Orange Moon Tuesday, February 27, 2024 "A Book. A Voice."

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

"A Book.  A Voice."

   

      

      "Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath. There is none else" (Deuteronomy 4:39).

    "Thou art God alone" (Psalm 86:10).

    Moses' fact became the Psalmist's faith.  Truth declared in principle translated into truth personally believed as "He is" resulted in "Thou art."  "Know" led to "consider it in thine heart."

   This process of illumination becoming inspiration characterizes the entirety of our relationship and fellowship with God.  We must know the revelation of His truth in order to respond to Him in faith.  "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17).  It is not enough, however, to merely store facts, albeit even Scriptural revelation, in our minds.  The heart must engage. "I will trust in Thee" must arise within the depths of our being in response to "Trust the Lord with all thine heart" (Psalm 56:3; Proverbs 3:5).  God is personal.  We are personal.  Never will it be enough to simply know and understand.  By faith, we must look into His face so that fact may ignite and burn brightly in fueling our walk with Him in the light of both spirit and truth (John 4:24).

    The Bible no less exists as a Voice than as a Book.  We will not always be consciously aware of how present God is when we open and humbly read His Word, or when we remember and affirm it along the pathways of life.  "We walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7).  However, facts we read and ponder glimmer with "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" as the Holy Spirit illuminates the written Word He inspired to reveal the living Word He seeks to glorify (II Corinthians 4:6; John 16:14).  We may not consciously realize such grace.  Often, reading just seems like reading.  To the trusting, humble heart, however, reading and remembering the Word of God as written results in the presence of the Word of God as living.  "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).

    A Bible may consist of leather, paper, and ink.  To many, it exists as a mere object to be honored, or vilified, or ignored.  To the trusting heart in Christ, conversely, the Bible is something so much more.  It exists in print as the means by which a Heart, a Mind, and a Voice cause words on pages to become light in the spirit.  Christ the living Word dwells in the Bible the written Word.  We open the pages to behold the Person known in the accounts of history, doctrine, and personal testimony of the saints mentioned, and the saints who wrote the Scriptures.  The Bible - a book?  Yes.  A Voice?  Yes.  We must recognize such a gift in both aspects of its truth, to be known with the mind, and to "consider it in thine heart."

"Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts."

(Jeremiah 15:16)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Pray without ceasing.

(I Thessalonians 5:17)

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