Month: January 2023

prayer, Uncategorized

Devotionals

The Kedge Anchor
Photo by Thought Catalog on Pexels.com

Reading God’s Word daily is essential to the Christian life. It’s our lifeline. Reading the God breathed words in the Bible is one way God communicates to us. Praying is talking to God and without prayer and daily communication with God… how does that relationship survive? How do we cope?

Our quiet time, devotionals, Bible study, time with God, whatever you call it looks different for everyone. Some are morning people, some are before bed people, some mid day people. I don’t think it really matters what time of day, just that we “get away often” as Jesus did. Luke 5:16 “But Jesus often went away to be by himself and pray.” The Bible doesn’t say what time of day or for how long, just often.

Now my point here is if you are in the habit daily of getting away and setting time for God, how many times have you said, or heard someone say, “my day just doesn’t go right if I don’t start my day with my devotional” or perhaps something similar. Well, what about the just before bed people? Does that carry over into the day for them? Will their sleep not go well? What about the morning people, will their sleep not go well?

Often times when we get up and hit the floor running, we sometimes don’t have time for a devotional and the day gets away from us and the day seems to go sideways, the car breaks down, sick kid at school, boss got crazy, lose your keys, computer crashes and you think, “see, I didn’t do my devotional.” Well, have you had days when you did your devotional and the day still went bad? I know I have countless times. And here is where I think the difference is; regardless what time of day we choose to spend time with God, life is going to happen. The car will break down, the kids, will get sick, the day can go sideways regardless. God is not punishing us by making the day hard and things braking down because we didn’t spend time with Him. He may use those things to remind us or use them in some way for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). But I know there have been days I have spent time reading and praying and the day still sideways.

So, often it’s easy for me to attach a superstition to this and that’s just another subtle tactic of Satan to get us to feel guilty, like we are a bad Christian, or his popular lie, you’re a failure. God sees your heart. He’s not ready to beat you down with a bad day if you skip or miss time with Him. He never leaves us or forsakes us, (there are many verses about God always being with us, Google it) He is always waiting for us to come to Him. Sure you’re likely to feel a void or an emptiness because you’ve been out of synch but being aware and just having thoughts of God on your mind can be worship. Because think about it, when we worry and have a problem occupying or hearts weighing us down, thought churning in our heads, we are worshipping the problem. God has thought about us, Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (KJV). The difference is, when we spend time with God, no matter what time, when the car breaks down, when the kids are sick, when the day goes sideways, we handle it better. We have been armed with God’s Word (Ephesians 6:11-15). We deal with problems differently. God’s mercies are new each morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). Your day is going to go the way it’s going to go. God sees it, no surprise to Him. Just try and make it a priority. Priority just means it gets done, not necessarily first, but done. Keep the lines of communication and worship open when your quiet time looks a little different, sing, think about God, think about getting away with Him and then do it.

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art

Interpretations

The Kedge Anchor

Art speaks to me. It can convey a feeling, an emotion be it happy or sad or a concept. It adds beauty and color to my surroundings. It can motivate me. But what speaks to me more is God’s word, the Bible. It adds more color and beauty than art. It shapes me, encourages me, leads me to knowledge of God and His ways.

There are many ways to interpret a painting or a piece of art. For example, a few years ago in an art history class I was taking, the teacher asked us to interpret a piece of art. It was a black and white checkerboard similar to the one pictured here. I remember exactly what it looked like. It was square with the black and white squares on the right and as the eye moved across the image, the black squares began to fade, becoming grayer and eventually white. I don’t remember the artist, barley remember the textbook it was in.

(colourbox.com)

So as I saw it, the black and white squares represented time and as the color began to fade, it was marking the passage of time. I don’t remember what the other student’s interpretations were, I just remember getting an “A.” Now that doesn’t mean I was right. There were other perspectives my fellow students had. There was no right or wrong way to interpret that piece of art.

However, the Bible has only one interpretation but many applications. The Gospel has one interpretation; Jesus came to die for us sinners, rose again on the third day, conquering death and saving us from eternal separation from God. We have to choose Him, we have to recognize our need for Him to save us. There are many words that can be used to convey salvation. But adding to God’s word, Deuteronomy 4:2 or His plan of salvation or to take away anything to make it fit our beliefs, is wrong. You can speak the Gospel with different words that mean the same thing but the meaning is still the same. And yet scripture, with one interpretation can be applied to many areas of our lives.

For example, James 1:9 , “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:” – KJV.

“Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. ” – NKJV

Two different versions saying the same thing. Digging deeper into the original Greek can help understanding this passage even more. The message is pretty clear, listen first, be slow to respond, don’t get angry so quickly, keep your mouth closed until the other person is finished speaking. And this passage can be applied to so many situations in our lives; in a marriage, communication is a big part of any relationship, parents, siblings, families. It can be applied to the workplace with your boss and co-workers. Anywhere there is talking between two people this verse has application. Get all the information first before you react or respond.

When it comes to scripture it’s important to understand, the who, what, why, where, how of who wrote it, what is the message God is speaking. Like communicating with others, God is communicating with us through His word. So out of respect to the men, authors who penned the books of the Bible we need to be objective when studying scripture and try to understand what the author, the prophet or apostle, ultimately God, is trying to communicate to us. Once we have the meaning we can apply it to many areas of our lives.

Now the artist who painted the simple black and white checker board only he or she knows what he or she was intending to communicate. With art we have the liberty to interpret it anyway we want, it can have any meaning we want. But, with scripture we have a responsibility to read and interpret it the way God intended.

Is there a piece of art that speaks to you? One that stirs your soul, strikes an emotions stirs up a memory? I love this image of the wave engulfing and crashing on the lighthouse. Imagine for a minute, being inside that lighthouse.

Image: Mathieu Rivrin/Solent News

What does it look like, sound like, feel like? The lighthouse is Jesus. The water, waves are life crashing around me. But I am safe inside the lighthouse, safe in the One who is in charge of those waves crashing on me. (“Even the winds and waves obey Him.” Matthew 8:23-27)

Is there a verse in the Bible that encourages you, comforts you, corrects you? Hebrews 6:19 – keeps me anchored in Hope. Comment what pieces of art speak to you, what are your favorite verses that speak to you, comfort you, encourage or correct you.

Uncategorized

Happy New Year 2023!!!!

The Kedge Anchor

Happy New Year! This is a late post and not a day I usually post. The changes coming to The Kedge Anchor are slow. Decisions are still being made as to how I want to merge my art Caryn’s Corner Boutique and my faith.

I want this site to honor God and reflect His love, salvation, grace, mercy, forgiveness, as well as encourage to anchor in Hope. Through my art I want to inspire others to create and encourage as well. I believe there’s an artist in all of us. We all have a creative side whether you realize it in you or not.

Each day brings us hurdles and bumps we need to navigate and sometimes that takes creative thinking. Trying to figure out how to juggle picking up kids, cooking dinner and getting thru the day can be a work of art as much as working in the garden, baking, sewing, writing or journaling even housework. Yes cleaning and organizing can be a creative endeavor. (Have you seen theYouTube channels out there on organizing and cleaning?) Have you ever wanted to rearrange a room? Takes some creativity to make a home a home. What you do at work takes creativity, how you budget your time, present at meetings, manage employees, motivate employees. Even if you’re a student, you need to mange your time and schedule. Maybe you take lots of notes and are a visual learner, making small doodles in your note to help you remember concepts, it all takes creativity. Into music? Musicians are artists too. Musicians color our world with notes that form a rhythm and pattern making beautiful sounds. Even if you have never composed music, they way you play your instrument, you have your own style.

Just getting dressed every day. You don’t need to buy a new wardrobe to look put together. There are Pinterest boards and Instagram posts and web sits that can inspire you to work with what you already have.

So I need to be creative in a way that these two passions can merge and reflect God and all of Who He is and encourage and inspire others to anchor in Hope.