Orange Moon Friday, May 30, 2025 "Humility and Strength"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"Humility and Strength"  

    

 

     Humility proceeds from strength, that is, from the power of God known, received, and embraced as true enabling and ability.

    "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble" (James 4:6).

    One can seemingly possess ability, confidence, and place in the world, thereby appearing to be strong and confidently able.  However, only those who humbly receive the grace of God can be accounted as genuinely "strong in the power of His might," and thus truly able (Ephesians 6:10).  The seemingly strong actually live by the God-given "life and breath and all things" necessary for all created beings to exist and act (Acts 17:25).  They erroneously perceive themselves as their own arbiters and actualizers of life, living as supplicants of their Maker without knowing and recognizing their complete lack of strength apart from Him.  "Ye rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?" (Amos 6:13).

   In stark contrast, the humble recognize reality.  They know they did not create themselves, they did not make themselves into whatever they are, and their very existence requires the Christ who "upholds all things by the word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3).  They rightly answer the question, "What hast thou that thou didst not received?" (I Corinthians 4:7).  They do not live passively, or wait for God to move their hearts, minds, hands, and feet as if merely programmed machines.  They nevertheless realize and affirm that if God withholds grace, their ability ends instantly.  "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).  This is strength of the actual and eternal kind, the strength that grants confidence even as it humbles.  "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up" (James 4:10).

    The proud, the haughty, and the cruel of the world are actually the weakest among us, regardless of how strong they may appear to be.   All too soon for them, their place will pass and their true condition will be exposed.  The humble await another destiny altogether, a realm of light they will enter through the grace and mercy of the One who Himself epitomized the very essence of humility during His earthly lifetime.  In the Lord Jesus, humility and strength walked hand in hand, heart in heart, as it will in all whose strength is humility, and whose humility is strength.

I met a traveller from an antique land, who said,

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert.

Near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies,

whose frown and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command

tell that its sculptor well those passions read

which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear,

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings.

Look on my works and despair!

Nothing beside remains.  

Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

the lone and level sands stretch far away.

("Ozymandias" - Percy Bysshe Shelley)

"My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.  The humble shall hear thereof and be glad."

(Psalm 34:2)

"And upon a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne and made an oration unto them.  And the people gave a great shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.  And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory.  And he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost."

(Acts 12:21-23)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
(Philippians 1:6)

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Orange Moon Thursday, May 29, 2025 "The Focus"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"The Focus"  

    

 

     It could be suggested that the titles of every book of the Bible are actually subtitles.

    "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me" (John 5:39).

    The Lord Jesus Christ declared that the Scriptures, which comprised only the Old Testament at the time He spoke, and that certainly now include the New, all exist to bear witness to Him.  Thus, all the books the Bible could rightly bear the primary title, "The Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ."  We open the Book to behold the Savior, whether in doctrine, history, prophecy, promise, command, poetry, or personal accounts of God's relationship to humanity through Christ.  "They… testify of Me."

    Keeping this central truth in heart and mind as we read and study Scripture aligns our focus with "the eternal purpose which God purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).  We consider the Bible broadly, of course, responding to its various revelations in a similar manner as we ponder all recorded history and information.  What happened?  Why did it happen?  What does this mean?  What is the significance of events as they happened?  What are their significance for us?  What does this verse mean, and how does it align with all Scripture?  How might God be addressing me personally by this passage?  These and other questions guide our reading, study, and response to the wondrous gift of the the Bible, and the wondrous Gift it exists to glorify and reveal.  "The Scriptures… testify of Me."

    "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).

    In the light of the Scriptures, we see the Savior.  In the light of the Savior, we interpret the Scriptures.  The Lord Jesus dwells in every book, chapter, verse, sentence, word, and letter.  We will see only a small portion of the blessed revelation in this lifetime, but as we maintain the focus that enables us to "see light," our response to the living Word and the written Word grows our hearts, minds, and lives in God's grace and truth.  "The Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ" serves as perhaps the best main title for every book, preparing our hearts and minds to join our Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit in the Scriptural theme and focus that verse by verse bears witness to the Savior.

"Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

(Luke 24:26-27)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
(Philippians 1:6)

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Orange Moon Wednesday, May 28, 2025 "Resurrections"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"Resurrections"  

    

 

     "Our conversation (citizenship) is in Heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" (Philippians 3:20-21).

    The Apostle Paul references the future glorification of born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ by his assurance of the salvation of our entire being.  The Apostle John concurs: "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (I John 3:2).  The entirety of our being - spirit, soul, and body - will be infused with our Lord's living and vital presence, perfectly recognized in ourselves as the very Life of our lives.  

    Presently, however, Paul also promises a limited experience of our "vile body" being changed into likeness to Christ's glorious body:

    "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (enliven) your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:10-11).

    The body of the believer is "dead because of sin" for two primary reasons.  First, it does not yet dwell in the direct presence of the life of Christ, as does our spirit.  "This mortal must put on immortality" declared Paul of our body (I Corinthians 15:53).  It therefore requires enlivening for even the simplest act of obedience to God.  The body is also inhabited by a "law of sin" that will always cause our earthly faculties to act contrary to God's will if left to themselves.  "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" (Romans 7:23).  Thankfully, the Apostle assures that our fleshly death can be enlivened by the Holy Spirit as we trust and submit to God.   Thereby, the body that would of itself be vile in its actions becomes glorious through the presence and working of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

   Consider the temptation to act selfishly.  Rather than walk after the law of sin in our flesh, we choose in our hearts to trust and submit unto God.  The Holy Spirit thereby leads us to act in the unselfish love of Christ.  A resurrection occurs as the body "dead because of sin" is enlivened to walk in a manner that reflects the character and nature of the risen Lord Jesus.  We may not perceive the matter in such terms, and the resurrection of our bodies occurs so quietly that we do not perceive the wondrous miracle of every obedient act.  The resurrection and the miracle occur nonetheless as the glory that began in our Lord's tomb becomes the glory that proceeds as the tomb of our body "dead because of sin" becomes the scene of the risen Christ yet again overcoming death by His life within us.

    Trillions of acts of faith and obedience have been performed by believers during the history of the church.  All have involved a resurrection.  From the simple offering of thanks before a meal to the martyr's sacrifice, obedience occurs because the Holy Spirit enlivens the earthly members and faculties of believers to "walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).  We play a role in the wonder, the role of realizing that our Lord's resurrection so long ago bears present and powerfully vital impact in our hearts and lives.   In spirit, we are "risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God" (Colossians 2:12).  In body, we can be infused with our Lord's risen life whereby we think, speak, act, and relate in a manner that reveals the Lord Jesus is risen from the dead not only concerning the tomb just outside Jerusalem, but in the temple we are as the scene of His risen life.

"What is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead." 

(Ephesians 1:19)

"Now is Christ risen from the dead… I will dwell in them and walk in them."
(I Corinthians 15:20; II Corinthians 6:16)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
(Philippians 1:6)

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