Orange Moon Friday, July 17, 2026 "Forsaken... Never Forsaken"

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

   “Forsaken...  Never Forsaken”

  

    The pain of separation became a reality for me very early in life.  My father died when I was two, and thus old enough for him to have become greatly cherished and beloved in my heart.  I recall little about him now, but I have lived my life in full awareness that a void has existed in my heart since the day my father left.

    In elementary school, I further experienced the difficulty of losing people who meant something to me.  When the fall semester began each year, questions would arise.  “Where is Johnnie?  What happened to Susan?”  Over the summer, families moved away, resulting in the loss of friends, many of whom I never saw again.  As time passed, life led to even more keenly felt separations, sometimes by more deaths of loved ones.  Of all the challenges this present fallen world brings to our hearts, none more pain and even break our hearts than having to say goodbye to those we long to keep near.  “And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more” (Acts 20:37-38).

    While the sorrow of separation keenly impacts us all, one such breach of relationship bears the most significance despite the fact it occurred not in the hearts of ourselves, but in the heart of Another:

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

    Against the backdrop of a “from everlasting” fellowship of love that “passeth knowledge,” a breach somehow occurred on the cross of Calvary between God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son (Psalm 90:2; Ephesians 3:19).  The Lord Jesus bore our sins, and in a mystery far more beyond our comprehension, was “made to be sin for us” (I Peter 2:24; II Corinthians 5:21).  On the cross, the Father smote His Son for our sake with the fury of His wrath against sin, the most horrific aspect of which doubtless involved the forsakenness whereby the Lord Jesus died utterly alone.  Indeed, no one has ever known loneliness as did our Savior when the Father and the Holy Spirit left Him to die far more of a broken heart than a broken body.  “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4).

    The pain of separation?  One knows such agony far more than all others, the very One who can help us when we must say our farewells.  Indeed, to the degree the Lord Jesus was forsaken on the cross, God promises that such loss will never happen to those who trust Him: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).  We will feel the sorrows of separation in this lifetime.  Never, however, will we know complete and utter abandonment as did the Lord Jesus.  He can help us when we feel alone, enabling us to remember that the only One we cannot lose will never leave nor forsake us.  This because our Lord most keenly knows what it means to be left and forsaken, the sacrifice whereby He freely grants and secures the presence of God in our hearts forevermore…

“I am with you always.”

(Matthew 28:20)

Weekly Memory Verse

    "Gracious is the Lord, and righteous.  Yea, our God is merciful."

(Psalm 116:5).

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Orange Moon Thursday, July 16, 2026 "Comedy, Tragedy, Rescue"

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

(Thanks to Anne O. for inspiration on this one)

   “Comedy, Tragedy, Rescue”

  

    How dark and deluded is devilish deception?  Consider his own:

    “I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14).

    Somehow, a created entity deceived himself into believing he could attain to a being so far beyond his own nature and capabilities that the attempt would be laughable, were it not so serious.   Indeed, Satan would not exist nor continue to exist apart from the originating and sustaining fiat of  the infinite God.

     “The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created” (Ezekiel 28:13).

     “By Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17).

    Of course, the devil spread his insanity to Adam and Eve, and to their progeny through the ages.  “Ye shall be as gods” lied the deceived deceiver, deluding Eve, and through her tempting Adam to willfully seek personal autonomy and independence apart from his Creator and the very Life of his life (I Timothy 2:13-14; Genesis 3:5).  All born of Adam’s race have the lie woven into their being.  In one form or another, all seek to govern their own existence and determine their own fate.  Again, the attempt would be comedy, were it not so fraught with the most serious significance and consequence regarding both time and eternity.  The willful madness rather depicts a tragedy of such magnitude that Moses declares God Himself to have been wracked with sorrow over the spiritual and moral disaster:

    "It repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart” (Genesis 6:6).

   Of course, our Heavenly Father had from everlasting known of the devil’s darkness and our fall into the abyss.  In His own heart, mind, and purpose, the Lord Jesus existed as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Acts 15:18; Revelation 13:8).  God dealt with Adam’s race in the light of the Lamb to come, even as He now relates to us as the Lamb who came.  He would redeem His fallen creation through the Lord Jesus being “crucified through weakness” as a man, thus countering man’s attempt live by the delusion of his own strength.  The Lord Jesus Himself now, as a man, “liveth by the power of God” (II Corinthians 13:4).  Indeed, God Himself, the second Person of the infinitely almighty Trinity, became as one of us because we sought to become as gods.  While remaining divine, our Savior will also “in the mystery of godliness” forever abide as human, and thus forever reveal both who God is, and who we are.  “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5).

    Satan and Adam’s race sought to be strong in and of themselves, a futility of evil and insanity that would be comedy were it not the tragedy of the ages.  Our response must be faith, that is, the realization of our utter dependence on God for all life and being.  We exist and continue to exist only by Him, through Him and for Him.  He grants to us our next breath, as He will for all eternity (Acts 17:25-28).  He progressively rescues us from the delusion that currently remains in the flesh of believers by working to reveal the all sufficient Christ who dwells in our spirits, and who serves as the truest delight of our hearts (Romans 7-22-25).  Yes, long ago a being originated a lie, and then passed it on to the human race through our original forefather.  Through the Lord Jesus, God offers rescue from the comedy and the tragedy, freely providing salvation to all who still heart, hands, and feet in the new birth, and in the life - the Life of our lives - that forever ensues through the presence and power of God.

“When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.”

(Revelation 1:17)

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

(Philippians 3:13)

Weekly Memory Verse

    "Gracious is the Lord, and righteous.  Yea, our God is merciful."

(Psalm 116:5).

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