Orange Moon Wednesday, March 25, 2026 "The Drops and the Rain"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"The Drops and the Rain" 

    

     Relatively few big things happen to any human being.  This includes kings as well as hermits.  Life rather involves countless small matters of the day wherein the battles of life are most often won and lost.

   "He maketh small the drops of water.  They pour down rain" (Job 36:27).

      Seemingly inconsequential moments, events, and experiences govern the course of our lives.  This is especially true regarding our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ and with people.   Loving Him and others involves apparently insignificant thoughts, attitudes, actions, and words that may seem tiny in the moment, but which often loom large in hindsight.  "Small drops of water" indeed make for "pouring rain."  Faithfulness to God and people regarding the tiniest matters and moments may greatly honor Him and change the course of lives.  Conversely, Solomon reminds us that "little foxes" often "spoil the vines" (Song of Solomon 2:15).  We can hinder and damage in a moment, with a word, an action, an inaction, an attitude, or a look on the face.  

    Small drops and pouring rain remind us of life's eternal significance, and of how vital it is that we walk prayerfully and carefully with our Lord.  This day will involve countless small matters that unite to chart the course of life's journey.  Our Heavenly Father will be there for them all.  Remembering His presence and involvement transforms our hearts and minds regarding how we perceive the moments that may feel and appear to be insignificant.  They are not.  The drops and the rain tell us that.

"Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

(I Corinthians 10:31)  

"There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?"

(John 6:9)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   He that is entered into His rest, he hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His.

 (Hebrews 4:10)

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Orange Moon Tuesday, March 24, 2026 "Why?"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"Why?" 

    What we do matters much.  Why we do it matters more.

    "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity (love), it profiteth me nothing" (I Corinthians 13:3).

    The challenge of this truth - and the blessing - involves the fact that we cannot independently form and maintain our proper motivations.  Much influences the reasons for why we do what we do.  This is especially true regarding the will of God, the greatest challenge of our existence.  The path to which He calls us requires His presence, involvement, and working in our hearts to ensure that our "Why?" accompanies our "What?"  Scripture does call us to purify our heart and souls (James 4:8; I Peter 1:22).  The means by which we accomplish this, however, requires faith in our Heavenly Father's working:

   "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.  And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure" (I John 3:2-3).

   Hope in God's progressive process to conform us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ maintains our assurance regarding both our "What?" and our "Why?"  

    "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).

   The Holy Spirit moves within believers to motivate and enable the sincerity that must accompany our actions. God alone sees into the innermost depths of our being to determine our "Why?"  Therein, He alone can accomplish the purification of our reasons and motivations.  As the Apostle John declares, we cooperate by our hope in the Lord's working, purifying ourselves as by faith we "work out" that which He "works in" (Philippians 2:13).  "Search me, o God, and know my heart" requested the Psalmist in one of the wisest prayers ever uttered (Psalm 139:23).  We do well to echo David, frequently seeking our Father's examination not only of what we do, but of why we do it.

"Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins (mind) and my heart."

(Psalm 26:2)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   He that is entered into His rest, he hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His.

 (Hebrews 4:10)

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Orange Moon. Monday, March 23, 2026 "Grace and Peace"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"Grace and Peace" 

    "Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 1:7).

    Only God's freely given favor in the Lord Jesus - grace - received by faith in His death, burial, and resurrection, results in true peace.  Indeed, one can be in optimum health, have a good family and many friends, seek to live a moral life, enjoy a successful career, beautiful home, and all the world seems to offer.  Apart from redeeming relationship with God through, however, "there is no peace, saith my God to the wicked" (Isaiah 57:21).

    Deep within every unbelieving heart, the Holy Spirit bears witness to the unsettling truth of being "alienated from the life of God" (Ephesians 4:18).  Many allow the aforementioned blessings to distract from their dire need.  Others find different diversions as a means of ignoring the "no peace" condition of a heart empty of the Presence for which it was made.  "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts" (Psalm 10:4).

    The world can be viewed as the converted, those who have received God's freely given favor through the Lord Jesus, and the condemned, those who will not trust in Christ and Christ alone as the hope for peace with God.  "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (I John 3:18).  Salvation involves the great humbling of the human heart steeped in pride and self sufficiency.  Satan's "ye shall be as gods" lie runs deep in all until the Gospel is believed and the Lord Jesus is received (Genesis 3:5).  No real peace is possible apart from the reception of grace whereby the sinner's heart sings, "Nothing in my hands I bring, only to Thy cross I cling" ("The Old Rugged Cross" - George Bennard).  Pride dissolves in the moment of the new birth, replaced by the humility that kneels to affirm the Prince of peace as our only hope for peace.  "He that is entered into His rest, he hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His" (Hebrews 4:10).

    Either "accepted in the Beloved" or "alienated from the life of God" (Ephesians 1:6; 4:18).  One either receives God's grace and its blessed bestowal of peace, or he remains in the deep inner turmoil of "no peace… to the wicked.  Moreover, the believer grows in the experience of Christ as He grows in grace.  Little wonder then that all of the Apostle Paul's epistles begin with the salutation of grace in the Lord Jesus and its blessed assurance of peace.

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

(Ephesians 5:1-2)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   He that is entered into His rest, he hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His.

 (Hebrews 4:10)

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