Orange Moon "Faithfulness To Relationship"

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

 

(many of you are on our mailing list because of the gentleman referenced in this message.  You will therefore nod your heads and say, "Yes, that's the Tom I know!" And allow me also to say that so many of you who read this also exemplify the truth I reference).

 

"Faithfulness To Relationship"

 

    My dear friend Tom Webb serves as an example to me and many others in countless ways.

 

    Tom and I have known each other for more than twenty five years.  He lived in Mobile until 2003, when he and his wife JJ moved to Maryville, Tennessee.  They have two children, William and Erin, and Tom serves as a Biblical counselor for a medical practice in Knoxville.

 

    I share this with you because of the many ways Tom exemplifies Christ, one blesses me twice a week.  When he and JJ moved away to Tennessee, Tom and I committed to staying in touch on a regular basis.  Of course, lots of friends make such plans, but then fail to honor the commitment.  Not Tom.  For more than seventeen years, he has called me nearly every Monday and Thursday on the way to work.  We don't have long to chat, but over the years we've enjoyed staying in touch, talking about the Lord, our families, and whatever's going on in our lives or in the world.  I count our Monday and Thursday fellowship as one of the great blessings in my life, and again, as an incredible example provided by the Lord through Tom of faithfulness to relationship.

 

    Of course, this speaks to God's faithfulness to His relationship with us. 

 

     "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee… He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ… Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds" (Hebrews 13:5; Philippians 1:6; Psalm 36:5).

 

   God loves the fellowship of His trusting children's hearts.  "The prayer of the upright is His delight" (Proverbs 15:8).  The wonder of such loving grace should astound us all.  But then again, maybe not.  To redeem and relate to human hearts is simply who He is.  Our Lord is the essence of communication - "the Word" - and He made us to receive and respond to the light of His heart communing with our own (John 1:1).  Thus, we can know He ever seeks to draw us into the fellowship made possible through the Lord Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit.  "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20).

 

    Tom's consistency in staying in touch with me reminds me of this truth about our Lord. It encourages and challenges me to be far more consistent in responding to the Lord, and also to being the kind of friend to Tom and others he is to me.  Again, God made and redeemed our hearts for consistent and growing fellowship with Himself, and then with others as the direct reflection of God seeking us, and our responding to Him.  I am grateful for Tom exemplifying such devotion, and for many of you who also express what it means to have friends by being a friend.

 

"When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek."

(Psalm 27:8)

"A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."

(Proverbs 18:24)

 

Weekly Memory Verse

    The Lord looketh on the heart.

(I Samuel 16:7)

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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