Orange Moon Tuesday, September 22, 2026 "Strong. In Weakness"

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

    

“Strong.  In Weakness”

“Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.”

(Psalm 39:4)    

      

     The realization of weakness is never a comfortable discovery, of whatever mode or measure.  It does, however, provide opportunity to remember the most vital and practical truth of our existence…

    “The Lord is my strength” (Psalm 118:14).

    He has been this for born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, from the moment of our new birth when we recognized how utterly weak we are in spiritual and moral terms (and even more, how strong our Lord was to be and do for us that which we could never do for ourselves).  Our remembrance of such grace, however, presently requires challenges that remind us we forever exist as dependent creatures, made to trust our Creator for His faithful provision of “life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:25).  A deception long ago communicated in Eden slithers in the heart of unbelievers, and remains in the flesh of believers: “Ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5).  The lie tells us we can make our own way, govern our own lives, and fulfill our own destiny by our own human means.  "We will walk after our own devices” (Jeremiah 18:12).

    The Spirit of God, the Word of God, the church of God, and even the creation of God sound and resound against such insanity, perhaps most pointedly in the declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples: “Without Me, ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).  Presently, we also require the providence of God to bear witness through both blessing and challenge.  His gifts that make us smile tell us of a Father so devoted to our well being that He finds “good pleasure” by bestowing “good things” that make us happy (Luke 12:32; 1:53).  The challenges He administers and allows, conversely, bear witness to our utter dependence, encouraging and beckoning us to “trust in the Lord with all thy heart” and “have no confidence in the flesh” (Proverbs 3:5; Philippians 3:3).

    No less than the Apostle Paul required a “thorn in the flesh… lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations” (II Corinthians 12:7).  The lie of self sufficiency runs deep even in the flesh of the most godly among us.  Thankfully, the Spirit of God moves ever more deeply in the spirits of believers, bearing witness to the truth.  He also of necessity works providentially to expose our weakness.  The process will never be comfortable in this lifetime.  We will require it until the end, however, and our Father loves us enough to orchestrate and allow that which bears witness to His devoted strength and our desperate need.  We do well to rejoice in both, discovering the lessons Paul learned and that, thankfully, he communicated to us…

“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.  And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

(II Corinthians 12:7-10)

Weekly Memory Verse

    And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

(II Corinthians 9:8)

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Orange Moon Monday, September 21, 2026 “Achieve Or Receive” Part 2 - Birth and Life

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

    

“Achieve Or Receive”

 

Part 2 - Birth and Life

    

      

     Living the Christian life requires the same gift of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ that began our Christian life.  We must receive in order to achieve.

     “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him… Let us have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear” (Colossians 2:6; Hebrews 12:28).

    We entered into relationship with God through the reception of the freest gift ever given, purchased by the highest cost ever remitted.  We experience relationship with Him by the same freely granted favor.  The former speaks of birth, namely spiritual conception and entrance into life, the indwelling life of Christ Himself.  The latter speaks of how we think, believe, speak, act, and relate to God and people through the dynamic and active presence of the Holy Spirit.  Both speak of a perfectly faithful God who fulfills His promise of life in all who believe, whether in our beginning or our continuing.  “Rooted and built up in Him” (Colossians 2:7).

   God does not call His people to make bricks without straw.  Whatever He would have us do this day of thought, belief, word, deed, or relating to Himself or others, “exceeding, great and precious promises” of grace await our determination to avail ourselves of the gift no less freely bestowed than was our new birth.  “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (II Peter 1:4; Romans 8:32).  Indeed, consider that martyr of the Lord Jesus who awaited his execution through a long night in a dark and dank cell.  He would give his life for his Lord when the sun arose.  Before that, he would seek his Lord’s grace, that his death might honor Him, and that God would be the “very present help in trouble” He promises to be (Psalm 46:1).  Our brother found his Savior perfectly faithful amid the flame, at the sword, or by whatever means the world and its devil found to serve as the means for the Lord Jesus to reveal the same grace in His servant’s death He imparted in the moment of His servant's spiritual birth.   Indeed, if we could ask our brother of the faithfulness that resulted in his death for the Lord, he would instantly respond, “Oh yes, He was so very faithful in the hour of my passage from the world!  Never could I have made the sacrifice, save in the light and glory of His sacrifice that made all grace available, possible, and actual in my life, and yes, in my death.  All glory - all glory! - to the name of the Lord Jesus alone.”

   Whatever the mode or measure of the sacrificial life to which our Heavenly Father calls us in this day, He has provided abundantly adequate straw for the bricks.  “His divine power that given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (II Peter 1:3).  We live and die far more from Him than for Him.  Our sacrifices are real.  They hurt and they cost us.  Moreover, our Father regards them with affirmation and compassion, and will one day reward us for them.  However, in that day, we will reverently, respectfully, and gratefully cast any crowns we receive at the nail-pierced feet of the only hope we ever had for salvation and the life that bore “the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:11).  Let us then have grace indeed, in this moment, in this day, and in this heart of ours wherein the Spirit of the Lord Jesus lives to supply His gift for living, as He did for our birthing.

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”

(II Corinthians 9:8)

“But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

(I Corinthians 15:10)

Weekly Memory Verse

    And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

(II Corinthians 9:8)

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