a change is coming...

i have now switched my blog over to wordpress, so the address is....

benjaminwood.wordpress.com

Needless to say i will stop posting on this wordcast.

The Shepard's Rod and Staff

Like posted previously, our team is working through Psalm 23, on my journey of discovery through the Psalm I have found out the difference between the rod and the staff in verse 4. The question that made me think about this is as follows...

Why would David describe one object with two different words unless he was meaning two different things? Here are my thoughts on these two words.

The Shepard's rod was used as a weapon to defend his flock in case a foe would come to harm them. This foe could be anything from another animal to human, or it can read as Satan. I say Satan because we see in John 10:11 that Jesus is the Good Shepard, and He protects His sheep (us) and Satan comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy those who put their faith in Jesus. So Jesus uses His rod to protect the sheep from the evil one who has come to try to destroy the sheep. In proverbs the same rod is mentioned but this time it is a rod of correction and not a rod of protection. I guess that you could make the case that they are the same rod due to the fact that correction is considered a form of protection. I think that this rod is the rod of protection from the enemies that would try to destroy the sheep and not a rod of correction.

The Shepard's staff has a similar function of the rod, but it was not only used as a weapon like a rod but it was more often a sign of the significance of the person holding on to it. In this case it shows that Jesus is the man with all the authority and power. It is also a staff to steady yourself while walking through tough places. It is the assurance that the Man that we are walking with will keep us safe, He would not bring us through a hard place that He could not get through, and the thing is that He can get through any situation. If He can conquer death than He can help me get through the tough times in our lives.

We know that He can help us through the situation we are in because of the statement that follows, the rod and the staff. David writes, "they comfort me." Meaning that because of these distinctions of the rod and the staff we know that we are safe in the leadership and the protection of the Lord. When we get that as a reality in our souls then many issues will be taken care of. No longer will we try to pursue in our own strength the way out of our situation. As we all know every time we try figure out our hard place on our own, we fall flat on our face. We need the Lord's help always! This is something we should always be striving for day after day, the help of the Lord (as well as, and by no means lesser, the love of the Lord.)

These are just a few meager thoughts on the rod and the staff of the Lord.

It is said...

It is said that you learn something new everyday. Well if that is the case then here is my new tid bit of knowledge for the day.

We as a team have started to do, again, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepard... So I took it upon myself to learn about sheep. Well it turns out that sheep are a type of animal that is the family that is raised in a type of farming known as pastoralism. This is a farming that requires a leader to maintain constant care of where the heard goes.

That was something i found extreamly enlightening considering that Jesus calls Himself in John 10:11 the Good Shepard. Saying that we are the sheep that need direction from Him constantly. This realization takes Psalm 23 to a new light. I know that this is something that others would look at as elementary in the Kingdom, but to me this is a new idea.

Not so much as Jesus is the Shepard and we are the sheep, but that the act of raising sheep is called pastoralism. That just seemed really cool to me.

Dead Sea Scolls

Sarah and I finally had a date after a very hectic past couple of months. With schedules not working out too well to do much of anything to just being so tired that the thought of getting off the comfort of the couch would bring us to our knees. Still we managed to get ourselves ready to go on this particular day and get out of the house.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are in town at Union Station, Sarah has been asking to go and see them so i deiced to take her. We both had a blast. It was so cool to, one - spend the whole day with her, and two - see the scrolls. It was such an awesome experience to see the oldest know manuscripts of the Bible, right there in front of my face. It was moving.

I have changed so much, never before would i have cried at the sight of an ancient writing of the Bible, but this exhibit brought me to tears. Knowing that the same words that i look at today for teaching are the same words that people centuries before me looked at for their teachings. To see an excerpt of the Psalms, and Genesis, and Isaiah was awesome. The words seemed to come alive and no longer were they just something that i purchased from a massive Christian book retail store. They had weight and meaning. Someone took the time to write these words out so that i can have them today. This was truly an eye opening experience for me and Sarah both. It was so good.

Thoughts about Psalm 31

Here we have a Psalm written by David himself, a Psalm with just about everything in it but all leading to one main theme. In a time of need when you feel as though the Lord has abandoned you, He is there, Was there, and will always be there. One of the main parts in this passage that I have been in contemplation over is verse 5. It reads this way: "Into your hands I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth" Does any part of that sound familiar? It should. Check out Luke 23:46, those are the same words that Jesus says as His last breath is breathed out of His body. This happens when the Father turns His face away from a Man who was Him and had no sin, who now had the sin of the world. Jesus was in a place that He had never been before, without the presence of His Father. I draw this conclusion from Habakkuk because it is talking about the nature of God when it states this: "You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness..." So in a time of utter need, in a time when He felt no more pleasure from His Father, He does the only thing that He knows is true. Being a Man that had immense knowledge of the scripture, He had it flowing through His Body, He knew that it was the Word and that the Word will never come back void (Isaiah 55:11). Thus He quotes a Psalm that is all about God being a protector in a time when you need Him the most. Now I believe that Jesus did this to bring reassurance to His being that even though He did not feel the presence of the Father with Him, He knew that God would always be His rock and His fortress (Psalm 31:3). I believe this is the same reason for Him quoting Psalm 22 in the other accounts of the Crucifixion.

Still at the same time it is the utter obidence of Jesus displayed. In all of this He had the power to call down legions of angels to deliver Him. Instead He sticks with the plan. "...not as I will, but as You will." Matthew 26:39. With Him making this statement in the garden all that could follow was obedience. So Jesus quoting Psalm 31 was also Him in essence saying "Father, make Your face shine upon Your servent..." (Psalm 31:16) Here I am, I have compleated Your work so I give you all that is yours forever.

I have been loving this Psalm because of these truths that are found throughout it. If y'all have any other comments I would greatly appreciate them.

Shawn wanted everyone to post a screen shot!

I took this while i was in Guam last summer... it was amazing!

Top 5 Worst Movies of All Time

Here is the idea, make a comprehensive list of the worst movies of all time. So post your top 5 worst movies and then i will come up with the list of what movies were top rated the worst!

STI

Every summer for about three months the Missions Base here in K.C. becomes flooded with 900 teens to waste thier summers praying and fasting instead on front of a television playing video games. It is called The Summer Teen Intensive (known around here as STI). This summer I have been asked to jump on board to help give leadership to it.

Today myself and a couple other people had a meeting to see what the schedule would look like for the summer. Kind of to give us a heads up as to what we had signed up for. As it turns out i signed up to have no summer. With my commitment to these guys i committed to giving up my summer to serve them. Don't get me wrong this is what i signed up for. This is one of the main reasons for me to be here. What is my jobs for STI you ask? (I know you didn't, i just wanted to tell you).

I am in charge of M.Cing the Morning Seminars, as well as in charge of Kitchen Organization, oh yeah and by the way helping the PR Leaders (Prayer Room). Those guys are the people in charge of all the kids. Each one is over about 10 - 12 kids. I am sure there is more to my jobs description than that. It will untold as time moves on though.

All in all it is going to be a fun summer i am sure of that.

Just the thought, peirced me

Recently we had Bill Johnson come to IHOP and speak at our Signs and Wonders conference, everyone told me that what he said was good. I was not able to hear him because of my commitment to be at the youth track that was going on throughout the conference. So i picked up the cd's to hear what he spoke on.

I was in my way in to the HOP this morning and he spoke of a miracle that had been reported to him through one of his staff members. If you don't know anything about Bill Johnson, he is a man that teaches about walking in the way of Jesus which means moving in signs and wonders. The story goes like this...

A woman walks up to a mother whose daughter was walking on cruthes because of an injury and asks the mother if it is ok for her to pray for her daughter. The woman does and the daughter gets healed, but the next thing that happened is the thing that made me start to cry in my car as i was driving. The mother then asks the woman if she could pray for her husband, and the reason for the asking was not a selfish reason, the reason was so that her daughter could hear the voice of her father for the first time in her life. The daughter had never heard her father speak in her life and that is why the mother asked to pray for him, not for herself but for her daughter. The thing that got me was the fact that this little girl had never heard her father say "I Love You". She had never heard an affirmation that she was doing a good job and so on. This made me start to weep in my car. We so often take for granted the voice that our own fathers have, that we never stop to think about what it would be like to never hear those three little words and other terms of endearment(not the movie). But the story goes that the woman prayed for the man and he spoke. How many orphans are there in the world that have never heard from an earthly father that they are loved? How many single mother daughters or sons have never heard the voice of thier father? This is why the word of the Lord needs to be shared and proclaimed for all to hear. In the hearing of the word a reality will take place and the love that was missing will be given in the day to day encouthers with a Man named Jesus who died to show the ultimate act of Love.

This is something that i wanted to share, let you know what is going on in the heart of Ben Wood.

I saw something disturbing on TV last night...

With the end of the second greatest show on earth, American Idol, the first being 24, I was flipping around to see what else could occupy my time, I came across a program that was all about a town in Colorado that was established not too long ago. A whole town that was founded by Mormons, the houses in this town were massive all being built by the people of the town on what they call "service days". This is an action that takes place every week and all the men give their time to work and help additions to each others residences in order to maintain their life style of polygamy. Although I do like the ideas of a service day I do not like the idea of having multiple wives. For one it is against the law as well as the teachings of Jesus. This is why in this community they can only be legally married once, the others are just women that live with them. Still they have the ceremony. This is not the thing that really disturbed my spirit. The thing that did that was one of the women getting up during the Sunday morning service and thanking the leadership of the church for leading them in the ways of Mormonism. They thing that urcched me was that she ended it with this statement... "I say all these things in the name of Jesus Christ" That statement shot through my being and made a fire start to burn in my soul of that i could only utter with one word "NO!" This woke Sarah up who was sleeping on the couch next to me. I had to apologize to her and tell her what led me to do this she then proceeded to fall back asleep due to her long and strenuous day of work. But anyway, that was one of the major thing, the other thing is that right at the end of the program they snuck in this statement... "Jesus was married and he had multiple wives." It the proceeded to make a case that these people were not doing something wrong but they were just being misunderstood and we should not look down on them so harshly because of their beliefs. That was the main point, this was all being done in the name of religion and Jesus. I was so disturbed with the fact that Jesus was being proclaimed as a man that was so caught up with being human that he would marry and then marry and marry again. Not one place in the Bible is there a place for them to back this up, that is why they must use their own writings to give a reason for this thought.

Sorry I just had to vent for a little while. This really lit a fire in my soul. I am in no way prejudice against the Mormons but i just want them to have a real encounter with the God man Jesus and KNOW Him in reality and in truth. That is all.

God, I pray that you would come right now and make yourself known to the family that was on this show last night, I ask that You would break in and release the chains that have bound the minds of this community. Visit them with dreams and visions of You.

2 Times in one day... that's insane!

So i have set it in my mind that i am going to start a expostion on different Psalms that i am in so here is just an excerpt from what is going through my mind about Psalm 85:

Verses 10-13, the picture that they portray in literary pictures speaks fathoms to my heart. In verse ten it lays out a picture of the mercy of the Lord and the truth of the Lord coming together and meeting together to form a new revelation of the Lord. Mercy is defined as a form of compassion while truth means this: The standard upon which an argument gains strength. So the thoughts that compassion has come together with the argument of the faithfulness of God to gain strength to the end goal of salvation is such a good picture of the goodness of God. Then it goes on to say that righteousness and peace have kissed what the writer is going after is the reality of holiness or purity coming alongside of truth and leading us to a place of fellowship with God. The in verse eleven it is foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus himself. After establishing that truth is an argument that gains strength with the compassion of the Lord, it states that this reality will spring out of the earth, the resurrection of Jesus, and then it says that the same truth that will spring out of the earth will look down from the Heavens, the holiness, the purity, Jesus. The still speaking of the Lord and His faithfulness the decree comes out of the writer’s heart which states that the Lord is good, and He will show favor on the land. Then the final verse sums up the thoughts about the previous verses portraying Jesus by saying that purity will go before Him and shall make His footsteps our pathway. Talking about Jesus as the ultimate example of what the Christian life is to look like when it is walked out. If we follow his example the Lord will grant us the desires of our hearts. In this case it is the reassurance that God will grant the writers next in line grace and salvation as long as they keep his commandments.

Bolster Up Hope

This weekend I had the privalage of speaking to a group of 10 young kids that were participating in the Youth Track of the Signs and Wonders Conference that was in KC this weekend. It was definetly a time for me to prepare for what is coming in the summer with STI.

I shared on the important of staying pure in this day and age. It was a blast for me until one of the kids heads began to role back and come to a stop hanging over the back of his chair, mouth wide open. I was half tempted to wad up a small peice of paper and try to score 2 points. I restrained myself and instead became loud enough to wake him from his small little slumber.

It was still a good time of learning, i made sure to ask them for feedback at the end of it to see if they had gained any knowledge from what i had just spent the last thirty minutes laying out before them. Still i was encouraged, what i was encouraged most at though was a small passage i cam across in a book i am reading. It is about John G. Lake and his ministry, right now i am at a point when he is still in africa and i came across this passage and shared it with the kids to show them that there is coming a day when they themselves will move in this type of power, it just requires a rigorus lifestlye of prayer. So here is the passage:

– I was in the home of DeValeras, in Krugersdrop, South Africa one day, when a man came in who had traveled all over the country with a sunstroke, which had affected his mind. He had developed a great cancer. He had been following us from place to place, trying to catch up with me. He cam into the house and proved to be a friend of the family. In a little while a 6-year-old child, climbed on the man’s knees, put her hands on the cancer on his face and prayed. I saw the cancer wither and disappear, so that in one-half hour the thing had disappeared. The wound was there, but it healed in a few days. When the child laid her hand on the top of his head, he arose, saying, “Oh! The fire that has been in my brain has gone out.” His mind was normal. Power belongs to God. The simplest soul can touch God and live in the very presence of God and in His Power. -

When i read this passage i got so excited, and i wanted these kids to hear a story about someone around there age that moved in the signs and wonders that God had placed on thier lives.

So with that being said i am sure that if kids around my sisters age will grasp the concept of a life of prayer and worship continually, when the trials come they will not be swayed and will be able to stand in the face of the oppression and say no to it, then move in a power that no other generation has ever seen.

My thoughts!

Boo Ya

I would like to be the one to bring back the phrase "Boo Ya", i think that it is a crucial phrase to use in this day and age because you can use it to describe anything. Such as...

Just plain: Boo Ya

Boo Ya, into the prayer room i go to pray.

I have been praying for 6 hours today, Boo Ya!

I need some coffee, Boo Ya!

Boo Ya, Jesus is coming on the clouds, check Him out.

We are facing serious persecution right now, Boo Ya, bring it on. For Jesus!

note: i am not trying to be sacreligious in any form by this just want to show you how you can use the phrase in the end times. if you think that this is not funny i am sorry, I know that humor is one of the way that Jesus speaks.

so there you have it.

funny thing happened to me today...

So funny story... this morning as i was on my way to IHOP (the house of prayer) i was praying in my car, and as i was coming around a corner there a was patch of snow on the ground. Note: It was the only snow on the whole road. Anyways, my back end of the car starts to shift out to the left and i try to adjust it, with minor adjustments so i don't end up crashing into anything. Well i think my minor adjustments got a little exaggerated and i went head first into a ditch on the side of the road. The back end of my car high into the air. I got out to look at the damage and realized that there was not a scratch, dent, or anything. Just me outside my car. A nice man did pass by and call on star for me and had a police officer come out on his way to work. I asked him if he had a rope in the massive truck he was driving. This thing had all the bells and whistles on it. Still his response to my question was "No, but i should probably look before i say that for sure." Next while he searched i called a tow service and they said that they were two hours behind and for Missouri it was two and a half hours. I said thank you to them and politely hung up the phone. Come to find out the officer did have a rope in his truck... a big yellow tow rope! So he hooked it up to my car and to make a long story a little bit longer, he pulled me out and then made sure i was alright. I told him i was fine. He asked me how it happened and i told him i was praying, he stopped me there and said "What? You were praying?" I said yes and then moved on to tell him how it happened. He was still amazed that i was praying. So then i got into my car and he got into his and we both parted our ways, but not before i thanked him multiple times.So i am fine, my car is fine, the officer was amazed, end of story.

Just got back to K.C.

Well, here we are back in K.C. after a long and amazing ministry trip with Corey Russell and crew. We ministered in his home town of Alma, Arkansas. We ministered in a fairly good sized AG church with a head Pastor that was the sweetest man you could ever imagine. He was 82 and had probably been in the ministry for a long time. It was awesome to see the power of the Lord fall on the community and change lives in the short time while we were there. Sarah and I both went on this so it was a great oppertunity for the two of us to minister together. It was truly a great weekend we saw many youth come into the doors of the church one way and leave compleatly changed.

Now we get back into our routine of work and school and Jackson... the dog. I am going to be honest, it was nice not to think about him for a whole weekend. So anyways, I digress, i really wanted to use that word even if it did not fit, so off to bed.

Just got back to K.C.

Well, here we are back in K.C. after a long and amazing ministry trip with Corey Russell and crew. We ministered in his home town of Alma, Arkansas. We ministered in a fairly good sized AG church with a head Pastor that was the sweetest man you could ever imagine. He was 82 and had probably been in the ministry for a long time. It was awesome to see the power of the Lord fall on the community and change lives in the short time while we were there. Sarah and I both went on this so it was a great oppertunity for the two of us to minister together. It was truly a great weekend we saw many youth come into the doors of the church one way and leave compleatly changed.

Now we get back into our routine of work and school and Jackson... the dog. I am going to be honest, it was nice not to think about him for a whole weekend. So anyways, I digress, i really wanted to use that word even if it did not fit, so off to bed.

Just got back to K.C.

Well, here we are back in K.C. after a long and amazing ministry trip with Corey Russell and crew. We ministered in his home town of Alma, Arkansas. We ministered in a fairly good sized AG church with a head Pastor that was the sweetest man you could ever imagine. He was 82 and had probably been in the ministry for a long time. It was awesome to see the power of the Lord fall on the community and change lives in the short time while we were there. Sarah and I both went on this so it was a great oppertunity for the two of us to minister together. It was truly a great weekend we saw many youth come into the doors of the church one way and leave compleatly changed.

Now we get back into our routine of work and school and Jackson... the dog. I am going to be honest, it was nice not to think about him for a whole weekend. So anyways, I digress, i really wanted to use that word even if it did not fit, so off to bed.

Why is it that...

Why is it that in most of the Gospels whenever Jesus does a marvelous work, or casts a demon out, He tells them not to tell anyone, or tells the demon not to call Him who He is? Just a question that I throw out there.

Just a quick thought

So I wrote the other day that this would not just be another useless BLOG site and I am making the effort today to not make it that.

While re-reading through the book of Matthew today, I was struck by a verse that made me ponder it's meaning a little. I could be way off with what I am about to layout before you but this is just a thought. If every word that is written in the Bible has a purpose and there was a meaning as to why the word was indeed used, then why in Matthew 2:9, when talking about the Maji going to visit Jesus, does it give the star that was guiding them a human quality. It says and I quote "...the star they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was."

May I give a new thought in the minds of others, the thought being that the star that went before them was an angel of some sort, so bright that they could not make out the features of the angel. That all it looked like to these Maji was a bright star. Multiple commentaries explain the star off as a meteor or an anomaly like Aurora Borealis.

"As to what is here called a star, some make it a meteor, others a luminous appearance like an Aurora Borealis; others a comet! There is no doubt, the appearance was very striking: but it seems to have been a simple meteor provided for the occasion." - From Clarke's commentary about Matthew.

But my case is that the writer would not give a human quality to an inanimate object unless it was something other than just a star.

Let me know what you think...

Nerd?

Does blogging make you a nerd atomattically? Sarah seems to think so. Today she saw me updating this page and called me a nerd without even looking to see what I had said about her or what this thing is all about.

I know I said that I was not going to post usless bable but I think this is well deserved. Tell me what you think.

First BLOG

I normally hate writing or actually reading BLOG's in general because I can't stand it when people babble about nothing for a while, so I am going to try to make this about a little more than how my day was or a funny event that just happened in my life. Every now and then there might be a comment about the family and any new changes that are happening. This will be one of those posts.

As most of you know Sarah and I moved from upstate New York (where there is some change in the scenery) to Kansas City (where there is no change whatsoever). We came here with the purpose of me going to school full time towards youth ministry as well as getting some hands on experience. Well all of those plans have fallen into place. I started school last August and had a great time in my first semester. Monday starts the next semester and I am indeed looking forward to it. My first class will be New Testament Survey, which I am sure I gain mass amounts of knowledge from.

The hands on experience that i was looking for fell into place just these last few months. I hooked up Lenny LaGuardia, he is the director all the children and teen events here at the International House of Prayer, he offered me a position helping to lead the Summer Teen Intensive otherwise known as STI. We started to plan for that this month and it looks like my life is about to get hectic. It is not supposed to be a full time job but it will most likely become one. I am looking forward to it though.

Sarah is loving her job at Menorah Medical Center, I alone get to hear all the gross stories from work. No longer do either Mom or Dad have to. I count myself lucky.

Jackson is doing well, we did just have to get some special eye drops for him because of an eye infection. While we were there the doctor notcied some growths on him and said that they are not cancerous now but they could be. This dog was a problem dog from the start. Still he is a good dog.

Thats enough mumbling for now.