The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Something For Which To Live. Someone From Whom To Live"
God gave us something for which to live when we trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. Even more, He gave us Someone from whom to live.
"Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:31).
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (I John 4:9).
Believers awaken to each new day as commissioned ambassadors of the Lord Jesus, seeking to reflect well upon Him and convey His truth by our countenance, demeanor, attitude, words, and deeds. We serve as the lamps of His light. No other reason for existence begins to compare with the privileged responsibility of bearing witness to the living and true God. He calls us all to the awareness of such a responsibility, and the necessity that we acknowledge our blessed reason for being. "Ye are the light of the world… ye shine as lights in the world" (Matthew 5:14; Philippians 2:15).
This "something for which to live" would be a cruel hoax where it not for the glorious wonder of "Someone from which to live." The calling far exceeds our ability to fulfill it by our own devices and determination. "Without Me, ye can do nothing" declared the Lord Jesus to His disciples (John 15:5). His stark declaration of need rings through the ages to find us with a high and holy commission for which we have no inherent capability to fulfill. From weakness without Him before salvation to being "weak in Him" after we trust the Lord Jesus, believers bear no independent strength for the exalted calling God beckons us to fulfill (II Corinthians 13:4). Thus, He not only beckons. He also supplies the Spirit of His Son to live within us so that we may "live through Him." Yes, our "something for which to live" - the glory of God - proceeds from God's gift of "Someone from which to live" - "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
I seek to remember this whenever I preach, teach, write, and bear witness to the Lord Jesus. However, I also recognize that serving as an ambassador involves every aspect of life: "Whatsoever ye do." Every moment and venue finds us bearing the name of the Lord Jesus, either well or poorly. "Whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Colossians 3:17). Sober consideration of such a calling must surely cast us to our knees and faces in realization that we bear no inherent strength for the responsibility. However, our Father does not leave us in our prostrate posture of need. He rather calls us to arise in the presence and power of Christ to go forth with His light shining in our faces, glowing through our lives, and illuminating by our confession. Indeed, from "Without Me, ye can do nothing" unto "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me," God empowers that which He commands (Philippians 4:13).
Amid all that we will do in this day and forever, our Heavenly Father calls us to honor His Son by leading us to live through His Son. The greatest herald of such truth, the Apostle Paul, well knew the glory of the responsibility and the gift. We close with his confession of something for which to live... Someone from whom to live.
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
(Philippians 3:13-14)
"But 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)
Weekly Memory Verse
"The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth."
(Ephesians 5:9)
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