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!