Orange Moon Monday, August 17, 2026 "A Good Work" (the Prevailing Purpose)

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

    

“A Good Work” (the Prevailing Purpose)

    

      

      “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).

    What is the “good work” referenced by the Apostle Paul to the Philippians?  He answers in his epistle to the Romans:

    “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.  For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:28-29).

    We can and must be confident that in everything God does in believer’s hearts and lives, He works to change us into the spiritual and moral image of the Lord Jesus.  Why the blessings?  Why the challenges?  Why the pleasures?  Why the pains?  Why the people, whether friend, foe, or those we meet along our Lord’s pathways of providence?  Why everything?  Amid countless sub-purposes related to each individual, the prevailing purpose abides in all... “To be conformed to the image of His Son.”

   “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).

   In Heaven, where every saint will shine so beautifully and personally with the character of Christ, all will rejoice in the fulfillment the anticipation: “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).  Indeed, think of a realm wherein all will bear the disposition of the Lord Jesus as He so beautifully lives in us and we live by Him.  No selfish attitude or action will ever mar that holy place of grace.   “Christ in you, the hope of glory” will be eternally fulfilled in us as Christ in you, the perfect and ever enhanced expression of glory (Colossians 1:27).  All will be like the Lord Jesus.  Think of Him in light of Scripture and also the wondrously faithful Lord we have found Him to be in our lives.  To live among vast multitudes of such ones boggles the mind, and even more, overwhelms the heart as we await the perfect fulfillment of…  “to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Ephesians 3:18-19).

     Let us also make this wonder of grace and redemption personal.  God works such a work, and will finish it in you and me.  “We shall be like Him” (I John 3:2).  We will have played a role along the way, trusting and submitting to our Heavenly Father as we “worked out” that which He “worked in” (Philippians 2:12-13).  However, when we see in Heaven a brother or sister who perfectly glimmers with the glory of the Lord Jesus in countenance, demeanor, attitude, word, and deed, we will know that such a work directs all glory to God.  Even more, as we recognize such grace in our own hearts and lives, we will be far more sure of God’s “so great salvation” fulfilled by so great a Savior (Hebrews 2:3).  “We shall be like Him.”  No simple statement of Scripture should more thrill our hearts, fulfill our hearts, and instill in our hearts the confidence that God finishes what He starts, including and especially... “He which hath begun a good work in you.”

“Walk, even as He walked.”

(I John 3:2)

Weekly Memory Verse

    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).

    

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Orange Moon Saturday, August 15, 2026 "Never Give Up (on Relationships"

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

    

“Never Give Up (on Relationships)”

    

      

      A dear friend and brother in Christ has recently experienced the first steps of a restored relationship with a family member from whom he has been estranged for more than four decades.  My friend has prayed thousands of prayers and has always been willing to renew fellowship.  Only recently, however, has his relative experienced a change of heart and mind.  This has led to several brief contacts, with plans for more involved and lengthy times of getting together to remember and rejoice in times past, and hopefully, to enjoy many times to come.

   We are not to give up on relationships.  If the Bible contains any message at all, it calls us to have hope that the Lord Jesus Christ will be known as the Redeemer and Restorer He is.  Indeed, the account of the thief on the cross (now the saint in Heaven) commands that we ever hold out hope that burned bridges and roads washed out can be repaired by the grace of God, making possible the miraculous establishment or restoration of relationship with both God and people.  In the last hours of life, our brother of old became a blessed confirmation of our Savior’s power to change heart and minds.  The thief responded to God’s mercy offered with seemingly so little time left for a saving relationship with God.  Doubtless, many such late hour conversions have occurred in those who have squandered an earthly lifetime, but who will most surely not waste eternity in their ongoing testimony of the relentless Spirit of God, pursuing to the end.

   The truth applies to human to human relationships as well.  We are not give up on them.  Pray accordingly.  Think accordingly.  Believe accordingly.  Bear an expectant heart of mercy and a willingness for whatever personal repentance may be necessary. Love accordingly, that is, love God by trusting Him, and love the estranged by not giving up on the possibility he will be drawn near to yet again become dear.  One never knows when a knock on the door may amaze us with wonder as the grace of the Lord Jesus builds a new path that has brought someone to our doorstep we thought never to have seen again.  “The love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” can do such things.  It has over and over, and it will again and again (Ephesians 3:19. We never give up on relationships.

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”(Ephesians 4:1-3)

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”

(Ephesians 4:32)

Weekly Memory Verse

   For the Lord is good, and His truth endureth to all generations.

(Psalm 100:5

  

    

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