Orange Moon Wednesday, November 11, 2026 "Relational, Durational"

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

“Relational, Durational”

      

     The Lord Jesus Christ defined the primary meaning of eternal life not in terms of duration, but of relation.  

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

    The Greek root word for “know” in this passage - “ginosko” - suggests a knowledge based on experience, as opposed to mere mental awareness.  Who we will forever know, as opposed to how long we will live, must form our primary understanding of the eternal life God gives to all who trust the Lord Jesus.   Certainly we rejoice in everlasting life to come.  We rejoice even more in the prospect of forever in the presence of the infinitely good and great One for whom our hearts were made.   “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life” I John 5:20).

    The Apostle John declares that born again believers in Christ already “have eternal life,”clearly referring to our personal knowledge of God (I John 5:13).  Albeit limited in our present existence in comparison to what we will experience in eternity to come, Christians by definition already know God through Christ and the Holy Spirit’s illumination in our hearts.  “The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16).  This constitutes the very essence of what it means to be a Christian, namely, the relational reality for which God made human beings.  Such a marvel has become resident in us through the free gift of His grace in the Lord Jesus.  While our Heavenly eternity will involve a far greater experience of knowing our Lord, the fact remains that we know Him already.  “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6).

    If we know the Lord now, and if He exists as an infinite Being beyond measure, the blessed truth lies before us that we can always know Him better.  This will forever be true in light of “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8).  It is true today.  We do well to join Moses in the request, “Show me Thy glory” (Exodus 33:18).  The realization and expectation that God desires to be known will prepare us for growth in the essence of eternal life, namely, to know Him.  Nothing else in our lives begins to compare with this relational wonder already initiated, and this durational wonder that will never end.

“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

(II Peter 3:18) 

Weekly Memory Verse

   “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” 

(Luke 19:10)

    

   

  

   

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Orange Moon Monday, November 9, 2026 Another?

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

    

“Another?”

    No other true and authentic Lord Jesus Christ exists than the Savior proclaimed by Scripture.  Multitudes of false versions, however, have tempted believers to deception since the first days of the church.

    "For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him” (II Corinthians 11:4).

   Our spiritual enemies are more than happy to hear the name of the Lord declared, so long as the title communicates “another Jesus.”  Satan tempted the Lord Himself with Scripture in the wilderness temptation, failing miserably, while also tipping his hand that he has no qualms about using truth as a weapon of diversion (Matthew 4).  Indeed, if we instantly give credence to voices affirming someone they call “Jesus," or quoting Scripture, or claiming to be led by the Holy Spirit, we may well one day find ourselves  having been led down a dark path away from truth and reality.  “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try (test) the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (I John 4:1).  

    We must make the matter continually personal, praying often that God will show us if our worship correlates with the true Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, and Gospel declared in Scripture.  Let us ask Him to confirm, defend, and enhance our beliefs, convictions, and practices that accord with the real and the genuine, while seeking His exposure and correction of the false.  No believer will be perfect in devotion during this present earthly lifetime.  However, we must seek to be as faithful as possible regarding the Savior, the Spirit, and the Scriptures.  We can be sure our enemies will not rest in seeking divert us to “another.”  May we be sure we do not rest in seeking to know, love, trust, and obey the one true and living Lord Jesus, as led by the one real and faithful Holy Spirit, in accordance with the one authentic Gospel of the Bible.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

(I Peter 5:8)

“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

(Ephesians 4:4-6)

Weekly Memory Verse

    And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

(I Timothy 3:16)

  

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Orange Moon Monday, November 9, 2026 “The Miracle (of All Miracles)”

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

    

“The Miracle (of All Miracles)”

    The second epistle of John speaks of what the Apostle referred to as “the doctrine of Christ,” namely, that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” (II John 1:7).  This includes John’s corollary affirmation in his Gospel that the Lord Jesus is God made flesh - “The Word was God… the Word was made flesh” (John 1:1; 14).

    Christ is the God who became man, and the man who remains God.  His incarnation serves as the greatest of all miracles, a reality that seemingly cannot be, but which is.  No less than the Apostle Paul proclaimed the wonder as profound “mystery” (I Timothy 3:16).  Time and eternity, the finite and the Infinite, earth and Heaven, God and man united in one glorious Person long ago in the virgin womb of Mary.  The Lord Jesus remains in His miraculous state of being forevermore as the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5).  

    Believers find the enigma cherished and fascinating.  Unbelievers view it as perplexing and disturbing.  Satan doubtless hates both the humility and the power it displays, particularly because the Incarnation made available salvation to human hearts.  Indeed, “without the shedding blood is no remission (forgiveness).  Without the Lord Jesus becoming man, He could have shed no blood (Hebrews 9:22).  Little wonder devils and skeptics deny the miracle, and little wonder we cannot truthfully and adequately proclaim Christ’s Gospel apart from declaring His nature, again, the God who became man, and the man who remains God.  Yes, only the divine can save.  However, His own righteousness and integrity decreed He could do so only by partaking upon Himself flesh and blood.  “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).

    Long before the cross of the greatest sacrifice, a conception involving another sublime offering took place.  “A virgin shall conceive” is itself a most glorious miracle occurring only once in human history.  The One it conceived nevertheless transcends the virgin conception, particularly because it meant that the One who exists as the very essence of life would one day suffer death (Isaiah 7:14).  “I am… the life” declared the Lord Jesus (John 14:6).   He would nevertheless experience a death only possible because He became human.  Your redemption and mine hinges completely on this, the greatest of all miracles, of  “God… manifest in the flesh.”

    In both Heaven and earth, there is no one like the Lord Jesus.  The fact that He can even exist as the living synthesis of Deity and humanity must take our breath away upon even a cursory contemplation. It certainly will in Heaven as we forever worship in wonder of so glorious a mystery.  Wise Solomon once wondered how the Lord could dwell in an earthly temple of stone and mortar (II Chronicles 6:18).  What would he have said had He known that God would one day dwell in and as a human temple of flesh and blood?  Great indeed is the mystery, and greater by infinite measure is the Man who, for our sake, will forever be human while forever remaining divine.  In this most holy and elemental sense, there can be no one else like Him as the God who became man, and the man who remains God.   No other miracle compares, no other mystery more fascinates, and no other reality provides our assured hope of eternal life in His presence.

“Before Abraham was, I AM… For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

(John 8:58; Luke 2:11)

Weekly Memory Verse

    And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

(I Timothy 3:16)

  

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