Author Archives: Karla Jo Wasion

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

memorial stones

Lifegroup last night. There were six of us, all women in the Autumn or Winter season of their lives. We are divorced, widowed and still married. We work and we’re retired. We are all moms. We have grandchildren and we are hoping for grandchildren. 

We love Jesus and we want to love Him more. Better. Deeper. 

We had a time of worship. 

  • When You Walk into the Room – Bryan & Katie Torwalt
  • Counting Every Blessing – Rend Collective
  • Reckless Love – Cory Asbury

I need a louder bluetooth speaker, but the worship was still sweet. Afterward, they gathered around me, layed on hands, and prayed for some health issues I’m having. Prayer warriors, every one of them! And I think I want to do more of that. More of the laying on of hands and storming the heavens for one another. There’s just something powerful and sweet and comforting in it, not to mention that it moves the heart of God.

Then to the table that we gather around to talk about our lives, Jesus, and the Word of God. We used to gather in the living room, but one of our members has trouble staying awake in those chairs you sink into and never want to leave. So, we wondered if sitting around the dining room table would help her. It did, so we stayed. Because yes, one person is important enough to make some changes. One person is worth the hard chairs. And actually, I think we all prefer the table. It’s more intimate, and easier to take notes. And to eat cookies.

I had asked each of them to bring a rock, or stone with them to group, along with a short testimony of an attribute of God that has been evident in their lives.

And then we read from Joshua.

“The priests carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan.” – Joshua 3:17

“After the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua: “Choose 12 men from the people, one man for each tribe,and command them: Take 12 stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan where the priests are standing, carry them with you, and set them down at the place where you spend the night.”” – Joshua 4:1-2

“In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ you should tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the Lord’s covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan’s waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites.”” – Joshua 4:6-7

And one by one, we went around the table and talked about who God has been in our lives. For one, He has been her cornerstone. Always there. For another, He’s always been the Inviter, always calling her back to Him. Around the table, He has been merciful, provision, holy, love, faithful, and the God who speaks. I could sense our own faith levels rising as we recounted the ways God has poured Himself into our lives.

And after each testimony, we laid down our stone. 

And then we prayed. We thanked Him for who He is, and who He has been for us. And then we prayed for our children and our grandchildren – those born, and those yet to be. We prayed that all that He has been for us, He will be for them in even greater measure.

I prayed that my children and my grandchildren would know the voice of God through their lives. That He would speak to them the way He has spoken to me over the years, and that His voice would be even more precious to them than it is to me. 

That little pile of stones in the middle of a dining room table represents the movements of God in the lives of six random women on this planet. We have all been through trying times, difficult circumstances that threatened to break us, but didn’t. Because God. 

What is your memorial stone? Take the time to consider some of the ways God has been God in your life. Think on His kindness, His goodness, generosity, provision, power, and yes, even His discipline. Thank Him, and then pray for your children (current or future) and the generations yet to come. Pray they will know God better and deeper than you know Him. Pray He takes them farther than you have gone and do greater things than you have done for the Kingdom of God. That’s what we want, right? For those coming after us to know a greater measure of what we have known.

 

worth more

Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. But even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So don’t be afraid therefore; you are worth more than many sparrows. – Matthew 10:29-31

You are worth more.  

This is the place where Jesus first met me with my worth.

It took time, you know. Time to exchange worthless for worth more. To hand Him my lie and take His truth. But you are worth more became holy ground for me. Words the Holy Spirit whispered to a woman who walked head down for years. 

It slowly became my truth. My identity. But like an onion, the Word is peeled back for new revelation.

My fear of man is connected to the knowledge of my worth.

Jesus did not pull punches. There’s no bait and switch in His teachings. He makes it quite clear how the world is going to feel about us, His followers. 

You are blessed when they insult and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me.- Matthew 5:11

You will be hated by everyone because of My name. – Matthew 10:22

Then they will hand you over for persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of My name. – Matthew 24:9-10

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. – John 15:18

Nothing vague here. While we are commanded to love, we are never told we would be loved back. Isn’t that where we trip? Where we start tenderizing the truth so that it can be easily swallowed? Isn’t this where we try to get people to love our message so that they won’t reject us?

These musings and these holy words breathed out by a holy God have left me with this question – 

Do we fear man more than we fear God? Do I? Does knowing that I am worth more to God, release me to be ok being hated by man? It should, but I’m not sure it does. Are you?

Jesus knew what He was doing by sending His followers out into a broken and hateful world. He knew that when we go out with truth, we would be a minority, not a majority. He knew that most people are not going to accept us or the gospel we have been entrusted to carry. And yet, for the sake of the few, He still sends us, having equipped us to fearlessly go where we are not welcome.

“Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?” – Matthew 6:26

“But even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So don’t be afraid therefore; you are worth more than many sparrows.”-

Do not worry and do not be afraid. You are worth more.

It is this knowing that is our equipping. The knowing of our true worth, our identity as worth more, that makes us unafraid to wade into the wrath of man to find the ones who are willing to believe the truth we bring.

And all of that is good but the gold, for me, is simple. 

Jesus knew we would be afraid. He knew that we’re all still a bit broken, still seeking approval, still wanting to find a way to make following Him comfortable. He doesn’t despise our broken bits, He speaks to them by telling us how much we mean to our Father.

Jesus told us we are worth more, but then He hung from a cross and showed us that we are worth everything.

That’s gold that I hold close. It makes me feel a little fearless to know my value to my Father, so that my value to mankind doesn’t become a goal. 

And when I am treated as worth less, “you are worth more” steadies my heart and lifts my head. 

Beloved, when we are tempted to believe what the world says about us, when we are walking with our head down – the Word of God is the truth we need. It is the scriptures that get into our soul with the nourishment it needs for healing. 

Stop looking for your worth among the broken. You won’t find it there. You are worth more than this world will ever speak over you. So let the Word of God speak truth to you, and don’t ever stop listening.

Let it make you fearless.

first let me

“A scribe approached Him and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go!”
Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”

“Lord,” another of His disciples said, “first let me go bury my father.”
But Jesus told him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” – Matthew 8:19-22

He never said it would be easy. He said we would have a Comforter, but He never promised we would be comfortable.

But the words that laid me bare today are these, spoken by a disciple ~

first. let. me.

First let me exhaust all other options, and then I’ll reach for the hem of Your robe.

First let me figure it all out and then I’ll trust Your plan.

First let me build my life and then I’ll build Your Kingdom.

First let me seek more and bigger and better, and then I’ll seek You.

First let me worry, and then I’ll pray.

First let me hold my offense. Someday I’ll forgive.

First let me seek the approval of others, and then I’ll ask what pleases You.

First let me self-protect and then I’ll trust You with my hardened heart.

First let me enjoy my sin, and then I’ll repent.

First let me find the human love of my life, and then Your love will satisfy me.

First let me pursue my dreams, and then I’ll pursue You.

First let me soothe my own pain and when that stops working, I’ll let You bind up my wounds.

First let me protect my pride, and then I can walk in humility.

First let me.

Most of us would say that we don’t put anything before Jesus.

Most of us would by lying.

In so many ways, in so many places in the Word of God, it is made clear to us…

Jesus never agreed to be second.

what if i could see what i can’t see

He was a man with a promise. She was a slave with a son. His son. But the promise won, and she and her son had to go because Sarah let the hammer fall. “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a coheir with my son Isaac!”

And I wonder if Abraham’s heart broke that day. Did he cry? Did he wish there could be some other way? Did it leave a hole in him that nothing would ever fill?

Surely he loved his son the way we love ours.

And then the water was gone and a slave-turned-mother couldn’t keep her son alive. And I wonder if she was just undone with sadness and grief and resentment over a life she didn’t choose.

Maybe choices others made for her broke her, the way they break us.

“So as she sat nearby, she wept loudly”.

She couldn’t watch him die and I can’t blame her one bit, but I want to blame someone. Sarah. Abraham. God? Maybe. Because dying children is the big unfair and someone has to take the blame for a mother’s loud weeping.

But God heard. And in this dark story, light breaks in. When God hears our weeping and speaks to a heart that’s been split wide open, something lifts. Hope comes near again.

But none of that is the point. This is the reason I sat down here–

“Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.”

She saw what she hadn’t seen before – what would change her mourning into dancing and make her weep loud with joy.

She saw hope and goodness and provision and life because He opened her eyes.

And I wonder.

What would I see if God opened my eyes?

What if my thirst has been seen and my well is already there? What if healing and hope and love and provision and comfort are all right there on the other side of the veil, waiting for my eyes to open? What if a well in the desert isn’t hard for God? What if my impossibles aren’t impossible at all?  What if my longings are known and what if my search could be over?

What if He opened my eyes and I saw what’s been there all along.

Genesis 21:8-19

we’re made for this

The story is this: disciples were sent ahead of Jesus, in a boat. Around 3 a.m. they see someone walking on the sea toward them, and think their eyes must be tricking them. Then the Someone speaks that He is Jesus, don’t be afraid.

{When the storm is building, listen closely.  “Have courage. It is I. Do not be afraid.” Because He has promised to never leave you, so you are never, ever, in the storm alone.}

And then Peter speaks (of course, it would be Peter). “If it’s You, command me to come to You on the water”. 

{Where are the ones who want to walk on water? Where are the disciples who want to do the impossible, willing to do something that feels unsafe? Where are we?}

So Jesus said “Come”.

{Come. Lay hands on this one for healing. Come, pray for that one and share the gospel with her in the middle of the grocery store because this is where I’m calling you to step out on the water. Come, step into unknown, go where you hadn’t planned, do what feels risky, give away what you’ve saved, forgive, apologize, bend low and wash feet and turn cheek and love. Let go of what you think you’re controlling and step into what you can’t control. You see, we’re all hearing Him say “Come”. We’re all invited to step out of safe, out of comfortable, out of what makes sense. We’re all beckoned to step onto water that moves under our feet and do impossible things. Are we doing it, though? Are we hearing “Come” and are we lifting our foot over the side of our lives, daring to walk in the power of Jesus?}

Peter did. “And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.”

{There’s something in me that cheers for Peter in that moment. Something that feels like he’s walking on water for all of us. Being brave, taking the risk, daring to go into what’s unknown, because he wants to be like Jesus.}

And then fear came. Fear always comes. “But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

{Fear sinks us every time. Afraid of what someone will think of us. What will they say to me? What if I look foolish, go broke, end up with nothing? What if it’s hard and what if I can’t do it and what if it’s dangerous and what if I get hurt? What if it changes everything and what if I can’t control what happens? What if they don’t love me back? What if I’m wrong? What if it doesn’t work? Fear comes riding in on the strong winds of ‘what if’.}

But Jesus doesn’t let us go under. “Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 

{Fear doesn’t talk to us about Jesus. It doesn’t remind us about faith. Faith says “look up”, while fear compels us to look down and look around. To see the strength of the wind and the opinions and the risk and the utter loss of control that walking on water creates. Fear diminishes faith and raises doubt. Causes us to question what we’ve heard, what we know, what we believe. Shifts us back into a safe religion where we’re calling the shots, doing what looks good, doing what stirs approval in those around us. Doing what doesn’t rock the boat. I hate fear, but sometimes I feel safer with fear than with faith.}

There are hard things to be done. There is risk and brave things waiting for our ‘yes’. The Kingdom of God must keep advancing and it is violently opposed. The winds of opposition are strong but I think we were made for strong winds. I think we’re fully equipped to withstand opposition, to do the brave thing. I believe that risk ceases to be risky when we are walking with Jesus. I believe that He inhabits His people, His Church, and nothing will stop us, no weapon will prevail against us, and defeat is not our destiny. I think we are people with greater faith than fear. I think we’re made to rock boats.

I think we’re made to walk on water. We just have to get out of the boat.

steppingoutoftheboat-754x437#letsgo #letslookatJesus #dontlookdown #wecandohardthings #betheChurch  #walkonwater #belikeJesus

(Matthew 14:25-31)

our culture of death is killing us

This is a follow up to my last post on gun control. Since that time, I attempted to purchase a rifle. Filled out the online form at the store, and assumed they would tell me there was a waiting period while a thorough background check was done. I figured it would take at least a few days. It took 10 minutes. I could have walked out of the store with my rifle less than 1/2 hour after walking in. The boy was confused when I told him I had changed my mind, but he could not have been more confused than me.  So I checked my state’s laws on gun purchases. No waiting period.

No time for a person to cool down. No space for someone to change their mind about killing their spouse, neighbor, teacher…whoever. And that’s just what I found in a very quick internet search. I’m sure there is much more that just wouldn’t make sense to me.

So yeah, I’m a Republican and a supporter of the 2nd Amendment. And I want some kind of gun control.  But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized that guns are only a very small part of the reason kids are shooting up their schools.

There is an argument about other countries who have tighter gun control laws, and lower incidents of gun shootings as a result. But surely that isn’t the whole story. So I want to ask questions about those countries that people talk about.

What is their abortion rate? How many of their cities have gangs, and children who witness murder, whether by gun or some other form on a far too often basis? What kind of television shows and/or movies are their children watching on a regular basis? What are the typical video games are people playing?

Do those countries have the same culture of death and desensitization to murder as the United States? Are their young people being raised with the same disregard for human life as ours?

While I do believe there needs to be some kind of gun control other than what currently exists, I do not believe that guns are the entire problem. And I don’t believe that gun control is the solution we think it may be.

The problem is our culture. And until we are willing to admit that, and take steps to change it, kids will continue to kill kids.

Unless we are willing to say that killing unborn children is wrong, our kids won’t believe it’s wrong. Unless we are willing to stop the barrage of violence that entertains them, they will continue to find death and murder to be primarily entertainment. They will not understand that you can’t just start the game over, as though death didn’t happen.

So the easy access, almost non-existent mental health checks, and various other loopholes in gun laws is a huge problem, and immediate change is needed. But it is just a floating piece of ice that looks easy to maneuver around. Because we don’t see the iceberg that is below the surface, and that iceberg is what will ultimately sink us.

I believe the Church can shift a culture. When we stand on truth and refuse to back down. When we choose to live counter-cultural lives. When we raise our children in a Kingdom culture. When we take the culture of the Kingdom of God into our workplaces. When we move into the spheres of this culture, bringing light with us into government, education, healthcare, the justice system, and the entertainment industry, to name a few.  When we choose, at every level, to live counter to the culture around us, including what we allow to entertain us. A culture is shifted when a stronger culture begins to move in. We have watched this happen in our country, to the detriment of our country. But I will always believe that the Church has the power to shift atmospheres, shift cultures, and shift this war that is threatening the next generation.

gun(out of) control

I try not to get entangled in the affairs of man, in the political system or the endless debates of right vs left. So I rarely comment on those types of posts, and I certainly avoid writing about them myself. But sometimes, you know. Sometimes a thing is just too big to ignore. Sometimes what’s happening makes me cry. Surprisingly, it’s not the school shootings I’m referring to (although they make my heart break hard and imagine my grandchildren and feel overwhelmed with sorrow). It’s the inevitable aftermath of biting and devouring that happens in this nation that makes me weep. It’s two sides that refuse to back down and who turn on one another because there is no one else to turn on. It’s all of us blaming each other because someone has to be responsible for this horrible thing, and it can’t be us.

I lean to the right. Conservative. I vote Republican. And I firmly believe in the right for citizens to bear arms, to be able to protect themselves and their families.

But something has to change. Someone has to step out of the ranks and move toward the middle ground. So I’m re-thinking my stand. Not entirely, just considering whether or not I’m standing there because it’s the right place to stand, or because that’s where a conservative, Republican-voting, right-leaning person is supposed to stand. Because I don’t think the luxury of that exists anymore. I don’t think we can just band together to try to outnumber the other side. I don’t think that voting a certain way means that I cannot think for myself.

Because our nation’s children are being killed off. And because of who I am, I lay that blame at the feet of Satan. Because of who I am, I know that this is a spiritual battle first and a gun control battle second. And because of who I am, I believe that we are not helpless. I believe things can be changed and the tables can be turned. I believe this is the role the Church must play. The role of prayer and covering and warfare belongs to us.

I believe that the generation the devil is trying to wipe out can become his greatest nightmare, if the Church will engage the war on a spiritual level.

But I also believe that something needs to shift in the natural as well. So I’m trying to really nail down where I want to take my stand. I don’t think it has to be all or nothing. Take away all guns or take away none. That’s the lie being sown into the battlefield between left and right. Sure, there are some who think no ordinary citizen should own a gun, and there are some who think that ordinary citizens should be able to have their own arsenal of mass destruction. But here, in the land of reality, I don’t think the majority are thinking either of those things.

I wish we could all just come to the table, and leave our hostility outside. Leave our political persuasions outside. Leave our pride and our anger outside, and just, for the love of good and our children, come to the table with a desire for a solution.

I’m willing to step out of the ranks of my conservative, right-leaning army and say that I do not believe that a 19-year-old boy should have access to an AR-15, for any reason. I  believe there needs to be a drastic change to how anyone of any age is able to get access to any kind of gun, and by that I mean it needs to be a very hard process.  I think there should be over the top punishments given for any crime involving a gun, as in NO crime that involved a gun should end up with a ruling of “probation”. Jail time every time. And three strikes you’re out. I think those who sell guns have to be at this table and they have to want to make it hard for someone to buy what they’re selling. For the sake of our children.

Beyond that, I don’t know. I just know that a house (nation) divided against itself will not stand, so at some point everyone trying to take a stand will no longer have that freedom. So it may be a good idea for us to consider sitting down. Together. As humans. As citizens of a nation that is imploding. As mothers and fathers. As people who think that our children are more important than our political beliefs. More important than our rights. More important than our need to be right. More important than left or right, liberal or conservative. Our children are important enough to lay aside our politics and come to the table with actual ideas. And a willingness to listen. That means we have to be able to acknowledge that the other side is not necessarily wrong, just because they are on the other side.

I believe that we are parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and we love the kids in our lives and we are sick and tired of people shooting at them. So what are we going to do about it?

Comments are good. Dialogue…good thing. A conversation about this epidemic is most welcome. But either side spewing out the same old opinions, justifications, and explanations? Nah. We have to start a new conversation.