Charles R. Solomon - Handbook to Happiness: A Biblical Guide to Victorious Living

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Handbook to Happiness

Copyright 1971, 1989, 1999 by Charles R. Solomon. All rights reserved.

Designed by Melinda Schumacher

Edited by Susan Taylor

This book was originally published under the title Handbook of Happiness by House of Solomon, Denver, Colorado. The first edition by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., was done by arrangement with House of Solomon.

The material in this book may be used by laymen and pastors in sharing with others how their deepest needs may be met. It is not to be used in any professional counseling office or practice advertised as Spirituotherapy except as duly authorized by Grace Fellowship International, P.O. Box 368, Pigeon Forge, TN 37868. You may visit the GFI Web site at www.SolomoNet.org.

The poems originally published in the first edition may now be found, along with a number of others, in books published by Solomon Publications, entitled Handbook to Happiness in Verse, The Ins and Out of Rejection, and The Rejection Syndrome and the Way to Acceptance.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible, copyright 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Other books by Dr. Solomon:

The Ins and Out of Rejection

Handbook for Christ-Centered Counseling

The Rejection Syndrome and the Way to Acceptance

Gems and Jargon

Handbook to Happiness in Verse

Handbook to Happiness and YouA Spiritual Clinic

All are available from Solomon Publications, P.O. Box 6115, Sevierville, TN 37864. E-mail: chuckgfi@aol.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Solomon, Charles R.

Handbook to happiness / Charles R. Solomon. Rev. & updated.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN 978-0-8423-1809-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Pastoral counseling. 2. Counseling. I. Title.

BV4012.2.S65 1999

253.5dc21 99-34774

Printed in the United States of America

16 15 14 13 12 11 10

16 15 14 13 12 11 10

To my wife, Sue,
who has shared and suffered with me
as my life was shaped on Gods anvil
that I might begin to be
conformed to his image

(ROM. 8:29).

Contents

When we come to the place of full retreat
And our heart cries out for God,
The only person whose heart ours can meet
Is one who has likewise trod.

Others may offer a word of cheer
To lift us from despair;
But above the rest, the one we hear
Is the whisper, Ive been there.

Charles R. Solomon

I welcome the opportunity to write this brief foreword to Dr. Charles Solomons revised and expanded book Handbook to Happiness. What first drew me to his counseling ministry was his philosophy based on his theology! His contention is that many psychological problems are rooted in spiritual problems that can be resolved by a faith union with Christ, crucified, risen, and active in the believers life. Dr. Solomon knows that my lifes verse is Galatians 2:20. In fact, I have written a book titled Not I but Christ.

We do not overlook, of course, the place and profession of the psychologist or psychiatrist. Certain distresses and diseases require medical and clinical diagnosis and treatment. So I thank God for outstanding Christian men and women who have been trained to serve in these fields of holistic healing.

Supplementary to this, however, are the multitudes of people in desperate need who are being helped and healed by Spirituotherapy. Therefore, I commend this approach to counseling for three simple reasons: First the counseling is biblical. God says: I am the Lord, who heals you (Exodus 15:26, NIV). The reference here is to Gods healing power both physically and morally in total response to his commands and statutes. Something miraculous and marvelous happens when the Word of God is taught, applied, and obeyed. The psalmist could declare, [God] sent his word, and healed them (Psalm 107:20). This, essentially, is the ministry of Dr. Solomon. Depressed and defeated people come to him, and they go away healed by the living Word of God.

Second, the counseling is balanced. Reading through this book once again, I sensed the balanced approach to this vital ministry of helping and healing peoples minds and bodies. Dr. Solomon does not claim a monopoly in his methodology; he recognizes that some patients require more than what he can offer. I am always skeptical of those who claim to be the only answer to human need.

Third, the counseling is beneficial. I invite readers to peruse these pages and examine the testimonies of those who have been personally and eternally benefited by the doctors ministry. He calls these personal records Gods faithful interventions. And, to say the least, they ring true.

As this new edition of Handbook to Happiness goes forth, I pray that God will greatly use it to bring many into the experience of miraculous and victorious living, to the glory of God!

Stephen F. Olford
Founder of the Stephen Olford Center for Biblical Preaching
Memphis, Tennessee

It has now been twenty-eight years since I wrote the first edition of this book. I believe it is time to update it and add material that supplements and substantiates its message. Since I had been counseling less than two years when I wrote the first edition, the number of lives impacted was fewer, and the influence of the ministry was limited to the state of Colorado.

The original first chapter, revised and updated, now appears at the end of the book, since some stumbled over the psychological terminology in the first edition and gave up on the book. Some have objected to my taking a firm stand relative to approaches to counseling that are not centered on the believers relationship to the cross of Christ. Others have said that I was too lenient in exposing the degree to which secular and humanistic thinking have influenced accepted norms in Christian psychology and psychiatry today. However, some who have led the integrationist movement are now having second thoughts, such that a reformation in Christian counseling may be imminentindeed, absolutely necessaryif Christian counseling is to survive in the new millennium.

I realize that mine is decidedly the minority opinion. Yet it is a conviction given by God. And, as with Luther in the Reformation, I must stand true to the illumination I have received and let those who object sort out their convictions for themselves. Obviously, those who have opted for a more psychological approach, those who object to a theology that holds to the necessity of what we will in this book describe as the exchanged life and the experienced cross will never be friends with this approach.