Orange Moon Tuesday, May 26, 2026 "Our Jonathan"

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

    “Our Jonathan”     

   

    For the sake of his beloved friend Jonathan, King David of Israel bestowed grace upon Jonathan's lame son, Mephibosheth.

 

    "And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually" (II Samuel 9:7). 

 

     David’s lavish bestowal of kindness stunned Mephibosheth.  "What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?" (II Samuel 9:8).  Mephibosheth’s generation considered lameness as a sign of disfavor with God.  The lame could not serve as priests, nor could a lame animal be offered as a sacrifice (Leviticus 21:18; Deuteronomy 15:21).  Mephibosheth thus considered himself as rejected, and as good as dead.  That the king should look upon him with any favor whatsoever shocked the poor man.  That David should shower him with the grace of his table even more overwhelmed him with wonder.

    

      If we could fully see the extent of our native spiritual lameness, we would be no less bewildered.  In the clearest thinking moments of our existence, glimmers of light shine upon the rejection and death from which we were delivered, leading us to share in Mephibosheth’s bewilderment.  "How, Lord, could You be so kind to me?  Whence comes such mercy upon such a dead dog as me?"

 

    From the throne of grace and the pages of Scripture, the answer sounds and resounds... 

 

    "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-7).

 

    "With Christ... in Christ Jesus... through Christ Jesus."  The Lord Jesus is our Jonathan.  For His sake, the Father enlivens us, raises us up to sit together in Heavenly places, and showers upon us "the exceeding riches of His grace."  Dead dogs become living sheep who will forever graze in pastures green with infinite and eternal grace.  In those clear thinking moments of our earthly sojourn, we see and partake of wonder, of the "unspeakable gift" of the Christ who makes possible every moment of God’s mercy (II Corinthians 9:15).

     Only in Heaven, however will we fully understand the extent of our Lord’s intercession on our behalf.  There we will know that every moment of our eternal blessedness came to us by way of the sorrow, agony, forsakenness and death of our Savior.  We will know that to the degree the Lord Jesus was rejected, we are "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6).  We will know that a long eternity awaits wherein "the unsearchable riches of Christ" will never be fully exhausted because the feet of the Lord Jesus were made lame with the nails of a cross.  He still bears the wounds of that piercing, and we will forever look upon them in the knowledge of why God "hath raised us up and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 3:8; 2:6).   Yes, the Lord Jesus is our Jonathan, the glorious and gracious One who answers the question of a “dead dog” viewed by God in far different terms, based upon the person, merits, and work of Another…

“He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.”

(Ephesians 1:6) 

"The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”

 (I Timothy 1:14).

Weekly Memory Verse

   And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last.

(Revelation 1:17)

7802

Orange Moon Monday, May 25, 2026 "Let This Mind"

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

    “Let This Mind”     

   

    Pride rather than humility serves as the native disposition of Adam’s fallen race.  At this heart of such dark delusion slithers a deception so utterly false it would seem impossible to overlook:

    “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).

    No human being consciously thinks in these terms regarding himself or herself.  Some do come to overtly believe the lie through false religious teaching.  Most, however, live with the deception unwittingly influencing thought, attitude, word, and deed.  Even after salvation though faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the installation of His Lordship, the desire for personal rule tempts every believer (Galatians 5:17).   We must all be on guard against devilish, worldly, and fleshly enticements to perceive ourselves as more than we are, and to live as if we can navigate the course of life apart from the One for whom we exist, and who alone guides us in “the way which leadeth unto life” (Matthew 7:14).  

    Scripture sounds and resounds with the call to humility.  The New Testament wondrously reveals the basis for our walk in self-deference:

    “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).

    The mind of Christ Himself must enable the path of humility to which God calls us.  That which does not come naturally to us, nor was ever meant to, must supernaturally direct us to humble ourselves before God and people.  Indeed, when we realize a particular path of meekness to which our Father calls us and feel aversion to the journey, we should not be surprised.  We cannot begin to innately produce the quality of humility required.  The Spirit of Christ who dwells within our hearts, however, is abundantly able to reveal His character within us, directing us to “walk, even as He walked” (Galatians 4:6; I John 2:6).  We “look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” as the author and finisher of our calling to “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2).

      When first we see the Lord Jesus, His eternal and infinite majesty will rightly lead us to our knees and faces in overwhelmed wonder.  “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead” (Revelation 1:17).  However, He will beckon us to “fear not” as the fearful Lion of the tribe of Judah will also be known as “a Lamb as it had been slain” (Revelation 5:5-6).  Majesty and humility will shine before us in a glory that both overwhelms and comforts.  We must presently know Him by faith in both aspects of His place in our hearts and lives.  Growing humility will result, the humility that occurs by the presence of His character within us.  No other way of humbling ourselves as God commands exists.  Nor is any other way needed.

“Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God, He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself.  After that He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.” 

(John 13:3-5)

“Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

(II Corinthians 3:18)

Weekly Memory Verse

   And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last.

(Revelation 1:17)

7801

Orange Moon Saturday, May 23, 2026 "How Is It?"

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

    “How Is It?”     

   

    “There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For His disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.  Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?   For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans” (John 4:7-9).

     The Samaritan woman’s inquiry suggests a far greater question that should be asked by every human heart.

    “How is it, that You, being a perfectly good and righteous God have any dealings with me, one so far below You and Your holy standard of life and being?”

    Or, as Jacob confessed to the Lord, “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shown unto Thy servant” (Jacob 32:10).

   The more and the better we know our Heavenly Father, the more and the better we become astonished by “all the mercies” He reveals in our lives.  They parade before us one by one by one by one, revealing the wonder of His disposition of grace toward a race that, by all rights, He could have left to its own willful rejection of Himself and His truth.  He did not do this, of course, but rather purposed before we even existed the redeeming work of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).  Not just any lamb, of course, but rather His eternally beloved Son who would become for our sakes the object of His wrath on the cross of Calvary.  “We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God” (Isaiah 53:4).  

    The truth is blessedly familiar to every believer, of course, which can tempt us to wander from the wonder of its enormity and magnitude.  We do well to remember the Samaritan woman’s inquiry and Jacob’s stark acknowledgment, offering our own confession of astonishment:  “How do You have dealings with one such as myself?… I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and all the truth You have shown to Your servant.”   Our Father will gladly respond by directing our hearts to the basis of His grace, and the fount from which every moment of mercy will flow forevermore: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased… He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Matthew 3:17; Ephesians 1:6).  How is it indeed, that He has dealings with us, dealings of the most unimaginable love, grace, and mercy?   John the Baptist directs our hearts to the answer that must astonish us now, in this moment, even as in that blessed hour when first we discovered the sublime wonder…

“Behold the Lamb of God.”

(John 1:36) 

“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?”

(Romans 8:32)

Weekly Memory Verse

    The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

(Deuteronomy 29:29)

7800