Tag: Jesus

Kingdom work

Karla Lees

When I go to work, I’m going to the Kingdom. I’m not working for the King, I’m working with the King. The Kingdom is not restrained to the walls of the Church. -Kris Vallotton

Many days, I used to drag myself to work.

But its not that I don’t love my jobs, for I do.

Rather its because I wasn’t seeing the bigger perspective about work in general.

Years ago, when in bible college, I dreamed of working in a church. One professor made a comment about how I was too radical to be church acceptable staff material, and my soul took on the weight of that barb.  Not knowing any better at the time, I let my dream of being on church staff fly away into my lost dreams pile.

Fast forward to more recent years.  Spending more time in the Word, I realized that the church in Acts seemed to do more “church-like” Kingdom work outside of the walls of the church buildings, right in the communities, wherever they were.

Immediately my eyes were opened to the reality that church work, Kingdom work, was never meant to be limited inside the walls of a building.

Kingdom work was always intended to be carried within the heart of everyone in the Kingdom, and shared with those who need to hear the Good News that they are welcome in His Kingdom.

  • The Kingdom is within me, for I am His.
  • The Kingdom walks with me, for the King is with me wherever I go.
  • I work with the King, wherever I work
  • All my work matters for His Kingdom when I do it for His Kingdom come and His glory.
  • When I am aligned with His heart for those around me, I am doing Kingdom work.

And I don’t need to be church staff, or in a church building to do so.

I only need to be lead by Holy Spirit, following Jesus’ example and allowing my heart to beat with my Abba’s to do Kingdom work.

For wherever I am, the Kingdom is too.

And the same is true for you!
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Regrets

Karla Lees

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Like all of us, I too have regrets in my past.

Not meeting Jesus earlier.
My behaviour in many situations.
My response to several circumstances.
The lack of love or compassion I failed to show many who crossed my path.
How I have been as a daughter, sister, niece, granddaughter, cousin. Wife, mother. Friend, coworker, band mate, employee.
My walk as a follower of Jesus.

Like the image above, many days my regrets follow me around.

What I realized this morning is like the elephant’s egrets, my regrets were meant to serve a purpose.
But not be my 24/7 companion.

When regrets take His place, we take our gaze off His face.

Regrets are a reminder to us to drop to our knees before Him, confess our failings, ask for His grace, then walk in His strength.

Not cause us to do a u-turn away from our present and future living.

God didn’t save us to leave us where He found us, full of regrets, wounds and sin.

He brings us up out of the kingdom of darkness and cleans us off with His holiness.

He clothes us in His identity as one of His household.

He infuses us with His love, like a long fragrant perfumed bath.

He envelops us with hope.

He empowers us with His strength.

And He Himself wants to walk with us, every moment of every day.

Notice the verb tense changed to present, even though I was referring to my past, when He met me, where He found me.

God’s redemption may have occurred once for our salvation, yet it is meant to occur daily for our freedom.

We are fragile beings who have a tendency to focus on what is going wrong instead of all which is going well with us.

God knew this as our Designer.

For God too faced regrets, as we can see in the Word.

He regretted making man at least once, leading to the flood. He regretted His children falling into sin and being lured away by placing their hopes in false gods. (Israel, over and over again)

Yet He never showed regret for giving us the gift of new life through Jesus.

Living a new life means having no permanent regrets following us around. Your regrets get to flock into your past when you place them in Jesus’ loving hands. They become part of your history, not features in your ongoing story.

Regrets turn into redirection as God helps us live the life He has waiting for us to live in Him.

Make a list of your regrets. Bring them before the Lord and ask Him to guide you out of your past into the life ahead of you today. Then toss that list into the fireplace, or run it through your shredder.

God makes all things new, even me and you!

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Don’t dig up in doubt what you planted in faith.

Trust the love of God to help you uproot those regrets, so you can bear the fruit and enjoy the life He wants for you in this moment.

The life you spend together.

pace or pursuit

Karla Lees

Is the pace at which I am doing God’s work destroying God’s work in me? Bill Hybels

There are days where I feel like I can’t catch my breath. One thing after another gets crossed off my to-do list, until I collapse on the sofa at the end of the night and wonder where my day, and my inner peace went.

Many of the things I did were good things.  But I am awakening to realize that not all of them needed to be done by ME.

I have a loving husband and two adult children, with a cute cat and a pygmy hedgehog living with me in our cozy nest.  This year, with three of us working and one in school full time, I have had to pull back on doing all the cooking, and use the crackpot more and assign nights to cook based on who is home first.  The cleaning jobs are fairly equally divided too. Not everyone is as tidy as the others, but working as a team leaves more time for family fun this way, with no one person carrying the weight alone.

All I do at home, my job or church may be His work.

But if I lose sight of how and what He is wanting me to do when and set my own pace, I can bring it all down through my attempt to do it all, in my own strength.

What we do on our own can be good, but what we are able to do with God can be great!!!

I have a few gifts and talents which God has given me (mostly around communication & community).  I am becoming increasingly aware of the fact that not all I do is meant for me to be doing.

Which means that the pace I am trying to maintain is a waste if I am not achieving His best for me at the end of the day.

Instead of trying to organize myself into obedience, I am taking a different tact this year….

I am pursuing God as my main priority.

There will always be jobs to be done, for we will always have work of one kind or another until we get to heaven.

If pursuing Him first causes me to allow him more fully to work through me, I need to lay myself down each day, and let Him set my pace.

Pausing to make sure I am running in pace with Jesus and all He has for me to do and become is more important to my well being.

Ultimately God is to be my pace setter.

My part is to give Him the space he needs within me to see the mext step ahead, as He equips me to meet each task to the best of my ability in Him.

I refuse to not answer the call He is stirring up deep within because I am keeping a frenzied pace without His purposes for me in mind.

I have no more space for the kind of waste in my life, Beloved.

Join me as we slow down before His throne, settle in at His feet, and ask Him to open our eyes to the things which matter most to Him, while He leads us to the peace within as He reminds us who we truly are, and what it is he has for us to do today.

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May the #wonder of living life at His pace overtake all of our busyness as we seek him first!

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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Angels from the Realms of Glory

Karla Lees

One of my all time favorite carols, this classic proclamation of the Good News beautifully covers the main players in the Christmas story.

Angels from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o’er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation’s story,
Now proclaim Messiah’s birth:
Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ, the newborn King!

God knew that the world might miss out on His timing, so He sent the angels to proclaim the Good News. The Creator came to His creation!!

Shepherds, in the fields abiding,
Watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with man is now residing,
Yonder shines the infant Light;
Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ, the newborn King!

The first people the angels spoke to were those who were the loneliest and who needed to know they weren’t forgotten: the shepherds, living on the outskirts with their flocks.  The Good News had arrived!

Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great desire of nations,
Ye have seen His natal star;
Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ, the newborn King!

Not only did the angels proclaim the Good News to the shepherds, but the star over Bethlehem attracted the attention of several wise men in a far off land, who had studied the prophecies and understood the King was being born.

His timing is such that He not only sent an angel to Mary to let her know she would bear the Messiah, but set a star alignment in the sky which would draw seekers outside of the Jewish faith to come to Him.

God was already letting us know He was coming for all:

Those who were in the family, those who were on the outskirts, and those seeking from afar.

Saints before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear,
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In His temple shall appear:
Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ, the newborn King!

I love this Carol in part because of the fourth verse. We are part of the Christmas story, saints. 

All of Christmas was done with us in mind.

To draw attention to the reality that God had always had us on His mind, and was always willing to pour out His heart of love for His Beloved.

What a carol to proclaim to the world, indeed!

All of us have one song to sing, this Christmas and every day: Come and worship Him!

May His song arise within you, and pour out in His praise again today!

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He is the Song we are to sing, always!

Historical Background:
Irishman James Montgomery penned the words, and Henry Smart composed the music for “Angels from the Realms of Glory” in 1816.

Fun Fact: In the UK, “Angels we have Heard on High” is also sung to this tune!

Sunday Psalm: Prince of Peace

Karla Lees

Into the storms of my life
You enter
with a mighty roar
You announce to the heavenlys
the Prince of Peace
has arrived
yet in all Your might
You speak
with such love
and care
right when i need You
the most

The wonder of it all
lies not in Your might
but in Your heart
for even though
humanity bungled the path
You made a way
through time and space
to bring us back to You
the Prince of Peace
comes not only to save
but to restore
and make us whole again.

The Gift of Christmas
set on display
the heart of God
the Prince of Peace
the wonder of God with us
for all the world to see
forevermore!

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If you too need a reminder of what the Prince of Peace came to do for you, visit the gospel of Matthew, and watch the video by Hillsong United here.

Rejoice & be merry

Karla Lees

Rejoice and be merry
in songs and in mirth!
O praise our Redeemer;
all mortals on earth!
For this is the birthday
of Jesus our King,
Who brought us salvation,
His praises we’ll sing!

With the announcement of the season of Christmas, many of us first think of all the extra tasks or jobs we have associated with what is to be one of the most joyous occasions of the year.

Instead of focusing on the wonder wrapped about the miracle Christmas is.

It took a death, then a birth to restore my vision.

My sister in law passed away suddenly at the beginning of winter a few years ago, and the weight of grief hung heavy over my heart.  I knew we were to be celebrating Jesus has come, but all I could feel was the loss.

I allowed it to overshadow the gain.

For Jesus isn’t just a gift doll we pull off of the shelf each Christmas, playing with him for a bit then putting him away with the other ornaments until the next.

He is the gift itself.

He is Present.
He is Love.
God with us, through it all.

One of my coworkers had a baby the next Christmas, and the excitement His arrival brought into my heart made me realize the miracle of God coming to us as one of us.

But the story doesn’t just stop with His birth.

It begins.

This Christmas, choose to rejoice.

Not because you have to, but because you choose to.

You may be under the weight of loss, pain, weariness.

He knows, and He came to join you right where you are at.

Not in the castle of the rich and famous, but in the humble shed of a working man, surrounded by the works of his hands.

To a woman who’s priority was serving God before all else. Her reputation, her engagement, her family ties.

To a man who although he started off shaking with doubt, came through when she needed him most.

Love was the undercurrent of the Christmas story, and the story He is continuing to write in our lives.

For the sky may be dark and the fog blocking our sight, but He is there to lovingly guide us as He Himself is our Light.

Because He never lets us go, we can rejoice.

Because He is always with us, we can be merry.

Because of who He is, we can always have a song to sing in praise!

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Historical Background:
This carol is also referred to as the Gallery Carol, one of the traditional pieces sung by many choirs in their church galleries before the invention of the organ, in the early 19th century. It is believed to have been written in the 18th century, and is considered to be a Dorset Carol.

Joy to the World

Karla Lees

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing….
the wonders of His love!

This season is meant to be a shining beacon of hope to a weary world spinning in darkness.

Joy entered the world.

Not only does Jesus represent God’s love in His very essence, He is infused with joy.

You see, God not only loved everyone He created, He enjoys them!

That includes you, and me!

No one is left out.

He takes sheer delight in you, and enjoys your company, because you’re you. And He loves you for it!

Instead of His people holding back and speaking only through tradition, God broke through the barrier between us. He ripped the veil separating Heaven and earth, and entered the story as a living breathing physical man. Fully God wrapped in humanity.

Because He wanted to get as close to you as He could, to make you sit up and notice Him, feel His love for you, know His joy at being near you.

This beloved Christmas carol captures the majesty of God with us, the miracle of God one of us and the mind glowing joy we can have when we accept His gift, His Presence in and with us, always.

Heaven and earth unite to sing of this wonder.

He enjoys His people. For love’s sake, so much so He, our Creator, became one of His own creations to give us the fullness of that love right where we were, are at.

The enemy may be whispering how terrible you were for yelling at your kids last night, or shaming you for something you didn’t do or forgot.

Love is reminding you He is with you.

Your bank account may look smaller than usual, the illness ahead seem insurmountable, your loved one gone on ahead being missed beyond words.

Love is waiting to refill you with the hope and joy of the season.

For this season, Christmas?

Its not dependant upon you or I to become a reality.

It already has!

Because of His love, we have God with us.

It’s sign, sealed and delivered, this gift beyond time and space. And yours, forever.

So regardless of what is happening about you, you can have joy.

For Love came down at Christmas time not only to restore us to Him but for us to enjoy one another, as love tends to do when you draw near to the One you adore.

Joy to the World!
Jesus is born!

Our Carol of truth, love and joy, forevermore!

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Historical Background:

Joy to the World’s music and lyrics were written by Isaac Watts in 1719. It is amazing to me that this piece still sounds like it has just been written by every generation that sings it. I truly believe it is one of the songs we will forever sing when we move Home one day!

Coventry Carol

Karla Lees

Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child.
By, by, lully, lullayb

The days in which God determines Jesus was to arrive here on earth were tremulous ones.

Great political unrest, overtaxing, long hard days forced to serve ‘landlords’ not of your choosing. Revolution was constantly simmering when it wasn’t breaking out against the oppressors.

God’s people were crying out for their Messiah.

When Herod began the slaughter of all the boy children of Israel in the hopes of destroying the newborn King, many families were suddenly grieving and wailing and grieving over the sudden loss of their children.

For you know who hoped to stop God in His tracks, in a feeble attempt to undermine His will, but a very costly one to those left with empty arms and wounded hearts.

Many likely thought all hope was lost.

And into that exact time and place, God chose to deliver His people through Jesus, soon to be delivered into the world as one of His people, as well as His Beloved son.

God did not let the madness of one fearful king halt the delivery method He was choosing to set His people free.

We know that God has always heard the cries of His people for deliverance, and mourned with them over their losses. The Bible is full of true life stories of His rescues.

If you are empty armed, missing your loved one, whether they have passed on or are on the other side of the country or world?

God hears your pain and lament.

I believe this song must have been written by someone who lost a child, and was horrified by reading the account of Herod killing an entire generation of boys.

We all should be, for God was horrified by it as well.

So full of compassion for His people, He sent His Son to us, to give us a beacon of Hope we could reach out and touch.

Because our God is the God of all comfort, justice, hope and compassion.

He couldn’t turn away from the cries of the brokenhearted. The frustrated. The poor. The exhausted. The empty armed. Those grieving. Those without hope.

This Christmas, if you hear this song of lament, be reminded of His compassion.

Each person ever in history has mattered to Him.

Those you have lost or had taken from you included.

Jesus came as one of the weakest to show us that weakness does not mean God cannot use you.

He came as one of us to show us that God understands the frailties of humanity first hand.

He came as an expression of God’s great love for each and every one of us.

And is right there beside us when we are hurting, feeling lost, wavering in our hope, and needing a God would can reach out and hold us as we lament.

So if you need to cry this Christmas, for it isn’t the holiday you thought it would be?

Allow Him to rock you in His loving arms as you lament.

God came right smack dab in the middle of turmoil to be there with us, for us, as one of us.

That same Love has not changed, and never will.
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Historical Background:

This lyrics for this piece were written in 1534 for a Christmas pageant by Robert Croo, the composer is still unknown, but believed to be in the early 1500’s.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Karla Lees

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy!

We can have rest because Jesus was born.

Shocking, isn’t it?

That the birth of a child can turn your whole world upside down?

If you are a parent, as we chatted about yesterday, you know it’s true.

But if that baby is God Himself, tucked into human form, supernaturally growing in a virgin’s womb, announced by a choir of angels to some of the lowest of the community, born in a stable?

You know miracles are going to happen. They are in His very DNA.

So like God, we can rest after creation.

Jesus came as part of God’s plan to restore, make right what was broken in the garden.

To remind us God hadn’t & hasn’t forgotten about us.

Jesus always was part of His story for reaching His people.

And because God is with us?

We can be merry for the Good News has come.

We can also rest, knowing we are not alone, and God has done all the work to make the way Home for us.

If this is a hard Christmas for you, missing your loved ones, or Christmas’ past, take comfort and joy.

The One we have been waiting for has come. He will always come to those He loves, Beloved.

Rest in that truth today!
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