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SACC INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE
SPOTLIGHT
Rev. Dr. Charles Rasberry of Riverview, FL is a Certified Pastoral Member of the Sarasota Academy of Christian Counseling and has been an International Representative since March 2, 2004.
He is a Licensed Clinical Pastoral Counselor--Advanced Certified member of the NCCA, and Clinical Supervisor. He also operates Oasis For Life Training Center, an NCCA Certified Academic Institution.
He is a dedicated minister with more than 4 decades of university and church and church experience. His particular interests lie in two major areas – laying down life’s foundational principles and training and equipping professionals and ministers in the field of counseling.
He is passionate about developing the next generation of church leaders and ensuring that the church remains relevant for the years to come.
He has written several books – Applied Apostolic Foundation Principles, Multiplicity of Ministry, Care group Leaders Training Manual, The House that God Built, and the Overview of the Book of Revelation. He has recently finished his new book on Christ-Centered Mindfulness Course.
In 1988, Dr. Rasberry founded Oasis For Life Ministry and Calvary Bible College. He also pioneered four (4) churches on the West Coast. In 2004, he started the first Oasis For Life Wellness Center in Albany, Oregon and in 2015 established Oasis For Life Iloilo, Philippines. He has recently opened Oasis For Life Ministry ad Oasis For Life Wellness Center in Largo, Fl.
At present, Oasis For Life Wellness Center have 4 locations – Albany, OR, Vancouver, WA, Hilo, HI and Largo, FL., which serves as the main office. Whatever God has empowered him to do, he gives all the glory and praise to the Lord Jesus Christ.
OUR THOUGHTS ARE THE ENGINE THAT PROPELS OUR WORDS AND EMOTIONS.
In my first speech class in college, our professor introduced the concept that words have no meaning, that in reality the meaning is in the thoughts of the one speaking. He used that concept to help us build speeches that would show our thoughts as clearly as possible. Also, with the understanding that as clear as the speech may be there may be those that would not get the same understanding.
Perceptions are gateways to our thoughts. So, core beliefs about oneself can be the engine that runs our thoughts and because we are created by God in His image and His likeness, we make our words and thoughts like His in the process of our lives.
God used the action of His word to speak the world into existence. But before He spoke, He thought it out to its end. Like God, every word or emotion that comes out of us comes from a thought within us.
David Stoop, Ph.D. wrote a wonderful book entitled “You Are What You Think” and in it, he clearly showed that we speak from our thoughts. We also have God’s word that tells us in Proverbs 23:7 that, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.”
I was first exposed to this understanding when I read, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, a book written by Dr. Victor Frankl. It was my first introduction to Cognitive Therapy.
Dr. Victor Frankl wrote his book from a note that he stuffed into the lining of his coat while he was in a workcamp in one of the worst concentrations camps the Nazis had during World War II.
He began to notice like himself, that there were men that seemingly would not die, even though the Nazis only fed them very little in order to starve them to death. They seemed to have meat that no one knew. (Like Jesus at Jacob’s well with the Samaritan woman - John 4:33-34.)
Victor would talk with these men and he found that they all had the same perception and core beliefs. They found purpose even in their situation and these are those that did not die.
Over my many years as a Christian Counselor using the SACC/NCCA Temperament Therapy system (which looks at each counselee as a creation of God), I found in many cases on the first session, as their temperament is revealed in the area of inclusion, they would bear witness that what they are hearing about their temperament has always been in their heart. However, in a lot of cases, they were told it was wrong when they were a child, and that they needed to be more like this or that to be accepted in their world.
This would, in most cases cause them to say statements that would be “absolute” statements. These absolute statements are from a strong emotion driven by thoughts that are lying to them and they have agreed with these lying thoughts. There is only one absolute and that is Jesus. Others are not true.
As a Cognitive Therapist, I would ask them to identify the emotion they are feeling that had caused them to make that absolute statement. Once they identified the emotion, I would ask them to write down the thought that was going through their minds to justify the strong emotional response.
Once they did, they would agree that they were not truth and that they had agreed with those thoughts for so long, causing darkness in their minds.
Jesus tells His disciples to not let their light be in darkness. (Luke 11:35) These automatic thoughts that now have been identified as not true are what II Corinthians 10:4-5 call “strongholds” that fortify the high place in our mind (or thoughts) that do not agree with God’s Word or Spirit. This why a man can work so hard to build a business and still feel that he is a failure. In his core belief about himself, he believed a lie from his enemy about himself that he would never amount to anything and would never be loved unconditionally.
I have a counselee years ago, an elder in a great church, married for 37 years to a wonderful wife, with three grown children, each doing well in their careers. He had just been written up in a professional magazine as the number one builder of custom homes in the northwest but was on a cocktail of anxiety medicines. His pastor and medical doctor referred him to me. On our first session, as we were going over the fact that he was Melancholy in Inclusion and Control, the results witnessed to him about what he had felt from his early childhood. He was told that he needed to be outgoing. He started to make an absolute statement and as we lead him to identify the emotion that was driving that statement, he began to understand the thoughts behind it that was justifying the emotion.
God leads us to help him pull down the stronghold that justified his core belief about himself. He remembered hearing in his mind, his aunt’s voice when he made a mistake in the kitchen. She shouted to him that he would never amount to anything and no one would love him unconditionally. After that, every thought of his was brought to the obedience of Christ. Working with his MD, he was off all medicines within six months. He and his wife came to visit me later and I will never forget her words, “Now when I tell him that I love him, he believes me.”
That is why I came up with a new form of Cognitive Therapy, using Creation Therapy as my lead or foundation as I work with counselees, incorporating it with Cognitive therapy because I’ve seen how it brought freedom and healing to many. I call it Christ-Centered Mindfulness and together with Temperament Counseling it has helped change lives.