The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"How Close? How Far."
"To the degree He will forsaken, a promise arose from the blood shed, the heart broken, and the death suffered: 'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.' "
The stunning magnitude of how closely God dwells with those who trust the Lord Jesus Christ overwhelms the heart and staggers the mind.
"I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).
Because we presently "walk by faith, not by sight," even the most devoted born again believers among us barely comprehend how much the redeemed heart teems with the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We will all better know in the next phase of our eternal relationship and fellowship with God the gift of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). For now, we must receive the truth, believe the truth, and realize that we live no moment of our lives in which our very Life Himself does not fill our hearts with the fulfillment of our hearts. "He is thy life… Christ is our life" (Deuteronomy 30:20; Colossians 3:4).
God made human hearts to serve as His spiritual temple, "the habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). He is not content with anything less than His dwelling within the epicenter of our being. We know this because of the price He paid to make possible His presence within us. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46). Yes, on the cross of Calvary, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit forsook the Lord Jesus as He bore our sins, and even more, was "made… to be sin for us" (I Peter 2:24; II Corinthians 5:21). How closely does God dwell within us? The solemn and heart-rending answer may best be understood in how far He turned away from His beloved Son, who in some incomprehensible manner became on the cross the very essence of our sin. Thereby, to the degree He was forsaken, a promise arose from the blood shed, the heart broken, and the death suffered: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). Indeed, how near has our Lord drawn unto and within us? Look to Calvary and how far into the depths of abject aloneness our Savior journeyed to secure our salvation and its most glorious gift of the eternally - and in this moment - abiding presence of God with us. "He hath put Him to grief" (Isaiah 53:10)
We cannot begin to understand the full magnitude of such grace. We never will. Certainly, we do not always feel or sense such Presence, nor is it necessary that we do. We do not always live as if the truth is true. However, as a matter of the most intense conviction the Holy Spirit will allow, we must make it a determination of faith that in the moment of our new birth, the living and true God entered the very depths of our hearts, never to leave. He is there now, to be what we need Him to be, and He moves within us to do what we require Him to do - "I will dwell in them and walk in them." The most terrible sacrifice made such grace and presence possible and actual in our hearts. In its holy light, we cannot, we must not fail to avail ourselves of "the hope of glory" that came to us by a Heart forsaken. How close? The answer lies in how far.
Made to be sin, who knew no sin,
Christ nailed to a cross, forsaken!
Made to be righteous because of Him,
Christ lives now in us, He dwells within.
His delight for the Father, now ours by grace.
His faithfulness revealed in us through faith.
"He lives, we live," the anthem we sing,
"Not I, but Christ!" the offering we bring.
Oh let us believe it, because we received it
in the moment we entered His light,
sins were forgiven, God promised Heaven,
and Christ as the Life of our lives.
"Ye are the temple of the living God."
(II Corinthians 6:16)
Weekly Memory Verse
How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.
(Psalm 36:7)
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