shape – KARLA LEES

Intertwined

January 26, 2016 Karla Lees

I love reading the Psalms. In fact, I am about to embark on reading the whole book for the 4th time in just over two years.

As Eugene Peterson has said, the psalms encompass the whole scope of human life in one book.

And I am about to read it again for the first time!

I have now read the Psalms through in the NIV, ESV and the MSG translations.

I am about to rack open the Passion translation, and I can hardly wait.

For me, reading a different translation helps me take in thr Psalms afresh, and invite Him to speak through them to me again, as if it’s the first time!

But even more than that becomes the way I am learning to see the Word as a whole interwoven through out the Bible, the more I study the Psalms.

When I read Psalm 1:1 and am reminded how my delight comes from Him, it reminds me how much he has shown His love to Israel, His chosen people and how He delights in us, Zephaniah 3:17. How we can please God with our worship and praise the pleasing offerings mentioned in Numbers 29:2 & 2 Corinthians 2:15.
David’s many psalms, including Psalm 62:8, remind me to be fully honest and pour my heart out like water before the Lord, again mentioned in Lamentations 2:19.

I could go on and on, and I am so glad he continues to reveal Himself to us through His Word as we invite Holy Spirit to be our guide!

For even though I am focusing on thr Psalms, the living Word is continuing to focus on me, a day reshape me as I interact with Him!

getting it right

July 31, 2015July 31, 2015 Karla Lees

Disciplined people can do the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reason.

-John Ortberg

I have been disciplining myself to be listening & discerning more before I write or speak.

I want to be obedient, and not miss His timing for the moments in my life.

Today, I feel I am not to write, by to let the Word steep deep before putting fingers to keys.

I’ll be honest, I so want to dive into it right now, but i suspect there I something He wants me to discern before I do.

So I submit to the prompt of wait on my heart.

Because? Followers submit to their Leader’s direction, even when they don’t want to, for they know God wants them to.

Disciplined people accept discipline for the shaping tool it is, when their Maker is the one wielding the forge.

For Your timing,
for Your purpose,
in Your way,
I surrender
to Your lead,
and wait here
with You.

proof is in the…grace?

February 18, 2015February 18, 2015 Karla Lees

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!