Do I need counsel? Can’t I manage by myself? What makes you think the counselor knows everything?
These are questions that would have cropped up in our minds sometime or the other.
King Solomon wrote “Where there is no counsel, the people fall” (Proverbs 11:14). As outrageous as it may sound, the truth is ‘we don’t know everything’. Man’s knowledge is finite. That is how we are made. In fact, it is God’s desire to be our Father and that we look up to Him to know good and bad.
That brings us to another question: Whom do we ask for counsel? Everybody seems to have an opinion! We live in a time when we are bombarded by opinions. Disciplines like psychology, sociology are gaining popularity and there’s little surprise that most people turn to them for answers. However, the irony is all these disciplines have had a major shift in their fundamentals from time to time.
The Psalmist hit a bulls eye, when he said, “the words of the LORD are pure words” (Psalm 12:6). One translation has ‘flawless’ for ‘pure words’. Only GOD has all the answers and we need to turn to Him and His Word. When confusion or sin gets the better of us, when it is difficult to understand God’s Word, we can turn to God’s people for counsel. Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16, 17: “All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof , for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be made complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
‘Counsel for Crisis Times’, written by Satyarthi Sahu and Sarah Sahu, deals with most of these complex issues. From lustful passions of the youth like pornography, extra-marital relationships to dowry, this book covers a wide range of topics. Contemporary issues like homosexuality and abortion that have gained much attention in recent times have also been addressed.
The book opens with the lines ‘Dedicated to Jesus, our true Counsellor, in whose name all our petitions are made and answered’. The authors have taken great care to base their counsels on the Word of God.
‘The Word is spirit and life’ and can and will change lives whenever applied. “The Word never fails”, says Satyarthi in the introduction. Complicated questions have been broken down to simple form and answered in truth and love.
Almost always, the counselors lead the readers to the sinner’s prayer thus stressing the need to be ‘born into the
Title: ‘Counsel for Crisis Times
Author: Satyarthi Sahu & Sarah Sahu
Price: Rs.150/-
Copies of the book can be bought from the authors at 49A/9, Akshaya Apartments, Park Road, Anna Nagar West Extension, Chennai 600 101, Tamil Nadu, India. Phone: +91-44-26150605.
The Christian Messenger
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