October 27, 2011
“His father said, “Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours — but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!” Luke 15:31-32
Your new life in Christ is designed to be filled with praise and continuous celebration. But too often “just trying to live today” gets in the way and you miss seeing the Father running down the road after a returning straggler. Living out of the resurrection life of Christ is a constant interruption in your plans. Because the risen life of Jesus is always looking to celebrate new life. Because the risen life of Jesus is always making room for another life to expand and deepen in God’s love. Because the risen life of Jesus is always trying to free your life from gripping this world too tightly! “We have to celebrate” is the Father’s constant message in us. It means you’ve got room inside your heart to stop and enter into God’s plans. Yes .. it is inconvenient .. it is unscheduled .. and it is almost always unscripted. A life that was dead and now alive? That was you. A life that was lost and now found? The was you as well. This world’s constant assault on you is to try to convince you that what happened to you in Christ is private. Nothing could be further from the truth. The grace that brought you home was irresistible. You once fled from it .. ran from it .. and wasted everything before you turned and freely received the “death to life” grace that is yours in Jesus. Others may have grumbled who knew your past .. but your heavenly Father celebrated your new life and still does to this day. And He’s just inviting you to look up and see the greatness of His grace leading another lost life back home found .. forgiven .. and in-friended in Christ. Are you available today? Have you made room to be interrupted? It only takes a moment …
“If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best; just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah.” Romans 10-11 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Resurrection Living Followers of Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
