July 4, 2017

“Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” Galatians 5:1 The Message

Thank God that true freedom is not a free-from life. You’re not free to do whatever you want to do. Remember back when you thought that was freedom .. even true freedom. The freedom that Christ set you free to live broke through everything in you that kept you bound up in yourself. On your best days you may have thought you were doing pretty good. On other days you couldn’t bring yourself to admit that your life wasn’t really free. It seems so simple, and yet it took a cross. Two thousand years later that cross still smashes anything that equates freedom with you choosing to do or be anything you want. It may never be a popular language in a rapidly decaying world. But true freedom is healing. And on that journey you find a pair of hands with scars that immediately tell your story. You know it because Jesus is not imaginary any longer. It’s His hands that grip you now. It’s the only grip where you’ll find freedom. He’s spoken into the deepest places of your life .. found you in all your brokenness .. and the taste of freedom explodes with forgiveness. You don’t want to go back where you were. There’s no freedom there. The life in front of you is expansive. It’s where Christ is walking .. and leading you today. Thank God for true freedom in Jesus Christ! It only takes a moment …

“I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?” Romans 6:19 The Message

Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent to Freedom-Fighters following the TRUE COST OF FREEDOM (Kchesterp1@gmail.com)