Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Orange Moon Wednesday, October 15, 2025 “The Easy Yoke. The Light Burden.”

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



"The Easy Yoke.  The Light Burden."



     Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ provides the gift of His Lordship as the governing influence of our lives.  God made us to be directed by someone other than ourselves, and gives the Lord Jesus as the most sublime Master to all who believe.


    "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).


   Our Lord's easy yoke and light burden speaks of the truth that His enabling comes with His governance.  In Christ, obedience is ever and forever fruit, the fruit of His vital and living presence.  The Apostle Paul referenced such grace in his epistle to the Philippians:


    "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13).


     Believers work out that which God works in.  The commands of the New Testament are not written merely to ourselves, but to ourselves as inhabited and empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  In the light of such blessed promise, Christ's Lordship becomes a delight and a gift no less than forgiveness, provision, protection, and the prospect of everlasting life.  Of course, His will challenges our flesh, wherein "dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18).  Our spirits, however, "delight in the law of God" because the Lord God Himself lives within us to supply motivation, guidance, and enabling (Romans 7:22).


    The martyrs of the church serve as the greatest witnesses to the truth of the easy yoke and light burden.  All would tell us that amid the pain and loss of life, devotion to the Lordship of Christ that led to their sacrifice blessed their hearts with immeasurable joy and peace.  They would all do it over again because in the hour of their sacrifice, the Lord Jesus revealed Himself and His enabling to make possible their obedience unto death.  The same truth applies to all faithfulness to God.  As we grow in the understanding and awareness of Christ's Lordship, devotion to God's will becomes realized as a sublime gift of grace.  "I delight to do Thy will, O My God, yea, Thy law is within my heart" declares the Lord Jesus regarding obedience to His Father (Psalm 40:8).  The believer affirms the same because the same Lord Jesus dwells within us as the Life of our lives, constituting obedience not as burden, but as blessing.


   We do not have to obey God.  We get to.  Our Father will allow us to walk after the flesh if we choose to do so.  However, the more we realize the privilege of obedience made possible by our perfect Master so devoted to our well being, the more we will seek to obey, regardless of the sacrifice.  We serve a Lord who loves us more dearly than we can imagine, and who guides us with perfect knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.  The easy yoke.  The light burden.  We were made and born again for such a gift, such a privilege, such a grace, and such a joy of devotion to our wondrous Master.


"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

(Hebrews 13:20-21)


Weekly Memory Verse  

    For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

(I Corinthians 13:12)

   

























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Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Orange Moon Tuesday, October 14, 2025 "His Word and His Ways"

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



"His Word and His Ways"



     "For the Word of the LORD is right; and all His works are done in truth" (Psalm 33:4).


    If we could see all that God does - a most overwhelming prospect to even imagine - we would observe every action to be in perfect accordance with the Scriptures.  Our Heavenly Father "cannot lie," nor can His ways conflict with His Word (Titus 1:2).  We may not always understand how His doings perfectly align with His sayings.  We can know without question, however, that they do.


   "I will meditate in Thy precepts, and have respect unto Thy ways" (Psalm 119:115).


    This encourages strong motivation to know and understand the Bible as well as possible.  If God works according to His Word, His actions in our lives can only be properly interpreted if we know the Scriptural teaching of what He does and how He does it.  Our understanding will remain limited, regardless of how well we hide our Lord's Word in our hearts.  However, we will better respond to the events of life as we absorb the Truth that leads to life and the realization God is present, involved and vibrantly active in every moment, condition, and circumstance.  "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).


   We live in a generation that grants to most people far more available access to the Bible than ever in history.  It behooves us as God works in our personal history, and in the lives of those around us, to discover His character, capabilities, and doings as well as possible in the pages of Scripture.  Thereby, we will better respond in faith and devotion to our Father as He works in ways we sometimes easily understand, and in administrations and allowances that leave us scratching our heads.  "Why, Lord?" will remain as a regular inquiry throughout our earthly lifetime.  However, the better we know God's Word, the better we will find ourselves trusting Him and knowing the assurance of "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3).  Indeed, "the just shall live by faith," the faith that…


"Cometh by hearting, and hearing by the Word of God."

(Romans 10:17)


Weekly Memory Verse  

    For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

(I Corinthians 13:12)

   

























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Monday, October 13, 2025

Orange Moon Monday, October 13, 2025 "With Or Without"

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



"With Or Without"



     Many ways exist to characterize or delineate the human race.  The most significant involves the presence of God.  The Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ dwells within the spirits of believers.  He does not dwell in the spirits of unbelievers.


   "Ye are the temple of God…the Holy Spirit dwelleth in you" (I Corinthians 3:16).

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

    "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Galatians 4:17-18).


   God made humanity to serve as His spiritual dwelling place.  Salvation in the Lord Jesus births our spirits by imparting the Holy Spirit to dwell therein as the Life of our lives.  Apart from the new birth, human beings "live and move and have their being" in God (Acts 17:28).  He does not, however, live and move and impart His presence into the being of those who do not trust Him.   In this present life, unbelievers live as beneficiaries of their Creator's provision of "life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25).  However, they are spiritually "dead in trespasses and sin" because the Spirit of Christ does not dwell within them (Ephesians 2:1).  Apart from the Christ who "is our life," such lost ones live an existence that does not begin to attain to being truly, genuinely, and spiritually alive as God defines life.  "Ye have no life in you," declared the Lord Jesus of unbelievers, a sad and tragic pronouncement when life - His life - is available to all as the freest gift ever given (John 6:53).  "Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life" (John 5:40).


   The eternal and infinite God dwells in His people.  We presently "walk by faith, not by sight" regarding this "hope of glory" (II Corinthians 5:7; Colossians 1:27).  However, this does not minimize the effect and power of such a wonder.  God gave to us the greatest gift of all when we believed.  He gave Himself to serve as the very Life of our lives.  He fulfilled the most elemental reason of our existence, namely, to glorify and reveal the Lord Jesus within and through us in marvels of grace and truth no other created beings can fulfill.  Former rebels become "dear children."  Sinners become sons and daughters.  The dead spring to life.   Spirits once empty become the dwelling place of the most glorious Content imaginable.  Divine strength is "made perfect" in human weakness.  "Without God in the world" gives way to "I am with you always" (Ephesians 5:1; John 1:12; Ephesians 2:1; II Corinthians 6:16; II Corinthians 12:9; Ephesians 2:12; Matthew 28:20).  


   The chronicle of grace and love could go on forever as a wonder beyond all contemplation graces our hearts and lives.  It will, as "we see through a glass darkly in this life," a "darkly" that nevertheless glimmers at times with glorious illumination (I Corinthians 13:12).  In the next life, however, what it means that God dwells in His people will become far more known, experienced, and expressed in a marvel even eternity will not fully reveal.  May we live in expectation of that future, while seeking to presently know the reality of our Lord's indwelling and abiding presence within us to the greatest degree possible.  May our lives also serve to convince and convict those who tragically do not know the reason and blessedness for which humanity exists, namely, the "unspeakable gift" of Christ as Savior, Christ as Lord, and Christ as Life itself (II Corinthians 9:15).


"Ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

(Ephesians 2:22)


Weekly Memory Verse  

    For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

(I Corinthians 13:12)

   

























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