Orange Moon Cafe No Escape (From Reality)

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No Escape (From Reality)

   Left to ourselves, we are helpless and hopeless.  Thus, God does not leave us to ourselves.  

    "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though he be not far from every one of us.  For in Him, we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:24-28).

    The Apostle Paul's declaration of dependence references every human being, including the most atheistic among us.  Note that Paul declared this truth to the unbelieving Athenian philosphers, many of whom ridiculed his perspective.  Of course, this does not mean that all will be saved, or that all use their God-given "life and breath and all things" to honor and obey the Lord.  Far from it.  It does mean, however, that the very being and breath we utilize to either glorify or vilify God proceeds from Him.  Like it or not, believe it or not, submit to the truth or not, all receive "life and breath and all things" from the Lord, and all "live and move and have their being" in Him.  "By Him all things consist" (Colossians 1:17).

   When a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving from God the free gift of salvation and newness of life, one aspect of the experience simply involves opening the eyes to reality.  "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" declared the Savior (John 3:3).  The new birth reveals the primary truth of existence, namely, the fact of God, His character and nature, and our utter dependence on Him.  All of these fundamental realities exist  before one is born again.  We are blind to them, however, until the Spirit of God enters our hearts to birth the new and Christ-inhabited person we become by God's grace.  Thereafter we are enabled to see our Lord's kingdom, that is, His supremacy and glory.  "Thou art God alone" (Psalm 86:10).  We  also realize our place as supplicant citizens in our Lord's realm.  Again, "life and breath and all things" proceed from Him.  Faith in the Lord Jesus spiritually constitutes us to embrace and experience the truth about God and ourselves as He provides, we receive, and life becomes life.  "To live is Christ... We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead" (Philippians 1:21; II Corinthians 1:9).

   When sharing the Gospel with an unbeliever, we do well to remember that every breath he has ever breathed came to him as the direct gift of God.  He does not know this, and he may reject the truth with every fiber of his darkened being.  The truth remains true nonetheless.  Thus, we always testify of Christ from a position of strength, based on the fact that God's light lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9).  No one can escape reality, the reality of "in Him we live and move and have our being."   The Apostle Paul long shared the Gospel accordingly, and we do well to remember that the most strident denier of God's reality nevertheless exists in that reality.  

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights."

(James 1:17)

"Put them in fear, o Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men."

(Psalm 9:20)

Weekly Memory Verse   

   Put them in fear, o Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men.

(Psalm 9:20)

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