“Heavenly Or Earthly?”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"Heavenly Or Earthly?"

    We may view our lives from a Heavenly or an earthly perspective.  This applies in terms both general and specific.  The former involves our beliefs and convictions about God, ourselves, other people, the world, and our lives.  The latter involves our application of those beliefs and convictions regarding events, conditions, and circumstances, and people.

    "Ye are the light of the world… Now are ye light in the Lord" (Matthew 5:14; Ephesians 5:8).

     Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ possess His light to the degree that both our Savior and the Apostle Paul referred to our very being in terms of light.  It is another matter altogether to live accordingly.  "Walk as children of light" added Paul.  Note that walking involves individual steps whereby we navigate journeys from one place to the next.  In most cases, our stride does not allow for simply one step.  We rather take few or many to get where we desire to go.  In spiritual terms, such everyday reality serves to remind us that the Christian life comprises many choices to act upon God's truth by knowing it to the degree we can believe and respond to it along the pathways of our lives.  "The just shall live by faith," that is, those freely justified by trusting the Lord Jesus walk out the course of our lives through the same dynamic means of specifically seeing Christ as present, willing, and available to act on our behalf (Romans 1:17).  Whatever happened in the first moment of receiving the grace of salvation must happen as we navigate pathways of blessings, difficulty, or the everyday realities of life.  "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6).   We live "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).

    It is, however, not inevitable that we will "look".  Again, we may or may not specifically deal with matters in accordance with the convictions referred to by Luke as "those things which are most surely believed among us" (Luke 1:1).  The question ever lies before us: am I viewing this circumstance or condition, or that person and relationship in the light of God's truth, or in the shadow and darkness of any lesser perspective?  Am I knowing life in terms of Christ, or according to carnal or even devilish viewpoints?  This day and this moment present the question, and lead us to an ongoing fellowship with God in His Word and by His Spirit.  "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).  Am I walking in accordance with that which I most surely believe?  Keeping the question fresh in our walk with the Lord prepares us for His specific answers, and the living of our lives in accordance with His life-giving Truth and perspective.

"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

(Galatians 5:25).

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee."

(Isaiah 26:3)

Weekly Memory Verse

  He that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is His name.

(Luke 1:49)