Jun 15, 2020 | Life In Abundance, Belief, Counseling, Faith, Purpose, Trust
By Pastor Ben Hill (reproduced with permisison)
During my high school years, I attended a Boarding School. I remember one particular day when I was walking in the hallway during class. I was with a young lady that I wanted to impress, so of course I was acting cool. We were singing made-up lyrics to a popular song about our school president, Mr. Hubert Smothers and other office personnel.
I was heartily singing this made up song, “Ms. Scarlett don’t dance, and Hubert don’t rock-n-roll…” As I rounded a corner, I walked headlong into, you guessed it, Mr. Smothers!
I’ll never forget him saying, “Benjie! What do you think you are doing young man?!?” It was certainly a rhetorical question. As a high school student, it seemed as if Hubert Smothers was omnipresent; he had a habit of just “showing up”!
What’s the point? Coram Deo is a Latin term for something that takes place in the presence of God or before the face of God. When we begin to understand the omnipresence of God, it is to recognize that no matter where we are, no matter what we are doing, God is ALWAYS with us. There is nowhere we can go to escape His presence.
As it says in Psalm 139:8, “If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!”
Come to think of it, why would we ever want to escape His presence? Why not embrace it and learn to live “Coram Deo” – IN His presence?!
Take the time to read the 15th Chapter of John. To “abide” in Him is to be at home there, to be relaxed and comfortable there. It’s when we can make that a natural part of our daily life that we will genuinely experience the full blessing of His presence. To live Coram Deo is to live our entire existence in the presence of, under the authority of, and in the glory of God! There is no better way to live!
Photo by Daniel Reche from Pixabay.
Nov 19, 2019 | Life In Abundance, Belief, Faith, Purpose, Trust
By Pastor Ben Hill (reproduced with permission)
Doors, doors, doors. How many doors do we go through every single day? Just stop and think how many you’ve gone through today! If we consciously consider every single one in our homes, at work, in our cars, at the stores and doctors’ offices it really would be amazing just how many there are.
Some doors lead to new rooms or buildings. Some are a pathway to a never before seen place. To enter, you may have to turn a knob, push a lever, or pull a handle, and yet some open automatically. Others open by pushing a button, like your garage door.
Doors come in all sizes, heights, widths, and depths. Some are strictly utilitarian, others quite ornate. They all lead somewhere, and we are continually walking through them.
The point is that doors are everywhere. They’re so prevalent that we hardly even notice them. Many of these doors we can take or leave, use or not use with very little consequence. An example would be when visiting the hospital — do I go through the standard door or the revolving door?
BUT there is another door, it’s THE Door. We must be conscious of this door every day, and aware of what it means. IT is the door that no man constructs; it is the door that God puts before us. The door to an abundant life, a life of meaning and purpose, a door to what is right and true. It’s THE door to life everlasting! AND… this door is ALWAYS open! We just have to walk through it.
Jesus has opened the lock and torn it off with His own sacrifice! IT is open, have you walked through by faith? As His child, recognize the door to abundant living He puts before you. Step through the door every day. This door leads to greater joy and meaning in life than we could ever imagine. He knows the way, so trust Him and step through!
Oct 15, 2019 | Life In Abundance, Belief, Counseling, Faith, Purpose
By Pastor Ben Hill
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
By what name are you called? What’s in a name? The one indispensable name in all of eternity is the Name of Jesus! Of this we are certain. But beyond that, what is in a name?
Juliet (of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare) is said to have opined: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
What’s in a name? I am Benjamin, Son of Reginal and Mary Ellen, Father of Brittany and Daniel, Husband of Debbie. But my name means more than that as well; I am Benjamin, Pastor, Counselor, and Teacher.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”
So collectively, what name have we been given? And how important is it? We are called Christian, “little Christ”, “Christ-follower”. What’s in THAT name? Well, a whole lot! It defines us, it separates us, it should motivate and direct us! To live as “Christian” is to love as Christ loved, to serve as Christ served, to warn the lost as Christ did. To “live as Christ” is to care deeply and passionately about the souls of man.
So embrace the Name… live the Name… wear the Name with humble purpose… Christian! No matter “who” you are, remember “whose” you are, and BE like Christ!
Sep 18, 2019 | Life In Abundance, Belief, Faith
By Pastor Ben Hill (reproduced with permission)
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
In today’s fast paced and frenetic society, “wait” is certainly not a concept that is welcomed, much less appreciated! I remember as a kid there were certainly different kinds of “waiting.” Christmas Eve brought excited anticipation which then turned to excited anguish. On Christmas morning we had early breakfast, then hustled off to Christmas Sunrise Church service, then back home to FINALLY see and open presents! There was also the kind of “waiting” that came with knowing I had to show my parents a report card that was somewhere between less than good and awful!!
Today we wait for all kinds of things. We wait at red lights, on hold with the utility companies, in the doctor’s office, for a table at a restaurant on a busy weekend night, and in line at the DMV. We wait for the next blockbuster movie to come out, for the pizza delivery guy, we even have to inconveniently “wait” for the water to boil to make spaghetti! (A watched pot never boils). We spend a lot of time waiting.
Even in our walk with Jesus, the waiting sometimes becomes bothersome. We wait for when He will come back again and clean up this mess! We wait for “peace on earth,” which incidentally won’t come until the former happens. We wait for the time when we will finally stop making the same silly spiritual mistakes, and we often wait impatiently for OTHERS to just ‘see that we are right.’ Yes, sometimes we wait unrealistically! We wait for eternal rest, so we wait… and wait… and wait.
But this waiting shouldn’t get us anxious, or upset, or impatient, or depressed, or frustrated. This waiting should make us soar! Those who wait upon the Lord will have our strength renewed, and we will soar like eagles. We will run and not be tired. We will walk and not grow weary. How, you may ask? Because we are His children, heirs of His grace and mercy, and we will wait…. but oh, the joy that is to come!!
So, wait…just a little bit longer.
May 15, 2019 | Belief, Faith
By Pastor Ben Hill (Reproduced with permission)
The woman at the well is a beautiful story of Christ’s compassion and grace. He intentionally engaged in conversation with a woman who would be considered by all in that day an outcast. Yet He brought to her forgiveness and mercy and He gave her the greatest gift imaginable!
The day after their encounter, were you to have asked her the question: “Who do you say Jesus is?” I’m quite certain she would have exclaimed: “He is THE Christ, The Messiah, He is Lord!” How would she have known? Because Jesus was (and is) a “Barrier Breaker”.
In this encounter we see Jesus first broke the barrier of race and gender… He made contact with her. Second, He broke the barrier of her need… He challenged her to look for something more. Third, He broke the barrier of her sinfulness… He confronted her sinful past. Fourth, He broke the barrier of her lostness… He revealed Himself to her and she saw the conversion of her soul available to her. Then, marvelously, we see her changed in that she left her water pot behind and ran to the very people who might have judged her in the past and brought to them the “good news” she had just been given!! She had found the Messiah!
Who do YOU say Jesus IS?
