Over the summer the Lord set me free from so much, For the first time in my life I actually feel like I know who I am and what I was created for, so coming into the FCM (Foundations in Counseling Ministry) I wasn’t sure what the Lord wanted to work on in my life. I knew He called me to do the school and I also knew He wouldn’t tell me to do it without a purpose, because of Romans 8:28 ‘that he has predestined everything to work out for our good.’ I thought I’d dealt with everything over the summer, repenting of my past and truly receiving the forgiveness and freedom from God. We all should know that He wants us to be set free, like Paul says we used to be slaves to sin but we died with Christ and now we are dead to sin. And for freedoms sake we have been set free. It’s obvious that God doesn’t want us to be bound up and be a slave to anything but righteousness. All of this lead me to wondering what else the Lord wanted to set me free from, little did I know I would find out very soon.
The first two weeks of FCM we learned about Plumb line ministry, Amos 7:7. The whole idea is that since we live and have grown up in a fallen world we’ve been raised along a false plumb line. The two false plumb lines fall under the main areas of rejection and rebellion. Everybody will always swing to rejection first and then decide to swing a rebellious plumb line, while some will stay in the rejection plumb line their whole life. The creator of this ministry is Bruce Thompson and we have had the pleasure of Bruce teaching class this week. As the creator, Bruce knows exactly how to work and direct the teaching and ministry, just like a watch maker knows how to disassemble and reassemble a watch. Bruce’s biggest dependence is on the Holy Spirit, which is where all real freedom comes from.
As the week progressed the Lord started to highlight areas of my life I thought I had repented of and given to God. But I came to realize I had only been repenting of the sin and never the root of the sin. Just like a weed, if you want to kill it you must take out the roots so it doesn’t come back. Sin is the same, you must find the root of the sin and repent of that, in essence cut off the root, and that is exactly why God has me doing this course. There were many things I thought I had broken off and was free from, but I realized I had only been cutting off the leaves of the sin and not going after the roots. After the Holy Spirit revealed these roots in my life, I fully repented and received the forgiveness Jesus gave to me and all of us 2000 years ago. Today I feel freer than I have ever felt in my life. But even more than being excited for myself, I am excited to be able to minister to others using this tool of plumb line, to bring them back to God’s original, straight plumb line.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
First Steps of 2011
Stewarding is a calling God places on our lives and should always be one of the greatest desires in our hearts. This is what the Lord has spoken to me many times over the past two weeks. How do we do this? What does stewarding look like? This is where we turn to the universes’ greatest guidance counselor, The Holy Spirit. He will be able to guide us in the correct direction for the calling that He has placed on our lives.
Over the past year God has spoken to me many times that I've been called into leadership in the body of believers. Now I'm at the same place that many of us have been at before. What do I do to steward that calling? As 2010 came to a close the Lord pressed upon me that I need to take steps toward preparing myself for this roll that He's called me into. What He led me to is a school known as FCM (Foundations for Counseling Ministry) which is based here in Kona. I continued to seek Him as to why He had lead me in this direction and He spoke to me that the best way I can ready myself for leadership in this season is to learn to counsel others with scriptural wisdom.
Recently God has highlighted identity to me and how vitally important it is for every Christian to get a firm grasp of who they are in Him. Without this identity we won’t be able to operate in all God has for us. We must come into an understanding of who we are in Jesus. To understand that we don't have to work for a single thing in this kingdom we have been given as sons and daughters. Our identity was given to us when we were created by Him and known by Him since He formed us. We must work from our identity and not for it. Through this course (FCM) I know God will help me to better grasp my own identity and in turn be able to help those I mentor to better grasp their identity.
I am in great expectancy of all the Lord is going to do in this season and what He has planned for us all.
Over the past year God has spoken to me many times that I've been called into leadership in the body of believers. Now I'm at the same place that many of us have been at before. What do I do to steward that calling? As 2010 came to a close the Lord pressed upon me that I need to take steps toward preparing myself for this roll that He's called me into. What He led me to is a school known as FCM (Foundations for Counseling Ministry) which is based here in Kona. I continued to seek Him as to why He had lead me in this direction and He spoke to me that the best way I can ready myself for leadership in this season is to learn to counsel others with scriptural wisdom.
Recently God has highlighted identity to me and how vitally important it is for every Christian to get a firm grasp of who they are in Him. Without this identity we won’t be able to operate in all God has for us. We must come into an understanding of who we are in Jesus. To understand that we don't have to work for a single thing in this kingdom we have been given as sons and daughters. Our identity was given to us when we were created by Him and known by Him since He formed us. We must work from our identity and not for it. Through this course (FCM) I know God will help me to better grasp my own identity and in turn be able to help those I mentor to better grasp their identity.
I am in great expectancy of all the Lord is going to do in this season and what He has planned for us all.
Trip to China
As I have had time to process my outreach in China and think about how the Lord moved, I am awestruck by what He has done and what He has taught me through many stretching situations. We were blessed with the opportunity to see 50 Chinese come to the Lord during our time in China. Through that, I came into the full revelation of what it really means when people say that a salvation is the greatest miracle and why Jesus leaves the 99 and goes out after the one. Being able to personally lead a lost soul to eternal life with our savior has to be one of the biggest highlights of not just my outreach but my entire life!
Watching a person’s face and eyes change as they come into understanding of the One who died to save them and praying with them to be filled with the Holy Spirit was a direct blessing from God.
I also had the pleasure of leading half of the team (by myself) to the country of Hong Kong to get their visas renewed so that we could return to China and finish the work that we'd started. The Lord used this time to grow me in ways that I thought wouldn't have been possible at my age. There was definitely a special grace on me to lead alone, that, if I didn't have I wouldn't have been able to lead by myself. I grew in my dependence on God the most, seeking him in and for everything I did.
Most of our ministry was to university students and it really captivated me that most of them had read at least one book of the Bible. These students were so hungry for the Lord that they were seeking him out even without people telling them to or showing them the way. When those beautiful feet of the ones who bring good news come, there is a ripe harvest waiting around every corner!
This outreach fulfilled and exceeded every expectation that I had for my time in China and for the ways the Lord would move during our time. It gets me even more excited to lead another team next year to a brand new location and see what God is doing in a different part of our globe. He is moving everywhere, He just wants us to join in.
Watching a person’s face and eyes change as they come into understanding of the One who died to save them and praying with them to be filled with the Holy Spirit was a direct blessing from God.
I also had the pleasure of leading half of the team (by myself) to the country of Hong Kong to get their visas renewed so that we could return to China and finish the work that we'd started. The Lord used this time to grow me in ways that I thought wouldn't have been possible at my age. There was definitely a special grace on me to lead alone, that, if I didn't have I wouldn't have been able to lead by myself. I grew in my dependence on God the most, seeking him in and for everything I did.
Most of our ministry was to university students and it really captivated me that most of them had read at least one book of the Bible. These students were so hungry for the Lord that they were seeking him out even without people telling them to or showing them the way. When those beautiful feet of the ones who bring good news come, there is a ripe harvest waiting around every corner!
This outreach fulfilled and exceeded every expectation that I had for my time in China and for the ways the Lord would move during our time. It gets me even more excited to lead another team next year to a brand new location and see what God is doing in a different part of our globe. He is moving everywhere, He just wants us to join in.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
China on the Horizon
The Day has finally arrived and I will be heading off to China with a team of ten other people on Sept. 23rd at 4am. Much preparation has gone into this trip and I know God is going to move in more insane ways then I can even imagine. We are going to be gone for ten weeks, nine of which will be spent in mainland China, the other week will be in Hong Kong for our debrief. It is becoming more and more evident this team has been divinely assembled by God for this season and has been anointed to do the Lord’s will and work in China.
We are going to be doing many different kinds of ministries and I know we are going to see many Chinese come to Jesus. Sadly though, I will not be able to update my blog while I am in China, but you can be sure I will have many stories upon my return to Kona. I would like to ask all of you who read this keep me and the team in your prayers as we are definitely going to need it. China is still a closed nation and Christians are still persecuted in some areas. Please pray for safety, team unity, and the moving of the Holy Spirit; thank you so much for all of your prayers, they do mean so much! If you would like to contact me you can email me securely at cbergus@fastmail.fm
We are going to be doing many different kinds of ministries and I know we are going to see many Chinese come to Jesus. Sadly though, I will not be able to update my blog while I am in China, but you can be sure I will have many stories upon my return to Kona. I would like to ask all of you who read this keep me and the team in your prayers as we are definitely going to need it. China is still a closed nation and Christians are still persecuted in some areas. Please pray for safety, team unity, and the moving of the Holy Spirit; thank you so much for all of your prayers, they do mean so much! If you would like to contact me you can email me securely at cbergus@fastmail.fm
Saturday, September 11, 2010
As sweet as Honey
Many times we hear comparisons of God’s love that I think are absolutely ridiculous, to be completely honest. God gave his only son, Jesus, to come and die for all of our sins. Do you realize that those who haven't even be conceived yet have already been forgiven for the sins that they will commit once they are brought into this world? As Christians we seem to think that people who are 'non-believers' are so far away from us and how could they ever get to our level, they are such 'sinners'. While Jesus died for their sins and your own sins at the exact same time, people who aren't saved yet have already been forgiven and the only thing separating us from them is that we have believed with our hearts and spoken with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord. Even sinners are moved by the Holy Spirit, conviction is only brought through the Holy Spirit and conviction is how you are lead to Jesus.
We don't even know what the full love of God is like though we get a small picture of it from scripture. Thankfully scripture is written and God is always new, every aspect of God's love couldn't be captured in one book if you tried. The even crazier thing is we are called to love each other and love our neighbors like Christ loves the church. He became man, from God and displayed His love for us in dying on a cross to set us free from the punishment of sin. How do we start to even love each other like this? I think the best display of this is looking at the gospels and at 1 Corinthians 13. Jesus displayed His love for all on this earth in many different mediums and 1 Cor. 13 gives us the next best set of guidelines to follow on how to love others.
Jesus tells us in the gospels that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves, which is done in many different ways. I want to take a look at John 13: 34-35, Jesus gives a new command to his disciples. He tells them that people will recognize the disciples by the way they love each other, not by the miracles they do or by the way they act or even the attitude they have; but by how they love each other. If we started to display our love for one another like Jesus displayed his love for the church, Christians wouldn't have such a bad reputation all over the world. We need to let our actions do the talking and not our words -1 John 3:18. I challenge you to read the books and passages I have included in this blog and meditate on them and ask God and yourself how you can better love others. I will be writing a blog next week about what I am going to be doing for the next three months and will be including ways you can partner with me in prayer for the China team as we go forth in God.
As always, I want to be able to pray for you specifically, so please contact me with any need. I look forward to hearing from you.
We don't even know what the full love of God is like though we get a small picture of it from scripture. Thankfully scripture is written and God is always new, every aspect of God's love couldn't be captured in one book if you tried. The even crazier thing is we are called to love each other and love our neighbors like Christ loves the church. He became man, from God and displayed His love for us in dying on a cross to set us free from the punishment of sin. How do we start to even love each other like this? I think the best display of this is looking at the gospels and at 1 Corinthians 13. Jesus displayed His love for all on this earth in many different mediums and 1 Cor. 13 gives us the next best set of guidelines to follow on how to love others.
Jesus tells us in the gospels that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves, which is done in many different ways. I want to take a look at John 13: 34-35, Jesus gives a new command to his disciples. He tells them that people will recognize the disciples by the way they love each other, not by the miracles they do or by the way they act or even the attitude they have; but by how they love each other. If we started to display our love for one another like Jesus displayed his love for the church, Christians wouldn't have such a bad reputation all over the world. We need to let our actions do the talking and not our words -1 John 3:18. I challenge you to read the books and passages I have included in this blog and meditate on them and ask God and yourself how you can better love others. I will be writing a blog next week about what I am going to be doing for the next three months and will be including ways you can partner with me in prayer for the China team as we go forth in God.
As always, I want to be able to pray for you specifically, so please contact me with any need. I look forward to hearing from you.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Leadership
The students I usually talk about doing the DTS are not the only students around base. The staff of the DTS are also taking a class at the same time. We are involved in a school called BLS (Basic Leadership School), it is a school that runs alongside a DTS, except it's for the staff. It helps us to develop as leaders as we prepare for leading an outreach team and lead small groups during the Lecture phase of the DTS. A few of the requirements for the course are, keeping a journal, two book reports, and lead a week of DTS. Leading a week of DTS means that we take on the roll of the leader of the school and prepare for the week, get the speaker set up and do all of the announcements in front of the class. My week to lead is in late September, I am actually really excited for it and a little bummed that I only get to lead one week as I want to have more practice at leading the class.
For the first book report we read "Developing the Leader Within You," by John Maxwell. It was a great book and it had a ton of great tips on how to lead. Some of the best tips were that leaders are not managers and one of the most important skills a leader can have is to inspire, because if he can't inspire then he won’t have people following him. Attitude was the second largest aspect to a good leader, a good attitude will change how you act and react to your surroundings and conflicts that may arise. The second book I read was "The Leadership Paradox," by Denny Gunderson. It was a great book and I loved it. One of my favorite parts was that Denny takes stories from the gospels that display how Jesus leads his disciples and turns them into narratives, expanding on the dialogue and highlighting the leadership qualities of Jesus. He then takes the qualities that he has highlighted and expands on the concepts, making for a great model to base our leadership off of. The greatest thing about the book is it is all biblical and all of the leadership concepts are blatantly modeled by Jesus.
God is really developing me as a leader and I am looking forward to our outreach time in China and everything the Lord has to grow, mold and change me into!
For the first book report we read "Developing the Leader Within You," by John Maxwell. It was a great book and it had a ton of great tips on how to lead. Some of the best tips were that leaders are not managers and one of the most important skills a leader can have is to inspire, because if he can't inspire then he won’t have people following him. Attitude was the second largest aspect to a good leader, a good attitude will change how you act and react to your surroundings and conflicts that may arise. The second book I read was "The Leadership Paradox," by Denny Gunderson. It was a great book and I loved it. One of my favorite parts was that Denny takes stories from the gospels that display how Jesus leads his disciples and turns them into narratives, expanding on the dialogue and highlighting the leadership qualities of Jesus. He then takes the qualities that he has highlighted and expands on the concepts, making for a great model to base our leadership off of. The greatest thing about the book is it is all biblical and all of the leadership concepts are blatantly modeled by Jesus.
God is really developing me as a leader and I am looking forward to our outreach time in China and everything the Lord has to grow, mold and change me into!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
China's on My Mind
Outreach teams were officially announced on July 23rd and Erica Gustafson and I are will be leading a team to China! It is still early to be talking about outreach, but outreach is the practicing ground for everything the students learn during the lecture phase of a DTS. My co-leader and I have taken some time to start planning our trip. We are expecting great things! The Lord has assembled an amazing team to China, and we are taking 9 students, eight of them are Korean and one is Taiwanese. I will be continuing to update as more is decided in the area of our outreach.
As the team has formed for outreach we have been spending a lot of time praying into what our trip is supposed to look like and what is on the Lord's heart for the areas we will be in. Our whole class has taken time to intercede for each of the outreach locations, to receive prophetic words and prophetic pictures to encourage each of the teams and to give them an idea of what the Lord has in store for each of them. The Lord has started to place His heart for China on me and I am spending a lot of time seeking Him and what He has for our outreach to China.
Thank you for your prayers, emails, letters and financial support. I would love to pray for you in any way I can, so please contact me so I can lift you and your needs up to the Father. Please pray for me as I continue to seek His face and direction, along with Erica for our outreach team. If you feel lead to support me financially please see the sidebar for more information on how to do that as I do need outreach funds. Until next time…
As the team has formed for outreach we have been spending a lot of time praying into what our trip is supposed to look like and what is on the Lord's heart for the areas we will be in. Our whole class has taken time to intercede for each of the outreach locations, to receive prophetic words and prophetic pictures to encourage each of the teams and to give them an idea of what the Lord has in store for each of them. The Lord has started to place His heart for China on me and I am spending a lot of time seeking Him and what He has for our outreach to China.
Thank you for your prayers, emails, letters and financial support. I would love to pray for you in any way I can, so please contact me so I can lift you and your needs up to the Father. Please pray for me as I continue to seek His face and direction, along with Erica for our outreach team. If you feel lead to support me financially please see the sidebar for more information on how to do that as I do need outreach funds. Until next time…
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