Orange Moon "Tuesday, May 12, 2026 "The Immeasurable Measure"

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

“The Immeasurable Measure”

    Our memory verse this week calls born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to “have love” toward one another (John 13:35).  This infers something other than merely making choices to love each other as best we can with the help of God.  Our Savior made possible this “something other” by a grace that seems glorious beyond imagining…

    “I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).

   “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us” (Romans 5:5).

   We “have love” by realizing, believing, and submitting ourselves to the character and nature of God that wondrously dwells within us though the Holy Spirit.  He thereby motivates, guides, and empowers unselfish devotion to God and others as a matter of grace though faith, rather than futility through effort.  Indeed, if ever we question our utter necessity for the power of God to enable love according to His definition and standard, we do well to consider...

    “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

     This seems - and does - call believers to a life we cannot fulfill in and of ourselves.  Certainly, only God can of Himself love enemies, the immeasurable measure that defines the sublime and superlative quality of His singular heart. The Apostle Paul referenced this in the 5th chapter of Romans:

    “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8).

   No other conscious being can of itself begin to love in a manner that dies for its enemies.  This nevertheless sets the standard to which God calls believers.  Certainly, our first response must echo the prophet’s cry when he saw the Lord: “Woe is me!  I am undone!” (Isaiah 6:5).  "Undone!" indeed.  No possibility exists of our own doings that could lead us to bear crosses rather than swords for our enemies.  Thankfully, our Lord never calls us to love by "our own doings.’  

     “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10).

    Whenever we feel weak and unable to “walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us,”  the awareness of  impossibility actually supplies our first step in the journey (Ephesians 5:2).  “I cannot!” provides the footing for “I can… through Christ!”  (Philippians 4:13).  Whatever we may feel, sense, or think regarding the love to which God calls us, we must believe the truth that will lead us to “have love.”  Namely, we trust in the “shed abroad” love of the Lord Jesus that indwells our hearts through the Holy Spirit.  God never calls us to fulfill His will by our own human capacities.  Far from it.  The summit of such character looms far too high for even the first step of ascent by our own feet.   Thus, we remove the shoes of our feet on this holy ground of  “Without Me, ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).  Instead, we “put on Christ,” through whom we can “do all things,” including and especially loving those for whom our flesh feels anything but love (Galatians 5:27; Philippians 4:13; Galatians 5:17).

     Thankfully to “have love” for fellow believers does not involve enemies.  We nevertheless realize the daunting challenge of loving even the brethren according to God’s standard and calling.  Thankfully, the love we are to “have” in attitude, word, and deed already dwells within us through the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  This we must believe because it is true, and because love for our fellow believers requires God’s leading and enabling no less than loving our enemies.  To walk in love, as Christ has loved us?  He alone can motivate, guide, and empower the quality of character and devotion to others that confirms the measure beyond measure…

“The love of Christ… passeth knowledge.”

(Ephesians 3:19)

Weekly Memory Verse

    By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.
(John 13:35)

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Orange Moon Sunday, May 11, 2026 “Forbearing and Forgiving”

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

“Forbearing and Forgiving”

    We enter into human relationships and associations in the hopes we will not too often disappoint the other party, nor will they often disappoint us.  

      At times, however, we let each other down in even our most blessed and cherished bonds with fellow human beings.  This includes fellowship with devout believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Consider Paul and Barnabas, godly men who separated from one another due to a major disagreement (Acts 15:37-39).  Both perceived error on the part of the other, and both felt let down by a close brother.  Division occurred, based on disappointment as Paul questioned Barnabas’ mercy, and Barnabas doubted Paul’s judgment.

    Little wonder Paul called us to assertively seek the maintaining of loving association with fellow believers:

   “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3).

   Such fellowship requires the overcoming of disappointment with one another.  Forgiveness must follow failure.  This often greatly challenges our emotions and sensibilities, particularly because of our fleshly tendency to maximize the failings of others, while minimizing our own.  Even believers most determined to walk in faithfulness to family, friend, neighbor, and colleague can easily overlook failure to do so.  I once spoke to a young man who told me with an air of self satisfaction, “If I tell somebody I am going to do something, I always try to do it!”  Bravo.  We all want to do that.  I asked the man, however, if he had always followed his axiom.  Or, if he considered how often he had failed to do so without realizing his actions or neglect that resulted in another’s disappointment.  We must keep these questions close in heart and mind if we are avoid disappointing others, and show mercy to those who disappoint us.  

    “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Colossians 3:13).

   Let us seek to delight one another, and to be delighted by one another.  Disappointment will happen, however, and Scripture frequently addresses the protocol of patience that must guide our hearts and responses.  We experience and manifest the love of the Lord Jesus thereby, fulfilling His words spoken long ago that bear powerful impact on how we impact our world for His glory…

“By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.
(John 13:35)

Weekly Memory Verse

    By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.
(John 13:35)

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Orange Moon Saturday, May 9, 2026 The Cross: Foreknown… Remembered

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

The Cross: Foreknown… Remembered

    Written hundred of years before the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, the 53rd chapter of Isaiah nevertheless stands as the most vivid Scriptural description of His sorrow, suffering, forsakenness, and death on the cross of Calvary.

    “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4).

    Note the past tense regarding a future event.  The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus was so certain in the heart of God - “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world - the Holy Spirit could inspire the record of what would be, as if it had already been.  This speaks to “the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Revelation 13:8; Ephesians 3:11).  A cross existed in the heart, mind, and purpose of God before He brought all things into being.  From everlasting, He knew that creation would lead to suffering, namely, the untold agony of a breach in the triune relationship that comprises the very being of love in our Lord.  The Father would smite the Son at Calvary with untold agony as the Lord Jesus “bore our sins” and was “made to be sin for us” (I Peter 2:24; II Corinthians 5:21).  The Father and the Holy Spirit - “My God, My God” - would forsake Him for our sakes, leaving Him to die in an abject loneliness of heart far greater than any physical pain or emotional suffering (Matthew 27:46).  All of the horror had been foreknown from everlasting, but nothing changed the inviolable purpose in God’s heart of redeeming love whereby the Lord Jesus  “steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” and the cross that awaited Him there (Luke 9:51).

   “Stricken, smitten of God, afflicted.”  Let us never pass by the holy and blood-stained ground of Calvary without removing the shoes of our hearts in the realization that we cannot walk thereupon.  Our Savior accomplished something there solely without our effort or contribution, something so horrible, something so holy.  The prophet foretold of the moment to come as if it had always been.  Because it had, in the heart of the God - “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”  The moment remains in His heart, remembered whenever a sinner approaches the throne of grace for salvation, or whenever a believer “comes boldly” because we realize the free access made possible by the denial of access to our Lord as He died alone on the cross in the judgment fires of divine wrath (Hebrews 4:16).  

A trail of Blood marks the path

leading to the throne,

where God receives the trusting heart

approaching by His Son.

Without the cross, there could not be

this access freely known.

Without such sorrow, pain, and loss,

we’d have nowhere to go.

Yes, every prayer flows to the Throne

on flood tides of Christ’s blood.

We come with grateful, trusting hope,

in wonder of such love…

A trail of Blood marks the path leading to the Throne.

    “The eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.”

 (Ephesians 3:11)

Weekly Memory Verse

     Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.”

 (Romans 8:9)  

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