Bear One Another's Burdens

Hello everyone, today I am going to be speaking from Galatians and mostly from Galatians 6 more specifically. Here, Paul is wrapping up his letter to the Galatians and makes three really powerful things in just the first 10 verses. As I was writing about them in my journal, I kind of had a lot to say so I apologize in advance if this post is a bit longer than normal.

The first point that Paul makes is that when we notice a fellow Christian struggling in sin, we "should restore him in a spirit of gentleness." This point and the next one kind of go hand in hand but I have a bit to say on each so I split them up. This concept of revealing sin in another person's life is a delicate business I think. It is something that I want to learn how to do this year and my discipler, Kyle, is going to help me with that. But, for the time being, I thought for a while on the matter and came to the following conclusions. In order to be able to point out sin in another person's life, you have to examine your own first. Matthew 7:3 says "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" I think this is probably the most important aspect of this. You cannot go to another person and try to rebuke them for a sin when you have one blatantly sticking out in your life. I'm not saying you have to be perfect or sinless to approach a person about their sin. I think the point that is being made is that you have to examine your motives. Are you pointing out sin in another person's life to make yourself feel better about yourself or are you doing it to help the other person draw closer to Christ? This is a key point in pointing out sin. Another important side note, you need to know the person pretty well, in my opinion at least, to point out sin in their life otherwise they won't take you seriously or you don't know the extent of the sin.

Once you figure out your motives, the next step is to approach them about the matter. Approach them directly, not through another person. Matthew 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother." So, don't go tell Johnny that Jimmy is doing x y and z but go directly to Jimmy. When you approach the person, do so lovingly, making sure they understand your motives and that you both are broken people in desperate need of a savior. This experience will be different from person to person which is why it's important that you know the person you are talking to relatively well. Don't speak harshly to one another but with love. That's about all I have for advice in that matter. Remember though, my word is not perfect, I am broken as well and my advice should be taken with that in mind. Look into this yourself and determine how you think you should go about a situation like this.

Okay, this is going to be really long but bear with me because this stuff is good. The next point that Paul makes is to bear one another's burdens. This command stems from Jesus' command to love your neighbor as yourself. If we are executing that command to it's fullest, bearing one another's burdens should come naturally. We are to be Christ-like and bearing each other's burdens without a doubt part of that. Just look at Christ, he bore the ultimate burden, billions of people's sins. So, we should do the same and help people when they are in need. What does this look like? Simple, serve one another. Be there for one another. Be present in one another's lives. When someone comes to you for help, be quick to offer your hand in whatever way you can. I challenge you to think and answer this question at least once a day: "How can I serve [insert person's name] today?" Do that and see how your attitude changes. If you are feeling really ambitious, think that question for a person that you are not necessarily too fond of. I dare you. Do that. See what happens.

The final point that Paul makes in these first 10 verses that I want to highlight is that we reap what we sow. Yes, I'm aware that this a very common phrase and perhaps even over used but I think it has a lot of meaning in this context. Paul gives two contrasting examples of what you will reap depending on what you sow. The first is that of a man who sows his own flesh. This man will "reap corruption." Not exactly a very pleasant return on an investment if you ask me but hey, if you love corruption, sowing the flesh might be for you. But, if you're like me and would rather "reap eternal life", you should sow from the Spirit. While this sowing will be much harder than sowing from his flesh, the reward is infinitely more great. You should really read verses 6-10 because they are too good to summarize. If we are sowing from the Spirit, "let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap". What this is saying is to always sow with perseverance in our hearts. Do not give up because you will get your reward of eternal life. While we are waiting around for what we sow to become what we reap, do good. I can't put it much simpler than that. Don't be lazy and just wait but go out and do some good things with the time that you have. You have been blessed with time here on earth so use it to your advantage. Make the ground more fertile so we can rejoice when we get to heaven and see more faces there because we didn't waste our time here. Sorry for the length but I hope you enjoyed it!

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

The Heart Behind It

Hey everyone, I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything and I apologize for that if you like reading what I have to say. But, I realized I missed blogging and am going to try and post every or every other week while here at school. This post is going to be based off an article I read last night that made me think a lot and I really enjoyed it. It was from relevant magazine and I'll give you the link. Here you go: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/why-don%E2%80%99t-we-evangelize-anymore. It's a great read and I would recommend it. While it has a great message I want to focus on a smaller part of it based on this quote:

"The thing is, God’s not after our efforts or initiatives. He’s not after the good words and the good deeds. He’s after our hearts. He wants our hearts to beat for the people who have never heard a word from the Bible. He wants our hearts to be filled with love and longing for the people we see on the street. He wants our hearts to break for the young adults that decide to leave the church they grew up in. Because that’s what His heart does. That’s where it all has to start."

While this article is focusing on evangelism, I wanted to go a bit broader with this concept. You see, God doesn't just want our heart in evangelism, He wants our hearts in everything we do. The actions don't matter as much as the heart because the heart is at the root of who you are, what you believe, and what you do. If you have the type of heart God desires, the actions will follow. James 2:18-26 relates to this very well saying things like "I will show you my faith by my works", "You see that faith was active along with works, and faith is completed by his works", and "so also faith apart from works is dead". So, have the heart and the actions will follow. If you have this heart, how could you do anything else than try and bring in God's kingdom?

On the flip side of that coin, we shouldn't be trying to justify ourselves through our actions. This is something I, and I'm sure many of you, can relate to. In Galatians, Paul is talking to people who have been saved but are now trying to "earn" their salvation through their works. Galatians 3:11 "Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law for The righteous shall live by faith." Your "job" as a Christian is not to do good things and avoid bad things, your "job" is to love and trust God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Doing this will lead to a transformation, either for the first time or for the tenth time, of your actions to honor God and bring in his kingdom. That's the end goal isn't it?

I'll give you a quick look into my life at the moment before I wrap this up. This topic is something that I have been faced with this summer through now and am still working through. I have realized that I don't really have God's heart for a lot of things, people being the most obvious one. My heart doesn't cry out for those that are lost usually but I've seen some change in that recently so that's good. When I do what I do, whether good or bad, I've had to examine my motives. I'm not sure if I do what I do because of a love of God, or if I do it for a more legalistic reason. I want to say it's because I love God but I can't say that that is the case all of the time. It's something I have been working through. If you want to know more, feel free to e-mail me or text me or whatever and I would be more than willing to talk further. For now, I challenge you to examine your heart and figure out if it is in line with God's. If not, pray about it. Not once, but daily until you see God transform that in you, that's what he's doing in me.

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

I'm Afraid

So, for this post, I'm going to let you into my life a little bit. I was having our date night with Jesus in the library and I was reading James 5:13-20 (can you tell I like James?). It's not a very long passage and it talks about prayer. I figured that it would be a good place to read considering our theme for this week is advancing on our knees. Basically a week dedicated to prayer and fasting; we are having a meats and sweets fast starting tonight (Wednesday) going through Saturday night. Anyway, James 5:13-20 talks about how we should always be in prayer. When we are sad, happy, or sick, we should always be in prayer. There is so much power in prayer, I can think of a handful of stories without even trying of how God has answered prayer. The example in James is Elijah. He prayed that it wouldn't rain for three and a half years and God answered his prayer. When he prayed for it to rain after that time, it did.

You see, we need to pray for everything. We are called to pray and pray according to God's will. Just think of the Lord's prayer, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" Did you catch that? YOUR will be done, not ours, God's. For me, this is really hard to do. I want God's will to be done for sure, but I also want mine to be done and this is where I faced some frustrations when reading this passage. I want to live for God but I also want to make sure I'm secure in life. When it gets down to it, I just want to be comfortable and serve God, which is probably not how most of us are called to live our life.

How often do you chose comfortable topics to talk about when God could easily be incorporated? How many times have you sold your possessions and gave the proceeds to those less fortunate? How many times have you gone to an unreached nation to share the Gospel? How many times have you failed to share the Gospel in your own home, job, or school? I don't mean to pose these questions to judge or condemn you because that's not the point. My answer for each of these is definitely not where it should be. My point in asking these questions is to get you to think about your life and who's really on the throne of it. Are you truly living your life for God or is he just an aspect of your life? So, I challenge you to pray. Pray for God's will to be done, pray for opportunities to suffer for Christ, pray for an uncomfortable life, pray for a heart for God, pray, pray, pray. Along with this, don't be selfish in your prayers but pray for ways in which you can advance the kingdom of God.

Now, here's where I get a little vulnerable with you all and the part that relates to the title of this post. I'm just going to type what I wrote in my journal so here it goes. "Jesus calls us to pray and pray hard. Pray according to his word and will. This seems to be relatively obvious, especially with the theme of this week but why is it so hard to apply this to our lives? For me, I don't want to give up control I think. I'm afraid of what God may do in my life. I'm afraid of the friendships I may have to give up. I'm afraid of the close friendships I would make and then move away from. I'm afraid of not being financially secure and not having that be in my control. I'm afraid of not having a family. I'm afraid I'll never have a great friendship or relationship. I'm afraid of not being equipped to answer a tough question. I'm afraid of being hurt. I'm afraid of being inadequate. I'm afraid of feeling. I'm afraid of failing. I'm afraid of God. I'm afraid of what he might have me do. When it gets down to it, I'm just afraid. There's so much to do for God and I have so much potential for that. I'm on track to have a great career, life, and future by worldly standards but that's not my standard and most certainly not God's standard. I'm so frustrated with myself."

So yeah, that's how I'm feeling and what was going through my mind at the time. God really broke me down and I had a great time with him. I wanted to post that to just show all of you that I still struggle with sin and not giving up control of my life. I don't want you to see me as someone who has everything I post about figured out because I really don't. So, I would encourage you to pray as often as you can this week.

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

Confession

Hello everybody, the title of this post may be a bit misleading because this is not going to be a Catholic based post. Something that has been on my heart recently is the concept of confession and repentance. I spoke a little bit on this a while ago with my "All for One" post but I just wanted to expand on this a little bit. We are called to confess our sins, both to God and to other believers. 1 John 1:9 says this "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." James 5:16 says "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." So, for this post I will just talk a bit on each of these verses.

1 John 1 talks a lot about walking in the light. It has 3 marks of a person who does "not practice the truth." I believe these are referring to someone who claims to know Christ but doesn't. The three marks of this person are as follows: someone who claims to have fellowship with God but walks in darkness, someone who says they have no sin, and someone who says we have not sinned. The first two are a bit different than the last. Dealing with the first two, the person deceives or lies to himself, however with the last one, the person makes God out to be a liar. What's the same throughout them however, is that the truth is not in the person. If you are experiencing any of these "symptoms" (be honest with yourself and really look at your life) there is always hope! This is where verse 7 and 9 come into play.

1 John 1:7 says "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." I think this and verse 9 are so great for two reasons; they either offer a way out of how we've been living or they encourage us in how we are living. We can have that fellowship I talked about in the "All for One" post if we walk in the light. Isn't that great? We can have awesome fellowship with other believers and with Jesus if we just "walk in the light" (yes, I do realize this is harder said than done). That was a little tangent from my main point for this post but a good one I think. Anyway, verse 9 mentions confession of sins. We are called to confess our sins to God and if we do this, he will forgive us. No questions asked. How great is that? That's the whole reason he sent his Son, to die for our sins as a perfect sacrifice so that he could forgive our sins. I can't fully wrap my mind around this to this day. So, my first challenge for you in this post is to not hold anything back from God. I mean, he already knows everything so what's the point? It is so relieving to do this.

Now, on to the passage from James. Quick side note, James is my favorite book in the Bible and I would highly recommend that you read through it and meditate on it throughout this next week. Anyway, in James, we are called to confess our sins to other believers. Hopefully I didn't just scare you away by saying this because I know this is a scary, no, terrifying thing to do. There are so many things that are scary, shameful, or whatever other feeling crossed your mind, about this concept. But, I can tell you from personal experience, this is one of the best things you can do. This truly does lead to healing, I've experienced it. I struggled with a specific sin for quite some time (if you really want to know what, I will share with you, it's just not something I should be posting on the internet) and tried fighting it on my own many times and every single time, I failed. Then, after years of battling it, I began attacking it with confession and have since rid my life of that sin that gripped me for so many years. This is not to say I don't struggle with temptations or other sins, but, healing came in that area after I confessed and had people praying for me. Now, I'm not saying go to the pulpit next Sunday and share your sin with the entire body, but I am saying that you need to find a few people that you can go to to confess sin. I personally have 4 accountability partners that I plan to utilize when I go back home. (There are a lot of people on project that I can and have confessed to but that probably won't continue when I go back home). I don't say this to brag but to encourage you, to show you that it is possible and people aren't that scary. After you confess, pray together for strength and healing. You'll be amazed by what happens.

So, if there is a sin that was on your mind this entire post or part of it, confess. Confess to God and confess to other believers. What one is scarier to you? For me it's confessing to other believers and I feel like it's a pretty safe assumption to say that that is how a lot of you feel. Think about this for a second though, why is that true? Why is it easier to confess to a perfectly holy God than to confess to other sinners who do the same things? Seems silly when you put it that way doesn't it? If you can confess to God, you should be able to confess to other believers. I feel like I wrote a lot but I also feel like I have more to say, so, if you want to talk more on the matter or have questions, feel free to email me at tedds@umich.edu. Thanks for reading!

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

Goodbye Staff, Hello Project

Hello everyone, I apologize for my posts being so far apart but I am just so busy here! This being true, I'm seeing God do a lot of amazing things all over the place. I've had the chance to continue to get to know people here on a deeper level which has been sweet and I've seen Christ move and work in my life. As some of you may know, the staff leave halfway through the summer to go to their staff conference in Colorado. This is what I will be talking about for this post.

About 5 weeks into project, the staff leaves. While this was sad because we love them so much, I hear it is when project really takes off. So, before the staff leave, all of the students are given different jobs. We have  co-directors of the project, a leadership team, an outreach team, small group leaders, heritage team, and many others. The role that was assigned to me was the co-director of the community or Koinonia team. The job of this team is to encourage community within the project people through events. It's basically the most fun job because our job is to get people to have fun.

Now, I will share my initial reactions to this assignment and what I've learned from it. When I was first assigned this role, I was honestly pretty bummed. I was hoping to be in a "better" or "more spiritual" role. I thought that I was "more spiritual" than this team. However, this was the complete wrong attitude. That week we really focused on community and people's roles within the body of Christ. A key verse for me this week was 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, I would encourage you to read it. After hearing this passage, I realized how wrong my attitude was. We are all important to the body, whatever body we are a part of, whether that be a missions trip, a church, or just in general. God has given us all different strengths, weaknesses, and spiritual gifts to use to glorify His name.

We are all given certain strengths and weaknesses for a reason so we should make the best of what we have. Utilize our strengths and boast in our weakness because "[His] grace is sufficient for you, [His] power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9, part of it that is. Is there something holding you back from utilizing your strengths? What about boasting in weakness? Christ can use our weaknesses to be relatable to other believers or non-Christians. This can either build community or bring people to Christ. Again, what's holding you back from letting Christ use your weaknesses to advance his kindom? Anyway, that's all for now! There will be more to come in the future!

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

Friend of Sinners

This post is going to be a bit different I suppose. This weeks theme is "World Vision" and we have been and will be talking about sharing the gospel with people all over the world. Last night, we split into groups representing various nations of the world and I was part of the tribal group. There were groups from America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and several others I can't quite remember but each group had different rules. Our rules were that we had to come up with our own culture and had to keep outsiders our until they figured out our cultures. Very long story short, America had a lot of resources and was spoiled and they ended up "freeing" other nations and bringing them food which represented the gospel. Each nation's rules corresponded to the spiritual climate there. America for example, had lots of food and the like while we had no food until other nations found us and figured out our culture. It was a very emotional experience for a lot of people. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for me and this really frustrates me because I do not have a heart for the nations. 

This is something that I have faced before at IndyCC and it frustrated me there too but God gave me another passion there for adoption. Anyway, I don't like that I don't have a heart for the nations because Christ does. So, I've been thinking about it a lot in the past 24 hours and as I was having my date night with Jesus, a Casting Crowns song came on that really defined the desire of my heart. You may know it but the song is called "Jesus, Friend of Sinners" and the chorus is this:

"Oh Jesus, friend of sinners

Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers

Let our hearts be led by mercy

Help us reach with open hearts and open doors

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours"

This really caught my attention because my heart is not broken for the lost people of nations, including my own nation. I need God to open my eyes to the world and be led by mercy. I want to have a desire and a love for the lost and I want to want to reach with open arms and doors to those who need Jesus so desperately. I really need to have my heart broken for the things that break God's heart, especially in the area of lost people and nations. I really want to have this broken heart but I just don't feel it and it frustrates me. That's all for this post, I just wanted to show how God can show us what to pray for when we aren't even looking for it. If you could pray that God would really break my heart for the lost, I would really appreciate it.

God Bless and Go Blue!

Tedd Sheets Jr.

All for One

Last week was our "All for One" theme week and what this was talking about was 'Every believer for the purpose of Christ". The main focus of this week was community and how important it is for a body of believers. We really focused on Hebrews 12:1-2 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of believers, let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." What these verses are saying is that we should fix our eyes on Christ and hold each other accountable in everything since we are surrounded by so many believers. I'll go a bit more in depth in the following paragraphs.

First, let me talk about the importance of having a community and then what to do with that community. We are called to have fellowship with other believers, that's why we go to church on Sunday. Church shouldn't be a chore but a blessing. Think about it, this is a place where we go every Sunday and are surrounded by people who believe the same thing that we do. We don't have to put on a mask or try to impress these people because they are in the same boat we are. Where else can you go and have there be so many people who agree with you that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior? Why would we not want to seek friendships here? Why would we want to get in and get out only to return to our lives in the world? God calls us to have fellowship for a reason, so that we may experience one another as Christ intended for us. A solid Christian community is one where you can be open and not fear being judged or despised because, chances are, other people are struggling with the same things you are. There is so much I want to say on why community is important but I can't put it all into words right now for you. If you want to hear some more in that area, shoot me a text, e-mail me, or give me a call and I would love to talk more with you about it.

Now, what to do when in that community. Building a great community, like anything worth achieving, is hard. You have to be willing to be vulnerable and be willing to face sin in your life. If you don't have one of these communities, here is how you start one, seek people out. You need to take initiative and pursue people, pursue relationships, and pursue vulnerability. I can promise you this will be uncomfortable, especially if you have been in the same place for a while and haven't done something like this before. You need to take the initiative because other people won't. Really try and dive deep into peoples lives and care about what is going on. Share with them your struggles or what God is teaching you. Odds are that you will have to be the one leading the charge and be the first one to be vulnerable. When you feel comfortable, begin confessing sin with that person or community so that they can keep you accountable. James 5:16 says "Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." This is a crucial step in building that great community. This will build trust and help you in whatever sin you are struggling with.

I think that is all for this post, if you have any questions or want to talk more, please feel free to contact me and I would be more than happy to talk! I encourage you to seek out a strong community whether that be group of 2 friends, a small group, or a congregation, I hope that you can find people to talk to and have that deep community.

God Bless and Go Blue!

Tedd Sheets Jr.

Killing the Giants

Hey everyone, I apologize for not being able to post last week but our internet was shut off and we had a very busy week. Anyway, I will just fill you in on what has been happening starting with two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago was our "Killing the Giants" theme week. This week was entirely dedicated to evangelism on the boardwalk in Ocean City and Atlantic City. At the beginning of the week we set personal giants for the number of spiritual conversations we wanted to have and our own giant that we wanted to conquer. Collectively, we set a goal of 5,112 spiritual conversations which seems like a ridiculous number but, God is good and we were able to accomplish our goal! This was not our own strength but God's without a doubt though, we were all exhausted at the end of the week but it was a good kind of exhaustion. So, praise the Lord for that!

Now, I'll talk a little bit about my personal giant. My personal giant for the week was to go out on the boardwalk sharing by myself. Normally, we go sharing with a partner so that it is a bit less terrifying and we have someone there to support and comfort us. This was my giant because I'm not always going to have someone by my side helping me through a conversation so I wanted to experience what it's like to not have that. I will admit, it was tough but I was able to defeat this giant with God's help. I got called off of work for 3 hours one of the days that week so I used that to go out on the boardwalk by myself. I was able to talk to 6 people in total and it was a really good day. I presented the KGP once and the boy seemed very close to making a decision, handed out several KGPs and a satisfied booklet (booklet for Christians who don't really take their faith seriously), and had some great conversations! The whole experience was great and I learned a lot about my short comings and relying on God when I don't have the strength to continue.

So, my encouragement for this post is to rely on God's strength when you don't have the strength yourself. God is faithful and will give you strength in every circumstance where you need it.

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

God is at Work

This post is just a shout out to God for all that he is doing. I hope that this post and all of the posts really, can be an encouragement to you as we go through this life together. I've been in Ocean City for 3 weeks and 2 hours at this point in time and I have seen God do amazing things. For one, he has revealed some areas of struggle in my life that I never thought that I had. I was coming into project on a spiritual high and God really humbled me very quickly. He forced me to face sin that I had suppressed or ignored and it has been a real source of growth in my life. It is amazing how God works in our lives, even if it is not evident at the time. God is in control and he desires for us to know him better and we cannot do that when we are wrestling with and not dealing with sin. For that, I thank God for pursuing me and exposing areas of sin in my life.

Another thing I wanted to mention is God's answering prayer. There have been numerous answers to prayer since I've been here but I want to share one specific example. Last week, I came to the realization that I haven't really had any deep friendships in a while. I had and have lots of friends but not very many deeper relationships with any of them. Well, I was praying about this and in the middle of my prayer, someone came up and said that he wanted to get to know me better. I've never experienced such an immediate answer to prayer. But, the story doesn't end there. Later that same day, I was able to have a deep conversation with a friend back home on the phone. That was such a blessing and a great answer to prayer. The next day, my devotional in four sevens was about deep friendships and how valuable they are so it was just a confirmation of what I had been feeling so that was a little bit different answer to the same prayer. Then on that day, a friend from Ohio State (I know what I just said) invited me to a getting deep session with some other people. Yet again, God answered my prayer. If that wasn't enough, I was able to have another deep conversation with a Cru coworker of mine. It was such an immense and immediate answer to prayer that I am still amazed. I am so thankful that the Lord is watching over me, with me, and caring about me. Never underestimate the power of prayer.

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

More than Birds

As I continue to work through Luke with the four sevens devotional, I am learning more and more. I am only posting a few of the sections of the devotional and Luke on here so I would really recommend you go through Luke and meditate on small sections at a time.

This section of my devotional was on 12:1-34 and it spoke on worrying about trivial things. The point of this passage was how much God cares for us and how much attention he shows us. God cares for everything on this earth from the smallest creatures to us. He provides food and other essential things for life to the ravens and plants of the earth so why would he not provide for us? Are we less valuable than birds or grass? Of course not! God loves us so much we cannot even comprehend it. Why then do we worry? Why are we so focused on things in life rather than on God? Why don't we trust him to provide? These are all rather difficult questions in my opinion. God is looking out for us and will provide us the things we need. Sometimes we don't get what we want but we have what we need, God is faithful.

I'll try and answer from some personal experiences and hopefully you can relate or be encouraged by my failure. The first case that I am going to talk about is my support raising. First of all, thank you again to all of you who donated to get me where I am today, your donation is not being wasted! Anyway, before I was fully supported, I had no idea how I was going to come up with that much money. I had heard stories of many people that had no trouble raising support but I feared that would not be the case for me. I was so worried about raising the support that I found myself questioning God, even when the money was coming in! My focus was not on the Lord but on money. In the end, I obviously had no reason to worry because God provides even in our worry and doubt. "Of how much more value are you than the birds!" If only I had read this during my support raising, I would have had a less stress filled couple of months.

The second failure on my part is something here on project. About 2 weeks ago or so, the screen on my phone cracked and I was freaking out. It was manageable but it needed to be fixed. To get it repaired would cost an upwards of $150 and I did not want to spend that much because I treat money as an idol sometimes.  So, I ordered a repair kit of the internet and tried to repair it myself. God having a sense of humor and a plan decided to teach me a lesson about my idolatry of possessions in that the repair kit was incomplete and I had to order another part. Well, my phone is disassembled at the moment and I have been experiencing a lot of worry about the whole situation because it is a very delicate process. The day after my failed repair attempt, I realized something. I was so worried and concerned about my phone that my relationship with God was taking a back seat. I was not seeking God or even caring that much about being on project, I was caring only about my phone and the money that I may have to pay to get it fixed. Luke 12:15 really spoke to me shortly after this whole ordeal, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." God is in control and there is no point in worrying about possessions here on earth when we are only a dot on the line of infinity. We need to trust God and let him have control of our lives in every aspect, not just certain ones.

So, hopefully you can learn from my poor examples and possibly examine the priorities and areas of worry in your life. Really take time and think what you worry about and value in life. Some things are not apparent to us until we really spend time with God and look into our lives. Let God divulge what you are struggling with, knowingly or not, and let him work in you to take steps to change your heart because we are more valuable than birds.

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

Fathers

I know this post is a few days late, but I would like to dedicate this post to my dad. I've been really busy here in Ocean City and this was the first chance I've had since Father's Day to blog.

I'm going to talk a little bit from Proverbs about fathers and a little bit about fatherhood in general. Along with this, I will probably tie in some thoughts on being a husband too although I do not have any experience, I've had a great example.

I would suggest reading and keeping Proverbs 4:1-4 and 20:7 in mind as I talk for a bit. The first set of verses there talks about how a son should listen to his father and heed his teachings because they provide us insight. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it, our fathers have lived this life for probably 20+ years more than us. They have experienced the trials and hardships that we face and have insight into what we are going through. This being true, fathers should pay special attention to Proverbs 20:7. They are called to be righteous and full of integrity so that they can provide an example for their children. If they are to be able to teach their children as Proverbs 4:1-4 calls, they need to strive to have integrity. This being in the Old Testament, Christ hadn't entered the picture yet but I would say that striving to be Christ-like is in here as well. Father's should be able to provide an example for their children and hopefully this example is one of Christ-likeness and of integrity. I think in every way, fathers can look to our heavenly Father for an example. I believe this goes along with Christ-likeness however. They have a duty to love, care for, teach, provide for, forgive, and discipline their children. These are just a few attributes of our heavenly Father but they are a good start for an example of a good father.

A lot of fathers are also husbands because that is what God intended for our lives. As Ephesians 5:25 says : "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her". I feel like this is the best one sentence summary of being a husband there is. One simple sentence that says so much. Husbands are the head of the household but should not abuse this power. They have power over their wives but they are also called to love their wives. Comparing the love a husband shows his wife to the love Christ shows us is an incredibly powerful image. This kind of husbands provides for his wife, loves and cares for her, forgives her, guides her, is a rock for her, and anything else that comes to mind when you think of Christ's love for the church. So, when you are looking to be a husband or looking for one, keep in mind the love that they should show their significant other. If you already are a husband or have one, strive to make that relationship into one that is Christ centered.

One last note, I just want to take a second and thank my dad for all that he has done for me. He has always been a rock in our family and I am grateful for that. No matter what our family was going through, he was always there and always provided something to hold on to. He has brought me and my three brothers up in a solid Christian home and set an example for us. The love he has for my mother is evident along with the love he has for us. From stern discipline to saying "I'm proud of you", he has showed us what it means to be a loving father and husband. I cannot wait to start a family of my own and see if I can live up to that standard. I have learned so much from him. Thank you dad.

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

Walking in Christ

"We can run towards Christ because we have nothing to hide and we can run with each other because we have nothing to prove." The project director's wife, Jill Fuhs, spoke on this last week and I just wanted to share what she said and a few thoughts on it.

If you think about it, this is both a great and terrifying truth. Christ knows every single thing about each and every one of us. Every sin, every secret, every joy, every fear, every pleasure, every everything. To me, this is a bit terrifying but very refreshing because he loves me through it all. This being true, we have no reason to hide from Christ. He sees us as we are and accepts as that way. We don't have to worry about Him falling out of love with us or about messing up one too many times. Since this is the case, we should run towards Him. We should desire for that relationship with him and pursue him in our lives. Who else is going to fully know us and fully love us like that?

The second part of that quote is a bit more challenging for me personally. The theme of it is that we should not compare ourselves to other Christians because we are all in different spots in our walk with Christ and we are all equal as sinners. Instead of comparing ourselves to others, we should be trying to encourage one another in our walks of faith. We have nothing to prove to one another because we are all sinners and fall short. Our salvation is not works based so we should not try and see if we are "better or worse" than anyone else. Think of how much closer we could be with God if we were encouraging one another for every time we compared ourselves to each other. I would encourage you to find someone to encourage this week. Just offer a simple compliment or inquire as to how they are really doing. Don't try and prove yourself to people but be open to being vulnerable.

Inspirational videos

There have been two videos that have really stuck out to me over the past 6 months and that I wanted to share. Both of these videos are beautiful and both have brought me to tears so I would encourage you to take 15 minutes or so to watch them.

This first video is just a video describing Jesus and how he is our King. It states some of his attributes and is just a really moving video. I'll leave it at that and let the video do the talking.

This next video is one we watched last night at one of our meetings and it really touched my heart. It speaks of Barabbas and Jesus as they are presented by Pilate to the people. One of them is taken off of death row by choice of the people and the people chose Barabbas. This video just demonstrates that we are all like Barabbas and we deserve to be on death row but Jesus lovingly takes our sins.

Come and Follow Me

As I am starting to get into Jesus' life and ministry in my devotional, one thing is blatantly obvious, people were willing to drop everything just to follow Jesus. In Luke, starting around chapter 5, we start to see Jesus' ministry really come to life. He starts to perform miracles of physical healing, demon expelling, and sin forgiving. Clearly the appropriate response is to drop everything and follow him. We see a woman have a demon expelled from her and immediately she begins to follow him. Some other miracles that we see in this area are: healing of a mass group of people, cleansing of a leper, healing of a paralytic, causing empty fishing nets to become so full they break, the raising of a widow's dead son, and the forging of sins (the Pharisees didn't like this because only God could forgive sins and they didn't believe that was who Jesus was). So, as we can see, Jesus performed some pretty amazing miracles while he was here and people responded with praise and began to follow him.

One story here that I find especially interesting is when Jesus calls Levi. Many many many people started following Jesus but this story of Levi starting to follow Jesus is set apart so I want to set it apart too. Levi is a tax collector and one day he was just minding his own business at his tax booth. Jesus walks up to him and merely says "Follow me". What's his response? Luke 5:28 "And leaving everything, he rose and followed him". I think this is just awe inspiring. Sure, Jesus' reputation probably preceded him, but that doesn't make Levi's response any less awesome. This tax collector, one of the most despised professions of the time due to a lot of corruption like stealing people's money, dropped everything he was doing to follow Jesus. Just like that. The way I take this is that there was no hesitation just complete dedication. Amazing, isn't it?

Now, imagine Jesus came knocking at your door, the door of a broken sinner, and said "Follow me". How would you respond? If you're anything like me, you hope that you would respond like Levi and leave everything and follow him. But let's pause there for a second and think. Hasn't Jesus already done this? No, I'm not saying he's actually physically knocked on your door and spoken to you but has he not knocked on the doors of our hearts? Has he not made his point clear that he was and is the Son of God and died to save us from our sin and brokenness? Maybe you're not like me and wouldn't like to respond to Jesus' command to follow him like Levi did. But, if you are with me and would want to respond like Levi did, why haven't you? Maybe you have, I'm not claiming to know your life but I feel like more of us have not responded like Levi did. What are you waiting for? What's holding you back? Maybe there is an idol standing in your way that you just don't want to give up. Maybe you like sitting on your own throne. Maybe you are just too lazy and unmotivated.

For myself, I often find myself in the third category there, simply unmotivated or too lazy to get up and follow Jesus. I'm not sure why or what motivates me to be so unmotivated but it's something that I struggle with it. When I sit down and think about it, it really is silly. This man, who was fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life only to die a brutal death on a cross for my sins. He endured our temptations, our trials, and our circumstances but was stronger than all of us and did not give in to sin. Isn't that amazing? That being true, why wouldn't we drop everything and follow him? What's holding us back? There is so much more that runs through my mind that I can't put to words but that is the gist of it. This was a bit of a longer post but I just had a lot to say on this I guess. I would encourage you to really consider this though and even read Luke 5 and maybe even Luke 6 and 7. Really think about your life and how you have responded to Jesus knocking on the door of your heart and asking you to follow him. Consider the questions that are throughout this post and pray about them and try to see ways in your life you could really commit your life to Jesus.

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

Ocean City

Hello everyone! It is great over here in Ocean City! Everything is so beautiful from the weather to the ocean to my fellow project mates! I have already met some great people and I am looking forward to getting to know them better and being a part of their lives. I've been here for about 5 days now and I am already being challenged to grow in my faith and I am loving it. We have had several sermon type things and evangelism training and opportunities and fellowship and worship and it's all been so great! I can't express how happy I am to be here right now. I just want to thank you all for your support, whether that be prayer or monetary, I really appreciate it.

The people here are fantastic. They all have hearts for God and want to do his work. I am really looking forward to getting to know, grow with, and have fun with all of them. I've heard stories of how people make best friends here and I can already tell that is a possibility. I have met people from UC Burkly, Chico State, Miami of Ohio, Kenesaw State, Sacramento State, Arizona, and even Ohio State and many more! I am excited that I get to meet and get to know these people from all across the country.

One thing that I can already tell is that I will not have a lot of free time so I will post when I can. We have a three hour block each week to spend with God and I plan to utilize this time as much as I can so instead of journaling in a notebook I will just be posting my thoughts on here. It's not really much different than what I have been doing but I will be doing it as I read and study rather than later that day or the next day or whatever it may have been. The ideas and thoughts will be more fresh. Thank you again for all that you have done!

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

Eternal Beings

Have you ever considered that you are an eternal being? Not only you, but everyone around you, we are all eternal beings. Just let that set in for a second. This is something that was addressed in Cru last fall before I started this blog but I was just thinking about this earlier today. We are all going to live forever, whether you go to heaven or hell, you will live forever. The difference is those of us that will spend the rest of eternity in heaven, and those of us who will spend the rest of eternity in eternal suffering in hell. There are a lot of "jokes" around, especially on the issue of homosexuality, saying things like: "I'd rather love gay people now and go to hell for it than hate them and go to heaven" (there are so many things wrong with that sentence but I won't get into right now) and "I'd rather go to hell because it's a party and all the cool people will be there". I don't know about you but this saddens me. These people don't understand what they are saying, this is partly due to the fact that they cannot understand the Bible without the Holy Spirit (See the Spirit in Us post).  It is our mission to enlighten these people and show them the love of Christ. We should treat everyone for what they are, eternal beings created in the image of God.

If you really think about it, do you treat everyone like an eternal being created in the image of God? I know for myself, I find this really difficult at times. It's hard to imagine sometimes that everyone you run into has their own story, whether that be a story of a successful, fun, and exciting life, or one filled with pain, suffering, and brokenness. Each person has their own past, their own present, and their own future. They may be exactly like you or your polar opposite and that's the beauty of it all. God loves all of us no matter who we are. God's love is not limited to those who sinned X many times or less or has done X number of good things or anything else. God loves you because you are you, he created you to love you. He wants to love us for all of eternity and wants us to love him for all of eternity. So, my challenge for you today is to really consider the fact that we are all eternal beings and see how that effects your attitude toward people. The guy that cuts you off on the highway or the child that picks up something you dropped on the streets, we are all living on the same earth with two very different possible fates. Don't be afraid to share the love of God with those around you because in the end, it could save someone from eternal suffering.

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

Jesus Pre-ministry

Hello everybody, I apologize that it's been so long since I've posted on here, it has just slipped my mind recently. I'm happy to inform you all that God has provided and my entire trip to Ocean City is funded! Praise be to God! Thank you for everyone that has donated and supported me in this. One of the last donation letters that I received was from a family from my church and they included a little story. As it turns out, the mother of that family was greatly affected by Campus Crusade for Christ in her college years. Through this organization, she actually became a Christian! This was very encouraging and so was her support. It was cool to see God working through this organization both back then and now! If you have any cool stories about how God has worked or is working in your life, please, let me know about them, I would love to read/listen to them!

Now for some insight into my devotionals. As I said earlier, I started with Cru's four sevens devotional. While I am not being nearly as consistent with it as I would like, I am working through it. The whole study is reading through Luke and seeing Jesus' ministry. Right now, I just finished all the days of Jesus prior to his ministry, finishing off with Jesus spening 40 days in the wilderness and being tempted by Satan. One of the focuses in this section is the ministry of John the Baptist. He became a profit after having a vision from God. This may not seem like a big deal but he was the first prophet seen in over 400 years! His mere presence as a prophet is amazing and his ministry is even more so. He tells it as it is, there is a loving God and those that follow him will live in heaven and those who don't will reside in hell, plain and simple. This is a man of God and he does not fear man so he tells it as it is. This is the kind of attitude we should have, we should not worry about other people's opinions of us. We have a message to bring and people that need to hear it. Sure, not everyone will want to hear it and may hate us for trying to share what we believe but we need to push this aside because in the end, the only opinion that matters is Jesus'.

Another thing that I wanted to share some thoughts on was when Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness without food. 40 days is reminiscent of Israel's 40 years of wilderness wandering and the 40-day fasts by Moses. Jesus was without food for those 40 days so you can imagine he was pretty hungry. This is significant because if you think about it, when are we most susceptible to temptation? Hunger is a very strong motivator for any action so when Jesus resists Satan's temptations of food, power, and safety it makes the resistance that much more significant. I think this is one of the first instances of where we really see the awesomeness of Jesus coming through in his life because he was able to remain strong in the Lord and resist Satan. This is an example of how we should be strong in the midst of our weakness. We should be on our toes when we are hungry and weak or tired because this is the time that we are most likely to give in to temptation. One more side note for this post then I will let you go. I believe I heard this from one of C.S. Lewis' books but it was really amazing to me. I believe that it was in his book Mere Christianity which I highly recommend. Before Jesus came to Earth, God could not just grant us forgiveness like he does now because he had never experience sin and temptation. He had seen the affects and such but had never experienced it because it was not possible for him to. If he sinned it would be contrary to his character so if he sinned, he would not be God. When he came to Earth as Jesus, he was fully man and fully God. Being fully man he was able to experience the temptations of sin and was therefore able to beat sin because he was also fully God. He experienced the temptations of sin but never gave into them because of the fact that he was fully God. Once he was able to experience temptation and beat it, he could become the perfect sacrifice for our sins. I am no C. S. Lewis and this doesn't do his idea justice so I would highly recommend you check our Mere Christianity. It is an excellent book. I apologize if that last part was a bit confusing but if it sounds interesting, you know where to look to get more information.

God Bless and Go Blue!

Tedd Sheets Jr

Mothers

Happy Mother's Day! Since it is Mother's Day, I thought it fitting to dedicate this post to my mother.

I'm going to be speaking on two passages of scripture that talk about mothers and wives. These two roles go side by side because to have children, you should be a wife. Sin, of course, has caused some mothers to be single mothers either to death of a spouse, divorce, or premarital relations. For the record, I have nothing against single mothers and do not think less of them but, I'm just saying that God's original intentions were a mother to also be a wife. Anyway, I am going to be speaking and reflecting Titus 2:4-5 and probably the most famous passage for women, Proverbs 31.

Titus 2:4-5 ESV : "and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled."

I'm not going to put Proverbs 31 up because it's long but feel free to look it up on your own. Both of these passages describe the role of the Christian mother. The main theme of Proverbs 31 is that "An excellent wife who can find?" is a wife that cares for her family. She is submissive to her husband and shows him love. This wife is someone who makes sure her family has food, clothes, and supplies. She guides her family in a loving, pure, and kind manner. Both passages mention the mother working at home so clearly this is something that is valued in a wife. However, this tends to only be possible nowadays if the man is able to provide enough income for his family, which in many cases, is not the case. Not by any fault of the man necessarily but if the man is able to provide enough money for his family that his wife is able to stay home, I would encourage the wife to take that opportunity and be a stay at home mom. Another quality that is found in an excellent wife is her fear of the LORD. This is probably one of, if not the most, attractive qualities in a wife and mother. If a woman fears the Lord, she will bring her children up right and serve her husband. She will make the best  kind of wife and mother. There are some of my thoughts and reflections on this passage and I would encourage you to take a look at them for yourself to understand them better. While I try and catch the essence of the passages I talk about, that is nothing compared to actually reading through and meditating on the passages yourself.

Now, a little thank you to my mother. She has been a rock in my life and I have a lot of respect for her. She has loved me and my brothers and shown that to us our entire lives. Provisions are always in order and I cannot thank her enough for her sacrifices for our family. I believe that she is a great example of the a Christian wife/mother. Obviously she is not perfect but I could not have asked for a better mother. She has some great qualities and is an excellent example for me and my brothers on everything in life. We have learned how to treat a woman with respect and how to look for the qualities of a godly woman in a spouse. Thank you mom for all that you do and have yet to do for us. You are truly a wonderful mother and we appreciate you.

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr

Nothing is Impossible

Recently, I started a devotional called 4 7's devotional. It is a devotional that lasts 28 days and teaches you one way that you could do a daily devotional. The structure of it is that it has you pray and confess any sins to God that are on your mind or that you have committed and haven't confessed yet. It also has you give Him praise for things in your life. Then, it gives you a passage to read and meditate on. I just received a new Bible and I love it, it is a study Bible and has a lot of commentary and some explanations of the original Greek. After that, it has several questions that relate the passage to your own life and gives you space to answer the questions. To finish off, it has you pray again and thank God for who He is and what He has done and is doing. It is really great, if you would like a copy of this devotional or any other "Cru supplies", you can go to crupressgreen.com.

The first two days of this devotional (that's where I am at so far) talk about Elizabeth (John the baptist's mother) and Mary (Jesus' mother) before their children's birth and the birth of Jesus. Elizabeth was barren and both her and her husband (Zechariah) were "advanced in years". But, this is clearly no obstacle for God as Elizabeth becomes pregnant and later gives birth to John. This happens after Zechariah has a vision of an angel telling him of what is to come. An angel also appears to Mary telling her that she is going to conceive a child even though she is yet a virgin. An event that we know to be impossible due to the process of conceiving a child. Both of these events have something in common, they seem impossible. However, the key word there is seem. These things are impossible by earthly means but what is impossible by earthly means is entirely possible if God gets involved and that's exactly what He does.

The point of these devotionals is that nothing is impossible for God. We have to trust God and his plan for our lives even if something seems impossible. We cannot necessarily see where God is taking us in life because we are part of his painting, we can't see the big picture. A more modern day example from my life would be the road that lead me to going on this project. It all started back in High School with my chemistry teacher. There were two chemistry teachers, one of which was an excellent teacher, the other, not so much. I was placed in the better teacher's class which caused me to have a love of chemistry. The teacher that I had taught AP Chemistry as well so I took that class because he was a great teacher and caused me to love chemistry. Since I took this AP course, I was able to take organic chemistry as a freshman at the University of Michigan. This course is not an easy one so I formed a study group with people in my building. One of the people in my group was a girl who was involved with Cru and shortly after meeting, we started dating. I went to a few Cru events with her and then we broke up but I kept going to Cru events. I got more and more heavily involved and built great relationships with people. I was so moved by Cru that I wanted to go on this summer project and here I am. So, by a "random" chain of events I ended up here, leaving for a missions trip in a few short weeks. The reason that this seems impossible because if you asked me at any point prior to this semester if I would be going on a 12 week long summer project, I would have laughed at the joke. So, long story short, God has a plan and can accomplish anything!

God Bless and Go Blue!
Tedd Sheets Jr.

Friendships

One of the things that God has showed me this year is the value of friendships/relationships with people. Going into college, I had a pretty solid group of friends from high school. I thought that I would never be able to make such great friends again and that I would remain best of friends with that group of friends. While I can say that I am still good friends with most of them, I'm not really friends with my best friend from high school anymore. I'm glad that I still have most of my friends from high school but I'm not sad that we have grown slightly apart. I've made such great friends at the University of Michigan. God has blessed me with a great organization and a great group of friends both through that organization and through the building in which I lived. These friends that I have made have been fun, encouraging, and challenging, I couldn't have asked for better friends. They have helped me grow in my walk with God and helped me stay out of the party/alcohol scene like my roommate and other friends from my building fell into.

Who you make friends with is extremely important. These are the people that you are going to be getting close to and going to for advice. You need people in this position who have your best interest in mind, along with God behind them giving them a guiding hand. These are going to be the most influential people in your life so you need to have a solid friend or group of friends that are firmly based in Christ. I'm not saying you can't have non-Christian friends, I'm simply saying that you need to have at least one friend in which you can count on to keep you accountable and help you in your walk with God. So, I my challenge for this post is to build strong friendships with people based on Christ. Be intentionally intrusive with your relationships, both parties will benefit.

God bless
Tedd Sheets Jr

Devotions

Hello everybody, Cru is over for the year so I just wanted to post some of the things that have been on my mind. Right now, that's quiet time with God. I feel like, at least for me, this is one of the most vital parts of my faith but I always seem to "forget" about it. I do not spend nearly enough time in the Word and I don't know why. It's not that I don't love God or want to get to know him, I just never have the motivation to get into the Word. I wish I knew why, it really frustrates me because it makes me feel like I don't really believe in God and that Jesus died for my sins. I mean, I've never been a fan of reading anything so that may play into it but that's no excuse. I've tried accountability partners but that doesn't seem to work and I don't know what to do to get that motivation. I need it too because, especially with Cru being done, my relationship with God is not as strong as it should be or where it should be. I struggle more temptations and just am not as happy when I am not working on my relationship with God. So yeah, that's it, I need to get back on track and I encourage you to do the same if your relationship is struggling too. Contact me if you would like to try accountability and I will do my best to give that a try again.

God Bless,

Tedd Sheets Jr.

Fellowship

This past week during our All Campus Gathering, we talked about reloading the mission into church. Most of us Christians go to some sort of church or some gathering for Christ to have fellowship with other believers. And this is what we are called to do, have fellowship with other believers. Fellowship is a great thing as I have come to learn this past year. I grew in my faith so much through fellowship with other believers and I am very thankful for that. This past year also showed me how much I missed out on fellowship growing up. It's not that I didn't go to church or didn't go to youth group events, I just didn't understand my faith entirely I believe. I treated church just as something you were supposed to do and not as something to be enjoyed and take pride in. I feel like this is a common affliction for many Christians, not just at my church but at churches across the nation.

As Americans, we have the freedom to go to church without fear of prosecution from the government or other groups. This may be our problem. We take church for granted and don't realize how good we have it. We don't value this time of fellowship as much as we should Now, this isn't all of us, but I feel like there's quite a few people that this applies to. People tend to go to church and just go through the motions. Church needs to be treated as something where you grow in your faith and have meaningful fellowship with other believers. That sentence seems obvious to me but many people, myself included, do not treat church that way. I challenge you to actively engage in church the next time you go and see how refreshed you feel afterwards. Faith tends to be left on the church's door step and that's where we will find it when we come back next Sunday. I also challenge you to change this too, engage in a deep spiritual conversation with someone this week or next. If you have quiet times, discuss something that you found interesting with someone. If you don't have quiet times, I challenge you to start then start some spiritual conversations with some people. If you take one thing from this, let it be that fellowship is infinitely valuable in the Christian walk and it needs to be a part of your life. Keep Christ center in all aspects of your life.

God Bless,
Tedd Sheets Jr.

Worship

I apologize for the lack in posting last week. I had an exam and was quite busy preparing for that but it went well so that is good!

So the topic I'm going to be discussing today is worship. Last Thursday at our all campus gathering, the speaker spoke on the topic of worship. I don't know about you but worship is one of my favorite things. I love getting lost in a great worship song whether that be an old hymnal or a new up-beat song. When I heard that this was the topic, to be honest I almost zoned out, I mean, I've got this worship thing down. I just finished my exam and was ready to just call it a day but God had a different thing in mind for me. The speaker had us get involved with the people around us and so I was prevented from just zoning out, which, it is a good thing that I didn't. We were told how worship is not something that you just go to church or Cru or whatever it may be to do. Worship is an all day everyday thing. You see, worship is not just singing to God, it's what we spend our time doing. For example, if we spend all of our day just lazing around playing video games or watching TV, we are worshiping those things. I'm not condemning video games or TV by any means. What I am saying, however, is that we are worshiping something at every moment in our lives. When we do something for ourselves and don't have a mind at all for God, we are worshiping something other than God. We need to be aware of what we are doing and why we are doing it. We can't let our worship of other things besides God take over our lives. Our God is a jealous god and we need to keep that in mind, when we put our time and energy into something that doesn't glorify Him, he becomes jealous. So just keep that in mind the next time you want to watch TV for a couple of hours when you haven't spent some time with God that day.
Thanks for your time and I hope that this blog can be an encouragement for you! Until next time, God bless!

The Spirit in us.

   Cru does this thing called discipleship with people that want to grow in their faith. This is where someone who is trying to grow in their relationship with Christ is paired up with someone older/more spiritually mature. This person is usually a staff member but my discipler is Nick Walker. He is a pretty great guy and we have a lot in common. He does a good job and I appreciate him dedicating an hour and a half of his time every Wednesday to help me better my relationship with Christ. What we actually do during discipleship varies from week to week between going out and sharing the gospel with people in the dorms and having a more in depth Bible study.
   Last week, we went out sharing in Bursley and didn't find many people home. We went through two surveys (our way of getting people to let us talk to them) and one of them was rather disappointing as we were unable to transition from that to the gospel with the man. However, the other young man we surveyed was a bit more "successful" if you will. We went through our survey and had some good conversations with the young man. When we got to the end of the survey we told him that we have this Knowing God Personally (KGP) booklet and asked if he had time and wanted to check it out with us. Unfortunately, he didn't have time at the moment but asked to keep the booklet. We let him have it and told him that he should look through it and we would come back in the next couple of weeks to check up on him and see if he had any questions or comments.This was really encouraging as I began to see God work in someone else's life. We are going to go back and talk to him next Wednesday and hopefully we can share the gospel with him and gain a new brother in Christ.

   Today, well, yesterday now, Nick and I had our normal discipleship time and it was the first time that the Bible study part actually challenged me a little bit. (The previous times we just went over what the gospel is and then what God's forgiveness is but growing up in the church, these were not new topics and were not very challenging.) In our most recent time together, we spoke about the Spirit and what Paul had to say about it. In 2 Corinthians 2:9-16 and 3:1-3, Paul is talking about our ability to discern spiritual matters based on our level of spiritual maturity. He classifies the first group of people to be with out the Spirit and consider spiritual matters foolish because they cannot discern them. The next is the spiritual person who can discern much in the spiritual realm because the Spirit resides in him. 15"The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 'For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ." This mind of Christ is the spirit that lives in us as Christians. Think about that, we all have the mind of Christ inside of us because we have accepted him as our savior. How great is that?With this in mind, let us consider the third person that Paul speak about.

   The third is where I feel like a lot of us fall, we have the Spirit but we have sort of hit a plateau in our walk with God. We are considered "infants in Christ" and have to be fed "with milk, not solid food, for [we] are not ready for it." What Paul is saying here is that we need to use what we already have, the Spirit, to grow spiritually so that we can discern spiritual matters like what God is trying to tell us. We can only discern spiritual matters through the Spirit which lives inside of us if we are Christians. We just have to be willing to learn how to use it so we can be the second person that Paul was talking about, the spiritual man. The gist of what Paul is saying here is that we have the Spirit inside of us, we just have to be willing to listen to God's commands for us. We cannot have him on our life but have us on the throne, we have to step down and let him take control because he knows what is best for us.
   That's all for now, God bless

                                Tedd Sheets Jr.

Identity in Christ

The structure of Cru is that we have a divided Bible study (men's and women's by area of campus) early in the week then have an All-Campus Gathering on Thursday nights where we all come together. In my Bible study, we have been learning about finding refuge in the Lord. We have been looking at different Psalms over the past couple weeks and they have been really encouraging. Many times we see Christians not being very successful in life while some non-Christians become very successful. It can become discouraging for us because we want to be rewarded for honoring God. Truth is, we are being rewarded. We get to spend eternity with God after we pass on from this life. Sure, some non-Christians are very successful but they get their reward now. They get a materialistic reward that will pass away with them but they don't have the hope that we have. God has a plan for all of us and even though it may seem like we are in a tough spot in life, He is there watching over us with our best interest in mind. This study has been really encouraging to me as I live my life here. College definitely has it's ups and downs and a whole new set of temptations but just keeping in mind that God is with me in the highs and lows is always encouraging.

This evening, we spoke about our identity in Christ. The example was given of Luke 15:4-7 of the 99 sheep and the 1 that ran off. Being a good shepherd, the man goes and finds the 1 sheep that runs off. God is our good shepherd and always comes to get us when we screw up and run away. His love is never ending and our sins are forgiven. God's love will never change, no matter how many times we mess up and no matter how many times we run away. Since this is true and we try to live our lives for Christ, our identity is in him. Many times we try and find our identity in the things that we are good at, for me, for example, would be academics. I feel good when I do well academically because I'm good at it. The difference is, I can lose that good feeling if do poorly on a test or in a class. With my identity in Christ, I never lose the good feeling of having God by my side because he never leaves. He always comes to get me when I run off. Our identity in Christ isn't works based and thank God for that because if it were, I and I'm sure all of you would not be in a good place right now. That's all for this week, thanks for tuning in. Until next time, enjoy your week!

Welcome!

Hello all and welcome to my blog! Throughout the next six months or so, I will be posting first how the fundraising is going and second, how the project is going. I am looking forward to spending 12 weeks this summer growing in my faith and becoming more confident in my ability to share my faith with others. If you have any questions for me, feel free to email me at tedds@umich.edu or leave a comment and I will respond as soon as I can.
Also on this page I will be keeping you all updated on what I've been learning and what God has been doing in my life while in Cru here at U of M. Feel free to follow along as I will try to be posting every Thursday/Friday or just check in every couple of weeks. Feel free to leave questions if you want and I will do my best to answer them for you. Thank you for your time and God Bless!