Fighting Unfit

Well it's been such a long time since a post, heck I'm even surprised I am even writing this post as it has been so long and I thought this blog was behind me!

Today hasn't been a great day because I have been ill but I always find I am more reflective when I am ill.

A lot has happened since my last post, the most life changing of these things being my marriage to the wonderful Caitlin :)

With the marriage we moved to a new house in a place called Tremorfa. Tremorfa means 'sea town' in Welsh and it is in the south easterly part of Cardiff about a mile from the city centre. It has a reputation for being rough and sometimes peoples attitudes towards it remind me of the way the Jews spoke of Nazareth in the Bible. So far we have only found some of the loveliest people and had no problems whatsoever, our God is mighty.

We moved to Tremorfa to be a part of Belmont Baptist Church and Ignite's mission to bring the Gospel and God's blessing (for there are many blessings along with salvation!) to an area with 91% unemployment (according to one survey I read) and allegedly 2/3 illiteracy.

I can already see and, I truly believe, God's work in this area and it is such a blessing to be a part of it with such a wonderful group of brothers and sisters in Christ.

However because of this, the enemy is at work. Satan will hate nothing more than his strongholds that cause the awful things that have afflicted the world and particularly this area of it being demolished by God's work through us.

I realised today that the spiritual battle is alive within me, I realised that those moments of self doubt, temptation to do other things than be with God and unwise or fearful choices I have made have been, in part, Satan fighting against me.

There is a problem when you are in a fight but more so when you don't know you are in one.

Please pray for me that God's will shall be done in my life, in our lives as a married couple and in this lovely area that we now call home.

Christian brothers and sisters, know the battles you are fighting, give them to God and fight the good fight of faith.

Those who don't know God, know that you too are in a spiritual battle. Satan would hate nothing more than for God to be in your life and for you to be blessed beyond all recognition and bless others as a result.

1 Timothy 6:12
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

John 3:16-17
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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

God is still here!

It's been a looooong time since I have last posted so it seems very fitting to update you on what's going on in my life.

You may have noticed (and even 'liked') the following verse posted by my Facebook page earlier today:-

Isaiah 41:10

So do not fear, for I am with you;    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.I will strengthen you and help you;    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

I think this verse is one I will attach to the last two years. In these two years I have had to make some difficult decisions, struggle through some difficult moments and endure pressure beyond what I have had in my life before.

In these years I have been far from the ideal servant, whilst everything has eventually made it's way to God's hands sometimes I was reluctant. Sometimes you think you can handle it or it's too small for God but when it's too small for God it often then snowballs into becoming too big for you. The pressure and time needed to concentrate on my exams has meant less time for God and important disciplines in my life being disrupted, many of which I am still trying to rebuild now.

However I can comfortably, easily and safely say that despite my shortcomings, despite my reduced situation at some points, God has been here. He has been my God. He has strengthened me and upheld me with his righteous right hand!

Around last October God gave me notice. He told me that my life was going to change and I should expect it. I appreciated this because I always find change hard to adjust to.

God has again been as good as His word. I managed to pass my exams and become a fully qualified accountant. My girlfriend and myself found an opportunity to serve God in one of the most deprived areas of Cardiff, Tremorfa. She is moving to this country to live and serve there in 11 days time. I will be joining her in serving and striving to join her living there as soon as I can. It is something I have always dreamed of doing and since we have started going up there seeing the area, the Church and the fellowship it has only further confirmed that this is where God wants us each time. I am very excited to have Caitlin in the same place but even more excited for how God can use us and the people already serving in Tremorfa to further His Kingdom.

Furthermore, since I am qualified my role at work is set to advance further which is exciting but also scary since I am certainly having to come more and more out of comfort zones.

Lastly and more trivially, our much loved family cat sadly passed away and our much loved football team, Cardiff City, made it to the Premier League.

So, as you can see, change is afoot!

Cardiff City are a good symbol for the last two years of my life. It was a long, long struggle with much patience needed and many low points along the way but they finally did it and whilst I have needed much patience and had some low points over the last two years, God hasn't let me down and has me exactly where He wants me. Only by His Grace and Power.

My message simply is, don't give up on God, don't even be negative about the state of your life. God is looking out for you, He is there for you, His righteous right hand is upholding you at whatever moment you are at in life right now.

Our individual 3-2 wins over Man City are coming in that blind but beautiful future ahead of us, but only by God's Grace.

God's Got This One

I'm going to be a little soppy here, and this is against what I usually like to do when writing or posting in the public domain but I'm just going to come out with it....I'm in love.

Most of you know it, some may not know much about it but there is a girl who I am crazy about, who I cherish every second of being with, who I can't get enough of even if it is just on Facebook chat, who I think is the most beautiful person to ever existed in the whole wide world (Jesus aside), who makes me laugh, who encourages me, who loves me more than I could have imagined a girl loving me. 

We live in different countries, we are from different continents but we both know Jesus, we both accept Him as our Lord & Saviour and we both desire to love Him above all others. The different country thing is something we want to change but the more we find out about being in the same place, the harder we realise it will be. This has been very hard & discouraging at times and it has been especially hard the last few days as we find out even more.

We feel God has brought us together and called us together and we are trusting Him in this but it is hard for us both.

Tonight I went out to spend time with God and He showed me several things.

Firstly, I have become so consumed with the worry about this and thinking about this that I had forgotten what God has actually put me here for...to worship Him and to glorify Him. I have not been doing that in this situation.

Secondly, I have been chasing fulfillment in being in the same place as my love rather than in the arms of my first love, my true & eternal love, Jesus Christ. This has led to me being unhappy as only Christ can fulfill us and further away from glorifying Him.

Thirdly, God is SO BIG. There is nothing He cannot conquer and nothing that even comes close to standing against Him. If this is God's Will as we both believe it to be then He will make this happen in His perfect timing. It is so easy to forget that.

I feel a lot better now Praise God, He has led me back to where I need to be, where I should be which is focusing on Him and His Perfect Love and loving Him with every ounce I have and achieving what He desires me to achieve. He will sort out the rest because He is Good and can give us more than can ever hope for or imagine and He gives us good gifts. God has got this one and I look forward to seeing what He does. One day we can look back at this post and Praise God for His Power and faithfulness!

Maybe you are consumed by something that is distracting you from what you are meant to be doing, maybe you are chasing fulfillment in the wrong thing and maybe you are overlooking God's Power in the problems of life.

If that is you then maybe God is speaking to you through this post, urging you onwards to His arms where He will say, 'I got this one!'.

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.