Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

When I usually think about repentance, I think about a change in behavior or action. But one of our speakers this week highlighted that it’s not just about what we do, but it is also about what we believe. The specific question that he asked us was, “Is being a son or daughter of God just a concept, or is it reality?”

Oish. That hit like a ton of bricks.

Repentance is more than a change of action, but it is also a change of purpose, a change of thoughts, a change of self-perception, a change of worldview (what and why you believe what you believe), and  change of hopes.

Something that I’m learning a lot about right now is that repentance is a good thing. But as long as it’s “just correction,” it’s “just legalism”.  It’s a lot different if we see it as an invitation to intimacy with God :)

It’s actually quite beautiful.

Romans 5:8

…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And what is our response?

I guess my class caught on quick that I’m a Cubs fan (and I’ll always be a Cubs fan :) )
And BTW, hooray for the arrival of Theo Epstein! Let’s go Cubbies!

Trees and Elephants

For those of you who want a sample of what we’re learning in the FCM, I’ve got two words for you: Trees and Elephants. (Warning: this might get long)

Let’s start with the tree. This tree isn’t really an official counseling tool/model, but it is very revealing of why we do what we do.

It goes like this:
Trees grow from the roots on up

Roots -> Trunk -> Branches/Leaves -> Fruit

And similarly, we do too, but it begins with our beliefs
Beliefs -> Values -> Choices -> Behavior

Our behaviors and habits are the fruit of our beliefs. Simple enough, right? Right.

So what does this have to do with elephants?

Elephants are tamed at a young age. When they are young, their owners will tie a chain from one of their legs to a post or a tree. When a young elephant wants to run away, the chain & post is strong enough to keep it in place.

By the time the elephant is older, it is massive and strong enough to break any chain and uproot a tree, but its owner controls it the same way as before – by tying the elephant to a tree using another chain or even a rope. And when the elephant wants to run away, it feels the tension and stops because it has been conditioned to believe that it can’t break free.

And so it is with us.

You are beloved children of God, saints made in the image of God, and you have Christ in you – the hope of glory! But the enemy, the world, people, culture, traumatic events, and/or tragedy have conditioned us to believe that we cannot be who God says we are, that certain recurring sins cannot be overcome, that we’re not good enough, or that something about us is too messed up for the Cross – even though we know better…

And we find ourselves crying out for freedom.

When we believe in a lie, we live it out – it will bear fruit (shame, being hyper-critical of oneself, depression, fear, self-condemnation, striving, etc.)

By looking at the fruit of our lives, we have to ask ourselves, “Is this really what God intended? Is this in line with what God says?” And if something’s not right, we trace it back to a choice we made, which goes back to a value, which leads to a lie (or half truth) in our belief system. Then we look to the truth, repent, receive forgiveness/grace, and then apply the truth to our life.

Counseling is a ministry of change – to uproot the lies, renew the mind, restore a person to their original design, and restore their relationship with their Father. There’s more to what I wrote above and the application of truth can get difficult too, but if we ask God to search our hearts, He’ll lead the way (Psalm 139:23-24). He’s already won and holds the keys to freedom in His hand :)

After a 42hr journey, I finally made it!
Word to the wise: Never stay in an airport for 18hrs straight. You can get quite delirious @_@

But I’m so thankful to finally be in Perth. I arrived last Saturday night and just finished a week of base orientation and lectures on the foundations of Christian counseling (btw, they spell it will two L’s…I would use 2 L’s, but then that annoying red line will show up).

In a nutshell, we learned about how God, in His great love, wants to restore His original design for us and, even more so, the relationship with Him. We were made for Him; we were made for love :)

Also, we learned some counseling basics and that as counsellors, we are God’s instruments, not His replacement.

So far so good :)

Each day’s schedule is packed! I thought the Kona base kept us busy, but these Aussies run a tight ship!
Here’s what it looks like each day:

??? – 8:00am: Breakfast at home

8:00am – 8:30am: Family Chores (Each person is assigned a task to do around the base. Some people sweep, some setup tables, I get to sort bread :) )
8:30am – 12:30pm: Morning Worship/Lectures

12:30pm – 1:30pm: Lunch

1:30pm – 3:30pm: Study time/Free time/One-on-One

3:30pm – 5:30pm: Work Duty (Each person works on base for 2hrs. They might be cooking dinner or working the grounds. I get to work in the media department.)

5:30pm – 6:30pm: Dinner

6:30pm – ???: Evening class/Small Group/Corporate Gathering/Evangelism

And finally we have time to study some more or get our homework done.

So with the exception of Wednesdays, each day’s activities end around 8:30-9:00PM.

I’m starting to post some pictures up on Facebook: Click Here

I was going to post some more on here, but I think there’s “some control” over who can see what – it just means that you’ve gotta be my friend…my Facebook friend, just don’t poke me :P

I don’t have any pictures of my class yet (I don’t even think we’ve taken one altogether yet), but I’m sure I’ll post one or two in the near future. My class is made up of  18 students representing about 11 different nations. And here’s a fun little fact, out of 90-some students, I think I’m the only Chinese guy.

But I hope each of you are doing well! I pray that each of you are growing in love and being affected by His love! More updates to come! God bless!

I’ll just leave you guys with some worship :)

If you’re still interested in supporting, I’m still trying to recoup some airfare/visa costs and bank fees/foreign exchange losses (higher than I thought). Any gift will help :)

So tonight, while I’m not watching the exciting end to the MLB regular season (Wow, 2 collapses in one night! Go Cards! Go Rays!), I’m recollecting all that has happened during the past few months, the lessons from DTS, and the phrase that’s on my mind is this: Your destiny is something you need to walk in to.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

It’s interesting how the more we seek God, the more these predestined works are revealed. And the more we obey, the more we know God. But in between the revealing and the obeying is a choice, an action, an initiation. The “Yes” that your heart is saying must break past passivity and fear and into reality. We’ve got to walk into our destiny.

I feel like I’m walking into a big question mark. What lies on the other side of the FCM tunnel? I haven’t the slightest idea, but I do believe that this is my initiation to find out.

God, I ask for boldness, a servant’s heart, and a greater love for You.

Keep me from holding back. Both feet are off the boat, here we go. Here we go!

Here’s a quick little schedule (to the best of my knowledge) for the next few days and for FCM:

9/29 – Fly out from Chicago

9/30 – Spend a night in HK

10/1 – Arrive in Perth

10/3 – Classes begin :)

Sometime after Christmas before the end of December – London Outreach for 8 weeks

Mid-February – TBD 2nd Outreach Location for 4 weeks

March 2012 – Return to Perth

March 19 – Visit family + friends in Taiwan

April, 2012 – Return to Chicago

And just to end on a lighter note…

Per everyone’s request…I doubt I’ll find the singing Korean twins because they are across the country in Sydney, but I’ll keep my eyes on the lookout for you guys. Who knows, maybe they want to do a DTS? :P

Also, the outback is an exciting place to be, but I found this song quite fun…although I’m a little more hesitant to go camping with my class now…