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

Saturday, August 15, 2026

Orange Moon Saturday, August 15, 2026 "Never Give Up (on Relationships"

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

“Never Give Up (on Relationships)”

A dear friend and brother in Christ has recently experienced the first steps of a restored relationship with a family member from whom he has been estranged for more than four decades. My friend has prayed thousands of prayers and has always been willing to renew fellowship. Only recently, however, has his relative experienced a change of heart and mind. This has led to several brief contacts, with plans for more involved and lengthy times of getting together to remember and rejoice in times past, and hopefully, to enjoy many times to come.

We are not to give up on relationships. If the Bible contains any message at all, it calls us to have hope that the Lord Jesus Christ will be known as the Redeemer and Restorer He is. Indeed, the account of the thief on the cross (now the saint in Heaven) commands that we ever hold out hope that burned bridges and roads washed out can be repaired by the grace of God, making possible the miraculous establishment or restoration of relationship with both God and people. In the last hours of life, our brother of old became a blessed confirmation of our Savior’s power to change heart and minds. The thief responded to God’s mercy offered with seemingly so little time left for a saving relationship with God. Doubtless, many such late hour conversions have occurred in those who have squandered an earthly lifetime, but who will most surely not waste eternity in their ongoing testimony of the relentless Spirit of God, pursuing to the end.

The truth applies to human to human relationships as well. We are not give up on them. Pray accordingly. Think accordingly. Believe accordingly. Bear an expectant heart of mercy and a willingness for whatever personal repentance may be necessary. Love accordingly, that is, love God by trusting Him, and love the estranged by not giving up on the possibility he will be drawn near to yet again become dear. One never knows when a knock on the door may amaze us with wonder as the grace of the Lord Jesus builds a new path that has brought someone to our doorstep we thought never to have seen again. “The love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” can do such things. It has over and over, and it will again and again (Ephesians 3:19. We never give up on relationships.

“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)

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”

(Ephesians 4:32)

Weekly Memory Verse

For the Lord is good, and His truth endureth to all generations.

(Psalm 100:5

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Friday, August 14, 2026

Orange Moon "Friday, August 14, 2026 "What Music We Can Make!"

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

“What Music We Can Make!”

We will one day see the risen, glorified Lord Jesus Christ “face to face.”

“For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face” declared the Apostle Paul (I Corinthians 13:12). The Apostle John amplified the scene, the sight, and the effect…

“We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as is” (I John 3:2). This “seeing,” while physical, surely implies some more than just the wonder - glorious as it is - of beholding with our glorified eyes the Lord Jesus. It does, as confirmed by God’s present working in us to effect growth in His grace and its transformative result:

“Beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Corinthians 3:18).

To see by faith the Lord Jesus, declares Paul, results in our becoming more like Him. This includes thought, attitude, countenance, demeanor, word, deed, and relating to God and people. Interestingly, and seemingly unlikely, this involves “beholding as in a mirror.” That is, we are to see Christ for who He is, and also for where He is, namely, with and within us. God’s spiritual mirror, as it were, casts the wondrous reflection of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). The “new creature” birthed in the moment of our salvation arose in the newness of life made possible by the indwelling presence of “Christ, who is our life” (Colossians 3:4). Thus, every believer must by faith gaze in the mirror of grace to see and affirm ourselves as not merely ourselves, but as the spiritual temple of God, alive in His life…

“Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11).

The reflection, rightly viewed, effects “change into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Indeed, consider the challenges we all face regarding temptation, of whatever mode or measure. We all experience what a friend calls “flesh signatures,” that is, devilish and worldly enticements to unbelief and disobedience (Roman’s 7:22-25). The temptation, of whatever variety, beckons us to face it as if alone. It feels this way, seems this way, and may very possibly result in sin and failure. However, a gaze of our hearts into God’s mirror reminds us we do not face any moment of life or eternity by ourselves. We see ourselves as “in Christ” and in the wondrous light that “God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father” (Galatians 4:6).

Scottish preacher James Stewart beautifully illustrates.

“For what Christ has done is to make us feel, at all the gateways of our nature, the pressure and bombardment of the infinite energies of a world unseen. He has shown us how our little life, with unsearchable riches to draw upon, can be reinforced beyond all calculation. I may not be able to fight down some evil thing. But if Christ were here, He could. So then, if Christ is in me, He can. This transfusion of spirit and energy is really possible... If Mozart were in you, what music you could make! That cannot be. But here is something that can: if Christ were in you, what a life you could live! This is faith's logic. God wants you to know that you can rise above the level of your limitations. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).

We will one day see the Lord Jesus face to face. Presently, we might say that we see Him “faith to faith,” resulting in “glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Thus, we open God’s Word to discover our Savior as He is, which make possible our becoming more like Him as we see Him where He is… “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). Be it the most faithful or the most failing of believers, God’s mirror beckons us to see that which cannot fail to illuminate, encourage, challenge, enhance, and redeem us wherever we may be in our walk with God. Indeed, in Christ, through Christ, and by Christ, “what music we can make” of faith and faithfulness.

“Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”

(Philemon 1:5-6)