#thespear

[winchest09]

Season 14 Mid Season Finale...

Just watched it. 

I feel that the above is accurate. 

WHY DO WE HAVE TO WAIT. 

WILL WE SEE A RETURN OF THE BEARDED SAM

WHAT IS HAPPENING!

[milo-winchester-4ever]

kudos to @jensenackles 🙌😘👍AWESOME!!! #Repost @dailyspnfacts (@get_repost) ・・・ Supernatural is back SOON. ———————/// #supernaturalfacts #supernaturaltumblr #supernatural 14x09 #thespear #spn #spnfacts #jensenackles #deanwinchester #michael #thecw #sam #samwinchester #deanwinchester #supernaturalfamily #Castiel #spn14 #spnfacts #jackkline #samwinchester #nephilim #dean #spnfamily #cas https://www.instagram.com/p/Br9T_junJbV/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=598y78jtjvtn

[kennamusic]

#TheSpear By Colin Kennaugh www.facebook.com/colinkennaughphotography (at Winchester, Hampshire)

[thespearblog-blog]

Not Just Drifting in Space

Whether you believe in God or not, at one point or another you have probably felt like your life was just out of control. I have felt like I could not rest. I could not move my life in one direction or the other. Everything was just out of my control.

I have spoken before about being victorious when you feel like life is just happening to you. But, on a slight variant here, I am talking about feeling like there really is no direction for you. You are aimless, purposeless.

Moral Ambiguity

If I’m honest, this is one of the biggest problems I have with the idea of evolutionary theories. Some people obviously don’t believe in God at all, and so we are here without purpose. Some think that God started it, or a god of some kind, and then just left us here. Both of these ideas bother me, because that means that there is no purpose for man’s existence. You and I are purely an accident of nature, and somehow we make it work.  This means there is no call to be better. No way to call something right or wrong, because it just is. Whatever you think is your right can be right, and whatever you think is wrong can be your wrong. The truth is, there is no standard. There is no expectation. There is no purpose.

But what if God did create us? That begs the question, why? And if he is an all knowing God, why build and create a creature that is going to do you harm? Why even go there?

Well, He has explained it to me like this:  If someone came up to you and told you, while you were pregnant, that your child wasn’t going to love you, wouldn’t you still want to have that child and believe that they would? (1 Corinthians 13:7)

I have three beautiful and fantastic children. They aren’t perfect by any means, and they have said things to me in anger that were truly hurtful. But, did that mean that I stopped loving them? Of course not! My love goes beyond anything they could do or say that might hurt me. (1 Corinthians 13:5)

So why did God create man? Why did God create man to be like Himself? Because, He wanted someone who had the ability to be in relationship with Him.

In short, ladies and gentlemen, that’s it. That is why we are here. We were not set spinning into space without purpose. We were created by an intelligent being with the desire to know us and be known by us. We suffer without Him because, He is at the core of who we are. But we thrive on knowing Him because He is worth knowing and knowing well. The angels sing His praises constantly because they are always finding out new things about Him, and they are always things worth praising Him for.

I don’t want to just join them in their praise, I want to lead them in praise because I have found something new about him and it is AMAZING! We have a great purpose. Love. There is no greater mystery and no greater purpose in all the world.

I find my rest and my peace in pursuing Him. I find my purpose and my direction in going after Him. I find my identity in knowing Him. He is my purpose.

[thespearblog-blog]

Love Like a River

I have spent my life pursuing Him. Ever since I went to Him, wounded and torn to pieces, and he healed me, I have sought the precious presence of God. He has been my everything.

Day in and day out I pray, worship, read, and communicate with Him. In all that time I have never found an extent to His love. I am frightened of love because I believe that as soon as I let myself enjoy it, it will be ripped from me. I never feel like it’s something I can keep. I feel like it is something that I must earn, and if I do something wrong or upset the other person, then they will stop loving me.

I have to face the fact that I am not perfect, and there are times when I don’t know what He had planned or what He wanted. I find myself constantly asking, “Are you mad? Did I do something wrong? Is this okay? I don’t want to make you upset with me.”

His response is a gentle smile and, “It’s okay. I love you.”

There have even been times when He has disciplined me and told me that what I did was not right. But, He holds me and lets me cry it out and reminds me that He loves me. He tells me that I have no idea how much.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by His love, and I feel it wash over me, and sometimes I’m afraid to go near it because I’m scared that I just haven’t earned it that day. In a world that makes you earn affection this is understandable, but how do we break through and just accept this love.

Well, to be honest, if any of you have an answer to this, please let me know. But, so far, for me, I found that it comes in gentle, small steps. It’s as though He is teaching me to walk. Sometimes we run, sometimes I crawl, and sometimes He carries me. Sometimes I fight Him and tell Him that He can’t love me and this is all wrong, but then I find myself in such need of Him that I go running back, broken heart in hand, begging Him to fix it and make it stop hurting.

I have the world’s greatest husband. It’s the truth. He is amazing, but even his love for me is not like this. I have never found a love like this. Not in my parents, nor my friends, nor my children. There is no love like this. It would be like comparing a light bulb to the sun. His love is so much greater, and so perfect. His patience with me is overwhelming.

[thespearblog-blog]

Religious Wolves

I know that I am not alone in having a bad church experience. Unfortunately, mine lasted a long time as I was a child and wasn’t able to decide where we went to church. It was awful, to say the least, and did much to color my poor view of God.

I attended services at that particular assembly for several years, and many of the kids that were there didn’t even know my name. No one had ever taken the time to get to know me, and it didn’t seem that anyone cared to. My family had been severely mistreated by many of the prominent people there.

To top it off, my siblings and I attended school there, and we all have our individual horror stories of how we were treated by pastors, principals, teachers, and other children. My family had never really done anything wrong. We just didn’t fit in, and now, as an adult, I’m glad.

I remember things going on there that would be labeled as abuse to any rational person. Then, those same individuals would stand before us on Wednesday and tell us about God. Well, to be honest, it was more telling us how bad we were and that we needed to straighten up.

I walked away from that experience afraid that God was just waiting for me to fail so that he could lash out and hurt me. I never felt like I was safe in my salvation. I feared that if I did anything wrong, I was a bad person, and that I could not be saved. God was mean, vindictive, and scary. He was in no way personal, with the exception that he knew all the terrible things you had done.

Now, fast forward twelve years, and God is finally able to get me to see that, despite all the progress that I have made, my view of him is still skewed. He has to tell me constantly that He loves me in order to keep me in a constant state of accepting it. I don’t let it stick because I keep waiting for him to tell me, “No, Bethany, I don’t really care about you. I have too many people to really care about, and well, you haven’t been perfect so, you’re just lucky you’re getting into heaven at all. Good luck with life.”

As I said before, I know that I’m not alone, and believe you me, I haven’t shared half of the horror, but the point that I wanted to make is this. There are those who call themselves followers of Christ, but they do not live the lives of followers of Christ (Matthew 7:15-23). I want to make something very clear. Jesus said, “I have not called the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17). Those who feel they are able to save themselves, by their doctrine or their prescribed method of reaching God, are not counted among the flock and are, in fact, goats and wolves. They tear and seek to destroy those who honestly seek God through the love of the Son instead of works. These people will constantly be condemning and have no room for those they dub, “sinners”. Even among other believers they will seek to claim who can and cannot enter heaven (Matthew 23:13). THEY ARE NOT OF GOD.

Paul warned that after he left some believers to continue his work, that wolves would come in among the flock to destroy them (Acts20:29). I tell you, they have never left. As the church has grown so have the number of wolves. They are Pharisees in disguise.

God is good (Mark 10:18). He is just (Deuteronomy 32:4). He is loving (1 John 4:8). He perfect (Psalms 18:30). He is kind (Romans 2:4). He is giving (Matthew 7:11). He is a Father (Matthew 5:48). He is a warrior (Exodus 15:3). He is wonderful (Isiah 9:6). He is a savior (Luke 1:47). He is every good thing, and anything that is not good is not of him.

So, I am sorry if, like me, you have been attacked by these wolves, but take comfort in who He is and pursue him

[thespearblog-blog]

Warrior Unseen

When I was younger I wanted to be in the military. I was fighter. I’ve always been a fighter. I wanted to personify that fighting spirit and protect the man to my right and the man to my left. Fighting was my obsession, and I began to build an image around that.

I built that image off the soldiers and the ex-military I knew. Not to mention the countless war movies I watched. But in the end I felt more like I was fighting for an image more than anything else.

Long story short, I discovered that I didn’t trust people, and I had problems with people in authority. (Those are two different stories for another time.) But those issues don’t really put you in a good mind set to be under the authority of, well, anyone.

While I decided not to pursue a life in the military, my warrior spirit didn’t go away because that was just who I was. And for a long time that was good, because it would serve to help me survive the years to follow. (Another story)

In the end, that warrior was beaten down and nearly defeated. I was a walking corpse, and all I wanted was to stop fighting. Inside I was dead, and I was just waiting for my body to follow.  At the rate I was going it wasn’t going to be long.

I remember meeting God for the first time. I mean really seeing Him face to face. I was beaten down, and He breathed new life into me. I was restored, but the first thing He did to bring back that fighter in me was to teach me peace. He gave me peace, His peace. I walked in that for a long time, still struggling with old wounds, but eventually he called back to life that warrior.

[thespearblog-blog]

From Victim to Victor

For much of my life I felt like I was its victim. I was unable to make anything happen, and I was unable to keep anything from happening. Life was just going to move along, and I was along for the cruel ride. After years and years of this, God finally rescued the victim and created in me a victor.

I have learned that I don’t particularly like it when people shrug and say, “That’s life.” Now, I understand that things are going to be hard sometimes. (John 16:33). But, I would rather fight through the difficult things knowing that there are going to be good things on the other side, rather than just continue to suffer and hope that at some point things will magically get better. If you want something to change, you have to do something.

On the flip side, I’m not a believer in the statement, “God helps those who help themselves.” I have a surprise for some of you. That isn’t a verse. In fact, it can’t be found in the bible. Now I understand that the point is we aren’t supposed to just sit around and wait for God to do something. With that I agree, but still, how can you make something happen?

The truth is, if we want to stop being victims of our circumstances, then we need to follow the one who overcame the world. By following him and surrendering our life to him, we can have his peace for our life and he will lead us. (Psalms23:1-4). He will make us victors in this life.

So what about the people that do accomplish all kinds of great things without him? Well, it is possible to do things in this life without God directly assisting and blessing them. But what rewards they gain here they leave here. What we gain manifests not only here but in heaven, which is life everlasting with him. (Much better reward if you ask me). We gain so much more than stuff. We gain victory through Jesus, who overcame the world for us and set us free from death. Guys, WE DON’T HAVE TO LAY DOWN AND DIE! We can actually live this life well. Christ said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10).

So we no longer have to turn back to our old ways, food, drugs, alcohol, smoking, sex, pornography, or dangerous relationships to make ourselves happy as we suffer under this cruel sun. We can live life happily and joyfully as God shows us how to walk in this world as he did. Our circumstances do not rule us. We are under the authority of a good God.