Elyse M. Fitzpatrick - Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ

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A triumph of a maturing biblical counseling movement. Elyse Fitzpatrick, a counselor with uncommon insight into common problems, teams with Dennis Johnson, a seminary professor with a firm fix on justification and the centrality of the gospel, to produce a cross-centered counseling tool. Expect to find the refreshing intersection of the liberating truth of the cross and the power of the gospel to move counselees and impart hope. This book is a major contribution not only to biblical counseling but also to the person in the pew.

TEDD TRIPP, pastor, author, international conference speaker

Broken people remain so because they never truly understand the nature or extent of Gods love. Following the pattern of Pauls letter to the Ephesians, this book triggers worship and hope with exhilarating descriptions of the gospel of Christ and shows us how to live out the love and freedom of the gospel in the relationships and struggles of everyday life. May God use this book to bring a wholeness and joy to believers that is irresistibly attractive to everyone around them.

KEN SANDE, President, Peacemaker Ministries

Fitzpatrick and Johnson teach that effective counseling for broken and hurting people does not mean walking beyond the gospel into some modern form of psychotherapy, which ultimately provides no solutions. All Christians, especially pastors, counselors, and church workers who yearn to see genuine healing and transformation in their families and churches, should practice the principles of this book personally and use it to help others. This book is biblical counseling at its best; absorbing its teaching will make us all better counselors.

DR. JOEL R. BEEKE, President, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

A treasure of gospel-proclaiming, biblical, and practical help for every person striving to grow in grace and help others to do the same. Professional counselors, church leaders, and laypeople will all benefit from the accessible case studies drawn from the authors decades of experience ministering to real people in real situations. This is no mere how-to manual. If seemingly hopeless cycles of sin and immaturity are tempting you to wonder if real change is even possible, Counsel from the Cross is just the book to encourage you and help you to remember both what the gospel declares about us and what it demands of us.

TARA KLENA BARTHEL, author, Living the Gospel in Relationships; coauthor, Peacemaking Women

Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis Johnson present a compelling case for the very radical and eminently practical power of the gospel in helping counsel broken people. One will not find here the usual Scriptures taken out of context or mere proof-texting approach that so-much of Christian counseling has offered the evangelical community. Instead, Johnsons exegetical insights and Fitzpatricks case-wise counsel show how and why we must apply the love and grace of Christ at each stage of our counseling. They are to be praised for mining the riches of the gospel and offering a real model for and recovery of Christ-centered counseling.

REV. DR. ALFRED J. POIRIER, author, The Peacemaking Pastor

Ive learned more about biblical counseling from Elyse Fitzpatrick than from anyone else writing in the field today. I tear into her new books and return repeatedly to them for inspiration in my own work. Elyses collaboration with Dennis Johnson has produced a volume that is both theologically astute and full of practical wisdom. Im already applying the principles Ive learned from it in my counseling.

DR. LAURA HENDRICKSON, author, psychiatrist, biblical counselor

Counsel from the Cross

Crossway books by Elyse Fitzpatrick:

Because He Loves Me:
How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life

Comforts from the Cross:
Celebrating the Gospel One Day at a Time

Crossway books by Dennis Johnson:

Heralds of the King:
Christ-Centered Preaching in the Tradition of Edmund P. Clowney
(editor and contributor)

Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ

Copyright 2009 by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson

Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple

Cover photo: iStock

First printing 2009

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the authors.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-0317-7

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-1125-4

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-1226-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fitzpatrick, Elyse, 1950
Counsel from the Cross : connecting broken people to the love
of Christ / Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 13: 978-1-4335-0317-7 (tpb)
1. CounselingReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. BiblePsychology.
I. Johnson, Dennis E. (Dennis Edward) II. Title.
BR115.C69F58 2009 253.5dc22

2008049984

VP 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09

15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To our children and their spouses,
Eric and Susanne, Christina and Julien,
Peter and Mandi, Laurie and Daniel,

with the prayer that the Lord will continue to give them
grace and wisdom as they nurture our grandchildren from the cross.

DENNIS

To pastor Mark Lauterbach and his wife, Rondi,

with thanks for their friendship and for consistently
reminding me of our Savior.

ELYSE

Contents

IT IS NO SECRET THAT COUNSELINGwhether formalized under terms such as psychotherapy, life coaching, intervention, personal empowerment, or some other new-and-improved labelis big business in North America, and it continues to burgeon. As Western culture drifts away from the Creators design for human life and community, the intrapersonal and interpersonal effects of our first parents original rebellion against God, the one who made them for friendship with himself and gave them everything they could possibly need and more, are becoming more overt all the time. These effects include depression; burnout; international conflict; intergenerational conflict; interracial conflict; marital conflict; class conflict; church conflict; anxiety; fear; behavioral patterns that are simultaneously self-centered and self-destructive; pornography and other forms of sexual exploitation; senseless cruelty and wanton violence in war zones, urban streets, and suburban school campuses; and the list could go on.

As this list implies, the need for counselingfor what older generations of pastors called the cure of soulsis as evident in the contemporary church as it is in the culture at large. The shelves of Christian bookstores groan under the weight of publications that promise a religious solution to a wide spectrum of dysfunctions, addictions, and distresses, from anorexia to obesity, from timid insecurity to brash abrasiveness, from chaotic disorder and lack of self-discipline to paralyzing inhibition and driven rigidity. Church staffs expand to include caregivers with specialized education and credentials that evoke confidence in those who limp, wounded or wayward or both, to Christs people and their shepherds in search of reliefsometimes even at the cost of repentance.