Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am in the trees of the great Northwest. I have been hunting for the past couple of days. I hope to finish with success today. In any case, God is good and I have enjoyed my away time with the Lord.
Last week I wrote regarding the testing of each one’s work in life. The apostle Paul wrote about this in his first letter to the church of Corinth. When Paul wrote this, he wasn’t writing to unbelievers. He was writing to believers in Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:9-16 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
We are part of the field of God for the purpose of His harvest. We are part of His building for the testimony and inheritance of His name. We are part of the temple of His presence that we might find our full identity in the life that comes from Him. As His temple, we live as precious living stones manifesting the light of His love in the uniqueness of who each of us are. He loves us and His love makes us come alive in the true identity of who each of us are in Him. We are a place for the habitation of His presence. As His building, we exhibit increasing testimonies of His redemption as we each contribute to the many rooms of His inheritance in this world. As His field, we become the harvest of His divine purpose revealing His power of fruitfulness and the will to live to give life to our world. Our works in life are not works of self. They are the works of the will of God for the glory of His name. Those works are revealed in the Day of the Lord. What is the Day of the Lord? Is it only a moment of culmination in the future? Or is there something more?
The apostle Peter wrote to the scattered Jews from Jerusalem regarding the soon destruction of the torah / temple system that they had known. What could shake was shaking and what could be consumed was about to be consumed in the siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 by Rome. The early church was being tested but the attempts of their enemy to destroy them would only prove the genuineness of their faith.
1 Peter 1:6-9 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
Like the first fruit church of the first century, the Day of the Lord only proves who and what is real. Things that are not of faith are removed in the fire of God’s presence. These are natural things but also the attitudes of our hearts and the thoughts of our minds. We need not fear any destruction that comes because of God’s presence is fire and light and it reveals that we are children of the Day and not the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:4-9 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
Paul was writing to the church of the first century, but what was true for the first fruit is true in every season of fruit in the destiny of the church. We are awake and focused on God in every season of our lives. We know that our identity, testimony, and purpose is found in Him in every stage of our journey in life. Our salvation is not just some day in the future. Our salvation comes through our Lord Jesus Christ in every situation we face in life. We live together with Him!
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
