God’s Faithfulness

2 Timothy 2: 11 – 13

11 This is a faithful saying:

For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
12 If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
13 If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself

How amazing is God?  Even if we forget Him and go against His plan for us, He still remains faithful . It is important to note that we choose to either be a part of His blessing and plan, or go against Him.  If we go against Him, He will find someone else to take the blessing.  For example, Moses was told to speak to Pharaoh, yet He felt He was not brave enough and asked for someone else.  Read about it here in Exodus 4.

That is not the topic for today though.  The topic is about my faithfulness to God and yours.  God has done AMAZING things in my life, and like the cup-bearer in the life of Joseph, I forgot to remind people about His power.  You can read that here, particular attention to verse 23.

What I am going to do, is create a list of what has happened and How God provided.  This list is not even a portion of what God has done, but what I remembered.  I always tell people to write down the amazing blessings God bestows, but I myself have been busy not to.  I was Joseph cup-bearered?

The list obviously only applies to me.  My opinions will not be what you might think, but under the circumstances and in hindsight, they have been bountiful.

In the first year I lived in England I wanted to move back to America desperately.  Dal and I filed paperwork, but Dal fell pregnant with our first son Joshua, so we were unable to get the medical exam because they needed to take an x-ray, which she couldn’t have at the time because she was pregnant.  When we called to reschedule after, they said we were not even in the system.  This is while I was holding the legal document with our reference number and other information.  We prayed God would show us where He wanted us to live, it was Coventry.  I tried to run away, He called me back.  I got Jonah’d.

My wife Dal and I prayed for a child.  On March 25, 2011, Joshua Patrick Youssef was born.

My wife Dal and I prayed for another child.  On October 16, 2012, Anthony Patrick Youssef was born.

Anthony was born with a cyst on his right lung, but God provided an amazing angel in a friend of ours, who had gotten a job at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and really helped us get the right appointments.  Not to mention all the other doctor friends we have for advice.  Thank God, Anthony is now healed and growing perfectly.

God wanted me to serve a the Church in Birmingham for the last 4 years.  I haven’t.  It wasn’t until I heard a sermon by Abouna Anthony on the parable of the talents.  I did not want to let God down, so have now taken a more active role in the Church.

God has reopened my eyes to the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

We bought a house.  Ours was viewed and sold within a month.  We found our beautiful new house, made an offer, it was accepted.  This all happened within 6 months.  I have friends that have had their house on the marked for 2 years now.

God allowed us to repaint, and update the house in 1 month, including putting in a new boiler, buying, assembling, and moving in all the furniture.

I got a job, in the equivalent of an inner D.C. school, in Coventry.  It’s hard work, but it has no doubt made me a better teacher, person, and child of God.  The administration is tops as well.

I took my driving license test, after 4 classes, and passed.  Only 1 minor fault for signalling to early.

God blessed us with a great trade in for our car, and an even better car.

Our child minder resigned and Dal and I only had about 2 weeks to find a new one.  He has since provided us with a nursery, close to home, good rates, and good hours of operation.

Numerous times we have lost items, that we have prayed for and found.  This ranges from lost hats, gloves, keys, to parking spaces, and items in the store that were “sold out.”

Sadly this is nothing compared to everything He has done.  As I said in the beginning.  He is faithful.  I haven’t been.

I will try and update this more often, because God deserves to be glorified and remembered.

If you have anything you want to share, please do so in the comments.  If not, please, please, please keep a list of how God has answered your prayers, so when it comes to the big decisions and choices in your life, it will be easy to ask for God’s help.  The good part is, you will know He will answer, and it will be the best choice.  More than likely, the one you never even thought about.

Video Game Stories and Endings

I haven’t had the time to play, let alone beat numerous video games, and wondered if the game was worth playing.  Now there is a website I view to see movie endings. www.moviepooper.com so why not one for games?  So I am going to start one here.  I will just, as I beat or find, the game storyline and ending and post it here.  Like always, add your own through the comments and I will upload them.

Old School Songs

So recently I have had all these old school songs stuck in my head.  By old school I mean within the last 15 years roughly going all the way back to 1995.  I know, we’re all getting old.  Anyway I decided to put a few up that I have been thinking about, and if you would like to add any, please post a comment.  Old music was the best, this new stuff is garbage.

Also before “Now that’s What I call Music” comes and steals this track listing, i’m going to post it first.

These songs are not edited, so there are explicit lyrics.

trade it all – fabolous, p. diddy, jagged edge

you don’t have to call – usher

i need a girl – p. diddy, usher, loon

hey lover – ll cool j

love you better – ll cool j

there she goes – babyface

california love – 2pac and dr. dre

just lose it – eminem

it wasn’t me – shaggy

raise up – petey pablo

ugly – bubba sparxx

who do you love – ll cool j

i wish – r kelly

if i ruled the world – nas and lauryn hill

ready or not – fugees

every morning – sugar ray

someday – sugar ray

falls apart – sugar ray

crawing in the dark – hoobastank

the reason – hoobastank

running away – hoobastank

drive – incubus

i wish – skee lo – requested by tony rezk

go baby – lupe fiasco – mark “teddy bear” tadros

Fun Videos

I was recently watching the Royal Variety Show with my wife over here in England and came across two amazing acts.

The first is called Shadow Dancing by a group called Pilobolus

The next is a Canadian group called Traces, click here to find more of them on youtube.com

And lastly is sand drawings on an overhead

Enjoy 🙂

Heaven

So recently I was at Church and was talking with the priest about the topic of Heaven.  He gave an example that was so good that it really made me stop and wonder whether or not I am ready.

Once there was a kingdom who elected a new king every 3 years.  This king would rule over the people for 3 years making sure everything was in order, all taxes were collected, all lawful matters were judged equally, and there was peace within the land.  At the same time he was able to live the life of a king, gold, silver, crowns, robes, feasts, everything.  After 3 years the king would have to leave the kingdom and be put on an island which was not properly upket.  Trees were never trimmed, there were wild animals, no running water, no houses, no roads, just an island with nothing but the absolute basics to survive.

As one king was chosen, he served his three years and left to this island, and what did he find? Vines, moss, insects eating the plants and vegetation, he found a horrible island.  Yet there was one king who was very smart.  When this king was elected the first thing he declared right away was going to make the rest of his life after being king easier.  So what did he do?

This king went to the island, tore down the trees and built a castle in its place.  He plowed fields and built up pens for animals to graze.  He transferred some of the riches to the island so he would be able to trade later.  Why did he do this?  He knew where his final destination was and started to prepare for it.  Is that what we do with our spiritual lives?  Do we really focus on the end and Heaven?

I think if we did, we would have more joy in our lives.  How can someone not be joyful at the thought of Heaven?  Think about what will be there: God, God’s family, all the Saints and Martyrs that founded the Church, the mansion that Christ has prepared for us, all the Heavenly hosts, peace.

I think if you haven’t done so already, or even in a while, just sit down for a bit and imagine what Heaven is going to be like.  Compare it now to the life you lead and see if it is going to be better and how you can prepare yourself.  If you are like the first king in the story and get caught up in the worldly pleasures now, maybe Heaven isn’t for you (I am not judging, only God is the judge, but those that want separation from God here will probably want separation from God in the after life, though He wants us all to be with Him).  If you want to prepare for Heaven and focus on the things to come, start now.  Start with the image of Heaven and getting to know who else will be on the island with you, so when you get there it wont be strange, but even better than the kingdom you once ruled.

What is good?

Recently I was reading a book and the question posed was, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

So I put my book down, put my right pointer finger on my top lip and began to think.

The first thing that I thought about were people who I know are good and why I think they are good.  They are good because they help others, put others before themselves, and never seem stressed or upset.  BUT this is only what I see in the open, nothing behind the scenes.  Who is to say that they are doing the right thing 100% of the time?  Maybe in their alone time they are doing bad things, maybe not, but can anybody be good all of the time?

So then I thought about God.  God is constant.  God is good.  He created EVERYTHING and said it was good.  You might have to reread that.  Everything WAS good.  Everything was created according to His plan with their individual purpose to glorify Him and praise Him (This can be found here in Genesis 1 and 2).  So at one point everything was good, but then something happened, man ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Man now knew between good, God, and evil, everything not aimed at or focusing on God.

So then my question is, who is good?  Christ Himself said, “There is only One who is good,” (Matthew 19:17).  Can I then call myself good when compared to God?  I can make choices and decisions that I think are “good” based on my opinion about a situation, BUT what’s good for me in a certain situation is not good for someone else, therefore my definition of good is based on my personal judgement on a matter based under certain circumstances.  Yet God is constant, His essence is love and goodness, and therefore the only goodness.

I know this is a tough subject to grasp, but, when thinking about it, God wants us to be close to Him, close to His Son Jesus Christ, and uses the Holy Spirit to work in us to make us “good” or as “good” as we allow ourselves to be with the everyday choices we make.  The closer to God we get, the more refined and purified we become, the better we become to His original plan for us.  That is why God allows bad things to happen to good people, because no one is good outside of God’s grace and those bad things are for our benefit to us.  “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you,” (1 Peter 5:10).  But have no fear, because when things get to tough He is there for us and even says “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you,” (1 Peter 5:7)

So ask yourself, “Am I really good?  Are the choices I make good?  Is there anything good outside of God?”  You might be surprised st the answer.

 

Please comment and hopefully we can discuss 🙂

First day of work tomorrow

By God’s grace I will have my first day of work tomorrow teaching a 5th grade class.  We’ll see how the school system and students are compared to America’s 🙂

God’s Hand in the Small Things

Sitting in her house unused for a year and a half, the power wash remained unused.

Upon moving in to my wife’s house I opened the power wash thinking we would use it a lot.

After sitting again unused for yet another 4 months, we decided to return it.

This power wash was a free gift from Dal’s car insurance, yet it was of no benefit for us because we don’t have a nozzle for an outside hose.  So after a year and a half we decided to return it to the store.  Upon looking at the retail price, £100 we thought we would get maybe half because it was an old power wash.  This is what happened…

Our first attempt was good, BUT we needed the power wash with us that day.  We didn’t have it.

The second attempt, we had the power wash, BUT they wouldn’t return it without a receipt.

So Dal and I prayed about it and left it to God.

The third attempt occurred after a prayer meeting at Church.  It was about 9 at night and we said let’s just try and see what happens.  As we take the power wash in the store, the customer service girl scans it and it comes up as £120.  They said they couldn’t give us a receipt so we had to use the credit at the exact same time.

God blessed us with £120 to spend at a store similar to Wal-Mart in the states.  It was perfect.  We were able to buy work clothes all for free.

Something so big to us is so small to God.  God could have easily given us £20, £50, or £100 if He wanted, but this shows that God is a part of our lives in even the small things.  God is the best, hands down.

10 months later

It has been about 10 months since my last post and a lot has happened since.  Previously I was engaged, and now I am married.  Previously I was living in America, and now I am living in England.  Previously I was a teacher working at Little Flock Christian School, and now I am waiting for all my papers to get through.

Now a lot has changed not only from the above mentioned but spiritually as well.  About 2 years ago I was unemployed and had all the time in the world to get closer to God, but I didn’t  This time (for the most part) I have used my time wisely and began to read up on Church history and more spiritual books.  2 that I would recommend so far and by the same author (Lee Strobel) are:

The Case for Christ

The Case for Faith

These books reinforce and reaffirm what we believe and why.  The Case for Christ is a “scholarly” based book looking at all aspects of Jesus Christ’s life and then investigating and interviewing scholars and their resources.  Examples include: whether or not Christ did resurrect, was Christ really the Son of God, and was Jesus really dead before He was taken off of the cross.

The Case for Faith is a more philosophical book looking at the evidence for why we should have faith and believe in the existence of God.

I just pray that we all learn to read more and take our faith more seriously.  The more we find out about God the deeper we can understand why He loves us so much and why He wants to keep being a part of our lives.

Random clips

Recently I was watching the ___ craziest reality tv moments on VH1 or something similar to that, and a British fellow sang Nessun Dorma.  For those that don’t know the song off hand, it’s from an opera called Turandot.  Once you hear the song you will probably recognize it.

Here is a version by Pavarotti.

Then I said to myself, what about Ava Maria, another aria piece I love.  Upon searching I came across this piece by Bono and Pavarotti.

So then I reached into the dark recesses of my mind and remembered this clip, I have no idea how.  This is from a show in England called the X Factor.  Just watch the clip 🙂

My, my, my, look how many links there are to click this time.  So if you’re bored at work and are really interested please “indulge” yourself in the links 🙂