Orange Moon Cafe "A Promised Life"

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

 

  "A Promised Life" 

    

    In the Old Testament, God promised His earthly people Israel a land.

 

    "And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land" (Genesis 12:7).

 

    In the New Testament, God promises His heavenly people the church a life.

 

    "The promise of life which is in Christ Jesus" (II Timothy 1:1).

 

   God will keep His promise to Israel, which will one day fully and forever occupy the promised land under the rule of the Lord Jesus (Micah 4:1-7).  God has already kept, and continues to keep, His promise of life in Christ to all who believe.  "Christ… is thy life" (Colossians 3:4).  Indeed, in the moment a person believes in the Lord Jesus, His Spirit births and enlivens us into living relationship with God so near and vibrant that His Spirit becomes our life.  "To live is Christ" declared the Apostle Paul (Philippians 1:21).  Nothing else qualifies as life in terms of the spiritual vitality that constitutes the essence of God's own being, and the essence of who He made us to be.

 

    "God is a spirit… That which is born of the Spirit is spirit… Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (John 4:24; 3:6; Romans 8:9).

 

   "The promise of life" is actual and factual in every believer through Christ's living presence in us, and our being alive in Him.  However, the promise also involves our doings, that is, how we think, speak, act, and relate to God and people.  "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).  Christ lives in us, dwelling within us as the Life of our lives.  We also live through Him by trusting and submitting ourselves to God in the confidence He will empower us to "walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6).  Indeed, consider that whatever this moment and this day involves, we do not have to live as if we are merely ourselves.  We rather live as if we are ourselves inhabited by the abiding and dynamic presence of the living God.  Again, His indwelling life is factual and actual.  Our confidence in such freely given grace determines whether our walk will reflect the reality of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

 

   "I will dwell in them, and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).  This is the dual promise of life, the "dwell" already fulfilled in every Christian, and the "walk" more and more fulfilled as we believe the assurance of Christ's motivating and empowering presence.  The blessed reality is all encompassing, meaning we can trust God regarding every aspect of our lives.  "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:31).  A promised life, the life of Christ, graces every born again believer in the Lord Jesus with His Person, presence, and power.  We do not live alone, and we do not have to live by merely our human faculties…

 

"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."

(I John 5:11)

"Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might."

Ephesians 6:10).

 

Weekly Memory Verse

    We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

(Romans 5:2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5984