Orange Moon Saturday, June 13, 2026 “The Centrality of Words”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

“The Centrality of Words”

   In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by Him” (John 1:1-3).

   If we were created by One called “the Word,” and if He sustains our being, we can be sure that words will be central to our existence.

    They are.  

    “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21).

   “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matthew 12:37).

    

    Little wonder the Psalmist prayed a most earnest prayer: "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3).

    And another…

    “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try (test) me, and know my thoughts” (Psalm 139:23).

   In eternal terms, we live or die based upon the words we think, and the words we speak.  “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).  Words thought, spoken, and and believed began our relationship with God.  They also determine the quality of our ongoing response to Him as we “walk by faith” (II Corinthians 5:7).  We therefore look to the Word Himself for leadership and enabling in this most fundamental aspect of our existence.  

    "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

    Maintaining an ongoing discourse with our Heavenly Father regarding this most vital matter must serve as the one of the believer’s most focused aspects of prayer.  We also do well to seek God’s truth about words in His Word, the Bible.  Considering the issue with fellow believers furthermore aids in directing what we think and speak.  Finally, we realize how challenged we will be along the pathways of providence, and how much opportunity lies therein to replace wayward words with truth, whether thought or spoken.  

     Of the disciples, Luke long ago wrote, “They remembered His words” (Luke 24:8).  May the same be said of us, and may we think and speak them as well.  The living Word made us.  The Word sustains us.  The Word lives within us.  He can empower us in this most vital of matters.  He will, as we think of Him and speak of Him in the words given in His written Word.  No issue is more important in this life, nor will it ever be in an existence begin and forever continued by what God has thought and said, and by which we think and say in response.

“I will worship toward Thy holy temple, and praise Thy name for Thy lovingkindness and for Thy truth: for Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name.”

(Psalm 138:2)

Weekly Memory Verse

      Great is our Lord, and of great power.  His understanding is infinite.

(Psalm 147:5)

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Orange Moon Friday, June 12, 2026 "Stay Or Stray"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

“Stay Or Stray”

   “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusted in Thee” (Isaiah 26:3).

    A “stayed” (leaned; rested) mind on God does not suggest a mind that will not be tempted otherwise.

    “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:5).

   Regardless of how faithfully we walk with our Lord, temptation to think and believe in terms contrary to His truth will happen.  Wayward thoughts will have to be brought “into captivity.”  In fact, many challenges may confront us because we walk faithfully with Him.  Worldly, devilish, and fleshly temptations abound for believers no less than they assailed the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  “We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).  

    What we do with these challenges in our thinking determines the quality and consistency of our response to God.  How do we respond when we become aware of thoughts contrary to our Lord and His Word?  Do we bring them captive?  Or do we become captive by failing to see erroneous thinking as opportunity to remember, believe, and affirm the truth?   Choices ever lie before us, choices we must see as opportunities to “think on these things,” that is, “whatsoever things are true… honest… just… pure… lovely… of good report… virtue…  praise” (Philippians 4:8).

   Regardless of how devotedly we pray, ponder the Scriptures, and seek to walk faithfully with God, wayward thoughts will confront our minds.  What will we do with them?  We cannot allow them to linger unchallenged.  Nor do we simply attempt to not think them.  No, we rather replace them.  We take them captive and execute sentence upon their darkness by joining the Psalmist, “O Lord, I will walk in Thy truth” (Psalm 86:11).   We remember and affirm whatever Scriptural truth counters the error. Thereby, we “stay” our minds amid great challenge to allow them to stray.

    For example, consider temptations to fear.  “What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee” (Psalm 56:3).  The Psalmist determines to proactively respond to thoughts and emotions of fear by the chosen determination to think and believe in accordance with God and His Word.  The temptation may and often does involve a walk in faith, that is, more than one step may be required as many challenges to our peace involve ongoing affirmations and determinations of “I will trust.”  “The good fight of faith” is not easy, requiring believers to serve as “a good soldier of Jesus Christ” in conflicts that grant us much opportunity to wield "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (I Timothy 6:12; II Timothy 2:3; Ephesians 6:17).  We greatly glorify God thereby as we walk in the triumph of the Lord Jesus, ever seeking to live from His victory by faith amid all confrontations of “What time I am afraid."

    Believers in the Lord Jesus do not have to possess brilliance of mind in order to walk with God.  We do require active minds, however, minds ever on guard against the falsehoods inevitably to be encountered in a fallen world.  We respond by seeking to “walk in truth” (III John 1:4).  When challenged by wayward thoughts, we stay our minds rather than allowing them to stray as we remember, replace, and fill our minds with the Scripture's  thoughts of assurance, strength, and the peace of the Prince of peace.  Stay or stray?  Challenges to our thinking provide the opportunity to actively and assertively do what believers do by definition, namely, to believe in accordance with the light of God’s Word and leading of the Holy Spirit as we “think on these things."

“In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul.”

(Psalm 94:19)

Weekly Memory Verse

      Great is our Lord, and of great power.  His understanding is infinite.

(Psalm 147:5)

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Orange Moon Thursday, June 11, 2026 "Just Long Enough"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

“Just Long Enough”

   “As for God, His way is perfect” (II Samuel 22:31).

   “My times are in Thy hands” (Psalm 31:15).

     Of all God’s perfect ways, His timing can be among the most challenging to comprehend and process.  The eternal perspective that guides His working often conflicts with our limited understanding.  “How long?” asked the Psalmist on numerous occasions regarding God’s working in ways far beyond our understanding and “past finding out” (Psalm 6:3; Romans 11:33).  

    Our Heavenly Father can, of course, be trusted completely regarding our times.  No one who waits on Him will ever be confounded (I Peter 2:6).  We will all be tempted at times to our own wondering of “How long?” as the perfection of God’s working greatly challenges our perceptions.  Ultimately, we will see that what seemed to be His delays were never that at all.  He rather works in all things according to “the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11).  Guided by infinite understanding, and even more, by “the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, God’s ways will one day be seen far more clearly by His people as perfectly performed, and yes, as perfectly scheduled.  “Trust in Him at all times” (Psalm 147:5; Ephesians 3:19; Psalm 62:8).

    This assurance does not preclude the challenge we all face regarding our Lord’s present working in our lives.  Even as we plant the truth of “My times are in Thy hands” deeply within our hearts, we will be tempted to wonder and even to chafe as our Father works according to His eternal perspective.  “Lord, how long?”  Just long enough will be the answer regarding all of God’s ways in the world and in our lives.  This we can believe because it is true, and because every moment in this life and forevermore flows with the current of “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

“Our Lord Jesus Christ, which in His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.”

(I Timothy 6:14-16)

Weekly Memory Verse

      Great is our Lord, and of great power.  His understanding is infinite.

(Psalm 147:5)

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