Tough Times!

In September I started the next step of my journey to becoming a fully qualified accountant. I have started the ACCA course at Year Two (I got to skip the 1st year because of my AAT qualification), there are four years to this course so it will take time to complete.

Anyway, this course is very challenging and at times I am like 'What is this!?!?'
It is very easy to believe that you have no chance and might as well give up, but it is a lie. Today was very tough again but I found myself starting to get the stuff I was being taught more & more and am feeling much happier & more confident about it all.

In life, we have massive up & downs and I feel it is best to not get carried away with both, especially the downs. I remember that my life is in God's Hands and whether I succeed or fail He has a great plan for me and will not forget about me.

Jeremiah 29:11 - 'For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'

This always gives me strength & hope for the future and you know what? Things always do end up working out, even if something goes wrong I find its wasn't such a bad thing for me not to go in that direction :)

I love Vicky Beeching (above), her songs and her amazing hairdo that I think makes her look a bit like a wasp! One of my favourite songs that she has sung is called 'Twenty Six Summers'. It is a song full of hope for the future and I think the first verse is the best verse I have ever heard:-

I don’t know what the future holds
or what lies beyond my horizon
The years ahead are just out of sight
Well, I think sometimes that You hide them
So that I’ll walk by faith not sight
So that I’ll take Your hand, holding tight

Praise God!

Imagine if...

I'm asking you to use your brains for this post! I know, it's hard! I'm still trying to find mine!!

But imagine if God had facebook!

Imagine if one day He posted as His status :- 'Like my status and I'll tell you what I like about you'.

You will probably recognise that status as something that gets posted up a lot on facebook these days. As human beings, we love approval. It means that we must be doing something right in our lives and gives us confidence. Whilst I love people being encouraged & built up, I get an uncomfortable feeling seeing these statuses.

The reason for this is:- What makes their opinion better than others?

We're never going to please everyone in life no matter what we do, so there will always be people ready to say unpleasant things about us. So whose opinion really counts?

This brings me back to God's facebook! His opinion counts more because He is bigger & better than us and that He knows everything.
If we 'liked' this 'status of God's, what would He say? Maybe He might say one of these...

Isaiah 43:4
Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Picture of the Day

I have decided to make sundays a picture day for the blog.

This week I wanted to include a picture from my time in Uganda three years ago.

This is me planting a tree at a school with one of the schoolchildren. I imagine the tree is still there, maybe a lot bigger now, and it bears my name.

When God made Himself known in the Old Testament the people regularly built an altar to commemorate it. Maybe you have places that remind you of stuff you love & cherish or great moments in your life. We should thanks God for those things.

If you have committed yourself to Jesus Christ, there is a place stored up for you in Heaven. Let's be thankful for that today also :D

Courts & Dwelling Places

Psalm 84:10 - Better is one day in your courts
   than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
   than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

This has been a great day. It all started not long after I woke up from a rare lie-in (woohoo!) and I decided to spend some time with God and prioritise Him before anything else. It was only about 10 minutes because a fly started buzzing and putting me off so I went downstairs, but what a 10 minutes it was!
Usually I'll wake up on these kind of quiet days and be 'meh' for the first few hours of the day and do nothing productive and generally feel awkward with nothing to do but today I just felt amazing and so in control and prepared for whatever :)

I went for some prayer later on and yet again it was an amazing time. The only possible reason I can think of for the amazingness of it is that God was there!

My problem is I am terrible at prioritising prayer and generally it means that it ends up the bottom of the pile underneath a rather unflattering list of work, facebook and anything else that can distract me from it. I believe prayer is so powerful and can change everything but my life doesn't reflect it anywhere what it should. I believe prayer is a lost art of the Church and we should take advantage of it more often, me definitly included!!

If we take Jesus at His Word, then prayer should absolutely be a priority:-

Mark 11:22-24
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly^[a] I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

So let's get on those knees more often!!

Psalm 84:1-2

 ¹ How lovely is your dwelling place,
   LORD Almighty!
² My soul yearns, even faints,
   for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
   for the living God.

Snow, Glorious Snow!

'Snow's gone!' one of my colleagues stated to me at around 12.40pm this afternoon. We had just had our first snow of the Festive season, didn't go on for long and looked to have stopped. Funny how things can change so quickly in life. 3 hours later I was on my way home as the snow built up around us. Some very dodgy moments were experienced going down Graigwen Hill!

Anyhow, I had two great realisations on the way home.

Firstly, what comfort it is to trust in God. On Graigwen Hill there were points where I seemed helpless to stop my car sliding down the hill into the wall. I am sure many people would have panicked and feared in such a situation and once upon a time that would have been me. Before I left, I prayed for my safety driving and for others safety too and those scary moments came, I stuck to my faith in God and believed that I would get out of this okay. Needless to say, Me & Car are safe at home writing this now!

Secondly, God always provides. Last weekend I went to a youth conference with my friend Alun, it was truly amazing but it was very tiring after a tiring week of work and I kind went straight from that into another tough week of work so I am READY for a rest now! This didn't look likely with a busy-ish weekend ahead but the snow has meant some of my things have been called off. Whilst I miss those things, I look to God in thankfulness for this rest as it was truly needed!

I did take some pictures of me and my car in snow on my phone, but I cannot find the connector to get them to the laptop so you'll have to make do with another picture for now. I promise to put the pictures on here when I can!

This is me and one of my bestest friends Caitlin. She has had a tough week being in charge of her family's thanksgiving this week so I hope this picture makes her smile!! :D

Plus, she gave me a lovely write-up on her blog and I have to pay her back somehow!

Thanksgiving!

Even though I don't live in America, I think it is certainly right to think of things I am thankful for today:-

- God, the very fact He exists which means there is hope for this world, hope in any situation and that through Him we find purpose in our lives. I have found and been given this hope so thank you God!

- Jesus, paying the price for my sins is something I never want to stop thanking Him for.

- The Word of God, because faith comes from reading it and my faith in Jesus has changed my life & given me a Eternal life I scarcely deserve.

- My friends, the ones I really miss and the ones I am privileged to get to see often. You know who you are & I love you and thank God for you!

- My family, couldn't have been brought up in a better one. I know most people say that but I am just so glad I am part of 'most people' on this issue. They have loved me & given me a wonderful foundation to live life on.

- PCY & Genesis Youth Groups. Not the groups as such but the people involved in them, the fun we have and the things we are achieving. So proud of you all!

- My job. It's an enjoyable job & it challenges me. As far as work gets it is pretty good! Plus, we should be thankful in any job in these times.

- Getting to do a Uni course, a fantastic challenge that I have always desired and I am so lucky to have such supportive employers.

- My car, without it I couldn't do hardly any of the stuff I do!

- The Church, nearly every Church I attend is such a wonderful fellowship and I am blessed everytime!

- The future - Jeremiah 29:11

 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

- The past.. all I have learnt, all that I can remember fondly.

- Lewis Hamilton - so great the best F1 driver going is British! After years of watching Schumacher be the best it is nice to actually be able to support the best driver!

- Cardiff City - doing very well this season. Keep it up boys!

- Youth conference, what a wonderful weekend and Praise God for what He did in me!

I might have missed stuff, I am sorry if I have!

God Bless you all, be safe! :)

A Good Deal!

I have been thinking about blogging for ages and I've got to the point where it is constantly on my mind  and I keep thinking up posts. So I am taking it as a sign that now is the right time to do it!

One of my closest friends is Mr Alun Davies. Alun is known for many things in my area. Being the incredible leader of PCY and everything to do with that for the last 11 years. His amazing appetite! His competitiveness. His passion for Jesus & Scripture. Being someone you can always count on and being such a big positive influence in so many peoples lives (including mine). I was really humbled to be asked to speak at his wedding earlier this year.

Here is Alun at another friends birthday earlier this year:-

Another thing Alun is famous for is that he always looks for the best deal and enjoys capturing a bargain. For example, he dislikes going to the cinema any other day than Wednesday because it is more expensive.

My point in writing about Alun is not only to thank him for all he has done for me and many others, but to make this point.

I think many people think Christianity is not a good deal. People think of 'rules', 'boring' service & 'joyless' Church members and then think of all the 'fun' they would have to give up and write it off.

This is not only such a misrepresentation of what the Church is but also incorrect. Christianity is the best deal ever. The very proof of that is that Alun is a follower of Christ. He never misses a good deal!

As human beings we are imperfect and make many mistakes, this is what the Bible calls 'sin'. Our sin puts a barrier between us & God because God is so Perfect & Holy He cannot be in the presence of something imperfect & sinful. To get to Heaven, we need to live a perfect life so we're stuffed there as well. However God came as Jesus Christ to this earth and paid the price for all our sin, so we can have be forgiven and have a relationship with Him and go to Heaven. Jesus exchanged His perfect life for our sin. What a great deal!!

If you want to know more about God, forgiveness & Eternal life just ask!