Skip to main content

The Escape Key

 


Harry Houdini started out as any ordinary magician. He called himself the “king of cards” yet he competent but not particularly skilled sleight-of-hand artist.  Yet there was one thing that set Houdini apart, He was an escape artist.

  It wasn’t just the prepared acts he created that mystified audiences. He would challenge Scotland-yard coppers and Siberian prison guards to try to contain him. He invited the public to devise contraptions to hold him, including nailed packing crates, riveted boilers, wet sheets, mail bags, and even the belly of a whale that had washed ashore in Boston. It seemed no one or nothing could hold him.

   The key to his escapes wasn’t a physical one, however, it was mental. As one writer told it was his belief that the means to escape was possible and was within his reach. He believed he could. And then he made it so.

  That’s an idea we need to have as well. Too many times we are trapped in a prison of can’t. We can’t overcome. There is no way out. We are stuck. There is no hope.

 Consider the words of 1st Corinthians 10:13;

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

  When we seem surrounded by sin, encompassed by temptation, there is a way of escape. And it is within our reach. It may take some work. I may stretch us and strain us. But there is an escape.

  Believe you can and make it so.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Until Midnight

    In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back.       I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

The Mighty Gulf

  It is hard to get people on two sides of an issue to come together. Each has their own viewpoint, their perceptive, their own foibles, their own understanding.  To gain any common ground there must be something in common. Something or someone that can bridge the gulf between the two.   Could there be a greater gulf than there was between God and man? How could a holy perfect God find a way to connect to the fallen, imperfect mankind? How can one without temptation connect to those who are beset by it? How could limited mortal beings understand an omnipotent eternal God?   In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, “ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .” The phrase mediator here describes a person that bridges the gap, a go-between. Jesus was one who could stand in both worlds. A perfect holy one who can understand our temptations, a man who would die yet live eternally, One who was God yet became flesh and dwelt among us. ...

How Dare You!

    Lewis Keseberg was tired of all the accusations against him so he filed a defamation lawsuit against Ned Coffeemeyer the man he saw as responsible for the rumors. The court found that Ned had indeed called Keseberg a “thief and murderer” without any proof but it didn’t rule very strongly in his favor by only imposing a fine of one dollar.  Maybe they were lenient because Ned Coffeemeyr had earlier rescued Lewis Keseberg from a terrible situation.  Maybe it was because the accusations while not proven were highly likely.  And maybe because Lewis Keseberg had admitted to eating people.   Lewis Keseberg was one of the members of the infamous Donner Party, a wagon train that got caught in the Siera Nevada mountain and resorted to cannibalism to survive. Keseberg wasn’t known as a very good person before those events and they certainly didn’t help improve his image. But to sue the very person who saved you seems to define the kind of person he was....