A journey to the inside

“I felt sad that she thought that, because I knew it wouldn’t be… but she was right.

“It’s hard to imagine just how low I was. But I’m really glad I had that experience because now I can empathise with others going through it.”

Ben Adcock had gone in search of adventure. What he has discovered in the end, he says, is his sense of self.

“I don’t like to pretend I’m someone I’m not.

“It is good for people to know you can get to a really low point and then recover your life.”

***

Ben grew up looking out over Mollymook Beach.

“I was always on the beach with my family, or by myself – I loved beachcombing. I used to explore the old train line that ran along Narrawallee Beach.

“Dad taught me to surf, and he and mum would take us camping a lot.

“Looking back I think I did have an appreciation for it – but really you were just in it.”

His upbringing, admits Ben, couldn’t have been more idyllic. Despite that however, things didn’t go so smoothly in high school.

“Ulladulla High was a very different place back then."

There were many contributing factors, reflects Ben, but somewhere in his teens, he says, he lost his focus.

“I didn’t want to be mainstream and just get caught up working.

“I just wanted to travel and explore the possibilities.

“I felt there was a big adventure out there – definitely."

Ben pauses as he considers his younger self.

“You learn that life’s a big adventure.”

***

Straigh t after year 12, Ben took a job picking tobacco and hops down near Bright in Victoria’s high country.

“It was a really good experience – an introduction to the adult world and a feeling of independence.”

Then he and a mate hit the road. They made a four-month journey up the coast.

“We had a little Datsun 180B. We camped in car parks, cooked on a little gas cooker and surfed.

“Our motto was to take any coastal road that presented itself.”

Falling for a girl on the Gold Coast, Ben’s plan to keep travelling was adjusted.

“It was big stop-over.”

He got a trade as a carpet layer and settled in - though not down.

Five years later, the end of the relationship combined with “too much of the party life” saw Ben land in a heap.

“I was really not looking after myself.

RED ALERT_Day Ten_ 'RAISING THE STANDARD' — WorldViews101

FORTY-DAY GATEKEEPERS INITATIVE FOR TURTLE ISLAND_June 10-July 20, 2011

Monday, June 20, 2011_by James C. Stephens

It was said of “the sons of Issachar” that “they were men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do.”  I Chronicles 12:32

When I came to know the LORD Yeshua in 1984, the Scripture that weighed most heavily upon my soul was 2 Peter 3:10. “The Day of the LORD will come like a thief in which the heavens and earth will pass away with a roar and all the elements will be consumed with intense heat.”

Knowing this, what type of people are we to be? YHWH’s set apart people, holy people.  And yet, like Isaiah, I feel “woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean hearts.’  Rarely today have Elizabeth and I found friends who have not suffered from divorce or infidelity or some besetting sin, even in the body of Christ.  It is a difficult day.

During my early walk with Master Yeshua, I recall being deeply distressed when I began to see all of my sin. All of a sudden my despair was replaced with great joy as I realized that I could only see it because of the abiding work of the HOLY SPIRIT in my heart. At times, I grasped realities that I would share with other believers such as, “Can you believe it! Jesus is ALIVE! I mean, REALLY. He is not in the grave! He is ruling at the right Hand of YHWH and will return!” The expressions on their faces betrayed their hearts. “Yeh, so.”  WHAT?! I mean this changes everything! He is raised from the dead! He is our KING.

I began to see back then, that the Church was lukewarm. I didn’t come from a lukewarm Buddhist sect. We were zealots. How could I be any less zealous for my Savior Yeshua Ha’Moshiach, Jesus Christ of Nazareth?

We wrote tracts that spoke of our decision to follow Jesus.  We discovered on short order, that there was a Devil, and he was YHWH’s adversary.

Our first outreach in Santa Monica involved handing out literature to thousands of my former Buddhist friends who were attending a Buddhist parade. The night before our outreach, it seemed that all the forces of hell were unleashed as our son threw up on our bed, I got sick and gang members were attempting to break into an apartment above ours. We were apartment managers at the time as well. We didn’t let it stop us, but went out and shared the Gospel. I got miraculously well while witnessing.  While some of them have come to the LORD, I have recently discovered that many of them have passed away which has grieved me. It has also intensified my resolve to return to my first love, Yeshua and do the deeds I did as a young believer.

Buddhist ethics, a very short introduction

Buddhism, reincarnation, and Dalai Lamas of Tibet

Mother Jones Magazine

Themes in RE, learning from religions

Re-Enchantment, Tibetan Buddhism Comes To The West