Greetings,
I have just finished a wonderful weekend in Deming, New Mexico. There is a real emergency there. Around 150 migrants are being dropped off in the city each day and the community is having to respond with shelter, food, hygienic needs, and clothing. This is just one small community among many where this is happening. The community is having to respond to a crisis being put upon them daily They are having to make contacts with sponsors throughout the U.S. to put families on buses and airplanes for some connection to stay with. The border patrol is overwhelmed with numbers in the thousands that they cannot process the number of people pouring into the country. Those arriving in Deming are people who have already been screened and have a contact in the U.S. For sure something needs to be done. God bless CitiLife Church and the other churches in the Deming community who are having to respond to this challenge forced upon their community.
I have been addressing the qualities of mercy and grace made available to us all in Christ. As believers in Christ, we have to be led by the Holy Spirit in life, but we know anything we hear or any decision we make is going to begin with mercy so we can find grace. Law always requires a judgment and mercy is the only judgment that can free us from law and lead us to the place where we can find grace. Without mercy, law condemns us. But with God’s mercy, Grace can empower us to overcome all things. Grace does not condone our sin, but it is the power of Christ’s life that transforms our hearts and minds to be as we should be in life. Mercy opens the door to God’s grace and God’s grace is His manifest presence that transforms all things and makes all things new. Paul wrote that we don’ t judge anyone according to the flesh anymore, not even Jesus. We can’t even judge perfect flesh as being the way unto life, even as Jesus was the way unto life in the flesh. We are left with the power of God’s mercy and grace in all things. Only Christ in us is the hope of glory.
2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
In Christ, all things are new. All things are new and are continually manifesting the power of God’s transformation in the place that is always new. That is the place of God grace. Grace does not measure our lives to judge us, it is the measurement of God’s life that transforms our lives by the power of God’s life. Law measures us and requires mercy, but grace measures us and changes our lives inside and out. Grace empowers us to overcome dysfunctions so our relationships with God and with one another become life-giving. We have often heard it said that everyone deserves to be loved. It is not true, no one deserves to be loved, but God loves us and so our wisdom begins in Him. In the reality of our attitudes and actions we don’t deserve to be loved, but in the reality of our Father’s heart He sees us all as deserving of His love. His measurement of love is supernatural, and it is transforming. It is sometimes confusing to our own understandings of love. We have to trust Him more than we trust what we think love is. We cannot measure His love by our definition of love. We must embrace Him in all that He is and allow His grace to measure our hearts, our minds, and even our physical lives to become as we should be in all things.
God does not measure love by what He gets, but by what can be given, and the fruit of love is life in a generational way. This is why a man and woman constitute the testimony of true covenant. They are two individuals who do not think alike. Their physical body parts are different. The way they perceive things is different. They are both strong in different ways. They are equal in value, but they have to have a supernatural miracle to become one flesh. It is the ordained nature by God, because when they come together it does not just meet their needs it produces life, even babies. It doesn’t just produce babies; it produces family in a multigenerational way. When the natural way of something cannot produce life, it is only a relationship of what one can get. When a relationship is solely based upon a revelation of deserving love, something is wrong in that foundation. We need to be grateful that we are loved. We need to receive that love, but like Jesus said we need to know the evidence will be life-giving water flowing out of us. We were born to be loved by God, but this is not an entitlement. It is a gift! Covenants based upon a revelation of the gift of the Giver become relationships that produce life in the generations of true family.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
Thank you to all who give their support in prayer and finances. We are reaching the nations with New Covenant Life and Grace!
If you can make a donation it would be greatly appreciated. Donations are payable to House of Bread Ministry. You can donate at the link on this page or mail your contribution to:
House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225
Thank You So Much – Ted J. Hanson
