Ted J. Hanson's Weekly Blog – ted4you.com

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am home in Bellingham. I have been home a few days after a wonderful time in Bulgaria. Tomorrow I will be heading to California to see grandchildren and family there. It is cool here, so I am bracing for the California heat.

God is love and His presence, promise, and purpose reveals His love to us in all things. We find this truth in the very foundation of the beginning we find in Him and because of Him. In the beginning, the earth was formless, void, and dark, but Holy Spirit hovered over the face the deep. God’s Spirit creates an environment of being loved—an environment of being cared for. This same principle was and is true for us. When our lives seem to be without form, void, and dark, the presence of God’s Spirit hovers over us because we were all born to be loved by Him.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

God said, Let there be light, and there was light by the power of His Word (Gen. 1:3). What the Father saw came to pass by the overcoming power of God‘s Word from that which God spoke to. This is a testimony of love. God speaks to our darkness and what He sees becomes the reality of our salvation. We are loved by Him and we experience the testimony of His love when we hear His voice in our lives.

The culmination of God‘s work was seen in a husband and a wife, a man and a woman that could produce family. This is the purpose of love. Their relationship was not merely one of flesh. It was a relationship of spirit, soul, and body that would bring the life of the Father in heaven to the earth.

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis chapter 1 reveals how God viewed the earth in its purpose, and destiny. What God saw it to be is what it was destined to become. From God’s perspective, humanity was at the very core of hope and future for the earth. Mankind would be a family, the fruit of a husband and wife together as one. God didn’t see man as greater than woman. He saw the two as one for the His purpose in the earth. The woman would not be merely a helper to the man but would be a helpmate of equal value for a co-reigning purpose together that would produce the testimony of God’s love and life in the earth. A man and a woman would be the foundation of family to reveal the likeness and image of God to the world.

Why is family so important to God? God is Father, God is Son, and God is Holy Spirit. God is a trinity. He is one because relationship makes Him one. He is bound together by love. He is relationship in the very makeup of His being. Family reveals who God is by the nature of relationship and love. The enemy has fashioned weapons against family, because it is only through family that God’s nature of relationship, love, and life can be revealed.

The likeness and image of God can only be seen through the testimony of a man and woman as one flesh for the foundation of family. By this we reveal God’s giving nature through being fruitful, multiplying, filling, subduing, and exercising dominion in our world. Through intimacy with God we find a foundation for intimacy with one another. The fruit is life to one another and to the offspring of our love. Sons and daughters are the testimony of life. They are the testimony of love; the very essence of the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am still in Bulgaria. I have had a great week with the NCC family in the mountains and saw God do wonderful things. We experienced being the family of God together and I taught on the family values of God that empower our lives as sons, daughters, husbands, wives, dads, and moms. What are the family values that we live by as believers in Christ.

The blessing and destiny of our lives is found in the context of family. God is not interested in merely empowering us for works of ministry. We are a family in Christ that brings the life of Christ to our world through all that we are and all that we do. God’s heart is for family.

Psalms 144:12 That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as pillars, sculptured in palace style; 13 That our barns may be full, supplying all kinds of produce; that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields; 14 That our oxen may be well laden; that there be no breaking in or going out; that there be no outcry in our streets. 15 Happy are the people who are in such a state; happy are the people whose God is the LORD!

God doesn’t see us as servants. He sees us as His family. He wants us to see one another through a paradigm of family. He doesn’t want to equip and train ministers; He wants to grow sons and daughters. To grow as a son, you must be planted in the generational soil of the Father’s identity, testimony, and purpose. The Father wants to see His daughters as pillars in His house–His family inheritance. They are confident in His presence in their lives. They see themselves a beautiful because they know they are daughters of the King. These are secure sons and secure daughters who are a further testimony of the glory of the family of God.

When we know that we are sons and daughters of our heavenly Father, we know that He will exercise His God abilities in and through our lives. His blessing will be seen in all that we are and do. Our lives will be like barns that contain the seed and the harvest of God’s blessing for the sake of our world. We will be suppliers of life to our world through barns that are full. The testimony will be life to every place of our connection in this world. It is life for us, life to our marriages, life to our families, and life to every place we are sent.

We will be like our Father! Our Father doesn’t need anything. He gives life, breath, and all things. As His sons and daughters we will give life to our world. We won’t live with a focus of having our needs met. We will live with a vision, strategy, and implementation of purpose that gives life to our world. 

Psalms 128:1 Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. 2 When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. 3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, your children like olive plants all around your table. 4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD. 5 The LORD bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life. 6 Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!

To fear the Lord is not to be afraid of Him. It is to be in awe of Him. It enables as to desire to be like Him. We live to walk in His ways. We know that the labor of our hands will give life to our world. As husbands, we see our wives as fruitful vines that manifest the heart of who we are together in life. Our children will not live for the tasks of life but will be like olive plants that bring food to the table set before us. What would be lost without God, becomes the very place of His manifest presence that brings blessings to our world today, tomorrow, and to eternity in a generational way. We are princes and princesses of God! There is no separation between us and our Father and us and the Son. We are a dwelling place of God’s Spirit as His family in all things!

Zion is the place of God’s manifest presence is in our lives. The fruit of His presence in our lives is seen in the testimony of family. The testimony of communion with God’s presence within us empowers our communion with one another. We become a community that lives in the reality of eternal life, expresses the testimony of that life, and fulfills the purpose of that life in all things. We know God as our Father and we become expressions of God as His sons and daughters through the grace of His eternal Son, because the foundation of our lives is to be a dwelling place of His Spirit. Our identity, testimony, and purpose in life is that of being the family of God.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am in Bulgaria. I have been blessed to be a part of the manifest house of God in Rousse, Sofia, Blagoevgrad, and Plovdiv. The Father is loving His children. The dwelling place of Holy Spirit is revealing the name of Jesus in Bulgaria. There is great hope in the world. Look to the light! I am blessed to partner with my Father in Jesus’ name. Holy Spirit is present, able, and transforming lives!

In the same way that Jesus came to reveal the Father to His world, He has called us to reveal the Father to our world. By this, the salvation of God comes to the whole world through Jesus’ name. When you saw Jesus, you saw the Father. He did only what He saw the Father doing. What, or Who, do people see when they see us.

Jesus did what He did because He could clearly see the kingdom of God. He was born of the Spirit, He abided in the Spirit, and He lived by the Spirit in all things as a man. By this, people saw the Father in all that He was and did. Jesus saw the kingdom of God from within Him. For us to see the kingdom of God we must be born again, we must be born of the Spirit.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The Father wants us to be born of the Spirit to see the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is within us and when we come alive in our hearts by His kingdom within us we know the righteousness of Jesus, the peace of Holy Spirit, and the joy of being in partnership with our heavenly Father for His purpose in all things.  Jesus demonstrated the life of someone born of the Spirit.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

To enter the kingdom of God is not merely to go to heaven when we die. It is entering into the identity, the testimony, and the purpose of heaven in our lives. We see what the Father sees. We do what we see the Father doing. When we see what the Father is doing, we do what the Father does. The Father sees people as His children and He desires them to know Him. Jesus demonstrated the Father’s love, and He didn’t condemn the world.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Sin never stopped the Father from seeing us for who we really are, it only stopped us from seeing the Father. Jesus was the light of the Father. He didn’t come to condemn those who were disconnected from the Father’s presence. He came to reconnect us all to the presence of our Father in heaven in our lives upon the earth and into all eternity. Our disconnection condemned us, but Jesus came to free us from that condemnation. This is the testimony and will of the Father.

John 3:21 “But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

The light destroys darkness. The light makes all things light. Light brings transformation to our lives. Light transforms darkness to light. It transforms night into day, death to life, hopelessness to hope, and blindness to sight! The purpose of the light is to bring to pass the kindness and goodness of the Father in our lives for the sake of our word.

Ephesians 5:13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.

The Father says to us, “Let there be light!” He brings His light into our lives so that we become His light to our world. We reveal the Father to our world. That light is the light of the Son who is the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person (Heb. 1:3). The indwelling presence of Holy Spirit in our lives transforms us to take on the identity of the Father, receive the promises of the Father, and to fulfill the purpose of the Father in all things.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am on my way to Bulgaria. I will be there for the next two weeks. I am looking forward to being with people I love and seeing God pour out His powerful love. I know that it will be a great time. Our Father will be glorified!

Jesus came to reveal the Father to us. The Father desires sons and daughters; He doesn’t merely want servants. He is more interested in loving us than empowering us with knowledge for right actions or sacrifices in life. It is only as sons and daughters that we can truly know the Father’s love. For this reason, God became the Son of Man to reveal our destiny as children of God.

When we see Jesus, we see the Father. The Father values love, life, and celebration in the context of family. He desires relationship above anything else. The Father wants us to know His love, but His love is authentic. It’s not a matter of right sacrifices. It is a matter of right relationship. Jesus made a whip to drive out the moneychangers from the Temple. This too was a testimony of the Father’s love.

John 2:13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” 17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

God loves us as we are and He wants us to come to Him just as we are. Our honesty and authentic intimacy cannot be purchased. It comes from within our hearts in all sincerity. In this story, Jesus didn’t react to what they were doing. He strategically acted. He took time to make a whip and then He strategically drove the money changers from the temple.

The feast of Passover was not about right objects for sacrifices. It was a celebration the Father’s deliverance and salvation that is given to us through a demonstration of His love. We love God because He first loved us by giving a sacrifice of life for our eternal life with Him. The money changers were making His Father’s house a house of merchandise. The zeal for His Father’s house consumed Jesus. That zeal was not for right works, but for right relationship. God’s house is a house of prayer. It is a house of intimate relationship with God and one another.

Matthew 21:12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.'” 14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

Prayer is a face-to-face relationship with God. It is a heart-to-heart connection to our heavenly Father. Jesus testified that He was a Temple of God’s Spirit. The Father wants each of us to be a dwelling place of His Spirit. When we are a house of God’s presence, we are a house of prayer. When we are a house of love, a house of prayer, the blind and the lame experience the healing love of the Father. It is not simply a house of miracles, but a dwelling place of the Father’s powerful love.

God will deal with things in our lives that prevent us from knowing Him intimately and in sincerity. We can trust the dealings of God because He is our Father and He wants to abide with us and us with Him in truth.

John 2:19 Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Jesus revealed the Father by being a dwelling place of God’s Spirit. Holy Spirit dwelling within Him testified that He was the temple of the Father’s love—the Father’s presence. When we are a dwelling place of God’s Spirit, we become a testimony of the Father’s love.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

This is an updated letter. I appologize for links that did not work

Greetings,

I have several mission trips to complete before the end of the year. Please consider partnering with House of Bread Ministry to make this possible. Thank you for your prayers and your financial support. We are also believing for funds to support our Angolan projects and orphanage work in South Africa.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

What a wonderful weekend we had here with the 4^th of July and the celebration of our 250^th year as the United Stated of America. We had a great time with family and with our church family yesterday. God is good and life is good as we embrace the path of changes and destiny. I hope you are blessed also in your journey in Christ.

Jesus revealed the Father to those that followed Him. His influence in His world was an influence of the Father. If we look at what Jesus did, we see a testimony of what the Father was doing—even the type of things the Father will do in and through our lives today.

Jesus’ first miracle was the miracle of turning water to wine. We can find prophetic principles in what He did, but if we simply look at what He literally did we see something of the Father’s heart. Jesus and His disciples were at a wedding feast, and they ran out of wine. In that culture the wine was not simply meant to serve as a refreshment. It was a testimony to the great celebration of a wedding feast. It was a celebration of the covenant of a man and a woman as a husband and wife that were embarking upon the journey of family, family life, family celebration, and family purpose.

John 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” 4 Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” 6 Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.

This must have been a large wedding, and I am sure they were not planning to run out of wine. I don’t know how long the celebration had been going on, but they were no doubt in a celebratory mood and testimony when the wine ran out. Jesus gave instructions to fill the vessels that had been used for washing with fresh water. Those vessels contained twenty or thirty gallons apiece.

John 2:7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. 9 When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. 10 And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”

This was not grape juice. It was the best wine! If you calculate the capacity of these vessels the volume equals 600 to 900 bottles of wine. This is not conservative. This is extravagant. The people at this celebration had run out of wine so they were likely feeling the effects of drinking wine. They now received another 750 bottles of wine (more or less) and the party continued. I don’t believe that the lessen of the story is one of morality. I don’t believe it’s a story of what is proper. It’s a story of extravagant life and celebration. It is a celebration of relationship—of covenant! The Father desires life—He desires relationship. The story depicts a relationship with Christ and the body of Christ. It depicts the foundation of our covenant with God as our Father. It is established in love and celebration.

This is not a story endorsing drunkenness, but a story that very graphicly depicts the celebration of the Spirit. Jesus came to reconnect us to love and to the testimony of an eternal covenant—an eternal provision where the best wine is always now! Jesus didn’t simply come to remove shame from our lives by dying for our sins. He came to reconnect us to the celebration of love and life by giving the life of His blood for us to receive the better wine of the New Covenant—the life of Holy Spirit.

When you see Jesus, you see the Father. The Father values love, life, and celebration in the context of covenant family. The Father is not interested in washing the outside. He wants us to know the love and life of relationship that comes from our hearts.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

The Father gives us our identity, testimony, and purpose. If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father (Heb. 1:3). In the same way, our lives are to be a testimony of our heavenly Father to our world. Our identity, testimony, and purpose is found in Him. We can only find the completeness of who we are meant to be in Him.

Jesus came to reveal the Father to us. He comes as a life-giving Spirit to reveal the Father in and through our lives. The work that the Father gave Him to do was to manifest the Father’s name to His disciples.

John 17:4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.

John 17:6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”

How did Jesus manifest the Father? Jesus was led by Holy Spirit in all things (Rom. 8:14). He did what He saw the Father doing. He was led by His Father’s desires, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and an awe for His purpose and will. Jesus demonstrated the character, nature, and way of the Father through the things that He suffered – He endured chastisement and manifested as a Son of His Father (Heb. 12:3-11). He was rejected, but He never rejected us. He was lied about, but He remained as the truth. He was shamed, but He refused to be ashamed of us.

Hebrews 12:3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

Hebrews 12:5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

The Father chastises us as sons and daughters. Chastisement is not a punishment for being bad. It is a process by which re remain in path of life. Jesus was chastised, not because He did something wrong. He was chastised to manifest His true character, nature, and way. He demonstrated this to His disciples. He showed them the way, the truth, and the life. He demonstrated to them the identity, testimony, and purpose of a son of the Father.

The Father is a giver. He doesn’t need anything. He gives life, breath, and all things. As sons and daughters of God we are givers of life to our world. It isn’t a conditional truth. It isn’t dependent upon others treating us right or things always turning out right. It is dependent upon us manifesting the testimony of the Father in all that we are and do.

How can we recognize the Father? How can we reveal the Father to our world? How did Jesus reveal the Father?

John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

As sons and daughters of God we are to be people of grace and truth. Grace is the testimony of the manifest presence of God in our lives in every circumstance of our lives. Truth brings freedom. It destroys every lie, not because it is a destructive judge but because it cannot be changed by any lie.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

It’s been a great week filled with lots of sunshine here in the Pacific Northwest. I have spent some time doing things in my yard and the needed catchup on some home projects. We had an excellent time here again as a church family at Alife. Holy Spirit moved through many with the Father’s love through body ministry. It was good to hear an encouraging word from the next generation. God is truly good.

God’s nature is to give. He gives life, He gives breath, and He gives all things. He doesn’t desire a relationship with us that is based upon a perception of giving God something He needs or requires. Our relationship with God is based upon what He desires. He desires to love us! He desires to give us life, and life more abundant.

Isaiah 55:1 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. 3 Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you—the sure mercies of David.”

God’s gift of life to us all is because of His love. He desires to love us. He desires that all would come to the knowledge of the truth. The truth is that God’s loves us! He is the only One who can give us life that will satisfy. Even as God showed mercy to David, He desires us to know His everlasting kindness. An understanding of God’s mercy will give us a heart after Him. When we understand His kindness, we will seek His presence to find His grace in all things. God’s love is stronger than our sins. His nature as Father cannot be shaken.

Love must be the foundation of our relationship with God so we can understand things that are beyond our understanding. That understanding can only be given to us by God as a gift of grace. God’s ways are higher than our ways so in our misunderstandings of Him we must trust His love and His ability to bring revelation to our hearts. God must be our teacher. We cannot rely upon our natural understanding or logic of things. We must trust His understanding. Holy Spirit is God in us and with us and He is our teacher in all things.

Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

The context of this verse is not regarding the wickedness of our hearts. The context of this verse is how generous and good God is. God is good and He loves all people. This is the foundation for true change in our lives.  Sinners are bad and we need a savior is an improper paradigm for understanding God’s love. It is true, but it is not the fullness of truth. God loves good people and God loves bad people. It is neither the good nor the bad of people that He loves, it’s people!

The Old Covenant presented a perceived paradigm that God is the one who commands men and women to love Him. One day a Pharisaic lawyer approached Jesus with a question regarding the commandments of God. Jesus told Him that the greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength. He told Him that the second commandment was like the first, that we must love one another. Jesus said that upon these two commandments rested the entire law and the prophets (Mt. 22:34-40). The entire law and prophets rested upon two commandments. The Old Covenant law and prophets never really changed mankind. They offered commandments to love, but they didn’t provide transformations for loving. Later Jesus told His friends that a new commandment was now being given to them. He said that the new commandment was to love one another, even as He had loved them, that they love one another (Jn. 13:34). This commandment was not merely a command of law. It was an empowerment based upon a revelation of Christ’s love for them. Love is a revelation, not merely a command. A command to love God can restrain us but a revelation of His love will transform our hearts and minds.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728

Blog In Audio:

Greetings,

Today I am posting from my home in Bellingham. It is wonderful being home for a bit. My family and home are a piece of heaven on earth. My church family is an extension of that heavenly blessing. It is good to know God’s love and to be an expression of His love in this world.

When we live as children of God, we live to give honor to our Father. We live for the Father’s will and desire. The Father’s heart is for His children; therefore, we honor our Father by loving His children. This is the testimony of being the family of God. God sees all people as His children, though most don’t see Him for who He is. They view Him as a taker in some way and thus they despise Him in their hearts. They define Him as a noun and never see Him through eyes of love. They don’t seek to know His mercy and grace because they see Him through the view of their own hearts and minds. They don’t want to find Him for fear of losing their own way of living. They don’t understand His love; therefore, they don’t value knowing Him. They don’t realize that when we lose our lives in Him, we find them. We must be born again in our spirits to experience Him in our hearts.

God desires for all to come to Him and to know Him. For this reason, the Son of God, Jesus, came to reconcile all in the world to God as their Father. Jesus is the One by whom we can know the Father’s love.

Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

The mercy of God through Jesus Christ is enough for all of mankind to come near to God. Those who were near by the covenant of God through the reality of the Torah/temple system, and those who were far away and bound by the deceptions of the world, have both been brought near to an intimate relationship with God as their Father by the blood of the Lamb. We can call upon God and He hears. We can seek Him and find Him! The nature of God is to show mercy. His nature is to abundantly pardon.

The evidence of God in our lives is seen through our love for Him and for one another. The testimony of God’s presence is His love flowing through us. When we know God’s love, we show love to one another.

1 John 3:10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

The first man of faith mentioned in the Bible was Abel. Abel gave God the first and the best, but God never commanded him to do so. God ‘respected’ Abel’s offering. The Hebrew word for ‘respected’ is the Hebrew word שָׁעָה šâ‘â; HSRN 8159. שָׁעָה šâ‘â; a primitive root; to gaze at or about (properly, for help); by implication, to inspect, consider, compassionate, be nonplussed (as looking around in amazement) or bewildered. This was the way of Abel’s life. He put God first and he gave God his best. God was amazed with the surprise of Abel’s love.

Genesis 4:3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

Cain’s works were not righteous. He only considered God after a process of time. He lived for himself before he lived for God. Cain didn’t practice righteousness. His first thought was for himself. Abel’s first thought was for God. He lived to put God first and to give God his best. Cain murdered Abel because of a self-focused agenda. He saw his brother as a threat to himself, and he therefore sought to destroy him, thinking it would be to his own benefit.

We are to practice righteousness. Our righteousness is seen in our love for one another. When we find God in our hearts, we find love in our thoughts. When we find love in our thoughts we are empowered to show love in our actions towards others. These things happen when we put God first in everything and when we give God the best of all that we are and have.

We live in a day where God can be easily found by those who seek Him. Seek Him today! Find Him today! Taste and see that He is good! Consider Him today and boldly seek His presence and eagerly receive His love. Expect to find Him! Expect to be surprised by His goodness in your life. Expect to show His goodness to others in your world!

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson

Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:

www.ted4leaders.com

www.ted4you.com or

www.houseofbreadministry.org.

Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:

House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225

To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.

Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728