The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe...
"Pawprints, Footprints"
Our beagle puppy continues to do well. Ellie will be four months old on July 26 and is already such a part of the family we have a hard time remembering when she wasn't here. We still miss Sparrow, our beloved beagle who passed away in January, and often remind Ellie what wonderful and challenging pawprints pave the path she now follows in our home.
"Walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6).
God made us to be like His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Like Ellie, the Footprints that lie ahead of us are wonderful to ponder. "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (John 21:25). Those same Footprints, however, challenge us beyond all our capabilities. "We also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you" (II Corinthians 13:4). No human being can be like Christ apart from Christ Himself dwelling with and within us through the indwelling Holy Spirit. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).
Thus, we set forth upon each day in the knowledge our Heavenly Father works to conform us to the spiritual and moral image of the Lord Jesus. We embark also in the confidence He does not call us to make bricks without straw, as it were, but rather promises the grace of Christ to make possible the face of Christ to shine forth within and through us. "Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power" (Colossians 1:10-11).
Sparrow cannot come to live in Ellie. She can only serve as her example. Ellie is doing a pretty good job of following the path so far, and we look forward to many years of more Beagle blessing. Thankfully, the Lord Jesus can and does come to live in all who trust in His blessed and freely given salvation. He serves as both our Example and our Empowerer. We "live through Him" even as He lives in us, making the Christian life the life of Christ as revealed in the human temples God made and redeemed us to be (I John 4:9). We can therefore look forward in this day and forevermore to a Life beyond life as we join the Apostle Paul in his affirmation of honest humility and confident faith…
"We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead."
(II Corinthians 1:9)
"By the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (I Corinthians 15:10).
(I Corinthians 15:10)
Memory Verse
"We also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you."
(II Corinthians 13:4)
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