Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
We had a good day at Alife yesterday. I was blessed to share. Spring in in the air in my part of the world and it feels like a new season. There are some challenges, but the season is a season of new life.
This is a season of partnership with God for His will and purpose in all things. God is ready to reveal His glory as His-story is revealed in and through our lives in our spheres of influence in our world. God wants us to know that He is our Father, and we are His children. The difficult things that we face in life only prove to reveal who our Father is and who we are when we invite God to partner with us and we partner with Him.
Revelation 3:19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.”
Partnership with God is so that we might reign in life for God’s glory (Rom. 5:17). Our independence and ability to be right will not empower us to reign. Only our ability to partner with the One who loves us will enable us to show God’s love to our world. Mercy is a greater judgment than law and only God has the ability to give us the gift of mercy that comes by a revelation of His love to us and in us for us to find His triumph in our lives.
Hebrews chapter 11 reveals a testimony of people of faith. The worlds of many men and women were framed by faith. They heard God and their worlds were transformed. In the context of being surrounded by all the witnesses in heaven, Hebrews chapter 12 describes men and women who embraced a partnership with God to see His will become the focus of their world. Like those of faith, we too must embrace a walk of finding God in the hard times of our lives. We like the victories, but the chastisements in life are different. This is partly because we don’t understand discipline. We tend to think that correction means we are bad, and we need to be good. We often think that if we go through something hard or difficult, if we are corrected or chastised in some way, it means we are bad people. This is not correct. Chastisement endears us to God and keeps us in the right path, the path of life. In the context of that, the writer of Hebrews says that Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, endured suffering. He endured hard things. He was chastised. If chastisement was for those who are bad, then Jesus would have wrongfully endured chastisement. He endured chastisement, because He was the Son of God.
Hebrews 12:3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. 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? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
We are not to despise the chastening of the Lord. We are not to be discouraged when we are rebuked by God. He scourges every son He receives by allowing them to go through hard things. Jesus never sinned, but He was scourged. He never looked for love in the wrong place, but He was tempted with everything we are tempted with. God, His Father, allowed Him to be chastened. He allowed Him to be disciplined. What did that look like? It looked like being treated wrongly. It looked like showing mercy to those who deserve death. God allowed His son Jesus to be despised, rejected, hated, lied about, misunderstood and many other things. All of this was for the sake of manifesting as God’s Son.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:
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
