June 20, 2012
“Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it in to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ.” Romans 1:5-6 The Message
“You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ.” What a great description of your life in Christ. His life is a gift and in the midst of all of your plans is his sure call upon your everyday eternal life. God found you just like he does everyone: twisted and messed up at the very center of your life. It doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside. It doesn’t matter where you’ve come from. Everything could look in perfect order and well collected but God began at those very points and places that were broken and out of joint. He began at the center of who you were and changed up you into who you are in Christ. What you were was a life outside of Christ. What you are is a life formed and filled by the generosity of God’s redeeming love in Christ. Outside of Christ … Christ inside of you .. there isn’t a comparison. Outside of Christ you are left to believe in yourself. Christ inside of you is trusting in his indwelling life. God is at work cleaning up the insides of your life. We often drift into thinking or acting like it is up to “us” to clean “us” up before God will move in or bless us. We just can’t believe He can be that generous on the front end of messed up lives. But He is! And that is why this generous life in Christ carries a grace-filled urgency to pass it along. The Lord Jesus Christ is at work in you at this very moment. And you enter that work by trusting Him. And today .. it only takes a moment ..
“And God, who can’t be fooled by any pretense on our part but always knows a person’s thoughts, gave them the Holy Spirit exactly as he gave him to us. He treated the outsiders exactly as he treated us, beginning at the very center of who they were and working from that center outward, cleaning up their lives as they trusted and believed him,” Acts 15:8-9 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Outsiders and Insiders following Jesus and friends of Priority One.(ken@priorityone.org)
