Thursday, April 18, 2013

Counseling... It's Biblical

This week we loaded up the vans and went to the middle of nowhere for some fun in the trees for mystery Monday. Once we arrived at Zipline USA, we loaded buses again to go on a very bumpy, windy, curvy dirt/rock road to the top of the ziplines. We then proceeded to go on a series of five ziplines. This was a fun experience, the scenery was beautiful and I had fun being in community with my peers.
This week’s speaker was Tim Watson. Tim is a Christian counselor in Fort Worth, Texas; he is also Brian Wang’s brother-in-law. Tim joined us for mystery Monday and hung out with us throughout the week so it was fun to get to know him and play with his precious son Owen. It was really interesting to hear what Tim had to say about counseling. I know that in our society counseling generally carries a negative connotation, however a friend of mine that is a Christian counselor has told me that it is for anyone and everyone; it doesn’t necessarily mean anything is wrong. Tim’s purpose this week was to enlist, equip, and encourage followers of Jesus Christ to live and counsel the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His word to themselves and to other people; especially those living amidst sufferings and problems of life. Tim pointed out this week that counseling is Biblical. This was a new take on counseling for me. Counsel is not a new invention; God gave instruction or counsel in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:16-17). When the Bible talks about instruction, teaching, or discipleship these are just other words for counsel.
Biblical counseling is a continuous process, where one person offers loving direction and comfort to another person or persons according to the word of God. Biblical counseling aims at human hearts in order to help human hearts fully for Christ. This is done primarily in two ways: 1) transform heart toward loving God and others well 2) expose the parts of the heart that are unwilling or unable to change. We are called to teach, disciple, and counsel those in our lives. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!


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