Doing Hard Things, Doing Big Things! [Originally posted May 12 2010]

Hey Guys,

So recently I’ve been reading the book “Do Hard Things” by Alex and Brett Harris, also the authors of http://www.therebelution.com/ Its an amazing, but challenging book, that addresses teens ands sets the standard. So I’m going to talk a bit about this with my own spin on it, Enjoy!

Hard Things. I know when I hear that an instant dislike comes over me and I start thinking “that means I’m going to actually have to work, no thanks” I’ve noticed lately that some people around me whether it be at school, at church or anywhere else, like to go for the standard, the average, the norm, but I want to tell you today that this could just be the blog that set you free from that shackled mind set, if not the definately check out http://www.therebelution.com/

Christian Teenagers today aren’t doing enough to change the world we live in. The fact is that today we live in a world of Drugs, peer pressure, alcohol, sex, slavery, world hunger and Human rights vialations, but what are we doing about this?

I believe that teenagers have a huge amount of untapped power, a power that teenagers today have been told that they don’t have. Teenagers are being fed constantly that they can’t do anything until they become an adult by teachers, friends,media and even family! This is not true at all, take Alex and Brett Harris (the authors of Do hard things, in the first paragraph) they were 17 they were asked if they were would do an internship for the Alabama Supreme Court when the usual age requirement is probably like 20+ and they were treated just like any other interns, that means no special treatment. Say What! These boys were the first gineua pigs of their own idea, that they could do much more then the world expected of them, straight after they finished the internship they were asked to be the grass roots directors (they recruit people to help with the campaign) for the 2006 Alabama Judicial Races. Truely amazing. I’m not going to go much deeper then that, you’ll have to read it for yourslef.

These boys are the perfect example of teenagers getting out of their comfort zones and doing big hard things. They changed the world they lived in. God didn’t put you here by accident, your here for a reason! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. “Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12. You were place here ON PURPOSE so stop ignoring it. Ask the Holy Spirit to give show you somewhere in soceity that you can make a change, don’t be suprised if you don’t get an answer straight away, keep asking! Whether you want to believe it or not, the instant age has corrupt this generations youth. If something takes more than a day then we don’t want it or we don’t want to do it. But you need to dicipline yourself and take the challenge head on. You cannot do it by yourself. You need God to help you with it, or else its most likely either going to be extremely stressfull or its not going to happen at all. Involve your mates, callaborate, group, make a community of people who want to see the same cause roar into life.

My challenge to you today is to ask the Holy Spirit what hard thing you could do today, and to reveal the reason why you are here in this place and in this time.

Cheers
Ben4God

Witnessing through loving your enemies [Originally Posted May 3 2010]

This is a continuation of the last blog as i kinda left something out.

Loving your enemies is one of the best ways to witness to people, through your love and compassion of them. Doing this means that your enemies are able to see the work that God has done in your heart, it give us the opportunity to not just talk the talk but to also walk the walk. Through the compassion of your heart towards your enemies you are able to bring people closer to Jesus, even if it doesn’t pay of straight away you’ve been able to bring them that one step forward to have a relationship with the one true living God.

Cheers
Ben4God

I Believe……. [Originally Posted May 3 2010]

Hey Guys, so today im going to deal with a topic thats a combination of two topics I’ve talked about before, but its completely different, I’m not sure how long this will be but I gotta feeling its guna be a good one. so just hang in there

So today the topic is kind of the modern day persecutions and its alsoa bit of what your message to the world is when you are suffering.

Here we go. At the moment I am reading through a book called Jesus Freaks, by DC talks its about people who loved God and what he did for us, Jesus, and they were willing to die for him no matter what happened. I just wanted to share one Testemony from it and I’ll kind of skim through it. The Testemony is called “I will always have Jesus before my eyes” so its starts off with a group of men, who I presume are all Christians about to be beaten by a Communist Colonel because they were preaching in the prison they were in in Romania, so the guy comes along and starts at one end of the line of men and beats each one until someone owns up to preaching in the prison. He gets to this one guy, John Stanescu, and when he gets to him John says boldly that this man will be judged in hevean when his time comes, and in that time if you were to say something like that then you probably wouldn’t live to the next day. So the Colonel is just about to beat him when he(the colonel) gets called out by other guards. When the Colonel arrives back he is thrown into the prison, but now as a prisoner himself. Now the other guys in the cell were pretty pissed and so they just go and try to beat him to a pulp, but John puts himself infront of the former guard and defends him from the many blows coming his way, so in the end John gets really smashed by his fellow inmates because he protected their persecutor.

I read this and my jaw dropped, heres this guy thats been beaten time and time again by this guard and when the tables turn, the guy puts himself in danger to protect the guard that had beaten him for so long. This is a part of what Im talking about today and its a really important message that we all, as Christians, must know. Luke 6:27-36 pretty much says Love your enemies as God love you, and be merciful on then just as the Father is on us.

Today I heard a question at a meeting that I had and it came down to this: what do you do when you or others are being made fun of or persecuted for being a Christian? So what do we do when this stuff comes our way. Do we fight back with mean remarks? Do we take it to the physical side? OR do we do what Jesus told us to do and Love them, even though at that point and time they are your enemy? I know that I choose decision No. 3. I know what your going to say, but its hard or I dont like them though >:( but  what I say to you is that you need to spend more time working on the relationship with the Holy Spirit. He is God, He is here to be in fellowship with you and He is here to help. Though the power of the Holy Spirit we gain the Strength, the Power, the Unconditional Love of God, these things are the things we often miss when we hear about God but I think that it’s THE MOST IMPORTANT thing that we need to be doing in our lives as Christian.

So to Sum up really, you will always have a persecutor because you are Christian but just because they are being mean to you does not mean thats what we need to be doing to them, remember what Jesus said in Luke 6:31 “Do to others as you would have them do to you”, Jesus makes it pretty clear cut, because we are human we want to be loved, so love others no matter what because thats what you would want them do to you.

Cheers
Ben4God

The Process of Processing [Originally Posted April 24 2010]

A Wise man once said to me, “The more your relationship with God developes, the more you are able to process life”.

This is a quote that, I don’t know about you, is awesome, as it targets one of the key things in the bible, having a relationship with God, and it targets You in Your life TODAY. It shows that you are able to process life through the relationship that every Christian has got through the death and resurrection of Christ.

The Process of Processing is the ability to process what happens around. This is a vital “gadget” in every persons utility belt, from a Christian point of veiw this is something that I think is given by and through the Holy Spirit through the development of a relationship with God. Its the ablility to see your situation from the “bigger picture”, and to realise whats going on in your life at this point and time and what God may be teaching you through that particular experience. Though at times things seem to be going down the drain, the Processing of your life gives you the understanding behind the situation, it also gives you the opportunity to show the world your message, are you saying, “God doesn’t care about me and he can’t help my situation” or are you saying “God, I trust you, and though things suck at the moment, I’m going to praise you and I will not stop Glorifying your name”

Process of Processing is when you aknowledge that you don’t know whats happening at the moment and that life sucks but you unload your heavy burdens of the situation onto God so that you may have rest, “Come to me[Jesus], all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28. The next step is probably asking the Holy Spirit to reveal whats happening at this moment in time, and to show you a point to this pain or suffering in your life. The Third Step is to thank God that you can be in the situation to learn what he is teaching you and to thank him for everything else in your life even though at the moment it may suck (this can be hard but it does help). “I [Jesus] Have told you these things, so that in me you may HAVE PEACE. In this world YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE. But TAKE HEART! I have OVERCOME the world.” John 16:33

Something that is handy to remember in times of trouble is F.R.O.G., Forever Relying On God, which gives hope in those times where you feel like nothing is going right.

Thanks
Ben4God

The Great I AM [Originally posted April 7 2010]

Hey Guys,

Just been thinking lately a bit about getting passionate for Christ and a teaching from an awesome preacher made its way into mind.

So here we go. Well becoming passionate for Christ is the great journey that all as Christians are set on once they make the decision of getting saved. I should probably clarify what I mean by getting passionate for Christ, by this im talking about becoming a person that has a relationship with God that the world has never seen before, not just some one hit wonder out there that gets passionate once in a while and just fizzles out.

The First step in this great Journey really is like getting passionate about anything whether its a person, a cause or even a sport, you need to get to know about what you’re dealing with. So the first thing you need to do is to plug yourself into your bible, as boring as it may be, and start ingesting the Word of the Lord. I suggest starting with the first like 20 chapters of Genesis, then the first 5 chapters of exodus, and the onto the Gospel, the fist 8 books. I can imagine you right now your sitting there looking at your computer screen thinking WHAT!?!? this guy must be crazy, does he even know how hard it is to read the bible, I do know how hard it is but if you really what to get passionate for your creator and the single thing in the universe which loves you more than life itself then just give it a go, have lots of prayers about it and keep onto it. Heres something to start you off, “God said to Moses, “I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ “”Exodus 3:14.  In this passage Moses just ask God for his name(who he is) now you read the rest…….

Step Two: I am, not I will……
This step is probably one of the hardest. I am, as just talk about before, its not just two words made of an I, a space, an a and a m, these two word are actually more significant then you may have thought before, as the passage said before this is the name of the Lord that he told to Moses. I will, these are two words that you will have heard before, or maybe you say, I might, I’ll try or even I have, these words to me are the word that show us that we have more then one master in our lives even though Jesus told us to only have one master, and that is God. When we get past that barrier that is not only a verbal barrier, but also a mental barrier, and say I am,we not only declare to other that you ARE doing what God has said but you are also telling God and praying to God that you are doing what he asks and for help with it for you are actually using Gods name. E.g. I will preach about God someday [x], I AM preaching about God [tick] I AM means in that context that you are saying God I am preaching about you and God I need help with preaching about you.

Step Three: Turning from sin….
All of these steps are equally hard and this is no exception, but when we do hard things, we tell God that we Love him and that we are willing to sacrifice things that are sinful and that are just mortal luxaries to do his will. This is the second part of declaring to God that you want to have him, not just as a friend(even though he is), but also as a master, the God of your life. All sin is dangerous as it is the thing that seperates us from God and it also eats away at our relationship with him.

These are three steps that will help you get passionate about God but alway, always, always be praying to God about becoming passionate about him. I AM certain that you can do it and that this will help

Thanks
Ben4God

The Beginning of the rest of my life [Originally posted March 28 2010]

Hey Guys,

So today I have some awesome as news and i am so so so so proud to be able to share with you that today, Sunday the 28th March I got baptised!!!!

It was a perfect evening even though all that I wished would be there weren’t but God made it perfect anyway.
So I have now publicly declared myself a follower and desciple of the One True Living GOD. It was a really good time and God allowed me to speak well even though I was a bit shaky. He even made what I had to say a bit funny even though I made it in all seriousness, and He always does this it is so great though and I love it. I love it how God does that kind of stuff and wraps a little surprise for us in the middle of what we are doing, just to say I love you and I am here.

Sweet as i hope you guys who are reading this have an amazing week.

Ben4God

EMERGE! [Originally posted March 15 2010]

Hey Guys,
So last weekend which was epic i went to a youth conference in Taupo called emerge and it was Amazing.
Now if you’re like me, you DON’T enjoy waking up at 6:30a.m. because its early, this is especially true if you went to bed at midnight the night before and the day of that morning is Saturday. Yes, a Saturday. But here at Eastside we are commited as. haha. So back to emerge, to start us off we had a very “interesting” ride there as some our three car convey (far from the other two cars) decided that first to inspire church wins, this made the trip very eventful and keeped all the sleep deprived teens (like me) entertained for the two hour ride there. Im not going to go into much detail though, sorry, because this post is about emerge but i will say that at one point my driver tried to bribe a road worker with a shoe, after he had already been bribed to hold us back a bit.
So after the long drive to get there, our car took its place and won the race which is good as. Once out of the cars and stretched we made our way into the curch and started to have a bit of morning tea, yummy muffins, then the first of the two sermons started after a time of worship which was good, even though i knew none of the songs, and the speaker Jordan started to talk about our Destiny and what the bible says about it. He preached an awesome sermon which had us laughing at times, but also had us think seriously about our uture and what God wants us to do.
Lunch
Then Ian preached to us about being “Toasted” in the Holy Spirit, his sermon was really good and it was full of a mixture of, his and others, life stories and talking about the Holy Spirit, after which  we had this awesome as worship time where there was heaps of praying, worshiping and even some phrophesising. Another part of it was a healing time for those that werent feeling 100%and it was just amazing to see people healed in the Holy Spirit.
We then had dinner at Mc D’s which was awesome as and Me, Dani and Emily went onto the aeroplane which was mean. after this we went to the pools and it was cool as even though the lifeguards kept changing and each time the life guards changed the rules changed. And after this we made our way home. It was an amazing day.

Ben4God