Our God truly is an Awesome God!

This past Thursday was a HUGE day for me in my life. I had so many things to do and typically it would have been overwhelming.

Let me start out with a little background on the big event. At Campus Crusade's large group meeting (TNT - Thursday Night Thing), we came upon the week of sophomore takeover. That means the sophomore class runs everything at TNT including someone giving the main talk for the night. Now as a class we were discussing who would give the talk. I knew one kid in particular, Mike Baumgartner, would want to give a talk, because he does nothing but talk about God and is always in the Word which is what I need to be like. I think it's awesome. I have a HUGE fear of public speaking. I'd rather die I think... now that's a slight exaggeration, but you catch my drift.

However, earlier this summer when I read about Hezekiah, I thought it was so good that in the FAR future, I might wanna give a talk on it if I became more bold or something so I had started working on a talk about Hezekiah. Well anyways, going back to Mike Baumgartner, he said that he had a talk he would like to do if nobody else wanted to, so of course, I was gonna let him do it like everyone else. Well, Mike is an RA in a residence hall, and he had some meeting that came up that he HAD to attend. Therefore, he couldn't give his talk at TNT. Now somebody had to step up.

Now I had told Devin I was working on the Hezekiah speech for much later and he said that since I already got a start on it that I should give the talk. He said he could give the talk if nobody else wanted to. Nobody in the group volunteered, but I didn't want to make the decision right away and pray about it, so I told the group that Devin and I would decide between ourselves who would do it so we wouldn't leave everybody hanging.

So, I went up to Devin a few days later and asked him if he had anything he wanted to give a talk on and he said no. I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to give the talk on Hezekiah since the Lord really laid it on my heart to share it with people and then I would have the opportunity to share it with many at once. One reason that made me feel like I could do it is that 2 weeks before, I gave a short testimony at TNT and I didn't feint, however I was very nervous. I knew I could handle it though and if God was calling me to do it, I needed to take that step of faith.

So now I had the responsibility of making this talk more lengthy and polished from the bit I had started on in a much shorter time than I was going to give it, but I knew that if God called me to speak it, then I would be able to get it done.

It was about a week later making it a few days before my talk that I found out something absolutely amazing. Mike Baumgartners meeting... well, it was canceled. Do you think that that is an accident? Accidents don't happen with God. God used the meeting to lead me to give the talk, then canceled it so Mike could come and hear it. How awesome is that?

Alright, so the Thursday of the talk finally rolls around... getting back to the beginning of the post. I had been praying since I knew I was giving it that God would remove my fear of public speaking. I usually get really really nervous and become more reserved and I feel like I can't be effective in a talk when I'm barely able TO talk. My talk was generally about prayer and I figured I should pray about it a lot, so I did. Along with the talk to do, I had an exam the next day, a presentation the next day in another class and a 5 page research paper to do before Monday. I knew that I needed to focus on my talk because God showed me Luke 12 that day that said somewhere in it: Do not worry what you should eat or what you should drink, but seek the kingdom of God and all these things should be added unto you. That's a paraphrase but it's in there. I knew that if I focused on the talk which was the most important that God would enable me to do the other things adequately.

So I decided to forget about the other things and work on just the talk and pray about it. So, it comes to an hour before the talk, and having gone through it with a couple of other people, I felt pretty comfortable with it. I had been praying that God would remove my fear and all nervousness. Well, wouldn't ya know? I got up in front of everyone without a bit of nervousness. I was able to present it like I was talking to someone individually. It was NOTHING short of a miracle if you understood my personality. God worked through me. Without God answering my prayer, I would have been a nervous wreck and ineffective. People came up to me after and said I did a good job and people I could tell for the most part got something out of it. All glory goes to God because without God, none of that would be possible.

Now that night, I was able to finish off the presentation and present it well the next day and I did much better in the exam than I should have I think... I haven't gotten my score back, but I was able to remember more things than I should have, so that was another answer to prayer.

Quickly to go back to Luke 12, I don't want to leave this out. Right before I read that chapter, I was thinking about how I am running out of money and can't really afford to be buying food. Well, when it said don't worry about what you should eat or what you should drink, it really hit home knowing that God's Word is truth. Since then He's been providing me with food in all sorts of different ways including Mike Baumgartner "suddenly having the idea" to swipe me into the dining halls on a day I didn't eat lunch and was very hungry. I went to visit him 2 minutes before he was gonna eat and he was going to actually ask me that very day. Do you think something like that is coincidence? No way. Prayer is powerful and effective and God is great and uses us in our weakness.

It also reminds me of a sermon I heard of God using us in our weakness a few days before my talk and it applied to me so closely. God really worked through me in a public speaking situation which is a definite weakness so all the Glory could go to Him! How awesome is that?!

Congratualations if you read this whole post. I truly thank you for it and I'll be praying that God's glory will shine through it and it will be an encouragement both to you and to me when I look back it it later on. Until next time, God Bless!

Everything good comes from God!

WOW! So God has been doing an amazing work in me lately. I cannot fully describe it, but He's brought me closer to Himself. The Lord brought me to speak at TNT about how He's been answering prayers in my life. I was extremely nervous and it was a huge step out of my comfort zone, but God enabled me to do it. I wish I could have expressed with more enthusiasm the wondrous things that God has been doing in my life.

One example has been two posts ago about how God provided me with a new car. There have been other prayer requests lately I've had that God has answered right away. My green folder with all my school assignments... Well, I lost it and prayed about it having NO idea where it was and in my inbox I got an email saying it was found and where I could pick it up! I couldn't believe the quick answer to prayer! Then I had an exam scheduled on thursday which is the day of TNT... I've never missed a TNT since my first and I didn't want to ever miss one. Well, I prayed about it and God had the teacher change the date to Monday instead of thursday! Is God not amazing. So many times we put God in a box and put a limit on the kinds of things He'll do or we think that what we want to pray for is so insignificant that He won't really care.

God wants to be intimately involved in our lives, we just need to have faith that God will answer our prayers. He doesn't always answer them the way we want him to either. Sometimes we'll ask for something and we'll get something completely different. Sometimes we'll get nothing we wanted but everything we needed.

I place my hope in my eternity and it allows me to fight off sin on a daily basis. I'm far from perfect, but God is perfecting me until the day of His glorious return when He'll take his children home!

To relate to the title of this post, to sum it up, God has been revealing to me that EVERYTHING good comes from Him. Nice weather comes from God. Bad weather is a reminder to praise God all the more when weather is nice. Good grades come from God. He enables us to study. Christian fellowship that builds us closer to each other and God... comes from God. Not getting hurt on any given moment or good health: it all comes from God.

James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

There it is in the Word of God. You can believe that and take it to the bank!

Lyrics/Poetry

Well, I've written some poetry to the tune of certain songs, so I guess they are also songs, but I want to eventually add music to them. Here they Are. They don't really have Titles yet and I won't give you the tune, so you can think of a new one in your head without being stuck with the other one I wrote it to. Anyways, here goes...

When life is hard, with trials never ending
We have a hope in Jesus Christ alone
That He’ll return to take his children upward
We’ll live with Him in our eternal home

Until that day, we live for Christ our Savior,
With joy and love in Christian harmony
We have a peace, this world cannot fathom
Because of Christ who died for you and me.

We’ve been made new through the shed blood of Jesus
Rejoice in this, and live for Him each day
Pursuing Christ reveals a life of purpose
So follow in the straight and narrow way.

Now share this truth with people all around you,
The Word of God, more sharp that any sword.
It penetrates the heart and soul of sinners
And brings a hope and eternal reward.

That's the first one. Here's my other one I wrote:

The Son became the sin for us
The wrath of God outpoured
on Him, our Savior on the cross,
so we could be restored.

This gift of love to use is free:
Salvation for all man,
So that we may have eternity
in Heaven, that's God's plan.

Spread news of this to everyone
all corners of the earth
of Jesus, God's own Holy Son
Through Him, we have rebirth.

Some think: a sinner such as I,
Cannot deserve such grace
to those who say this we reply:
just live to seek His face.

Praise God for everything He's done,
rejoice in tribulation
He knows what's best for everyone,
in every situation.

I guess I like my poems/songs to have a purpose and tell a story. Maybe some day I'll write a great song, but for now this is all I got.

Praise God for everything he provides. I encourage you right now to pray for someone who you've said you would pray for. Sometimes we forget that we told others we would pray for them, so I guess it's just a reminder. God bless!

God is AMAZING and answers prayer!

Alright, so the coolest thing happened yesterday. My mom was working at the bank, and overheard one of her co-workers talking to a customer. The customer, an elderly lady, said that she bought a new car and had to get rid of her old one. My mom heard her say a few things about the car and that she wouldn't expect to get more than 1000 dollars for it. So, my mom decides to ask about it and go see it briefly. She said it looked good at first glance and asked the lady for her number.

Now my car is essentially falling apart. It still runs, but there are so many problems with it that it probably will not last much longer. So my mom was looking for me to potentially buy this car. Well, she called me and I was interested in checking it out. We didn't know how much she was going to say it was. So, my mom called my dad and me and we got a time together with the lady selling the car to take it for a test drive.

When we arrived at her house, she let us take it for a spin by ourselves so we could talk about it and comment on it on our own. It's a 1994 ford taurus, so it's pretty old, and it has 128,000 miles on it, which isn't too bad. There's very little rust and has power windows, power locks, air conditioning and cruise control, which makes it better than my current 1995 rust-bucket neon. We went inside to talk to her and she said someone had looked up the Kelly Blue Book price for it and it was valued at 1300 dollars. (I checked and found it to be lower than that, but it was 1055 bucks, so it's somewhat close). Anyways, she said she'd be fine selling it for $950. She invited us in to look at some paperwork on the car and to just talk to her for a while. She ended up saying she would just make it 900 dollars even because it needs an oil change and we'd need to get it licensed, etc.

Well after thinking about it, I don't actually have that much money and I'm trying to avoid taking out any loans while in college, so although it seemed like a good deal I was reluctant. My parents thought I should get it because my car is getting really bad. So, I said I'd like to think about it for a bit and we told her we would get back to her by this afternoon today. She said that would be fine. So, we went home and I came down to houghton. I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place on whether to buy it or not. My car does still run, so I didn't want to pay that much even though it was a good deal. So, I decided to pray about it and pray hard. I asked God to show me that if I should get this, He would have to give me a strong sign... I was hoping it wasn't that my car broke down so I would have to get it out of need.

Well, when I was down hanging out with friends at Cyberia Cafe, my mom called me. When I picked up, she sounded excited and said, "Well Nathan, I think God is working in this situation" so I got excited and said, "why, what's goin on?" Then my mom told me something that God and God alone could explain and cause to happen. She said the lady had called her back and said that on the new car she had bought, she really needed the money to pay the taxes on it quickly and that it would cost her a little over $500 and that we could have the car she was selling for $575! My mom couldn't believe her ears when she was hearing this. This car is worth $1055 and she was offering it to us for $575!

Now I don't know what you think, but things like that don't just happen! We had just called her and told her that we wanted to think about it. We never said no, and she simply called and greatly reduced the price of the car.

Simply put, God answered my prayer and told me to buy this car. To not buy this car would be foolish. Plus, I can actually afford that much without taking out a loan, and I'll have a little bit of money left which should last me until I get a job that I'll need to start looking for. Isn't God simply unbelievable. God truly watches over His children and hears their prayers and takes care of their needs!

Now whenever I drive friends around, the suspension will be better in the back seat and they won't have to ride in pain, so it makes it much better for carting people around too! God is amazing!

I've been thinking...

First of all, God is so good! Lately I've been doing a lot of pondering. God is in control of everything, so why do we worry about anything. If we are truly focused on God and doing everything to His glory, then what could actually be bad? Sure there may be difficulties and trials, but God has not promised us freedom from those here on earth.

I guess lately I've just been feeling like I have this rich inner world that's waiting to explode. I want to show people what's going on in my mind, but it takes some time to explain it. I'm introverted and recharge on my own or one on one in conversations. I love deep conversations with people, but I want them to have a positive focus. Sure, if someone is going through a rough time, I want to hear them out and try to help them. For those following God, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

There are many times when people are talking in large groups and I want to speak up, but something holds me back. Maybe I feel like what I have to say, not everyone is going to enjoy, so I feel like I'm wasting people's time? I don't know, but I think I need to step out of my box a bit and try some public speaking at Campus Crusade sometime, or at least speak up in my rather large cell group (Bible Study + tons more stuff). Maybe the Holy Spirit is leading me to speak and I'm ignoring it.

Please pray that I'll be able to manage my time well. I really want to build relationships with new freshmen this year. I want to encourage people. A little bit of genuine encouragement someone gives to me usually carries me through a lot, so little things that I can say to others or show them that I care, which I do... those things are what really make a difference. It's about being personable, a good listener, but also a good friend who tries to be there for people, whether it's offering them help with something, or praying for them. That's the kind of person I want to be. What's great is that being this kind of person is impossible on my own. I know I can't do it by myself, but God is Great, and He works all things together for good for those that love Him. Putting God first in your life solves a lot of problems. I have a long way to go, but having such great friends who are there for me to hear me out and encourage me, helps me out a lot.

Thanks for reading. There's a little peak at my thoughts for ya.

Campus Crusade for Christ!

I am consumed with the joy of the Lord now that Cru is starting back up again! I've gotten to meet quite a few new freshmen and I get to see almost all of my old friends except those that graduated which I really miss. It's so encouraging to see so many attend our weekly meeting. I know that God is going to do great things on our campus this year as he did last year.

The cell group (Bible study plus fellowship, evangelism and good fun) I am in got a good turnup of 11 people with hopefully more joining next week! We already had a cell group social out to an old abandoned cheese factory for some adventure. The freshmen seem to really like it a lot too.

I was also able to finally contact Alex Helmboldt finally. For anyone reading who doesn't know, he was a former Campus Crusader at tech who I met in Florida on Big Break. Now he is going to be staff at another university. We talked about every week during the summer. For a long time... almost a month I think, I couldn't get a hold of him and I finally could and we had a really good conversation. It's sort of like discipleship over the phone really. We talk about important Godly things and it's a huge encouragement.

So anyways, Cru is back and running full steam ahead. Everyone seems so passionate this year! I guess that's all I have to say for now without boring you. This post is really short compared to most!

South Dakota Trip/Brothers wedding

So...It's been a long time since I've posted. I have been pretty busy. Not so busy that I couldn't have posted, but I prioritized other things over this. Well since my last post, my brother is now married and I went on a trip to South Dakota.

We went down there for my brothers wedding with a bunch of old friends of mine. There were 5 different cars and ideally we'd all stay together on the freeways and everything... well, it wasn't meant to be. Some of my friends like to drive really fast and my parents go the speed limit, so the ones that did drive fast just went wherever they wanted and decided to catch up with us whenever. It was ok, it just frustrated my mom a bit that they couldn't just go the speed limit and stay together as a group. Well, on our way there, my friends tire I guess almost fell off on the freeway, so he pulled over to the side and then right before that happened we had planned on meeting at a cracker barrel. Well my family ended up going to the cracker barrel (which was 7 miles out of the way, but it's where people wanted to go, so I guess it's ok). In the meantime, they got their tire fixed and we all made it down ok.

While down in South Dakota, we went to see Mount Rushmore and the badlands and some other cool sites here and there, so that was pretty cool. I was the best man at my brothers wedding, so I was sort of stressed out because of the speech I had to make. (I'm not much of a public speaker.) Well, the wedding was interesting I guess you could say. On the way down, the flower girl threw some roses at the very last second at the end of the isle. Then the matron of honor who I was escorting down the isle tripped a bit on the stairs... it wasn't too bad though. Kelsey, the bride, when she was coming down the isle was crying, and then my brother started crying when he was reading his vows to her and he had to pause for like 30 seconds to be able to speak. Then when I gave the preacher the rings, he dropped one of them and it rolled along the floor like 10 feet away. When they had to light the unity candle, they couldn't get the thing lit for like 2 minutes... then the matron of honor told them to tip the candle back and let the extra wax flow out and then it finally lit. From that point on out, things went pretty normally. It was a good wedding though. They got married and that's what really matters. The other things become fun memories. I also got to wear a tux for the first time in my life (I hadn't even worn a suit before believe it or not.)

At the reception, the people were already halfway through eating when the wedding party arrived which was sort of odd and they ran out of plates for the wedding party, but found some paper plates in the back for us to use. I was going to give a toast at the end of my speech but by the time we finally made speeches, everyone was already done drinking so there was nothing to raise really plus they were plastic cups. I ended up just saying congratulations at the end and another friend gave somewhat of an awkward toast.

Well, to make a long story that could have many more details short, I am really glad to finally be back home and hanging out with friends in Houghton. I love my family, but traveling with them for a week and a half is a lot of time with 'em.

So now I'm back in Houghton, sort of exciting to be starting the school year just to get back into things with Campus Crusade and to see everybody come back up! The classes I'm not looking forward to so much but it all comes with the territory.

One last thing to note which was awesome is that because I had so much time in the van, I decided one day to finish reading a book I'm supposed to read for Cru called the master plan of evangelism, so I decided to finish that while in the van. I also read the book of revelation for the first time which was awesome to see the power of God and encouraging from the Christian perspective knowing that the terrors in that book, I am saved from. I also ended up reading first Peter through Jude, so essentially First Peter through to the end of the Bible is what I read cuz I had so much time. It definitely helped my relationship with God and understanding who he is. I really like the practicality of Peter in those two small books.

Before reading that, my relationship with God was struggling a bit, but now I'm back on track a bit and it'll be much easier with Cru stuff starting up so I'm excited to get back into things.

I believe I've said enough for now. If you want any more details about anything, just let me know in person and we can talk. Have a great and Godly day!