Orange Moon Monday, January 26, 2026 "The Faithful God… The Good Fight”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"The Faithful God… The Good Fight"  

    

 

   It does not take long after becoming a born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ to realize how scandalous it is to distrust God's  constancy of faithfulness in being who He declares Himself to be, and doing what He promises to do.

    "Know therefore that the LORD thy God, He is God, the faithful God" (Deuteronomy 9:7).

    We do know, don't we?  However, we remain temptable to forget or neglect the remembrance of a trustworthiness that has never failed, nor ever will.  "The flesh lusteth against the spirit" declared the Apostle Paul, who also acknowledged, "When I would do good, evil is present with me" (Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:21).  Regardless of how well we know the Lord, or how long we have walked in His faithfulness, "the law of sin" in our fleshly faculties and members - like the law of gravity in the physical realm - tempts us downward into unbelief (Romans 7:23-25; James 1:14).  Like Paul, we will often be aware of the evil of distrust in our flesh, even as we affirm in our spirits, "I will trust in Thee" (Psalm 55:23).  We seek to overcome the fleshly tendency, or in the Apostle's more forthright terms, "If ye, through Spirit, do mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13).

    In times when it seems that faith completely fills our thoughts, emotions, and senses, let us rejoice.  However, let us also realize that our confidence in God's faithfulness must often be affirmed with contrary "evil is present with me" notions and sensibilities in our flesh.  Presently, we live amid enemies who provide opportunity for overcoming when God does not immediately remove them from our midst.  This includes fleshly impulses and inclinations that may linger even as we choose to trust God.  The Psalmist acknowledged feelings of fear, even as he affirmed the faith of his heart: "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee" (Psalm 56:3).  Trusting God does not involve a faith without internal challenge, but rather that determines to believe in the face of anything that contradicts.  We greatly glorify God thereby in a willed confidence of the heart.

   A soldier was once asked by a reporter, "Do you feel fear before battles?"  The warrior answered, "Yes."   "How do you deal with those feelings?" the interviewer inquired.  "I don't," responded the soldier.  "You don't?" asked the reporter.  "No, concluded the soldier.  "My feelings are not relevant.  I do not fight with them.  I fight with my heart, my mind, my hands, and my feet."  Few clearer illustrations exist that typify the life of faith to which God calls believers.  Our senses and feelings certainly matter.  He cares about them as our loving Father.  However, we do not "fight the good fight of faith" with them (I Timothy 6:12).  We fight through the Spirit, who leads and enables our spirit, regardless of what we feel or do not feel.

    The day will come when our trust in God flows without hindrance or obstacle.  This is not that day.  No, today is the day of "the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (I John 5:4).  This is the day of glory, not scandalous unbelief, the glory of our Lord being so present, involved, active, and able that we trust Him no matter what.  Whatever the appearance of the outward, or the inclination of the inward, we make our stand in the leading and power of the Holy Spirit as He works in our spirit to enable our faith and confession, "I will trust in Thee."

"Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

(II Timothy 2:1-3)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   Know therefore that the LORD thy God, He is God, the faithful God." 

(Deuteronomy 9:7)

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Orange Moon Saturday, January 24, 2026 "The Most Unlikely Candidate"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"The Most Unlikely Candidate"  

    

 

   When considering those who ardently oppose the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel, we do well to remember a man from long ago who did the same.  We also do well to remember ourselves.

    "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison" (Acts 8:3).

    No greater enemy of the Lord Jesus existed in his day than Saul of Tarsus, whom we better know as the Apostle Paul.  That very fact should give us pause.  The adversary became the apostle, a transformation that has occurred countless times in the history of the church as God worked to reveal Himself and His truth to enemies redeemed by His grace received through faith in the Lord Jesus.  He continues His redemptive march through history, bearing witness by His Spirit, His Word, and His church that the most ardent foes can become the most devoted friends, and far more, sons and daughters of God in Christ.  "The gospel of Christ… is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Roman 1:16).

    Apply this wonder of grace to those who presently oppose the Lord Jesus.  Do we view anyone with hopelessness?  If so, we inadvertently exalt the person's sin above the Gospel's power, believing he or she to be too far gone and too hopelessly entrenched in unbelief for salvation to be possible.  Thereby, we minimize the power of Christ's gospel in our own minds, hindering prayer and adorning a shroud of despair rather than the garment of hope God calls us to wear.  I must confess that even as I type these words, a strong sense of conviction arises in my heart in the realization that I have too often forgotten or neglected the truth of how "mighty to save" is our Lord's grace and truth (Isaiah 63:1).

   A final thought, regardingl ourselves.  We should all have the attitude expressed by Paul, who viewed the Gospel and himself in these terms: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief" (I Timothy 1:15).  The Apostle saw himself as having been the most unlikely candidate for God's grace.  We all should adopt the same attitude, namely, "Lord, if You can save me, You can save anybody!"  Indeed, regardless of how much we may know of another person's history of sinfulness, we all know our own far better.  We know the inner chambers of darkness from which God redeemed us, something about others we cannot see.  So long as this is true, viewing ourselves, like Paul, as "the chief" of sinners, will go far in maintaining our hope for all.  Yes, if  "the most unlikely candidate" - ourselves - could have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus and His Gospel, we bear the beacon of hope that signals no one as beyond the scope of His grace.

"For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit."

(I Thessalonians 1:5)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation."

(II Corinthians 1:3-4).

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Orange Moon Friday, January 23, 2026 "Consider Him"

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

(Thanks to Frances for a blessed lifetime of exemplifying the following)

"Consider Him"  

    

 

    "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Hebrews 12:2-3).

   When faced with challenges and their wearying effects, our natural human response leads us to consider ourselves.  "Why is this happening to me?… What is this all about?… How am I going to deal with this situation?"  These and other questions are valid as we seek to face and overcome problems.  However, the writer of Hebrews calls us to a different response as we begin to navigate troubled waters: "Consider Him."  Indeed, seeing the matters of life through the Lord Jesus Christ strengthens to a far better and more effectual response as those devoted to God's glory and will.  What does it mean to "consider" the Lord Jesus Christ in heart when we find ourselves "wearied and faint" in mind and body?    Many Biblical truths speak to the matter, including…

    "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20).  Born again believers do not face life and its challenges by ourselves.  In fact, the Psalmist declared God to be "a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1; emphasis added).  "The Captain of our salvation" abides at the helm of our ship as it makes its voyages through rough seas (Hebrews 2:10).  Remembering and affirming the truth of His presence by faith encourages and strengthens us to face difficulties in a way far different than if we perceive ourselves as alone.  "Consider Him."

   "The eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).   God has woven His intention and significance into everything that occurs in our lives.  Everything.  Certainly, we may not know the particulars and the "Why?" of life's happenings.  We do know without question, however, that our Lord is present with purpose in every moment of our existence.   "Consider Him."

    "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called unto His purpose" (Romans 8:28).  Not everything that happens to believers is good in itself.  Many bad things affect us all.  Our Heavenly Father, however, can and does coordinate all thing for our ultimate good, defined by the Apostle Paul as conformity to the spiritual and moral image of the Lord Jesus (Romans 8:29).   "Consider Him."

   "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).  God provided our salvation through the sufferings of the Lord Jesus.  Our experience of salvation inevitably includes our own personal sufferings as we "walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6).  None of us would ever have trusted the Savior apart from the challenges of life.  Nor would we walk with Him without the same.  Presently, we need need in order to realize how completely dependent we are on our Lord.   "Consider Him."

    The Christ who died on the cross now lives in us by His Spirit.  The present world is not His friend.  His presence within us means that it will not be ours either.  "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (II Corinthians 4:10).  Believers not only suffer for our Lord.  As His walks in us, "the sufferings of Christ abound in us" (II Corinthians 1:5; emphasis added).  Indeed, our challenges are far more about Him than ourselves, namely, God's glory, purpose, and working by His Son in us.   "Consider Him."

   Time and eternity does not permit a full exposition of "Consider Him."  However, a final point for our present pondering involves a most personal matter for all of us, and for those in our sphere of influence.   

    "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (II Corinthians 1:3-4).

    We administer to others the comfort we personally receive from our Lord.  Without challenge, such ministry would not be possible.  God purposes to apply the balm of Christ not only within us, but through us unto others.  We discover our Lord in both the reception and the ministry, finding Him to be all that Scripture declares, and all our hearts - and the heart of others - require "in any trouble."   "Consider Him."

    Our native human tendency always begins with "Consider me."  Our spiritual tendency in Christ moves within us to "Consider Him."  May God grant much grace in leading us to look unto the Author and Finisher of our faith in times of challenges, who will not fail in His promise of presence, power, and purpose.  Yes,  "Consider Him."

"He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength."

(Isaiah 40:29)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation."

(II Corinthians 1:3-4).

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