It’s a new year; lets try this again…

OMG!!! Look at that beard!!!

Haley, Rachel: I’m sorry I’ve not been supportive of the blog for so long.  I’m not trying to make excuses; it just had to be moved down on the priority list for a while.  Thanks for keeping it up, and posting a couple times.  I’ve decided to get back into it again, because, as you’ll read, Marissa and I are trying to be better stewards; again.

To the World at large, well, read through the pages and you should be able to understand where we’re at.  This post is all about short quick statuses to get everybody up to speed on what I’ve been up to.

Family:

1. We had family over for the holidays, tons of people.  We came and went to Florida for a few days.  The holiday’s were cool, but I’m glad they’ve come and gone.  I’m looking forward to normal life again.
2. The kids continue to get bigger and bigger.  God has blessed me with attractive kids… teenage and puberty are going to be great!!!
3. Marissa still loves me, praise the Lord!

Ben:

1. I’ve got a beard!!!!   It took a lot of getting used to, but I’ve got the hang of it now.
2. I’m 7.67% done with my latest attempt to read through the Bible cover to cover.  After trying and failing so many times to complete a 1 year plan, I’ve opted for a 90 day plan.  It’s about 12 to 15 chapters a day and it’s going well so far… 8 days in and I haven’t fallen behind yet.  Something about reading and seeing so much history in each sitting makes it seem more like a book and less compartmentalized then it does when I read just a little each day.
3. I’m trying to loose weight and get healthy.  My Wii avatar got fat after I did the Wii Fit Plus physical evaluation… that was humbling.  Evidently, I’m obese… I knew I was overweight, but obese just seems wrong.

Life Group:

1. We’re continuing to meet on Wednesday nights in our home.  We had 9 adults and 9 kids this week.  We’ve had as many as 15 adults, the holidays really threw a wrench to many of our meetings.
2. We’ve studied all the way through chapter 3 of James to date.  We get to get into chapter 4 next week.
3. We’ll be signing up to lead another group after we finish James.  I’m praying about what book to study next.

Family:

1. We’re doing better at “homeschooling” our kids now than we’ve ever done in the past.  It’s exciting.  I think the best thing is that I work normal hours, those combined with our semi-normal routines, makes the parenting thing so much cooler lately.  Our lives used to be so involved with either ourselves or church we had absolutely no free time. (This is because I wasn’t serving from pure motives, read James 4:1-4, that’s where I was at. The kids have a Dad again!!!)

Environment:

1. It was in the mid-fourty’s today, I was in a short sleave shirt again!!!!  We’ve still got snow that needs to melt.
2. It’s neat to have seasons, but almost claustrophobic to be stuck indoors so much.  I mean, you can go outside, it’s just not any fun…  I’m the palest I’ve ever been…   pasty
3. I’m excited about spring time coming, I miss the life.

Work:

1. It’s going well…  We’ve been here for just over 1 year now.  I’m finally feeling like I might start having a handle on what my job entails, or maybe better said, getting my job done each day.  My employees are great, and I really am blessed in all of the aspects.  God’s still got his hand on my career.

Holy Home:

1. I think I’m starting to get old…   or thinking like a grown up finally…  Anyway, we’re starting to see some of the things we’ve been “teaching” our kids through our choices and are finally trying to address them.
2. We’re not watching American Idol this season… Not that it’s evil…  I just couldn’t think of a single good reason to watch it.  Not a good one.  And with no good reason, we’re gonna sit this season out.  We’re trying to take the same approach with many of the things that take our time away from each other.

Youth Groupie stuff:

1. I’m at some type of crossroads in the ministry/mission/purpose God’s given me.  I’m not sure where it will turn next.  I’m just trying to be patient and attentive.
2. I’ve been saddened as of late by all of the failure I’m seeing in the teens out there.  My heart yearns for kids to keep themselves from all of the mistakes I made.  There are a couple young people who by all appearances look to be making it through life unscathed, but many have chosen the dark side, or are flirting with it.
3. I’ve started to see the hope that shines through brokenness in all of it, and am excited on where my mission with the teens might go next.  I’m honestly thinking about trying to secure some kind of counseling, or psychologist training…   who knows?

I can’t really think of anything else at the moment.

Haley and Ray, thanks again and sorry its been so long.  I’m looking forward to 2010, it’s like a new era, kinda weird almost.

P.S. If anybody’s got anything they’d like to talk about or would like commented on, please let me know and thanks for reading!!!!

I’m out,

Ben

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.

School Started Today

Our kids began their HomeSchool year today.  We’ve joined a co-op with other family’s to see how this type of thing will go.  We’re excited.  It was a lot of work.  We went “school supply” shopping and everything.  Marissa’s helping to teach one of the classes.  The Art History class.  This is where the co-op part comes in.  Each of the mom’s get to teach the children in a different subject.

So, as we’re preparing Marissa, the Kids, and everything else for class it really made me think of how much I missed during school.  Not that I have regrets.  It’s just that I missed so much learning and living.  Instead of loving school, I loved the social study.  We’re trying to coach the kids into taking the opportunities their given and taking them to their fullest.

What must that be like?  To go through school taking it seriously?  Craziness.

One of my sister-in-laws did.  Jayce.  Straight A’s through highschool and college.  Prestigeous job and a bright future.  Not only did she do school right, but most of her experiences followed along the same lines.  She had fun.  She has real friends.  She’s now established for a life of fulfillment and satisfaction.

I’m praying my kids will do the same from the start, by-passing my “learn-the-hard-way” heritage.

Do you know what I’m talking about?  It’s so weird to get old.  It’s hard to believe I’m telling my kids to do good in school and have fun learning!!!

Ben.

I am alive, and finally starting to get caught up..

Yeah, it’s been weeks since my last post.  I’m alive, and well, I’ve just been busy.

We start our “school year” next week.  My wife has been going crazy getting everything squared away.  It’s been busy to say the least.

Hopefully I’ll have something more soon.

Ben

Baggage part 2

So, Baggage stinks.  It really does.  But what do you do with it?

Give it to Jesus should be the default answer.  If you don’t know Jesus, then the world would offer you various other baggage mitigation devices, none of them actually working.

That’s great, I kinda covered this last time.

but,,,

What do you do when your baggage raises its head?  Like, how do you react when your baggage is especially heavy on you?

Example: Early on in my Christian life a brother and sister in Christ invited my wife and I over to dinner.  The dinner was nice but the purpose for the invitation came to light after we were finished.  They lovingly informed me that I was the single rudest person either of them had ever met.  I might be exagerating a bit, but you get the point.  Baggage…

Now, I want to talk about this in two different lights, and from two different perspectives.

I’ve been studying the Book of James.  In Chapter 1 James says: “2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

Basically, trials are good when you finally get through them.  Like the scholar Hannah Montanna says “Life’s a climb, but the view is great.”

James also says: “12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.”

Basically, James gives some crucial clarification here.  Temptation to sin is not the same thing, from the same motivation, and does not result in the same rewards as the Trials of your Faith.  Temptation to sin has it’s source in our own sinful hearts.

So, when we’re faced with a difficult situation, like dealing with our baggage, we’ve got two choices.  We can look at it as a trial from God through which we’ll grow and come out better than before.  We can also look at it as yet another temptation to sin.

Lets go back to my example, the two lights, the two perspectives.

•    Light 1:  Me
o    Perspective 1:  Temptation…   I was really tempted to defend myself.  This was my gut response.  I wanted to lash back out.  I came up with at least 15 snappy responses.  I was just being funny.  This isn’t my fault, they shouldn’t blame me.

o    Perspective 2:  Trial…  Holy Toledo, I’ve been hurting these people.  This is God’s way of finally opening my eyes to it.  This is so embarrassing, so humbling, so not what I’m used to dealing with.  I need to except this, apologize, and try to learn how to stop this.  God, give me the strength to love them like you do.
•    Light 2: Brother and Sister
o    Perspective 1:  Temptation…  Ben is such a jerk, such a looser, I hate him.  He must not be a Christian, no real Christian would act like this.  I hope he feels like he makes me feel.  Ugh, I hate him!!!

o    Perspective 2:  Trial…  This isn’t going to be fun.  Ben’s a good guy, he doesn’t realize that he’s being mean.  I don’t want to make him feel bad, or hurt our relationship, but I’ve got to say something to him.  I love him, and as a Christian I’m supposed to hold him accountable.  God, give me the strength to love him like you do.

My sinful nature tempted me to respond in sin.  The Holy Spirit urged me to go to God.

My brother and sister were tempted to respond in sin because they too have a sinful nature.  Praise God they took the higher road and opened up to me that night.

The weekend I spent with my brothers and sisters recently was like this for me.  There were several times I could actually realize the decision was before me.  My baggage, their baggage, whatever, the choice is still there.  Do I respond with sin, or with strength?

I had an opportunity to see them make these choices too, both types.

It was a good weekend.

If anybody understands what I’m trying to say, let me know, cause I’d like to talk about it more, but I don’t want to spin my wheels.

Thanks everybody!!!

Ben