The glory of God

This morning by a seemingly natural course of events I wound up reading Isaiah 43 as my morning devotions. And more specifically verses one to seven. This chapter pretty much sums up why God created us. I mean why would God make us? We must have a purpose. God does nothing randomly like we may do, he is not led by impulse and whatever takes his fancy; Everything he does is carefully planned and apart of a far larger plan that he formed before the foundations of the earth were even laid.

Now, this is what the Lord says,

the one who created you, O Jacob,

and formed you, O Israel:

“Don’t be afraid, for I will protect you.

I call you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I am with you;

when you pass through the streams, they will not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;

the flames will not harm you.

For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your deliverer.

I have handed over Egypt as a ransom price,

Ethiopia and Seba  in place of you.

Since you are precious and special in my sight, 

and I love you,

I will hand over people in place of you,

nations in place of your life.

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.

From the east I will bring your descendants;

from the west I will gather you.

I will say to the north, ‘Hand them over!’

and to the south, ‘Don’t hold any back!’

Bring my sons from distant lands,

and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth,

everyone who belongs to me,

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed – yes, whom I made!

Isaiah 43v1-7

We are made in God's image. And an image is created in order to point back to the original. So we are to reflect, like a mirror, God's glory. Through what we do and say. We are to be like God, to imitate his attributes and live according to his will.

The world around us is spectacular! Think of all the billions of stars, or the Niagara falls, the green rolling landscape of New Zealand, the Northern lights, the oceans so deep they cannot be explored, or the simple everyday things such as sunrise and sunset, the sun and moon. Everything displays his might and majesty. We are apart of his creation. Are one purpose is to worship and glorify God. God doesn't need us, but he wanted to display his mercy and grace.

The Northern Lights.

He accomplishes this through his redemptive plan; through the crucifixion of his one and only son. This sacrifice reveals his faithfulness, love, grace and abounding mercy. Nothing that we truly deserve. God, the most holy one, owed us nothing, yet he did this for us. When we were nothing but dead in our transgressions.

China

God's ultimate glorification comes through the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross as a way for all those who believe in him, but repent of their sins will have eternal life. This act displays the grace that is literally lavished upon us. We have been given so much grace we are practically drowning in it. We did not deserve salvation, why do we so often think that God owes us?
This is God's world and he can do as he sees fit. We cannot demand from him, and insist he do what we want. We are not in control; he is.

This passage speaks primarily of the nation Israel, and how God will never abandon her, and how he has preserved her through so many hardships and difficulties. And even though this doesn't directly apply to Christians, we can draw encouragement and hope from this passage because it tells us why people were made. And it reminds us that even though we are fickle and break our promises to each other, God is always faithful and he never breaks his word. If we have been saved, he won't let us go.

I am here to display God's love and mercy. Are you?

Does your life reflect the salvation that you have received from Christ? Mine often doesn't, it is something I fail at daily.

Machu Pichu in Peru

The Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

A prayer request

I am normally fairly anonymous on my blog. I prefer to be unknown, however I have a big request of anyone who reads this.
My family is trying to save enough money in order for my Dad to study for his MDiv (Master of Divinity) at the Master's Seminary in LA, California.
We will need a not so small miracle to be able to move to California and to pay the tuition fees, getting a place at the Seminary was the easy part! 

I just want to ask for your prayers, they are deeply coveted right now. 

Check out the information page here,

 Supporting the Forsyth family through Seminary

Thank you =)

The Winco and Trader Joe's experience!

So, I've been in the US of A for over a month, and I had never been to Winco or Trader Joe's! How bad is that, right?! Pretty awful, especially for a complete foodie like myself. So a couple of nights ago I went with two friends to both Winco and Trader Joe's. And let me tell you, this country just gets better and better, and hasn't disappointed as yet.

Winco is so big and awesome! On the down note, I found out I had paid a lot more for my organic creamy peanut butter online, and left Winco with a very large jar of Adams crunchy peanut butter. When I see peanut butter, I get peanut butter. But anyway, they have these huge bins of nuts, granola, dried fruit, grains, seeds, everything!! They even had chili coated mango?! Yes! And you could buy chocolate by the pound. For the record, dark chocolate coated strawberries are divine. Fact.
And then they had fridges full of almond milk and, even better, coconut milk. Hmmmmmm, hmm.

But then we hopped back into the car and went to Trader Joe's. I guess it's like Wholefoods but a little cheaper. They have some amazing dark chocolate bars, imported from Belgium, naturally.

All this, and it wasn't even 7:30pm.

I was also introduced to organic peanut butter panda puffs! It is so lush! I had it in a mug with coconut milk. It's like that really unhealthy, too sweet golden nuggets cereal back in England, but a hundred times better. And um, eating cereal from a mug is so cool, go try it.
also what I love about this cereal is that it doesn't have bucket loads of sugar, which would give me a headache, it is sweetened with cane juice, which although not ideal is far better and healthier than what they could put in it.

So this was pretty much the highlight of my weekend; don't judge, you know you're jealous!

Letters from home

I got post this week. I was so excited to have a little brown envelope with a Royal mail stamp in the upper right hand side! Inside were three letters; one from each of my youngest siblings.

I was so happy! A letter is like your character bound up in ink. You can convey who you are through the words you choose. A letter is so personal and means so much. It's like sitting next to that person and having a conversation with them, albeit a one sided conversation.
Reading my three letters was like spending minutes with them, talking to them, enjoying their time. They took time out of their day to remember me, and took the effort to let me know that they missed and loved me. They love me enough to give up their time to make sure I don't feel forgotten and unloved.
The Atlantic ocean is vast, yet I feel the love of my siblings, trussed up in paper and ink. It's incredible how such small things bring happiness to one's heart and brightens everything around you.

Learning to trust

Sometimes God takes you completely out of your comfort zone in order to force you to trust in him. Sometimes the only way to make you entirely dependent on him is to change your situation so drastically that you have no other option but to give it all to God.
Sometimes your circumstances are so incredible that in order to truly believe where you are, you have to trust in him.
Sometimes in order to not be completely overwhelmed by terror and fear at your position you have to entrust every single aspect of your life to God.
Sometimes God tests you in many different areas all at once and all you can do is cry to God for help.
Sometimes you can find utter peace when you look back at what has come about, and trust that he has everything that is to come in his hand.

I'm a wee bit busy these days....

I know I haven't blogged for a while. But I have been so busy recently. I have been in the US of A for 8 days now.
My flight was 10 and a half hours long. And there was very little for me to eat on the plane as I am gluten intolerant. Luckily I had a Tupperware tub full of dried goji berries, dates, apricots and mulberries. And I'll admit that yes I had a small bag of Thornton's chocolates, which I needed after saying 'goodbye' to my family; I will admit that I didn't eat them until after I'd been on the plane for around 6 hours though! That was when I got super hungry.
I also ate a tiny tub of ice cream and an even tinier tub of fruit salad, and two mini packs of cassava chips. I landed and I was half starved, had to drag myself through customs, which took over an hour and then had to remove my two rather heavy suitcases from the carousel, which was embarrassing to say the least, I'm all leg strength.
So to see a friendly face was so nice and comforting, and he carried my heavier suitcase and my backpack for me. I had a gluten free, or 'protein style' In'N'Out dinner, first ever, as I have never been stateside, but I was way to tired to recall what it tasted like other than, it was 'good'.

I was so tired, fell right asleep at midnight, US time, and woke up naturally at about half eight. Had a quick breakfast and was dropped off ready to go to Disneyland, also for the first time ever. I was excited chick!! You do not know how many times I have seen Disneyland advertised on the telly. I have always wanted to go. And a lovely family took me! They were amazing, they knew all the best rides, and looked after me so well, it was such fun!
I went on Space Mountain, It's a small world, Indiana Jones (okay, I went on that twice!), the Haunted Mansion, the Buzz Lightyear ride, the Peter Pan ride, and so many other rides too! I also saw the fireworks, the carnival and Fantasmic! Aaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!! 
And to top it off, Disneyland had a whole list of things that were gluten free! So I had a small gluten free pizza! The first pizza I've had in probably two years!!! It was such a treat.
Oh and did I mention, I met Mickey Mouse, Tinker Bell and my favourite Disney princess, Sleeping Beauty? I also spied Merida and Tatiana through the crowds, and waved at Cinderella!

We didn't leave Disneyland till midnight so I was super exhausted the next day, which was a Friday. We just chilled, which was cool, I had to go through my email, 56 emails! Woweee!

Then on Friday, I moved back to my friend's house and we went shopping, I got some things for college, and we met some people, I was pretty tired, so I cannot for the life of me remember any names. After that we went to church, my friend played piano that week, it was amazing! I also wandered around Wholefoods for about an hour and a half, did I mention how much I love Wholefood stores???

We attempted to watch a movie on Saturday night, John Carter, a real action film. And um, yeah, we um, kinda, um, fell asleep. One minute there's an intense battle raging and the next someone is nudging me saying, 'I think it's bedtime'. So I was in bed asleep by half ten on Saturday night.

Sunday was a blast. Back to my friend's church at about quarter to eight, yep, I've been getting up really early since I got here, and I just hung out in the back. We had breakfast at Wholefoods, man, I love that store! Then we went to Urban Outfitters, that is where the cool kids hang.

Then back for lunch, and we watched the Mummy Returns, then National Treasure, and most of us fell asleep, myself included. Which made it the perfect time to pack some towels and head to the beach! Bonfires on the beach, and lots of people! Yay!
But did I mention we managed to go to the wrong beach, and only realised after we bought a parking ticket??? Eeeeeek! So we had to turn around and go back. Luckily we were able to use the ticket at the correct beach, where my friend's church were actually meeting.

So after a few hours on the beach I went and stayed with some other friends, who were also so lovely to me; actually everyone has been lovely since I landed, but the three families whose homes I actually stayed in have been amazing and I love them all to bits!

We made a quick run to Wholefoods, and picked up lots of yummy, yet healthy snacks, including gluten AND dairy AND soy free cookie dough ice cream!! It was made with coconut milk instead of soy or dairy products. And let me tell you, I will no longer miss Ben and Jerries'; never thought I'd say that.

While eating delicious ice cream, we watched X-men 2, then BAM! I fell asleep, AGAIN! So bed, ready to be up again at six, because it was Bible college move in day!!!!! So exciting!

And that's all I have time for right now. I have some more sermons to listen to, and I want another banana, and I need some water and I just want to go to bed really.

The Dark Knight Rises

I actually saw this movie on the 20th of July, release day! As a dedicated Batman fan I couldn't wait any longer. I mean we have waited since 2008 for this film. I had greatly anticipated this movie for four years. Yep, since 2008, I have been speculating about the final chapter of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.

I was thirteen years old when Batman Begins was released and I remember vividly watching it at the cinema with my Dad. I think it was probably the first proper super hero film I'd seen. Yes, I'd seen cartoon superheroes, and I'd seen some rubbish, low budget Batman film, with horrific costumes and even more dire acting.
But this was the first well constructed, well acted, big budget superhero film. At the time, I didn't appreciate the film. However having viewed it several times over the years I can see just how good this film is.

This film blew me away.

I didn't really have much to say post film. I feel that Nolan delivered. Those years of waiting were worth it for such a closing film.

Casting, soundtrack, storyline, themes, script, everything came together, something that rarely happens in films.

First off, Christian Bale reprised his role as Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman himself.
For me, Bale will always be Batman. Forget George Clooney and any future representations of Batman, Bale nailed it, no one will ever be as good a Bale. He expresses all the emotions you would expect Bruce Wayne to have.

Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle.
I have to be honest, I don't really like Hathaway. I find her irritating and I had my doubts about her. However I feel that she laid all those doubts to rest, she did a stunning job. She plays a character possibly as complex as Bruce Wayne. Someone who feels the need to dress up and hide their identity. However unlike Wayne she is a masked villain as opposed to a masked vigilante. There are similarities and contrasts between Kyle and Wayne.

Tom Hardy plays the true baddie in this film, a terrorist named Bane, who draws Batman out of his Batcave by threatening Gotham City. I love Tom Hardy! I think he's fantastic! I loved him in Inception, another Nolan film also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard and Michael Cane. I loved the idea behind Bane as  a villain. At first glance he appears to be a black and white baddie, no complexity whatsoever. However he is a character with a story and Nolan weaves a masterpiece here, but I shall say no more as I don't want to spoil anything for anyone.

Good old Gary Oldman returns as Comissioner Gordon. Again, a seemingly straight forward character at first glance, but of course this is not fact. I love the steady and sane element that Gordon brings to the film. He is desperate to do that right thing. He is torn between duty and what he believes to be right.

I don't think I've seen Levitt in a film I didn't like. He is so versatile. And I loved his role in this film. There are contrasts and similarities portrayed between Officer Blake and Wayne throughout the film. Like Wayne Blake is an orphan. But unlike Wayne, Blake is not a millionaire and was raised in a boys home. Blake is driven and determined. He has similar characteristics to Wayne's. The way that Blake and Wayne focus their anger and emotion is contrasted continuously. But that is all I shall say for now, you must see the film to learn more.

And last, but by no means least,
                                           Michael Cane returns as the lovely Alfred Pennyworth.

I adore Michael Cane. Maybe because I'm British, and are there any Brits who don't love this guy??? Alfred Pennyworth is employed as a butler, but he's so much more than that. He's a Father, Uncle, friend, nurse, supporter and worrier all rolled into one. His primary concern is to see that Wayne is happy, safe and in control of his anger and guilt.

I'll start by saying that this film is intense. And long. At 165 minutes long it is a definite bum-number! But don't let that put you off, if you've survived the previous films you will be absolutely fine with this. To be truly honest I didn't even notice the time, I was completely engrossed; it does not drag. But you may wish to stock up on snacks and drinks and find a nice cushion.
It is a full 165 minutes of action, dialogue, twists and turns. It is non-stop and I felt exhausted afterwards as if I'd been running around Gotham myself.
The storyline is not straight forward, but then, you can't really expect something simple from the director of Inception!
I don't want to give too much away with regards to the story, however I will say that both Bruce Wayne and Batman face their past, their fears, and their future. Wayne is forced to choose and make decisions. There is danger and risk around every corner.

The relationships in this installment are twisty, turny. No-one is what they seem, everyone has secrets, but who can you trust?
The relationship between Wayne and Kyle is curious. Wayne realises how easy he has it compared to Kyle and Blake. All three of them had a rough childhood. However character, and circumstances dictated the paths they chose.
Loyalties, and motives are all put under scrutiny, and relationships are tested to the edge.

The music score is incredible, Hans Zimmer delivered yet again. The Batman soundtracks have been phenomenal. The soundtrack really adds to the tension and emotion of the film. You are completely unaware of it, yet at the same time conscious of it, and appreciative. The cinematography and music go hand in hand.

Costumes, well, they're mostly black or uniforms. The whole film is fairly dark in colour and slightly drab in that sense however this is Gothan not a Victorian ball. The wardrobe fits the film.

Props; the Batmobile, need I say more! And Batman of course gets some new toys in this film, including a plane.

So really in essence, this film is amazing, go see it now!!

What did you guys think of it?