God is like sticky glue

I have almost no bad things to say about a brisk lunchtime walk through Ponty. The fresh air, the scent, the rush of people is a different place to sitting in my office and I should do it more often!

Today I was reminiscing about recent hard times and how I managed to get through them. I think part of our human experience is to suffer tough times. Some people have it much worse than others, I see things on the News that I just couldn't imagine going through. These tough times are unwanted, yet in many cases, exactly what we need. When things go right all of the time we lose the wonderful feelings and it becomes all so normal and dull. Hard times help us appreciate the good times more.

I also believe hard times help build our characters. The Apostle Paul thought so - ^"Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." (Romans 5:3-4)

James agrees in James 1:2-4  "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

There are a lot of things I can't imagine going through, and times that are so hard maybe you don't feel anything good came out of it. I can't disagree with that because I don't know until I go through something really bad, although I rather hope I don't.

What I do know is the Bible also says this...
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

Let's not feel guilty or judged if our attitudes aren't up to scratch, as all of us fail in this regard most times. Let's enable God to set our hearts free by choosing to let Him take our problems and make good from them.

When reminiscing I was also reminded of how God is like sticky glue. When everything seems as if it is going to fall apart, He is still with me holding everything together. Even when things do appear to fall apart, it is because He wants to rebuild us better than before. I have been through that, too.

Through all of this God has been with me. He has been faithful, just as the Bible said He would (Hebrews 13:5 - I will never leave you nor forsake you) (Matthew 28:20b - I am with you always).

So I just want to thank God and give Him all the Glory for this, and everything else He has done in my life. There will always be trials, but there will always be God.

Spring Harvest

Last week I went to Butlins in Minehead for an annual event known as Spring Harvest. It is a Christian event aimed at the Church where Christians meet together for worship, teaching, encouragement and fellowship.

I went to accompany a friend and to be honest, whilst I looked forward to it, I wasn't overly excited as I had a few bad memories from being there previously (nothing to do with the event, just a personal situation I was in that partly happened during my previous time there).

Rest is also something that figures way too low on my list of priorities!

But, PRAISE GOD, I had a wonderful time!

The Big Top where the main services are held

So many wonderful things happened during my five days there. Firstly, God encouraged me so much spiritually. The last few months have been very busy and demanding for me so I really needed God to remind me how much He loved me and to encourage me that He is using me for lots of good and will continue to do so. I felt so empowered in pretty much every area of my spiritual walk but most particularly in prayer. I saw that it was a tool from God that I had not utilized enough in my life.

The Bible teacher at Week 3 was Stephen Goukroger. Gaukroger is an experienced Bible teacher who preached coherently, sensibly and humourously showing a great love and enthusiasm for scripture which inspired me in my own love for scripture.

God also helped me rest. I do so much and it was nice just to sit back and let things happen without having to do something myself. To prove He really worked magic, I felt great in work yesterday and was noticeably (in my eyes anyway!) more productive!

My kind of deckchair! Just my size!!

God also helped me banish the bad memories. I was staying with a close friend of mine and also had other close friends on site and we had a lot of great moments...getting our faces painted (or in Adrian's case...his arm...coward :P), mucking about on the fairground rides, Football tournaments, swimming. I can now go back to Spring Harvest and think about those times rather than the past ones. Thank you Lord!

Feeling tigerish

So I just want to thank the Lord for a brilliant time (He always works when we are a bit reluctant to go somewhere...maybe that's something for us all to think about! Think about Jonah..his teaching saved a whole city) and encourage everyone that wherever you are or whatever has happened...God has a way out for you and we just need to keep seeking Him out and walking with Him to find the light in the darkness :)

Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

To be honest...

I am just going to come out with it today, today has been hard!

• Still not sleeping well because of the cold, constantly cold in the house and it is making me ill!
• Gutted about England losing the World Cup bid. I didn't think I would care at all, let alone this much. I think the fact we only got two votes when we clearly had the best bid was very hard to take.
• Got my university books today - four books, four hundred pages each! Lots of work to do, it was a big shock but I know I can do it. Going to be tough though and sacrifices will have to be made.
• Not feeling right before God, just was unusually bitter over the World Cup stuff earlier and constantly feel I am not going the right way before God. Judging myself & being harsh on myself is exactly NOT what God wants me to do so I feel worse! God even spoke that to me last week!

I don't like saying stuff like this because I feel it burdens & discourages others but I am not a liar and I refuse to be a dishonest person so rather than come out and pretend everything is great I will write the truth, which is a passion of mine. I love truth, Jesus is truth and I know I have to be a genuine & honest person too if I want to be like Him.

What is good about being honest is that the Christians among you will pray for me and God always answers prayer! Maybe not always in the way we would like. But I know for sure that He listens and our sometimes inane (well mine anyway!) ramblings are important to Him :)

What is also great about being bad is that God is so good in the bad times. Looking back, one of my favourite times of my life was a time of great sadness because God revealed Himself so much to me through it. He is always there, helping us get as much good from it as possible and come through it in His time :)

It is summed up in this:-

2 Corinthians 12:10
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

One of my bestest friends loves this verse and I can definitly see why, it so true, so powerful & so comforting in our trials :)

Also (the verses are coming to me now!)

Romans 8:18 - I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

and my favourite right now:-

James 1:2-3 - Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Tomorrow's a new day! Bring it on...