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Queries and Controversies
The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume 18 • Number 1 • Fall 1999 62
“In marriage, is jealousy
always wrong?”
In Old Testament times, a “law
of jealousy” (Num. 5:29) applied
to certain marital situations.
Numbers 5:30 describes one of
them as “when feelings of jealousy come
over a man because he suspects his wife” of
being unfaithful to him. The passage in
Numbers describes the procedure the man
is to follow. He is to take his wife to a priest,
The Ambiguously Cured Soul
The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume 19 • Number 3 • Spring 2001 2
From the Editor’s Desk
The Ambiguously Cured Soul
by David Powlison
When truth lines up next to error,
Bible next to philosophies of life,
Christ next to figments of the
imagination, you can learn to spot the difference
in a flash. Good is good, evil evil,
never the twain shall meet, and God trains
our senses to discern good and evil. But in
actual lives lived things are often not simple.
Article PDF:
The River of Life Flows through the Slough of Despond
The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume 18 • Number 2 • Winter 2000 2
From the Editor’s Desk
The River of Life Flows
Through the Slough of
Despond
by David Powlison
Our emotions express all that we are
as human beings. Emotions operate
in our bodies: sensory-motor, glandular,
cardiovascular. They express our
souls: cognitive, feeling, acting, believing,
wanting, remembering, anticipating, choosing,
evaluating. They function in every
Article PDF:
Counseling Those Who Are Depressed
The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume 18 • Number 2 • Winter 2000 5
irst, just listen.
“Hell” comes up often. “Hell came to
pay me a surprise visit.” “If there is a
hell upon earth, it is to be found in a
melancholy heart,” observed Robert Burton
in the 1600s. The poet Robert Lowell wrote,
“I myself am hell.” A mother describes her
child’s experience as “Danny’s Descent into
Hell.” “A Room in Hell.” “A lonely, private
hell.” John of the Cross called it “the dark
Article PDF:
Hope for a "Hopeless Case": A Case Study
The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume 18 • Number 2 • Winter 2000 32
The following interview is with a woman
we will call Mara, who experienced many
years of severe depression. David Powlison
was one of her later counselors.
DP: Thank you for being willing to talk about a
major chunk of your life, things that were very
dark and hard, and things that have turned in
some wonderful ways. Would you start by
telling us how your depression began.
Mara: The first time I remember saying “I’m
Article PDF:
Words of Hope for Those Who Struggle with Depression
The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume 18 • Number 2 • Winter 2000 40
It is technically called depression, but it
can’t be captured by a word. You feel
numb, yet your head hurts; empty, yet
inside there are screams; fatigue, yet fears
abound. Things that were once pleasures
now barely hold your attention. Your brain
feels like it is in a fog. You feel weighted
down.
Do you remember when you had goals?
Things that you looked forward to? They
could have been as small as going to a
Article PDF:
Grumbling: A Look at a "Little" Sin
Introduction
Why a sermon on grumbling in an issue on
depression? Depression can be an occasion for
grumbling, depression can be intensified by
grumbling, and depression can even be caused by
unchecked grumbling. This sermon by Paul
Tripp is relevant to everyone, but especially consider
its application to the problem of depression.
When I was growing up, one of the
phrases that I liked to hear the
most from my dad was, “Let’s go
fishing!” On my dad’s day off, he’d take us
Article PDF:
Review of Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure by Lloyd-Jones
The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume 18 • Number 2 • Winter 2000 53
Book Review
Spiritual Depression: Its
Causes and Its Cure
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Grand
Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans,
1990) 300 pages.
Reviewed by William Oldham
Concerned about the lack of
spiritual joy exhibited by many
Christians in the middle of the
20th century, D. Martyn Lloyd-
Jones preached a series of sermons
on depression. Spiritual
Depression: Its Causes and
Article PDF:
Queries & Controversies: How valid or useful are psychiatric labels for depression?
The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume 18 • Number 2 • Winter 2000 54
“How valid or useful are
psychiatric labels for depression?”
Before considering the psychiatric
labels for depression, consider
this larger question: Is any
word or label useful for denoting
the complex of symptoms that we refer
to as depression? It is hard to believe that
one word could communicate fear, emotional
pain, numbness, fatigue, brain lock, and
so many other experiences. To cram all these
Article PDF:
Peace, be still: Learning Psalm 131 by Heart
The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume 18 • Number 3 • Spring 2000 2
From the Editor’s Desk
“Peace, be still”: Learning
Psalm 131 by Heart
by David Powlison
God speaks to us in many different
ways. When you hear, “Now it came
to pass,” settle down for a good
story. When God asserts, “I am,” trust His
self-revelation. When He promises, “I will,”
bank on it. When He tells you, “You shall…
you shall not,” do what He says. Psalm 131
is in yet a different vein. Most of it is holy
Article PDF: