Too many thoughts...

I am yet again ashamed.
A thought passed through which led me to Matthew 3:4 which simply says, "Now John himself had a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey."
Now get this picture in your head. John, one of the great people of the New Testament, lived in the desert preaching. He was a rather scraggly guy from living in the desert, he apparently had nothing to even clothe himself with asside from what was in the desert, aka camels. So he made hiimself a garment to cover himself with camel's hair and a belt. And it says "his food was locusts and wild honey," not to be confused with say, that he ATE locusts and wild honey. The difference lies in the continuity. He didn't eat them once or twice, that's simply WHAT he ate, period. Could you survive by CHOOSING to live in the desert and only eat locusts and wild honey? I mean really, would you EVER eat essentially, very large grasshoppers? And what else? Oh, honey. Not only that, but wild honey. And where does honey come from? Bees. Lots and lots of bees. And John certainly didn't have any fancy net to drape over his head and thick clothes to keep from getting stung. He wore as they say, A garment of camel's hair. Not exactly sufficient to keep the bees out. So half his diet came from a rather hazardous task of retrieving honey from bees.
Now also, many say that John had dreadlocks. Kind of a weird thing, but yes. Dreadlocks are what happens to hair when it's left uncared for for a LONG period of time. So we've got this crazy dude with dreads living in the desert, eating bugs and stealing from bees and wearing some form of clothing made of camel's hair.
This is what it means to follow Christ. This guy didn't even HAVE Christ to follow! He was preparing the Way.
Would you eat bugs and get stung by bees and live in a desert for Christ? The next time you look in the mirror picture this scraggly, disgusting, content, hopeful saint. What did he have that you don't? How was this man content in the desert with nothing? Why do we still seek contentment in other things? Lord give us John's fiery passion for You.

Passage of the (whatever time period)

1 Corinthians 13:1-2
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be



nothing

Ben Vs. God

Soooo...... been awhile. Just decided that this guy needs to restart blogging.
Seems fitting that this blog seems to be restarting as I finally make it past Africa. Such an odd thing... The space between my last blog and now seems to have just been emptiness. Right up till last week, I've simply been struggling with making it past Africa and, as God's told me, to "give up the dream of Africa" (His words, not mine). And finally this last week I think I gave up fighting Him with that. Painful, but I need to. He may or may not bring it back in my life, but for now, obviously He doesn't want it to be. So yeah. I'm no longer going to dream of running off to Africa, at least that's the idea. What truly is life about anyways? Is it about going to Africa, aka doing what I want to do, or following God's will? Despite what I'd thought, it's very likely that what started as following God's will and even loving what I was told, turned into simply wanting to do what I wanted to do. BUT, I'm finally coming to terms with this at last. I don't know as that it's been difficult giving up my dream of Africa so much as simply having to give up a dream to be replaced with nothing: giving up my ultimate direction. Though, one logically knows that following God's will is one's general purpose, as a human being, it's difficult to live without specific purpose.
Last week I was "randomly" given a passage which has at last encouraged me enough to do what I've been told, or at least start to:
Isaiah 43:18-19
"But forget all that--it is NOTHING compared to what I Am going to do! For I am about to do a BRAND-NEW thing! See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness for my people to come Home. I will create rivers in the desert."

At last, I've been given a brand-new thing. Though I do not yet see it, He's giving me a pathway: I will be satiated within my desert at last.