Biblical Counsel

Blog world, what's up? This week, surprise, was an awesome week. To start the week off we went zip-lining in the ozark moutains. I was a memerable experiance that I hope to repeat. On Tuesday we had the great Joe White come and recite the whole book of Ephisans and speak incredible wisdom into our lives. Its a mind-blowing, sanctifying, life-changing experience everytime Joe comes and talk to us. On Wednesday and Thursday, Tim Watson, a christian couselor, came and talked to us about biblical counseling and how we are are called to counsel to a certain degree. Before you start looking at me funny, let me define couseling. Couseling is any form for teaching, giving guidence or an act of helping a brother get through a situation. Counseling started in the Garden by God (Gen 1:29) and is probably most talked about in the New Testament (Jesus counseling the 12 disciples and so on). So counseling is biblical, cool. EW are are called to do it. The great commission says that we (Matt 28:19) go and make disciples of all the nations. Counseling is a key part of that part, so we are all called to do it. This is just a little wisdom I learned this week, and that's why this week was awesome.

Open Handed

Sup blog peeps! This week was a good one. We started the week off with a mystery monday, learning self defense. We went to a local dojo and learned some effective techniques and moves, so don't mess with me or you will get a hammer-fist straight to the dome! On a more serious note, our speaker this week was Austin Ochs. Austin is a friend of Adam Donyes and helps run a company called Capital 3. Capital 3 is a private equity firm that owns and operates corporations with the mindset of creating economic, social and spiritual capital. This week he talked about many topics, including, how to live a high impact life, the powerful combination of business and ministry and much more. Even though I learned a lot, one topic that he discussed made the most impact on me. Open hand living. Open hand living is the mentality that we steward our time, treasure and talents with an open hand rather than a closed hand. Let me explain. If I have a five dollar bill in my hand and my hand is closed I will have that dollar bill as long as my hand is closed. If I have a five dollar bill in my hand and my hand is open I now have the opportunity to spend or give that five dollar bill away and create the potential for a larger bill, 10, 20, 50, to occupy my hand. With that larger bill I can now make a greater impact. This was a great lesson for me because I am more of a closed hand, kind of guy, but I learned that God has a plan and reason for everything and it will work for His glory and I should honor and trust Him for this reason. Have a blessed week!

Respect and Learning

This week was a great week. This week's speakers were Sean McDowell and Chad Hampsch. Chad Hampsch is a great teacher and our class had a great question and answer session with him and I gained a lot from it, but Sean McDowell made the biggest impact on me this week and possibly this whole year. 

     It's Tuesday morning and Sean McDowell comes into the K-1 chapel, our classroom, introduces himself and says a story or two and then says, "When I put on this Jacket I become an atheist." He puts on the jacket and basically says I'm an atheist and I know that you are Christians so ask me any questions you might have. For the next hour and fifteen minutes the majority of the Link Year class tried to poke holes in the "atheist's" worldview and try to convert the "atheist". By the end of the session I felt like we were all two year olds trying to out-smart a parent, the point being that he made us feel like we had the intelligence of two year olds and gave us confidence that we could never "win" in an argument with an atheist professor. Though the exercise made us feel like a kid in T-Ball hitting against Randy Johnson, the point was to expose how we communicate with people who do not share our belief system. To be honest this was a great lesson, because sometimes when we come in contact with a person of different beliefs or views we can be hostile, arrogant and even disrespectful, and we need to treat everyone, including atheists, with the love and respect of Christ. This lesson was a great one but I got something more out of it. This year at Link Year I have learned a lot but Sean showed me that we should never stop learning about the wonderful God we have and the faith we live out everyday, not only by digging in the word but exploring the world around us through science. Even though Sean made us feel stupid, our confidence and esteem was returned when Sean told us that he has studied atheism and apologetics for fifteen years and has done scenarios like this multiple times around the country, I leaned valuable lessons through an experience I will never forget.