Orange Moon Wednesday, August 27, 2025 "The Word of His Power"

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

(Thanks to Phyllis for inspiration on this one)

"The Word of His Power"    

      

       Creation teems with consciousness, that is, the heart and mind of God presence and dynamically active in all things.

    "His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power" (Hebrews 1:2; 3; emphasis added).

   Several years ago, after I quoted the above passage in a devotional, a dear Orange Moon sister and friend wrote to ask my thoughts on why the writer of Hebrews referenced "the word of His power" rather than "the power of His word."  One answer lies in our current consideration.  God's creation involves a personal matter.  Without His active presence and working, no atom in the universe could continue to exist.  His original "Let there be" continues to serve as the "By Him all things consist" power of His heart, mind, and word (Genesis 1:3).  Such a wondrous reality requires the presence of God's consciousness and in some mysterious means beyond our understanding, "the word of His power" expression.  The sustaining mind and word of God exists everywhere and in all things, making possible the continuance of creation (Colossians 1:17). 

   After awe, wonder, and the grateful remembrance that "in Him we live and move and have our being," perhaps the best response of born again believers in the Lord Jesus involves the use and application of our own God-given consciousness (Acts 17:28).  To what will we attend our hearts and minds in this day?  Much will be required regarding what might seem to be mundane earthly matters, as well as those we view as overtly spiritual.  Scripture calls us to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in all things, of course, including our capacity to think and speak (II Corinthians 10:17).  To use our consciousness wisely and rightly requires that we remember God's consciousness, resident and active in all things, including our hearts.  We do not worship a mere force, influence, or power.  We rather seek to love, trust and obey the living and true God, the most personal of all beings, and the very origin and source of our own personhood.  Indeed, if our Lord did not know, think, and speak, neither would we (nor would we even exist).  Thus, in seeking to exercise our hearts and minds, we look to His heart and mind for motivation, guidance, and enabling.  "O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me" (Psalm 43:3).

    We live in a universe that teems with the presence of the thinking,  communicating God who made and sustains all things - "the word of His power."  Remembering and affirming such wondrous truth leads us to be more consciously responsive to Him, which leads us to far better use of our hearts and minds for His glory.  Thankfully, the Holy Spirit indwells believers to make possible the use of our awareness for purposes that bear eternal value and effect.  As the saying goes, "a mind is a terrible thing to waste."  It is a blessed thing, conversely, to use by the leading and enabling of the Spirit to seek the mind of God resident and active in His world, His Word, our hearts, and along the providential pathways of our lives.

"We have the mind of Christ."

(I Corinthians 2:16)

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusted in Thee."

(Isaiah 26:3)

Weekly Memory Verse  

   The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

(Romans 8:2)

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Orange Moon Tuesday, August 26, 2025 "Eternal Life - The Essence"

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

"Eternal Life - The Essence"    

      

       The Lord Jesus Christ declared the essence of eternal life to be a relationship rather than a durationship.

     "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3)

    Certainly, those who know God through faith in the Savior will enjoy the grace of "your heart shall live forever" (Psalm 22:26). However, the Who we will know in that forever far transcends in glory the everlastingness of our existence.  We will know God the Father, through God the Son, as revealed in our hearts by God the Holy Spirit.  In fact, such relationship has already begun for born again believers in the Lord Jesus.

    "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life" (I John 5:13; emphasis added).

   Our hearts are not waiting for eternal life in Heaven.  We already "have eternal life," again, in its essence of relationship and fellowship with God.  The experience is presently limited as we "walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7).  It is real and living nevertheless as "the Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:16).  Indeed, ask any born again believer in the Lord Jesus, "Do you know God?"  The saint will answer, not in arrogance, but in the deepest humility, "Yes, I do.  And even more, in the most marvelous grace and mercy, He knows me as His trusting child in Christ."  As the Apostle Paul wrote to even the wayward Galatian believers, "After that ye have known God, or rather are known of God" (Galatians 4:9).

     We must have much confidence in our Heavenly Father's relating to us, and also a more challenging truth to believe, our Christ-enabled capability to relate in response to Him.  Our experience ebbs and flows in this present life, based to a significant degree on our expectation.  Do we believe we presently "have eternal life," that is, the real relationship with God that constitutes its essence?  Is the indwelling Holy Spirit capable of overcoming our native fleshly inclination to run from God rather than to Him?  He most certainly is.  In fact, the Spirit resides in our hearts for the primary purpose of leading us in fellowship with the Father, through the Son.  "The communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all" sought the Apostle Paul for the Corinthians, seeking our Father's grace revealed in the Spirit's ability to motivate and empower our walk with God as we trust and submit to Him (II Corinthians 13:14).

     Believers know nothing yet as we ought to know (I Corinthians 8:2).  We do know God, however.  One cannot be a believer apart from this most sublime reason for our existence and salvation.  Take a moment and prayerfully ponder this.  Then, in much humility, but also much confidence, arise in the expectation of our Father's drawing us to Himself for fellowship through the Spirit, by His Word, with His children, and along the providentially- ordered and allowed pathways of life.  Our hope will not be disappointed because to whatever degree we rejoice in fellowship with Him, He rejoices more.   Ponder that thought for another moment.  Utter awe and amazement ensue, but then the determination so beautifully declared by the Psalmist who, even before the advent of the Lord Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit, knew the essence of eternal life…

"When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek."

(Psalm 27:8)

"And 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)

Weekly Memory Verse  

   The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

(Romans 8:2)

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Orange Moon Monday, August 25, 2025 "When I Would Do Good"

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

"When I Would Do Good"    

      

       The Apostle Paul acknowledged that a "law of sin" dwelt in his earthly members and faculties inherited from Adam, in contrast to "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" that indwelt his innermost spiritual being (Romans 7:23-25; 8:2).  This led Paul to confess…

    "I find them a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me" (Romans 7:21).

    The Apostle declared that even in his best moments, fleshly sensations and inclinations could be present.  The same is true for every believer.  The law of sin will remain in our flesh until death, or until we receive our glorified bodies upon Christ's return (I Corinthians 15:51-54).  Thus, even as we trust and obey God, notions and emotions of the flesh may be present.  

     Suppose, for example, the Lord leads us to act in sincere and loving sacrifice for someone in need.  We know Him to be responsible for the motivation, guidance, and enabling, and that apart from Him, we would not be walking in love toward the needy.  We even prayerfully acknowledge, "All glory to You, Lord!"  Still, however, wayward thoughts and feelings may arise in our flesh, tempting us to some form of pride, as if we ourselves are a cut above others, or have somehow by our own holiness done the good deed.  Do these notions and emotions indicate insincerity and that we have succumbed to the temptation of pride?  Not necessarily.  Again, no less than Paul confessed, "When I would do good, evil is present with me."  Certainly, such fleshly sensibilities can lead to sin if not addressed.  How do we do so?

    First, we acknowledge that our initial disposition of giving all glory to God constitutes the truest desire of our Christ-indwelt heart.  

    

   "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba Father… I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Galatians 4:6; Romans 7:22).  

    We give thanks that fleshly promptings do not alter the spiritual constitution of our hearts, as formed and fueled by the Holy Spirit who actively dwells therein.  "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).  We then address the challenge of our flesh and its present disposition to "lust against the spirit" (Galatians 5:17).  The wayward thoughts and feelings of the flesh are real and must be confronted.  They do not, however, nullify the greater reality of our spirits, wherein we desire to honor the Lord Jesus alone for our sacrificial actions, to the degree of "delight."  

    This leads to an action so decisive that Paul referred to it in terms of killing, as enabled by the Holy Spirit:

   "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:12-13).

   As we affirm by faith the presence and working of the Holy Spirit in our spirits, motivating our inward desire - "delight" - to glorify God, we put to death the fleshly inclinations to honor ourselves.  We choose by faith to live in accordance with the truth of Christ's motivating and enabling presence within us, giving all glory to God and affirming the absurdity of fleshly impulses to the contrary.  Again, "when I would do good, evil is present with me."  Or, in terms of our present illustration, when we desire in spirit to give all glory to God, the law of sin in our flesh may nevertheless foment contrary sensibilities.  We determine to live by the former through the leading and enabling of the Holy Spirit, putting to death the control and influence of the latter.  The Apostle stated this dynamic protocol of grace through faith in his Romans 8 treatise on life in the Spirit.  We close in its blessed light of hope and the privileged responsibility to live, and indeed, to kill…

"Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.   And 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 your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify (kill) the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

(Romans 8:9-13)

Weekly Memory Verse  

   The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

(Romans 8:2)

7563