Tag: message

why’s

Karla Lees

We don’t always take a close enough glimpse at one person in the Christmas story whom I can relate to the most.

Because like me, Joseph appears to have wondered at the whys of Jesus.

  • Why, Mary?
  • Why Mary?!
  • Why this way, God?
  • Why now?
  • Why me?
  • Why?

‘Why’ is a question we can all see ourselves saying when faced with a new scary or unsettling situation.

At times, we echo what we imagine Joseph’s attitude was when informed about Mary’s pregnancy.

We don’t know actually who told him, for we know Mary was out of town for several months visiting her cousin Elizabeth as she was awaiting her son to come, John. We can hazard a guess that the grapevine may have gotten to Joseph before her parents or Mary did.

Because bad news likes to spread when outsiders begin to ask why.

As her fiancé (in those days called betrothed) Joseph had pledged to marry Mary. To us today, being betrothed is like being married except not living or sleeping together yet. In that time, he had the legal right to accuse her of infidelity, divorce her, see her stoned, and be set free without any blemish on his reputation. (see Matthew 1:18 – 25)

Joseph must have asked why.  For we all want to know the answer to that question when faced with drama or trauma.

He was likely broken-hearted, angry, frustrated and second guessing himself for choosing her as his bride.

We get a critical glimpse into Joseph’s personality with his response to Mary’s news, and the hint of what he must have been thinking, when the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. (Notice the angel showed up after he had decided to quietly divorce her.)

His message from God for Joseph?

  1. Son of David: Yes, I know you, and i have the right guy, Joseph. You are part of the promise, the hope for Israel.
  2. Do not fear: I am with you.
  3. Take Mary as your wife: live up to your covenant with her.
  4. She is pregnant by the Holy Spirit: your wife became pregnant through God’s actions, no man’s. She is still your pure fiancée.
  5. She is to bear a son:  So you will know I speak the truth.
  6. Call him Jesus: For this is happening because He is the Messiah..
  7. For He will take away the sins of the world: this is the plan.
  8. And fulfill the prophecies spoken about him: this is the time for him to arrive.

Notice what Joseph did first thing after awakening from that dream.

He went and got married to the girl of his dreams. (With one exception. He didn’t consummate the marriage while she was pregnant with Jesus.)

Despite all the why’s left unanswered, Joseph heard exactly what he needed to in order to obey God, and become the step-father of the most important man in history.

I’d be asking why me too if I were Joseph.

Because I do so often enough in my own life at times.

Here is the thing.  God knows why He chose you and I.

Just because we don’t always know why He chose us, doesn’t mean we were not His intended chosen.

God knew Joseph would be engaged to Mary.  He knew him to be a just man, who loved Mary so much he would show her kindness in a heartbreaking situation.

For Joseph, despite his likely questions, was a man after God’s own heart.

After Jesus was born, Joseph was given another set of instructions in a dream via an angel of the Lord.  He was warned to take Mary and Jesus, and flee to Egypt.  (Matthew 2:13-15)

Then he was told why.

For in that instance, being a devout Jew and being asked to go back to Egypt, the country which kept your people enslaved for generation?  I’d want to know why, just like Joseph would.

The why? For Herod wants to kill Jesus.

God didn’t need to say any more than that, apart from wait for My further instructions.

There are some why’s we already know the answer to, we just need to hear them confirmed.

There are most lessons we can learn from the briefly recorded life of Joseph, step-father to Jesus, husband to Mary.  But why is evident the greatest in this portion of the Word.

Because when God asked Joseph to do something, just like Mary, he did so. Even without all his why’s answered.

There is no question in my mind that Mary and Joseph were real life people like you and I.  God knew the plans He had for them, and look how history was changed through their obedience.

Why Joseph ultimately comes down to this: Jesus needed an earthly father who resembled His heavenly Father. One whose heart was for following the ways of heaven while here on earth. 

The next time you are overwhelmed with the questions on your heart and mind, ask Him to reveal Himself to you.  

For He is the ultimate answer to all our questions: the how’s, the what if’s, the who’s, the what’s, the where’s, the when’s and yes, the why’s!

This piece of history reminds me to wonder anew at the bigger picture God has in store for us!
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proof is in the…grace?

Karla Lees

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When I try to control my life, I make an utter mess of it.

And I know I have been doing so when I feel surrounded, inside & out with mess.

God, however, sees my mess far differently than I do.

I want to clean up my messes until I am spotless, and no sign of the mess remains behind to give a viewer any inkling there had been any mess at all.

I sweep my messes under my internal carpet & put on my public face before I go out…but the mess remains within.

God says He has washed me pure as snow, and He doesn’t see the big pile of mess that I do.

He sees building materials for the message He wants to make out of my mess.

I am made 100% clean through Jesus, but the scars that remain behind? They speak to Him of where He is taking me; they speak to me of all the struggles, guilt & shame i see in those same scars.

I see remnants of mess, He sees beauty in the making.

In the last few years, I  have been learning its okay to let people see the mess within. Not everybody, but as God has led me to share to a chosen few, my stress has ebbed from trying to hide my mess.

Because we all want to be known and accepted for who we are, right now, in the middle of the newness He is making from the mess on hand.

For we can’t always see what those around us do, how far we have come as we have followed Him.

Our emotions can fog up our vision if we let them have them loudest voice.

I don’t want my stress or mess to be the loudest voice I speak, I want His message to be the words i cling to, and the words i share as He leads.

When you move beyond standing in the midst of your mess, you may catch a glimpse of the message He is knitting together from the broken strands left behind.

Master Creator, His tapestries reveal the glory of their Maker.

You, and i? We are examples of His abundant grace, with which He covers our mess.

Say yes to His dress for you.
Let Him weave the mess into a stunning array of grace, to be worn every day.

Our mess will become something so much greater in His loving hands!

3 ways words pack a wallop

Karla Lees

Many of us can recall a time when we were hurt by someone else’s actions.

But we likely all can remember a time when someone’s words hurt.

Words bypass race, size, religion, gender, class and strike right at the heart of us, often before we know it.

There are three ways we can be wounded by words have been wielded as a weapon:

Unintentionally:

Gossip can catch us off guard, and broken telephone can contribute to us being hurt when we hear things behind our backs.  Hearing your BFF actually hates your new dress but tells you how flattering it looks to your face because they know how much you like the color & they don’t want to hurt your feelings… still hurts when you realize they withheld the truth from you when asked for it.

Sometimes we don’t know the other person well enough to not accidentally make a comment slip (like how you dislike Timmy’s coffee and it turns out to be their favorite daily coffee place) and hurt their feelings.

Be careful what you say when you don’t know all the facts or people in a situation. Ask God for wisdom to help you steer clear of unintentionally using words that hurt.

Accusingly:

When we hear an accusation, we are all initially hurt: either by the truth, or by the lie.

The truth can pack quite the wallop when we are hiding from it, can’t it? There have been times when I need to catch my breath from its jab. The point of these words is to rebuild & restore us, despite the surgery that may be involved uprooting what shouldn’t be within us.

Unfortunately, the delivery method can pack as much of a punch as the words spoken.

When God speaks the truth to us, whether in His word or through another follower, it might be blunt but it is to be delivered with love and a desire for God’s best. Not the judgment that tends to slip out, which reveals the state of our own hearts.

Which leads me to the other way that an accusation can hurt: when its a lie.

You know, “lie” is a word I prefer not to use, because I like to lie down to rest, and I don’t like to use words in two ways when I have an options. Lies as a plural, is perfect. As a writer, word choice is important to me for setting the right background or revealing the best picture.

I choose to use the word “falsehood” for two reasons. False is the opposite of Truth, which also shows we are aligning ourselves with the enemy “hood.”

Falsehoods hurt because of their design. They are enemy snipers designed to take us down any way they can. When they are used by a non-Kingdom dweller, we aren’t as surprised, for we know who they are aligning with by association.

When falsehoods are used by a believer, a tear forms in the fabric of the Kingdom, and a tear falls from the face of its Leader.

We are not designed to speak what is false, but:

Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable —if anything is excellent or praiseworthy —think on such things.

Philippians 4:8 NIV

We are not to walk back into the enemy hood we have been delivered out of, but keep the best of the Kingdom on our hearts & in our minds, as the above verse suggests. Even more clear is the comparison seen in the Message version of the same verse below:

Fill your minds and meditate on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

Philippians 4:8 MSG

Which leads to the last way words can wound us when they are wielded as a weapon:

Deliberately:

This reveals more about the character of the speaker than the hearer.

Deliberately using your words, whether truth or false, shows you have a foot in the enemy hood, whether you would like to hear that or not:

Because you KNOW your word will hurt.

And that knowledge means you purposefully are aiming at another person to wound them.

Not cool.

I have been the recipient of deliberate, calculated falsehood in a time of great loss or shock, from those I adored.

Although I have forgiven them, the scar remains.

Those deliberate words? They are the bombs to the single gun shot of unintention and the Uzi of accusation.

Last Word:

All of these wound causing word weapons can come with a complication. How it impacts our relationship with the speaker of these words.

We need to run to God first to ask Him to separate how we have been hurt from the person who hurt us. Once we have dealt with the wounding, then we need to ask Him how we are to speak to the wounder. He may reveal an insight we could not know, and have us either set up a new boundary or reinforce our friendship, addressing the situation from His perspective.

Words hurt, but in His hands we can be fully healed.

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when you are asked to flee…Joseph

Karla Lees

After the wise men were gone, God’s angel showed up again in Joseph’s dream and commanded, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him.” Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod’s death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: “I called my son out of Egypt.”

-Matthew 2:13-15

Joseph was likely thinking now that Jesus had been born, things in his family life would settle down for a while. They would have Jesus named on the way home, Mary would spend her time recovering and they would begin their new life together. It is possible Joseph may have rented a place in Jerusalem and found some work as a carpenter while Mary finished her purification period after giving birth, as traveling too far with a newborn was not the best idea for everyone’s sanity.

So we pick up the story Joseph may have believed finished and discover Joseph to be the feature again.

We know that Herod flew into a rage when he realized the wise men were not coming back to betray the new born King, but there is no sign that Joseph or Mary knew of the danger until the angel appears to Joseph again.

Humble, faithful Joseph has now seen an angel twice in his dreams.
Both times, he is informed of news no one else knew by the angel.

Interesting to note, he clearly recognized the angel in his dreams, and believed the words spoken enough to life alteringly act upon them.

The first time, Joseph was told Mary was carrying Messiah & to marry her, raising the child as his own.

This time? He is told to wake up, take Mary & the child and flee to Egypt, for Herod wants to kill Jesus.

I am guessing this was an early enough warning timing wise to get them to safety before Herod’s horrible plan began.

I know that the gifts Jesus had been given by the wise men were no accident, as all three were hot commodities to trade with, and would likely have been enough to cover all their expenses while in Egypt. Because God would certainly have provided for Jesus again. Note it mentions that this would be a fulfillment of calling His son out of Egypt in verse 15.

As Egypt was not likely on the best of terms with Israel over the whole escape from slavery issue, Joseph may not have been able to get work there as an immigrant.

God would have taken all of this into account to get the Carpenters ready for their sudden trip & extended stay in Egypt.

The other noteworthy point to observe? Joseph immediately woke up and while it was still dark, had the family well under way to Egypt by daylight.

Simply put, his obedience saved Jesus.

Not sure about you, but I would have been more than a little freaked at a second angelic visit while I was sleeping. I wonder if it took Joseph just that bit longer every night for a while to fall asleep. Tentatively wondering if an angel would speak to him yet again.

So how does this impact us, the readers of the Advent story?

I see three clear ways.

1. When God sends an angel to speak to us, we should do what it says.

2. God can speak to us while we are sleeping, not just while we are awake!

3. Some times its the right time to just pick up and go.

We leave today’s continuation of #AdventuresinAdvent with the Carpenters fleeing to Egypt, as Herod’s horror is unleashed on the families of Israel.

#TheWhenSeries
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Image from: http://jlgragg.org/2011/01/05/beyond-the-season-celebrating-christ-after-christmas/nativity-2/

Adventures in Advent

Karla Lees

With the arrival of Advent comes the retelling of the Christmas story.

I have heard it many times…
in song, through drama, or by a reader at church. I have read the story to myself, and to my children.

This year, I am doing something different.

I have never read the whole story in the Message version before.
The NIV, ESV, NASB, KJV versions? Yes. So this Christmas, I am going to revisit a familiar historical based story- how Jesus came to us as a baby- as seen through the Message.

You see, I have always thought of the Word as the living Message, so I am quite excited to see what will unfold through changing my expectation of the familiar.

Keeping myself on my toes so to speak.

Not only will it be a less familiar translation, I am going to look through each of the Gospels one day a week for each of the topics I felt to cover this Advent.

Matthew- the tax collector
Mark- the writer
Luke- the doctor
John- the fisherman

Four men whose encounter with Jesus changed them each forever.

Pull up a cozy chair, your bible, and let’s let the Christmas Message speak to our hearts anew this Advent…

As I was in worship this past Sunday, the following headlines came to mind:

Preparing the Way.
Trusting a Teen.
Depending on a Doubter.
Making Space.
Following His lead.
Accepting the Gift.

I have decided to take look at how each writer recorded their viewpoint based on how they heard the Christmas Story.

Let’s reawaken the desire to share this part of His story, the Greatest Gift God has every given us.

For with the arrival of eternal God into our finite time line,  this event rippled across the universe & the heavens, forever changing the world it encountered.

Advent is the story reminding us of God’s primary Message from creation’s foundation to the end of revelation:
God is with us,
the Message of Christmas!

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messy

Karla Lees

People are messy; therefore, relationships will be messy. Don’t be surprised by messiness.

-Tim Keller

Life is messy.

Not just your space when you share it with others, or don’t tidy up after yourself.

People all have their own way of thinking, and expectations of how things will/should/could be…
and that difference truly makes life messy.

The real messiness comes out in how we each express our mess:

Harsh words flung like stones

Unforgiveness bouncing genuine repentance back in your face

Slander sticking like mud balls

Gossip burning in your ears as whispers occur behind your back

Neglect causing love to wilt, lose its bloom

Denial destroying the possibility of something new

Selfishness messing up the inside as well as your surroundings

Life is a mess.

Quite frankly, we are all at times, as my Nana used to say, in need of a swift boot to the backside, as we are obviously a few cards short of a deck.

Because humanity continually messes everything up, as is pretty self evident from history, Jesus came to earth.

The mess got a personal message from God Himself:

There is another way.

By letting go of our inner mess, and all that word bundles together within each of us, God releases the Spirit to fill us with all we need to stay healthy, love one another well, and live a life with purpose.

Our mess becomes transformed into a message.

A beacon to those lost on their own messes, struggling to keep their heads above water, losing hope, just surviving each day.

Your past does not guarantee you a future down that path.

Your future is only set based on one decision.

Will you let the Message take you, mess that you are, and transform you into His messenger to a hurting, messed up world?

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yes in my mess

Karla Lees

I am saying yes in my mess.
Yes to letting God mess up my day the way He wants it to look:

Today I worked a day shift versus the evening shift in usually work on Mondays. I somehow got more done than usual, and now have some downtime to read, write & relax.

I had an unexpected treat waiting for me at work. One of my coworkers brought in a special yummy snack as an early birthday present, as my work celebration is being delayed so we can include my boss who is currently away. Somehow, I now get to celebrate twice at that job 🙂

I connected with another coworker, and am now ahead on another project as a result. We normally miss each other on my evening shift.

I got up early to help my son edit an assignment, had enough time to throw dinner on the crock pot & get to eat with my guys at dinner time, which I don’t get to do on Mondays when I work the late shift.

We even had time to watch a fave show episode together before they had to leave for their evening plans.

I was able to clearly hear God direct me to do something outside of my comfort zone after work, but He so knew what He was doing.

My house is semi-clean, the dishwasher is running at full speed, there is a bit of laundry yet to be done and the pots are piled by the sink waiting to be washed.

But by saying yes to the change to today in all its messy glory, God got more done with my willingness than had I grumbled and flight His changes all day long.

I still have stuff within me that is a mess. Unresolved feelings, occasions memories that return to momentarily scorch me, aches and pains, just like all the rest of us.

I find that by inviting God into the mess, the random becomes purposeful. A plan emerges. That which needs to get done does, whether its a task, a conversation or a prayer.

The atmosphere within me changes. I feel less messy within, more able and capable knowing He is guiding me through today.

Yes to my mess, Lord.
You can have it all.

And somehow it becomes less mess and more Presence in the exchange.

A beautiful, inexplicable day unfolds when we give that day over to You.

Less mess, more MESSage.

May You be the MESSage they seen despite my mess.

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Pic from: http://jenniferdukeslee.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/10174946_10154007268500114_7533502883532293614_n.jpg?utm_source=Blog+Subscribers&utm_campaign=9948faa201-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_90981b7d90-9948faa201-70722577