Suppa [making plans]

Hey everyone,

Just sendin' ya your weekly reminder about supper in the Union. Instead of 5:45, I'm going to try to get there around 5:30...the Gregson Bible study has been moved up to 6:30 because of the RFC co-ed intramural basketball game a 7:30 in the HPER. Come on down and watch if it doesn't conflict with your Bible study. Girls, don't forget about your retreat this weekend. I'm sure you'll have a big ole time.

Class was awesome as usual. Thanks for your email, Laura. Sorry but I don't have a 'mini' devo for you this week. I do have some verses for you:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
1Peter 1:3-9

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.”
James 4:13-17

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my future and Gods plan for my life. I think we all are. It's something that goes along with being in college. I've had some new ideas recently for future possibilities and thinking about them has gotten me really pumped...I've seriously been filled with an “inexpressible joy.” I think it would be awesome if God would fulfill the ideas I've been brainstorming. But, I have to remember that He's the One making the plans. And, that whether he fulfills my ideas or he has something else in mind, either way, he's got great plans to use you and me as instruments for His glory. Let's all challenge each other and pray for each other that we can all put our lives in God's hands and see what great things He can do.

I guess I did include a mini devo after all.

In Christ,
Mitch

Suppa Time [bringing good out of bad]

Hey y'all,

How are things? Great, thanks for asking. Just writing to remind you about supper in the Union this week at 5:45...that's right...5:45. Then don't forget about all the Bible studies and then the girls' prayer group at the student center and the guys' on Old Main lawn or in Old Main if it's raining. Both are at about 9.

Don't forget about the Hay Ride on Friday night. Eventually there will be maps at the student center. Ladies, don't forget about y'all's retreat next weekend. And to everyone who hasn't signed up yet, keep pestering your parents to let you go on ski trip. :)

Good job again tonight, Kaelin. I hope I'm not taking anything from you that you've planned for the next couple weeks but I'd like to point somethin' cool out about David and Bathsheba. It think it's cool how God takes bad things and brings good things out of them. David sinned multiple times when he got involved with Bathsheba. He lusted, committed adultery, caused Uriah to sin by getting him drunk, and then "murdered" Uriah by sending him to the front line of the army where he was sure to be killed. After Uriah died, David and Bathsheba married and as a result of David's sins, their first child died. However, their second child lived. Their second child was, guess who, Solomon. I think it's cool how out of a marriage that resulted from sin, God brought the wisest man and one of the richest kings of all time.

I think God still does the bomb diggity stuff like that today. A couple of weeks ago, I stayed up almost all night working on a project and then slept through the class it was for. When I went to apologize to my prof, I found out that the class had been cancelled. Cool, eh? He does it with bigger things, too. Maybe you were broken up with. It feels terrible, but maybe God has other things planned for you before you and your special someone come together. I sure hope so. :) Or, maybe the U of A wasn't your first choice for college, but now that you're here you wouldn't go somewhere else for anything. It's cool to think about, ain't it?

“As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.”
Psalm 18:30-36

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
Isaiah 55:8-11

“Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.”
Proverbs 19:21

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

In Him,
Mitch

Thursday [art dept. prayer request]

Sup y'all,

Hope your Thursday has been grrrreat. Hope you're ready for some scrumdidily-umpsious food at the Union tonight at 5:45. I, however, will be absent from the Union this week. My parents are coming into town so I'm going to be eating dinner with them. Please pray that they'll travel safely. I know y'all will have a good ole time without me.

I will however be at the guys prayer group around 9 on Old Main. Again I want to recommend that you check either the girls or guys group out if you haven't been before or give it another try if you have been before. The prayer group was a little out of wack last week, but we had more important things to tend to first: Leanna's baptism. Amen? AMEN!

Please be praying for our new brothers and sisters and for our Bible studies and prayer groups and classes and devos and for the girls retreat and for the ski trip and for next semester and for the summer missions. It's never too early to get started.

I have a prayer request myself. Be praying for the Art Department. It's a common thing across the country for art departments to get the shaft when it comes to funds and it's happened here as well. I know there is less and less demand for most of the fine arts, but the areas of graphic design and photography are growing fields and deserve and need support. About 60% of the UofA's fine arts students graduate in Graphic Design yet we only have one design teacher and only about 15 computers. However, the deans of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences say we can't hire another teacher or buy new computers because they just don't have enough funds. Well, I have a hard time believing that. The Graphic Design: Symbols class for next semester has at least 23 people interested in it, but the deans say only 13 can be allowed in and another section can't be opened up because of a lack of funds and because it would be too much trouble to rearrange some schedules. Thankfully I made the list for the class, but that doesn't mean I will in the future. And think of the students who didn't get in...this could really mess up their plans for classes and for graduating. Well, a bunch of us design students are going to write the chancellor and a couple of deans some letters and may even pay them a visit. So, please just be praying for the Art Department and more specifically for graphic design. Please pray that our letters or visits or something will cause some much needed changes. Please pray for our professor, Marilyn. She's frustrated because she's been asking for more funds and more computers and for another teacher for the last couple of years but has seen no results. She has great passion for what she's teaching and wants us to be as best prepared as we can after we graduate and could definitely use some of God's comfort. Thanks. I can't wait to see God display his power!

I really liked the story tonight in class where a sign that God had gone out before David's army would be the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry streets...I mean trees. ("And to think that it happened on Mulberry Street" was a children's book my mom read to me when I was little.) As Kaelin pointed out, it was a sign to David that God was in control and was the One winning the battles. It's pretty amazing what God can do if we just give him control. What's really cool is that he doesn't take control...he only takes it if we want Him to and are willing to give it up. He gives us free will to make decisions so that we can realize that we can't make the right decisions without Him. Think of how great the RFCs are right now........okay, now, imagine how amazing we would be if we all gave complete control over our lives over to God! Dude! I'm being kinda selfish this week...I've got another request. Please pray for me that I'll let God take control and let His will rule my life and let Him make me what He wants me to be and send me where He wants me to go. Thanks.

“For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
Acts 5:38,39

“We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”
2 Corinthians 1:8-11

“Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Matthew 26:39

“...may your will be done.”
Matthew 26:42

Adios,
Mitch