Ben's Blessing Blog

Thank you so much for those of you who prayed. My blessing today is that I am feeling sooo much better. I only had to fight with my allergies toward the end of the messages. This morning we had preaching from 9am till 2PM with 2 10 min. breaks :) Very long time to sit, but the messages were outstanding. Also, the people at this church are very friendly and all the teens I've come across from this church have a very servant spirit about them. As was mentioned by one of the Pastors, Pastor Smith (the Pastor of this church) is very complimentary toward every preacher that stepped into his pulpit. I'm praising the Lord that I was able to have this opportunity to be with these great guys. I appreciate your prayers. Have a Great Day Everyone!

Raise the Banner High ! :D
Benjamin

Hellooo, I'm sorry its been so long since I've written anything. I want to keep this blog going because I know that it will be a blessing to read later on for me. I hope that some of these posts have been a blessing or interesting to read for ya'll.

Well, as I was saying, I am currently in Missouri for a preachers conference. It has been a great blessing to be here. It is great to see guys who are on fire for the Word of God as my pastor is. There are probably about 50-60 Pastors here. It is like a family reunion getting to see all the Pastors and other men I have met over the years. I've been rooming with Jared and believe it or not he has been a blessing to me as well :) Jared is a great friend. On Monday Jared on I got to preach at each other almost all afternoon, it was a great spiritual afternoon and got me excited for the rest of this week.

Backing up a day, on Sunday I was able to get a short message together which turned out to be for the rest of the guys on the trip. We were hoping to preach to some other guys at the rest stop, but it didn't work out. We did pass out some CD's and tracks though and I got to talk to one guy at the rest stop whose name was Wally, he was taking a smoke stop and was riding with some others on a trip from Gettysburg back to Ohio. After talking for a little while he seemed to be interested in reading the track and later on I gave him a CD which maybe he listned to with his group on the rest of trip back. Okay, back to the message...I wrote up a little story which I thought was kinda funny, it was a good illustration for my text James 1:23

Feel free to read it:

In the company of Jobs Incorporated there was a young man who worked there who became quite well-known. Jon was not well-known because of his status in the company or of the positive attributes he had shown during his time working there. But rather Jon was known because of his unbecoming feature of looking as if he had just rolled out of bed that morning which was exactly the case. Jons hair would be greased over to one side of his head and the smell from not taking a shower permeated his office area. Those in the units around him would complain, “Jon, why didn’t you clean yourself up before coming to work.” Jon’s response was always the same, “Hey, I looked in the mirror…I know what I look like, what else do you want me to do.” The coworkers became very displeased with Jons new manners. Another way which Jon became well-known was his laziness in work. The work hours became a nap time for his day as he slept till the next business meeting which he would then quickly grab his papers and run to, take notes and put plans down on paper. The plans though would never get done and the notes which he had taken so diligently laid negelected on his cluttered office desk. One particular day became a turning point in Jons life.
Monday was going past as normal and without notice Jons boss stepped through the office and began handing bonuses to each of Jons co-works. Jon, hearing the commotion eagerly sat up to receive his, but was met with a cold stare from the boss who looked deep into Jons eyes and said to him. “Jon, you are fired”. Jon was startled, and quickly spoke up. “But Sir, I have attended all of your meetings, I have notes to prove it. I have plan after plan of how to get this company grown beyond what you can believe!”. “That may be true” the boss replied, “but you have not worked on your plans at all. Hearing what I say and creating plans on what I have said are excellent, but if you do nothing with it then it is all a waste of time.”

The story of Jon may sound like a funny story because we know that people in their right mind would not act like this guy did. But, manytimes we act this way in our spiritual life. People around us tell us to get a grip and obey the Word of God. But, we look at the Word of God and say, “Hey, I read the Bible, what else do you expect me to do.” Some of us go to church all the time and take notes and make preparation of how to live a spiritual life. The problem is that what we know, but what we do. My text from the scripture is James 1:22-23 it says, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

ETC...there is more, but I don't have everything written out...

Well, that is the end of my long post for tonight, I need to get to bed, because recently I have been having headaches which I usually don't have very often :) If you think about me, that would be great if you could pray for my head not to hurt, in addition to my learning more from these great preachers. :) I would appreciate that.

Be Doers of the Word Everyone!
Benjamin

I got a great verse which was a challenge to me this morning. The thought isn't revolutionary, you've probably have been reminded of this area hundreds of times in your lifetime... Nevertheless it is an important thought...
Ephesians 6:6
Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

Verses five and six in Ephesians 6 are telling the servant to be a hard worker. The servant (employee) is to be working hard even when the master (boss) isn't around. Now, look at it what it is comparing the servant to be like. He is telling the servant to work as hard as a servant of Christ. A Servant of Christ does the will of God from his heart, out of love for Christ.
As a Servant of Christ, you are to be the prime example of what a other co-workers should be to their human boss. A Servant of Christ serves Christ from his heart. The question we should ask ourself is? If others worked as hard on their job as I serve Christ, how hard of a worker would they be?
Are we serving Christ from our heart? If we worked as hard as we serve Christ, how hard of a worker would others consider us to be?

Serve Christ! Let Your Light Shine!
BenH

Today my little brother is now 8 years old!! He was soooo excited for
the day to finally come :)

Will have more to write later...
BenH

If you know me at all you know that I love little kids. They have so many funny moments. :) Today my family and I were watching the 4&5's and there are quite a few funny stories with them. But, I wanted to tell you a funny story about Hudson since it is fresh in my mind. We have a book of the funny things Hudson says.

Nina and I were in the bathroom washing our faces and such like every night and Hudson came in to brush his teeth. Hudson doesn't like to brush his teeth and we have to always 'warn' him that he will have to get his teeth drilled out if he doesn't brush them :) After brushing his teeth he saw Nina using a tooth brush to scrub her retainer. He stopped and looked at her and asked. Does that go in your mouth? Nina replied, "yes". Hudson stood there for a second and thought and then said, "So, if you brush that thing and stick it in your mouth you don't have to brush your teeth?"

Talk about doing anything to not have to brush your teeth. My Dad told him that may he could get all false teeth and then he could brush them and stuck them all in his mouth :)

Today was a great day, I was able to go to the Devon House and preach another salvation message. I found this really great story told by a classical guitarist that later in life became a christian. He had a really great story and I shared a part of what he had written to the group there. The people were pretty alert :)

Have a Great Night Everyone...Thanks for reading, Feel free to tell me any of your funny stories you got of little kids, I would love to hear them :)

BenH

I am right now riding back from Moravian College. My whole family and I went to listen to great musical concert. Since Nina is working on a music degree from Lousianna Baptist University she needed to watch two orchestra concerts. The last song was really neat, certain of the students took turns directing then went back to playing their instruments. It was great.Hudson is so funny, he cracks me up. The highlight of the concert for him was the grapefruit juice and cookies at the end. He got scared at some of the boisterous pieces of music, but he held on because he saw the treat during the intermission :)

So, the blessing for today is that I was able to hear the excellent concert and I am still alive ;) (Selena is driving) LOL, ok, she's not too bad :)

Rejoice in the Lord!

BenH

It has been an amazingly busy week... I have been going to some meetings by Brother Martin about how to manage crisis situations. Specifically crisis which involve our missionaries. They've been great meetings, but they do make me get a little tired :) The blessing I do have which I will share with you is not only for these meetings, but I also got hired to edit some more videos. God is good, I've been trying to come to some conclusions and the Lord is helping and this is one of the areas which the Lord has been helping me. Actually these meetings have revealed some truths from the Word of God that have been a help to me. Without going into much detail, I've learned a need to be prepared. Sometimes it hard to see exactly how those in the Bible conducted themselves and as I have been reading the Bible I've been trying to see how the people in the New Testament made the correct decisions in doing the Will of God. Through some of the verses I've seen I've noted and been pointed to quite a few times where preparation was done and in the midst they continued to look to God to make sure they were MOVING in the right direction. While they prepared then moved they were either allowed to go to that area or redirected by the Spirit of God. Okay, I'm writing off my phone guys so hopefully my grammar isn't too bad. I need to go now and get some sleep, stay in the Word so that while you are moving you will go in the correct direction!

BenH

Almost the entire day my mother and sister Nina cleaned the house. Tonight was the Men's Meeting, and for those who were traveling from further states to this meeting our church (LVBC) offered to house those men. Our family was going to be hosting Pastor Morrison and one of the men from his church. This offering of our house meant that I was going to need to move out for the night and stay in my brother Titus's room. I can't say I was that my mind was that thrilled about leaving my comfortable room. But I am glad to be able to be a blessing to others, specially to men like Brother Morrison. He is a great man of God and He is a man I look up to.

Sooo as I was saying, my mother and sister scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. They vaccummed the entire basement throughly. They dusted everything, they scrubbed my mirror, they changed my covers, set up another bed and put clean covers on it. They bought orange juice (we only buy it on special occasions). They scrubbed and washed every inch of the bathrooms and organized all the bathroom accessories. The final thing they did was make a lot of cookies. To sum it up, they prepared my room for President to sleep in.....Only to find out, Pastor Morrison was sick and the other man was feeling that great.

Sooo, who do you think gets to sleep in this totally cleaned place :) If you can't guess what my blessing is for today then ummmm, I don't know what to say.

My Mother and Sister's are a blessing to me, I know if Selena wasn't at school she would have helped too. I just want to take this blog to publically say that they are a blessing to me and I am Thankful for wonderful family! Here are a couple pictures of their wonderful work :)

Have a Good Night My Friends,
BenH

I bet the title got your attention...LOL I am comfortably laying down on my bed in the still silence of the basment of my house, which is my room. This is my blessing for today, because my room has always been such a quiet place for me to be away from everything, especially noise. It is so peaceful at night time especially. I've been in the basement ever since little Hudson moved in. My mother calls my bedroom "the cave" because it is so dark down here. If I shut my door in the middle of the brightest afternoon you would never know what time of the day it was. Another blessing by being in the basement is having my computer and weight set right out my door. This has been such a blessing to me. Actually mentioning exercise gave me another blessing to share. Today I was able to go running with two of my friends in the morning. I love to exercise, so I was really thankful when they asked me to go out with them. It was such an awesome day to go out as well. I love this weather when the birds are chirping and all, its makes me feel like rejoicing in the Lord all the time! Reminds me of the song, "Let the sun shine again in my heart..." I'm not sure of the actual title... Sry for he rabbit trails but God is good. Please please please comment or email me blessings which God has done for you. I would LOVE to read them :) Have an awesome day and rejoice in the Lord!!!
g'night, zzzzzzzzz :)
BenH