The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Text and Context"
The text of Scripture informs us that God must be known as the context of our hearts and lives.
"All live unto Him" (Luke 20:38).
"In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
"I am… the truth" (John 14:6).
We do well to keep the question near at hand as we respond to the circumstances, events, and conditions of life in an earthly world: "How is the Lord involved in this?" The answer will frequently be that He is, in fact, present and active in the matters of life, but we cannot perceive what He is specifically doing, or how He is working. In such times, we must determine it is enough to know that God ever works to fulfill His eternal purpose in Christ, and ever engages His heart and hand to conform us to the spiritual and moral image of the Lord Jesus (Romans 8:28-29). This is context, the assurance that our Heavenly Father works all things together for good to those who love Him.
Such truth provides a vital reason we seek to consistently and prayerfully expose ourselves to the Bible, reading and pondering the pages that maintain our remembrance to "judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24). In a fallen world, that which we perceive with our senses and human understanding often suggests a God far away and uninvolved, if He exists as all. "Where is thy God?" sneer worldly, fleshly, and demonic influences (Psalm 42:3). Our own flesh sometimes offers the same uncertainty when our Lord works in ways beyond our awareness and understanding. "Why standest Thou afar off, o Lord, why hidest Thyself in times of trouble?" asked the Psalmist, who well knew God to be "a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 10:1; 46:1). He did not possess a Bible such as we do, nor did the Holy Spirit permanently indwell him as He does all believers since the atoning work of the Lord Jesus. We are so blessed, and we must avail ourselves of the light and assurance provided by the text of Scripture in order to maintain confidence in the context of all things. "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).
We will not alway comprehend what God is doing in our lives, or in the world. We can always know, however, that He is doing. All things flow with the current of His eternal purpose, even those things our Heavenly Father does not originate and determine. He is that present, involved, engaged, caring, and determined to finish that which He long ago started in Christ, and for Christ (I Corinthians 15:24-28). This is context, the bright and shining light we find in the text of the Bible that strengthens our resolve of faith, and our determination to join the prophet in his invitation to join him in truth and reality…
"Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord."
(Isaiah 2:5)
"God… worketh all things after the counsel of His own will."
(Ephesians 1:3; 11)
Weekly Memory Verse
The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.
(Psalm 145:18)
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