The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Triumph of Love"
"I will ascend… I will exalt… I will sit… I will be like the Most High." Sin began in God's creation through Lucifer's self delusion. To counter and ultimately destroy such distortion, the Lord Jesus Christ descended, humbled, hung (on a cross), and was made like humanity."
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High" (Isaiah 14:12-14).
"I will ascend… I will exalt… I will sit… I will be like the Most High." Sin began in God's creation through Lucifer's self delusion. To counter and ultimately destroy such distortion, the Lord Jesus Christ descended, humbled, hung (on a cross), and was made like humanity. God enrobed Himself in a seeming weakness that actually served as the means whereby His power was most displayed. "My strength is made perfect in weakness" (II Corinthians 12:9). Unselfish devotion to others confronted self-centeredness through Christ, allowing the devil to do His worst, but coming forth in a triumph that confirms and exalts the sacrificial love of God as the mightiest of all realities. "For God so loved the world that He gave" declares the most familiar of all Scriptural affirmations, whereby our Lord revealed that devotion to others rather than self-centeredness triumphs through "Christ, the power of God" (I Corinthians 1:24).
Consider the dictators of history. Were and are they strong men, or weak? In real terms, they represent the weakest segment of humanity because they have to exert selfish and brutal control over others in order to execute their desires. Of course, their actions appear strong, just as the cross of Calvary gave every indication to being the triumph of selfish lust rather than the victory of love. We know better, and history records Pilate as a defeated foe because the Lord Jesus actually directed matters rather than the one who seemingly dictated His death. "I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10:17-18).
Appearances often belie the truth of God's mightiest working. "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24). God allows the devil to have his day, and humanity to largely follow the doomed path unto the destruction of self-centeredness. The dark way leads inward, where no light can be found as those who consume their own lusts are themselves consumed thereby. Conversely, the love of God directs trusting hearts outward and away where the light of Christ ever blesses with the triumphant illumination of our Lord's love. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others" (Philippians 2:4).
Others. God and others. This was the way of the Lord Jesus, who "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). It is our way also as believers, our way of victory in Christ and through Christ. Yes, the otherness of "I will descend… I will humble… I will hang… made like His brethren" confronted Satan's egotism of "I will ascend… I will exalt… I will sit… I will be like the Most High." Love, the love of God in Christ, won a resounding victory through a resplendent Christ of devotion to God and others. He now lives in every believer to lead us outward and away, in the triumph of the love that "seeketh not her own"…
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
(Philippians 2:5-11)
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."
(Romans 8:35-37)
Weekly Memory Verse
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others."
(Philippians 2:4)
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