Simple "Soulcare" - a summary? 
    (God's Way Home - family discipleship)

(Updated May 2003 - Sid Galloway)

Have you ever wondered why one person yawning can tempt a whole room full of people to yawn?  Way back when I was a zookeeper (caring for lions, tigers, and bears), just watching one of my animals stretching its jaws would make me feel like yawning.  Do you know why yawning is so contagious?  God, the Father, made us socially contagious for a very special purpose - socialization.  God, the Father, created the home as a refuge to enjoy and reflect His pure self-sacrificing love.  The home is God's primary socializing system.  Beyond the home, a local church should be an extended family of brothers and sisters, helping to socialize or ©L.E.A.D. one another into the mature character of His Son, JESUS  (like Father - like Son).

There’s no place like home, at least that's the way it's should be, because God the Father designed people for intimate relationships with Him and with one another, for His glory.  Therefore, our only hope for genuine family fulfillment is by His grace, through submissive faith in His Son, who earned the right to rule.  Jesus alone lived a perfect human life, died to pay the penalty we deserve for our selfish rebellion, and he rose from death to be LORD (King/Boss/Authority) over anyone who would willingly submit to His Father's Way.

God's Way Home = Simple Soulcare = Family Discipleship = Biblical Counseling
It's The Way of the Cross - Submissive Faith 
Simple enough for a child, yet profound enough for any Ph.D.

Luke 9:23-24
[Jesus said] "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
For whoever desires to save his life [life in the Greek = psyche] will loose it,
but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it
[save in the Greek = "sozo" - make it whole & strong, forever]."

Sadly, to many Christian homes and churches have absorbed, unintentionally through spiritual osmosis, the World's Way and its characteristics.  We've tried to make physical things, buildings, budgets, and bodies fill the void in our souls.  Even worse, we've often slipped into the World's Way of selfish competition and survival of the © "Survival of the Coolest / Cruelest".

Please think about our "natural" reaction, when someone hurts us. It is either defensive or offensive protection of self?  Such reactions are easily seen when kids either raise their fists for a fight, or cover their faces with crossed arms and run away.  The adult extremes of these natural reactions are terrorism and isolationism.  But contrast both of these "natural", sinful reactions, with the "supernatural" response of Jesus on the cross.  Jesus voluntarily stood strong, on the nail stuck through His feet, with His arms opened wide.  Jesus embraced even His enemies, with a self-sacrificial love and forgiveness that's alien to this world of selfish competition.  God's Way Home (into the Father's loving arms) is the Way of His Son, the Way of the Cross.  Jesus, the one and only God/Man, paid the full penalty necessary for our forgiveness.  He bore the incomprehensible separation from His Heavenly Father, that we all deserve.  The Good News is that anyone who submits in faith under His authority, trusting His work on His cross, becomes born-again, spiritually, as a child of God the Father.  

But how is that new child of the Father to grow?  It's the same Way of the Cross, God's Way Home.  It's embracing our own daily cross of circumstances (Luke 9:23-26), the © "Providential Pressures" allowed by our Father's sovereign hand.  This is the only way to grow into His Son's strong, mature character, the fruit of His Spirit (Gal 5:22-25).  His Way for both salvation and progressive sanctification is submissive faith in the Father.  It means yielding as a branch in a vine, allowing His Spirit to use our hearts and hands to love others, yes, even our enemies, for His glory above our own personal pleasure.  The Father's Family, both at home and at church, is the extended socializing system designed to nurture and develop mature disciples.  

What's God's purpose for you, your family and your church?
         Holiness before happiness, for God the Father's glory above all else (John 13-17).
What's God's structure for family and for church?
        His authority (the backbone of relationships) wrapped in His unselfish love 
           Remember, a body without a backbone is a jellyfish, & a skeleton without soft flesh is cold and hard!
What's God's strategy for family & church, in order to achieve His purpose?
        "Family Discipleship" (soulcare), sensitively socializing one another into Christ's image, the Father's family character,
           for His glory, so that the Great Commission (Mat 28:18-20) will not be hindered.

God's Design:  

The Cause and Cure of Dysfunction
The disobedience of Adam turned God's family design into disorder, leading to destructive dysfunction, decay and death, and ultimately resulting in God's dishonor, but the application of God's practical principles for solving people-problems can glorify Him again.  God's plan to overcome our problem is not a program, but a person, His Son, Jesus, and the Way of the Cross (Luke 9:23-26).  But beware, the Serpent still seeks to seduce with his subtle deceptions, and has filled the modern world with false counsel encouraging the way of self-will, self-gratification, self-exaltation, and even new age self-deification.

Your Marriage: 

Reflecting the Oneness of Christ & His Bride
The beauty of a Waltz flows from the husband as he leads his wife in a dance of intimate oneness, but when he fails to lead, or his wife fails to follow, their stumbling almost always hurts the children.  The good news is that you can have the fruit of God's Spirit, the strong, mature character of Christ filling and overflowing your life.  Best of all, your spouse cannot prevent God from producing it in you.  Even if your spouse never changes and grows in Christ, you can.  Then your children will see God's fruit in your life, and be drawn to follow Jesus just like you.  By the way, the most effective influence you can ever have to help your spouse change is simply to live the fruit of the Spirit for him or her to see.

Your Children:

Changing Burdens To Blessings for Generations to Come
In order to train up a child so that he or she eagerly desires to walk under the hand of God's authority, parents must first show them by modeling, work hard to know them individually, and then grow them through disciplined discipleship.  You're correct, the process is not easy, but it can become one of the greatest blessings of your life.

Your Church: 

A Communion of Brothers and Sisters Under the Authority of One Father When communication breaks down in a family, an appeal for help to the church is a crucial step in the peacemaking process.  It is essential, in order to L.E.A.D. one another to restoration and maturity in Christ, through Loving, Equipping, Accountability, and Discipline.  This is especially true in cases of serious abuse, yet church leadership is an important part of God's plan even for basic conflict resolution.  Sadly, too many churches are busy doing a lot of "good" things, while neglecting God's "best" (building mature husbands, wives, parents, & children). 

 God's Way Home:  

For the Lost and Lonely in the World ( Your Family as an Evangelistic Tract to the World)
When the world looks up and sees the fruit of God's Spirit as the character of your home, many can be drawn to become a part of God's church family.   Does your family have a specific ministry focus (a mission statement), that you all pray about and plan for during family devotions?  Do the members of your family know how they can cooperate with and support the head-of-household in the family's ministry?  Serving as "one", toward a common ministry goal, is the most powerful way to draw your family together and to remain close as the years unfold.

Sin is "missing the mark", falling short of God's perfect law of love.
          -  Gen 3; Mat 5:48; 22:36-40; John 13:34-35; 1 Cor 13 & 15; Gal 5:14 & 22; 1 John 4
It is falling short of God's perfect glory (character), 
and it is due either to deception or deliberate rebellion.
Sometimes it's due to a combination of both. 
Either way, it results in failure to submit in faith to the Father through Jesus His Son.      
The consequence is that the fruit of God's Holy Love will not grow and flow through you.
Instead:
            -  (Self-will stands in opposition to His Will)
            -  (Self-love supercedes love for God & neighbor)
            -  (Self-esteem displaces Christ-esteem)
            -  (Foolishness replaces the wisdom of His sufficient Word)

Psalm 68:5-6
"A Father of the fatherless   
[children with absent-Dads],
a defender of widows
[single-mothers],
is God in His holy habitation
[Father-Son-Spirit, Family].
God sets the solitary
[the lost and lonely] 
in families;
He brings out those
who are bound
[by prejudice and oppression]
into prosperity
[abundant life and relationships]"

Sid's Background
Linda's Testimony
Sid's Kids