"The Good Work"

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

 "The Good Work"

    

     The old saying speaks well of God's gracious devotion to the well being of His trusting sons and daughters in the Lord Jesus Christ: "God loves us as we are, but He also loves us enough to not leave us as we are."

    "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).

    Salvation in the Lord Jesus provides not merely passage to Heaven, but also a new, Christ-filled heart that will make us suitable for our eternal home and destiny.  Heaven will be populated by glorified believers just like the Lord Jesus in character, nature, and way - "We shall be like Him" (I John 3:2).  Our Savior's unselfish devotion to God and others will characterize our every thought, attitude, word, and action as the result of God's redeeming work that accomplishes perhaps the greatest of all miracles, namely, to transform our very being from self-centeredness to the love that "seeketh not her own" (I Corinthians 13:5).

   Such a "good work" takes place even now in all believers, regardless of where we may be in our walk with the Lord.  Everything our Heavenly Father does involves making us like His Son in the entirety of our being.  "Now the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thessalonians 5:23).  In each moment, we may or may not be functional and cooperative in the holy process, leading to different administrations of our Father's perfectly wise working.  Still the work proceeds, and certain is the promise that every believer will ultimately be like the wondrous One in whom we believe.  We shall be like Him…

   We do well to often ponder the circumstances, situations, and conditions of our lives in this blessed context of grace and truth.  Blessedness speaks of the "good work."  So does trouble.  Pleasures and pains fit into the process, along with the mundane moments of life in which little or nothing seems to be occurring.   The promise is etched in the eternal bedrock of Divine faithfulness: God "will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ."  This moment and its particulars apply.  Many earthly factors may be realities we acknowledge and to which we respond as necessary.   The "good work" nevertheless serves as the abiding reality of all.  Our Father incessantly acts to make us like the Lord Jesus.  He never stops, and He will ultimately succeed.  This constitutes a wonder of transformative grace beyond all understanding, and a gift of love beyond all capacity to appreciate and give thanks.   We shall be like Him…

"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)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

(Ephesians 1:3)

  

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