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Doctoring the body does not begin with the treatment of illness, but with the preventative maintenance of health. Knowing how to keep the body healthy requires that we understand what the body needs. What diet? What nutrients? So it is with doctoring the soul. What does the soul need? What nutrients? We nourish the hunger of the soul by living coram Deo sola scriptura: face-to-face with God by Scripture alone. Deo is Latin for God; coram is Latin for in the presence of, face-to-face, with. Martin Luther used coram Deo to depict that we live with reference to God every second in every situation. Luther taught that all existence found its final meaning and ultimate object in God and that all emotions, actions, volitions, cognitions, and relations had God as their circumference. He perceived that all of life was a story of personal encounter with God and that the deepest questions in the human soul were God questions. Luther used the term sola scriptura to emphasize his conviction that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. If we are to use the Bible to nourish hungry souls, then we must hear the Bible’s story the way God tells it. And God tells it like it is. The message of the Bible teaches us that life is a wedding and a war. Life is a wedding—a passionate romance in which Christ calls us to love intimately. Life is a battle for our love—the ageless question of who captures our heart—Christ or Satan. Life is a war—a grand adventure in which God calls us to die daily. Life is a battleground— an epic quest to join God in the ultimate defeat of His archenemy—Satan. We win the war and wed our Worthy Groom through the power of God’s Word. But what does this mean? Does dispensing God’s Word mean that we tell our counselees and parishioners to “take two Scriptures and call us in the morning?” Does it mean that life is so simple that it consists of a one-problem-one-verse-one-solution formula? No. Not if life is a wedding and a war. Dispensing truth means that we derive our understanding of earthly life from heaven’s viewpoint. We intersect Christ’s eternal story and our truth for life Life Is a Wedding and a War temporal story; we connect His heavenly perspective and our earthly perspective; we look at life not with eyeballs only, but with spiritual eyes; we live under the Son, not under the sun. Christian counselors master at least three core counselor competencies for using God’s truth: trialogues, spiritual conversations, and scriptural explorations. In a monologue, I talk to you, teach you, or preach to you. In a dialogue, the two of us converse back and forth. However, in a trialogue, you and I engage a third party in our interaction— the Holy Spirit by way of His inspired Word. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20, KJV). Counseling is a powerful trialogue interaction about God’s Word between three people—a counselor, a counselee, and the Wonderful Counselor. In spiritual conversations, the counselor and counselee explore together how biblical principles relate to daily life—how God’s larger story relates to our smaller stories. In scriptural explorations, the counselor and counselee explore together what relevance and application a specific passage may have to the counselee’s life story. How do you handle a hungry soul? With truth—God’s truth about life as a wedding and a war—dispensed with wisdom and love. Pondering these truths, I have been arising each day and praying the following prayer. _Life is a Wedding and a War__I arise today to love God and to hate the Devil. I arise today to love good and to hate evil. I arise today to love people by fighting for their souls. I arise today attired in my wedding clothes and God’s warrior armor. I arise today as God’s spouse and God’s champion. I arise today to walk the isle and to walk the battlefield. I arise today to heal the brokenhearted and to bandage the walking wounded. I arise today a lover and a warrior._ Since the Bible is God’s true story of life as a wedding and a war, there really is no better way to arise, no better way to live, no better counsel to give. Online therapy can be helpful to get rid of such problems. Arise today, a lover and a warrior, armed with God’s Word—His love letter to you and His spiritual sword for you. _Robert W. Kellemen, Ph.D., LCPC, is Chairman of the Master of Arts in Christian Counseling and Discipleship Department at Capital Bible Seminary, Founder of RPM Ministries, and author of Soul Physicians and Spiritual Friends. He has pastored three churches and serves as AACC’s Director of Theology and Pastoral Counseling, and as Director of the AACC’s Religious Leaders Division_
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