Orange Moon Wednesday, July 31, 2024 "An All Sufficient Savior"

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

"An All Sufficient Savior"

"Our Lord's sufficiency - His super abundant sufficiency - abides at all times, in all conditions and circumstances, and most of all, in our hearts."

    

   We mentioned in yesterday's message the confession of the Lord Jesus Christ as "my all sufficient Savior" by Brigadier General and four time governor of Maine Joshua L. Chamberlain.  A life of God's grace known amid much suffering confirmed his confidence, and raises the question: how sufficient do we perceive the Lord Jesus to be?

    "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (II Corinthians 9:8).

     "All sufficiency in all things," resulting in "every good work."  The Apostle Paul affirms God's grace as more than enough for whatever may come our way.  Our confidence and access of His provision may sometimes wane, however, although such lapses of faith are never inevitable or excusable.  Our Lord's abundant sufficiency nevertheless abides at all times, in all conditions and circumstances, and most of all, in our hearts.  So, whether we find ourselves in a proper time of confident awareness and response to His grace, or a time wherein we realize our faith has faltered, the "all sufficiency… all things… every good work" trustworthiness of our Lord lies before us and within us.  

   It may be that some of our greatest responses of faith occur after being awakened to the need for arising from unbelief.  While not the ideal in our walk of faith, God's grace and mercy so blessedly greet us in times of repentance that a restored confidence can lead to monumental steps of trusting Him.  This speaks more to His joy of restoration than to our renewed faith.  Consider the prodigal's father in his race of grace to meet his wayward, but returning and repentant son:

    "The father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry, for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry" (Luke 15:22-24). 

    The son found a tiny seed of faith in his heart as he returned to a father he hoped would, at best, receive him as a hired servant (Luke 15:19).  The father, however, found in his heart the vast measure of grace that crowns the narrative with glory and wonder.  All the joy of the best robe, the ring, the shoes, the fatted calf, and the exultant celebration resulted from a merciful father's loving desire to restore.  In the same manner, when we trust God with renewed confidence after a time of wandering, we can expect His response to be far more than commensurate with our repentance.  "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20).

   We can only begin from where we are in trusting God.  This may and should mean continuance and growth in accessing  the superabundant sufficiency of His grace by faith.  Or, it may involve the godly sorrow of repentance that we have not trusted the One who has been so faithful to us in so many ways.  Whatever the case, enough and more than enough of God's grace always awaits our access by faith.  Let us apply such truth to this day, this hour, and whatever insufficiency in our lives requires the provision of our "all sufficient Savior."  We shall not be disappointed, and our Father will be glorified as our faith serves as the backdrop to reveal and exalt His faithfulness.

"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.

(II Corinthians 3:5)

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, world without ages, Amen."

(Ephesians 3:20-21)

Weekly Memory Verse

    And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment."

(Philippians 1:9)

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Orange Moon Tuesday, July 30, 2024 "Wounds"

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

"Wounds"

"When pains, problems, and perplexities present their challenges, we do well to consider, "How could it be otherwise in the world as it presently exists?"

    

   Many historians of the Civil War consider Brigadier General Joshua L. Chamberlain (Union Army, USA) as the last casualty of the conflict.  He died in 1914, 50 years after the war, from wounds received in 1864 during the Second Battle of St. Petersburg.  Chamberlain lived a highly accomplished post-war life despite his sufferings, serving four terms as the governor of Maine, twelve years as president of Bowdoin College, and other positions of distinction throughout five decades of physical pain and difficulty.  He frequently gave credit to the Lord Jesus Christ for his life and enduring, and died with the testimony of Christ as "my all sufficient Savior" on his lips.

    "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Galatians 6:17).

    Whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, every born again believer in the Lord Jesus bears wounds because of His presence in us.  Our spiritual enemies see to that, as allowed and sometimes even administered by God for reasons related to the fallen world in which we live.  "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).  No believer would walk with God apart from the challenge and difficulty that confirms our present existence in a world that "lieth in wickedness" (I John 5:19).  Trust and trouble presently walk hand in hand.  "But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: He is their strength in the time of trouble" (Psalm 37:39).  Our flesh would overwhelm our spirits without the challenges of various modes and measures that remind us that "if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13).

    Like General Chamberlain, we are all wounded in some measure due to the fact of Christ's presence in our hearts and lives.  The "man of sorrows" who faced His own personal challenges during an earthly lifetime now lives in us, replicating in our experience the realities He knew, and that will be known by those in which He lives and walks.  "Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps" (Isaiah 53:3; II Peter 2:21).  Indeed, when pains, problems, and perplexities present their challenges, we do well to consider, "How could it be otherwise in the world as it presently exists?"  Our spiritual enemies hate the Christ who lives in our hearts as the Life of our lives.  Moreover, God conveniently uses their attacks to fulfill sanctifying effects in us that cannot presently occur through the pleasant and the peaceful.  Our wounds may also at times result from the promised chastening and scourging of love, administered by our Father who loves us enough to apply pain if it will keep us from embracing an alluring world of lies and deceptions (Hebrews 12:6; I Peter 4:1).  

    General Chamberlain lived most of his lifetime suffering from the wounds of an earthly conflict.  However, our brother in Christ  doubtless suffered far more from the wounds inflicted by the Heavenly conflict in which he was engaged as a believer.  The same truth applies to all in whom Christ lives.  Why do we face pains, problems, and perplexities?  Again, how could it presently be otherwise?  We do well to think spiritually regarding our challenges.  God always has purpose in them, and regardless of how earthly and natural they may seem, all bear a far more significant and eternal meaning than we realize.  Certainly, General Chamberlain's "all sufficient Savior" will lead us as He led our brother of old.  Thereby, we will honor the One who still bears the tangible prints on His hands, feet, and side suffered when He won the conflict of the ages, and whereby our conflicts become the scene of His ongoing victory…

"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.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

(Romans 8:36-39) 

"For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

(II Corinthians 4:11)

Weekly Memory Verse

    And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment."

(Philippians 1:9)

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Orange Moon Monday, July 29, 2024 "Abounding Love"

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

"Abounding Love"

"The love of God 'shed abroad in our hearts' becomes the love of God shed forth from our hearts as we grow in the wonder of His personal devotion to us, and to all."

    "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment" (Philippians 1:9).

   How do born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ grow in the knowledge of God's love, and the wise response that leads to it abounding in our hearts and lives?  The primary answer lies in how such love became resident in us to begin with.

   "We love Him because He first loved us" (I John 4:19).

   "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6).

    Had God not so loved us, first by giving the Lord Jesus Christ to fulfill His redeeming work on the cross of Calvary, and then by working in our hearts to draw us to Himself by the Holy Spirit, we would never have trusted the Savior.  Nor would have He indwelt our hearts to become the Life of our lives.  Thereby, "He first loved us."  Thereby, He continues His work to reveal the love of Christ unto and within us as we fulfill our role of response to our Heavenly Father's working.

   "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ… we are His workmanship" (Philippians 1:6; Ephesians 2:10).  

   Such grace makes possible our growth in devotion to God and people as the love we receive moves within us, and then outward from us.  Yes, the love of God "shed abroad in our hearts" becomes the love of God shed forth from our hearts as we grow in the wonder of His personal devotion to us, and to all (Romans 5:5).

    Regarding our love for people, as one said long ago, "If God loves me, then He most surely loves thee."  The believer cannot long walk in resentment or bitterness who grows in the knowledge of how much grace he has himself received from God.  Or, that he continues to receive.  As the Lord's parable of the debtors confirms, we must perceive ourselves as having been forgiven for far more than others because no matter how another may have fallen, we know our own sins far better than anyone else's (Matthew 18:23-29).  We have lived our lifetime with ourselves.  Thus, the closet in which our skeletons reside looms far nearer than any other.

    We do well to remember how personally and undeservedly good our Lord has been to us, and how He continues to lavish such grace upon us.  Thereby, we respond in love for the One so worthy of our devotion, and for the people He calls us to love for the glory and revelation of the Lord Jesus.  "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and given Himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor" (Ephesians 5:2).  Upon this basis of our commitment to love as we have been loved, "knowledge and all judgment" in how to love God and others becomes far more known and applied in our lives.  With God, we are ever responders to His presence and working, a truth most vital to be remembered concerning the greatest calling of our existence…

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."

(Mark 12:30-31)

Weekly Memory Verse

    And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment."

(Philippians 1:9)

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Orange Moon Saturday, July 27, 2024 "More Than Memories"

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

"More Than Memories"

     Let us always go with God when we journey in heart and mind to the past.

    "I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Thy wonders of old" (Psalm 77:11).

    Such remembrance involves the recall of blessings, challenges, and everyday moments.  Thinking back on our lives offers opportunity for more than memories.  This includes happy times of blessing from God, challenging times we endured through our Lord, and everyday moments in which He was intimately present and intricately active, whether we realized such grace or not.

    "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17).

    "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).

    "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20).

     When we remember our blessings with gratitude and giving of thanks, the Holy Spirit graces our recollections with a strengthened determination to presently trust our Lord. We journey to the past of God's generously bestowed lovingkindness not only in remembrance, but with gratitude for His goodness.  "Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness" (Psalm 30:4).  Yes, we remember our happy times as more than memories, and as opportunities for thanksgiving.

     Just as importantly, we never look back without factoring our Heavenly Father's involved presence in pains, difficulties, and sorrows.  He was there in all of them, either administering or allowing our challenges for His glory, our benefit, and the benefit of others.   In the mystery of His wisdom, we journey with our Lord to the painful portions of our past for the purpose of seeing Him there with compassion, and also with the commitment to work all things together for our good.   Thus, we recall our difficult days as more than memories, and as opportunities for thanksgiving.

       We recall everyday moments of our yesterdays with the same gratitude.  That which may have seemed mundane to us actually teemed with significance, as wrought by God's pervasive presence and working.  "God… worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:3; 11).  All matters to Him, and all matters to us, including that which may have seemed purposeless and without meaning.  This was never the case, and we can and must look back on bygone everyday moments as opportunities for more than memories.

   We journey to our past with the One able to illuminate our view of days gone by.  We choose to see Him in our yesterdays, believing that our Lord is so wise, able, involved, powerful, and loving that every good and perfect gift was from Him.  We also choose to believe that no painful moment of the past escapes His capacity to redeem and use for our benefit, and the benefit of those with whom we live and to whom we minister.  We see the seemingly insignificant moments of yesterday in the same light of our Heavenly Father's gracious presence and involvement.  The choices to view our past  in this perspective are not easy, and we will not fully understand how God works all things together for our good.  We just know that He does.  His Word declares this truth.  He cannot lie.  He always fulfills His promises.  Thus, we journey to the past for the primary purpose of seeing our Heavenly Father there in the blessings and trials, and in all.  We make our memories more than memories as we give thanks and rest our hearts in the God of our yesterdays, todays, and forever.

We will not go alone

as we journey to the past,

along the trail of memories

that in our hearts hold fast.

For we did not go alone

through the blessings and the trials,

Someone was ever with us

in the tears and in the smiles.

So we will not go alone 

when we ponder yesterdays,

We will journey with the Father

so worthy of our praise.

For He was there in all, in every hour

weaving all together,

for the glory of His Son 

and our benefit forever.

We will not go alone as we journey to the past.

"Thou hast been my help."

(Psalm 63:7)

Weekly Memory Verse

   I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.                                                                                        (John 10:10)

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