The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"To Reflect the Light"
"The gaze of our heart upon His heart empowers our hands to work and our feet to walk by the love of the Lord Jesus in a sacrificial devotion to others that would not exist apart His light shining upon and within us."
How we perceive God's attitude and disposition toward ourselves determines our attitude and disposition toward others.
"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us" (I John 4:11-12).
The love that shines upon us and absorbs within us becomes the love reflected by us. Indeed, we do not love people as Scripture directs by merely seeking to obey the command. We rather seek to know the character of love as existing in God, experience such goodness in our personal fellowship with Him, and then expect countless opportunities to bestow the grace we receive upon others. "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us" (Ephesians 5:2).
By His Spirit and in the pages of Scripture, our Heavenly Father reveals His "good to all" heart of "tendermercies" (Psalm 145:9). The gaze of our heart upon His heart empowers our hands to work and our feet to walk in a sacrificial devotion to others that would not exist apart His light shining upon and within us. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5). We serve as moons to the sun, or rather as those by whom the Light we see and absorb becomes the Light we shine upon others. "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord… Thou will light my candle" (Proverbs 20:27; Psalm 18:28).
"We love Him because He first loved us" declared the Apostle John (I John 4:19). We also love others because He loves them, and because He lives within us to enable our reflecting the light of self sacrificial devotion that shines in His face. All the effort we can muster within ourselves to "love as Christ also hath loved" comes to naught. It cannot be otherwise because "the love of Christ passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). However, seeking to better know the love of God not only amazes us in the glory of His devotion to ourselves, but also to others. Thereby, the Holy Spirit leads us to behold the sublime light of God's nature, and to the "partaking of the Divine nature" that leads us to love as He loves (II Peter 1:4). Yes, as moons to the sun, we will love others as we absorb and reflect His love for others.
"The Lord is good to all… Let us do good unto all."
(Psalm 145:9; Galatians 6:10)
"Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
(II Corinthians 3:18)
Weekly Memory Verse
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
(I Timothy 3:16)
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