It’s life-changing …
January 2, 2012
“ writing to those loved by God the Father, called and kept safe by Jesus Christ.” Jude 1 The Message
You’ve been “entrusted” with a life-changing truth: eternal life is found in Jesus Christ … by faith. You didn’t find this faith. God found you and gave you the ability .. the power .. and the grace to receive this “once for all faith’ in Christ. But God being God knows how long it takes us to really begin to live in this faith and build our lives upon His life. There are some .. a few really .. who are all in at the beginning. Most of us slowly .. gradually .. and even painfully let go of this world to be grasped by the world of grace that is ours in Jesus. Even at this moment your life is “kept safe” in Christ while you live in a very unsafe world. And you’ve been “entrusted” with God’s serious business of sharing this faith .. passing it along .. standing your ground .. and graciously and generously giving it away. And this faith entrusted to you is nothing less than the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. You’re not meant to be offensive .. insulting .. or isolating. You’re called to walk in the light of His indefatigable grace for you and step right into the world you live in everyday. God’s going to do His work through you. Your part…? You’ve been entrusted with this faith to grow in .. walk in .. and be loved by God the Father in every room and corner of your life. You can’t hide that kind of faith and you can’t live it alone. But you can begin … and it only takes a moment …
“.. that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.” Jude 3 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Faith-infected Followers of Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
If you had a final prayer …?
December 30, 2011
“Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. ANd I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.” … “Make them holy — consecrated — with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth. In the same way you have me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. I’m consecrating myself for their sakes, So they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission.” John 17:17-18 New Living Translation & The Message
Jesus prayed that God the Father would make you holy in the truth of Who He is … What He has done .. and What You are to become. He prayed for you specifically that His Word would unimaginably change your life from the inside out. He prayed that your life would be “truth-consecrated” … a life that can only be explained by the life of Jesus. He didn’t pray you would live a good life .. a full life .. or even a long life. He prayed you would live the same life He lived and he gave His life to make it happen “in” you. He said the truth would set you free .. a freedom you can find nowhere else. It isn’t a freedom you boast about or claim as some special accomplishment. But Jesus prayed that the Father’s Word would change your life .. sanctify you .. make you holy .. and form your life for His mission in you. David said that God’s word was the very source that showed him how to live and how to walk through this road-rutted .. sin-blocked .. and falsely-lighted world. There are any number of paths you can walk today that claim to “give” you a better life. Jesus didn’t pray that for you. He prayed that your life would reflect and reveal the same unity with other Jesus-Followers that Jesus had with His Father … and then the world would see the reality of who Jesus is for today. And He knew that you needed something you would never think to pray about: a truth-soaked .. truth saturated .. and truth-sealing life. We want the truth but Jesus prayed that it would make you different. He prayed that His Word would work in all those places inside of you that are neglected .. unnoticed on the outside .. and excused — explained away — or apologized for but never changed. And for that to happen He prayed with timeless patience and grace for your life. It’s the same prayer you can pray for someone else. Who comes to mind? It’s that easy and it only takes a moment …
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Ps. 119:105 New American Standard
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Grace-receiving men and women following Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
Health and Wholeness: Two of God’s Specialties
December 29, 2011
“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:8-9 New American Standard
You are part of a people known as Yahweh’s Promise. He picked you .. He chose you .. He found you .. He heard you .. and He promised you a life unattainable and unavailable without Him. The world around you has been collapsing for a long time. But God made a promise to anyone who loved Him with all their heart and everything about their lives. He keeps his promises even while you resist and even try to charge Him with breaking His promises. He keeps His promises even when you are living as if the Lord isn’t your first priority. He could have made it so complicated to weed out the weak and feeble. But one of His greatest gifts to us today as it was to Joshua was this gift of finding health and wholeness in His Word. It’s not always convenient and sometimes leave you scratching your head as to how it applies to your immediate moment. But it does. It’s God’s daily reminder for us to set out hearts and minds on His way. The Christian life is not about walking in His steps … it’s about Jesus, resurrected to new life .. now walking in your steps. It’s His life that disrupts our daily schedules and subtle but sometimes so controlling plans we want for ourselves. But you have to love His promise: No matter how far away you end up … God is coming after you to bring you back. No matter how far your children end up … God has promised to go after them. He’s even going to “cut away” the calluses that you acquire trying to live life on your own. But what if you lived today in the knowledge that Lord your God was with you wherever you go…? It’s His promise … and it only takes a moment …
“No matter how far away you end up, God, your God, will get you out of there and bring you back to the land your ancestors once possessed. … God, your God, will cut away the thick calluses on your heart and your children’s heart, freeing you to love God, your God, with your whole heart and soul, and live, really live.” Deut. 30:4,6 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to God Promised Ones following Jesus and friends of Priority One (priorityone.org)
Catching your breath …
December 28, 2011
December 28, 2011
“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls …” Jeremiah 6:16
Jesus knows exactly that point inside of your life where you cannot catch your breath. You may be pushing too hard .. driving too hard .. just living too hard. In fact .. it may not be too hard all. It may be the opposite where just taking the next step seems to require using already exhausted resources. “Our” history as a God-called .. God-pursued .. and God-claimed people is one of pushing back when the Lord offers a moment to catch our breath and reset our steps on His path .. the ancient paths .. the good way .. the way that restores rest. “Our” history has been filled with our repeated attempts to make a way out of this world and try to fit it into His world. “Our” history only makes real sense .. eye-opening sense when we look at Jesus. He not only steps into our disrupted lives but He becomes the very disruption that cause us to stop and take a breath. Because if you really belong to Him … then you know that your life is to be pointed in His direction .. walking on His path .. and learning to breathe the “rhythms of grace” that lets you “recover your life”. You’ll never find it on your own. Jesus offers the ancient word that invites you to know Him: “ask”. Jeremiah quickly sums up our response: “But we will not walk in it!” He offers you over and over. And even when you think that you’ve out-lived His offer or ignored Him to the point that you feel ashamed for asking … He says: Ask! There is no better time to ask than now … and it only takes a moment …!
“To that they said, “Well, what do we do then to get in on the God’s works?” Jesus said’ “Throw in your lot with the One that God has sent. That kind of commitment gets you in on God’s works.” John 6:28-29 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Followers of Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org
December 27, 2011
“May what our Master Jesus Christ give freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh yes! Galatians 6:18 The Message
When it comes to what God has for your life there are three images: freely … deeply … and personally. Somewhere inside of you (or us) are hidden parts that just cannot believe or receive that what Christ has done in your life is free. Everything about what Jesus does for you arrives freely .. no strings attached .. and no hidden agendas. It was the only way you were ever going to freely invite Him to love you deeply. We will talk about love .. move among loving people .. but don’t try to force me to live in the freedom of “being loved” by Jesus. He uses some of the most unusual people to melt your defenses and open your heart to being loved “freely”. And deeply …? It’s where you live in your life most of the time: deeply. You may try to hide it or disguise it from others out of fear of being hurt, but you were made to be loved deeply. And you don’t have to try to dig out all those places you’ve covered up or wait until you’ve earned the right to enter His abidingly-deep love. Jesus loves you deeply all of the time and He loves you personally … something uniquely wrapped in your skin that God is speaking into your life that is different from anyone else. You are “alive in Christ” and the Lord deeply wants you to let go of those sin-dead portions of your life. You can be sin-dead and look entirely presentable and respectable on the outside … but that is not the same as being loved personally into freedom in Christ. What you can do is open your heart today to “all” that Christ longs to do in you. It only takes a moment …
“He took our sin dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.” Ephesians 2:6 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Jesus Followers learning to live in the present tense company of Jesus and friends of Priority One (Ken @priorityone.org)
Those Shepherds …..!!!
Dec. 26, 2011
“The shepherds went back to work, glorifying and praising God for everything that they had seen, which had happened just as they had been told”. Luke 2:20
Dear Grippers,
Those shepherd fellas stole my Grip and took it back to their pastures. Since they said they saw a baby King in a barn … I’ll give them a pass and not press charges. Grace Gripped will spend the night in the open fields and resume on Tuesday. And that baby King…? I have a feeling His life is going to change the way we live. Shalom Shepherd Followers!
Holy Spirit Disruption
December 23, 2011
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he came and set his people free. He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives, and in the very house of David his servant.” Luke 1:68-69 The Message
You can’t stop God’s message. He’s going to get it out .. to announce His offer .. and then offer you freedom and a saving life in the very center of who you are. You can’t control God’s Spirit. More often than not you’ll find yourself singing a long ago planted song. Can’t sing…? The news never stops the Lord. Shepherds .. Wise Men, barn animals .. an old prophetess named Anna and old man named Simon who was waiting .. had been waiting a long time for this moment. … and he got to sing it out. The broken-hearted are filled with hope. The religious find a God who is personal and throws His doors open to all who respond. The earth sings it .. the seas cannot contain it .. and the news just keeps getting out. When you belong to Jesus, the Holy Spirit is always working in your life .. opening up your voice to speak .. reminding you over and over that He is with you .. and that the Life you live is a gift. May He loosen up your voice! Blessed is the Lord who made a new song when He created you. He only takes a moment ..
“Sing God’s brand new song! Earth and everyone in it, sing! Sing to God –worship God! Shout the news of his victory from sea to sea. Take the news of his glory to the lost, News of his wonders to one and all!” Psalm 96:1-3 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to God-invaded men and women following Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
Disrupting Prayer mixed with Disrupting Promise
December 22, 2011
“O God, restore us and cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.” Ps. 80:3,7,19 New American Standard
It is one of the oldest and deepest longings of your heart … for God to bless you. His blessing is a restored life. Over and over again the Psalms sing of trusting in the Lord who seeks the brokenhearted .. restores the beaten and bruised .. and saves the despairing and defeated. He knows we can’t save ourselves even though we try when we “think” He isn’t looking in our direction. It’s because He is a Disrupting Savior that we pray: ..”cause Your face to shine upon us”. His birth disrupts all of our self-defeating attempts to clear a path back to God. It’s not because we promise to do better .. to be better .. or try harder … it’s because He promised to come for us. God’s promise disrupted everything in Abraham’s life. He disrupted his life so much that he named his son “Laughter”(Isaac). That’s what God’s holy disruption does in your life: it causes you to laugh .. to catch your breath .. and breathe this prayer that the Lord would restore and bless you and cause you to walk with His face shining “through” you into others. You are no different from Abraham and Sarah. They struggled to believe and believed in the struggles that God would keep His promise. He did .. He does .. and He will. Everything about you has been absorbed completely by Jesus who was born to be nailed for your life. And everything of His life is now available to you. (And the Lord knows how much you struggle and doubt at times to really believe and grasp this indefatigable promise!!!) That’w why it is a Disrupting Promise because He is working out His Promise in you. “God bless you and keep you .. God smile on you and gift you .. God look you full in the face and make you prosper” (Numbers 6:25) … A prayer and a promise mixed with disrupting grace … It only takes a moment …
“Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. … And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing — just the way Abraham received it.” Galatians 3:13-14 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Laughing Disrupters following Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
Jesus disrupts … just because …
December 21, 2011
“He opens a place in his heart for the down-and-out, he restores the wretched of the earth. He frees them from tyranny and torture — when they bleed, he bleeds; when they die, he dies.” Psalm 72:14 The Message
Kings and Rulers and Governments all over the world seek His favor. Titles and wealth open all kinds of doors … but the rejected .. struggling .. down-and-out .. up-and-out .. addicted .. broken .. tortured .. and terrorized open the door His heart. Everything about Jesus disrupts everything in your life … just because. It doesn’t happen all at once according to an “old skin horse who watched over a nursery”. It takes time … disrupting time .. incredibly patient time .. and lamb leaping time. The kind of disruption Jesus is after in your life is the kind where you come to know that Jesus is part of everything in your life. It’s unsettling at first because you realize how many moments you’ve missed that He had shaped and sculpted for your life. And on top of it all He doesn’t spend a moment blaming you .. condemning you .. or discarding you. Instead, He lovingly reminds you that your life has been washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit so that His life can pour even more generously through you. The world runs on the fuel of “you deserve it if you earned it”. The Kingdom of God runs on the fuel that it is all God’s doing in changing your life .. not because you deserved it but because you could never deserve what He offers so freely. That’s why His life is so disrupting … just because … of Who He is! Are you ready to be disrupted today …? It only takes a moment … just because ….
“The moment the sound of your greeting entered my ears, The babe in my womb skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.” … “It was all his doing, we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously.” Luke 1:44/ Titus 3:5-6 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Disruptively-Gripped followers of Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@prioirityone.org) Thanks to an old friend: The Velveteen Rabbit
The Disruption that fills in all the holes …
December 20, 2011
“Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: … The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest hover over you. … Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.” Luke 1:29-37 The Message
We know what God is like: He makes an alien Hebrew shepherd take his sandals off to be in His presence. He tells an angel to put burning coals on the lips of a prophet. He takes an adulterous shepherd-boy-turned-conquering-king and restores his life after he takes another man’s wife and orders the death of her husband. He is a God who says He will trade the whole creation just to get “you” back. (Is. 43:4) And then he shows up in a barn and announces that “He is with us”. He tells us through a former Jesus prosecutor that the greatest secret on earth has put on display in your lives: “Christ lives in you” … and all of God’s glory is on display in you. What if God did this to your life? What if He disrupted every corner of your life to share that the impossible is now possible through “your” life in Christ. What if He told you you don’t have anything to fear? The message of your life is that you have been brought out of a place of darkness into a life that is extravagantly alive with the goodness and grace of Jesus Christ. Why would we fear such a moment? Because it will mean that everything in your life .. your marriage .. your children .. your friends and neighbors .. and where you work will be available for God to invade and infect with His life. What if He disrupts all the plans you’ve made? Our lives are not just about a story that happened but about a story that is happening today. And God’s story fills in all the holes of your life .. the ones hidden and the ones you try to manage everyday. The life of Jesus is indeed a holy disruption .. sometimes when we are prepared .. but more often when we are least expecting Him to show up. And when He does it is with an energy and goodness that is irresistible. Is there room for Him in your heart today…? It only takes a moment …
“He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.” Titus 2:14 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F Disrupted Followers of Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
