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

Saturday, July 18, 2026

Orange Moon Saturday, July 18, 2026 “Accentuated and Expanded”

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

“Accentuated and Expanded”

“I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).

Why the accentuation and expansion of God’s commands and standards to believers who freely receive His grace and truth in the Lord Jesus Christ?

The Savior Himself answered in His promise to the disciples of a coming gift far beyond their capacity to imagine:

“The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17).

The greatest of all graces given to those who trust the Lord Jesus is most surely Himself. “I will dwell in them and walk in them” (II Corinthians 6:16). Born again believers thereby possess far more capacity for obedience than the saints of the old covenant could have dreamed. Thus, the accentuation and expansion of the commands. God certainly dwelt “with” the saints of old. However, He dwells “within” the saints of the new, supplying the capability for faithful obedience far beyond our human capacities. Salvation births a “newness of life” in heart that makes possible a newness of what we do and how we do it (Romans 6:4). This life is Christ Himself, again, dwelling not simply with us, wondrous as that is, but literally living within us as the very Life of our lives.

“Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father” (Galatians 4:6).

Let us make this intensely practical. Our Heavenly Father calls us to not only be His living temple, but to think, speak, act, and relate as if He were vitally present in in us. Because He is. Note the promise we often quote in these messages: “I will dwell in them and walk in them” (II Corinthians 6:16; emphasis added). Our Lord does not merely sit on a throne in the hearts of believers. The Holy Spirit rather actively engages His capabilities whereby we “walk even as Christ walked,” based on the truth that He walks in us (I John 2:6). We will do what we do, and it will seem to simply be us. However, if we could as God sees, looking upon a faithful brother or sister - or ourselves - would be clearly recognized as witnessing the wonder of a living temple of the Christ who dwells and walks in them (us).

This quiet manifestation of the greatest reality of our existence is certainly best for us in this present lifetime wherein “we walk by faith, not by sight” (II Corinthians 5:7). The left hand will rarely know what the right hand does. Even as the Lord Jesus - “God... manifest in the flesh” - lived so quietly during most of His earthly lifetime that He seemed as merely “the carpenter’s Son," most of of our lives guided and empowered by His indwelling presence will not be accompanied by spectacular displays (I Timothy 3:16; Matthew 13:55). We won’t often think that what we do, we do as the expression of God's living presence. Others will rarely consider us in such terms. The truth will abide as true, however, and every act of faithful obedience by every believer occurs because the faithful Christ lives in us, and yes, walks in us.

Our calling involves believing such truth to be true, and submitting ourselves to God as not merely ourselves, but as ourselves inhabited and empowered by the risen Christ. Indeed, the Apostle Paul calls us to consider ourselves and yield ourselves as “alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11-13). Why and how does such grace work in us? Because our Lord dwells within us, and oh yes, He walks in us. Let us then consider the steps of our lives in far different terms than we often ponder. Believers are not merely ourselves. We are ourselves as inhabited and enabled by the living God. Christ lives in us, that we may live through Him. Whatever this day holds, we will not face it alone. Nor will we be required to muster our own strength to navigate the challenging pathways of this present life. “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10). This we must believe, first, because it is true. And then, because we will far more faithfully walk in trusting obedience to God as we remember and affirm by faith the only hope we have for such an accentuated and expanded life. And the only hope we need…

“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

(Colossians 1:27)

Weekly Memory Verse

"Gracious is the Lord, and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful."

(Psalm 116:5).

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Friday, July 17, 2026

Orange Moon Friday, July 17, 2026 "Forsaken... Never Forsaken"

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

“Forsaken... Never Forsaken”

The pain of separation became a reality for me very early in life. My father died when I was two, and thus old enough for him to have become greatly cherished and beloved in my heart. I recall little about him now, but I have lived my life in full awareness that a void has existed in my heart since the day my father left.

In elementary school, I further experienced the difficulty of losing people who meant something to me. When the fall semester began each year, questions would arise. “Where is Johnnie? What happened to Susan?” Over the summer, families moved away, resulting in the loss of friends, many of whom I never saw again. As time passed, life led to even more keenly felt separations, sometimes by more deaths of loved ones. Of all the challenges this present fallen world brings to our hearts, none more pain and even break our hearts than having to say goodbye to those we long to keep near. “And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more” (Acts 20:37-38).

While the sorrow of separation keenly impacts us all, one such breach of relationship bears the most significance despite the fact it occurred not in the hearts of ourselves, but in the heart of Another:

“My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Against the backdrop of a “from everlasting” fellowship of love that “passeth knowledge,” a breach somehow occurred on the cross of Calvary between God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son (Psalm 90:2; Ephesians 3:19). The Lord Jesus bore our sins, and in a mystery far more beyond our comprehension, was “made to be sin for us” (I Peter 2:24; II Corinthians 5:21). On the cross, the Father smote His Son for our sake with the fury of His wrath against sin, the most horrific aspect of which doubtless involved the forsakenness whereby the Lord Jesus died utterly alone. Indeed, no one has ever known loneliness as did our Savior when the Father and the Holy Spirit left Him to die far more of a broken heart than a broken body. “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4).

The pain of separation? One knows such agony far more than all others, the very One who can help us when we must say our farewells. Indeed, to the degree the Lord Jesus was forsaken on the cross, God promises that such loss will never happen to those who trust Him: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). We will feel the sorrows of separation in this lifetime. Never, however, will we know complete and utter abandonment as did the Lord Jesus. He can help us when we feel alone, enabling us to remember that the only One we cannot lose will never leave nor forsake us. This because our Lord most keenly knows what it means to be left and forsaken, the sacrifice whereby He freely grants and secures the presence of God in our hearts forevermore…

“I am with you always.”

(Matthew 28:20)