Rick Thomas

📍What Biblical, Integrated, and Secular Counseling Have in Common
There are many presentation problems like anger, fear, a troubled marriage, or a child who won’t listen. A good counselor looks beneath, aiming for the heart, where he finds pride, self-reliance, and unbelief—all correct categories, though it’s where too many good-hearted counselors stop.

👉 What they don’t realize is that something even more significant lies beneath. If you don’t assess that, you’ll give a person “best practices for overcoming unbelief” without connecting it to the gospel.

I’m talking about a person’s affection for Christ.

Read on Substack ⬇️

https://rickthomasnet.substack.com/p/what-biblical-integrated-and-secular

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What Biblical, Integrated, and Secular Counseling Have in Common Well-behaved counselees without an affection for Christ is another form of secular or integrated counseling—with better words. The gospel is the only right motive.

🐅 But, hey, at least they are trying. Bless their hearts.

Clemson Football

📍The No Contact Contagion: Help for Parents Left Behind

Your child’s choice to dishonor you is serious (Ephesians 6:2). However, the deeper matter is a rejection of God’s rule (1 Samuel 8:7). The real battle is between your child and God, who opposes the proud (James 4:6). So, as you pray for God to change their hearts, here are a few things not to do. ⬇️

Learn More on Rick’s Substack:

https://rickthomasnet.substack.com/p/the-no-contact-contagion-help-for

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The No Contact Contagion: Help for Parents Left Behind I regularly receive emails from mothers and fathers whose adult sons or daughters have gone no contact—refusing to interact with them. The details vary, but the question is the same: What do I do now?

📍Why Stand-alone Biblical Counseling Is Sub-biblical

Biblical counseling becomes sub-biblical when it becomes the only thing a person engages in for transformation.

Counseling, at best, is one small tributary off the New Testament’s design, which is ongoing discipleship in the context of a local church.

Read on Substack ⬇️

https://rickthomasnet.substack.com/p/why-stand-alone-biblical-counseling

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Why Stand-alone Biblical Counseling Is Sub-biblical Biblical counseling becomes sub-biblical when it becomes the only thing a person engages in for transformation. Counseling, at best, is one small tributary off the New Testament’s design.

📍The Hardest But Best Way to Help Someone Change

Whenever you sin in response to what you are not getting from someone—even when that thing you want is good—you step into a dangerous place. The desire itself might be righteous, but your reaction to being denied reveals the true condition of your heart.

LATEST SUBSTACK PODCAST ⬇️

https://rickthomasnet.substack.com/p/the-hardest-but-best-way-to-help-1b9?r=1rl8js&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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The Hardest But Best Way to Help Someone Change Whenever you sin in response to what you are not …

📍The Subtle Bo***ge of a Victim Identity
A man walks into the group for the first time and learns to say two things: his first name and the word alcoholic. He says it a year later. He says it thirty years later, long after his last drink.

He came in bound to alcohol. He leaves bound to alcohol and a permanent identity built on top of it.

Read on Substack ⬇️

https://rickthomasnet.substack.com/p/the-subtle-bondage-of-a-victim-identity

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The Subtle Bo***ge of a Victim Identity A victim identity is like a man who was addicted to alcohol, saying he’s an alcoholic, but he no longer drinks. His past problem becomes his permanent identity.

💥 IT’S HERE—It’s Free & It’s Yours

Rick’s latest book: VICTIMIZED: The Wrong Done to You Is Not Who You Are: 👉 https://lifeovercoffee.com/store/

ALL FREE BOOKS ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF OUR STORE PAGE—42 and counting.

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📍How Dolly Parton and the Rest of Us Go to Heaven
An AI image made the rounds this week after Dolly Parton’s passing. Dolly arrives in heaven, and a crowd is waiting to welcome her. It is a warm picture that speaks to our “doctrine of sentimentality.”

Michael Jackson is there. So are Frank Sinatra, Freddie Mercury, John Lennon, Ozzy Osbourne, Prince, and Tina Turner, along with others whose records we wore out. At least I did. The image depicts the hope in all our souls for those we love, but if we don’t juxtapose and compare it with the Bible, we do ourselves no favors.

READ ON SUBSTACK ⬇️

https://rickthomasnet.substack.com/p/how-dolly-parton-and-the-rest-of

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How Dolly Parton and the Rest of Us Go to Heaven An AI image made the rounds this week after the news of Dolly Parton’s passing. It is a warm picture that speaks to our love for the doctrine of sentimentality.

📍Why We Do Not Certify Biblical Counselors

https://rickthomasnet.substack.com/p/why-we-do-not-certify-biblical-counselors

Full Transcript in Comments ⬇️

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Why We Do Not Certify Biblical Counselors Watch now | We are often asked if we certify biblical counselors, an excellent question that deserves a careful response. We do train people in soul care.

📍Flock Cameras Migrating to a Neighborhood Near You

The argument about the goodness of Flock cameras or Ring doorbells keeps missing the main point. We are not deciding whether to enter a surveillance state.

We have lived in one for years, and we built it ourselves—you and me, one convenience at a time.

Google and Meta do not sell your data, which would be foolish, since the data is their business model. They rent you to those who want to sell you things. You are not the customer; you are the inventory.

Read on Substack ⬇️

https://rickthomasnet.substack.com/p/flock-cameras-migrating-to-a-neighborhood/

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Flock Cameras Migrating to a Neighborhood Near You Flock cameras are coming to your neighborhood. But the surveillance state arrived years ago, and we installed most of it ourselves, one convenience at a time.