Orange Moon Wednesday, July 8, 2026 "No Greater Obedience"

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

“No Greater Obedience”      

   

   Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ can obey God in no way more honoring to Him than “the obedience of faith” (Romans 16:26).

   Of all the opportunities our Lord provides in mode or measure to walk with Him, none offer more opportunity to fulfill His will than consistent and increasing determinations to trust His heart and believe His Word.   We “live by faith,” thus making faith central in all relationship and fellowship with our Heavenly Father (Romans 1:17; emphasis added).  Every act of obedience flows from the wellspring of grace in Christ, received by faith.  The Apostle Paul plainly stated the truth regarding his own calling…

   “We have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith” (Romans 1:5).

   No grace, no faith.  No faith, no obedience.  Grace reigns through righteousness received by faith, the righteousness of our standing and relationship with God, and “the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:21; I Corinthians 1:30; Philippians 1:11).  Thus, we make essential the determination to increasingly know God and His Word, that we may increasingly trust Him as a matter of doctrine and personal response to Him along the pathways of life.  Our obedience depends upon it, the obedience that must be empowered by God’s enabling, as received by faith.

   No greater obedience exists than humble, sincere, and genuine faith in the Lord Jesus.  Countless expressions of obedient thought, attitude, word, deed, and sacrifice proceed from the trust whereby we “work out” that which God “works in” (Philippians 2:13).  None will be forthcoming, however, apart from the means God has given whereby “we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).  To trust God is to obey God by faith in the heart, resulting in faithfulness of mind, hands, and feet.  Yes, we “walk by faith” in order to…

“Walk in love… walk in the Spirit… walk in wisdom… walk in the light… walk after His commandments… walk in truth… and most of all, walk even as He walked.”

 (II Corinthians 5:7; Ephesians 5:2; Galatians 5:25; Colossians 4:5; I John 1:7; II John 1:6; III John 1:4; I John 2:6).

Weekly Memory Verse

       “He that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works”

 (Hebrews 4:10).

 

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Orange Moon Monday, July 6, 2026 "No Greater Sin"

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

“No Greater Sin”      

   

   Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ can commit no greater sin than to live as if alone.  Our Savior died forsaken in utter abandonment that God’s eternally abiding presence might dwell with and within us at all times.  Facing life as if by ourselves fails to acknowledge our Lord’s sacrifice and the sorrow He knew in order that we might live with Him, by Him, and through Him.

    “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).  

    “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

      To face life as if the Lord Jesus did not purchase this grace of His abiding presence ignores and neglects “so great salvation,” purchased by so high a price (Hebrews 2:3).  Little wonder the writer of Hebrews tells us we shall not escape God’s chastening and scourging if we fail to avail ourselves of His “I am with you.”   We remember and affirm the truth by faith, overcoming temptations to perceive ourselves as alone by choosing to believe the truth His abiding presence...

   “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).

   How it must grieve our Heavenly Father when we disbelieve so wondrous an assurance.  To see a Christ-indwelt saint live as an empty sinner doubtless moves the heart of God, and will move His chastening and scourging hand if we proceed in the dark insanity (Hebrews 12:6).  No excuse exists for facing the issues of life as if God were far away, disinterested, and uninvolved.  Consider any matter of challenge of life at the present moment.  Have we believed the truth that God is not only with and within us, but provides Himself as “a very present help in trouble?” (Psalm 46:1; emphasis added).  How might the Christ once forsaken be known as the Christ vitally present and active in our challenge?  As we believe, we will know, first in heart, and then as God acts according to His wisdom and purpose.  Unbelief, however, will result in the sad indictment of long ago in the Lord’s home country: “He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58).

     We are now the Lord’s “home country.”   Even more, He dwells within us as the very Life of our lives.  Believers will face no moment in which this truth does not abide as absolute and eternally enduring reality.  To the degree we believe will be the degree to which we experience His involved activity.  Let us make this pertinent and practical.  Do we perceive any matter of our lives as devoid of God’s presence and working?  Do we perceive ourselves in terms of such darkness?  If so, let us not fail to recognize the seriousness of our unbelief.  No greater sin indeed, when we realize the solemn truth that the Lord Jesus died in complete forsakenness by God and man, that we might live forevermore in the complete assurance of His promised presence and working.  

So much given, so great the cost,

so terrible the sorrow, so vast the loss.

When on that day at Calvary, 

the Father smote His Son,

when for us He forsook Him

to bleed and die alone…

So much given, so great the cost.

So great the mercy shining in His face

when on that day we first believed,

and in this day as we receive

the grace to live in faithfulness,

the beauty of His holiness…

So much given, so great the cost. 

So much given, of new and holy life,

 grace that cost Him all, His holy, precious life.

For on that day when we believed,

His Spirit entered in.

And in this day, He lives in us, 

we live through Him.

So much given, so great the cost.

“I will dwell in them and walk in them.”

(II Corinthians 6:6)

“He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

(II Corinthians 5:21)

Weekly Memory Verse

       “He that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works”

 (Hebrews 4:10).

 

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Orange Moon Monday, July 6, 2026 “Rest and Work”

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

“Rest and Work”      

   

   “They ceased not from their own doings” (Judges 2:19).  

   “He that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works” (Hebrews 4:10).

   “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” (Hebrews 4:1).

    Every born again believer has ceased from his own works by giving up the vanity of seeking any other way of salvation than the reception of the freest gift ever given, purchased by the highest cost ever remitted.  “For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many” (Romans 5:15).  Christ only.  Christ always.  Christ forever.  All born again by faith in the Lord Jesus trust solely in His works on our behalf.  We rest in Him.

     Christians can, however, “seem to come short” of such grace in our walk with the Lord and the works that proceed from rest.

    “The flesh lusteth against the spirit” (Galatians 5:17).

    Of all the characteristics of the “law of sin” that remains in our earthly members inherited from Adam, none more aptly describe its waywardness than independence (from God).  Our flesh will be good, bad, or neutral, so long as we give it the chance to maintain influence and activity as the controlling factor of our lives.  No Christian is beyond the temptation, and all sometimes fall into the trap of forgetting that God calls us to “labor, striving according to His working” (Colossians. 1:29; emphasis added).  We overcome the enticement by faith, seeking to remember and affirm His faithfulness in leading and enabling us as we trust Him.  “Nothing without Me” declared the Lord Jesus regarding our abject need.  “All things through Christ” exulted the Apostle Paul of our Lord’s promise to work in us as we rest our hearts in Him (John 15:5; Philippians 4:13).

   We do well to specifically apply this truth to particular challenges that confront us.  Do we face the matter alone, as if the Spirit of Christ were not actively present and engaged in our hearts and lives?  Must our mental, volitional, and physical efforts serve as the primary means whereby we seek to overcome the challenge?  Must we strive according to our own working rather than first resting our hearts in God?   When believers succumb to such temptation, we scandalously “seem to come short” of resting in Christ despite having in fact “entered into His rest” in the new birth.

   We do well to often recall that which began our relationship with God, namely, we responded to the Holy Spirit’s convincing and convicting work, trusting Him and Him alone.  We then remember one of Paul’s most vital statements regarding how we walk in faithful fellowship with God…

     “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him” (Colossians 2:6).  

    In essence, Paul commands, “Whatever occurred in the first moment of salvation, continue therein.”  That which occurred was God promising and the believer trusting, God giving and the believer receiving, God working and the believer resting our hearts in Him.   And so must it continue.  We do much as believers.  “Faith without works is dead” (James  2:26).  However, works without faith are no less dead, being the product of the flesh rather than the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Believers work for God by working from God.  We rest in order to labor.  We trust in order to act.  Only thereby can we avoid the utter tragedy of having entered into the rest of God by trusting in the Lord Jesus, only to “seem” as if we have not done so by forgetting that we must continue as we began.  Indeed, works proceed from rest as that which began our relationship with God motivates, guides, inspires, and empowers our fellowship with Him.

“For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”

(Philippians 3:3)

Weekly Memory Verse

     “He that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works.”

 (Hebrews 4:10).

 

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