Well Hello my bloggy friends, I am terribly sorry for the extended period of silence on my blog. I fear that it has turned into a boring blog instead of a blessing blog. I am right now in Carlisle, PA. You may be wondering, "Why in the world is he there?" And that my friend is the reason I write. I am currently in this place because I am meeting with a group of other preacher guys in training as well as a couple other Pastors and us younger guys are learning the art of preaching preparation. Us guys also have the very exciting opportunity to preach. I actually was able to preach tonight, so thankfully I do not have that message on my mind right now. I was quite busy this morning preparing it along with the last couple days of thinking and studying for it.
I learned so so much from this passage. I didn't notice this before, but there is a great theme through Matthew 12:1-15:7 and it opened my eyes on the importance of how a church ought to be in unity together with the mind of Christ pressing forward to complete the Will of God. The chapter before and after really shed some great "contextual" light on that passage as well. It is really cool how the Bible just fits together like one really cool Jigsaw puzzle.
Right now I am in the "Sleep Inn". John Jr. and I are sharing a very spacious room. The reason it is so spacious it is a handicapped room so everything is larger. Thankfully I got to share the room with John so we could have the handicapped room or otherwise I would have had a much smaller place :) hehe
So I was sitting here in the room thinking about what I should do and I was like. "I'm a Genius". I will write on my blog since I haven't done it in approximately forever. If I sound like I'm nuts, the reason is because I am. Haha. Well, I think it is a combination of it being very cold outside and we had icecream. (Don't ask me what I was thinking). Now I'm in the room with John and well that should explain the nuttiness.
Probably after this blog John Jr. will begin being a faithful subscriber so he knows the rumors which I start about him. Oh, and by the way, him being handicapped isn't a rumor. lol
Sorry folks. I know this blog has been a little out of my character, but having so many serious blog posts recently I really needed to lighten some things up.
Have a Fabulous, Fantastic, Awesome, Spectacular, Outstanding, Wonderful Day!
BenH =)
It has been so long since I've posted on here. Recently it has been some busy times and I honestly wanted to post, but time and such didn't allow me to =( . But, I'm back now and I had an interesting thought which I wanted to share.
Do ya'll listen to Rush Limbaugh, well I occasionally listen to him on the radio and normally I find him fairly interesting but I get a little lost however as he runs around different political matters which I hadn't heard about and basically don't make much sense to me. However, as you know he really isn't for Obama for many different reasons. As you listen to Obama's speeches you got to admit that the guy sounds really convincing like he is definitely planning on a good change and one of the guys on the radio started feeling that way after he had voted for McCain and such, but he started loosing his reasons why.
I thought Rush did a excellent job at explaining the major difference between what he promotes and what Obama promotes. Obama is getting people excited about change which the people do not have to do anything to achieve it. He is pointing people to the government, blaming the previous government for the problems and saying his new crew is going to fix everything. Rush said every four years people in drug infested areas, people in the slums and people who don't want change cast their vote thinking that government will do something for them so they don't need to change a thing. Every four years they are disappointed. Change will not come about through the government, but through everyone initiating a change in their own life. Rush says his goal is to inspire people to action, to realize the government isn't going to revolutionize their life, they need to get moving. I think that is so true. If the government gives you another $600 this year if you meet their qualifications. What is that going to do for you? Maybe this new government will start taking away money from those who worked hard for their money and give it to people who aren't trying to work. How will that ever help those people. Unless they choose to make a change with that cash they will stay in the same position they are now. Unmotivated expand their horizons because the government will take care of their needs.
He said it a lot better on the radio :) I hope you got the idea anyway though.
Support the new president, but remember not to rely on government change to make your life better. It is your choice, and remember ya'll that the best change is to allow the Lord to show you the change and then go for it.
Have a Good Day Everyone!!!
BenH
Thank you to my Anonymous blog reader who reminded me I haven't written in a very long time. :) As I was reading in the first chapter of Matthew for my devotions a word jumped out to me and I thought I would share my thoughts with you all.
In Matthew 1 it is talking about Mary was espoused to Joseph and then the Holy Ghost caused her to conceive and informed her that she was carrying the Savior of the World. Well, as you all know that didn't really settle well with Joseph and he starting to make preparations to break off their engagement. However something happened at that time, and that is the action word "thought" in verse twenty. Joseph thought. As started to put two and two together we read in the Bible that he changed his mind and took Mary to be his wife. The key thing in his life before even the angel spoke to him was that he thought.
I think the challenge to us is do we think about what other tell us that God says. Nowadays we can look at the Bible and make sure that what others are saying is true. However I think the easiest decision that a lot of us make is to rely on our own understanding, or own perception of what we thinking God would or wouldn't do and we make our decision on that, no thought. It is easy to just make a decision on what are normal thoughts are, but it takes some work to see if what we are hearing is what God is teaching and then the hardest part, to admit we were wrong and change. Ouch! Ya, changing to something that you were against is not easy, it takes some humility which I don't think many of us humans have :) .
What type of things was Joseph thinking about? I obviously don't know, but I wonder if some of the Old Testament passages of scripture that prophesied the Lord's coming as a baby crossed his mind. Well, though I don't know what the thoughts were that were running through Josephs mind, I do know that in order for us to come to a right decision we need to think... and just as a reminder... the Word of God (the Bible) will give you the answers you need to make your decision. God does not speak through Angels anymore because he has given us the completed scripture which contains everything we need to know about life and godliness.
In conclusion, Start Thinking :)
BenH
Well, It is now officially the year 2009! Thank you to all of you who prayed for me while I was preparing this message for church. I really appreciate that. As I said I would try to do in my other blog post, I was able to get the video. on the internet :)
Here it Tis, Have a Great New Year!
BenH
No, were not upset about anything, actually quite the contrary. My parents decided to purchase in bulk, and by bulk I mean like three large containers of beef right from the farm. Yesterday my family and I all went to a farm about 20 some minutes away with a lot of freezer paper and markers :). Once we got there we met up with four nice guys who were ready to start chopping meat and a half of cow hanging from the rafters. I think Hudson was a little surprised to see a cow in that position :P . As we decided the types of cuts we want the guys just kept on chopping and handing us the meat so we could wrap it all up and label it for later.
Brother Ronnie sent an email out to some of us preacher boys and asked if any of us would like to volunteer to preach for this upcoming Wednesday's service since it will be the New Year (2009) and it would make it a special night to have a couple of us younger guys practice preaching. I am always thankful for an opportunity to practice preaching and so I told Brother Ronnie I would be glad to. However, I am more nerverous this time than at other times because Pastor has been giving us really good instructions on how to study the Bible diligently and to make sure that we are getting the correct purpose or intent of the passage. Though the task seems daunting I felt that the Lord gave me some great points tonight as I was studying and I am looking forward to digging deeper and putting the message together. It is amazing how it is possible that by diligent studying of the Bible the Lord can open our eyes to see thoughts and lessons which we never saw before. Some of the truths I've seen before just became so much more vivid and amazing as I looked into the passage even more. It is like putting a filter on a camera or using photoshop to enhance the shot. It is the same picture, same point, but the clarity all of sudden amazes.
You all probably remember the big video project that I had wrote about previously which drove me crazy :) It was finally finished this past Monday and I thought I would share the video intro with you. I thought turned out pretty cool :D I added the link below so you can check out. I may only have the video online for a short time.
Hey Everyone!