Orange Moon. Monday, January 12, 2026 "The Overflowing Cup"

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

 

"The Overflowing Cup"  

  

      

     How are we to look at the cup?  Some, as the saying goes, see it half empty.  Others view it as half full.  Scripture calls us to neither perspective.

     "My cup runneth over" (Psalm 23:5).

    The Bible frequently speaks in superlatives regarding God's presence and working in the lives of born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Sometimes the immeasurable grace seems open, obvious and known.

    "For Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work" (Psalm 92:4).  

     Sometimes God's abundant grace must be known by faith.

    "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation" (Habbakuk 3:18).

    We rightly rejoice in the experience of realized abundance and and obviously overflowing cup.  To rejoice when we do not see or feel the promised measure, however, involves a very different response to God.  "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing" confessed the Apostle Paul of his own experience of "my cup runneth over" in times of great challenge (II Corinthians 6:10).  Indeed, "I will rejoice" constitutes a very different matter than "I feel joy."  Sometimes pain wracks our hearts and bewilderment darkens our minds as the Holy Spirit nevertheless leads us to affirm the overflowing cup when it not only appears empty, but may seem to have fallen off the table and shattered.  

   The source of our abundance is God Himself.  He is Himself our joy, regardless of condition, circumstance, or situation.  "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Philippians 4:4; emphasis added).  Paul and Silas discovered this in a prison, wherein their cup must have seemed not only broken, but stolen away forever.  The Lord Jesus met them there, inspiring one of the greatest expressions of joy found in Scripture…

    "At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God" (Acts 16:25).

    It is one thing to pray in prison.  It is quite another to sing.  "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" (Psalm 137:4).  The Lord Jesus answers.  In the cup of the believer's heart, He is present enough, involved enough, and powerful enough to inspire overflowing joy where it seems it could not exist.  Paul and Silas knew this, and one or the other must have looked at each other in their battered condition to suggest the singing of the Lord's song in the strangest of lands.  Much happened as they sang.  A prison fell victim to an earthquake, becoming the scene of God's mighty working of salvation for the very man (and his family) who served as Paul and Silas' jailer (Acts 16:31-34).  Yes, our brothers' cup overflowed in a place that seemed bereft of grace, but which actually became the scene of joy, song, and salvation.

    Through Christ, we can "rejoice in the Lord always."  We can "sing the Lord's song in a strange land."  He is that glorious a Savior, that faithful a Lord, and that abundant a Life.  This we must believe, first, because it is true, and then because we greatly honor our Heavenly Father by the choice to rejoice in a cup running over with Christ, regardless of sight, sensation, or emotion.  "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me" (Psalm 50:23).  Half full?  Hardly.  Half empty?  Scandalous notion!  "My cup runneth over."  Truth and reality in Christ, by Christ, and through Christ, both now and forevermore.

"My brethren, count it all joy when fall into diverse temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience."

(James 1:2-3)

Weekly Memory Verse

   My brethren, count it all joy when fall into diverse temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

(James 1:2-3)

   

   

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Orange Moon Saturday, January 10, 2026 "As Only We Can"

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

(Thanks to Bill D. for inspiration on this one)

  

"As Only We Can"   

"The Lord taketh pleasure in His people."

(Psalm 149:4)

  

      

    A good friend and I yesterday discussed a common theme in these messages through the years, namely, the truth that God finds joy in the prayers of born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

    "The prayer of the upright is His delight" (Proverbs 15:8).

    Nothing more motivates the sincere Christian to pray than the realization that God delights in our communication with Him.  Delight?!   As my friend honestly acknowledged, "I don't understand that!"  Certainly, we all feel the same.  How an infinite, eternal Being says to finite, temporal beings such as ourselves, "Sweet is thy voice," we will never fully know (Song of Solomon 2:14).  Of course, this says far more about Him than it does about ourselves.  We are loved by God based primarily on who He is in character, nature, and disposition.  That He delights in our communication reveals wonders of His heart we will never fully fathom, but which believers will eternally discover as we journey further and further into the glory and goodness of who our God is.  

    However…

    However, it is true that the presence of Christ in Christians does birth a "new man, created in righteousness and true holiness" who  bears the capacity to bring joy to God, based on who and what He has made us (Ephesians 4:24).  The Holy Spirit enlivens our particular humanity to actualize unique capacities to please our Heavenly Father by who and what we are.  No one can relate to Him like you.  Or like me.  Our "fearfully and wonderfully made" human personalities, infused with the life of Christ, constitute each one of us as something and someone unlike any other in the family of God (Psalm 139:14).  There are things each one of us can do by God, through God, and for God no one else can perform.  This includes prayer and our grace given capacity to delight God's heart.  While we all seek to pray in accordance with Scripturally-defined common parameters, we also each possess a unique voice no other saint can utter.  Thereby, your prayers, communicated in the context of  your person, personality, heritage, history and calling, can bring a joy of fellowship to our Father's heart in a manner I cannot.  Indeed, "the very hairs of your head are all numbered" declared the Lord Jesus (Matthew 10:30).  The same is surely true of the voice of our heart.  God hears your prayers, your prayers that bring Him delight, according to a defined spiritual frequency no other created being can communicate.  Paul could not be Peter in this blessed regard.  John could not be Martha.  James could not be Jude.  You cannot be me, and I cannot be you.  

    Make this intensely personal, as it most surely is.  A key aspect of God's delight in our prayers involves the truth of Christ's voice expressed through our voices in ways singular to every believer.  "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).  Understand such a wonder?  Let us learn as much as possible.  "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1).  However, let us even more be amazed with astonishment and certain with conviction that "the prayer of the upright is His delight."  Your prayer.  My prayer.  Your voice.  My voice.  Again, nothing more motivates us to pray than this truth of what our communion with God means to Him, and how we each can bring a joy to His heart no one else can bestow.  My friend spoke for all of us.  "I don't understand that!"  But let the Psalmist also speak for us as we believe that, and as we each bring delight to the heart of God as only we can…

"My voice shalt Thou hear."
(Psalm 5:3)

Weekly Memory Verse

    We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

(II Corinthians 4:18).

   

   

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Orange Moon Friday, January 9, 2026 "Never Still"

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

  

"Never Still"   

  

      

    "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2).

     A vibrantly active Holy Spirit worked to bring forth the earth in its richness, complexity, and variation of God's engineering and artistic prowess.  The same marvel occurs in the "new creature" of born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ (II Corinthians 5:17).  The Spirit of God does not merely sit on the throne of our hearts as He works to reveal the character and nature of the Lord Jesus in us.  He rather moves upon and within us to bring forth glories of the Savior as the Life of our lives.  We see relatively little of all the Holy Spirit does, but He nevertheless works incessantly to fulfill our Heavenly Father's purpose in us.

    "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16; emphasis added).

    The physical creation beautifully illustrates the spiritual creation in Christ.  Many things appear to be still.  None are.   Immeasurable movement constantly takes place in both the microscopic and macroscopic realms of creation.  Some aspects of the activity we can see; the vast majority, we cannot.  This clearly reflects the Holy Spirit's working in our hearts and lives.  We can behold some of what He does.  We can grow in our perception thereof.  The preponderance of His movement, however, escapes the awareness of our sight and understanding as "all things work together for good to them the love God" (Romans 8:28).  Indeed, at times when He may appear to be the most still, the Holy Spirit may well be moving in the most dynamically engaged activity to glorify the Savior and fulfill His purpose in us.

       The Apostle Paul declared "the power that worketh in us" to be "exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:8; 20).  Believers in the Lord Jesus exist as temples of the moving marvel of the Holy Spirit dwelling within 0ur hearts and working in our earthly faculties.  At times, we may recognize a modicum of the miracle, which can seem great indeed.  Most often, however, the power of the Spirit works in immeasurable grace, but we see little to nothing of its movement.  This is exactly as we would expect in a life wherein we "walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7).  In this moment, in fact, the Holy Spirit works in all of God's children, regardless of how well we may or may not be responding to Him.  This may involve confirmation and growth, or correction and restoration.  Whatever the case, we can be sure the Holy Spirit is never still in His movement to conform us to the spiritual and moral image of the Lord Jesus.  

    "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it" (I Thessalonians 5:23-24).

    We were not there to see the Holy Spirit so powerfully moving upon the face of the waters.  We are here to see Him moving upon the face of our hearts, and the hearts of fellow believers.  We see by faith as a matter of conviction, even as we see relatively little as a matter of understanding and perception.  Let us give thanks for the movement of the Spirit we see, and the movement so vast and wondrous we cannot see.  We will understand things better by and by, although even then, God's working will far transcend our ability to fully see and understand…

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" 

(Romans 11:33)

Weekly Memory Verse

    We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

(II Corinthians 4:18).

   

   

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