Spiritual Battle

     Because I'm graduating, there are a lot of things I'm finding that I'm going to have to give up in life because I'm moving forward.

    We have to leave the past behind us. We have to press on as warriors into the unknown life ahead. at times in life. We must leave beloved relationships and people behind. At times, we even have to leave material objects but we don't have to be afraid because we know God is walking with us into this new section of life. God knows the right way.  

   Many times, as we grow up, we must stand up silently in our minds in a crowd and we will make choices that the world will hate. This is not where we belong and planet earth is not our home. We must learn to move on, and lay things down in this life and sacrifice things for one another. This world is fading quickly and it is temporary and it is not our home. 

     The Lord can hold everything we care about. We can let it go and put it in His hands. He loves the things that we love even more than we do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step out and don't be afraid because God will not fail you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lay down your life at his feet.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

We can only defend our faith while we are still living on the earth.

 

 

That means we act now. Grab on to the Lord and we will walk into the storm together.

 

 

Peter could never walk on the water if he was never on the ocean.

 

 

We don't understand victory if we don't understand failure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grab onto Him. He won't fail you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hold up the light of Christ and let the world see Him burn and shine with His glory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hold it up and run with joy because He' not going to fail you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus raided our tomb, the tomb in which we were laying dead.

 

 

We have to raid other peoples tomb with the light of Christ because so many people still lay dead in their tomb.

 

 Submit to God and run with Him!

 

He won't fail.

Peace

(The two paragraphs following, are things that I felt while viewing this Lara Croft image)

 You are nothing without God. He saved you and without him you die. He is everything you will ever need. God saved you from eternal everything( eternal everything meaning eternal chaos in Hell). Everything you are, every power you will ever posses is from Him. Alone, you will die. If you walk alone, you are darkness fighting darkness. Satan wants you dead. You stand strong as if you are able to fight but choosing to go alone will only make you look like a fool. Survival is simple, its surrender. Surrender all to God and he will give you everything you will ever need. It is complete and total surrender. Croft(Croft meaning Lara Croft, the girl in the image) believes she can do it on her own, but she is only a figure of what we can never be. A powerful hero. You cant fight evil if you have evil inside of you. True beauty is in surrender. Admitting you are not strong enough.

 

The weapons we carry we only carry because they are God's gifts to us, and He's asking us to use them. For these weapons are not meant for a physical appearance of strength, but to be used against the enemy. That is all. The only way one can be in right with God, is to surrender and admit that he is wrong. To pour himself out and ask God alone to fill him. Alone, man is dead. God alone is the only source of power and life left or that has ever been in the world. With strength in her eyes, she only looks in awe and shock at the amazing gifts that have been presented to her. Her stance is a stance of honor. God has blessed her in unimaginable ways and graciously provided her with gifts, therefore, she will take them knowing that her only power is found in God. Alone, she is dead. Satan wants her dead. She decides to hand her weapons to God. The battle is only for her to learn to trust in God. She takes a stand knowing that she will not allow herself to ever follow the ways of the world. Satan wants her dead but she will not allow herself to stray. Why? because he knows her purpose, and the world will never stop pulling at her but that is why without God everything is dead. You were sent to the world to be empowered by God. Lara Croft represents a woman who became a warrior only by the grace of God caring enough to make her His own.

 

 

I called this post Peace because if we ask God to fight our battles, then we are at peace. Gods got us and . . . phew!, its ok! I actually wrote this description about this image on 9/28/14! Just thought I'd post it! Thanks for reading! and . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:)!!!

 

 

 

Thoughts . . .

 

 

  

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

I always get so rapped up in trying to save the world, to be the hero, to do the amazing and impossible, yet although that's great, God had one thing he wanted from me. He had one desire for me. One thing he wanted me to do. He just wanted me to surrender and give my heart to him. That's all. All I ever wanted from you, was just you, he said. its ok. Your mind might be racing with a thousand things that you have to do and how you had to get it right and perfect and always have faith cause its obvious that you always should, no! I just want you. That's all I wanted. Just your heart. You don't have to be miss perfect or save your friends or do everything right. Its ok. You are all I wanted. And listening to every voice and trying to interpret and understand everything, no! I want you to strive for excellence, but you are my child and I love you no matter what you do. I got what I wanted from you and that was your heart. Yes strive towards things and work hard you have so many gift and so far that you can go so don't waste that, but your heart is all I wanted from you my dear, and it is ok. Strive to do the best but know that you are completely enough and the very best to me already! Run after things if you choose to run, but if you do, do it knowing, that I am God in heaven and these are only things to work towards and run after here on earth. you can disappoint me but my love has never and will never run out on you my dear. this world will almost at times convince you that you will never make it, but my dear I have your heart, you are never worthless to me and my heart. Strive and run towards things but also know that you are my child whom I created and I will love you forever. Never forget who you are and where you belong and where you truly come from. Let his will be done Amen.   

 

Being Willing to Sacrifice Things

So have you ever had to get rid of something in your life because you know its right or because you know God has called you to love him first? I have. No body like sacrificing things. When I sacrifice certain things because of what I believe, in a way, I feel like I'm putting it to death. Its so hard especially when you love that thing and you wonder how you will manage to forget it if it is around you all the time.

 

Its easy to say we can let things go and move on because we know its right, but honesty, its the mental part that is the battle for the next few months not the sadness in letting that thing( whatever it is) go. So much of these battle are mental and if we continue to dwell on what ever it is we lost, we will never move on.

 

Now there s a difference between losing some one or something because of death or losing someone or some thing because you knew it wasn't helping you in life. When its something we cant control, like a death or some one rejecting us, then of course there is room for taking time to be sad. But if we continue to dwell and be sad about things for too long, it will destroy us and others around us because we will never strive to do whatever it is God has called us to. And it would also make God sad because we are basically telling him that he isn't enough for us and that we need something or someone else back to keep us truly happy. If others or things are what truly kept us happy, then we would never be happy because things and people would and will always never be perfect and will fail us.

 

Laying down and sacrificing the things that are keeping us from loving and obeying God first can be a very hard thing to sacrifice. The harder it is to let it go, then the more we must have loved it.. and love isn't a bad thing, its just bad if what ever it is that we love, we love more than God. Jesus calls us to follow him completely! We must be willing to leave every thing else behind. We are human and its going to be hard but we must be willing to go with Jesus and believe that he will provide us with the  strength that we will need to follow his commands. That also includes that he will provide us with the strength to let things go for the sake of following after him first if we ask.   

 

So have you ever d to sacrifice anything? Something that ripped your heart out but you knew was right? Yeah I know. It makes you feel weak. You walk with a heavy heart but that's when God reminds us of things. He reminds us that our life here is nothing but a single breath. This isn't our home. There is some place greater that we belong and what happens here is only the smallest of little things compared to who God is.  And yes its hard, but once you realize how much time you have here and that you only get to make a difference in the world here once, just once, then you strive to become something much greater and better because you know that you are the last generation and you know why you are here! Yes we will break and we will bend and we will be ripped apart and we will hurt and cry and scream but  if there is any, any time to be ok with that, its now! Because God is with us we are the last generation and our world is crashing down and we may be killed one day for what we believe but if we know why we are here and for how long compared to eternity and if we find our strength only, only in Gods power . . .  he will help us survive.

 

 

We will question why, and it will make us angry and sad that those things must change . . .

 

 

We wont be sure we wanted to give it up . . .

Our hearts will be heavy, and it will be rough. We will want it to stop. All of it to end  . . .

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 And it will hurt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, the things that we agree to lay down here, are the things that will keep us and bring us closer to God and that is a relationship that is absolutely necessary, for humans to survive . . . Without him, we are nothing  . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

We will watch our beloved things burn, and our hearts shall ache but in the end, on the day that Jesus returns, we will be glad that we laid down the extremely short term things here on earth to help us establish a relationship that will last for all eternity with our great and extremely powerful God! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what about you? Is there anything you need to lay down that stands in-between you and your heart loving God first? Remember, Jesus already sacrificed so much for you to be able to have that relationship with God! He died so that you could have that so since you can connect with God now through Jesus, don't waste it! He was god and his type of laying things down and sacrifice is a type we will never have to go through because we aren't God. He already faced the worst type of sacrifice ever so whatever we have to get rid of in this life all piled all together will still never compare to what he gave. He understands sacrifice so when we have trouble, we should go to him because he will provide us with that strength and power to give things up for his sake and to follow him and his will, if we ask him! When we give things up we draw closer to him because we have a better understanding of who he is and what exactly he  really gave and how much love there really was when he came to die for us. 

 

Flames and Fury

Have you ever been angry with someone? Have you ever hated something? Have you ever hated something so much that you wanted to destroy it and everything else around you? Yeah I get this a lot. I don't like yelling very much so when I'm upset, all the things that I'm feeling, I try to create an image for in my head to describe the way I'm feeling. As I have mentioned before, in one of my others posts, tomb raider game images help me give myself and others an idea of how I'm feeling.

Honestly, a lot of times there are things that I want to burn to the ground and destroy. When I get mad at people, instead of yelling, I tend to have mental screaming sessions.

There are times that I wish I could burn down and scorch everything I touch. Anger is wrong if while we are angry, we hurt other people or we sin. But we are human. Not to use that as an excuse but to remember, we will never be prefect until we get to heaven.

A few weekends ago, God just really spoke to my heart and reminded me who I would be without him. I am loved no matter what I do, but God doesn't want me to be left in my sinful ways.

I broke down realizing who I am or would be without Jesus spirit in me. I still remain all these sinful things with his spirit but just because we have his spirit, it doesn't mean we don't have temptations. I am still temped and I go with it a lot but his spirit provides us with a mind like Jesus and the ability to ask him to help us resist these temptations.

As I said, its easier for me to feel what I'm feeling if I see it in an image. If I don't feel like yelling, the following images are usually what come to mind. Again, I don't think it is the best way to deal with how I feel but if some one where to ask me how I felt when I get upset and mad, these would be the images that would be similar to the emotions that I feel but don't want to expressing. This is what people would probably see if I could act on my emotions. And this is what sin makes us look like. What my sin, without Jesus, would make me become . . . A hater, a killer and murderer, and a destroyer of all things that ever stood in my way

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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Yes, we are evil but God can make every single dark part of us clean. That's why he came and died cause we couldn't clean ourselves. The things that we would become without him are things that cannot even be discussed here. We  are darkness and evil, but never again once we accept Jesus into our hearts. He makes all things clean always.

 

We should strive to not continue in our sin but when we do hate and do get angry and hurt people and destroy what doesn't belong to us and burn everything we touch, we are still forgive. We must confess and say we are sorry but no sin is too big for God.

 

Jesus is the living water. He can put out all of our flames. Our biggest flames and our smallest flames. 

 

So when you go up in flames, just remember, Jesus is always there to put you out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who Are We Meant To Be?

 

 

I found this poster. I totally agree. Lara Croft is awesome yet at the same time, everything I pray that I will never become.

 

Even though I'm not completely clear on the author's intent, I like it.

 

Lara is a stubborn young girl who doesn't listen to advice or wisdom. She is determined to become a world conqueror all alone. She rushes into things without thinking and surrenders and truly obeys no one.

 

She is her own leader. She is quick to gain her fame and those who brought her up and were all she once had, are soon forgotten in the dust of her sweet victories of life.  

 

You see this in her face. She is here to destroy. Destroy all who get in her way. In her way of the prize. And what is that prize?

 

You know. I know you are aware because you are human too, just like me. It is the aching desire to stand on top. To feel . . .somehow complete.

 

Deep down you cry in pain and you ache. Where are the answers? Why am I here? Is there a God? Well is there? If he is and if he cares then he should care enough about me to come and get me!!

 

 

(This says," YOU'RE REALLY HERE AND YOU'RE REALLY NEARLY DEAD" it's kind of hard to see)

 

 

This is really true though. Have you ever felt dead before? You just simple don't care anymore. You are just kind of there . . . Just wasting away.  You are here but you are practically, dead.

This is the feeling you get when you lose God, when you loose sight of who you truly are.

All is lost. Even you. Mainly you. Everything is bearable. But just bearable.

 My point? Lose your self kid. It's ok. Really, I promise. If you are lost, the one that truly loves you will find you. Search for you. Seek you out. And you don't have to go with him he's just going to find you only to tell you something, one simple thing.



"I'm here if you are ready. I've always been here. And if it seemed that I've backed away, it was simply because I wanted to see if you wanted me. Me in your life. Do you? I never left. I just simply backed away a bit, into the back to see if you want me. If you were ever  in danger, I would be the first one to save you and I backed away because I wanted you to realize, you can't do this without me. You were never meant to. I created you to be fully dependent on me for your joy and fulfillment. You can survive for a few seconds without me, then shall perish forever."

It's ok. We have to lose ourselves! Jesus says this even in scripture. He says if we are going to follow him we must deny ourselves and follow him! To offer our bodies as living sacrifices. To choose this day who we will serve! Ourselves or God. This is why I love this picture below because it reminds me, when we lose hope in everything, we find a truth. The truth that we are not created to do this on our own. And it is truly revealed to me and to all of us what we must become. Well maybe not as much what we must become but more what we must admit to. We must realize, we are nothing but beautiful creations saved from our own mistakes by an extremely gracious King. Our true father, God. We must become those who surrender to their all loving Father and King, God. 

 

                It's ok to freefall. Lose yourself and when all seems lost, I promise, you will find a truly lasting truth and know what you must become.

( it says, "We become who we are meant to be") And we are meant to be his! Our loving Fathers truly freely accepted children!

TOMB RAIDER

Ok so if you read my "About Me" section, then you probably noticed that I REALLY like the videogame TOMB RAIDER! yes I do! I love the main character Lara Croft but not just for the cool story of the game or what she represents but for a reason that effects me on a much deeper level. A little background on her is, she is an only child and daughter of her parents who are millionaires and world famous archeologists. By the time Lara was a teen, both her parents had either died in a crash or gotten lost on an expedition. She inherited millions but still never felt fulfilled so she took up her parents career as an archeologist. She boarded a ship called the" Endurance" and headed off with a crew to an island far away. As they were approaching, a giant storm came and destroyed their ship and Lara and the crew mad their way to the island separately. As Lara climbed to shore, she called for help but before she could get anywhere, she was struck in the head by a strange being who lived on the island.

Lara goes through trial after trial trying to escape the people of the island and reach the rest of the

crew, that is if anyone is still left.

 
 
 
 
 
 

This game produced images for me of every emotion I ever felt but never knew how to safely express. Fear...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anger and Hate:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pain and Tears:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loneliness:

 

 

 

 

 

So you are probably wondering why I'm writing about this. Well after viewing other blogs and just living in a world where people tend to only share the good things about their lives, I decided that if I'm going to have a blog, I want to share the cool things and the sad and depressing things. Why? Because I think that when we express and share the negative things, we may be surprised who else we may know that can relate! Other people don't always feel the same way we do but when this is the case, we should rejoice because God created it so that when we are weak, others are still strong.

So since Lara Croft has such a large impact on my life, I decided that if  she was going to define so much of what I feel and who I am, I have to make her a positive impact. I set out on a task to recreate the image I have of Lara Croft and this is what I came up with... 

 

 

 

 

Surrender all you are to God:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                           


                                                Bow and worship no one but him:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And have faith that God will always be with you

and give you his power to resist evil until the end if you ask:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Croft displays a girls power and abilities to stand on her own, but believe me, I tried to be my own hero. I tried to do this and stand against the world and Satan without God. I have a desire in my heart to be a hero and to stand up to evil. I thought that God would force me to not be allowed to be that hero or to stand up to evil but what I found was that everything I did, was out of selfishness and trying to raise myself up as a world changer. It never felt right though. I would go into the present of God and only be thinking about myself and how awesome I was and not God. I had lost track of who he was and that is when I knew this had to be wrong.

I told God I wanted to make things right and I decided to surrender all that I wanted to become and I said that I wanted to try this again but for God to please not take away my chance to fight.

Man, if I thought that God was going to make battles and spiritual warfare boring, I was COMPLETELY wrong. When you surrender everything to God, that includes your life and you trust in his deliverance and existence with everything you are.

Some events happened which caused me to see some major faults that I have and so in order to change those things, I had to change everything about the sinful nature I had always lived and knew.  

 

I am in the middle of a serious test of faith. I prayed an impossible prayer, but a prayer that I am certain God wanted to get to the point of me praying. This prayer includes something inside of me, a part of my human nature that ONLY God can change. I am counting on him to change and help me soon or else I feel I will be destroyed from the inside out.

 

I know God can do the impossible so I guess it all just depends on his timing now=D

We are never alone in anything and for those of you who may feel like me, wanting to be the hero of your story, the GREATEST battles are the ones that we can't change anything about but simply have faith in the ONLY one that can. It is the ultimate test of our strength in patients and in faith.=D And God is SO MUCH more powerful than we can ever imagine and will do things that had never even crossed our minds! 

  

    You stand in the rain.