Orange Moon Tuesday, April 28, 2026 “Wholly Holy” Part 2 - “His Way Is Perfect.

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

“Wholly Holy”     

Part 2 - “His Way Is Perfect”

     

     The Apostle Paul’s declaration that “God cannot lie” speaks to the broader issue that He cannot do anything that fails to align with His perfect character, nature, and way (Titus 1:2).

     “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works” (Psalm 145:17).

    Whatever we read in Scripture of God’s doings, and in all of His working in human history, every action has been pristinely pure and fulfilled His spiritual and moral standard.  He cannot do otherwise because He cannot be otherwise.  Our Lord is perfectly holy and thus perfectly sanctified to Himself and His heart and mind of perfection.  He is wholly holy from everlasting to everlasting, including this moment in which He acts in our lives in precise accordance with the glory of the Lord Jesus and our best interests.  “As for God, His way is perfect” (II Samuel 22:31).

    This does not mean we always understand or perceive His perfection.  Every believer in the Lord Jesus sometimes wonders at the administrations and allowances of God in our lives.  Why?  How?  When?   Our Heavenly Father does not always explain Himself.  Moreover, He must presently work in ways that cause discomfort, confusion, and even utter bewilderment.  No less than the Apostle Paul confessed to perplexity regarding the blessed, but challenging life to which God called him (II Corinthians 4:8).  Indeed, even the best and brightest finite beings will come to venues that do not appear to involve an infinite Lord working out His perfect purposes.  Little wonder, seeing that human hearts and minds have no frame of reference for perfection.  We often see it without perceiving God working all things together for our good, a blessing that requires Him to fulfill His perfect purposes amid our imperfections (Romans 8:28).

   If we have not done so, let us build an altar in our hearts and minds whereupon we sacrifice any notion that our Lord can do anything that fails to align with His perfect character.  He literally cannot do so, a blessed purity of heart and way in God that should thrill our own hearts and illuminate our own way.  Wholly holy.  He will not be otherwise because He cannot be otherwise.

Weekly Memory Verse

    We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”

 (II Peter 1:19)

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Orange Moon Monday, April 27, 2026 "Wholly Holy"

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

“Wholly Holy”          

   

     "We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10).      

    

     "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thessalonians 5:23).           

    Why does the Apostle Paul ask God to fully sanctify - “make holy" - those whom the writer of Hebrews declares to be sanctified "once for all?"    

    The answer involves one of the relational truths of belonging to God, as opposed to our practical response to the fact.  We first acknowledge and affirm our holiness to Him, based on the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus.  Believers belong to God in terms of truth and relationship, regardless of how we live.  “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus” declared Paul to the Corinthians he also indicted as “carnal” (I Corinthians 1:30; 3:3). In the sense of belonging, born again believers become as sanctified as we will ever be when we trust the Lord Jesus - “once for all.”   We are God’s "purchased possession,” no matter what.  Nothing changes this reality of relationship, and the more we discover the Biblical truth that we belong to Another, the more likely we are to think, speak, act, and relate accordingly.  "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).   

     Conversely, the experience and outworking of holiness requires a lifetime of growth in the grace and knowledge of our Savior.  Our sanctified being may or may not result in sanctified behavior.  We can - and do - sometimes think, speak, act, and relate as if we belong to ourselves (I John 1:8).  Our marvelous freedom in Christ makes real love for God possible.  However, it also makes possible our not loving Him in this less than perfect present existence.  Nothing changes the fact that we belong to God -"sanctified once for all."  Behaving accordingly, however, requires God's working in us to “sanctify you wholly.”  Grace gave to us the blessed gift of belonging to our rightful Owner and Master.  Growth in grace gives to us the blessing of a life that practically reflects such truth.  We thus do well to echo Paul's prayer for each other concerning a whole sanctification, even as we also thank God for the truth of a "once for all" sanctification.  Our Heavenly Father ever works to align our being and behavior for the glory of the Lord Jesus and the peace of being wholly holy unto Him.

"Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light.”                                                                                             (Ephesians 5:8)

Weekly Memory Verse

          And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 (I Thessalonians 5:23). 

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Orange Moon Saturday, April 26, 2026 "Light In the Darkness"

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

“Light In the Darkness”         

     

   

     Our memory verse for the week tells us that the Scriptures - “a more sure word of prophecy” - serve as “a light that shineth in a dark place” (II Peter 1:19).

    “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).

      We do well to view the Bible accordingly.  We give thanks for darkness already overcome through its shining pages.  We also prayerfully seek greater illumination in readings and ponderings to come.  The latter quest requires our recognition that regardless of how well we perceive ourselves to know Scriptural truth, darkness still remains in our knowledge and understanding.  Indeed, of himself and all, the Apostle Paul confessed, “if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know” (I Corinthians 8:2).  Be it matters of doctrine, or of personal response and application of God’s Word, we all require the “light that shineth” to illuminate our hearts and minds.

   What have I missed?  What have I misunderstood or misinterpreted?  What have I not been ready to see, but perhaps now might be prepared to behold?  Most importantly, what of God’s infinite being, nature, and way still awaits to be discovered on the sacred pages as I acknowledge the glory of an unending journey into the light of the Lord Jesus Christ?  The Holy Spirit will gladly answer as we avail ourselves of His “light that shineth” by rejoicing in glimmers already seen, and confessing our great need to frequently pray as did the Psalmist…

“God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us.”

(Psalm 67:1)

“The Lord will enlighten my darkness.”

(Psalm 18:28)

Weekly Memory Verse

    “We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (II Peter 1:19).

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