Genesis class
A report on the Genesis recovery class. We have a full load of 12 people, six males and six females. We have finished the first 3 sessions and we have 10 altogether. We are starting to see lots of good bonds between the people and that is one of our goals. The group is starting to open up and share their lives with one another, which makes everyone more open.
We have very few rules, but here are a few. No preaching, we are only allowed to use “I” statements and not they or we. “I” takes ownership of the issues and we emphasize that. Our other rules are that we make it a safe place for every person to share what they think or feel without judgments or advice. And over all, there is no sharing outside what we discuss or talk about.
Genesis is a grace-based program and not law based. What we have found is that the law is good and holy but it has no power to change the heart of a person. Secular counseling majoring on behavioral change where as Genesis majors on heart change and then the behavior follows the change in the heart. The reason why the law doesn’t change a Christian is because they are no longer under the law but they are under grace. What that really means is the external law has been taken from outside and written on the tablets of your heart. So a wise counselor, according to Proverbs 20:5 “A plan in the heart of a man is like deep water, But a man of understanding draws it out.” What this means is a man has a plan for his own deliverance from addictions or his behavior in his heart. So we are taught how to ask the right questions to draw the plan from the heart. It is always amazing how many plans are given to us from the outside which is the law and how ineffective is the plan.
In the group discussion we are talking about what is broken? We came up with several thoughts. Relationships are broken, trust was broken, promises were broken and then we realize that we as a people are broken. Now how to you go about fixing and mending the broken parts. A couple of scripture that we are working on is one from the book of Jeremiah 1:18 which says, ” What are you doing on the road to Egypt to drink of the waters of the Nile? What are you doing on the road to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? Is not the Lord clever in the way He asks a question to get you to think? What is a Christian doing using and walking on the road of the world to get his cure? And then drinking out of the water of the Nile? What are we doing running to the world to save us from our addictions and problems? And the other one comes from Deuteronomy 11:10. “For the land you are entering into to possess is not like the land of Egypt from where you came, where you used to sow the seed in your garden and water with your foot. (Note: “water with your foot” is probably a treadmill to lift the water out of the Nile into the garden, which the Israelites had to do in slavery for the Egyptians). But the land in which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, this land drinks from the rain of heaven.” Which land are you in, the land of the foot pedals to water your garden or the land, which has the rain of heaven, falls on you. How descriptive is the Lord, One is working out of the soul and the other is working out of the spirit. So the proof of the effectiveness of any program is change for the better. So after 10 weeks we will see if Genesis recovery is indeed a genuine recovery plan or just another program in the church. Check in a few weeks down the road and we will give you the full report on the first 10-week Genesis recovery class in Alaska.