The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
“The Gift”
In the moment, I had no way of knowing the gift would change my life both then and forever.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17).
I began September 17, 1975 “alienated from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18). Before the day concluded, I had become “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). A dear friend shared the Gospel with me, and on his porch I trusted the Lord Jesus with my heart, in response to the Holy Spirit’s convincing and convicting work. I knew when raising my head from the prayer of faith that something had happened. Of course, the truth of the matter was that Someone had happened in the depths of my being. The Holy Spirit entered my spirit, birthing a Christ-indwelt entity who had not previously existed. As in the salvation of every lost soul, a miracle occurred only the Lord Jesus could perform, initiating a process of change that will proceed in this lifetime and forevermore. Indeed, of all that salvation is in Christ, perhaps the most wondrous of all is that our Heavenly Father purposes to make us like His Son:
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:28-29).
I had no idea at the time of my new birth that such a gift had begun such a work of unmerited grace. I still feel as if I know precious little of what it all means. I do know this, as does every believer. Despite my present, desperate, and ongoing need for growth in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus, His entrance into my spirit on September 17, 1975 changed everything in my heart and life. More than a half century of His presence leads me to shudder with horror at what my existence would have been without so wondrous a Father, so beautiful a Savior, and so luminous a Holy Spirit.
And, so marvelous a gift as the family of brother and sisters in Christ who share with me His ”unsearchable riches (Ephesians 3:8). I did not know at the time of my salvation that the Holy Spirit birthed me into “the whole family of Heaven and earth” (Ephesians 3:15). I have lived all these years seeing the Lord Jesus as He dwells and walks in thousands of His people (II Corinthians 6:16). Even more, I have been the undeserving beneficiary of the grace that moves through the body of Christ in innumerable ways and wonders. How glorious He must be, when considering “Christ in you, hope of glory” I have seen over and over again in the countenance, demeanor, attitudes, words, and deeds of His people (Colossians 1:27). This certainly includes those of you who read these messages. I cannot imagine the last 28 years without your fellowship and the sanctifying influence you have been, a gift for which I can never give enough thanks to God and you. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1).
A noted pastor and author once said after walking with the Lord Jesus for more than sixty years, “I feel like I know less now than when I first came to know Him.” Amen, Brother. Personally, I see so much wasted opportunity in my walk with our Lord (I Corinthians 8:2). Even more, however, I have come to realize how true are the words of the Psalmist, “His greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3). “The love of Christ passeth knowledge,” echoed the Apostle Paul of a goodness even eternity will not fully unveil (Ephesians 3:19). Yes, the more we know, the more we know we do not know, and the more we know awaits us forever in the living and triune God.
Of late, a daily reading of Isaiah 53 has borne witness to a Lord and a salvation that thrills the heart with the wonder of who our God is, even as it stills the heart with solemn remembrance of what He had to do in redeeming us to Himself. I close in its light both solemn and glorious, and in the wonder of a Lord so faithful that fifty one years has borne continual witness that no one has ever trusted Him and been disappointed for doing so. And no one ever will. The Gift, the freely offered and provided bestowal of God’s grace in the Lord Jesus Christ tells us this, as does the immeasurable measure of its price...
"Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to His own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken. And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him, He hath put him to grief. When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
(Isaiah 53:1-12)
Weekly Memory Verse
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
(Revelation 21:4)
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