Ben's Blessing Blog

Proverbs 30:8,9

Wow, are these verses ever so true. Recently I've been pondering some
monetary questions and wondering about if I should pursue certain work
or if I should even pray for it. There is nothing in it which would
contradict the clear command in the Word of God. However, I was
concerned about my motives and if I was just be covetous, because I
know full well that God has greatly cared for me. Having that in mind
you can probably see why that verse jumped out to me when I read
Proverbs 30. I'm going to be praying that verse over and wait
patiently to see if God closes the door or directs me where to go.
Isn't it great to be a saved child of God and not need to be stressed
out about life decisions. I know Gods will is best. The hard part is
to humble myself and realize that I don't know as much as I think I
do. :) You don't need to rub it in. =)

BenH

I've been reading my Pastors book, "Keys to Discerning the Will of
God" and it a great book in helping me understand what exactly the
Will of God looks like. Since being saved I can honestly say that ive
desired to be in Gods Will. The problem to me was it seemed to be just
a term and became kind of nebulous. I wondered what exactly the Will
of God was. Sometimes I would think it was my end goal, what I was
ultimately shooting for. Through time in the Bible and hearing
preaching Ive come to a better understanding that it's not just the
ultimate end, but God is concerned with every little choice I make.
This book really helped add more specifics though so I can better
discern what is Gods voice and what is my own desire. I think that is
the hardest thing. Though my desire is to be like Christ, my flesh
trys to convince me that I will get there, but I need to choose what
feels good and everything will still come to pass. Wrong! If you don't
follow God will for every decision then you will not be in Gods path.
It's a simple concept, if you obey the flesh your not in the will of
God, if you make decisions to follow the Will of God you will be
following Gods leading. 2+2=4

The absolute best way to know Gods will is to know the one who
designed the path. Know the Word of God and apply it to every
decision. If you shirk on knowing the Bible you will be a double
minded man who is unstable in his ways. You will desire to follow
Christ, but will not know where to go. The flesh will then convince
you astray. The Bible has the answers for life. When you have Gods
word within you your ways will be established.

Stay on the yellow brick road :)
BenH

P.S. I have no idea where that last illustration came from, but it's a
good visual picture. There's a path that will lead you Home all others
lead to destruction :)

God does amazing things and the one blessing which I think is really cool is when God just drops a couple dollars on my doorstep. It was actually more than just a couple dollars and it came from a completely unexpected source. God is so caring. I just had to share this blessing with you all and let you know that God can always take care of his children. I may come to a time in my life where I will feel that there is no way to meet my needs and I will need to be reminded of times like this time now where God can do the unexpected to show me he is always there. I just need to make sure that I draw close to Him so that He will be close to me. Thanking the Lord

Today in my devotion I got to thinking about the importance of having a passion or love for God. To me I often get focused on needing to be a busy body for God and get distracted from the purpose. Actions will follow when we have a passion for God, but the lesson I got today is that I can't substitute actions for having a passion for God. We need to Love the Lord our God with all of our heart. When you care about and love someone there will be actions that will show that. There won't be a need to force actions if you have that spirit. However, have you ever saw someone doing something for someone, but there heart wasn't in it...? Thats what I'm talking about. Have a heart for God and with that your love will show. 

Hey Everyone, it's been awhile. I just finished uploading some
pictures of the trip to Facebook. If you don't have a facebook account
just send me an email and I believe I can email you a link to them so
you don't have to sign up. You may just like Facebook though :) I
think it's the best social network out there and it's got a clean
interface and all that yada yada :) Anyhow, the blessing I will share
before I hit the sack is this. I've been very excited with some goals
I've set recently. I've set up some goals and have others to keep me
accountable and it's been working good so far and it makes me very
happy. If you don't set goals to change then life will just happen to
you. Shoot higher and aim for the highest calling from God!

BenH

BenH

This is a just a short little challenge that was a good reminder to me as I was doing my devotions and reading about Mordecai again today. In chapter nine of Esther Mordecai said in verse twenty one, "To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same yearly". Mordecai did not want his people to forget of the great things which God had done for them. When a couple of us guys got to preach at church this past Memorial Day, Jesse Lytle preached on establishing memorials in our life to remind us of what God has done. As I was reading through this passage I just wanted to bring that thought up again. It is easy to forget, but it takes work to remember. Make a landmark on your calendar to celebrate what God has done for you. :)

Today has been...."One of those days". I have three clients i'm working with right now and I needed to get one of the packages out and overnighted today. The post office closes at 5. I got there at 4:50 while burning a DVD on the road. It was not my choice to be that late, but my computer seems to be getting slower on me as of recently. It really needs to be formated, but I just don't have the time right now. But, thats beside the fact. As I was driving to the Macungie post office I was praying asking God why it had to take so long because I had prayed that he would help me finish everything and be at the post office at 3:30. The thought kept coming to my mind that God always has a reason. Though I was finished the project I felt discouraged that things didn't work out. 

As the election goes on you can see the politicians running around to become popular. They are desperate to get as many Americans as they can on their side. Popularity in mans eyes however is not what will get them God's blessings. As I was studying Mordecai I came across this lesson because it is amazing how that Mordecai went from being a marked man for the hit man Haman to become the most feared man in the kingdom (Esther 9:3). The way he obtained that position was absolutely not from getting popularity votes, but from simply obeying the Lord. He refused to bow down to anything but God and in so doing obeyed the second commandment and likewise the first. He made the choice to stay away from the appearance of evil. Though Haman had popularity by the tail, the Lord stripped it away in literally a few seconds. Before Haman knew it he was stripped of his position and hung on his own gallows. Similar stories of this truth can be learned from the story of Daniel and his being taken from the lions den to popularity, and also with the three hebrew boys when they were thrown into the fiery furnace. God raises up those that are faithful to him.

Recently I've decided to do a study on what we know of the life of Mordecai from the Bible. Mordecai was an integral part of both saving the life of the King and the life of his people. The book of Esther ends by saying, "and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? 3 For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed." Today I was going through chapter 3 and the question that came to my mind was, Why did Mordecai tell the other guys at the gate that he was a Jew. In chapter one and two he told Esther not to reveal that she was a Jew. By him telling the other servants that he jeapordized not only his life, but the lives of all the other Jews in Sushan and surrounding areas.  The answer to that I believe is that his loyalty toward God was stronger than his nationality. We can see in the last chapter that he sought peace for all his seed and most likely that was his desire throughout the story of Esther, but when it came to the option of not giving God the glory of saving his people. Giving the reverence to God was more important.