Monday, November 9, 2020

Orange Moon "Who Won?"

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

 

(a repeat from 2012) 

 

"Who Won?"

   

    The Roman emperor Nero killed the body of the Apostle Paul, whose spirit immediately ascended into the direct presence of his beloved Lord Jesus Christ.  "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (II Corinthians 5:8).

 

    Nero adds only dusty and fading footnotes to the pages of history.  Conversely, Paul's legacy abides through his inspired Scriptural writings.  The Apostle remains as pertinent today as he was 2,000 years ago.  Nero?  Negligible.  His mark on history fades into oblivion more with every passing year.

 

   Who won their personal battle, Paul or Nero?   The latter ended the earthly life of the former.  He won a skirmish. However, Nero had no effect on the heavenly Life of either Paul or his Gospel.  God's apostle lives on forevermore, including this day when millions will read his words for the sublime purpose of drawing nigh to their Divine source and inspiration.  Nero's sword gained a fleeting victory in the moment. The sword of Paul, or rather, "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" continues to manifest the victory of the ages (Ephesians 6:17).  Yes, Paul won.  Through Christ, in Christ, and by Christ, Paul won.

 


Ozymandias

 

I met a traveler from an antique land

who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert.

 

Near them on the sand,

half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

 

tell that its sculptor well those passions read

which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

 

And on the pedestal these words appear:

`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

 

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

the lone and level sands stretch far away."

 

(Percy Shelley, 1792-1822)

 

"The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance."

(Psalm 112:6)

"The lamp of the wicked shall be put out."

(Proverbs 13:9)

 

Weekly Memory Verse

   And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead.

(Acts 13:29-30).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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