Orange Moon Monday, April 20, 2026 "The Author of Hebrews"

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

“The Author of Hebrews”      

    

     

    Written to first century Jewish believers in the Lord Jesus Christ being tempted to return to the law of Moses due to persecution, the epistle to the Hebrews stands as the Holy Spirit’s most direct Scriptural declaration of the supremacy and superiority of the Savior.  The word “better” appears thirteen times in Hebrews, confirming the intention of the Spirit of God to shine the brightest light of Biblical truth upon the Brightest Light of living truth.   “Thy Word is truth… I am the truth” (John 17:17; 14:6).

      Hebrews identifies no human author on its pages, although many possibilities have been suggested through the ages of the church.  I have my thoughts in the matter, but I actually love the fact of no attribution of human authorship provided by the epistle.  Indeed, the only heart and mind of which we can be absolutely certain regarding the existence and content of Hebrews is that of the inspirer of all Scripture, the Holy Spirit.

    "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (II Peter 1:21).

   The Bible is the only book that comes with its Author.  The Spirit of God moves upon the pages of the Word He inspired for the primary purpose of exalting and revealing the Lord Jesus (John 15:26; 16:14).  Little wonder then that the epistle of Hebrews so clearly honors Christ.  We discover Him to be “better” than the prophets, the angels, and Moses.  His dispensation and covenant of “grace and truth” also transcends the old covenant of law, necessary as it was, by an infinite measure that ultimately results in the Holy Spirit’s eternal indwelling of believers’ hearts (John 1:17).  “The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Hebrews 7:19).  Hebrews shines with such glorious light on earthly pages, bearing witness to the Holy Spirit’s imprinting of His Word on redeemed human spirits:

    “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people” (Hebrews 8:10).

    “We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the Day Star arise in your hearts” (II Peter 1:19).

    All Scripture serves as ground so holy we remove the shoes of our hearts upon every approach to any word, verse, or passage.  The Holy Spirit’s Christ-exalting masterpiece, the epistle to the Hebrews, occupies its place in the written Word, bearing a unique honoring of the living Word, the Lord Jesus.  Whoever the human author may have been, the fact that he did not identify himself leads us to appreciate his humble self deference, while even more realizing the source and origin of arguably the most direct Biblical expression of the supremacy and superiority of the Savior.  In essence, Hebrews and its blessed Author  tells us that the Lord Jesus is better than anything and everything our hearts can consider and embrace.  No truth more illuminates our hearts or the pathways of life upon which we tread, as led by Holy Spirit who dwells in the pages of the Word He inspired, and in the hearts of the redeemed He leads for the glory of Christ.

“Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.”

(Hebrews 16:13)

Weekly Memory Verse

    We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the Day Star arise in your hearts.

 (II Peter 1:19).

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Orange Moon Saturday, April 18, 2026 “In Him" Part 2 - This Moment

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

“In Him"   

Part 2  - This Moment              

    

     

    While far beyond our complete understanding, the realization that “in Him we live and move and have our being” can have great impact on any moment in which the truth comes to heart and mind (Acts 17:28; Matthew 27:46).

    “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).

    Consider this moment.  What if earthly conditions, circumstances, and situations - real and consequential as they are - are not actually the primary reality in which we exist?  What if God Himself serves that role?  He does, of course, although we cannot presently see, hear, or touch Him.  Moreover, His presence and working often greatly transcend our understanding - “His ways are past finding out” (Romans 11:33).  

   Consider the cross on which the Lord Jesus Christ died.  Had we been a passerby, our first impression, along with many others to follow, would not have suggested a moment infused with God’s wondrous redemptive working.  It appeared, in fact, as just the opposite.  “If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross” mocked those who witnessed that which carnal mindedness could never rightly perceive (Matthew 27:40).  The Lord did not descend from the cross because His presence there served as the most necessary of God’s workings in human history.   Our Heavenly Father was there as the primary agent, executing wrath against His beloved Son, “made to be sin for us” (II Corinthians 5:21).  Calvary was a moment like no other, filled with God even as He forsook His Son for us.  At the time, however, we would not have viewed it in this light of the most brightly shining glory of grace and mercy. 

   Whatever this moment holds, it is itself held by the God who “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11).  We waste little time seeking to understand His ways “past finding out.”  We spend much time seeking to believe the truth that no moment of either time or eternity will be found without the living and true God as its prime reality.  We “live and move and have our being” in this wonder of our existence, and for the believer, in God’s presence and working that constitutes the very Life of our lives.  “To live is Christ” declared the Apostle Paul (Philippians 1:21).  It is.  He is.  The remembrance transforms our moments with our Lord’s promised “life and peace.”   As it will this moment if we will by faith “see Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27).

“Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?   Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?  If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there.  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.  If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee. For Thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.”

(Psalm 139:5-13)

Weekly Memory Verse

     Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Romans 6:11)

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Orange Moon Friday, April 17, 2026 "In Him"

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

“In Him"                   

    

     

    “He is not far from every one of us.  For in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

    What can this statement of the Apostle Paul possibly mean?

     I have pondered this, prayed about this, wrinkled my brow about this, shaken my head about this, fallen to my face in the wonder of this, and perhaps foolishly, preached and written about this for nearly a half century.   After all this time, I never read or remember the words without being overwhelmed by them and thinking to myself, “I do not have the foggiest notion!”

   Note that Paul included unbelievers in the “we” of “not far from us” and “in Him.”  He spoke to Athenian philosophers, most of whom rejected the Apostle and his contentions about the Lord Jesus Christ.  “We?” to such ones?  Paul certainly did not suggest that all know God in the saving, relational way through the Lord Jesus Christ clearly proclaimed by Scripture.  “God commandeth all men everywhere to repent” declared Paul to the Athenians of the only hope human hearts have for redemption through Christ from sin and the establishment of relationship with God (Acts 17:30).  Nevertheless, the Apostle stated of all that "in Him we live and move and have our being.”   

   While the marvel and mystery of the statement far transcends our understanding, its truth does change much in our hearts and minds regarding how we view others and ourselves.   Since conception, we have lived no moment in which God is not the greatest of all facts and realities.  Nor will we ever, including this moment.  Our Lord, the giver of breath, dwells nearer than our next breath right now, as He has always been, and will always be.  We cannot presently see, hear or touch Him.  He nevertheless abides as the great fact, the great reality of both now and forevermore.  This is true of ourselves, and of all.  “We.”

    Concerning our view of others, we do well to join Paul in the light of such truth.  

   “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead. And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more” (II Corinthians 5:14-16).

   Paul determined that whatever he perceived of attitude, word, deed, or any fleshly expression in people, his primary perspective would be guided by the constraining love of Christ.  He would view all as those for whom the Lord Jesus died, and who either needed to avail themselves of God’s saving grace, or to walk more in the light of its glorious reality.  He would see all who lived and moved upon the earth as far more living and moving in its Creator.  Note that the Apostle did not explain to the philosophers what this meant.  He likely did not know himself.  However, Paul did know how much every human heart needs to hear the words, and even in our bewilderment, to see ourselves and others in their holy illumination.  “In Thy light shall we see light” (Psalm 36:9).

    We will encounter no one in this day, or in any day, who does not “live and move and have their being” in God.  All will be “not far" from Him.  Be it the most unbelieving of atheists, or the most devout of saints,” the truth and reality applies to all.  For those who do not believe, the realization goes far in reminding us of their desperate need for salvation in the Lord Jesus that affects both this life and forevermore.  “Ye must be born again” declared the Savior in the most dire imperative ever uttered in human history (John 3:7).  For our brothers and sisters in Christ, we recognize they not only live and move in God.  He lives and moves in them.  Indeed, in yet another Scriptural declaration that profoundly transcends our understanding, while infusing our being with “the hope of glory,” Paul declared, “Ye are the temple of the living God… the Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (Colossians 1:27; I Corinthians 3:16).  Whatever we may see outwardly in fellow believers, our first and primary gaze must be “not after the flesh,” but rather upon the “new creature” wherein God dwells (II Corinthians 5:17).  

    Breathtaking.  Heart overwhelming.  Mind shattering.  And yet somehow, our inability to see fills us with the brightly of all lights and glories.  “In Him we live and move and have our being.”  What does this mean?   Perhaps answers exist.   Let us seek whatever we can find of them.  However, the fact that we cannot begin to fully understand may be the clearest of all answers as by faith we choose to see the great fact of our existence, and the greatest reality of this, and of all moments. 

Father, are You there?

No, My child, I am not there.

I am here, nearer than any other.

And I will always be not there, but here,

of this you can be sure,

and this you will discover

As the years roll on and eternity draws nigh,

I am with you always,

so near, so much nearer than any other.

I am here, My child.

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord?  Or who hath been His counselor?  Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again?  For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.”(Romans 11:33-36)

Weekly Memory Verse

“Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

(Romans 6:11)

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