Taking the leap

 So amongst the busyness of the these last few months of school I've decided to step up my game in my personal hygiene.
There has been something that I've been wanting to try out and understand since I was a little kid.
What am I talking about?

The Art of Wetshaving

In the movies you always see those manly men shaving their faces with bowie knives or straight edged razors and you can't help but think...Wow...What a cowboy!!
So after a lot of research on the topic of wetshaving I decided to takek the plunge. I ordered myself a lower priced Straight-Edged razor and Musgo Real hotlather.

Here's how it went:

 

It was a lot of fun but as you can see I need a little practice:

 Hopefully this just callouses my face and makes me more of a cöwboy!
I suggest you try it out!!

Where is all the adventure???

Whew! It's been ages since I last blogged.
I haven't been anywhere far from my computer, in fact I think that I've just been lazy..HaHa Yep, probably just that. However I have been keeping busy. School work and studying for my AG Licensing exam have consuming a lot of my free time. But I think that it's time to start blogging again, my brain is always thinking so why don't I share my thoughts.

To be quite frank I've noticed that my mild case of laziness has spilled into another part of my life, and that is my spiritual walk with Christ. Now before you go thinking that I'm talking about 'backsliding' that is not the case.
Maybe what I'm trying to say is that I've been letting my Spiritual Life get a little dull. (What do you mean Ben??) Well I'm under the impression that living a hot-passion Christian life should be adventurous! It should be full of risks and constantly getting out of the ¨Comfort-Zone¨.
I think that over the past month I've been maybe just a little too comfortable. I've taken maybe a few risks in stepping out in faith this past month, but I haven't exactly been looking for opportunities.

You might be thinking, ¨Well Ben, there is nothing wrong with living a life of low risk as long as you're still serving God...¨
If you've ever read the book of Acts or the New Testament for that matter then you should know that living a Christian life is full of serious risk and adventure! But doesn't that sound like more fun!!

I'm challenging myself self to step up my game and live more adventurous!
I'm also challenging you to live every minute of your life like it's the last!

Homeworker

Today is an amazingly productive day, despite all the sitting around. I guess that I've always thought in order to be productive you must be moving or bouncing around.
However while I've spent half of this day sitting around drinking coffee, I've accomplished a ton of reading, research-finished a few pages of my Unreached Peoples Project, and knocked out two book reports. Also I've had some amazing devotion time with my best friend; Jesus!

Now, I just wish it was nice enough outside for a good bike ride, I think that I'm ready for some fresh air!
Maybe I'll go for a good run anyway!!
AAHHHHHH!!!!!!

Oh Michigan.

 Well here I am at my parents home back in Michigan for the weekend. It feels so strange being here, I feel like I'm at some kind of winter resort that's catered, and tailored just for me.

First off, there is tons and tons of awesome food, my parents fridge is always packed with delicious dishes and fruits, there are all of my favorite desserts (baklava, brie, chocolate ice cream, ginger cookies) -that are always in stock. 
Free internet everywhere.
All of my old friends are everywhere and they go out of their way to treat me and make me feel welcome.
My Dad made me an awesome full-course breakfast this morning.
Then my dad and I got in some crossbow target practice from the back porch.
My Moma gave me probably the best hair cut I've ever had.
Also my Moma loves to buy me new clothes. Not just some awkward fitting clothing that might be worn once, but my favourite bands that I'll probably wear for years.
Tons of relaxing and prayer time.
My parents old piano, I love playing that thing- it has an incredible sound!

Maybe it's good to be spoiled a few times a year. hahaha

Once again it is Valentines Day. This is the one day on our calendars where we make a great effort to do something special for some one special in our lives. However not everyone in this world has someone truly special, husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend..etc. Sometimes this time of year it's easy to feel unloved.
Ben, why are you saying all of this?
Well because I can remember times of my life where I have felt unloved.
This was so long ago, even though I am "single" and don't have that "significant other" I still feel so, så, much love. This love that I'm talking about doesn't come from great friends or parents. This is a love that can only come from a God. The God who loves me so much that he sent his only son down to us sinful humans to brutally kill him, the God who created us with his careful loving hands. This is the God that loves you and I so much that he created the stars and put them in the sky, so that on dark nights we can look up and still and know that he's with us.  It's so exciting to know that you're loved, God loves us so much it blows my mind! It's also a great comfort to know that one day I will have someone special on Valentines Day. One day this will me and my gal….  lovebirds on Valentines day…and it'll be sweet…Hah

If you could be an animal..

 So not all people are animal people, meaning that not everyone likes animals or would want to have a pet. However I think animals are so cool! Because I've been having tons of free time, I gave it some serious thought... If I could be any animal in the world what would I be? I decided I would be a horse and not just any horse but this horse:

This horse just looks adventure bound and ready to be anyone's friend.

If you could be any animal what would you be and why?

Does anybody wanna hire me??

Good grief, it certainly has been a few days since I've last blogged.  Hmmm....well what's new Ben?

 This has been a really great week all around however nothing really crazy has happened yet. Yesterday I mailed out about 20 letters to raise money for my Pakistan trip this spring. P.S. I can't wait!! God has huge plans for that nation!
Also this is Allison Park Church's Spiritual Breakthrough Weekend and it's been awesome watching God reshape and transform people's lives!

More exciting news; it look's like I'm going to be an unemployed man, which isn't anything that I'm looking forward to because I sort of love my job.
So does anybody know of places that are hiring??
I'm not picky lately when it comes to working; restaurant, retail, manual labor, personal chef, personal tailor.... you name it. Hahaha

Self-Leadership

So lately I've been finding myself feeling not motivated to give my all.
I thought that it was just the season (boring, cold, miserable, grey, winter). Yuck! The very thought of being in the middle of winter is nasty! But that's not the reason for lack of motivation, it's an excuse! The real reason is that I haven't been practicing the art of self-leadership.
Self leadership is when in any form of opposition, crisis, hardship, or discouragement, you don't try to lead or influence others but you focus on and lead yourself. This may sound so crazy! But it makes sense just wait. In ministry we can't expect to fully lead others to Christ when our own relationships with God are not actively growing. This could lead to getting burned out very quickly.

Think about King David in the Bible. Even though he was king over all of Israel, he would get alone and talk to God for days! David had to lead himself and recalibrate himself before he could lead his army or his country. David practiced the art of Self-Leadership and he was Israel's greatest king!

So what we must do is focus half of our time and energy on leading ourselves, before we can be successful. In doing so here's a few good questions to ask yourself regularly:
Is my calling sure?
Is my vision clear?
Is my passion hot?
Am I developing my gifts?
Is my character submitted to Christ?
Is my pride subdued?
Am I overcoming fear?
Are interior issues undermining my leadership?
Is my peace sustainable?
Is my love for God and people increasing?

These are all good questions I picked up from author; Bill Hybels.

For me I can read the bible and talk to God several times a day but unless I let God recalibrate me, and focus on these questions; I cannot expect to motivate or lead others to my fullest potential!
So I recommend that you try this self-leadership. Spend half of your energy leading yourself and let God re-light the passion and direction for that day. Now I know that obviously not everyone is necessarily called to lead, but everyone is called to some degree of ministry, and in self-leadership this can make you fruitful.
Reading the book Courageous Leadership really inspired this. You should check it out. :)

Clinical Studyz

So this weekend my best friend Billy, and I decided to partake in a clinical study. I love Clinical studies! Basically you sit around for 48 hours and you get paid good money, but more than just sitting around it`s great time to read a few books and do devotions. Also if you never get anytime to watch movies there is plenty of time to get a movie or two in. My goals here this weekend är:
-Do two school book reports
-Learn some Urdo
-Watch "How to train your Dragon" and "Blood Diamond"
-Witness to everyone
-Get at least one person to come to Element Church next week with me

And here's a pictue of Billy and I in the men's sleeping quarters


The only downside of this study is the study itself. Which really isn't that bad; the nurse staff basically just puts a ton of lotion on your arms then checks your arms every 1/2 hour.

I love my savior!

So in this entry there is a topic that I would like discuss. This topic is on what seems to be a very popular question that keeps popping up in conversations I've had with many people. The question I keep hearing is "Why does God let bad things things happen to good people?" To some of the people who are reading this, this may pose as a strange question however I hear this question so often, I feel I should address it. I pray that this brings clarity or revelation to some of you.

For most of us who were raised in a Christian home or have at least grown up with the concept or idea of a God, have understood that this God is an almighty and all powerful God. This is true :) God is an almighty and all powerful God. So then the question rings out to most of us "Why does an almighty God let bad things happen to good people?" God must not really love us right? Why would God let something terrible like rape happen to a completely innocent child???
Well first we must realize that, He also is a loving God. All over the whole Bible God's love is spilled out! God is love! A God who created us and loves us (His kids) so much that, He gave us a free-will to do what ever we want. With this free-will we can choose to love God back, or ignore him. He gave us this free-will so that we would choose to love him back and not have a forced love.

Now let us take a few steps back and look at this as a spectrum with the loving God on one side, and the devil on the other. The Bible says that the devil has come to steal, kill, and destroy. …Wow, so I guess the devil hates us? Yes… The devil hates us because God loves us and we are His children. However we are born into a world of the devil and because of this we are destined to screw up. Now, the devil can't make you sin, but he certainly can tempt you and he will. Even though you may not have killed anyone or robbed a bank; in some way, at some time you've sinned and that's enough to separate us from God. -and this is where Jesus' salvation comes into the picture! But I could save that for another post.

Anyway to wrap things up; God never wants anything bad to happen to any of us! God always has the power and is in control but he will not control us. When anything bad does happen, it's a result of sin which is because of us. In fact, it hurts God when he has to watch us suffer.

Hopefully I did a somewhat decent job explaining this.
I remember when I first came to realize this, it blew my mind.
God really does love us soooo much!!!

Breakfast foods

This was an unusual morning. I woke up just before 6 a.m. to find out that Prayer School was canceled due to a few inches of snow on the roads (Pittsburgh makes me laugh sometimes) so John and I had our own Prayer School in our toasty bathroom. It was amazing, and it reminded me that the Holy Spirit is always with us even in your bathroom...hah
Så in honor of school being delayed we thought it would be the perfect occasion to get Pamela`s before class. Since all of the cars on the road were driving like it just snowed 10 ft. it stunted our time before school so we ended up at the Pam´s in Millvale which we had never been to. Now this Pam´s had an unusual limited amount of menu options. So instead of getting a bowl of fruit I took the leap for something that I always wanted to try the Banana Walnut Crepes...They rocked my world!!


There are many many delicious breakfast dishes out there however this is one I can´t stop thinking about. It was simple yet perfect!!

First Laws

 Ahh, this is my first blog entry, I can't wait to see where this thing is going to go!! So first off I think that I'll put up a link to video from the Zito Brothers that I got to act in:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=500006922079

Enjoy!