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.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
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.
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.
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.
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