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.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
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
Sunday, May 12, 2013
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
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
Friday, May 10, 2013
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.
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.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
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
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
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