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!!!

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

Baggage

I spent the weekend with my older sister, her husband, my younger brother, and half-sister.  It was great.  We dealt with a lot of baggage on Friday night and I’ve been pondering it a lot since.

Baggage is so crazy.

Dealing with it recently has given me an interesting insight, well, at least one I’ve never considered before.

I normally think of baggage as the things I have to deal with because of the choices I’d made in the past.  You know?  Like, I used drugs, had pre-marital sex and so many other things in my youth.  When I got married and made it through the honeymoon phase, I had baggage to deal with.  That’s how I see baggage.

I’ve got this visual picture I hold on to, as a guide to help me remember how we’re supposed to deal with it.  It’s a scene from the book “The Progress of Pilgrim Mouse”  It’s an adaptation of John Bunyan’s classic allegory of life.  When Christopher, the main character finally gets to the Evergreen Wood his baggage is removed.

“Soon after, Christopher left, thanking Brockley for his kindness.  The path seemed to change now.  There was a wall on either side, and Christopher felt curiously excited.  He broke into a run.  The path was leading upward, and at the top a white lamb stood waiting.  In his hand he held a shepherd’s staff.  As Christopher came up to him, the burden on his back slipped off and rolled away. “Welcome,” said the Lamb.  He presented the mouse with a book, a key, and a new suit of clothes.  Christopher’s own clothes were very dirty from the mire.”

If you read the whole book you’d know that Christopher had previously tried going to a dangerous Owl to have his baggage removed.  It almost cost him his life.  But, when he went the right way, when he came to the White Lamb, the baggage fell off.  He didn’t even try to remove it.  It just fell off when he went to Jesus.

This is how I see it, every time I think about it.  I picture that burden fall off when I get close to Jesus.

That’s great, awesome, and I’m glad I know it.  But what I got to see this weekend was a little different.  You see, I’d always assumed my baggage was mine because I made it.  But that’s not necessarily true.  This weekend I got to see some of the baggage I’d heaped upon others.  That’s a humbling spot to be.

My little brother got to do Step 9 from his recovery journey with us.  He asked me to forgive him for previous things he’d done.  Awesome, I’m glad to forgive.  What opened my eyes is that the things he was apologizing for were really caused by my actions.  I’d started it.  I’d put that baggage on his back. With my sister the same, with my half sister as well.

The baggage I’d put on them either on purpose or unintentionally was finally able to be removed. (I bet there’s some still on there to be dealt with.)

So, for one of the first times I was able to see how I load this junk on myself and those that I have relationships with.  I’m trying now to think about how I affect others in this fashion.  We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve got another post on this topic floating around in my head.  I’ll try to wait a day before posting it.

If anybody’s got thoughts or ideas about baggage and how you deal with it, let me know.

Ben

It’s about the relationship

It’s because life and death, eternal life and death, are decided upon whether or not we have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and Him as our Savior.

Ephesians 1:4-8
4 Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.
6 So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

The Bible says that we are adopted into the family of God.  If we are in His family; if we have been adopted as children of God; if we wake up each day and live our lives for God and to bring Him glory we have salvation.  If we’ve confessed with our hearts and our mouths that we are sinners, and as such are worthy death, that we believe Jesus is the true and only Son of God, that He came to this world to die a perfect death paying the price for our sin, if we confess our sins and ask Him to forgive us, to come into our lives and save us from our selves, we have salvation.

It’s the relationship that gives it meaning.

The fool that uses the argument mentioned earlier spent the entire time talking about himself, and what he’s done, and what he can do, and what he should do.  In reality, it has nothing to do with the individual’s ability, productivity or history.  It’s about what Jesus did.  That’s what makes it something.  That’s what makes it church.  That’s what makes it a relationship.  It all comes down to what Jesus did.  Everything from the beginning to time until the end of us all points to the culmination point at which Jesus died for us.

Is He our Lord?  Is He our Father?  Are we in His family?  Have we accepted the adoption process and are we now calling ourselves sons and daughters of God?

If so, if He’s our Savior and our King, then why aren’t we trying to learn about Him?

This learning process is a natural thing.  When we join a club, a team, a company, anything new, we learn about what it is we’re now associated with.  When I joined the Army, they taught me all about it.  I didn’t really get a choice.  When I signed up with the phone company, same thing.  But, as funny as it seems, the choice to join Christ didn’t automatically lead me to learning about Him.  It was a growing process.  I went from a milk feeder, to wanting meat, and in that process I began to learn about Christ, about God, about who He is and how He operates.  This didn’t come from the music, the people, the building, the clothing, the regimine, or anything else.  This came from studying God’s Word.  It’s Him.  He is the Word.  This is one of the greatest mysteries in the world today.