Dane Hays

Want to know the number one resource that we at NABC use outside of the Scriptures? The Heart of Jesus by @daneortlund. Strugglers are desperate to know and delighted to find that God’s heart is drawn toward them in compassion when they sin. I’ve never ever seen someone shamed or scolded into change. Only grace does that.

@NoutheticC This is wild coming from a nameless and faceless X account. Just saying. 😁

You should not be afraid to identify where you stand on theological issues. If you are a Calvinist, call yourself a Calvinist. If you are Baptist, call yourself a Baptist. If you are a clinically informed biblical counselor, call yourself an Integrationist.

@joethorn @joshlofthus At our church we affirm them as "members pending baptism" and schedule the baptism as soon as possible.

@joshlofthus That’s awesome! Friendly question: how do you vote someone into membership who hasn’t been baptized?

We voted a couple into membership today that we have been walking with for a long time. We are baptizing them both next week. I was also able to perform the pastoral interview for another potential member we will be voting on soon. A great Lord’s Day!

My Lord wept so that now my tears might be wiped away. Baxter

@mitchellchase Chernow’s biographies on Washington and Hamilton were a real treat that I read earlier this year. Currently working on McCullough’s bio on Adams.

Gimme your best recommendations to read in light of America's upcoming 250th. New stuff or old stuff, doesn't matter.

NABC celebrated graduation for our training program this past week. What a wonderful time of celebrating what God has done in and through these students this past year! If you want to be equipped to counsel the Word to others in your small group, discipleship relationships, or your leadership role, we would love to have you train with us this fall. Fill out this short form to be added to our waitlist: forms.gle/NioMQ9eVMyfQvq…

Assuming Ted Turner’s funeral will start at 7:05 pm.

I’m proud and honored to share that I have joined the executive team at North Alabama Biblical Counseling! God has been working in various ways over the last several years to bring me to this point, and he’s been so faithful. Our board recently went on a strategic planning retreat to Lake Guntersville to pray and make plans for our future. We have a strong sense of unity and excitement about how we can advance God’s kingdom through biblical counseling and training. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for Audrey Henley who has led NABC so faithfully, and looking forward to continuing to work with her to ensure healthy leadership into the next generation. She is my friend, my mentor, and my co-laborer in the gospel! It’s good to be home.

@WesleyLHuff Wes, you are such a blessing to God’s kingdom, brother. Thank you.

So apparently I’m embroiled in some sort of controversy. Let me set a few things strait: 1. I don’t know Sam Allberry personally. We've met in-person a total of once — back in January while I was in Nashville when I did the Shawn Ryan Podcast, where I ran into and took a picture with Sam. When I saw the news initially about his removal from leadership I took that picture down. I had already started to see people commenting that by keeping it up I was implicating myself in his sin. I do not think they were correct. But ironically, said comments were then replaced with ones telling me that by taking it down… I was hiding something and implicating myself in his sin. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. 2. I believe the language in the current public statements to be potentially unhelpfully vague. From my (brief though not uninformed) understanding of the details of the situation, what Sam did that disqualified him from leadership was not due to sexual or even a romantic impropriety, but what could best be described as a sinful emotional attachment. This is not to justify it or say that it wasn't disqualifying (I think it probably was). But the lack of clarity has left room for those who desire to gossip, defame, and sinfully speculate online to run wild — which they have. 3. I am genuinely saddened with the internet’s desire to tear down and jump to harsh judgements regarding another Christian’s failing. When someone falls into sin, those who are spiritually mature should work toward their restoration, approaching them with a spirit of gentleness (Gal. 6:1-2). The motivation for restoration carries spiritual weight. Bringing someone back who has wandered from truth saves their soul from death and covers a multitude of sins (James 5:19–20). This isn’t merely about correcting behaviour, it’s about spiritual rescue. The desire to gossip and breed quarrels, which is so obviously warned against in scripture (Proverbs 17:19; 26:17; 2 Timothy 2:14, 23-24; Titus 3:9-11; James 4:1-2) is, to say the least, lamentable and disappointing to see. 4. Sam Allberry is being labelled as “Side B,” this is genuinely confusing to me. To quote Sam in his own words: “Same sex attraction is not a good thing. It is... a consequence of the fall. ...This kind of attraction is not something God designed for us, and it contradicts his design” (Is God Anti Gay, 63). Sam has expressed in multiple places throughout his written work and public talks that he holds to the biblical position of marriage, that homosexual relationships are sinful, and that identifying as a “gay Christian” is incompatible with scripture. To be clear, I don't agree with Sam on all the nuances of how he discusses the issue. But I can only conclude that this attempt to make him into an LBGT advocate comes from either shear ignorance of his public work or some sort of internet-level frothing of the mouth to jump on whoever “we don’t like this week.” But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. - Heb 3:13.

In the wake of the news about Sam Allberry's "inappropriate relationship with another man a few years ago," let us be clear about the following since I see much confusion on the matter by dear Christians who comment on it: 1. A desire to do what God forbids is (by definition) a sinful desire. Were it not a sinful desire, the desire could be gratified in appropriate measure. 2. The experience of a sinful desire is a sign and warning to us of an effort on the part of sin that resides within to create or exploit a possible disconnect in our relationship with God or Christ, which requires conscious care on our part. 3. The mere experience of sinful desire is not a defeat. It is the start of a battle that can be won by a renewal of the mind regarding the love of God in Christ, an examination of the reasons behind the possible frailty, and mortifying the flesh. To repeat: Temptation to sin, even internal temptation, is not an act of culpable sinning. The fact of warfare between flesh and Spirit as we await reception of a resurrection body is not, in and of itself, a victory for sin operating in the flesh. It is merely a fact of human existence so long as our spirit, infused by Christ's Spirit, is tethered to this "body of sin" (which is not of course to say that bodies are sinful qua bodies since we will one day be given a sinless resurrection body and indeed, per Gen 2-3, started with a body without sin). Through the sin of the first humans, sin entered human flesh or "adamic" bodies and dwells therein. 4. Guilty culpability for sinning first occurs when one acquiesces to a sinful desire, not at the point of initial experience and subsequent struggle. This acquiescence can occur in thought or in thought and deed. 5. Prior to any acquiescence to sinful desire, reflection (mind-renewal) and action (mortification, or putting to death, sinful fleshly desire) is required. But it is only when acquiescence takes place that repentance is required. This entails an admission of culpable defeat, an expression of regret, and a renewal of the mind that receives cleansing, empowerment, and a realization of God's loving embrace. 6. The goal of the church is restoration of the offender. That restoration can include even restoration to leadership after grievous sinful acts, properly repented, of which we have many examples in both Testaments.

When I shared with my team this morning the news about Sam Allberry, they didn’t gloat over the correctness of their theology, and they didn’t dunk on Immanuel Church. They responded with grief and self-examination. This is the way. Come, Lord Jesus. We need you.

Biblical counseling needs theological triage. Theological triage by @albertmohler and further developed by @gavinortlund has been so helpful in church ministry. The application of triage comes in the form of degrees of fellowship (i.e. where can I go to church in good conscience?) Biblical counseling needs its own form of theological triage. We can't keep going as we are. We are in desperate need of wisdom from above. Help us Lord!

Galatians 5:14-15 “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [15] But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” We can do better in conservative biblical counseling than we are.

I really appreciate the ministry reflexes of so many brothers & sisters-in-Christ. I pray my soul reflexes are as careful & well-practiced as well. I love to see it.

I’ve been a cancer patient fighting off irrational claustrophobia after being shoved inside radiography machines more times than I wanted; I’ve been a SWAT sniper on the other side of a scope needing my mind clear and body calm; it’s biblical to care about breathing. #BibleCn

3. To be biblical, counseling must train on the good works of faith.

“Biblical counselors must first seek to be experts in interpreting the Bible… this is the main expertise you must be giving yourself to.”

I’m so grateful for @jeremypierre at @ABCounselors calling this generation of biblical counselors to His Word. Without the Word of God we have nothing to say.