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.
Thank you to all who have followed me over the past two years! Wow, two years, where has time gone? 2022 is almost done! As we welcome a new year we also welcome changes. I personally don’t like change but I hope the coming changes to the Kedge Anchor will inspire others to continue to walk closer to God and continue to offer hope.
This will be the last post until 2023!! Wow 2023!! God is our only hope for the new year. That is one thing that will never change. Our God is a big God and He is the same yesterday, today and forever. We never need to worry about Him changing.
So just a few changes that you will see, the coloring pages and Memorize Mondays are going away, maybe for awhile, maybe come back looking different, I dunno, haven’t decided. I have decided to combine my art – Caryn’s Corner and The Kedge Anchor. The two are just merging and to make my life simple and hoping to make a bigger impact combing the two made sense. Weekly devotional blogs will stay.
There is some really cool content coming up so please stay tuned. And thank you again to all my followers. Stay anchored in Hope!
A few weeks back, we started the 30 Day Gratitude challenge in the book, The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving Thanks, where everyday we recorded five things for which we were grateful. I shocked myself that I consistent for 30 days. I still account for that which I am grateful but I’ll be honest I forget to write them down. But, that’s ok, God hears my prayers.
I am still reading this book. I am not finished. I am journaling what read and taking my time. I want this to stick. So often I read a book, and say “Oh that was a great book” and three days later I can’t remember a thing (insert eye roll). Another reason why I am still reading the book is I got hung up on a verse; James 1:17. Currently I am only studying the first half of this verse, “Every good gift and every perfect gift…” I was always taught to understand a verse, reading the surrounding verses will help.
The verse is sandwiched between verses of trials and temptations, it looks like this in my NKJV Study Bible:
Loving God Under Trials
12Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
16Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
Qualities Needed in Trials
19[c]So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (The Bible Hub).
I began to wonder about these gifts. When I hear the word gift, I think pretty package, “brown paper packages tied up with string,” something pleasant, something that brings joy. So I investigated. EVERY – Greek word – πᾶσα – pasa, All, the whole, every kind of. Including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all, any, every, the whole. Hmm declension made me wonder more.
Forms of declension? Trials as gifts? hmm.
GOOD – Greek – δόσις dosis -A giving, gift, donation. From the base of didomi; a giving; by implication, a gift. to give (in various senseslit. or fig.)
PERFECT – Greek – τέλειον – teleion –From telos; complete; neuter completeness. Perfect here is not defined as blemish free or without flaw. Perfect is defined as COMPLETE. Teleion, from telos, Strong’s Greek: 5046. τέλειος (teleios). There was another word that came to my mind, maybe you’re thinking the same one. Τετέλεσται -Tetelesta Strong’s 5055: (a) I end, finish, (b) I fulfill, accomplish, (c) I pay. From telos; to end, i.e. Complete, execute, conclude, discharge.
“”IT IS FINISHED! ” John 19:30
The KJV New Testament Greek Lexicon
Strong’s Number: 5046 Browse Lexicon Original WordWord Origint evleioßfrom (5056) Transliterated Word TDNT Entry Teleios 8:67,1161 Phonetic SpellingParts of Speechtel’-i-osAdjective
Definitionbrought to its end, finished wanting nothing necessary to completenessperfect that which is perfect consummate human integrity and virtue of men full grown, adult, of full age, mature
Gift – Greek – δώρημα – dōrēma -A gift, bounty. From doreomai; a bestowment
I found these definitions for telosan ultimate end (Merriam Webster) and I like how Wordnick describes it the end of a goal oriented process. Wasn’t Jesus’ death on the cross a goal oriented process? He was the perfect sacrifice. Perfect in the sense He was without blemish, without sin, flawless and it was perfect in the sense His work on the cross is complete. His coming to earth born as a baby, fully human and fully God was the beginning of the Gospel. The gift of salvation was given to us when Jesus was born. Salvation for us was completed when Jesus died on the cross and rose again three days later. Jesus had one goal to complete, to pay the penalty of sin for us.
That’s probably why James nestled this verse in these verses of trials and temptations. We are going to be tempted and we at times may give (ok most likely) into temptation and sin. We will face trails and we likely fail. I know I will fail, we will fail if I, if we aren’t seeking God’s help in the midst of these trials and temptations. And there is nothing we can do to complete our salvation, there is nothing we can add to it. “nothing necessary to completeness.” What a gift!!!
And are we looking at trials as gifts? (ok I’ll save that for next week’s post because I do have some verses on that and this post is already long).
Ok so I am no Bible scholar. I may be waaay off in interpreting this. My head was spinning with all the information I was coming across and trying to organize it in my head, it was a lot to wrap my head around. I didn’t find any commentary that spoke to this, so if there are any scholars out there or if anyone has any constructive comments, please comment. I maybe missing something or not following something correctly. And right now it makes sense to me. So any insight, thoughts would be great.
It’s hard to believe that it’s December and the Christmas Season is upon us! What a great time of year. A time where most of the world celebrates the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Praise God all day long, all week long, all month long for the greatest gifts the world has known.
Jesus gave those who were seated as much as they wanted. We have a generous God. He gave us His Son, He gave His Son’s life for us and He gives us so much today that we I don’t think we are even aware.
Praying everyone has a safe, healthy and blessed holiday! The past few years have been challenging to say the least. Praying that as we gather we can put differences aside and enjoy those gathered around us.
Every day is a new day and God gives us every day new! What are you thankful for today? Please join us on Facebook for our 30 day Gratitude Challenge!!! There’s still time!
Please be sure to like and share this post. Thank you 🙂
It’s not too late to join the Gratitude Challenge on our NEW Facebook page! It’s never too late to be thankful and express our gratitude to God.
Recently I came across a book by Dustin Crowe – The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving Thanks. It’s been an eye opener for me in giving thanks and having a heart of gratitude. Apparently I have been doing wrong. There’s a question that Dustin asks; Am I offering thanks as a tax or a gift to God? Ouch. It made me stop and evaluate how I give, why I give and to whom am I giving thanks.
I highly recommend getting a copy. You can purchase on Amazon or through Truth for Life (where I heard about the book) and it’s free when you make a donation in any amount and I do believe shipping is free as well.
“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-16 NASB).
Romans 11:34 “For who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice?”
For me, as I see it, in our humanness we are limited. Especially when it comes to understanding ALL that God has for us, i.e. His plan for us, how He works ALL things together for our good and His glory. We will never know and understand everything in the Bible this side of Heaven. John 21:25 “Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.” (NLT). I believe ALL that He IS the whole world could not contain the books that would be written (not to add to scripture). Y’know that saying separate your who from your do? What you do isn’t who you are. I think God is the only one who is what He does. God is love. He loves everyone, but not everyone will accept Him. His who is is His do. No?
We may not know or understand God’s mind fully or how He operates. But we can know what pleases Him. And knowing what pleases Him, we can have some understanding about Him. If we are in Christ, verse 14 -16 of 1 Corinthians says, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” “Mind of” being the operative words. We can have Christ like thoughts.
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Not only do we learn that we are given the instruction to give thanks it also God’s will for us. So if you’re wondering what God’s will is for your life, start with giving thanks to God. Finding God’s will for us, for our lives, is a journey, it can take time, so here’s a good place to start just by giving thanks.
With the month of November being noted for Thanksgiving, we can take the opportunity to grow our minds like Christ by giving thanks and we are doing His will. Sounds so simple and it is and there is more to this with offering sacrifices and being obedient. Perhaps that’s another post.
Join us on the new Facebook page for a 30 day gratitude challenge. It’s not too late, it’s always a good time to give thanks.
The Kedge Anchor 
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