Integrated Christian” counseling, whether people call it that or not, is also commonly found. These are good Christian people who have taken their secular degrees and training and “integrated” them with Scripture and prayer as they apply them to counseling hurting people. Many of them are very well intentioned and believe they are providing “the best of both worlds”, but they are NOT providing real, authentic Biblical counseling. They, in essence, try to “smush together” Scripture and secular psychology to help people. They try, but as we will see momentarily, (by definition) they cannot succeed.

The third is authentic Biblical counseling, which relies exclusively upon the Truth and Power of God’s Word for counseling human problems as guided by God’s Holy Spirit in the Counselor’s office.

As you can see, these three categories can really be reduced to only two: secular psychotherapy vs. Biblical counseling.

Having “worked both sides of the street” for long periods of time, I have come to appreciate the profoundness and clarity of the differences between these two approaches to counseling hurting people. It comes down to two distinct and very important differences that separate them: 1) the source of “wisdom” for the counseling provided; 2) the respective target of counseling.

The first difference really boils down to counseling provided according to “man’s best ideas on how things work” vs. “God’s best ideas on how things work”. I don’t know about you, but I think the “smart money” should be placed on God’s perspective on things given that He alone hold the title of Creator and Designer! Man is the creation; God is the Creator. Man cannot compete with God, on any level, for understanding how the life and the universe He created (out of nothingness) works.

Isaiah 55:8 tells us that “My ways are not your ways, and My