Orange Moon Saturday, July 4:2026 "Faithful Creator"

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

(for America and its faithful Creator)

“Faithful Creator”      

   

   “Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (I Peter 4:19).

   Throughout its pages, and in the Apostle Peter’s specific declaration, the Bible proclaims “a faithful Creator.”  Indeed, the One who made the human race did not abandon us to our deserved fate when we fell into sin at the outset of our existence.  God rather purposed the Lord Jesus Christ as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” to make possible our redemption from the darkness of alienation from Him (Revelation 13:8).  Our faithful Creator would die as our faithful Redeemer, or as one once said, “To create, God had to speak.  To redeem, He had to bleed.”

   Ae we increasingly discover the wondrous vastness and complexity of the universe, the power of our Creator increasingly astonishes our minds.  Couple this with His infinite faithfulness, and we find a Maker and Redeemer who thrills and inspires our hearts.  Our all powerful Creator can.  Our faithful Creator will.  All that awaits are creatures who realize our need not only for God’s fiat that provided our existence.  “It is He that hath made us” (Psalm 100:3).  We must also have His living presence and working that provides our very life.  “He is thy life” (Deuteronomy 30:20).  This born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have, providing for the needs of every moment of our existence.  

    “A faithful Creator.”  The title says so much about our Lord’s character and capability.  We can safely and with complete confidence commit our souls to such a wondrous One in all things, at all times, and in this very moment.  May a corollary title be found appropriate of us - faithful creatures.  Moreover, through the Lord Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit,  faithful sons and daughters.  To whatever degree our commitment to such grace and privileged responsibility may be, let us seek to “increase more and more” (I Thessonians 4:10).  What other response can we offer to our glorious God, our blessed Redeemer, our perfect Lord, and yes, our faithful Creator.

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True.

(Revelation 19:11)

Weekly Memory Verse

      My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction.  For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom He delighteth. 

(Proverbs 3:11-12)

 

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Orange Moon Friday, July 3, 2026 "Dying Grace, Living Grace"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

“Dying Grace, Living Grace”

      

    You may have heard about the woman who approached her pastor after he preached a message on “dying grace.”  He had assured the congregation of the Lord’s promise that He will be with us as we pass through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4).

    “Pastor, I loved your message,” said the woman.  "But I must be honest with you.  I don’t have the dying grace of which you spoke."

    The pastor looked at the woman with a smile, paused for a moment, and responded, “Of course you don’t, my sister.  You are not dying.”

     Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ always possess God’ spromised grace of provision and guidance supplied through our Lord’s presence in our hearts and lives.  “His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (II Peter 1:3; emphasis added).  Specific applications and appropriations, however, await the needs of the moment before their manifestation.  God determines the timing of His revealed provision, sometimes challenging our perceptions, but always acting in perfect accordance with the glory of the Lord Jesus and our best interests.  As a friend long ago said, “If I am trusting God and don’t seem to have what I need right now, I must not actually need it.”

    This speaks to the truth that our Heavenly Father defines our needs.  Certainly, we possess some understanding of the requirements of life that make possible our proper function and enjoyment.  Scripture clearly reveals, however, that we know relatively little of that which we actually need.  We use our understanding to perceive our requirements and respond accordingly.  As Solomon declared, however, we do not “lean” on our understanding it as if we possess enough facts to even begin to completely interpret our truest needs (Proverbs 3:5-6).  We rather want to be as the wise one of the Song of Solomon: “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?” (Song of Solomon 8:5).  

    Be it the dying grace of departure, or the living grace of each day, God administers His provision in the moment His perfect wisdom determines and supplies.  He absolutely and positively knows best.  We absolutely and positively do not.  Indeed, the provision of some moments is the remembrance of this truth, which enables our waiting on the Lord, something we desperately need in a lifetime lived by faith (Psalm 27:14).  Let us plant the promise deeply within our hearts, namely, the assurance of God’s timely supply whereby…

“My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

(Philippians 4:19)

“My times are in Thy hands.”

(Psalm 31:15)

Weekly Memory Verse

      My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction.  For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom He delighteth. 

(Proverbs 3:11-12).

 

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Orange Moon Thursday, June 2, 2026 "Personal"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

“Personal”

      

    “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

    What is eternal life provided so freely to us, but at such great cost to our Lord?  He told us…

     “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3; emphasis added).

    Eternity involves quality far more than quantity.  Certainly, to live forever constitutes a most wondrous gift.  For that life to involve personal knowledge of God, however, constitutes a far more thrilling prospect of glories to come.  How long we shall live pales in comparison to Who we shall know in such an eternity of grace.  “All shall know Me” declared the Lord in a simple statement regarding His children that glimmers with prospects of His Person to be known forevermore in “wonders without number” (Hebrews 8:11; Job 9:10).

    Of all the adjectives that might describe our Lord, none more define Him than “personal.”  He exists as a conscious, self aware, communicating Being “from everlasting” in the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Psalm 90:2).  Originally created in His image, human beings exist as the creatures most endowed with capacity for relationship and fellowship with our Lord, and subsequently with each other.  The two greatest commands confirm…

   “"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" (Mark 12:30-31).

   Of all that we do in the “fearfully and wonderfully made” components of our humanity, our Heavenly Father calls us first to the loving relationship and fellowship primary in Himself (Psalm 139:14).  Salvation in the Lord Jesus spiritually births our capacity for such devotion to God and others as the very heart of our life and existence.  Whatever our multitudinous doings as human beings may involve, we must keep as primary the expectation of God being personal with us, our response thereunto, and our relating to people as the fruit of relating to our Father.  No less than the Apostle Paul declared that without love, “I am nothing” (I Corinthians 13:2)  All of Paul’s labors, even for God, would have been dust and ashes had he not devoted himself to genuine relationship with the Lord and people in the love of Christ.

   Whatever this day holds, God gives to us the gift of relationship and fellowship with Himself and people as primary.  Nothing compares with being loved by Him, knowing it, and then responding to Him in mutual devotion.  Such grace will then flow through us to people as relating to God leads us to relate to others.  Our Lord is personal.  We can say nothing truer, nothing better, nothing more illuminating, and nothing more enabling as we seek to absorb and reflect His glory.  “This is life eternal”  declared the Lord Jesus, the One who lived, died, and rose again to deliver us from anything less than the personal reality for which we exist forevermore, and in this day.  

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

(Colossians 1:9-10)

Weekly Memory Verse

      My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction.  For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom He delighteth. 

(Proverbs 3:11-12).

 

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