Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
I am home again in Bellingham. It is always good being home with family and with my church family in Bellingham. I had a full week of connection with grandchildren after being gone. I am ready for a week of focus at home.
God’s glory is revealed through the testimony of sons and daughters born of His Spirit. The culture of family is God’s way. The identity of family, the testimony of family, and the purpose of family is what fulfills the will of God as our Father and us as His children. He is a giver and His family fulfills His purpose in being givers of life.
God’s family is a culture of children, fathers, and sons. Children know that their sins are forgiven. They know they were born to be loved by their heavenly Father. They are not loved because they are good. They are loved because their heavenly Father is good. Young men and women know that God is the one who empowers them to overcome anything that seeks to destroy life. They have victory over all wickedness by the strength of God’s word and presence working in their lives. This is their testimony as maturing sons and daughters of God in Christ. Our ultimate purpose is that of fathers and mothers who live for the will of the Father and for the future generations of God in Christ. We live to see children born by the Spirit of God, empowered by the Spirit of God to mature in the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God as a giver of life in all things. These things were established in the foundation of the church in the first century.
1 John 2:12 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. 13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.
Little children hear God, sons and daughters learn to respond to what He says, and fathers and mothers live for love. They live for to enable little children to hear God, sons and daughters to grow in obedience to God, and to raise of a generation of fathers and mothers who live for the Father’s will and for the generations of tomorrow.
Little children are expectant, willing, hungry, teachable, daring, and accepting (Lk. 19:17). They expect to be loved, and they live with a mindset of being loved.
Maturing sons and daughters of God are overcomers. Their testimony is seen as becoming expressions of God’s love. They grow in the overcoming testimony of Christ (Jn. 16:33). The Spirit of God within us is the overcoming power of eternal life (1 Jn. 4:4). Sons and daughters of God respond to the voice of God within them, and they grow in knowing a testimony of faith that is greater than any power in the world (1 Jn. 5::4). They hear God and respond to what He says, thus they are joined to Christ as the Rock—the foundation of their lives. God is love, thus His voice to us is a voice of love. When we respond to Him, we can expect to see the testimony of His love working in our lives.
Luke 6:47 Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. 49 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
The purpose of our lives is found in giving our lives for the sake of the lives of others. As our heavenly Father gives life, breath, and all things, we also live to give life to our world. Our purpose is not ministry, but love. We embrace the ministry of life because of the love of God made known in and through our lives. This is the rock of our foundation in Christ.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225
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Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
