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

Thursday, September 24, 2026

Orange Moon Thursday, September 24, 2026 "Personal"

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

“Personal”

“In all thy ways acknowledge Him” (Proverbs 3:6).

Solomon calls us to open our hearts, minds, and eyes to the great fact of our existence.

“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).

“And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:14).

“I said, Thou art my God” (Psalm 31:14).

“He is… I AM… Thou art.” The propositional truths of Scripture prepare us for the personal truth of God’s illumination of Himself, and our personal response. What we know must become Who we know. This involves our initial salvation as the Christ of the Bible becomes the Christ of our hearts. It also speaks of the life we live after the new birth whereby we “acknowledge Him” along the pathways of providence. Walking with God calls us to countless opportunities to “awake to righteousness” as the conditions, circumstances, and situations of life teem with His living presence and involvement (I Corinthians 15:34). We well may know that “He is.” The Spirit of God ever bears witness, “I AM.” All that awaits is our personal response to reality: “Thou art.”

God exists as the most personal of beings, having forever lived in the wondrous triune fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world” declared the Lord Jesus to His Father just before He went to the cross (John 17:24). We know little of all such eternal glory involved. We know beyond doubt it was personal. Indeed, the Apostle John’s declarations that “God is love” means that before anything else existed, the devoted communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit between each other existed as the very essence of reality (I John 4:8;16). It still does. Any consideration of what love is begins with the personal nature of the triune God Himself. Or it doesn’t begin at all.

Originally created in His image, humanity also exists for personal relationship, first and foremost with God. “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Salvation in Christ spiritually births us into the personal communion that serves as the very Life of our lives. Certainly “we walk by faith, not by sight” in this present existence (II Corinthians 5:7). The Holy Spirit nevertheless moves within the depths of our born again spirits to lead us unto the Father we cannot see, but whom we can and must know. We were made for such a wondrous and personal reality. The Lord Jesus was forsaken and died to make it possible. All that awaits is the faith that begins with “He is” and “I AM,” which must become our the acknowledgement of our heart to His: “You are.”

“When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

(Psalm 27:8)

Weekly Memory Verse

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

(II Corinthians 9:8)

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Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Orange Moon Wednesday, September 23, 2026 "That Which Matters Most"

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

“That Which Matters Most”

“He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18).

“God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9).

I read these verses as the day began, knowing them to be true, believing them, and being glad that early in my Christian life faithful voices bore witness to the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ. All things of of our Heavenly Father’s eternal purpose began with our Savior, continue with Him, and will forever abide as God's eternally prevailing determination. This I have known to be true for more than a half century, and have sought to live and minister accordingly.

However, reading the Apostle Paul’s Christ-exalting declarations brought keen awareness also of how far short I have come in this purpose to which God clearly calls every believer. In one sense, this was and is inevitable. Our Father’s “eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” proceeds according to infinite realities of His heart and mind (Ephesians 3:11). Regardless of how well we learn of His perpetual working to glorify His Son, an immeasurable measure of divine activity lies forever ahead. We can know some, we can know more, but we can never know all of what has been and will be our Father’s determination to honor and reveal the Lord Jesus. “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him” declared the Father at the tranfiguration (Matthew 17:5). He declares it now, as He will forevermore. “He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:33).

Such impossibility of full understanding and awareness notwithstanding, I am also personally aware of far too much missed opportunity in joining our Father for His Christ-honoring purpose. I “ought to know” much more, and I should have been been far more responsive to the Holy Spirit’s working in my heart and life to join Him in His working to “glorify” and “testify” of the Lord Jesus (I Corinthians 8:2; John 16:14; 15:26). I look back on wasted opportunities of thought, attitude, word, deed, and relating to God and people in a manner that bore witness of that which matters most, and that, which neglected, makes all other things matter little. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).

We cannot change the past. We can only rejoice in its blessings, see our Father’s faithful working in days gone by, and in terms of the present consideration, repent of inexcusable omissions. Herein lies yet another opportunity to exalt the Lord Jesus. Because of His perfect faithfulness to the Father, hope awaits all who come to the beautifully and so very aptly termed “throne of grace” to “obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Reading Paul’s revelation of of how Christ-focused is our Father led me there this morning, as it has so many times in the past. I believe mercy and grace greeted me, as promised, and as administered because of who the Lord Jesus is to the Father, and who He is to us. My hope and prayer is that the visit will lead to a far greater faith and faithfulness in that which matters most, the preeminence of the Lord Jesus, which alone makes all other things matter.

“There is forgiveness with Thee.”

(Psalm 130:4)

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

(Philippians 3:13-14)