My Heart Upon A Letter

(So, it’s been a while since I've done this whole blogging thing. Its not that I haven't been having those hard thoughts worth sharing, its probably because they are so overwhelming that its hard to put them in words.)

Dear Friend,

If I have hurt you in some way or form, I am so sorry. I ask that you forgive me. I definitely don't deserve it but hear me out as I explain some things and the forgiveness that I have received from God through Jesus Christ. It would be very encouraging to hear from you and the thoughts you may have. I sort of feel like the apostle Paul, who wrote his heart upon his letters. My hope and prayer is that it leads you to Jesus Christ, as Paul's letters did:

What initially brought me back to this blog this evening is a post I ran across from a friend in high school. (I just realized that I graduated 3 years ago. I'm old. I'm like those other guys who write about what they did in high school "way back when".) From my perspective, we weren't that close, maybe more than an acquaintance but we never really "hung out". However, back in middle school we did. We were pretty close and spent some time together and were pretty open about our faith. We talked about different things our youth groups were doing and such, also played paintball on a few occasions. Once high school came around, we drifted further away and most of that was sadly my own doing.

Recently, I guess I've been in a funk of sorts. Constantly dwelling on the bad things in life and not coming to Christ with them has essentially made me pretty depressed at times. I am reminded of my years at high school mainly. Looking back at high school for me is mostly ugly. Even though some would disagree, I would say that I was a jerk. I look back at my interactions with others and see how horrible it is that I would seek out those who are "popular" and try to distance myself from those who aren't. I would be apart of those who made fun of those who were "different" and "unwanted". Honestly, it brings me to tears when I think about some of the awful things that I did. I was that kid sometimes, the one who was picked on. I hated it, I hated life. It made me miserable and yet I go and do it someone else! Oh how wicked and depraved I am! I can only hope and pray that those whom I picked on are still not struggling with self worth. God will you please intervene in their lives as you did in mine! Show them your love in Christ! They do have meaning as the image bearers of you! Restore them Lord, make them brand new through your Son, Jesus!

I am sad when I think upon these things. My heart aches for those that I treated poorly. The question is, am I doing that now and if so, how am I going to change that? Well the answer is yes, I am doing it still and I need to be a better neighbor. I am reminded of the story of the Good Samaritan. Being a church kid, I've heard the story a dozen times and seen most of the low-budget Sunday school films depicting Jesus' parable. The story is in response to a lawyer who asks him how to gain eternal life (Luke 10:25-37). This lawyer, as described by Luke, tried to justify himself by asking who is his neighbor in reference to loving your neighbor as yourself. Jesus answers him in his usual fashion. Our neighbors are more than those whom we hang out with on a regular basis. For me, I spend too much time in my Campus Crusade bubble of friends. Yes, time with them is great and it can be very beneficial in encouraging and spurring each other on but most of the time, its just simply hanging out. But what about those that have little or no friends? What about that guy that sits in the back of Cru all by himself? Or in the back of class? Down the hall in my dorm? At the table by himself? The homeless man I pass occasionally? Many others who I ignore? What was the lawyer’s answer when Jesus asked him who the neighbor was? "The one who showed him mercy." He couldn't even say the word "Samaritan"! He knew his ugliness! Jesus rightly revealed to him his pride. "Go and do likewise," said Jesus. See here's the thing. Number one is to be right with God. How can I love others without knowing what love is? I can't know love unless God reveals it to me. "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10. Now, second, I've got to love others/neighbors as myself. This is totally selfless, unconditional, unbiased and Christ-like love. True love. I can't be discriminate. Everybody is my neighbor. Everybody also has a soul. They are eternal in a sense. They either know Christ or not. Do I love them in such a way that they may know Christ? Am I being purposeful in my interactions with others? Am I neglecting to share what it truly looks like to love? Yes, I am.

I am quite inadequate by myself. However, in Christ, I am fully capable. I am a new creation, brand new, born-again, truly living. It is not of myself, but a gift of God. I am to love my neighbor as God has loved me. God loves me unconditionally. Take a minute and think about that, really! Despite all the wicked things that I have done, I am loved beyond my understanding. I am forgiven and I am loved!

Again, for those that I have hurt. I am deeply saddened in the way that I treated you. I am a sinful human being who is quite selfish and prideful. I was especially more-so years ago but today I still am digging up the roots of pride and selfishness. Through my relationship with Christ, I am killing sin and walking in righteousness, earnestly seeking to glorify God in my actions so that I can love my neighbors. Please, hear my plea. Look towards Jesus for your identity. You are made in the image of the all-powerful Creator God who loves you. Find your hope and trust in Jesus, our Savior, as he is the firm foundation to build your life upon. Cast your cares and worries upon him for his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

If this is confusing in any way at all (which it probably is knowing my writing skillz), please ask me. Facebook, email: devin.thurston@gmail.com or respond by comment. Thanks for reading and Soli Deo Gloria,

Devin

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the of God for salvation to everyone who believes,to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."" - Romans 1:16-17 ESV

I am so blessed to have spent another summer at Camp Barakel. The verse above was one of the verses that I memorized each week. The others were Romans 12:11-13, Acts 18:9-10, 13:38-39, 2 Cor. 2:17 and Hebrews 4:16. I found most of these verses while reading 'Ashamed of the Gospel' by John MacArthur. These verses guided me and encouraged me to unashamedly proclaim the Truth to my guys throughout the summer.

I really don't know where to begin...

Coming into the summer I was somewhat prepared for what I was going to face as a counselor again. Obviously I didn't know what kind of kids I would get each week but I had already counseled before so I knew sort of what I was getting into unlike my first year. I felt more prepared. I looked back and evaluated myself from the previous summer, looking at what worked, what didn't; what I did wrong, where I was a slacker... that kind of stuff. I feel that I came into the summer with more of a urgency to share the gospel with more energy and personal plea. It seemed like my first year I tried to do it on my own, not allowing God to lead me or depend on Him for the results.

Because of this, I look back and I am very pleased on how I did representing Christ and proclaiming Him. I'm not saying that I am completely satisfied, there were times where I slacked off and lost sight of God's role in the process but, it was such an improvement. I can't believe the difference it made to approach everything prayerfully and really ask God to use me and speak through me rather than to make it on my own. It has shown me that when I really do give up control to Him, God works in amazing and powerful ways. Praise God!

Again, I am so thankful that God brought me back and further revealed Himself to me this summer. I highly recommend giving up your time to serve God through some form, it is very rewarding.

Here is the hard part though. I'm back at school and here is where the rubber meets the road. Will I continue to live for Him as I did at camp or will I shrink back to hiding? This is especially hard because I'm in a new place. So far, I really enjoy being at NMU and it is great to already have Christian friends established but, will I carry out Romans 1:16? This is what God has been picking at me at all summer. Sure, I'm involved with Campus Crusade, I go to bible study, church and help out with service stuff but when it comes to sharing my faith, I sit on the sidelines. I've already ignored opportunities to share True Love through Christ crucified and no doubt God is convicting me of that. I am very weak in this area. Now, God is not calling me to stand in the middle of campus and quote scripture (even though there is nothing wrong with that, it is biblical) but, I am to live for Him and that means carrying out the Great Commission. I should be loving those around me, reaching out to their needs, encouraging them with the Truth, sharing my experiences this summer, giving testimony of His work and sharing the gospel because Jesus is the ONLY avenue of salvation. This is not something that I can or should be doing on my own power. I've been challenged by the camp director to carry over the same counselor mentality at school. To do "one on ones", play games with others and to be there for one's needs. I need to live my life for Christ because it is not my own. When I live for Him truly, others will see Christ shining through and hopefully take note of that (curious, interested or persecuting). Persecution and rejection is what holds me back. I pray that I will give those to God and let Him reign sovereignly over my life and those around me, "for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,"

This year will be different, just like this summer was different from ones past. It is time to live unashamed of the gospel, to reject passivity, cast all my fears to Him and live my life radically for Christ.

"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. " Philippians 3:14

Take care and I'd love to hear some comments,

Devin

Ashamed of the Gospel?

Hey there,

I have finished classes at Tech now all that stands in my way are 4 finals. It still hasn't hit me that I won't be coming back here next year. I sure will miss this place. So much growth has happened here. It is sad to leave, sometimes I wish I didn't have to but God has other plans which of course I know very little about. So, as I sit here delaying to start my studying I've got something on my mind which I would like to share. (Its okay, I've still got a day and a half til my first final which means plenty of time to procrastinate)

I love music. I love all kinds of music (normally I would add "except ska" but, I've started to tolerate it, in moderation of course) I especially love artists that are "Christian". When I say "Christian" I mean artists that declare themselves as Christians and also what they say in their lyrics. I still enjoy music by artists that aren't Christian but, for most genres I have a hard time with the lyrics that aren't focused around a life pursuing God. There is one thing though that irks me about some Christian artists and organizations that find themselves in the secular scene, which is the phrase that comes in forms like, "We don't want to be too preachy." or "We don't want to shove our beliefs on people." and "We don't want to be too pushy about our beliefs."

Artists that make these claims have lyrics that are good. They speak of a life worth living, helping others out, the emptiness of pursuing sinful desires, seeking help from God and they might even mention Jesus. Thats the thing though, when you listen to most Christian bands that have a secular following, they rarely speak of Jesus and who he was and what he did. Why not sing about your savior who rescued you from your sins? Why not take the opportunity to speak the glorious truth, the Good News of salvation? Who are you trying to please? Man or God?

Now, as Christians it is not our job to MAKE people believe in Jesus Christ and his atoning death which has saved us from the wrath of God (which we deserve); only God can change the human heart. We cannot shove or push our beliefs on others but what we believe should be the foundation of our lives. Everything that we do should scream "Jesus is my savior!" to people, everything. "Sing to the Lord, all the Earth; proclaim his salvation day after day."- 1 Chronicles 16:23 I'm not saying that every band needs to be making praise music, sound like Hillsong United and make songs that sound like they come straight from Psalms. Lets have songs of hope, godly living, struggle and happiness but speak of how we find hope, overcome struggle and where our true happiness lies; in God, through Jesus.

There could be many reasons why bands and others don't do this. I think most of them revolve around fear of rejection. When Jesus Christ is mentioned as the way, the truth and the life, often times people get angry.

I know I sound kind of harsh. I also know that this is something that I struggle with as well. I sit back on the sidelines when it comes to proclaiming Christ for fear of rejection. This is something that I have always struggled with since I became a Christian and have always felt convicted about. When I went down to Panama City, FL this past spring break with Campus Crusade I was very nervous to share my faith with others. There were practically endless opportunities to talk to people. College kids were EVERYWHERE. Seriously, once I eft my hotel room, people were everywhere, the lobby, the beach, shops, walking everywhere around town. Also, just about everyone was drunk as well. All day long, morning to 3am, people were sipping their alcohol. Everywhere reeked of it. It was a different environment to say the least.

Anywho, in the afternoon our Cru group would hit the beaches to go out and share the gospel with others. This isn't your normal beach adventure with happy families playing games, digging in the sand with others lounging around soaking up some sun. Nowhere close. This was an intense party scene with booze and barely clothed people everywhere. Vendors such as Monster energy drinks, Geico, Garnier, Trojan condoms, Coke Zero and the Marines are giving out free stuff as well as various stages with music and booty shakin' contests. It is very crowded in these areas. Beer cans and trash are everywhere and again, one might be able to get a good buzz just from sniffing the air around. I have never been in an atmosphere like this is. It was hard. Thanks be God I never was interested in the party lifestyle because it was rampant.

The hardest thing was talking to people. Here is the great dilemma: 1. Everybody is pretty much drunk. 2. Guys are looking to impress girls so they wander around with only that on their minds. 3. Girls wear skimpy clothing trying to impress guys and either lie around or walk around as well participating in various drinking games. At first glance, it seemed to me that no one wanted to talk about God. This was challenging for me. I had the hardest time approaching people. I felt that no one wanted to talk to me. I felt like an outsider. I would walk around looking for someone on the outskirts sitting by themselves who looked approachable. Again, I was convicted that even the party-ers need to hear about Christ but I just couldn't get myself to approach them. How do you talk to someone who is laughing up, playing beer pong with all their friends? I would think I don't have that kind of personality.

I ended up only talking to about 5 people on the beach over the course of 3 days. Again, I can't stress how hard it was for me to talk to someone. I can barely put these feelings into words. "My style" I felt was more personable, over a longer period of time, someone who wasn't busy or involved in something at the moment. That just wasn't the case on the beach. Looking back, I lacked so much faith, trust and wisdom. I was leaning on my own power and not God's.

As well as sharing on the beach there was also something called Commando Cru. Commando Cru was sharing with people at night, from 10pm-whenever. This could be on the resort in the hot tubs, on the strip, in the fast food restaurants and by the bars and clubs. I was more comfortable with this. People were walking everywhere and didn't have much to do in between. They were more approachable to me. I had an easier time talking with someone walking next to them to wherever they were going rather than a distracted drunk guy interrupting me every 30 seconds by asking for my confirmation on a pretty girl. I talked to more people and had longer conversations at night.

So, I kind of sound like one of those street preachers/people who go around preaching the gospel. They oftentimes get a bad reputation. I struggled with this as well. Sometimes I felt like I was "selling Jesus". Again, going back to what I am comfortable with, I'd rather develop a relationship over time. Cru advised us to use their spiritual surveys and their gospel tracts when talking to someone. Again, I felt like a salesman, reading my performed script. Instead, I mainly started a conversation off asking them where they were from, how their day was going and such. Then lead that into asking their religious background. That normally went into what they thought a relationship with God was like and how does someone get to heaven. Then went into the gospel (pretty much the tract but just speaking to them instead of pulling it out which looking back I wish I did to give them something to read and look at.) I was mainly trying to make the approach my own and base it on each person.

So, you are probably thinking, "Well how did it go Devin?" I say, "100% successful." Huh? Every single person I talked to became saved? Really? No, just about everyone that I talked to fell into 3 categories: 1. Someone who said they were a Christian but didn't care for being "religious" and thought that just "loving God and Jesus" was enough. 2. Someone who was apathetic to religion in general. Life is about having fun and feeling good. 3. Someone who attacked Christianity and the idea of religion. There might be a higher power but any religion could be right or God does not exist because natural disasters happen.

How am I 100% successful then? Because every conversation I talked about God, truth and the gospel. They listened and how am I to know their heart whether it was after I left or later in their life? Despite my own struggles, I still stepped out on faith, preaching the gospel and allowed God to work in their lives and I was 100% successful in that. We often forget that it is God who does the saving work, not us. We are the means by which truth is spoken. It is then up to God for that heart change. No matter how pretty our message is, how eloquent it is spoken, how attractive it may sound to us, it is fully up to God to do that saving work in their lives. We cannot make anyone believe. Again, this was troublesome for me. I have recorded in a prayer book 14 names that I talked to and shared my faith with. I saw no immediate change in any of them. I was disappointed at first. "It must have been something that I was doing," I thought. I still get some feelings of disappointment occasionally. How wrong I am though. I spoke the truth, the good news about Jesus Christ and in return mainly got "whatever... thats cool for you." replies. But, it does not stop there. It is not fully in my power for them to understand it no matter how long I spend with them, answer their questions and lead them through the gospel. It takes prayer for those words to set into their lives. Matthew 19:25-26, after the rich young ruler approaches Jesus, Jesus speaks to his disciples about salvation, "And when the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?" And looking upon them Jesus said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Jesus also states in Matthew 11:27 that, "All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." Also, Paul shows in Romans 3:10-12 (which is referencing to Psalm 14:1-3 and 53:1-3), "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one."(One thing to note, repetition is used to stress importance) I believe what is taught here is that no one by themselves can come to a decision of choosing God. We are so sinful, so lost, so evil, so focused on the things of this world that we don't desire God. Back to my story, it is fully up to God to save those people that I talked to based on his awesome and perfect plan. I earnestly pray that the truth is revealed to them and that they turn from their sinful desires and seek after God and the only true happiness that can be found in him.

Now in a very long round-a-bout way to tie all of this smatter of thoughts together is to stress the importance of evangelism and proclaim Jesus Christ in all we do. When I look back at this, I have started to realize how awesome it is to be used by God as a means of sharing the gospel with people. We don't know who is going to be saved, who God is going to radically change. Romans 10:13-15 says, ""for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." How then shall they call upon Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!"" I like this excerpt from R.C. Sproul that goes along with this passage, "God has chosen the foolishness of preaching as the means to accomplish redemption. I suppose he could have worked out his divine purpose without us. He could publish the gospel in the clouds by using his holy finger in skywriting. He could preach the gospel himself, in his own voice, shouting it from heaven. But that is not his choice. It is a marvelous privilege to be used by God in the plan of redemption. ..... We must never underestimate the importance of our role in evangelism. Neither must we overestimate it. We preach. We bear witness. We provide the outward call. But God alone has the power to call a person to himself inwardly. I do not feel cheated by that. On the contrary, I feel comforted. We must do our job, trusting that God will do his."- Chosen By God.

So, in summary, in whatever we do, do it in the name of Jesus Christ (Colossians 3:17). Back to the music I spoke of earlier, I have found to treasure bands, artists and songs that speak about the truth of finding complete happiness in God which is directly spoken in the lyrics. With evangelism in mind it is such an awesome thing to hear the gospel and have it constantly remind me of the awesomeness of it. It is encouraging. So, lets not be ashamed of presenting the gospel in our lives whether it be through song, word and deed.

If you have any questions please ask and I always enjoy your comments. I hope you find this encouraging (sorry for the length).

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20.

Same old, same old.

Looks like I'm back to that monthly blog kind of deal. Sorry. It's been pretty busy up here.

There really has been ALOT going on. Schoolwork picked up, focus for schoolwork went down, time seems to have decreased and my faith has been rising. It has been awesome to seek God in the craziness of life, I have truly been blessed.

So, what's new? Well, the biggest thing is that I will be transferring from Michigan Tech to Northern Michigan. As I have been taking my Engineering class and retaking my Calc class, I realized that this was not the path that I wanted to go down. I did not want to get stuck teaching a class that I was not passionate about. Unfortunately, that means going to a different school. So, I have been going through the application process and such and finally got all that done. It will be quite the change.

Next big thing, I will hopefully be working at Camp Barakel again! Story time:

So, after last summer, I had some doubts about working at camp again. No doubt it was an awesome time to see God at work in so many lives but, I figured that it was time for me to take a summer and get some experience for my future career. I found a job opening up here at Michigan Tech with our Summer Youth Program (SYP). SYP is a a summer program/camp style which engages middle and high schoolers in fun, scientific classes, sessions and activities. I was so stoked when I found this. 1. Job experience. 2. Living up here in Houghton=the great outdoors to be explored. 3. Taking some classes (Mountain Biking, Frisbee golf, Wolf Ecology, UP History) 4. Earning money. This was just about the perfect thing that I was looking for. I applied for a counseling position and got a part-time counselor offer. Even better! So much more time to relax, read some books, explore the local area and just enjoy my time! Well, back over winter break I got the chance to hang out with some counselors from camp. After this, I started to feel convicted about working at camp again so, I prayed about it. As I was writing the director for camp staff about the situation I was in, I REALLY felt like I should work at camp. I was starting to write reasons why I was unsure about working at camp and I felt like I had no good reason. Also, I wasn't really bummed. It's true, I wanted to spend my time up here but my calling back to camp definitely outweighed that. So, now I am stoked to work there again this summer. I'm already starting to do some prep work for my talks which will be based on 1 John 1:3-6. Bring it on!

Other than those 2 major things, life has been pretty swell. Again, life still seems to be very interesting and spontaneous direction wise. I've got one more week of classes then 4 finals and I'm done! I would say I'd be halfway through my college career but, I'm pretty sure I'm on the 5 year track... Whatever. I will be staying up in Houghton the 2 weeks after school which will be great to do some of those things that I wanted to do over the summer like read some books, explore and just kick back and relax for a bit.

Please be praying for me this summer as working at camp is very challenging. Thanks and until next time,

Devin

AHHHH!!!

Well,

It's 2:40 am and I feel like writing. A lot has been going on recently (which I really want to share but, I don't think it would be smart for to type out a long blog with an exam in, ohh 7 hours, so I will try to keep it short and sweet and post the big one later (hopefully in less than a month)).

I have really wanted to get my thoughts out on paper or here but really haven't chose to. Not too sure why, it doesn't help when they are always in my head preventing me from focusing on my schoolwork so it would make sense for me to take the time to get them out to make me a better college student. But, that hasn't been the case.

There really has been SO MUCH going on that it has been quite overwhelming for me. I think I've learned that I don't do too well when I need to focus on more than 2 things. Kind of sad but, thats how it has been for the past couple weeks. With classes getting much more demanding, it has really been a struggle to persevere. Luckily, we have this thing called the Bible and it teaches us cool things that we should learn and apply to our lives. As a former track star (4 years, 30 pounds and 4 inches ago) I was reminded of Hebrews 12:1-2 which says, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing [fn] our eyes on Jesus, the author [fn] and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has satdown at the right hand of the throne of God." (Courtesy of http://www.blueletterbible.org)

I seem to lose sight of the fact that I'm running this race called life and during it, I encounter many obstacles. I am normally one who panics when troubles come but that shouldn't be the case. When I encounter this uphill challenge, I need to adapt and continue on. Running up hills is very hard. It messes up your pace, rhythm and mindset. You need to slow your pace, shorten your stride, increase the rpms and move on. I am called to endure and continue running. Not take a break, or find a way around the course or call off the race. I must endure, casting off everything that weighs me down and strain for the finish. Go hard, or go home.

Yes. I listen to HIp Hop*

* I was informed that this was not Rap, rather Hip Hop. Rap is music with no meaning, emotion or purpose, just a beat, vulgarity and promiscuity. This definition is taken from the exhaustive Paolo's Modern Dictionary.

I have a Confession to make...

Good Morning all,

Well, I have been debating on whether to write this post or catch up with "24" but as you can tell, I'm writing so, good for me! Well, where to start. School has been quite busy and it has been hard to stay on top of all my work. It is rough taking classes such as Engineering and Calc when they don't really apply to my major but, I am somewhat enjoying them, until I get stressed. Ahhh stress. What a wonderful thing you are. It has been very stressful recently and dealing with it has been challenging. Because of said stress, it has started to impact my faith in small ways. I am now almost a week behind in memory verses, I have lost my daily bible reading routine and mostly when I get a free chance, I decide to be lazy or deal with it in a manner that is not focused on giving God the glory. And this is how it currently fits in to story of the week, probably the month.

During this time of year, Michigan Tech holds its annual Winter Carnival. Winter Carnival is a time where students spend a month to build snow statues that pertain to the theme which this year it was games. This is the biggest event that Michigan Tech is known for. Alumni, parents and tourists come to visit well-engineered snow and ice sculptures and statues. What is even more well known for by students is the amount of partying and drinking that goes on. It is insane. The main drinking event is the All-Nighter which is the Wednesday night which kicks off Winter Carnival and the smaller statues that can only be built within the night. I think I missed most what went on last year but I sure saw it in all its "glory" this year. People, (students, locals and even professors) walk around drinking on campus. They carry various containers such as coffee mugs, water bottles, camelbaks, gas cans and even labeled beer and liquor bottles and cans all full of alcoholic concoctions. Cops are right there while it is all going on, only intervening if things get violent or unconscious. At about 3 in the morning, when most everyone is gone, you can just smell the stench of booze and witness the litter of cans all over campus.

Anywho, I did not partake in these activities (nor do I care to) and did something else. Ever read the book Blue Like Jazz? I think that it is a good book that lacks some things here and there but the message of it is being christlike in what seems to be unconventional ways. I would recommend it but, read with caution, he lacks some scriptural foundations of who Jesus was and what he did. Anyways, there is a chapter in the book discussing about his involvement with a small group of Christians at Reed College. During his time there, he felt the need to reach out to his fellow classmates on campus and share his faith with them. At one of their Bible Study meetings he brought up his conviction to the others. Ideas were thrown out and one stood out from the rest, "Lets build a confession booth during Renn Fayre." Some laughed, some were scared but some were serious. After some deliberating they went with the idea to build a confession booth with a reverse confession, they, Christians, would confess and apologize for their short comings of being Christians. They went with it built a booth in the middle of all the craziness and waited. Don (the author) was first up in the booth, dressed as a priest not really knowing what to expect. One guy stumbled in and questioned him, "What's this?" Don explained what they were doing and the guy had a change of heart. "It's really cool what you guys are doing, people need to hear this." It came down to that Don was there representing Christ and standing up in his name. He then describes the impact it had on people, being being drawn into their Bible study and weekly service activities. God truly blessed their ministry and people came to know Christ.

A group of us within Campus Crusade got together prior to Winter Carnival and discussed ways to impact the campus and this came up. We were pretty skeptical at first but ran with it. Myself and some other bought some wood and built some walls and then All Nighter we set it up. Now, I had a pretty crappy day. I was really stressed with all my school work and such so, I was not feeling like I could by any means share the gospel. After some prayer and reading I was ready. Praise God! Still very nervous, thinking that it was going to be a horrible night of ridicule and problems with drunk people. We didn't have any problems other than our electricity kept shorting out which was awkward to talk in the dark but, whatever. So, it was pretty much me and my good friend Alex talking to people with others coming and going. We would stand outside and wait for people to come up to us. Standard procedure was to answer "So, what is this?" and "Are you guys priests?" "No, we are not priests and we aren't affiliated with the Catholic church but we are Christians on campus who would like to confess to you." And then they would either nod, say Ok and walk away or step in the booth and talk further.

Well, it turned out to be a huge success. We were right in the middle of campus, between 2 sidewalks so, you couldn't miss it, prime picken's. We talked to a TON of people. I confessed my shortcomings with people, talked with them about who Jesus was and most importantly shared the gospel with almost every person. AMAZING! Sounds fun and easy right? Wrong.... I, Devin, got all the skeptics, atheists, agnostics, humanists and others that attacked my faith. I talked with at least 3 people for over 30 minutes. It was challenging and I was not prepared at all at the time. I'm not one who is weak in the faith, I know my stuff but I'm also not a scholar. But, for some reason I could not remember scripture, was scrambling for words and was just totally left out to be attacked.

At first, it was pretty heavy. After one conversation with one guy who tore me up, I had to take a break. I wish I could recall what we talked about, their points, my points but due to my awesome memory and just the overwhelming amount of emotion I really can't remember specifics. During my break, as I was walking, I was thinking and praying. "Even though these guys think they ruined my faith God, they haven't. I really don't believe in what they say. They are so far from the truth, blinded, hard-hearted Lord. O God, thanks so much for guiding me, saving me, having grace, mercy, sending your Son, Christ. Wow. I need to read my Bible more with understanding. Make your words mine." It was also great to go to a room where there was constant prayer. Such a blessing.

It may sound weird at first but it was a successful night. Christ was preached and people heard it. I didn't encounter any immediate life changes but how do I know that? I had the opportunity to talk with some of the most hard-hearted, God haters and they got to hear the gospel! There is really NOTHING that I can do to have them believe, that is up to God and his sovereign power. I will say that I prayed for those that I talked to, asking God to change them, work in their lives and reveal himself to them. Before we know God, we didn't want anything to do with him. We enjoyed the pleasures of this world, so lost in our sinful desires. We deserve his wrath because of this. There is nothing good that we have done to "earn" a way out. God, full of mercy and grace, sent his Son to cover our sins, all of them, paid in full for those who repent, turn and live. Our lives should no longer be set on the things of this world rather than God and his glory. Being humans, we loose sight of that, a lot. The most important thing that I can take away from this is that I need to focused on God in everything I do. In class, sleeping, not sleeping, doing homework, reading my Bible, eating, longboarding, driving, you get the point. "It is no longer I who live but Christ in me." I am a new creation, with a purpose and meaning in life.

So, now I ask you to examine yourself. 2 Corinthians 13:5. Where does your allegiance lie? Think about it. I'm always willing to talk about anything. Please be praying for me,

Devin

Prayers Answered

I get asked a lot of questions as a college student. Where do you go to school? What is your major? Why are you at Michigan Tech? What is the derivative of the square root of x? Would you like to go large for just 59 cents more? How are you? I get asked those first three and that last one alot (but taking Calc again this semester I expect a lot of math equations). Answering those four questions in the past couple of months has been quite challenging. I have hit yet another road block in my life where I'm confused as to where to turn next. If you remember, I originally attended Tech as a Mechanical Engineering major and then changed to Sec. Ed. in Social Sciences because of the math well, here I am again with the same problem.

Sec. Ed. in Social Science majors have to have a minor in either a math or science at MTU because it increases hire-a-bility. So, naturally I chose Technology and Design which means pretty much the first two years of Mech. Eng. So, I'm back at this point where I'm struggling to understand the language of love, Calculus. To some, it seems natural, to me it's very foreign. I don't know why but its just freaking hard! Since my path is teaching, I really want to be passionate and knowledgeable on the topics that I would teach. I very much enjoy history, geography and government is... ok. But, at the moment I am not to fond of math. Now, my minor doesn't mean that I would be teaching a math class (scaaaarrryy) rather something like a computer drawing class or intro engineering/problem solving stuff. Still, math is the base of all engineering problems. So, to me it's scary to be pursuing something which I am not too passionate about and that I think I would be a crappy teacher at. I really want to make sure that I can involve my students and engage them and I really want them to understand the material that I would cover. I just don't feel that way about math.

So, how have I been handling these feelings? Well, like any natural Devin Thurston would, worry about it 24/7. Last semester was one of change. I moved off campus, learned (learning still) how to make food for myself, took on leadership roles within Campus Crusade (leading our Service team and also disciple-ing someone) and took all classes that only pertained to Social Sciences which means a lot of reading and writing. And to say the least, I was overwhelmed. And for most of the semester, I felt lost, defeated, confused and bewildered. I did not always turn to God for deliverance and guidance and if I did, most of my prayers were a bit selfish. This made it rough on my grades, relationships with others and most importantly my relationship with my Father.

Winter break came and I was desiring time to relax and get away from most of my troubles and hoping that I could spend more time reading the Word and praying for direction. Even though it was great to be around family and all my friends down in VA, my focus on God was somewhat lost and ignored. (Side note story: Even more proof that I worry too much and don't like events happening the way I want to is the story of the broken Jeep. Long story short, I was planning on leaving VA the last Wednesday of break. But, I had this REALLY bad vibration and rattle under the frame all the way down from MI to VA. I took it into the shop that Monday before hand thinking it would be out in time to leave Wednesday and definitely Thursday. Nope, apparently it takes a long time for parts to get sent to major dealerships. So, it wasn't out of the shop until Friday afternoon (2 days before school starts and I'm still 24 hr.s away from school) Not exactly the most desirable timeframe but I made it up fine.) So, pretty much I lack faith.

As Christians, we know that God has this ultimate plan for our lives. Sometimes we understand what's going on and other times not so much. But why should we worry? Being born again, our sin has been dealt with and we are now justified and named Sons of God, no longer Sons of Wrath. It finally clicked with me the other day as to why my semester was the way it was. I thought back to counseling at Camp Barakel last summer and remembered some prayers that I prayed often. "God, I need more faith in you. God, I need to rely on you." Prayers answered. Last semester was a big lesson on faith and it still is. My goal this semester is to memorize all of Philippians (it's very hard, just like Calculus but actually serves more a meaning in my life) and the verse I'm approaching is Philippians 1:5-6 which says, "... because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident in this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ." God has our best interests in mind even if they may seem troubling and trying.It's kind of amazing how God can turn crappiness into a "huh, so that's what you were doing God....". Thats pretty much the story of mankind, God turning those who are sinful and destined for punishment to righteous and upright through the redeeming sacrifice of his Son, Jesus.

So, I have learned not only to have faith in God in every aspect in my life, trusting that he will guide me but also how to pray, praise him in the good and not so good and the importance of using my time for his glory. What can you take away? Maybe you are going through some painful struggles. I urge you to have an eternal outlook on what might God be trying to show you when you think he is not present. And when we pray, we should pray for a change within, not a temporary fix because most of the time the fix begins with us.

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God."

Philippians 1: 9-11

Ok... Maybe I'll Do a Post

Well,

It has been a crazy busy week (as usual). And of course, I sit here and I'm not exactly sure what to say. I know I built this up as maybe some huge monumental post (it may be) but, I don't know. Well, it all started when I got back from camp. I left camp and immediately drove up to school (meaning my new house that I'm currently living in). Got there around 1 or 2 am, slept and woke up to pack for a Minnesota Boundary Waters canoeing/hiking trip. Did that which was a blast (almost chopped my thumb off) and then got back and jumped right into Cru stuff which turned out to be rough. Yes it was orientation week so I didn't NEED to do anything but of course, I signed myself up to do some events for freshman (oops, i mean first years.... politics...). All I wanted was to first actually move in and not live out of my suitcase and sleeping bag in my own house and more importantly take some time to reflect on my summer (which still has yet to happen). So, relaxing quickly turned into laziness which prevented me from reflection and establishing good friendships with first years in the dorms. This continued throughout mmmm the first 6 weeks of school. Life turned into being centered around sleep rather than God (BIG mistake). I got thrown back into some depression because well, I was just not enjoying life. My grades were slacking, I didn't want to spend any time reading or studying and all I wanted to do was "escape" life through TV and sleep. No doubt I was "happy" and somewhat "content" but obviously, that did not last. Finally, being sick and tired of my laziness and lack of motivation I prayed. I prayed that God would lead me, give me the strength to go throughout my day (all of my classes are in the morning!!! ahh, I'm most awake past midnight!). I prayed that he would pull me out of this "reoccurring cycle of suck" where I would be up late due to laziness in the afternoon, be tired in the morning for class, not pay attention, and then get home and sleep and thus the cycle of suck. My life is not my own. I'm here to live my life and give all the glory to God. Being a slacker is not God glorifying. I'm currently reading through Luke and yesterday I read chapter 4 which depicts Jesus in the desert fasting for 40 days. He is approached by Satan who tempts him to fail, to turn away from the Father, to sin. Jesus prevails and stands strong under the strength and knowledge of God. I'm still struggling with my laziness, lack of effort in school and especially in my prayer life. But it is time to stand up, have faith and live a life for God. What a growing experience.

On another note, I'm going to a new church up here. It started out as a house church with only a couple families attending. It is so great! It feels like home (Fair Oaks Church) because I actually interact with the older members of the church (which is the whole reason of church, to fellowship with the WHOLE body of Christ, Cru is not the WHOLE body). It is reformed theology, which I'm still trying to figure out MY views which is rough where all the guys in the house find that doctrine true. Its really easy to nod your head in agreement. Again, we come back to my laziness and low motivation to actually seek it out deeply. We'll see.

I'm reading two books at the moment (other than my textbooks, one of which I enjoy reading, American History, aren't I in the right major now?). Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper and Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys That Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. It is ironic that I've been reading DWYL all summer? I'm almost done though, not too much left then it's on to Miracles by C.S. Lewis or one of Andrew Schwab's books (Project 86 frontman) which should be in the mail!

Also, I calculated all of my classes for the rest of my college years and drumroll please............. I'm going to be here for a full 5 years! I think I have the major with the most credits (my minor is over 30!) but all in the name of teaching kids! SUPER SENIOR!!! And those are actually pretty full semesters averaging 14-15 credits. Crazy, I know. But I enjoy college for the most part. Its so amazing up here at Tech. Hard to put to words...

Another thing I'm hashing out is how to spend my upcoming summer. Do I work at camp again? Try to find some kind of teacher related job? Work down in VA doing tiling? Stay up here and find a job? Do Summer Project? So many directions... I would LOVE to work at camp again, I think thats choice number one unless the Lord leads me elsewhere. Summer Project I've heard is pretty sweet. It would be nice to be down with the folks down in the homeland too. And I've heard summer up here is truly FANTASTIC... Or, I could do something not on my list. Oh man.

I think that I've spat enough thoughts down, I hope you actually understand them cause sometimes I sure don't. Feel free to ask questions and maybe I'll do this more often, no promises though. Although, this took a shorter amount of time then I thought it would. Oh well...

If you learned anything please take this away, How are you living your life? What is its purpose? Ponder that, take care,

Devin

I'm Still Here Cont.

So,

I apologize for not keeping up with this whole blogging thing. I actually want to write a lot of stuff but, I either don't have the time or I choose to do something else... But, a lot has been going on recently and it's just not cool to not* let you in on it. Hopefully I'll have more to write in the next week (this weekend is going to be nuts with retreats, family and school) and I need to study for an exam tomorrow. It shouldn't be too bad, it's American History which is a sweet class but I need to further my understanding of some things. So, be prepared for hopefully a blog of massive proportions. Until then, take care and look for God even in the hard times (hint hint),

Devin

I'm Still Here Pt. 1

Hey everybody,

Wow... It has been a long while since my last post. I don't even know where to begin... Maybe where I left off I guess.

As you all know, or maybe you didn't, I worked as a camp counselor this summer at Camp Barakel in Fairview, MI. I worked from May 26th through August 15th with 2 weeks off in between. It was the most productive summer so far. I was never the kid that worked a full-time summer job and it was totally different and amazing to give my summer to God.

Well with all that time spent at camp I mist have learned something right? You betcha! One thing that I learned about is love. No, not a girlfriend (Bachelor to the Rapture...... for now) but the true love that God demonstrates. I also learned a lot about relying on God for strength, guidance, and my life direction in general. Shoot, I think I learned so much, I just can't think of it all, still need to meditate on it and glean from it.

Something else that God revealed to me has to do with the direction I'm heading in. I'm no longer a Mechanical Engineer, just a Social Science major with intention on Secondary Education. This summer, after one evening chapel God laid it on my heart that I need to have a career focused around ministry. The speaker, who is a missionary in China as a school teacher, was talking about missions. Later that evening I talked with him about it and was looking for some guidance and encouragement. He said that I should definitely pray about being a missionary, if that is what God wants me to do. I should definitely consider finishing school first and getting a degree as most orgs require a college degree. This has been on my mind ever since. Since God hasn't revealed my direction yet to me, I'm really trying to figure out what to do. Whether it be missions work, youth ministry, school teacher or something else, I know that I need to be a witness for Christ. These next years are going to be amazing.

Now that I'm back at school, I kind of got off to a rough start. I'm glad that I'm at least recognizing it but I'm not exactly handling it the best. I was a bit "burnt out" after the summer and I was pretty lazy orientation week and didn't hang out with freshman as much as I planned. And still, my attitude towards school needs improve. I'm definitely better than last semester but still, it's pretty bad. Still putting things off until last minute, not reading my textbooks (its rough when every class demands soo much reading, hooray social sciences, although still better than calc), and I'm still just plain out slacking. If only I put the effort into my schoolwork that I do for Cru, I'd be such a great student.

Cru is going pretty well so far. I'm currently emceeing our weekly meetings, helping out a bit in our bible study (might branch off and lead one if it gets too big), and I'm leading/co-leading our service team. Definitely more involved than last year.

But, I need to stop here for now. Need to do some reading for class. Hopefully I'll finish before the weekend. Thanks for reading and talk to ya later.

Devin

Camp Update #2

Hey Y'all!

Well, I'm currently on my first week off but it wasn't exactly planned. Last week was my 4th week at camp and I was on the West Side of camp which means that I had 3-6 graders. Not exactly my favorite age group but I lived through it. The thing with the younger guys is that they do not listen. Period. I had to repeat myself at least 5 times to get these guys to do whatever I told them. Now, it's not just the "Do this, don't do that" kind of stuff but serious "I NEED you guys to do this". Gets on my nerves... Anywho, it was a really rough week. I had 8 kids total, 2 pairs of brothers, 2 kids that were friends, a cute little 3rd grader that was really chill and then lets call him Bob. Bob was a very interesting kid. Very talkative, the opposite of shy, had ADHD, couldn't eat a lot of what camp was serving and he was my little terror. Bob was very physical starting from DAY 1! He was throwing shoes, whipping towels, yelling, screaming, the whole works. Now, I would talk to Bob and he would realize that he did wrong, apologized and settled down. 5 minutes later, he'd be doing the same exact thing! AHHHHHHHH! Thursday comes around, Bob has talked to some of the staff, lost some privileges and now he's settling down and getting along with the group. Well, Thursday is our cookout in the forest night, so I take Bob with me to get the food so no more fights break out in my cabin while I'm gone. I needed to run back to the room to grab something and then pick up our food. So I grab another kid so Bob can get ready. Bad choice... I come back with my food, ready to throw my shoes on and get going and enjoy an evening in the woods with my boys and I'm greeted by them exclaiming "Bob's spitting up blood!" Great.... there goes our cookout... I run outback and sure enough he's over the bench spitting up some blood. To set up the story, my kids were going NUTS when I left. Almost literally bouncing off the walls. Bob came back from free time with 4 sodas in hand and shared with the whole group.... So, they were playing a game called Free from Prison where some of them would sit in the stalls (prison cells) and bust the doors open, run out the prison (bathroom) and avoid getting shot by all the guards and running to freedom. Well, one of my guys runs out and head-butts Bob right in the mouth, thus causing him to bite both lips and thus spit up blood. I was pretty mad to say the least. But wait! There's more! I finally get all my guys walking out to camp and we get there and I tell my guys to grab some sticks so I can start our fire. Of course, they find all wet sticks and I take 30 minutes to start a good fire to roast our hot dogs. Hooray pine smoke. But wait, there's even more! I get back from our miserable cookout (atleast for me, my guys had fun acting like cavemen) and I take Bob with me to clean up our stuff from the camp out so more blood won't be shed back in the room. I come back and the counselor next to me forgot to pick up snack for his guys so I'm left watching his guys and mine for about 5 minutes. I'm in the other room for about 30 seconds and I hear this " WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" coming from my room. Great....... here we go again. Bob comes out of the shower, grabs a towel and whips another kid right on the lips. 

This was all within 2 1/2 hours of time. 

As you can read, my week was pretty rough. How on earth am I supposed to love these kids when they make me so upset. Well, I learned my third week that kids can bring me from wanting me to pound them into the ground, to bringing me to tears because they want to know how to become a christian. During that week, I almost always wanted to pound some of my kids in the ground. After that night, a staff guy took my guys to chapel and gave me 20 min. to get ready and get my head back in the game. I was thinking. These are God's kids, he sent them to me for the week. They are God's children. I needed to love these kids because he does. Even though I turn my back to God, or do some pretty stupid things that probably puts God in the position I was in with my guys. I needed to love these kids. That night, I had to get on my knees and pray " God, MAKE me love my guys." 

I think I now know why we are called the Children of God. 

So, I sit here in my Jeep in downtown Harbor Springs with people walking by and looking at me because I'm a bit out of place. I did take the week off because I was sick and I was not ready to counsel. It was really a tough decision but I did not want to get more sick and I was not going to be an energetic awesome counselor. I do look forward to the rest of the summer and it's going to be sad when it's over. The atmosphere at camp is truly amazing, it is really where God has blessed.

Not too sure when the next post will be but thanks for your prayers!

Camp Update

Hey guys,

I only have a few moments to write but I thought I'd just let y'all know that I'm alive and doing great! Camp has been AWESOME! I just finished my second week of campers and I still have 8 more weeks to go, with one week off for a break. I'm pumped though. Being at camp has really helped me to focus more on God and help me pour out to others. I know that when I get back to school this fall, its going to be so easy to share Christ with my fellow students. But right now, I'm focused on my kids to come. Thats all for now, be praying for me and I'll try to update more as time goes on. 

Devo

The Time Has Come

So here it is. Time for me to man up and take on the challenges that kids will bring me. Sure, it's going to be rewarding and all but I'm scared. I have 2 major fears. One is that I'm going to sleep in and miss stuff and the other is not giving my all to my future campers and they will come out of the week not having much fun. I know that I have my fun moments but I'm not sure that I can dish out ultimate fun-ness 24-7.

The more and more that I try to do it on my own, I fail. How many times does it take me to realize that I can't do it all on my own, I need to rely on the big man upstairs. At this moment in my life, I feel like I need some sort of goal to reach within the next few years, mainly pertaining to my college career. Honestly, I have no clue what to study for. As a kid I always wanted to be in the military doing special ops stuff or a fighter pilot. Then it moved onto an auto technician, turning wrenches my whole life. And then the idea of Engineering seemed so great, the hands on wrenching turning stuff plus some math. Well, it turned out to be more math than hands on. So thats what I started with and after one semester I felt like I was a fish in the wrong tank. I evaluated my strengths and came out with maybe some sort of teacher or something. Bam, social sciences. And that is where I currently stand, taking all social science courses in the fall. But honestly, I am totally lost. What am I going to do with a Social science degree? Yes, I'm looking at education but I'm still unsure of that. And if social sciences doesn't work, right now, I don't know what I'd do. 

I know you're thinking, Devin, what about youth ministry stuff? I'm thinking the same thing. I don't especially feel called to be a pastor but I do feel like I need to have some anchor in some sort of youth ministry field. Maybe God is just using this to make me more dependent on him, I'm not surprised because I've been praying for him to use me in some way. But, it just sucks right now...

Anywho, this summer is going to be life changing. I'm going to be pushed to so many limits. I would describe it as driving your car fast on a curvy road. So pumped yet, scared out of your mind. 

Thats where I'm at and where I'm going. I may or may not get a chance to update this, facebook or upload some pics, but I will try. PLEASE PRAY FOR ME!!! Enjoy the summer!

Struggle

Yo,

I'm out of school, finally and overall, it was a decent year. I did amazing my first semester but then then second semester, my grades plummeted. The reason, because I was too committed to Campus Crusade for Christ. Now, Cru (as we call it) has been truly amazing and through it I have been challenged to always further my faith in God. But, Cru was my life, not school. Right now, I'm going to school, not Cru and I didn't follow through with that this semester. So, I'm definitely going to have to take some steps back, and yes, it is going to be hard. The thing that really sucks, is that is also where the majority of my friends are. When I look back, I pretty much only hung out with that group and hardly anyone else. And as great as they are, I feel like I need to get to know some other people. One outlet of that is going to be through upcoming skate nights that I'm going to start. Here in VA, almost every Friday and Saturday a group of guys (and sometimes gals) meet up and go skate into the wee hours. I want to create that atmosphere up at Tech (Michigan Tech, not Virginia). Also, I love to go four-wheeling and sometimes I ditched one friend who wanted to go out and I hung out with Cru. I'm not going to stop going Cru, I just need to step back and handle what I'm called to be and that is a student.

So tonight I scraped some lady's car with my dad's truck. Nothing major, just scraped some paint off her rear bumper and scratched the front bumper of the truck. Now, I love and hate driving the truck. It's a manual which is cool and crappy. So for parking it, I absolutely hate it. I pulled in and then I pulled out and swung it around thinking I had at least a foot of clearance, nope, scrape.... Man, there goes the money I'm making right now. Now, I'm bummed.  I'm in a depressed mood. Not only because of this but some other things have been on my mind. I'm going to be at camp in 2 weeks and when I'm going to screw up how am I going to handle it? With my record, I'm going to get down and want to get away from everything. Now, I can't do that at camp. I've got responsibilities and most importantly I've got be that great guy counselor to my kids this summer. We'll see, time to cool down and get ready for tomorrow. 

Blah

I don't know what to write but I thought that I needed to write something since it's been over a week. Maybe after finals are done and I'm not doing anything I'll have something to talk about. Sorry...

2 Weeks Left

Hey guys and gals,

Sorry I haven't updated in about 2 weeks, it's been pretty busy, I haven't had time or I just don't have much to talk about, or when something does come to mind, I don't have time to blog it out. But, I really don't have much to bring to the table right now other than talking about some things here and there, pretty much whatever pops into my head. 

Like I said, I've been busy. I do only have 2 weeks left, 1 week of class and then some finals. Oh man, my grades will not be that great this semester but still not horribly bad, hopefully around a 3.0. Which brings me to my first thought, this semester has been pretty crazy. I'll admit I have not put forth 100% effort in classes, probably not even 75%. It's really hard on me when I have so little free time and when I do get a free chance I waste on Facebook or catching up on some TV shows, which is fine until that's all I focus on. A big reason why my grades are slacking is because I don't study often or I just do the minimal amount of work to get it done and not focus on understanding. Which sucks, because I get to exams like today's where I'm mostly clueless on what's going on or I cram for the 3 hours before and half the time I'm soooo distracted. It's like I don't even care. I think that I've been brainwashed to this attitude since I've had it for the past three years of school. I want to do good in school, understand it but whenever I get stuck, I get that "I don't get it! This sucks..." attitude and then nothing gets accomplished. It's rare that I even get a productive mindset to do things sometimes. Next semester is going to be a challenge because I'm going to be off-campus, taking 17 credits, being involved in Cru pretty heavily, got 8ams 3 days a week and I'm myself. My biggest struggle is getting myself motivated to do something. We'll see what happens.....

Next on the agenda of Devin is my family situation. My family is moving back to the "homeland" so I call it since both of my parents are from Michigan. Although, Virginia will always be where I'm from cause I like being a southern boy! My wittle sister is all grown up now and going to college. Scaaary. Central Michigan to be exact. On top of that, my parents are buying a house in Harbor Springs right on Lake Michigan, although no beach property, but right next to the lake. It will be nice being closer to family and I might go and visit more often although it's gonna suck not going back to VA. No doubt, I'm going to visit if an opportunity presents itself.

Summer is really close, and summer means 12 weeks of awesome, exhausting, frustrating, rewarding fun-ness. I'm pretty stoked although I haven't because, yea I've been busy. It gets more real as time gets closer. I guess I'll see exactly what Christian and Paolo (my old youth leaders) go through.

So, I think that may be all for now, kind of tired and I have stuff going on tomorrow all day. 

So it's 3 am....(probably 4 by the time I finish this)

So it's 3 a.m. and I just finished my Engineering hw, hooray! An interesting couple of weeks it has been since I last posted, which I 'm sorry for such a delayed response. Life has been very eventful with school, campus crusade and all the other things life consists of. I've actually had a lot of different things on my mind that I've wanted to blog about, but I just haven't had a good chunk of time or I use that time to relax and sometimes gain consciousness. 

One AWESOMELY AMAZING thing that has happened in my life is the sharing of my faith to my Chem. lab partner, Jeff. This is actually the first time that I've explained the gospel to anyone before. It's pretty sweet because I have been praying for God to use me in some way or form and also that I would suck it up, and share my faith with someone (cause it's something that I lack). Well, opportunity arose and I took it head on. 

A little background on Jeff. Jeff is a first year (freshman but sounds more sophisticated) mechanical engineering student from China. He is a pretty quiet guy and mostly keeps to himself and doesn't initiate conversation often. So, here's how it went down. 

One day after class Jeff and I were walking back from lab to go eat. God was tuggin' at me to talk to him so, I did. I asked him if he had a religion, thinking that he might be Buddhist. He said no. I asked if he believed in God and he said yes, but wasn't really sure who he was. "Would you like to know more about him?" "Yea! That sounds good."

The next night I stopped by his room to meet with him and talk more about who God is. I was pretty scared and nervous to say the least. Since it's Friday we met in a study lounge (who studies on Fridays?) to talk. One of the guys in Cru, Ben, who is disciple-ing me, was going to be there also, was running late. So, I'm on my own with my Bible and our Cru "Knowing God Personally" booklet ( a basic 4 point accepting Christ booklet). I decided to go through the booklet with him, making sure that he understands everything that I'm saying and it was definitely God speaking through me. Ben makes it and long story short, we go through it again and ask him what he thinks. Now, it is reallllly hard to read him, to see if he is taking it all in and understands it. I think that he doesn't get it, but I could be wrong. I ask him if having a relationship with God is something that he wants, "yes, but I don't know what to say?". We show him the prayer in the booklet and he reads it with us, and again, I'm not sure if he means it or understands it. 

The next week Jeff and I meet to read through Matthew. I was thinking of just reading through some chapters, not getting too far. Nope, I read the first 14 chapters. And not just reading them, I stopped at everything that was confusing to him or me. For example, we would come across something referenced in the the Old Test. and go through that. We talked for at least 2 hours. Again, God was giving me the correct words to say. I look back and half the time I don't know how I explained things the way I did. Pretty crazy...

The next week arrives and wow, we have Crusade spring retreat. So I get to thinking, maybe I should invite Jeff. I invite him and he is able to come. I'll tell you what, it is hard to stick with the "boring non-social kid" in a group of people who want to do a lot of fun stuff. But, that's only some evil thoughts trying to bring me down. I was really hoping that something would really impact him this weekend. Something that would really stick out to him and would make him ask questions and dig deeper into this relationship he was building. One night we go through Matthew some more and I really just want to cut to the chase but, I really want to make sure that he understands what is going on because he has no background of God or Jesus or anything other than hearing them. Well, the weekend turned out to be pretty amazing. The speaker that was there was a youth pastor that went to Northern Michigan which is 2 hours from here and both Crusades get together for the retreats, so that's why he was there. The theme was "Still Walking" and was about coming out of a comfortable lifestyle, and get out there on campus and "get you boots on". He reminded me of Christian, my youth pastor back home. But, on the way back home Jeff and I were talking about retreat and I asked him if he was confused about anything. He had a few things that he didn't understand such as who Satan is, what is God's grace and what is guilt. Again, I answered them so that he could understand and again, God was most definitely talking through me. 

And now, I still have yet to meet up with him and go through some Matthew and talk to him. Hooray busy college schedules! But, please be praying for Jeff! What an amazing story it has been, but an even more amazing story of his life to come.

Bedtime, hopefully more constant blogs to be written, take it easy

Devo

Quickie

Just finished reading The Shack and if you have never heard of it or read it, you should. Here's their site if you want some background info: http://theshackbook.com/ . I highly recommend reading it. I don't want to give away much info, but I know that the beginning is a bit slow, but stick with it, it gets a lot more eventful. One more note, if you go to the site, you can read the foreword and first chapter online. It's not the most exciting chapter like I said before, but it gives you an idea of what's going on.

Day.... (So much for that idea)

Hey ya'll, (oops, my redneck is showing)

     Well, to say the least it has been a interesting couple of days. In my last post, I said that I was visiting a camp that I was planning on working at this summer. Well, I had the interview (more like a friendly conversation, no pressure) and it was great. I really feel like that is where God wants me this summer (unless he has some other plans). So, I will be in-charge of 8 or so kids for 6 days a week for 12 weeks. It will be one roller coaster of a ride.

Along with having my interview, I worked at the camp helping out with all the transition work from winter to spring/summer season. The people there are AMAZING. They opened their homes, let me eat their food, and had some awesome conversations. Shoot, I thought I was going to be working 10-5 then heading back to my cabin, making a peanut butter sandwich and having to entertain myself all week long. I brought a book to read. I hardly had time to crack it open, unless I wanted to stay up into the late hours of the night. Again, my time there was just plain sweet.

So, now that I'm back in the swing of things, you know the usual; going to class, putting off homework and studying, the normal college student activities, life is challenging again. Monday morning, I meet with my career center advisor, and it was what I expected and what I didn't at the same time. Let me explain; I took an online personality/job match test thing and expected the guy to say, stick with what's on top off the list. But, I learned that there is some truth to that. We all have aspects and talents that God has placed in our lives. It would make sense to choose an occupation that involves your strengths and not something that doesn't really interest you. What even made my meeting better was that he is Christian and that he understands what I feel. It really made things great. But, I did not receive the answer, the direction I was looking for, which I knew probably wouldn't happen but it still bummed me out. Here I am, asking God where he wants me to go and I'm not receiving an answer, at least not now. But, I've let it drag me down and that got me nowhere so, I'm pressing on. Right now, to me it's come down to either secondary education or exercise science. Yea, nowhere near engineering..... We'll see.....

Time to sleep, since I put off studying tonight, that means I need to do it tomorrow! Hooray procrastination! Who knows when my next post will be and if will be in this dying theme of day (insert number here).

"Give me a revelation Show me what to do ‘Cause I’ve been trying to find my way I haven’t got a clue Tell me should I stay here Or do I need to move Give me a revelation I’ve got nothing without you"- Third Day

Day 3 (kind of)

Hello, 

It's been real busy, again, and it's still busy. I am leaving for camp bright and early and I may not have my day updates on the blog, but when i do get some internet, I will post them (that includes Day 3). Keep an eye out,

Devin