Living

Life!
Christs Life Expressed Through Tom and Tess Price
A Quarterly Newsletter

Issue No 9 - Summer 2015

hen someone tells you they have

some good news, do you find
yourself wanting to listen? I think
most of us do, especially living in a world
where good news is infrequent.
When folks come to CFT they are
hoping to hear some good news. They
ultimately want to know that there is hope
for them.
There are many approaches to
counseling. When someone comes in to see
me, I will look at whom they may have seen
in the past. Sometimes I will ask what they
learned about themselves through their
previous counseling experience. I know
something they may not know CFT is very
different from other counseling centers.
Many
counseling
approaches
concentrate on the persons choices and
behaviors. As bad behaviors are recognized,
new behaviors are recommended. The
thinking goes something like this: If I start
making better choices, I will behave better.
As I behave better, I will experience more
success in my life. As I experience more
success, I will feel better about myself. As I
feel better about myself, I will make better
choices.
Other counseling models look at the
persons emotions how one feels about
himself or herself. This approach assumes
that our emotions ultimately regulate the
success of our life. After all, who wants to
feel bad about himself or herself? The
thinking goes like this: If I feel good about
myself, I will have a higher self-esteem.
People with high self-esteem make better

choices that lead to a happier and healthier

life.
When you Christianize these models
you essentially throw some Bible verses in
the mix and suggest some really healthy/
Godly choices. It all sounds good, but does
that really work?
The CFT approach to counseling
examines what the person believes. We
know that belief drives behaviors and
emotions. There are secular counseling
models that follow this same approach to
mental and emotional health, however
belief has to be based in and on truth from
a trusted source. You can attempt all day to
believe you are ok in hopes that something
will change in your life. You can look at all
the external evidence, such as talent, gifting,
personality, education, family, job, church
involvement, what others say about you,
etc., but are those trusted sources?
If we believe what God says about
Himself and what He is saying about us, that

will change everything. Dont get me wrong;

Im not saying our circumstances will
change. Im saying we will change.
The first thing I do with someone
looking for hope is to help them understand
their identity in Christ. I want them to
understand what the finished work of
Christs crucifixion, burial, resurrection and
ascension means for them. Most Christians
understand that God loves them and that He
has forgiven them, but they dont understand
that they are new beings with Gods nature
imprinted on their nature. This truth (the new
man) alone can transform ones belief about
his or her self.
Secondly, I want to help the counselee
understand his or her own unique flesh.
Flesh is not the nature of a saint, but it is
simply an operating system whereby a
person attempts to get their needs met
through the natural world. God designed us
to be dependent on Him and to get our needs
met from Him and Him alone. When we
choose to operate according to the flesh, our
choices lead us to bad places and our
emotions get out of whack. God designed us
to be recipients of His life so we can express
His life in our daily walk (behaviors and
emotions).
The greatest hope I can give a person is
the person of Jesus, not a set of principles or
a formula for living. Paul says it best in 2
Corinthians 4:6-9, For God, who said, Let
there be light in the darkness, has made this
light shine in our hearts so we could know
the glory of God that is seen in the face of
Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining

Life Update . . .
This has been an awesome Spring and
Summer. Ministry has continued to be
fulfilling because God is the One doing
all the hard work of changing lives. As
we have participated with Him in His
work, we have witnessed many folks
appropriating their true identity in the
middle of hurtful life events. As His
instruments, we have been able to have a
listening ear, say encouraging words, and
challenge old worn-out beliefs that lead to
conflict and frustration. Please continue to
pray for us as we join others on the front
line of their battles.

I (Tom) spent the last week of July on a

mountain in Montana working on the
Kingdom Camp lodge. I took five other
guys from GA with me. We were joined
by my youngest brother and my dad. We
were able to accomplish three major
projects in that week - kitchen cabinets,
electrical trim, and stone work. All of the
major projects have been completed.
Please pray for my dad as he
administrates the completion of Kingdom
Camp. We are anticipating God healing
many leaders through the ministry of
Kingdom Camp.
Over the past year I have been giving you
updates on our Living In Jesus project.
This is our comprehensive discipleship
curriculum to be used in one-on-one and
group discipleship. We officially started
the project in the fall of 2013 and began
putting it on paper in February 2014. I am
happy to announce after thousands of
hours of work it has been sent to the
printer! We hope to have it ready for mass
production by the middle of September.
There is already a womens group at a
local church who plan to use Living In
Jesus this fall. Our own Connie Brezina
will be leading that study. I want to
introduce this study to pastors who might
be interested in our discipleship process.
Please be in prayer for this important
book. Pray it will find its way into the
hands of those who desire to grow in their
intimacy with God!

In our personal lives, we have entered

into our third round of sharing our home
with one of our children. Luke and his
wife Cassie and their son Landon have
moved in with us for a season. Their
former
living
situation
became
dangerous. While they are with us, they
want to look for a home to buy. When our
girls and their husbands lived with us,
each one of them was pregnant and had
their children. We got to experience
having babies in our home. Now we get
to experience a preschooler in our home.
The last preschooler who lived with us
was our son. Now we get to have fun with
his son. Please pray for them as they
search for a home and as they learn to
completely trust God to meet all their
needs. We are privileged to have them
with us. Pray for us as we love them and
encourage them.

in our hearts, but we ourselves are like

fragile clay jars containing this great
treasure. This makes it clear that our
great power is from God, not from
ourselves. We are pressed on every side
by troubles, but we are not crushed. We
are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
We are hunted down, but never
abandoned by God. We get knocked
down, but we are not destroyed. (NLT)

When you or I believe the truth

(given by God) that we are loved and
lovable, worthy and worthwhile,
respected and respectable it suddenly
occurs to us that we are safe. No matter
what is going on around us (our
circumstances) we are secure.
This is what we do at Christian
Families Today!

174 Ashley Park Blvd STE 1

Newnan, GA 30263
www.ChristianFamiliesToday.org
TomP@CFTministry.org
770-502-8050
tomtess1.blogspot.com