but the scale changes to something that makes much more sense. You face hard things. But you have already received something better which can never be taken away. And that better something will continue to work out the whole journey long...

Finally, you are prepared to pose - and to mean it - almost imaginable questions: Why not me? Why not this? Why not now? If, in some way, my faith might serve as a three-watt night-light in a very dark world, why not me? If my suffering shows forth the Savior of the world, wny not me? If I have the privilege of filling up the sufferings of Christ? If he sanctifies to me my deep distress? If I fear no evil? If he bears me in his arms? If my weakness demonstrates the power of God to save us from all that is wrong? If my honest struggle shows other strugglers how to land on their feet? If my life becomes a source of hope for others. Why not me?'

David Powlison, 'God's Grace and Your Sufferings' in Piper & Taylor, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, p.172.

SIN & CHRISTIANS

'...it is worth noting that Christians, as new creations in Christ, also live in an essentially different relationship to their own sinfulness. You sin now afflicts you. The "dross" no longer defines or delights you. Indwelling sin becomes a form of significant suffering. What you once instinctively loved now torments you. The essential change in your relationship with God radically changes your relationship to remaining sinfulness. In Christ, in order to sin, you must lapse into temporary insanity, into forgetfulness. It is your worst cancer, your most crippling disability, your most treacherous enemy, you deepest distress. It is the single most destructive force impacting your life. Like nothing else in all creation, this threatens your life and well-being.'

David Powlison, 'God's Grace and your Sufferings' in Piper & Taylor, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, p.163.