The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"A Sabbath Stillness"
"The resting Christian is synonymous with the worshipping, walking, and working Christian. Only a heart that abides in the finished work of the Lord Jesus finds the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit as the motivating, guiding, and empowering Life of our lives."
God does not work beyond the need for His labors. He calls us to join Him in a sabbath stillness regarding the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation He secured thereby.
"For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His" (Hebrews 4:10).
On the seventh day, God rested from His original creative works because He was finished with them. He now rests regarding the new creation of His redeeming work of grace through Christ.
"But this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:12-14).
Our Heavenly Father looks upon His beloved Son with complete satisfaction for the work He did of securing our salvation. We must see our beloved Savior in the same holy light. If, in times of discouragement, we wonder about our relationship with God, we do well to look into Heaven by looking into the pages of Scripture. Therein, we will find the Father's gaze fixed upon the Lord Jesus for our benefit. He sees the wounds upon Christ's hands and feet. He hears the intercessory pleas on our behalf. He recalls His own purpose and determination that anyone who enters into His Son will be safe and accounted as family. Indeed, He sees us as "in Christ," and as living temples of the Lord Jesus. This constitutes His view of us forevermore, based upon His view of Christ. To the degree we join Him in satisfaction regarding our Savior will be the degree to which we find ourselves motivated and empowered to arise and seek to live in a manner that honors so wondrous a Father, so glorious a Savior, and so near a Holy Spirit (Luke 24:39; Hebrews 7:25; Ephesians 3:11; 15; I Corinthians 1:30; Galatians 4:6; Hebrews 12:3).
To the degree we know how wondrously powerful and efficacious God views the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus will be to the degree our our hearts rest in grace - and, our feet walk in the same grace. The resting Christian is synonymous with the worshipping, walking, and working Christian. Only a heart that abides in the finished work of the Lord Jesus finds the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit as the motivating, guiding, and empowering Life of our lives. We live for God by living from God. What has Christ done? What is He doing? What will He do forevermore? Find the answers to these questions in the Word of God, embrace them with the heart, and then discover power from above dwelling therein, and flowing without. "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38).
The heart thrilled with the Lord Jesus cannot fail to live a life filled with Lord Jesus. Our Father looks upon His Son with absolute satisfaction in who He is, and in what He has done. He saves all who join Him in affirming Christ as all that is necessary for forgiveness of sin and newness of life. He empowers those who believe, and who realize that we "live through Him" (I John 4:9). He will one day reward those who, like the Apostle Paul, freely received the grace to run and finish the race (II Timothy 4:7-8). Yes, our Father beckons us to rest our hearts in the finished work of the Lord Jesus, and to discover how such a sabbath stillness results in minds, hands, and feet that long to arise, to worship, to walk, and to run.
"Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."
(II Timothy 2:1)
"We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement."
(Romans 5:11)
"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."
(I John 5:11).
"There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
(I Timothy 2:5)
Weekly Memory Verse
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
(Galatians 5:16)
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