18
Mar
Posted by kenchester in JesusLife, new life, wholeness. Leave a Comment
March 19, 2010
“God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we doomed to keep repeating.” Colossians 1:13-14 The Message
The One who never quits …
You’re known in the heavens as a rescued one. It is an enviable title. (If there was envy in heaven that is!) Your life has been pulled out of dark alleys and door-rusted-shut-dungeons. It can even happen today .. next week .. next month. But you’re not only a ‘rescued one’ .. you’re a home-free one as well. The Holy Spirit’s daily work is to remind you that your life in Christ is “signed, sealed, and delivered”. You were ‘nothing’ .. now you are ’something’. You were once a ‘nobody’ .. now you are one of God’s ’somebodies’. You were once ‘rejected’ .. now you are one of the Father’s ‘accepted’. This Jesus is a pit-raising .. pit-climbing .. and pit-saving savior. That ’s who you belong to .. who came after you even when you gave up trying to climb out .. who keeps reminding you that you no longer have to keep repeating those “sins” (the ones that you migrate around) over and over. Some sins get buried and spread like a virus over years. Some sins are present tense .. acted on .. self-centered choices .. false promising “dead-end alleys”. It really doesn’t matter to God. It is all the same to Him. You’re stuck and you can’t get out on your own strength. So .. He comes after you. It happens to rescued ones and home-free ones all the time. But God … is the One who never quits. And Christ is the One who loved you enough to climb down into the deepest and darkest dungeons of your life and bring you home. He’s still doing this today … maybe in your life … and maybe through your life with someone else who feels un-rescue-able. It only takes a moment … “a first installment on what’s coming” …
“It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free — signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.” Ephesians 1:13-14 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Men and Women walking on paths of freedom with Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
17
Mar
Posted by kenchester in JesusLife, grace, healing, new life. Leave a Comment
March 18, 2010
“We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long-haul — not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.” Colossians 1:11-12 The Message
The Call of the Spilled-Ones
It really is incredible when you stop .. really stop to think about .. and soak in the resurrection fact that God wants your life to spill over” with His Life … moving and breathing in you. You don’t have to try extra hard to make it visible. It just is visible … joy-visible … thanks-giving visible. Truthfully .. and Sadly … it is us .. Followers of Jesus … Believers .. In-Christ-Ones … Christians .. who so often display the least capacity to live a life filled with love. We run on yesterday’s supply .. or last month’s .. or some fossilized memory of the last time we felt truly alive and filled with the love of God. It is always easy to blame the outside forces of living in a fallen world for not being able to “imitate” God’s glory-strength-living for today. Our strength is teeth-gritting and teeth-grinding that last just barely enough before we collapse. God’s strength is described as something so real and great that it can “endure the unendurable” trials of everyday living. It not only endures but it spills over into joy. That’s the life that God’s Spirit wants you to have today. That’s the life the Spirit of Christ wants to live in you in the most ordinary places. That’s the life the Holy Spirit is shaping in you .. a Life that doesn’t take God for granted but forms in you a way of life the spills over with the life of Christ … resurrection life … JesusLife. Can you imagine praying this prayer over those closest to you and imagining their lives spilling over with the joy of Christ? And doing it tomorrow .. and tomorrow .. and tomorrow because you have such space in your life for God’s glory-strength to spill out of you. God is fashioning His saints (that’s you) for the long-haul journey of taking part in everything that points back to Him. Anything less just leaves you gritting your teeth and finding someone or some-thing to blame. You can begin now .. You don’t have to go back inside and try to clean it all up by yourself .. You can just begin with Christ .. and it only takes a moment …
“Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted”. Ephesians 4:30 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Glory-Spilled-Ones following Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
16
Mar
Posted by kenchester in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment
March 17, 2010
“Generous in love — God, give grace! Huge in mercy — wipe out my bad record. … What you’re after is truth from the inside out. Enter em, then; conceive a new, true life. … God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. … Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!” Psalm 51:1-6-10-12 The Message
What is God after in your life …?
Everything about God is generous. He’s pursued you with an all-out-consuming-acceptable love when you felt anything but acceptable or worth being pursued. He has wiped out your life record of trying to live life without Him. It was the only way for you to know and rest in the truth that God the Father is a God of loving truth that truly loves you from the inside out. Oh … you’ll test the limits of His love. You’ll try to manage the chaos and smile on the outside .. knowing that you are coming apart on the inside .. but hoping you can just turn the corner and everything will work out in the end. It’s a lie .. a sin-filled .. sin-amputating lie. The best your life can every achieve .. no matter how impressive the trappings is a “gray exiled life” trying to breathe fresh air through stale air chambers of your heart. But the heart hungry for the Lord’s fresh-start longs for a new life. And that’s where Jesus enters into your whole life’s arena. Jesus, and Jesus alone knows what your real reality looks like in you. There is nothing that you will face today that is outside of His deep and intimate knowledge of all of the broken pieces of your life. Nothing in you is outside of His reach and inexhaustible help. So … He’s made it very plain: Walk right up to him .. and receive what He so generously wants to give you. He’s experienced it all except the guilt .. shame .. and buried lies about yourself and those you love. He’s after your life where His truth (His life) invades and indwells every living fiber in you. It may take a long time .. but Jesus has guaranteed his mercy and help to all who ask and reach out and receive. It only takes a moment .. a God filled .. Jesus secured moment that will last forever …
“Now that we know what we have — Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God — let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all — all but the sin. So, let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy , accept the help.” Hebrews 4:14-16 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to the JesusFollowers and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
15
Mar
Posted by kenchester in JesusLife, grace, healing, new life, wholeness. Leave a Comment
March 16, 2010
“God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him. When I got my act together, he gave me a fresh start. Now I’m alert to God’s ways; I don’t take God for granted.” Psalm 18:20-21 The Message
How does God know …?
God knows exactly .. to the very last cell in your body .. right up to the last breath you just took .. what all the pieces of your life look like put back together through His restoring .. reconstructing .. rewriting love. It isn’t that He is waiting around for you to come to your senses before He will make your life complete. He just knows perfectly how to work intimately and incarnationally in your life in such a way that you can breathe and take the next step in Christ. Life in Christ is a “fresh start” .. an “alert to God’s ways” way of life. He knows how to bring all the pieces of your life together and give you what you could never do on your own: Come alive .. Become whole .. and Learn how to love. He’s using all the parts and pieces .. the ones you’ve discarded .. the ones you’ve hidden .. and the ones you are afraid to bring out into the light of this new day. He knows where you are afraid .. that’s why God has gone to such lengths for you to review how far He will go to redeem and reclaim what has been discarded .. forgotten .. unforgiven .. and thrown away as worthless. Life in Jesus is a life that says: I feel put back together. And only Jesus has the power to regenerate severed nerves and a life-scarred heart. It only takes a moment .. a God-moment that connects all of the pieces of your life .. and begins to make life .. resurrected-life .. out of once life-less pieces.
“Every day I review the way he works; I try not miss a trick. I feel put back together, and I’m watching my step. God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.” Psalm 18:22-24 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to the Easter Parade of Resurrected-Living Followers of Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
14
Mar
Posted by kenchester in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment
March 15, 2010
” .. and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.” Is. 9:6
Is there Anyone else who can do this …?
Only Jesus sees the places in your life that are un-whole. Only Jesus intimately knows how your whole life fits together .. your past .. your life-history .. your longings. Only Jesus really knows what your life would be without Him and what your life really is with Him .. making His life whole within you. Only Jesus rescues .. restores .. redeems .. reconciles .. and rejoices over you. His birth announced living hope to people (like you) walking in darkness .. His death announced that all of your broken places and broken promises have been redeemed and paid .. His resurrection announces that your life can be whole and truly alive in Him. There isn’t a formula of when it happens … where it happens .. why it happens .. or even who it happens to …? There is just this seven hundred plus two thousand-year old promise that there isn’t a limit to His wholeness. There is no one like this Jesus. There isn’t ever going to be anyone else who can claim this promise. And your life is to be a living .. unfolding story of God’s restoring wholeness. It makes you a ‘dangerous wonder’(Yaconelli) in the world you live in. It isn’t a story you force on anyone around you. It is a story of unstoppable love flowing in and out of you. And it only takes a moment …
“O God! Your way is holy! No god is great like God! You’re the God who makes things happen; you showed everyone what you can do — You pulled your people out of the worst kind of trouble, rescued the children of Jacob and Joseph.” Ps. 77:13-15
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Wholeness-Wonders following Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
9
Mar
Posted by kenchester in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment
Grace-Gripped will be away from the internet until Monday, March 15. Thanks, Ken
8
Mar
Posted by kenchester in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment
March 9, 2010
“You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly.” Ephesians 1:4 The Message
Called to a “life of if” …?
If you are following Jesus .. you’ve been called to the “life of if”. It is a way of life that walks on the ’same road’ and goes in the ’same direction’ with all the other saints .. holy ones .. and Christ-made-alive-ones. The world you live in tries to tell you that your life is your own and you are free to walk on any road and in any direction. It isn’t true and it doesn’t last when you are on your own. You’ve been called to the “life of if” … and it is a life of following Christ .. loving others even when you’ve run dry. It is the hardest life to live on earth because you can’t live it in your own strength for very long. It takes the Spirit of Christ .. living in you .. giving you a new heart .. creating a life that cares for others .. and learning to love with a deep-spirited friendship. If you are a follower of Jesus … you are outwardly and inwardly called to a life today that is like no other. It really isn’t about choice because you realize that this same Jesus has loved you in the darkest places of your life .. loved you at the deepest places of shame and guilt .. and has lifted your life out of darkness to walk in His light. You don’t begin this life with every space filled in. Christ begins with His life in you and He begins to fill in your life with all the possibilities of what your life will become if He is real in you. If you trusted him .. He is real. If you’ve believed in Him .. He is real. If you’ve placed your life at a Cross .. He is real. If you’ve opened your heart to His resurrected life and love for you .. He is real. It only takes a moment …
“If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care — then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends.” Philippians 2:1-2 — The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to the Fellowship of If following Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
7
Mar
Posted by kenchester in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment
March 8, 2010
“And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know — far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us” Ephesians 3:18-20 The Message
The God of another year …?
He sees all the broken parts of your life. He knows about all of your life-scars . He knows every irritating habit that you’ve developed .. hidden .. blamed on others .. escaped to .. and everything else that makes up your life. And still … God who is gracious and compassionate .. slow to anger .. and abounding in love and faithfulness wants your life to be filled with the fullness of Christ’s life within you. He wants your life .. your whole life .. to be planted and nourished in His love along with every Follower of Jesus. He really does! And for God to do this … He becomes a gardener .. easily overlooked .. taken for granted .. patiently and tenderly working within your life so that you will grow whole .. fruitful .. and fully alive in Christ. Don’t forget … one day is a thousand years .. so .. another year with this gardener digging and fertilizing your life is beyond your wildest imagination. The truth about God is: He likes you … not just loves you .. He likes you. He sees the stresses of your life … knows the weak areas .. and never sleeps in His care for you. (Ps. 121) How could He not like you? His Son makes His home in you .. going room by room through your life .. cleaning you up .. making you whole and holy in His sight! You don’t have to hold anything back … compare yourself to anyone else .. or try to find the strength to meet everyone’s expectations today. The gardener will be digging and fertilizing your life today so that His Spirit can grow deeply and gently within you. Can you hear Him whisper into your heart: Let’s give it another year … It only takes a moment …
“Then he told them a story: ‘A man had an apple tree planted in his front yard … The gardener said, “Let’s give it another year. I’ll dig around it and fertilize, and maybe it will produce next year; if it doesn’t, then chop it down.” Luke 13:8-9 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to JesusFollowers and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
4
Mar
Posted by kenchester in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment
March 5, 2010
“It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did this all on his own, with no help from us!” Ephesians 2:5-6 The Message
The Great Exchange that becomes The Great Wonder for once lost wanderers …? #8
You cannot earn it … You don’t deserve it …. Your life and your efforts don’t qualify you for it. You can spend your life trying with all that you are and all that you have to be worthy and you will still fall short…way short. Because once you have in your mind what it is to be found worthy .. there is nothing you can do or accomplish that can prepare you for what God designed before your first breath. He knows your sins (yes .. the ones that make you think you are basically good and the ones that make you feel hopelessly enslaved and estranged from everyone and everything you love.) … your secrets … your failures … the past ones … the future ones … the ones you will live out today. He knows your disappointments and those you have disappointed … the wounds you have received and the ones you have inflicted … all of your efforts to be good and the true results that leave you just the way you began. And still He pursues you with a mercy that is humanly unimaginable …. with a grace that covers all of those things … with an inexhaustible compassion and indefatigable love. Because He is God the Father of all creation and his hearts desire is to have you with him. He didn’t lose his temper with you because He knows there is only One who can reconcile, renew and restore you. We struggle in a sin dead life to give it meaning .. purpose .. and some lasting legacy only to discover that it is in Christ and Christ alone that we find a life worth living. So …. after rescuing us from ourselves, what is His plan for us? His unconquerable plan is to shower us with GRACE AND KINDNESS IN CHRIST! That is his idea of a real future … that goes on and on and on and on! This is his idea of work … for you, his saints! It only takes a moment to pick his plan over your own … and there is no shortage if you want to splash it all over the world you live in today …!
“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work.” Ephesians 2:7 The Message
Ken Chester and Bob Stec : Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to 21rst Century Ephesians following Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org and rstec@icisaacs.com — Bob is on the P1 NC-East Core Team) ** A one-day delayed thanks to Alan Hawkins for his insights on Jesus the Sabbath restoring one 3/4 G-G **
3
Mar
Posted by kenchester in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment
March 4, 2010
“For He himself is our peace, who made both groups onto one and broke down the the barrier of the dividing wall … Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals.” Ephesians 2:14/17 NASB and The Message
You’re invited to learn how to love the life Jesus wants to live in you …?
Jesus’ offer is an offer that transforms our alienation from God (the inner distance .. guilt .. and restlessness) .. our personal prisons and enslaved living ( denial of sin .. shame .. self-centeredness .. and restlessness) … and our daily conflicts and strife with others (competition .. comparison .. lack of empathy .. and rejection). It is the core of the Great Exchange that Jesus is offering you today. His life .. his peace .. his rest .. living in you … loving you perfectly into wholeness with God .. yourself .. and others. It’s Jesus who breaks down the walls .. the ones that wear you out trying to work around them .. climb over them .. or just ignore them. It’s Jesus who speaks peace into your life. He has never looked down on you. He looks you straight in the eyes and straight into your heart and invites you to recover your life through Him. He’ll even show you how. All you have to do is watch and walk along. It really is that easy amidst all the noise and busy voices clambering for your life. An unforced life …? Nothing ill-fitting or heavy …? A life lived freely and lightly …? Is it too good to be true..? No … it is the only life that truth can build inside of you when you keep company with Jesus. And surprisingly enough … He calls you His church .. His body .. His saints .. learning how to love the life He is living in you and among you. It only takes a moment …
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me — watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matt. 1:28-30 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to The Unforced Fellowship of Grace Followers walking with Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
