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.

Who does he think he is?

"I was kind of in a bad mood and when he brings on [Nigel] de Jong and takes off [Edin] Dzeko, and we're losing 2-0, I thought it was a defensive substitution so I decided to sit back on the bench," he said.

"At the same time Dzeko comes off and is really angry and has a go at Mancini. He then sees the tunnel is closed so he has to sit down next to him and they start to have an argument.

"Dzeko was speaking Bosnian and Mancini would swear at him in Italian so it was a real mess. So I go and sit down and he doesn't see me because he's having this discussion. But then he turns around and sees me and you can imagine what happens.

"He's in the middle of an argument so then he tells me to keep on warming up and treats me like a dog.

"So when he spoke to me in that tone of voice, and I said 'No, I'm not going out'. So I was willing to play, but the coach was in such a foul mood because he had that argument with Dzeko.

These were the words of Carlo Tevez, Premier League leaders Manchester City's around £200,000 a week striker who is currently on strike having been disciplined for the refusal he outlined above. 

I couldn't believe the cheek of his words, refusing to warm up just because his boss spoke to him rudely. If my boss asked me to do something rudely, I might be irritated but I would do it because ultimately he is the one who signs my cheque, a cheque which is around 1/800th of Tevez's weekly wage. It would take me 20 years to earn what he does in a week. 

But this is the world we live in today. The common mindset is that it is all about us, we treat ourselves like God and anybody or anything that doesn't fit in with our desires is rejected.

G.K. Chesterton said, 'For when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything'. In today's selfish world that includes ourselves, woman, drink, drugs, careers, sports team and many other unworthy things.

When we seek proof for the existence of God, we put God on trial. And guess who is the judge? We make ourselves God and even if we find the proof we need it still isn't good enough because when we see something negative it brings us back down. There is plenty of great, reliable evidence for God and plenty of good answers to the difficult questions but when we depend on our own judgement alone we will never submit to God in our lives. Submitting to God means denying our own judgement and trusting Him alone regardless of what we hear and see, making Him God of our lives. 

We know He is real, let's truly put our trust in Him :-)


The greatest act of faith takes place when a man finally decides that he is not God.Johann Wolfgang Goethe