Orange Moon Monday, September 30, 2024 "He That Made Us"

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

"He That Made Us"

    The supposed "self made man" would not get far in his delusion if God withheld the "life and breath and all things" He supplies even to those who fail to appreciate the necessity of His provision (Acts 17:25).

   "Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves" (Psalm 100:3).

    This does not contradict the Biblical truth that human beings should diligently apply ourselves to personal responsibility, hard work, and the use of our hearts, minds, and hands to accomplish and achieve.  Being human means doing human.  Believers seek to engage the "fearfully and wonderfully made" faculties our Creator built into us, as James mandates, "Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves" (Psalm 139:14; James 1:22).  It remains true, however, that if God withholds the breath that sustains our bodies, our earthly actions will cease.  "For what is your life?  It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14).

   Many factors of heredity, environment, experience, relationship, education, circumstance, and condition factor into how well or poorly people steward the gifts God provides to motivate and enable our doings.  He calls each of us to benefit or overcome whatever our lot may have been, or may be.  We can do this if we recognize His purpose and involvement, and the fact that in the truest and most ultimate sense, we have nothing that we did not receive (I Corinthians 4:7).  Yes, the grace that humbles us works  to keep us in lowliness of mind regarding success.   The same grace that enables us to meet our challenges fortifies our hearts with assurance of strength to perform whatever God calls us to do.  Be it to the occupants of  a shining palace or a dark hovel, the Spirit of God bears witness to the sons of men that we did not make ourselves, nor can we sustain our own existence.  This will lead us to our knees in humility - "Without Me ye can do nothing" -  and then lift us to our feet in the confidence that God's grace in Christ ever empowers a life beyond our expectations - "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (John 15:5; Philippians 4:13).

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

(Ephesians 3:20-21)

Memory Verse

    Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves."

(Psalm 100:3).

       

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Orange Moon Saturday, September 28, 2024 “Invasively. Invisibly.”

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

"Invasively.  Invisibly."

    Thirty years of obscurity.  Three years of open ministry, but in a very limited region upon the earth.  Seen after his resurrection by enough eyes to confirm the glory, but by relatively few in relation to the population of His day. Two thousand years of being physically unseen, unheard, and untouched by even those who well know Him during their earthly sojourn.  One could easily get the impression that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplishes the vast majority of His redeeming work in "ways past finding out" (Romans 11:33).

    Presently, God's presence and involvement  are most often in direct proportion to the appearance of His absence and stillness.  We could not presently "walk by faith, not by sight" otherwise (II Corinthians 5:7).  His ways so contrast with the ways of our human understanding that even the most godly among us often wonder with the Psalmist, "Where… When… Why… What?" (Psalm 89:49; 101:2; 10:1; 30:9)  Sometimes answers come.  Sometimes they do not.  The one truth we know for absolute certain is that we presently perceive only the merest modicum of all our Lord is doing in any given moment in our lives and in the world.  "God… worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:3; 11).  His involvement is invasive, a truth that regardless of how well we know in principle, often escapes us in practice.  "Awake to righteousness and sin not" commanded the Apostle Paul, calling believers to open the eyes of our hearts to our faithful God and overcome the temptation to forget the promise of His presence and working (I Corinthians 15:34).

   The hearts and lives of believers teem with the activity of the Lord who sees the past, present, and future of our lives clearly and perfectly.  We have no frame of reference for such reality - the great fact of our existence - nor of the truth of a God nearer than the next breath He gives to us.  "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  What is He doing in your life, my life, the lives of our loved ones, and the world right now?  More than He could explain to us in a thousand lifetimes.  One lifetime, however, best confirms the truth.  "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (John 21:25).  It is enough for us that we know this, difficult as it may be to not always have accounting or explanation of our Lord's doings.  Indeed, the One to whom we have entrusted our hearts abides with us invasively, invisibly.   So long as this truth abides, and as we rest our hearts upon it, we will walk in the security promised by the prophet…

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee."

(Isaiah 26:3)

Memory Verse

     What hast thou that thou didst not receive?

(I Corinthians 4:7)

   

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Orange Moon Friday, September 27, 2024 "Our Hearts, His Home"

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

"Our Hearts, His Home"

    In His epistle to the believers of Ephesus, the Apostle Paul prayed that "Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith" (Ephesians 3:17).  On the surface, this may seem to conflict with the truth that, like all believers, the Ephesians were already indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

    "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).

    "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Romans 8:9).

     Why does Paul pray for a gift the Ephesians had already received, namely, the living presence of Christ in their spirits?  Actually, he does not.  The word "dwell" in his request does not suggest the simple presence of one living in a place.  "Katoikeo" in the Greek rather speaks of one dwelling comfortably, as in the notion of a house becoming a home.  Paul declares that our Lord lives in believers accordingly as we walk "by faith."  Thus, to make our hearts more than a simple dwelling for our Lord, we must seek to further a consistent and growing trust in Him whereby we create an atmosphere that pleases Him.  "The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17).

    Why does faith form such a pleasing environment for God as He dwells in us?  The primary answer is that we were made as creatures completely dependent on Him for "life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25).  God is God, we are not, and our hearts can only provide a suitable abode for Him if we live in the reality of who He is, and who we are.  "Christ is our life… We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead" (Colossians 3:4; II Corinthians 1:9). 

    Most importantly, the Christ who dwells within our hearts is glorified and revealed therein as we walk by faith.  God's pleasure in His trusting sons and daughters graces us because He sees His beloved Son in us - "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6).  Certainly, He loves us as individual and distinct persons, dear to Him for who we are.  However, our "who we are" is only whole and fulfilled through the Spirit of the Lord Jesus dwelling within us - "ye are complete in Him" (Colossians 2:10).  Trusting God bears witness to Christ's presence within us, and to His shining forth from us unto the eyes of our Father and of people.  As was said of the disciples of old, "They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13).

   We do well to join Paul in praying for fellow believers and ourselves that our hearts will provide a comfortable dwelling for our Lord.  He will answer by working to reveal His trustworthiness more and more, resulting in our enabling to trust Him more and more. No greater gift can be imagined, and no greater opportunity for a life wherein we can please the One who so loves us that He was not content to merely dwell with human hearts.  He rather dwells within all who believe, and surely all who have received such grace desire to make our heart far more than merely a place to be.  Our hearts, His home.  By faith, such a wondrous reason for being becomes more blessed to us, and most importantly, more comfortable to the gracious and holy Occupant.

"I will dwell in them and walk in them."

(II Corinthians 6:16)

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

(Hebrews 11:6)

Memory Verse

     What hast thou that thou didst not receive?

(I Corinthians 4:7)

   

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