Worship

Does it ever blow you away that we have the ability and opportunity to worship the one true God?

Do you ever sit back and actually think about the object of your worship; really sit down and meditate on His greatness?

When you sing of His greatness and glory, do you remember how He used His own lowliness and humility to show it to us?

When I really think about the words I’m singing, and whom I’m singing to, I loose it.  Tears, brokenness, humility.  It’s awe inspiring to me; really mind-blowing.  Jesus Christ, the Word, the great I Am is my God, my Savior.  WOW, what a glorious thing it is to be loved by Love itself.  This is joy, this is the abundant life, this is love overflowing; Jesus Christ lived, died and rose again for me, Ben Smith, to be redeemed and made righteous in God’s eyes.

I want to be a better man.  I want to be a better husband.  I want to be a better lover, father, worker, leader, shopper, worshiper, you name it.  Why can’t I make it?  Why do I keep failing?  How long will you tolerate my shortcomings God?

I’m still me, and it’s okay for now, but I must see my error, recognize it, confess it, and repent/turn from it.  Then I’m back on track again. How marvelous are Your ways.  We’ve been studying the book of James.  Our Bible study started; we had 12 adults and 15 kids this week.  We’ve made it through 11 verses so far, and already, God’s speaking to my heart.  I worked and studied and prepared to be able to help people through the book and I am being impacted more than I can even imagine the others are.  Basically, I need to get with the program, not for the program’s sake, but for mine, for it’s my time that I forfeit, time that I could be accomplishing great things.  Time that I could be drawing closer to my Lord.  Read through James and see if you don’t feel the same way…  wow

Lord, bring revival to my heart; a revival to serve and honor You with all I do, say and witness to this fallen world You gave so much for.

Ben

Leadership Insights Learned

I was able to attend the Catalyst 2009 conference in Atlanta, GA this week.  Gigantic thanks to Cornerstone Community Church for the invite, to Marissa for supporting me in it, and the 12,000+ christian leaders and supporters that attended.

I got to see Mac Powell, Chuck Swindoll, Tony Dungee, Steve Fee and a newer artist named Zach Williams!!! (He was awesome!!!) There were many serious moments of worship, it’s been so long for me, it was great.

This was the 10th annual catalyst conference; a conference created to target the “younger than 40″ pastors/leaders as a time to motivate, strengthen and revive those that give out so much every day.  This year was all about leadership, leadership training, and leadership development.

Here’s some things I picked up, not necessarily from someone’s teaching/talking session, but an insight non-the-less.

1. This is God’s movement/job/mission/ministry/purpose/congregation/churches and doesn’t really have anything to do with us outside of the fact that God has blessed us with an opportunity to be used by Him for His purpose.
   1. We get so caught up in all of the drama that we forget who it is we’re actually doing all this work for.  Jesus should be our inspiration, motivation and destination; the beginning and end; of everything we do.
2. The things we want to get accomplished that are not, are in this state because we’re not working to get them done.
   1. We’re either so spread out that we can’t focus on any actual effort and because of that we’re ineffective.
   2. We’re failing to trust someone else to do the work.  This is either coming out of our pride/judgement/unforgiveness or ignorance but regardless we’ve set ourselves as a choke point in what God could be doing in our communities and churches.
3. Leaders often fall prey to the foolish idea that they’re the ones in charge.  Andy Stanley said at one point “We’re supposed to be leaders under authority.”  How profound is this?  I know this is true, this is true in church and at work.
   1. There should be a time when leaders seek to follow the same instruction they’re giving their followers.  Humility, confession, repentance.
   2. We should not read our own clippings and let overconfidence blind us from the direction that God is giving to us.

It was an awesome conference.  We had tons of fun, especially on the car ride home.

My big “take-away”:

I want revival to come.

Chuck Swindoll talked about how leadership is tough, rewarding but tough, and all leaders should leave room in their plans for “The Crushing” that God brings us.  The times when we are killed.  “Though He slay me, yet I trust Him.”  He quoted a man, I can’t remember who, who spoke about the fact that all of the significant, memory making, moments in his life came through the affliction he had endured.

I’ve experienced this crushing in my life.  While it was hard, and painful, it is one of the most significant life marking experiences I’ve had.  I’m still really sensitive to my brokenness.  My brokenness brought me to my knees in front of a Holy, Merciful, Gracious and Loving God.  Woe to me!!  Thank You so much!!!

Anyway, this crushing has brought me revival, and I want that for everyone, especially the leaders out there, the ones in the front, leading people.  The re-commitment and revitalization of their souls!!!

What and awesome feeling, to be alive again, like a newborn, ready and excited for what’s to come!!!

Life Group Jazz

The Life Group we’ll be hosting begins on October 14th.  Cornerstone Community Church, our home church, has agreed to support the group and pay for child care!!!  I’ve got the “Syllabus” prepared, house cleaned/painted and getting contact information for those planning to attend.  So cool to have the date coming close.

Marissa and I are both prayerfully entering the ministry again and this is one of the steps we’ve taken toward His service.  We will be hosting, in our home, a meeting on Wednesday nights to go verse by verse through the Word.  We’re going to start in James, because it’s such a no-brainer for the Christian that is looking for direction; for the “where to now?” that eventually comes in ones relationship with Christ.

After our move to Virginia we put our primary focus on being partners and parents again.  This was such an awesome and blessed time for me personally.  I went months without serving in a church.  I was able to talk with the kids again, and get closer with Marissa, and most of all, get re-focused on my own relationship with Jesus.  I was able to take the time to strip my life back to the basics, understand where my priorities needed to be, and basically start over on my daily life.  The job, the friends, chores, grocery stores and utilities all changed.

I realized how much I had neglected which should have been a priority.  Exp. We returned to faithfully tithing.  I don’t say this to boast, but to show that even this core principle had been neglected for a time.  We had justifications, just as everyone has justifications for what they do.  Bills, debt, getting out of debt, but this move, and this change in our lives, allowed us to re-focus/re-prioritize again.  WooHoo!!!

It’s so exciting now to be entering into the field again.  I feel like the harvest is waiting for me.  I remember studying for one of the first or second messages I taught the youth in Florida, how excited I was, how right, blessed, confirmed it all was and I’m happy to be there again!!!

We’re praying to keep our lives balanced, to keep our priorities where they need to be and to let everything we do be used for His service.  I want to remain a good employee for my company.  I want to be a good servant for Jesus here.  I want to remain a good husband to my wife and father to my children.

James is going to really open my eyes.  I’ve been studying it for a long time, preparing, getting ready, and I’m anxious to get it out there and hash it out with some brothers and sisters.  That’s a really good time, just talking one on one with others about the Word.  It’s like, a guarantee to get Jesus’ attention.  Especially this book; there will be more than one spanking in there for me.

Say a prayer for my family and I, and our success, not for the life group, but for us, for our strength, love and unity as we give our time back to God again.

‘Wrong’ Way on a One Way Street

I’ve been finding that the road the world wants to take me down and the path that God has for me are clashing more and more. It seems like I’m faced with “forks in the road” everyday, where I have the choice of taking the path that leads to destruction (but that can look pretty nice sometimes) and the more difficult (but more fulfilling and rewarding) path of righteousness.

God has been making clear for me the line between the world’s ways and His ways that the devil makes so blurry. I really cannot be on the fence, where it appears to just be comfortable and cushy.

Right now God is showing me decisions I have to make regarding relationships, caring/not caring what the world says about me, and what I’m willing to do for him. But every time I choose to follow God, it seems like I’m immediately faced with opposition.

But I know that God is not leaving me alone in these decisions. He has been putting some really wise and encouraging people in my life and has been lifting me up through those people and through his Word. Rachel has been one of those encouragers and has set an awesome example for me of following Jesus even when it’s not the ‘cool’ thing to do or when you face opposition. My high school small group leader said that we will face a lot of difficulty and conflict when we mess with Satan’s plans and try to ‘swim up-stream’, but that all of the hardships that force us to depend on God for strength can bring us so much closer to him in the end. I believe her, even though the ways of the world seem so much easier at times. I know I was never promised that following Jesus would be a piece of cake, and sometimes it’s really hard for me to stick with him. But I was also promised that he will never leave me, and that when things get hard, he will guide me through it. I hope that during all this, God will teach me how to fall on him and trust him completely. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed and swayed by the sin and deception in the world, but fortunately, God is so much bigger than all of that.

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13

Hayley

Who Are You???

I been given the opportunity to work with the 11th and 12th grade youth members.

What an awesome blessing.

I often feel like I’ve been gifted by God to work with the Youth, then I volunteer to do something, then I get nervous and feel like I was presumptious, and am not really gifted after all.  I spend time in doubt and worry, then finally get to a point of no return and am crossed between excited and hopeless.  But, without fail, after I commit to the path, and give it my best effort, God always works it out for good.  Tonight was one of those nights.

I had a message to share:  Teens need to have a good self identity.  Not a good self esteem, but identity.  One based upon God, and who they are through Him.  We looked at David, and how God chose him, and how David really knew who he was.  We looked at 1 Sam 13:7 and saw that God doesn’t judge based upon outward appearances.  We looked at Psalm 139 and saw that David gave God credit for who he was even from his mother’s womb.  We looked at Jeremiah and saw that God has plans for us.  God created us, God defines what is actually valuable, God has a plan for us.  From the begining we are who we are because what God has done and will do for us.

It went great.  They nodded and got it.  I was prepared for the 1 question that came up.  It was fun.

What’s coolest is that the Pastor said that one/some of the kids said they had fun and I did good.  I had another teen comment on my facebook page that she had fun.

It’s just awesome when you get to look back and see God using you, even when you don’t feel quite adequate.

God is Good!!!