Recent twitter entries...

Worship in the Middle of Nowhere

Posted by Ben | , | 8:15 PM
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Last night me and my youth group took a trip to Howell MI. to do a service for their youth group
I was suprised at how small their youth group was
there were maybe 25 teens in the service last night not counting our students
we nearly doubled the size of their youth group and their were only like 16 of us!
We started service and our band played and i watched as these students began to worship God
you could tell that they weren't used to having a live band
even though they didn't know all the words to the songs they worship God
I watched as they began to lift up the name of Yahweh in worship
sure there were a few in the back that stood with their hands in their pockets try to look cool
but the majority of the students were entering in to the throne room of heaven
It was an awesome way to spend a Friday night!

I think that often times we just need to get back to the basics
"I am coming back to the heart of worship, where it's all about you Jesus"
I often times get caught up in making everything sound good look good
God just wants to hear us lift up his name in worship
it doesn't matter if we sound good or if it looks right!!!!
He loves us with an everlasting LOVE!
he just says come to me!

Lets get back to the heart of worship

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Glory Bound Thrill Ride

Posted by Ben | , , , , | 6:47 PM
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As I climb into the seat my heart is racing.
The bar clamps down on my waist.
the car starts to move down the track
i hear the the click... click... click... sound of the train as it climbs the hill
My heart feels like it's gonna pop out of my chest
the car is finally at the top of this hill
i stare straight down as we go racing down the tract
turning one way and then the next
i feel as if i've left my stomach at the top of the hill
the care twists and turns goes up and down
somewhere between the top of the hill and the bottom i let everything go
i throw my hands up in the air and scream at the top of my lungs
let the adrenaline drive me into a crazy spiral of emotions
all of a sudden iam no longer afraid of this monster i have conquered the beast
i have slayed the giant of fear
as the car pulls into the station i can't wait to do it again.....

Sometimes life is like a roller coaster
up, down,
with it's twists and turns
we need to learn to just enjoy the ride
throw our hands in the air and scream as loud as we can
let our lives be driven by the pure adrenaline of this crazy glory bound ride...
let's slay the giant of fear...
fear of embarrassment... lets be bold and throw our hands in the air and scream as loud as we can....

Lets LIVE FEARLESSLY lets LOVE FEARLESSLY!!
Lets live FEARLESS

Learning to LOVE
Living under HIS waterfalls
Ben,

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Get On Your Boots

Posted by Ben | , , | 4:26 PM
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Today I've been rockin the song "Get on your boots" by U2
its the first single off their new cd no line in the horizon

so here's the lyrics
The future needs a big kiss
Winds blows with a twist
Never seen a moon like this
Can you see it too?

Night is falling everywhere
Rockets at the fun fair
Satan loves a bomb scare
But he won’t scare you

Hey, sexy boots
Get on your boots, yeah

You free me from the dark dream
Candy floss ice cream
All our kids are screaming
But the ghosts aren’t real

Here’s where we gotta be
Love and community
Laughter is eternity
If joy is real

You don’t know how beautiful
You don’t know how beautiful you are
You don’t know, and you don’t get it, do you?
You don’t know how beautiful you are

That’s someone’s stuff they’re blowing up
We’re into growing up
Women of the future
Hold the big revelations

I got a submarine
You got gasoline
I don’t want to talk about wars between nations

Not right now

Hey sexy boots…
Get on your boots, yeah
Not right now
Bossy boots

You don’t know how beautiful
You don’t know how beautiful you are
You don’t know, and you don’t get it, do you?
You don’t know how beautiful you are

Hey sexy boots
I don’t want to talk about the wars between the nations
Sexy boots, yeah

Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound, sound
Let me in the sound, sound
Meet me in the sound

Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound, now
God, I’m going down
I don’t wanna drown now
Meet me in the sound

Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound, sound
Let me in the sound, sound
Meet me in the sound

Get on your boots
Get on your boots
Get on your boots
Yeah hey hey


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Jesus Playing Baseball

Posted by Ben | , | 5:09 PM
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If Jesus played Baseball what team would he play for?
what position would he play?

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"Desert Song"

Posted by Ben | , | 11:49 AM
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This Song has become my anthem today

This is my prayer in the desert
And all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides

And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flames

And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain

I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

And this is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on it's way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand

All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've recieved I will sow

There's a ton of awesome stuff in this song by Hillsong
My favorite part of this song is
"All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship"
The theme that is shown continually throught this song is that no matter where i am i have a reason to sing and rejoice
the bible says "REJOICE in the lord always again I say REJOICE"
I find that often times we only rejoice in the the harvest we forget to rejoice in the battle and in the Desert!

Let's rejoice in every season!!

The second that really stands out to me is
"This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've recieved I will sow"

I love how well this song illustrates the principles of refilling in the spirit
often times we get spiritually "fat" we always take things in but we never release them!
You have to let things flow in and out of your life
the seed u have receave u have to sow it back into someone else!
Lets rejoice in every season and always keep a continual flow in our lives

Learning to LOVE
Living under HIS waterfalls
Ben,

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Faith

Posted by Ben | | 11:09 AM
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Today I was doing my daily reading on YouVersion and I came across this passage
i've heard this passage many times but when i read it today i started to think about it differently.

"you're not yet taking God seriously," said Jesus. "The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, 'Move!' and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn't be able to tackle." (Mathew 17:20-21)

In this story Jesus's disciples couldn't cast out a demon in a boy and they ask Jesus why they couldn't do it and he tells them that they lack FAITH
Yesterday afternoon I was listening to a sermon from the iChilly podcast entitled "Faith is spelled R-I-S-K"
Pastor Chilly talked about how ester had the faith to go into the kings chambers without him summoning her which would normally end up with death!
Ester had FAITH and did it anyways

I think that Jesus is talking here about us having this kind of faith
Faith to step out and do something.
Normally the King would have had Ester Executed for coming into his chambers without him calling for her!
But she knew in her heart that God would protect her
she was bold enough to step out and do something

I think that Jesus was challenging his disciples to have this type of faith!
the faith that says "I don't care what anybody else thinks"
we often times are limited by our fears of being laughed at or rejected by people

I think that the reason the disciples were not able to cast out the demon in the boy was because they didn't truely believe that it was going to work!

Lets have FAITH
and step out and believe for signs wonders and miracles

Learning to LOVE
Living under HIS waterfalls
Ben,

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The Cost of real Grace

Posted by Ben | , | 9:27 PM
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Today I was reading "The cost of discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In his book he talked about how we have made grace cheap
We often times use grace as an excuse for sin saying that his grace will cover our faults

But real grace cost something
Martin Luther understood this grace
grace that cost everything
in order for him to understand this he had to live a life as a monk
totally seperated from the rest of the world
he figured out that Grace would cost everything but the REAL grace from god will also cover everything

We often times don't want this grace because in order to get it we have to die to ourselves
we have to turn our entire lives over to god
we have to surrender everything to get this grace

we have the mindset of wash away the sin but we never wash away the sinner

we live a life of compromise because we don't embrace his grace that cost everything
we are satisfied with the cheap grace because it's easy
we can still sin if we have this cheap grace

God is calling out to his sons and daughters saying come follow me!! but in order to do that we have to lay down everything down
we would rather live a life of compromise filled with worldly fun that surrender our entire lives to the king of kings and lord of lords

if we would surrender everything we could have the faith to step out on the water and walk toward our father
who's saying come to me

lets embrace this costly grace and lay down everything so that HE can wash away everything!!

Learning to LOVE
Living under HIS waterfalls
Ben,

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Give Me Your Eyes

Posted by Ben | , , | 7:50 PM
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The song "Give Me Your Eyes" By Brandon Heath has become my anthem today

Give Me Your Eyes

Looked down from a broken sky.
Traced out by the city of lights.
My world from a mile high.
Best seat in the house tonight.
Touch down on the cold black-top.
Hold on for the sudden stop.
Breathe in the familiar shock of confusion and chaos.
Are all those people going somewhere? Why have I never cared.

Give me your eyes for just one second,
Give me your eyes so I can see,
Everything that I keep missing,
Give your love for humanity.
Give me your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten.
Give me Your eyes so I can see.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.


Step out on the busy street.
See a girl and our eyes meet.
Does her best to smile at me.
To hide what's underneath.
There's a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie.
Too ashamed to tell his wife he's out of work, he's buyin time.
Are all those people going somewhere? Why have I never cared.

Give me your eyes for just one second,
Give me your eyes so I can see,
Everything that I keep missing,
Give me your love for humanity.
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten.
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
Give me Your eyes so I can see.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

I've been there a million times.
A couple of million lives.
Just movin past me by, I swear I never thought that I was wrong.
But I wanna second glance so give me a second chance to see the way you've seen the people all along.

Give me your eyes for just one second,
Give me your eyes so I can see,
Everything that I keep missing,
Give me your love for humanity.
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten.
Give me Your eyes so I can see.


Give me your eyes for just one second,
Give me your eyes so I can see,
Everything that I keep missing,
Give me Your love for humanity
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten.
Give me Your eyes so I can see.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah

This Song has really Got me thinking about how often times we see things like poverty and brokenness and we just keep on walking
I've really been thinking about living the "We Not Me" life
Living a life that isn't centered on us!
Living life to love!
To show the REAL LOVE of a REAL GOD
Let's ask God to let us see the world through his eyes
lets change our perspective of things
lets stop looking with natural eyes and start looking with supernatural eyes
Lets love this year

Living the love from a REAL God

Learning to LOVE
Living under HIS waterfalls
Ben,

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Back to the Basics

Posted by Ben | , , | 4:14 PM
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Psalm 15 (MSG)

1 God, who gets invited to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?

2 "Walk straight,
act right,
tell the truth.

3-4 "Don't hurt your friend,
don't blame your neighbor;
despise the despicable.

5 "Keep your word even when it costs you,
make an honest living,
never take a bribe.

"You'll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this."


Today I was doing my daily bible reading using YouVersion and this chapter in psalms really got me thinking...

It sets the scene as David talking to God asking him how to get to his party

God replies with some very basic yet profound answers

The two main themes that i saw in this text were LOVE, and TRUTH

Both of which we are taught from a young age but we don't practice much

I think that many times we over complicate the kingdom with deep confusing theology and philosophy

I find that often times we confuse ourselves with our own personal philosophies and our own questions about theology

God never told us that we had to be scholar in biblical theology or philosophy

he just told us to LOVE,

I think that we get so caught up in our fancy complicated words and all God wants is for us to practice basic things


Learning to LOVE

Living under HIS waterfalls

Ben,


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You're Blessed

Posted by Ben | | 6:45 PM
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1-2 When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

3"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

4"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

5"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

6"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

7"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

8"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

9"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

10"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

11-12"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

There are a few things that really stood out to me in this passage so iam gonna share a few short thoughts

The first thing that stood out to me was that these people had to climb a mountain to hear this teaching!

I think that sometimes for us to get real revelation we have to climb. it may not be easy but we still have to do it

The second thing that really stood out to me in this text is the things that Jesus said were a blessing are often the things we don't like stuff like reading our bibles, loosing a loved one, being "persecuted",

I think that often times we don't fully thank god for our revelation not matter if it made us feel good or not!

Often times I think we won't a self help lesson from the bible on positivive thinking but thats not what God wants to show us in his word.

Let's truly listen and apply everything we hear from god this year.

lets do hard stuff this year like GIVE, LOVE, RESPECT, PRAY, READ GOD'S WORD!!

Let's let God's word challenge us to GROW, and GO this year!!


Learning to LOVE

Living under HIS waterfalls

Ben,


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Absolute surrender

Posted by Ben | , | 9:53 PM
1
Today i was reading "Absolute Surrender" by Andrew Murray and this really got me thinking about our surrender to God

"I have a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing. That pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it. If another holds it partly, I cannot write properly."

What do you want God to write with your life this year?

Are you completely surrendered to the hand of God?

Can he use you however, whenever, wherever,?

As we enter into this new year let us truly live a life of "Absolute Surrender" where God can write whatever with our lives.
Where God can use us whenever, wherever, however. Let our "Christianity" not be limited to a once a week hour and a half church service

Let's live a life of "Absolute Surrender"


Learning to LOVE
Living under HIS waterfalls

Ben,

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