A question from my radio program, Ask the Counselor: Q: How can I gain the ability to control myself and not make a mess of things by just speaking and acting on impulse? A: Self-control is the most important ability for any human being. Without it, we cannot hope to succeed in any way or have any inner peace. To have self-control, we must increase the gap between something that happens, what we call a stimulus, and our reaction to that event. The smaller the size of that gap, the less self-control; the larger the size of that gap, the […]

Christians are meant to live with an assurance of their salvation. It’s God’s desire that all of his children know that they are his children. God doesn’t just want to save a person; he wants that person to know that they’ve been saved. So how do you know that you’re saved? How do you know that you’re among the eternal people of God? What are the marks of a Christian? In John 17, Jesus describes the Christian, and he gives four irreducible marks of every genuine believer. In other words, there are more than these, but there are never less […]

By: Dr. Norm Wise Happiness is one of the goals that people consider of significant value in their lives. However, if happiness comes from outside circumstances and other people, then only to the extent that we can control these factors will we be happy. Therefore, happiness is very fragile because we have little or no control over our circumstances. What can be done? One key to feeling greater happiness is having realistic godly expectations of life “East of Eden” and a committed acceptance of our community of imperfect people. If we can lower our expectations and increase our forbearance of […]