Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
I am now home after three weekends in Portugal. It was great to be in my home church yesterday. Pastor Jonathan gave us all a great challenge in stepping forward in this new season. This week I will begin to audio record a new book that I will soon release. I am off to New Mexico on Friday. I am looking forward to the week.
I am discovering that peace is not an individual reality but a participatory reality. When we connect to God, God connect to us, and we connect to God in one another. That connection is not a connection according to common interests of mere social connections. It is a connection by God’s Spirit and in His Spirit. It is not a connection according to the flesh. It is supernatural and spiritual in its nature. There is where it brings the substance of God’s house to our natural world.
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. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
We are not judged according to the flesh anymore. Jesus gave us the gift of peace with God and the judgment of the Father’s love. That judgment is one of mercy. God’s mercy in our lives has triumphed over every judgment of the flesh! God’s grace empowers us to live as new creations in Christ. Our reconciliation to God in Christ grants us access to all that is in God’s house in heaven.
The peace offering in the Old Covenant had explicit instructions concerning the offering of flesh. No flesh was to be eaten after the third day and all flesh that was eaten, was to be clean and eaten by those who made themselves clean. The blood and fat of the sacrifice was to be burned with fire as an offering to God. In addition to the instructions concerning the flesh in the peace offering, no person was to eat any blood in any of their dwellings, whether of bird or beast – Leviticus 7:18-27.
To know the peace of God is to know the freedom of His mercy freely given through the gift of His only begotten Son. We are not judged according to the flesh; therefore, we cannot judge one another according to the flesh. Because we are not judged according to the flesh, we cannot live according to the flesh anymore. When we embrace lives of the flesh or judgments of the flesh, we are choosing to eat something that is an abomination to the ways of God. When we do these things, we separate ourselves from the life that is found in being the body of Christ. To have the peace that God has given us through Christ, we must embrace living our lives as the body of Christ. We are not a flesh and blood body of self; we are a part of the flesh and bone body of Christ. The life of that body is the life of the Spirit, and not the flesh. The blood of the New Covenant is the life of the Holy Spirit seen as God’s grace working in our lives.
The peace offering of the Old Covenant was an offering of participation. It included elements of a wave offering and of a heave offering. As a wave offering, it was a testimony of thanksgiving and praise to God. As a heave offering, it was a testimony of being one with God through a oneness with one another as the body of Christ. Our submission to one another is a submission as unto the Lord. It is not a submission of the flesh, but a submission empowered by God’s Spirit. It is a submission to God’s Spirit in and through one another for the testimony of the life of Christ. The elements of the peace offering are given to us because of the sacrifice that Jesus became on our behalf. The testimony of that offering is seen in our living together as the body of Christ.
Ephesians 5:17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.
The peace offerings of the Old Covenant were merely a shadow of our lives together as a community of Christ. We have been brought near to God in Christ and we are a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. We are filled with His Spirit that we might participate with one another in the life of God’s Spirit. Life should be the sound of our lives! God’s words, God’s sound, God’s melodies should be the expression of our influence towards one another. This is not some formula for some religious ceremony. It is simply a description of the kind of influence we should have upon one another as the body of Christ. This is the testimony of being the community of Christ. Something is manifesting from within each of us that is bringing life to one another. The attributes of a wave offering and of a heave offering can be seen in our lives together as a community of Christ. We are thankful to God and in our thankfulness to God, we submit to one another in an awe of God’s presence in our midst.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
