“Not Alone” was the theme of the CCEF Conference in Frisco this year. I was awestruck by the simplicity and yet extreme depth of this statement in relationship to us as that we are never alone as Christians. When I felt most alone in my life: when I signed the papers for my husband to be taken off life-support or when I left my suffering husband at one hospital to pick up my sick daughter and take her to another hospital for admission for dehydration. But I was never really alone. Both instances, I cried out to the Lord and wondered why I was alone and if had he forsaken me. However, as I look back, God sent another friend to be with my husband, and my father-in-law showed up at the hospital to check on Lana and me. That was Him being there; I am never truly alone. I need only to take a deep breath, remember and feel that He is with me. This is the true definition of faith, is it not?
It can be easy to believe in the Lord and His strength and power on a good day. Except, what about the horrible days, the loneliest days, the days when despair peeks around the corner? Those days test your faith the most; can you remember that the Lord is good and He is always near you even on those days?
One of the speakers at the conference spoke about the fact that Christ is always with us. And He knows what it is like to be truly alone. He lay on the Cross feeling more alone than we could ever be. At that point when He became sin for us, he knew true loneliness. If we believe this fundamental of Christianity, then the speaker went on to say that we always have HOPE as our defense in these tough days. As the speaker went on he said, we forget about the Lord on the great days when all is going our way. Then we humans tend to bring Him out of our pocket when the bad times hit. The speaker then said that Christ never forgets about us, but we forget about Him. We are always on His mind.
Finally, there is no pain that we have felt that Christ, when he took on human form, has not felt before. He is not a God sitting in the Heavens apart from us; He has been where we have been. He is feeling your pain; He is true compassion. Also, the speaker pointed out that true compassion is where someone takes on a bit of your pain. They carry it with them. Christ can take our pain; He brings true empathy. He is there with you in every moment of your life. You are never alone.
What a comfort this speaker brought to me! - Ashli Kottwitz
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Showing posts with label CCEF Conference 2013. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CCEF Conference 2013. Show all posts
Thursday, October 31, 2013
CCEF conference ~Anne Chamberlin
God with Us
The Christian Counseling and Education Foundation’s (CCEF) conference two weekends ago centered on the theme, “Not Alone.” The mission of CCEF is to “restore Christ to counseling and restore counseling to the church.”
In this age (as in every other), people find themselves feeling isolated, lonely, and adrift from God and their community. This is true for married and single people, men and women, children and adults. But God is a personal and intimate companion; he came right alongside us in his incarnation. The force and focus of the weekend was for us to reach out and model Christ’s companionship to others (family, friends, co-workers, clients).
David and I attended all but one of the main sessions and many of the plenary sessions, so I thought it might be best to just share a paraphrase of each session I attended. After the conference, I felt spiritually and emotionally refreshed from hearing experienced biblical counselors teach and exhort us about relationship – God’s relationship with me and my relationship with others. (I was also physically refreshed by the Cajun food truck, but that is another blog.)
For me, the conference called to my mind Isaiah’s description of the coming Messiah as “Immanuel: God with us.” Indeed much of the conference centered on the person and work of the incarnate Jesus Christ. From him we understand ourselves and others, so that we can counsel and minister personally and effectively.
We enter into others lives as Christ did in the following ways:
We are builders (David Powlison): “Every relationship is intentional.” Every interaction we have with other image-bearers -- whether that interaction is small or great, light or deep, glancing or permanent -- is either building bridges or building walls. How we speak to people, even in casual and light conversations (which are not bad), either sends the message that we wish to build a bridge to someone or that we wish to wall them off.
We are Christ-modelers (Elyse Fitzpatrick): Christ entered into humanity, laboring and living in an obscure “hick town” before his public ministry, pleasing his Father in all of his daily activities, from the most mundane daily labor to his glorious resurrection. He did not despise his body, but he joined in the human experience, yet without sin. We are called to be like him: to enter into the lives of others, to listen, and show them Christ. Do not scorn the mundane, but embrace it by serving God even in the everyday, as Christ did.
We are dialoguers (Julie Lowe): As parents, do you value compliance more than engagement with your children? Are you daily seeking to be in dialogue and conversation with them? Do you speak of and reflect on the delights of living as much as the disciplines of living? Finally -- Do you require of yourself what you require of them?
We are listeners (Ed Welch): Do you seek to ask meaningful and probing questions in order to enter into the lives of others, both their triumphs and joys and their failures and sufferings? Our demeanor and perspective, in the joys and the trials, should be, “Tell me more. Give me the details. How can I pray for you?” (Be careful about answering someone’s shared concern by telling your own story immediately. This shuts people down. Instead, listen and probe.)
We are reconcilers (Cecilia Bernhardt): God uses conflict to foster character in his saints, and he intends for conflict to draw us closer to him and to each other. We tend to begin conflicts with an eye towards self-service, but, if we see Jesus, we can change that to having an eye towards God’s reality in the situation. If we are interested in God’s truth, we can face conflict with humility rather than self-service.
We are affirmers (Aaron Sironi): The model and command of Scripture is not to flatter, but “to be alert for what God considers good.” (Eg: Jesus with Nathaniel and the centurion, Proverbs 31, Romans 8.) If we only see and verbalize what is wrong in people and situations, we need to repent. God himself commends a motley group of saints in Hebrews 11 (Gideon, Samson, etc). It is not enough to think and notice good things; we must verbalize those things.
In closing, this conference was replete with wise counsel, challenging our perspectives and exhorting us to truly engage with people in their need.
The basis and foundation of all of the teaching was Jesus Christ’s finished work and his example of how to enter in and truly love others intimately and personally. How do we know that we are not alone? By looking at him and his incarnation. How do we know how to love others and come alongside them? By learning from him, who entered into humanity and who intercedes for us.
Colossians 1:3-8 “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.”
The Christian Counseling and Education Foundation’s (CCEF) conference two weekends ago centered on the theme, “Not Alone.” The mission of CCEF is to “restore Christ to counseling and restore counseling to the church.”
In this age (as in every other), people find themselves feeling isolated, lonely, and adrift from God and their community. This is true for married and single people, men and women, children and adults. But God is a personal and intimate companion; he came right alongside us in his incarnation. The force and focus of the weekend was for us to reach out and model Christ’s companionship to others (family, friends, co-workers, clients).
David and I attended all but one of the main sessions and many of the plenary sessions, so I thought it might be best to just share a paraphrase of each session I attended. After the conference, I felt spiritually and emotionally refreshed from hearing experienced biblical counselors teach and exhort us about relationship – God’s relationship with me and my relationship with others. (I was also physically refreshed by the Cajun food truck, but that is another blog.)
For me, the conference called to my mind Isaiah’s description of the coming Messiah as “Immanuel: God with us.” Indeed much of the conference centered on the person and work of the incarnate Jesus Christ. From him we understand ourselves and others, so that we can counsel and minister personally and effectively.
We enter into others lives as Christ did in the following ways:
We are builders (David Powlison): “Every relationship is intentional.” Every interaction we have with other image-bearers -- whether that interaction is small or great, light or deep, glancing or permanent -- is either building bridges or building walls. How we speak to people, even in casual and light conversations (which are not bad), either sends the message that we wish to build a bridge to someone or that we wish to wall them off.
We are Christ-modelers (Elyse Fitzpatrick): Christ entered into humanity, laboring and living in an obscure “hick town” before his public ministry, pleasing his Father in all of his daily activities, from the most mundane daily labor to his glorious resurrection. He did not despise his body, but he joined in the human experience, yet without sin. We are called to be like him: to enter into the lives of others, to listen, and show them Christ. Do not scorn the mundane, but embrace it by serving God even in the everyday, as Christ did.
We are dialoguers (Julie Lowe): As parents, do you value compliance more than engagement with your children? Are you daily seeking to be in dialogue and conversation with them? Do you speak of and reflect on the delights of living as much as the disciplines of living? Finally -- Do you require of yourself what you require of them?
We are listeners (Ed Welch): Do you seek to ask meaningful and probing questions in order to enter into the lives of others, both their triumphs and joys and their failures and sufferings? Our demeanor and perspective, in the joys and the trials, should be, “Tell me more. Give me the details. How can I pray for you?” (Be careful about answering someone’s shared concern by telling your own story immediately. This shuts people down. Instead, listen and probe.)
We are reconcilers (Cecilia Bernhardt): God uses conflict to foster character in his saints, and he intends for conflict to draw us closer to him and to each other. We tend to begin conflicts with an eye towards self-service, but, if we see Jesus, we can change that to having an eye towards God’s reality in the situation. If we are interested in God’s truth, we can face conflict with humility rather than self-service.
We are affirmers (Aaron Sironi): The model and command of Scripture is not to flatter, but “to be alert for what God considers good.” (Eg: Jesus with Nathaniel and the centurion, Proverbs 31, Romans 8.) If we only see and verbalize what is wrong in people and situations, we need to repent. God himself commends a motley group of saints in Hebrews 11 (Gideon, Samson, etc). It is not enough to think and notice good things; we must verbalize those things.
In closing, this conference was replete with wise counsel, challenging our perspectives and exhorting us to truly engage with people in their need.
The basis and foundation of all of the teaching was Jesus Christ’s finished work and his example of how to enter in and truly love others intimately and personally. How do we know that we are not alone? By looking at him and his incarnation. How do we know how to love others and come alongside them? By learning from him, who entered into humanity and who intercedes for us.
Colossians 1:3-8 “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.”
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