Orange Moon Friday, July 18, 2025 “Momentary (Eternal) Matters”

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

"Momentary (Eternal) Matters"

  

    "Pennies add up to nickels, nickels to dimes, dimes to quarters, and on and on."

    A good friend once shared this truism with me about monetary matters, a truth that applies even more to momentary matters.

    "My times are in thy hand" (Psalm 31:15).

     Which times?  All times, including this moment, all that have come before, and all that will come to pass.  Every moment matters in context of the God who "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will," and who works "all things together for good to them that love Him" (Ephesians 1:11; Romans 8:28).  We do not see how such providence moves in most moments as an infinite, eternal God works out purposes far beyond our capacity to know and understand.  As those who believe the Bible, however, we do know that our Heavenly Father pointedly applies His providence in all things, at all times.  This results in wonder, worship, and encouraged determination as we trust the integrity of God's heart even if we cannot perceive or understand the actions of His hand.  "He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He" (Deuteronomy 32:4).

   In any moment, be it blessing, challenge, or matters seemingly mundane, the remembrance and affirmation of this truth empowers our hearts to trust the eternal One to whom all our moments have been foreseen from everlasting.  "His understanding is infinite" (Psalm 147:5).  Moreover, they have been seen with a purpose far more glorious than we can imagine, "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).  In this blessed light, momentary matters - all of them - become known rather as eternal matters laced with effect, meaning, and significance that bear everlasting consequence.  Yes, the moments ever add up in our Father's coordination that presently results in much grace.  At present, we see relatively little of all He does in matters of the moment. By and by, however, we will far better know that God wastes nothing in His providence, purpose, and determination to work all things for the glory of the Lord Jesus and the good of our being conformed to His image…

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."

(Ephesians 2:4-7)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    We do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies."

 (Daniel 9:18)

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Orange Moon Thursday, July 17, 2025 "Tender Mercies"

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

"Tender Mercies"

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing (penny)? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father."

 (Matthew 10:29)

    

    I am not sure how many times I have cited this passage during more than twenty six years of writing and sending out these messages, or in preaching and teaching.  But it's been a bunch!  I also do not fully know what the Lord Jesus Christ meant regarding His Father's presence and involvement in the passing of even the most seemingly insignificant  of His creatures.  I do know that our Savior spoke to wonders of His Father's heart that bear witness to the Psalmist's exultation, "His tender mercies are over all His works" (Psalm 145:9).

    Yesterday, the glory of Matthew 10:29 shone forth in vivid and tangible display.  A serviceman came to our home to do recall work on our air conditioner.  He stepped into the backyard, and I soon followed.  "You are not going to believe what just happened" he said as I reached him.  "A little bird just fell out of the sky."  I looked down to see a small, beautiful blue bird lying on the ground, flitting his wings in an obvious attempt to rise and fly.  He was not successful at the time.  I went back into our house to get some gloves, hoping to be able to help the bird in some way.  When I returned, the serviceman looked at me.  "Well, again, you're not going to believe what happened.  The bird flew away!"  I was shocked, but of course gladdened since I am not trained in veterinary medicine for fowls.  Immediately, Matthew 10:29 came to mind.  I shared the passage with the serviceman, and realized after hundreds of verbal and written recitations of Matthew 10:29, I had just seen it blessedly illustrated.

   A wide range of estimates exists - 50 to 430 billion - regarding how many birds are in the world.  We occasionally have six of them on our small bird feeder at one time!  We do know that not one of them flies, nests, lives, or dies apart from the attentive concern of our Heavenly Father.  The same mercy applies to "all His works."  An infinite God, capable of such pointed focus, astounds and boggles our minds.  Far more, a good God, good beyond all conception, overwhelms our hearts.  "The love of Christ passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).  Indeed, it is one wondrous thing that our Heavenly Father can see every bird, every creature, and every atom as if it alone exists.  It is another beyond wonder that He pointedly directs His glorious heart and mind toward all, including the falling of a single sparrow.  Or, of a little blue bird He enabled to arise and soar when it seemed he might never fly.

   We do well to apply this truth to our own hearts and lives, as the Lord intended.  "Ye are of more value than many sparrows" (Matthew 10:31).  How might the truth of God's loving focus apply to your life and mine in this day?  This moment?  How might it impact concerns for our loved ones, or others in our sphere of influence?  How does it apply to the blessings and challenges of our lives, or to the world itself?   We shake our heads in the mystery of such divine devotion to His creation.  Far more, we bow our hearts in amazement, appreciation, admiration, and adoration.  As the old hymn beautifully sings, "His eye is on the sparrow."  Even more, the heart that directs God's eye is on every creature with caring and compassion - "tender mercies over all His works."  Certainly, over a little blue bird, and even more certainly, over you and me.

"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion."

(Psalm 111:4)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    We do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies."

 (Daniel 9:18)

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Orange Moon Wednesday, July 16, 2025 "Rules? Reality!"

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

"Rules?  Reality!"

    

    I recently heard a prominent figure in Christendom suggest, "We should not expect unbelievers to keep the rules we keep as Christians."  He went so far as to apologize to unbelievers if they have experienced this laying upon them burdens they cannot bear.

    This caused me to wonder if the man himself actually understands what it means to walk with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Christian life does not comprise a set of rules to be followed.  Many commands grace the pages of the New Testament, of course, mandates to be taken seriously by every believer and obeyed through the power of the Holy Spirit. However, the commands obeyed proceed from grace received through living relationship with our Lord of grace.  The New Testament does not lay before the Christian a mere guideline of what we must do, but rather a promise of grace that if we rightly relate to our Heavenly Father through Christ, a quality of life will flow as the natural - supernatural - result of His vital and active presence in us.

    "He that believeth on Me as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly (heart)  shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38).

    Continual warning marks the pages of the new Testament, calling us to avoid the error of seeing faith and faithfulness in terms of code, regulation, and rules that, even if followed, do not produce the genuine "fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus 

Christ" (Philippians 1:11).  The Apostle Paul's most strident warnings challenge any and every notion of failure to see relationship in terms of God's grace and truth in the Lord Jesus.  

    "But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain" (Galatians 4:9-11).

    If use perceive even one command of Scripture as a rule, we have rendered meaningless and powerless the entirety of what it means to walk with God by His grace through faith in the Lord Jesus.  Christ did not suffer and die to make possible a mere servile obedience without heart that belies God's working us in us to know Him in living and loving personal terms that result in the obedience of sons rather than slaves (Galatians 4:7).  Rules to be followed?  Never.  Reality to be known in such measure that we obey the commands of Scripture through the indwelling love of God in Christ?  Always and forever.  

    We have a mulberry tree in our backyard that produced a good measure of flavorful fruit this season.  Mere adherence to physical law and principles did not lead to the bountiful harvest.  No, life did that, the mystery of God's working in the physical creation that bears witness to the even greater spiritual mystery of fruit bearing in the hearts and lives of human beings rightly related to the Lord Jesus.  This is the Gospel we seek to communicate to believer and unbeliever alike, namely, the provision of that - Him - which alone leads to obedience pleasing to God.  Even a cursory reading of the New Testament puts to rest the notion that walking with God involves rule keeping.  Instead, we bear the fruit of life in Christ Jesus as we grow in His grace and the truth of reality rather than regulation…

"God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."

(II Corinthians 9:8)

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing."

(John 15:5)

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

(I John 5:3-5)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    We do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies."

 (Daniel 9:18)

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