Some Great Quotes From David Powlison on Idolatry

David Powlison:

“The last line of 1 John woos, then commands us: ‘Beloved children, keep yourselves from idols’ (1 John 5:21). In a 105-verse treatise on living in vital fellowship with Jesus, the Son of God, how on earth does that unexpected command merit being the final word?”

“If ‘idolatry’ is the characteristic and summary Old Testament word for our drift from God, then ‘desires’ is the characteristic and summary New Testament word for the same drift. Both are shorthand for the problem of human beings.”

“Idolatry is a problem of the heart, a metaphor for human lust, craving, yearning, and greedy demand.”

“The deep question of motivation is not ‘What is motivating me?’ The final question is, ‘Who is the master of this pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior?’ In the biblical view, we are religious, inevitably bound to one god or another. People do not have needs. We have masters, lords, gods.”

“Unconditional love says, ‘I love you just as you are.’ But the Gospel is better than unconditional love. The Gospel says, ‘God accepts you just as Christ is.”

Read the rest.

Books by David Powlison:

• Seeing With New Eyes
• Speaking Truth in Love
• The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context

(HT: Pastor JD)

"The driving focus of biblical prayer asks God to show himself, asks that we will know him, asks that we will love others."

Great post here with thoughts on prayer from David Powlison.

The Great Commission and Counseling

David Powlison:

The Great Commission…and counseling! We don’t usually put those words together. But Jesus’ final words don’t mention any of the specifics of how to do it. Like preaching, parenting, and quiet time, counseling is one more way that Christ makes his disciples. I understand counseling more broadly than I once did. It is not just the Christian analogue or alternative to what secular people do. It is part of the cosmic, communal, and personal renewal that operates at the center of our Christian faith. Coming to faith out of a secular background, I was excited about biblical counseling. I had been a psychology major and was working in the mental health field when I came to faith in Christ. My life was turned upside down. Christianity taught a whole different dance step from the secular training and models I had learned and practiced. I initially saw this as the radical way the Bible taught us to approach counseling. But it’s bigger than that. It’s the Bible’s approach to life.

Read the rest.


Books by David Powlison:

• Seeing With New Eyes
• Speaking Truth in Love
• The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context

The Local Church as THE Place for Counseling

David Powlison:

Can local churches become a natural home for counseling ministry? Often the limitations or failures of the church get cited first, making it seem that church is at best an adjunct to “the real work of counseling.” But, in principle, the local church is the natural home for face-to-face ministry. Counseling can and should thrive in local churches. Here are five of the numerous advantages to counseling being localized in the church.

Read the rest for his reasons. This issue is crucial to our sanctification as people of God.


Books by David Powlison:

• Seeing With New Eyes
• Speaking Truth in Love
• The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context

How Does Scripture Change You?

David Powlison:

“God meets you where you are.” That’s atruism. But when you stop and ponder
how that happens and why it happens, it is nothing less than light breaking into darkness. A sin-sick, life-bruised soul revives and begins to live.The Christian life is organically alive. We turn, we trust, we obey, we grow—interacting with what’s happening around us, as the God of truth breaks in. He has gathered us to himself in a lifelong holy experiment in redemption.

Read the rest.


Books by David Powlison:

• Seeing With New Eyes
• Speaking Truth in Love
• The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context

What is Idolatry?

You get to listen in on a phone call in this very helpful video.


Dr. David Powlison - What is idolatry? from CCEF on Vimeo.

Counseling Is Not About Pat Answers But a Person

Great interview here with David Powlison.

Can I Be Saved Amid Continued Moral Failings?

Very helpful.



(HT:  Dane Ortlund)

Cravings and Conflict

I have yet to meet a couple locked in hostility (and the accompanying fear, self-pity, hurt, self-righteousness) who really understood and reckoned with their motives. James 4:1–3 teaches that cravings underlie conflicts. Why do you fight? It’s not “because of my wife/husband…”—it’s because of something about you. Couples who see what rules them—cravings for affection, attention, power, vindication, control, comfort, a hassle-free life—can repent and find God’s grace made real to them, and then learn how to make peace.

- David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes (P&R, 2003), p. 151.

(HT: C.J. Mahaney)