Orange Moon Saturday, April 4, 2026 "The Power of the Resurrection"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"The Power of the Resurrection"

 

     Life brings its blessings, everyday moments, and challenges in countless modes and measures.  For born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, it also brings His presence and risen life as the greatest reality of all.

    "He is risen, as He said" (Matthew 28:6). 

     "To live is Christ" declared the Apostle Paul, meaning the crucified, risen, ascended, and eternally reigning Christ (Philippians 1:21).  We know such glory by faith in this present life.  The truth abides nonetheless in its most actual, factual reality.  No moment of time or eternity will fail to find the risen Lord Jesus as the very Life of our lives.  We do not yet see, hear, or touch Him, and the present world sometimes tempts us to cry with the Psalmist, "Why standest thou afar off, O Lord?   Why hidest Thou Thyself in times of trouble?" (Psalm 10:1).  He never does, of course, but it can feel and appear that His tomb remains occupied, or if He is risen from the dead, that "the power of His resurrection" does not apply to our challenge (Philippians 3:10).

    It does.  Our Savior did not exit His tomb in triumph for our salvation from sin and its consequences alone, glorious as that is.  The tomb is rather empty that this moment, whatever it holds, might be filled with our Lord's life beyond life.  All moments to follow will find Him the same.  "The power of His resurrection" applies to every matter and moment of our existence.  Indeed, even as we commemorate the wonder in a special way tomorrow, we realize deep in the heart that every day beckons us to remember and affirm the empty tomb, the occupied Heavenly throne, and the eternal truth that "Jesus Christ is Lord" (Philippians 2:11).

    Every matter.  Every moment.  In everything, "the power of His resurrection" and our risen Lord's involved presence serves as the greatest of all realities.  We will understand and perceive such grace better by and by.  For now, God grants opportunity to behold His risen Son by faith, something we will not be able to do when we see Him "face to face" (I Corinthians 13:12).  We rightly look forward to that day.  However, this day, and all to follow in this present world, offers the privileged responsibility to behold our Lord in a way that brings great glory to His name.  Yes, whatever the moments of our lives hold, let us remember and affirm that the tomb no longer holds the Lord Jesus, the risen Lord Jesus.  The glory serves as the prevailing factual and actual reality of all moments, of all matters, including this moment and its matters.  The tomb is indeed empty, the throne is forever occupied, and Jesus Christ is Lord.

"And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you."

(Luke 24:36)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.

(Psalm 100:5)

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Orange Moon Friday, April 3, 2026 "Three Passages"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"Three Passages"

 

     Three passages.  Three companion Scriptural passages we could read daily for a lifetime and only begin to plumb the depths of their glory and wonder.  I submit them to your consideration with no further comment, other than to suggest a measured and deliberate reading that allows their wondrous light to shine as brightly as possible within our hearts.

    "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to Heaven…     

     "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as Thou, Father art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.

   

     And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them, that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.

  

     Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.  O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:1; 20-26).

    "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 hath raised us up together, 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).

     "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."

(Romans 5:5)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.

(Psalm 100:5)

7757

 

 

Orange Moon Thursday, April 2, 2026 “From Everlasting”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"From Everlasting"

 

    Only God has existed "from everlasting" (Psalm 90:2).  All other beings and things had a beginning through the creative agency of the One, the only One, who has always been, and who "made all things" (Proverbs 16:4).

    This raises a fascinating question.  What was God doing in the eternity before He created angels, the universe, and human beings?  The Bible does not address this question directly, with the exception of one its most beautiful statements, uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ to His Father just before He suffered and died on the cross of Calvary…  

    "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24).  

    Loving relationship and fellowship characterized the triune God''s  "doings" before anything or anyone existed.  Certainly, the vibrantly active Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" did much before creation (Ephesians 1:11).  Loving relationship and fellowship is that which we know without question characterized His activity "from everlasting."

    As those created in God's image, this eternal occupation of personal devotion and communication with others reveals that our primary reason for being involves the same…

    "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.] And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:30-31). 

    We exist to be loved by God, and to love Him in response.  This relationship leads born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to love others as the fruit of His relational presence within us.  Certainly, we do much as human beings through our "fearfully and wonderfully made" capabilities (Psalm 139:14).  Nothing compares, however, with the loving relationship and fellowship that has been in God "from everlasting," and which now exists in us through Christ forevermore.  "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).  

    To know the love of God and to love Him and others in holy response constitutes the primary reason for our existence that proceeds directly from the eternal reality of our Lord's own being.  We "walk in truth" as we "walk in love," realizing that the centrality of relationship that had no beginning in God began in us when we trusted the Lord Jesus (III John 1;4; Ephesians 5:20).  It will have no end in either Him or us as the eternally ancient "from everlasting" glory of loving relationship becomes the eternal "to everlasting" destiny of God and His redeemed.  

"I have loved thee with an everlasting love."

(Jeremiah 31:3)

"I will extol Thee, my God o king, and I will bless Thy name forever and ever."

(Psalm 145:1)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.

(Psalm 100:5)

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