Travels

      Kentucky. 

 That's where I happen to be right now. I'm relaxing on a bed writing out this blog from the town of Florence (right next to Cincinnati) Kentucky.

Just yesterday a good friend and I left out for a road trip from good old NY down here to Kentucky. We planned a while ago to go to West Virginia to visit a college I'm planning on going to, but a few plans were changed so we decided to come down and go to the Creation Museum.                                            Check them out!
    
 ... so earlier today after going to Chic-fil-a for breakfast (which by the way, is probably one of my favorite restaurants), and getting lost from the GPS, we finally arrived at the Creation Museum. It was very neat! Lots of detail and thought provoking displays. Had very real-looking animals, humans, and most importantly, dinosaurs!

                                          Obviously, I couldn't help touching..,.

             I felt quite small. Even more small than I already am.




They had a petting zoo...





.... obviously.

They had this really neat bridge in the botanical gardens section of the museum. It was quite unstable, but pretty neat. So here is a neat snap shot that we got.






So there are some pictures from Kentucky and the Creation Museum!
      
             .... ya gotta love traveling :)

Dreams do come true..

           Oh my word... you'll never guess what happened. 


    I met the music group... SELAH!

     Yep... that's me, my sister, mother, and friend Moriah with the group SELAH! 

                      We were so blessed that we had the opportunity to meet them personally. And I don't know if you know too much about Selah, but they are some of the most "real" people you'll ever meet. They have the Joy of the Lord, and it definitely shows. 

                                    (me and Todd Smith) !! :)

                                  (also with the amazing Allan Hall...) :D
        So you may be somewhat wondering how, or why.
Well here's why:  ---   1. Me and my family (especially me and my mother) LOVE the group Selah.
                                  2. My mother's birthday (40th actually) was (and is soon) coming up and I really wanted her to be able to meet them. She follows Todd Smiths wife's blog --http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/-- and has grown to love her and their family through their testimony, and of course, music. You should check out my moms blog here at ---> http://septembermccarthy.blogspot.com/
                                  3. I've also always wanted to personally wanted to sing with them. They have such amazing musical talent, and I absolutely love playing piano and singing, and of course love their music. I have sang their music for many events and concerts, so I know a lot of them as well. So I thought it would be so cool to actually be able to sing with the group. Of course I have that inner want of maybe... possibly, being able to go into some sort of ministry similar to that by possibly getting hooked up with the group. HA! Well, you can wish at least.

            So you know how I mentioned how I wanted to sing with them...
well... it happened! Not lying! The original part of the deal was to just meet with them for five minutes, and that was it. Well we were blessed with so much more. We ended up chatting with them for about 15 minutes, and praying with them! That was an enormous blessing there.
              ... well part way through the concert, they randomly said out of the blue "could I have Ben come on up..." I was so confused when he said that. Threw me off. Thought he maybe meant some staff guy. But then he said "... and also his mom, and sister, and his friend... all come on up."
                              I was in shock.
                     So we didn't just sit there... we went up! Long story short, we ended up singing this African song along with them and it was so much fun. So awesome :)

                              There we are on stage :)

       So there. I had to share an experience that was a dream come true.
 Thank you Lord!

Uncool

   What has happened to the weather here in NY?
It just seems like it has gone completely crazy here with the weather we have been receiving lately. Of course, I know... it's NY. We should always expect weird weather... and I have, but this is un-cool (in a sort of oxy-moron-ish way).
   Okay, so as you may know, our family went on vacation about a week and a half ago. Beautiful weather was present the entire time of being away. Gorgeous sun, low nineties, cool breeze... yeah. Well we leave for home on a Friday, and get home very late on Friday night. Well... okay, Saturday morning about one in the morning. Well we all wake up the next day, and at least to me personally, it was freezing! I open the front door no shirt and shorts, and both me and my new beach tan just tear up. Trees were caught in a fight with the wind. Rain was falling... rather hard I might add. And it was just simply,, cold. At least thirty degrees cooler than I was used to the day before in Maryland at the beach.
   So, as I usually try to do (although not very successful), I optimistically open up my weather application on my phone. I open up the ten day forecast.    silence       Then a tear runs down my cheek. As I look through each day for the next too long of a time, my heart breaks with sheer disappointment. 68 and rain. 64 and wind. 70 maybe if we were lucky. I was devastated! How can this be?! I mean, it was just nineties and sunny not one day ago! Now it's like a blizzard outside (or so it seems)!

                      Well, it's been the same since that terrible morning, and I am sad to say that there isn't much hope in the future. I think I'm going to move south :)

             That's all

Grapes

We went grape picking tonight, and I took this picture with my cell. Yes, my cell phone. :) So I tweeked it a tiny & thought I'd share!

Worship

   Worship. 
What is it?
Does is it involve us?
Does it require something?
What does it relate to? What's it mean?
     I'll let ya chew on those questions for a little bit while I go on now and say a few words. I recently... well, actually just one minute ago looked up the word worship in the dictionary. The Microsoft Word dictionary actually. That's the dictionary I usually turn to because it's easily accessible and it works... plus I like Microsoft Word. :) Just thought I'd throw that out there. Well anyway, it gave me meanings for two different types of the word as in a verb and noun. Three meanings for each. As a noun, the first two given meanings were what I expected somewhat, but not what I was looking for (and no I'm not trying to give words different meanings). But then I scrolled down a little bit more and found what I was looking for. The third meaning. :-O  This is what the third meaning said.
3. great devotion
    great or excessive love, admiration, and respect felt for somebody or something
I literally was like "hah!" I found you (as if the meaning of a word was a living, breathing.. who knows what). But either way, this is how I've recently come to understand as worship. I like it how it doesn't say anything about singing or music. I think unfortunately we characterize worship as only limited to singing and/or a special time devoted to worshiping God through whatever means may be accepted. But nope, it simply says "great devotion." So in specific, it's could be a pretty broad meaning. Worship then isn't necessarily limited to singing, or a ritual, or even, God. Nope. In a realistic sense, you can worship most anything. Now to some, this is probably not new to hear or know, but I just to some, I just wanted to kind of explain because there was a point in my life personally where I honestly thought that all worship was, was singing in church on a Sunday, or a worship team leading music. So, in my walk with the Lord and growing in the knowledge of Him, I thought I would write a post that helps explain something I was once not totally knowledgeable (and I'm still growing) in, but also in a challenging way because I find all too often, especially in my own life where worship (for God) is put on the back burner.
Anything...
   Yes, you can worship anything. And yes, whether you realize it or not, you worship many different things in your life. What do you enjoy doing? What do you spend most of your time doing? What do you not really care about too much? If you were to take a time log or everything you did during the day, what would you find yourself doing the most? Would there be a common motive behind all of those things? Who is your time and effort focused around? Yourself? Others? Jesus possibly? How much time is spent on the computer? How much effort is put into daily devotions? I know so often I find myself putting daily devotions in the back of my mind or on the bottom of my priority list. I know in my head that it's so important though. Probably one of the most important things I can do in the day. But, do I really know?? I think if we really KNEW, then we would certainly DO. Faith without actions is dead, as James says.
     Now, as a verb, one of the meanings (again, the third meaning) is:
3. love somebody deeply
to love, admire, or respect somebody or something greatly and perhaps excessively or unquestioningly

   Here's where I really had to do a self evaluation check. I read the last part of that meaning a few times, and asked myself, "Do I love God greatly and perhaps excessively or unquestioningly?" Who do I truly worship? If we love someone or something excessively, we are going to spend so much time with it. Quality time. We are going to engulf and surround ourselves with it. If we unquestioningly love, admire, and respect something or someone, it will consume our life! No question about it. Obviously. Do I love God deeply? Well you may say sure, of course. Okay, take it to the next step. Do I love God greatly? Well, yeah sure of course, you may say. I mean I go to church every Sunday morning, and night sometimes. Maybe on a Wednesday if I don't have homework. So yeah, I'd say so. Okay... next step. Do I love Jesus, the God of the universe, who is the I AM, excessively?! Or even unquestioningly? Well... sure. I must. I'm a Christian, and Christians do that, right?
   The answer is yes. Christians SHOULD do that and should BE that! But we fall so short. I personally will be the first to admit that I fall so short of that. I mean really. If you were to stand before Christ in the very next moment, and He asked for a time log of everything you did in the last 24 hours. What were you doing? Were you unquestioningly living as a Christian, loving God? Worshiping God?! I would be dreadfully ashamed of what my time log would read. I don't know if I could stand before Christ and say that He was my All in All. My EVERYTHING. I could say, "Lord, I love you and I tried... but God I loved so many other things in this world, and You unfortunately weren't exactly my most popular thing." That's all I could honestly say.
Do we really worship GOD, or do we worship everything else that draws our attention? I mean, if worship is really loving something deeply, and it's unquestionable, then what would others say that you worship? What are your passions?
     Now thank the Lord that He does give us the ability to truly worship Him above anything else!

"Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." -1 John 4:4


" For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” -Matthew 17:20


"For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" -Phil. 4:13


     It's not an impossible feat. We are truly capable or true worship. But we are only capable through Christ Jesus and Him alone. On our own, we're definitely still capable of worship, but only worship of petty things this world has to offer that will fade away. 
 "Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." -Matthew 6:20, 21
   
     So there is what has been on my heart all day, and I thought i would share. It's really burdened me how many stupid things I find myself worshiping, regretfully, and how little I worship the One above all else who deserves it the most. 
   Thanks for reading. God bless


~Ben
  
                      (Let me know if there are any typos or anything so I can change them. I'm not going back and reading this whole thing to check it) :)

Check this out. Great video. Very convicting.

Red Balloon

Check out this video! Great skit with a good message from the skit group called Onetimeblind. Check them out on Youtube. Let me know what you think of the video. Enjoy!

Vacation cell phone pictures...

         So I'm kinda sad. I don't have a really nice camera, and I really want one. Actually, *sniff* I don't even have a digital camera. I have my cell phone (that shouldn't count) and that's about all I have for a camera. I'm not going to complain because it's still decent, buuuuuut I still really want a nice one badly.
           Well anyway, after that little rant, the reason I brought that up is because we were at the beach today, and I just got in this mood to take pictures. So what do I do as I see other people along the beach with their fancy shmancy camera's?? You got it.... I pull out my cell phone. It's a pretty handy one indeed. I believe it's called "The Rock," and it's put out by Verizon. I just call it the Indestructible phone, or sometimes the Batman phone... just 'cause it looks like a phone Batman would have, and that makes me feel good. I'll have to write another post sometime on my phone experiences and my current phone. That will be interesting. Ha. Well anyway, as I was saying, I pulled out my phone, and of course, took pictures. I was pretty surprised at how decent they turned out for a cell phone! So I thought I would share a few of them on here! Enjoy :)

                                                                 A glorious sunset. Seemed to be one every night!

                          Not bad for a cell phone eh? This is probably my favorite out of the majority.

           .......and last, but not least... (I had to post this one)

                            
                                     ---- So while we were on the boardwalk tonight (which btw, is a really nice boardwalk) I decided I wanted to get a henna tattoo. For those of you who don't know what a henna tattoo is, and are probably freaking out to some extent, it's just a fake, liquid type tattoo. It comes off after about a week and a half to two weeks. But anyway, I like it and think it's pretty cool Ha So I had to post this picture to share it with everyone :)
          -   Let me know what you think of the photos! (even though they're from a cell phone and un-edited.)

Check out this message from Crossroads church (Crossroadschurch.com) in California. Great message, and you should definitely check it out...