Author Archives: Karla Jo Wasion

I love Jesus and His Church. His Word is Truth, His heart is good, and His return is sure.

Genesis 3—Say No Before You See It

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6)

First, we have no indication of how much time elapsed from when they were placed in the garden and instructed not to eat from the one tree, and when the snake made his move. Could have been days, could have been years, but my guess is that Eve had seen that tree more than a few times before satan came to her. But now, it looked different to her. Now it looked like something she should have. Suddenly, that tree was worth the risk of disobedience. And all the enemy had to do was make her doubt God.

  • Did God really say?
  • But that’s not really true. You won’t really die.
  • He knows that if you do this, you’ll be like Him. That’s why He told you not to do it.

The scriptures give us a front-row seat in that garden to witness the very moment Eve fell for the lie: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good…” When what had once been wrong suddenly looked different to her, the trap was sprung. We have to say no when we hear the lie. We can’t wait until we see something in a different light, because there’s a good chance it will be too late by then. Our ‘no’ must come the moment we are tempted to doubt God.

  • BEFORE food looks like comfort;
  • BEFORE alcohol looks like a painkiller;
  • BEFORE sex looks like the love we crave;
  • BEFORE money looks like the answer to all our problems;
  • BEFORE submission looks weak;
  • BEFORE people look like saviors;
  • BEFORE the scriptures look optional.

Before any of that, the enemy will come to us with a lie, and we’ll have the same choice Adam and Eve had. Believe God and obey – or not. But we cannot be long in the choosing, or that lie will start to look like truth.

Pondering lies will never serve us, it will only serve the liar.

Think about it…

What are the lies you’ve believed, and how have they affected your life? What are you currently hearing that might be a lie? How will your respond?

Genesis 2—We Are Included & Entrusted

“Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.”

Fact: God could have named the animals He had made, and then said to Adam, “That’s a jackrabbit, and that one over there is a giraffe, and that one is a…” But He didn’t. He included Adam in the work of creation by having him name the animals. This is the first time, but not the last by any means, that God partners with us in the work of His Kingdom. We’ll see it all the way through the bible, including here:

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20

But it goes beyond sharing the gospel. Partnering with the Holy Spirit in us, we move mountains, heal the sick, speak truth, care for the broken, and we witness and participate in the healing and restoration of our own lives. God could easily do all of it without us, but He doesn’t. He includes us, and whenever we choose to say “yes” to God, we are choosing to join Him in His work on the earth.

Just as in calling for light and telling oceans where to stop, there are some things in which God chooses to go solo. He invites us to rest, to wait, to be still and to know that He is God. But then He also invites to go, to speak, to pray, to believe, to touch. To be included. To be with Him in the work.

I like questions. They tend to clear my field of vision. So here are the questions that I ask so that I can see how and when God wants to include me.

  • Is there someone around me who needs to hear the gospel through my story?
  • Is there someone I need to forgive?
  • Do I need to repent of something?
  • Has He put me in front of a person or a situation that needs my money, my time, or any other resource that I have?
  • Has He put an unlovable person in my life for me to love with the love of Christ?
  • Do I sense the urgency to pray for someone or a situation?
  • Is He sending me to another nation, or to a neighbor?

We have to resist the urge to believe that because we aren’t Billy Graham that God can’t use us. First of all, I don’t like the word “used”. God doesn’t need tools, He chooses to include and entrust people.

There is work to do, a Kingdom to advance. There are hearts to rescue, and healing to be done. There are souls to save, and lives to change and hard people to love and forgive.

We are not left out. He has included us in all of it.


Genesis 1—Before the Beginning

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

And I remembered these words:

“For He chose us in Him BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD to be holy and blameless in his sight.”– Ephesians 1:4

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD, but was revealed in these last times for your sake”. – 1Peter 1:19-20

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD”. – Matthew 25:34

Before “in the beginning”, Jesus was chosen to be the perfect sacrifice, we were chosen to be made blameless by His blood, and our inheritance was prepared. Much went on before “in the beginning”! God was not deciding what to do as He did it, there was a great plan in motion long before Genesis 1:1. 

It is clear from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22 that God is in control of our world. Nothing surprises Him, nothing catches Him off guard. He knows the end from the beginning and every moment in between is His to own, and I believe it is one of the hardest things for us to handle. Most of us are either fighting to get control or we’re overwhelmed because we do not have control. Free-falling is not our comfort zone.

We come to Jesus with a death grip on our lives, and when He begins to pry our fingers back the pain can feel unbearable, so we tighten our grip. We are scrappy, I’ll give us that, but we’ve met our match with God. He will always out scrap us, because He is actually in control, while we live in the illusion of being in control. Sooner or later into everyone’s illusion must come the reality that we are not sovereign, even over our own lives.

My questions to myself, and to you if you are interested, are:

How have I been living as though God is not in control? Where has fear convinced me to tighten my grip? In fact, what is it that I am fearing that is causing the need to get some kind of control? Where is it hard for me to trust God’s sovereignty? What are the areas where I absolutely wish I had sovereignty? These questions take me into the places in my heart where I keep the door closed and remain blissfully unaware of the mess behind it. But when we determine to go deep diving into the Word of God, we find ourselves facing things we’ve ignored.

As thankful as I am that God is sovereign, I know that my flesh still has fancy ideas of being in charge, of deciding what’s best for me and how to get there, and I have to deal with that mess. But I am learning to rest in the free-fall, trusting that the One who is in control is good, always.


let’s raise a sword to father’s day

Sunday morning. Quiet house. Pondering these two sentences:

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” (John 6:44)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

I can’t get to Jesus unless the Father draws me to Him, and I can’t get to the Father unless I come to Jesus first. Of all of the spiritual truths, this one is the great tenderizer of my heart.

God built a cross and put His Son on it because of the sin that separated us. Then He chased me down by drawing me to Jesus so that Jesus could make things right between me and my Father. Everything that was done was done because my Father wanted me with Him. I will never get over that. Ever.

And I grieve because of how many Christians find no rest in the truth. So many are still trying to win God’s approval, still trying to prove themselves worthy. Keeping Him at a distance, trying to figure out if He can be trusted.

And that is why the Word of God is a sword.

On this day especially, when fathers are being celebrated, many of you have a bitter taste in your mouth that has made its way to your heart, because not all earthly fathers are good. Sad fact of a fallen world: good parenting is hard to do and some just couldn’t do it and it turned children into victims, and the enemy knows an opportunity when he sees one.

So here’s a question: How is the enemy using that bitter taste in you to his advantage?

Maybe it’s keeping you from forgiving, which makes it hard to receive forgiveness. Maybe it’s protecting a victim mentality that makes everyone around you suspect of trying to hurt you. Every slight, real or imagined, sends you into a tailspin. It’s possible that your bitterness is being used to force you into a continual cycle of trying to get approval from others and then crashing into depression because you just can’t get enough approval to make something in you feel better. Maybe you punish yourself because you weren’t worthy to be loved well by your father. Maybe you’re just angry. Like, all the time. Those are all fallouts from trauma, but honestly? I don’t think any of that is your enemy’s actual goal.

His perfect outcome is to draw a straight line from your earthly father to God.

I believe he could care less how you feel about your earthly dad, just as long as your relationship with God suffers because you have used your earthly father to judge your heavenly Father. But here is the truth that the enemy will never whisper to your heart:

There is only One who is the exact representation of the Father and His name is Jesus. He is the only One who can walk that straight line to God. Every other single person on this earth has to go through the cross.

Today, of all days, calls for a sword. Truth to break lies that are so dang strong. Love that will conquer a heart that’s been hurt. A heavenly perspective that will change how we see a fallen world with fallen people.

Truth can help us choose forgiveness, choose to move on, choose to let go. The Word of God can tear down the lies that keep us imprisoned in our childhoods (and our adulthoods), where we re-live our wounding on a regular basis.

Truth reminds us that God cannot be measured by earthly fathers; that all goodness starts with Him, not with us.

The sword of the Spirit declares with every swing that God is good and that you can trust that the whole reason He built a cross for His Son and drew you to it is because you are loved and wanted by Him.

Come Home

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.” Psalm 90:1

“The God of old is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Deuteronomy 33:27

From pages so old, Moses is whispering to us that God is our home.

I know. Home wasn’t always a good place for me either. It wasn’t always safe and mostly I couldn’t wait to leave. It was where escape became my first and strongest addiction. And then I found other so-called homes. Relationships that hurt. Marriages that hurt. Places that made me long to be free, to be anywhere but there.

I always had a roof over my head but I was always homeless.

Because true home is a safe place – physically and emotionally. A refuge. A place we don’t want to leave and when we do we can’t wait to return. It is where we feel most welcomed, most ourselves, most free. Home is where we live, not where we simply survive.

And finally, after running from every other place that called itself home for me, I ran to God. I didn’t feel safe with Him at first, because I didn’t feel safe with anyone. Trust issues don’t just disappear when you say a prayer, know what I mean? Words like “God will punish you for that” don’t just stop sounding true. I didn’t know that He is actually kind, or safe. I didn’t know that I had finally run home.

Belief doesn’t just show up in us. We choose it, because we have been given free will to do so. Everything we believe was a choice we made to believe it. For years I chose to believe that if I just hung in there, tried a little harder, my life would get better and I would end up happy. But eventually, it became clear to me that nothing was going to change and that made me sad and panicked and tired. Out of hope. And just as one king has to die for another king to take his place, one belief system has to end so that another can begin.

So one day in a hospital cafeteria I chose to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, that He died to pay the price for my sins, and I could now be forgiven and have eternal life. But honestly? The thing I most needed at that moment, the choice that was like jumping off a cliff for me, was to believe that God could change my life. If that wasn’t true, then I was a goner. So I jumped.

Some people feel most “with” God when they are in worship. For others, it’s being in nature, or maybe it’s when they are gathered with other Christians in prayer. I know a few Christians who only feel close to God when they are in church. Others have a particular spot in their home where they meet with Him. For me, there’s only ever been one place.

From that hospital cafeteria, I went back to my life, to a husband and kids and emotional wounds that wouldn’t quit. And a bible. That’s it. No church. No bible study groups or women’s ministries. Just a bible that I didn’t understand, and a need to know God. I needed to find out who He was and why He loved me. That was 30 years ago and today, the Word of God and the presence of God are the same thing to me. I am most at home when I am with Him in the scriptures. I feel safe there. Loved and free. It’s where I talk to my Father and He talks to me. It is always where I most want to be.

For Christians, life is a journey home, and doesn’t that make you think heaven? But Moses has whispered something and I can’t shake it.

God is our home. Heaven is where we finally see what home looks like.

 

{Dear believer – while the scriptures may not feel like home for you, they are where the truth is found. They are where you will come to know Him, the One you have chosen to believe. To try to follow Christ with nothing more than a sporadic or occasional glance at the Word of God will make following Him a confusing, cumbersome endeavor. Or worse, an option.}

#readyourbible

lessons from a discipleship training school

I recently came across notes from my nine-month participation in the Antioch Discipleship School in 2013-2014. Just reading the notes stirred me again, made me want more of Jesus, stoked the fires of my faith and gave me pause to consider where I have slowed down my race.

I like to share things, so here we go. These are random quotes and notes that I managed to write down during this very intensive training time, along with some of my expanded thoughts.

It’s not about improvement in us, it’s about greater dependence on God.

Stop. Just stop trying to get better at being a Christian, and start shifting your trust. You trust yourself more than you trust God, if you’re honest with yourself. You trust what you can see far more than you trust what God has said. You rely on what makes sense to you, what is the most logical decision to make, rather than trusting that God will come through if you would be willing to wait on Him. He tells you He’s here, He sees, He knows, and He loves. Lean into that. Rest in that. It’s time to learn that every single thing is in His hand. To know that His heart for you is good, and in a trust fall, He will always, always catch you. Self-improvement is not God’s mandate to you. Surrender and trust…that’s the call to your soul.

“If we lower the bar so that we can live up to it, we miss the whole point:  total dependence on God.”

The twisting of His Word in order to make it easier to live up to it is happening all over the place. Resist the urge to join the party. The whole point is that we cannot live up to it apart from the power of God. We must learn to depend on Him for the power to obey Him!

“I’ve never known anyone close to the Lord who gets up late.” Watchman Nee

This was connected to a teaching on spending time with Jesus that re-kindled a fire in me. Rising early to meet with Jesus is one of my favorite activities, so I will just say this to you if you’re on the fence –

You will never regret it. In the end, you will never wish you would have kept sleeping instead, or that you would have done something else with your precious time. You just won’t. He is worth it, I promise.

I didn’t ‘find’ Jesus. I ran from Him and He pursued me and caught me.

If I could eliminate one phrase from the Christian vocabulary it would be anything that sounds like we found Jesus. We see our relationship with Him differently when the truth finally sinks in that we were running from God, and it was His pursuit of us that changed everything about our lives. We didn’t find Him, He found us, because we were the ones who were lost, not Him. He was the One looking for us, not the other way around.

Whatever you think it looks like to you, Jesus found you. Let gratitude well up. Let yourself feel so humbled, so aware that He came after YOU. Because He wanted YOU. Let the scales fall from your eyes so that you can see that you didn’t stumble into God while you were looking for the answer to a deep question, or something to make your life have meaning. You were chosen and pursued by the God who created you for Himself. The God who chose to bear the punishment that your sin deserved so that He wouldn’t be without you for eternity. Rejoice, because the One who pursued you, caught you.

“We live in a world that says how we feel is more important than what is true.” – Ricky Chelette

Yes. This. All I can add is: Truth trumps feelings. It has to, because our feelings are unsteady, fickle, transient things. Truth remains truth no matter what we’re feeling. We must stop telling people that how they feel is what’s most important. There is a difference between acknowledging and even validating the way someone feels, and helping them believe that their feelings are the barometer we use for decisions.

More nuggets…

Everything you do for God needs to be the overflow of intimacy with God.

You want to change the world? Let Jesus love you, and let people watch.

God is more committed to fulfilling His will for your life than you are to finding His will.

Sometimes fears & doubts begin to feel so real that we call it wisdom.

Demons are not your biggest problem. It’s whether or not you are going to submit to Jesus.

The needs of this season are the testimonies of the next season.

God has called us to be a spiritual influence in our world. I exert influence, not because I have a stage, but because He has my heart.

Jesus was the greatest influencer in history, and He lived a suffering life. Am I willing to walk any path, even of suffering, in order to influence others and glorify God?

Humility is not a lack of confidence, it is confidence properly placed – in God.

No one can ruin your life, if God owns it.

We try to comfort ourselves out of difficulty. God wants to comfort us in the midst of difficulty.

Honor is celebrating who someone is without stumbling over who they are not.

God is more interested in why I do what I do, than in what I do.

You are a missionary. It’s not the plane ride that makes you one.

This was just a drop in the bucket of all I learned in the Discipleship School. It was an incredible nine months of my life that I would go back and do again if I could. To anyone who will be going through the school this Fall, I say this – soak. it. up. Take copious amounts of notes, and save them all! You will go back through them many times over the years and find both encouragement and conviction just when you need them.

this is how we fight our battles

That cancer thing tho, right? Beastly is what it is. I bet you know someone who’s fighting it. We could stand on a busy street and point in any direction and find someone who is doing battle with the cancer Goliath on some level. Maybe that someone is you. Can I say it sucks? I think I can (my blog and all). And I’ve had cancer, so lemme just tell you that sucks is the right word. I was lucky. My cancer was found very early and a hysterectomy took it down. No chemo, no radiation. But the battle was still there, because fear was still there. And ain’t that just a fight and half when the diagnosis comes? Yeah, it is.

Right now, I have a friend who is in the thick of battle with a very aggressive breast cancer. She’s a Jesus loving gem of a girl. Wife. Mother to 3 very young kids.

Everyone’s fighting stance looks different. But one thing is certain – worship is a vital position for us to take during any battle. Worship is an incredible weapon, and I can attest to its power to bring fear to its knees and make faith the biggest giant in the room.

Heidi posted something to the Caring Bridge site that I think will bless you, even if you aren’t in a cancer war at the moment (because everyone is fighting some kind of battle, right?). I got her permission to reprint it here for you:

Surrounded

Journal entry by Heidi Wenzel — Mar 5, 2019

“Another round of chemo tomorrow. It always has me getting ready. Gearing up. Ready to face another round of battle.
But our family has a particular way that we fight our battles. And Jon and I have tried to cultivate a particular family culture in our home. Through good times and bad. If not every day, at least every week. We worship. At home. With the kids. We put the music on loud and we sing and we dance and we run and we twirl and we bow with our faces to the hardwood floor and we leap and we clap and we worship the King of Kings.

And we believe. We believe that our worship impacts the King, the kingdom, and our very own circumstances. We believe that it blesses our hearts, changes our perspective, and powerfully affects our circumstances. And in this particular season we believe our praise and worship defeats cancer. 
Would you dare to worship with us? Believe that our worship could conquer this enemy. This cancer.
This would not even be close to the first time that the worshipping is a catalyst for the conquering. One of my favorite Old Testament stories is found in 2 Chronicles 20 about a king named Jehoshaphat and a battle with vast armies from neighboring countries. A battle. A battle won by praise and shouts, not by weapons and strength. A battle that this leader was wise enough to recognize was not his, but the Lord’s.

It’s so worth reading the account for yourself, but here’s the summary. King Jehoshaphat receives a report that multiple armies are on their way to conquer them. The first thing this king does is call a fast and all the people inquire of the Lord as to what they should do. All of the people. One of my favorite verses of the story vs. 13, “All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones. Stood there before the Lord.” That’s right, the little ones too. Our little ones are with us, looking to the Lord, seeing how He will answer, what He will do. Anyway, a prophet stands up and declares to the whole assembly, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.” (Verse 15) He says the Lord is going to deliver them, they don’t have to be afraid, they just need to stand firm and watch the Lord gain the victory for them!
So then the king goes on and does something so incredible. So significant. So counterintuitive. He prepares his forces by sending out the worshippers as the front line. First. He calls to his people to have faith, and acts out his own faith by not sending out the greatest fighters or the biggest weapons, but rather believing what God has said and sending out the singers. The worshippers. “Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out AT THE HEAD of the army saying: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.” And just as the Lord had said, the people of Judah watched the Lord give them the victory. God himself set ambushes on the armies and they literally ended up killing and destroying each other rather than Judah.
Worship and victory.

Would you be so bold as to worship with us? Not just pray, but worship with us. Worship in the midst of a cancer diagnosis. Worship through a hard season of chemo. Worship as the army surrounds and invades. Worship as the waters rise and the fire surrounds. Worship as even the waves crash over us. Would you worship with us? It’s what we are doing. It’s what we have chosen to do. Give him our praise. Give him our worship. “

If you want to read their story, pray for them, or just follow along on their journey – here is the link to Heidi’s Caring Bridge site:

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/heidiwenzel