The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Life of Our Lives"
God defines life in different terms than we often consider.
"He is thy life" (Deuteronomy 30:20).
"I am… the life" (John 14:6).
"To live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).
In essence, the Lord Himself constitutes the life of our lives. To live involves far more than a heartbeat or brainwaves, and much more than our doings and experiences. We are only truly alive if the Life Himself dwells within the epicenter of our spiritual being. The Apostle Paul declared that "He giveth to all life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25). However, to those who trust Him through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God more than gives life. He rather is our life, as birthed and eternally enlivened by the presence of the Prince of life.
"And you hath He quickened (enlivened), who were dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1).
Somewhere in this moment, a born again believer in the Lord Jesus lies upon a bed of illness and stillness. She cannot speak, or move, or do anything the world defines as life. She seemingly has lost all, and certainly, she has lost abilities and opportunities that once graced her life. However, regarding the essence of what it means to be truly alive, our sister has lost nothing. Teeming within her spirit, the living God no less abides as her life than in more active days when she trusted Him as she does now. We do not know how her Lord meets her upon her bed of stillness, or how He administers the vibrancy of His life within her, and through her. We just know that He does. "My strength is made perfect in weakness" (II Corinthians 12:9). Perhaps you and I are the beneficiaries of such communion as our sister prays for us who can move about by the providence, purpose, and power of God. I often ponder this when conducting services in retirement communities, particularly in nursing sections of the facilities. What answers to prayer grace mine and Frances's life and ministry, offered by those who cannot commune with people, but who deeply within their hearts meet the Lord at His throne of grace to seek His blessing of mercy and grace for us? A stilled body cannot hinder a living spirit, alive in the Spirit of Christ, from making a journey of prayer to Heaven. "I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches. Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after Thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me" (Psalm 63:6-8).
"To live is Christ." Nothing else qualifies as life in its essence and most genuine reality of truth and meaning. We could lose all, but if He remains, we have lost nothing of life as defined by God (the only definition that matters). Born again believers do well to consistently and increasingly affirm this within our hearts because we presently live in a world of loss. We live even more, however, in the eternal reality of having gained as a free gift through the Lord Jesus the only life we will ever know. "He is thy life… I am the life." The Prince, the Prince of life, tells us this, and lives within us to confirm Frances's life motto regarding life in its truest glory and wonder: "Faites toujours confiance au Seigneur, pour l'avoir, nous l'avons tous" (Trust in the Lord always, for having Him, we have all).
"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)
Weekly Memory Verse
"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)
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