Orange Moon Saturday, December 2, 2023 "The Breath He Gives"

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

(Thanks to JB for inspiration on this one)

"The Breath He Gives"

  "Presently, the Lord allows the breath He gives to be used against Him in countless ways.  He works amid all to fulfill "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

    

   In order to deny or even curse the notion of God, the atheist must use the breath given by the Lord to express his denunciation.

     "He giveth to all life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25).

    As referenced in yesterday's message, our very existence comprises a gift that cost God greatly.  By creating all things, the Lord Jesus Christ became "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8).  Had there been no creation and no sin that ensued thereby, there would have been no cross necessary for the redemption of a fallen realm.  Thus, those who rail against God rage against the love that self-sacrificially made them and sustains them, and that is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9).  Moreover, for those who never respond to the grace and mercy of God's saving grace in Christ, even "the wrath to come" will cost the Creator: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Matthew 3:7; Ezekiel 33:11).

   Presently, the Lord allows the breath He gives to be used against Him in countless ways.  He works amid all to fulfill "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord," a determination that will not be thwarted by those who misuse His gifts (Ephesians 3:11).  In a generation of 24/7 availability of communication, much of which flows with the current of unbelief and rejection of the Giver of "every good gift and ever perfect gift," we do well to remember that the sinner must inhale the Lord's gracious bestowal in order to exhale his ungrateful denial (James 1:17).  Moreover, believers do well to use the breath He gives to us for more grateful expressions of praise, thanksgiving, and affirmation of the Creator who made all things in the foreshadowing of the Lamb, and of the cross on which He would become the sacrifice made necessary by creation.  

"Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD."

(Psalm 150:6)

"God the Lord, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein."

(Isaiah 42:5)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 

(I John 5:4)

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