Orange Moon Tuesday, December 13, 2022 "Worker Present"

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

    

              "Worker Present"     

    

    Some of the loneliest places in the world can be found on interstate highways dotted by signs that read, "Workers Present. Fines Doubled."   Rarely is anyone actually seen in these areas, causing one to wonder if the signs mean something other than what they suggest. :):)

    Thankfully, born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ can rejoice in the Bible's frequent declaration to which we might refer as "Worker Present.  Grace Multiplied and Promises Fulfilled."

    "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).

    "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works" (Ephesians 2:10).

   Salvation in the Lord Jesus rescinds the proud notion that we are our own workmanship, birthing a "new creature" dependent on God's presence and involvement to increasingly make us into what He wants us to be.  We play a role in the process as we seek to grow in trusting and submitting to the Worker and His progress.  Never, however, do we perceive ourselves as the primary agent in the relationship with God that began by His grace, and thereby continues evermore.  "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith" (Colossians 2:6-7).

   Of course, we often do not recognize or understand the Lord's doings in our hearts and lives.  He works at levels far deeper than we perceive, and in ways we would not comprehend even if He attempted to explain them to us.  Like the workers said to be present along interstate highways, God can often appear to be missing from the scene.  This is never actually the case, but it can surely look and feel like it.  As the Psalmist bemoaned in a time of failure to see by faith the heart and hand of the Lord at work, "Why standest Thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou Thyself in times of trouble?" (Psalm 10:1).

   Along the path of righteousness, signs abound that proclaim the truth and reality of "Worker Present.  Grace Multiplied and Promises Fulfilled."  Yes, the God who always starts what He finishes incessantly labors to fulfill His glorious purpose of conforming His trusting children to the spiritual and moral image of the Lord Jesus (Romans 8:28-29).  Our lives teem with His working, regardless of how things may appear.  Indeed, God's presence is often directly proportionate to the appearance of His absence (consider in this season the womb of a virgin, a manger, and a cross).  The Worker is indeed present in every step of the way along the path we tread, accompanied by His grace and the promises we believe to know and experience their truth.  

"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

(Philippians 2:12-13)

Weekly Memory Verse

   For with God nothing shall be impossible.

 (Luke 1:37)

   

  

    

     

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