What I Have Escaped: (Blog of Devotions and Bible Study) My thoughts on the Lord's Love letter to Christians -- the Bible. Help me grow in the Lord through your feedback. Do you agree with my theology?
Artists Paint Jesus--or Do They?
Beloved Prodigal
- They found her friend in a ditch.
Would she follow?
Mary stood trembling at the door, afraid to knock—afraid to leave.
She tapped softly, nearly hoping for no response. But the shocked eyes of Lazarus cut through the dark night, taking her in.
Mary left home in a decision that shattered her family. She accepted her Messiah in a dramatic act of Love. But now she had nowhere to go.
- Order today at Amazon or Barnes and Noble, Apple, Scribd, etc.
What I Have Escaped
- When the Holy Spirit Calls Your Name
God doesn’t always make it simple. So, trusting in the peace you feel and the guidance you’ve received, you take a careful step forward—and fall on your face.
- God's Love Letter--How One Woman Reads It.
As a beginner at Christianity, I read the Bible from beginning to end, Genesis through Revelations. Mistake.
- Honoring Imperfect Parents
The fifth commandment in the ten commandments makes a promise--long life and good fortune.
- The Power of a Just God
The Lord called every Israelite to go to the Promised Land. But Joshua and Caleb alone, out of the generation over twenty, entered. God extended a forty-day trek to forty years.
- When God Forgives But We Can't Forgive.
Before your new birth in Christ, did you do things that prompts suffering to recall? Does someone in your life dredge up old failures and flail you with them?
- Living Miracles--Amazing Grace
Chuck Colson didn’t hobnob with the prison set until he shared dinner with them after Watergate.
- Eavesdropping on God "In The Beginning"
As a new Christian, I read John 1:1 without understanding. But one morning, the pastor of the Free Methodist Church (1986-88) remarked, “the Word simply means prophesy.” Lightbulb over my head.
- Crying Out to God When Faith Falters
They had the tiny mustard seed of faith that lead them to fast. But to see the miracle of Peter standing there tested what they knew. People didn’t walk out of prison and appear outside your door.
- Artists Paint Jesus--Or Do They?
Many artists painted masterpieces of the God they adored. One problem though. They don’t portray Jesus.
- Jesus Tells the World He is God
Mark 10:17-18 puzzles many people. We think it means that Jesus denied His goodness, but that isn’t true.
- Out of the Quagmire: Leap and Praise God
What a moment. Unable even to rise, and then in a blink, you’re off the ground, and moving the withered legs, now full and strong. Ecstatic, you leap and praise God.
- How Much Do You Care about Your Calling?
When the Lord prepared the Israelites to cross over to Canaan, you might suppose that the giants who lived there waited to turn it over to them. Possibly carry the Israelites on their backs.
- The Crazy Man with a Boat in His Yard
Noah built the ark without a clear perception of where the LORD led him. . . . He built while the neighbors thought him out of his mind. But obeying God is more important than pleasing the neighbors.
- Peter Wept in Shame
Have you ever blundered so badly you think the Lord has no further use for you? Just hours before the crucifixion, at the last supper, Peter swore his allegiance to Jesus unto death. Later, two men stated that he followed Jesus. He denied the Lord three times.
- Lost in the Wilderness
They saw the LORD who parted the waters (and created the universe) as powerless to give what He promised. The people weeded themselves out through fear.
- Blasphemy in the Church
I sat in the church where my grandparents took me as a child and listened to the visiting pastor (the church’s University representative—a young woman) talk of all gods being equal.
- A Speck in Eternity
If I’m Methuselah, and I live nine-hundred-sixty-nine years, my life remains a speck in eternity–a passing shadow. We live in basic training for our authentic life in eternity.
- To Die is Gain
As we age, we notice more aches and pains. The memory fades. Our doctor becomes our best friend. But we still have work. As long as we walk the earth, God gives us new days to fill with Christ.
- Beware the Pat on the Back
. . . .she commented that it was a nice library. Unthinking, I reached behind me and patted myself on the back. Later I realized what I had done.
- Fruitful, Green, and Full of Sap
The Tree Center states that sap is the blood and energy source of a tree. When the sap dries, the tree dies. The specter of Alzheimer’s and Dementia hovers over my family. My parents suffered both before they died. But my destiny need not copy theirs.
- When Life Threatens to Smash Us Against the Stones
The water crashes against the rocks. Over the years, the shapes of the rocks change. The boulders in our lives can thrash us to bits, but in the midst of it, the Lord’s hand steadies us.
- "Lord Make Her Help Me": The Better Way
Based on what we know about her, Martha worked hard, never resting. She modeled the ideal member every church wants. She leads the committee that delivers food to the sick. Every day finds her standing beside a hospital bed, comforting the patient.
- At War With Yourself
Once my mother came to me in tears because of something she thought she said to offend me. I didn’t remember it.
- We're Not in Heaven Yet
Lazarus doesn’t take up much space in the Bible. But his life carries a big message. The Bible gives no information on Lazarus other than Jesus called him from the tomb. And his crime—living—caused the Sanhedrin (Jewish leaders) to put a price on his head.
- Praying for the Unlovely
I stared at the man shown in the news who committed a terrible crime against a baby. The child died. The killer’s face twisted with hate and ugliness. I saw the devil there. Does the Lord want me to pray for this man?
- Help Me Merge
A Southern female comedian described driving to her gigs. She said traffic gets so backed up she says, “Sweet Jesus, help me merge. Help me merge.” Burst of hilarity from her audience.
- Powerful Visions From Artists
Since someone took a piece of charcoal and scraped a picture on the cave wall, art tells the stories words can't express. Artists have painted the truths found in the Bible since they heard them.
- A Man After God's Own Heart
if headlines existed, the Jerusalem Bugle might have blared the headline Government Leader Sends Soldier to His Death from the masthead, in, say 1000 BC.
- Why Does Jesus Weep?
Jesus waited to go to Mary and Martha to call Lazarus out of the tomb. He trudged up their lane four days after Lazarus died. He knew the outcome of that day, and the miracle He planned. But He wept.
- Help My Unbelief
When the man asked Jesus to heal his son, he said “if you can.” Jesus corrected him. Faith must come before healing. The man recognized his doubt, so rather than pretend, he asked Jesus to strengthen his faltering faith.
- Humble in Heart
Jesus wasn’t a hypocrite, so how could He call Himself humble? Could it be that humility doesn't mean seeing yourself as worthless and inferior?
- Kicking the Shins of the Favored Child
Whenever we think we’re being mistreated because of our faith, we can remember that Jesus lost his life because of envy.
- The Ants Challenge the Mountain
The God of the Universe looms far bigger and more powerful than Mr. Grier. And yet in defiance the ants challenge the Mountain. We, ladies and gentlemen, are the ants.
- Jesus Misses His Ride
Jesus sat enthralled in a synagogue listening to spiritual teachers, so engrossed He forgot all else
- Good or Evil: A Frightening Day
On May 29, 2019, my hometown of Lawrence had its first tornado since 1982. Sixty homes suffered damage. It caused seventeen injuries. Three people went to the hospital. Members of my church lost roofs and suffered other destruction.
- Burning Bush
Moses killed an Egyptian as a young man, and fled to Midian. He tended sheep until age eighty. Did he ever have one daydream of leading an entire nation to a wonderful new land?
- Joseph Ran
Loyalty and God’s will mattered more to Joseph than the unfair punishment he received. He responded without weighing the cost.
- Jesus Called Judas Friend
How could Jesus call Judas “friend?” Judas beat out all others as enemy number one.
- Why Me?
Why is my name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? Why should I spend my eternity in heaven when many will never know the abundance available for them if they accept the Lord Jesus Christ?
- What I Have Escaped
Prodigal lessons come hard. We know too much we wish we didn’t and understand what it’s like when the light goes out. We can never take Jesus for granted.
Have a hard day? Can't think of a THING to be thankful for? This is it.
© Patricia Annalee Kirk 2016, PuckettBrowne Publishing