A Big Price!

Today is a very crazy day in European football. Transfer Deadline Day! The final day in which major football clubs can sign players this season. You can have really boring Deadline Days where nothing happens. But occasionally you get a real gem of a day where clubs keep you guessing right up until the final hour.

Today is one of those days. The main players are Liverpool's Fernando Torres, one of my favourite players (left), and Newcastle United's Andrew Carroll (right). At the time of writing they appear to be leaving for Chelsea & Liverpool (Carroll to replace Torres!) for £50,000,000 and £35,000,000 respectively.

I have read much concern over the amount of money being spent by football clubs. One work colleague suggested that those kind of sums could help feed some of Africa and that is certainly something to think about when we see such frivolity in our world on seemingly needless expenditure.

Many others have suggested that these players are not good enough to warrant those sums being spent on them, and this is what I am going to make a point about in this post.

In Football you are worth what somebody is willing to spend on you. Carroll could be one of the top strikers in the world in the next ten years and every penny spent would be worth it. Torres is one of the best strikers in the world already and if his goals fire Chelsea into the Champions League next season and to victory in it this year, he will have paid back the price already (especially as prize money is equally as exorbitant in football!).

Let's turn this around, if we are worth how much someone is willing to spend on us then how much are we worth?

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.

God considers us so valuable to Him that He was prepared to sacrifice 'his one and ONLY Son' to ensure we have the chance to have our sins forgiven and thus go to Heaven to be with Him.

The price paid for us was God Himself. This is how Jesus is described by the prophet Isaiah:-

Isaiah 9:6-7

For to us a child is born,
   to us a son is given,
   and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace
   there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
   and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
   with justice and righteousness
   from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
   will accomplish this.

I have been down on myself a lot recently but knowing God's Great Love for me has helped me through it. If you are feeling down about yourself don't forget HOW VALUABLE YOU ARE TO HIM.

Thank you Jesus!

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!

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! :)