Orange Moon Saturday, May 31, 2025 "The Faithful God"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"The Faithful God"  

    

 

     "He is thy life… To live is Christ" (Deuteronomy 30:20; Philippians 1:21).

    From the moment we trust the Lord Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father begins a progressive work of revealing how much He saturates our lives and existence.  "In Him, we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  Our awareness of such grace ebbs and flows, based on our response of faith and submission to our Lord's all-encompassing reality.  He works nonetheless, with no ebb and flow concerning His fulfillment of the promise…

     "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:21).

    Such encouraging truth also sometimes comes as a splash of cold water in our spiritual faces.  We may feel as if we have been asleep regarding our perception of God and His working as the complexities of life tempt us to distraction and diversion.  "Surely the Lord is in this place" acknowledged Jacob at Bethel.  "And I knew it not!" he mournfully confessed (Genesis 28:16).  The recognition of our Lord's faithful working amid our limited and faulty response rightly humbles us, even as it amazes us by His perfect devotion that so contrasts with our need for a clearer vision and more consistent response.  "If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful.  He cannot deny Himself" (II Timothy 2:13).

   Whatever our perception and awareness may be in this moment, the great fact of our existence remains completely secure.  The Lord is indeed "in this place," whatever it may hold and how much or little we may perceive of His presence and working.  Our hearts teem with His presence, our blessings with His kindness, our challenges with His promise, our circumstances with His providence, and our lives with His life.  Even the best and brightest among us see so very little in comparison to the saturation by God of our being and existence.  The truth may trouble us in the realization of how much we unnecessarily miss.  Doubtless, however, our Father would most want us to be encouraged and strengthened by the remembrance of His eternally - and in this moment - abiding faithfulness.  Wonderfully, the remembrance may and should result in our own response of greater devotion to the One so perfectly devoted to us.  "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).  

     Long ago, Moses called Israel to the same realization with which the Spirit of God doubtless beckons us in this moment, and which both humbles and invigorates...

"Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God."

(Deuteronomy 7:9)

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 Friday, May 30, 2025 "Humility and Strength"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"Humility and Strength"  

    

 

     Humility proceeds from strength, that is, from the power of God known, received, and embraced as true enabling and ability.

    "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble" (James 4:6).

    One can seemingly possess ability, confidence, and place in the world, thereby appearing to be strong and confidently able.  However, only those who humbly receive the grace of God can be accounted as genuinely "strong in the power of His might," and thus truly able (Ephesians 6:10).  The seemingly strong actually live by the God-given "life and breath and all things" necessary for all created beings to exist and act (Acts 17:25).  They erroneously perceive themselves as their own arbiters and actualizers of life, living as supplicants of their Maker without knowing and recognizing their complete lack of strength apart from Him.  "Ye rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?" (Amos 6:13).

   In stark contrast, the humble recognize reality.  They know they did not create themselves, they did not make themselves into whatever they are, and their very existence requires the Christ who "upholds all things by the word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3).  They rightly answer the question, "What hast thou that thou didst not received?" (I Corinthians 4:7).  They do not live passively, or wait for God to move their hearts, minds, hands, and feet as if merely programmed machines.  They nevertheless realize and affirm that if God withholds grace, their ability ends instantly.  "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).  This is strength of the actual and eternal kind, the strength that grants confidence even as it humbles.  "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up" (James 4:10).

    The proud, the haughty, and the cruel of the world are actually the weakest among us, regardless of how strong they may appear to be.   All too soon for them, their place will pass and their true condition will be exposed.  The humble await another destiny altogether, a realm of light they will enter through the grace and mercy of the One who Himself epitomized the very essence of humility during His earthly lifetime.  In the Lord Jesus, humility and strength walked hand in hand, heart in heart, as it will in all whose strength is humility, and whose humility is strength.

I met a traveller from an antique land, who said,

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert.

Near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies,

whose frown and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command

tell that its sculptor well those passions read

which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear,

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings.

Look on my works and despair!

Nothing beside remains.  

Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

the lone and level sands stretch far away.

("Ozymandias" - Percy Bysshe Shelley)

"My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.  The humble shall hear thereof and be glad."

(Psalm 34:2)

"And upon a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne and made an oration unto them.  And the people gave a great shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.  And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory.  And he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost."

(Acts 12:21-23)

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 Thursday, May 29, 2025 "The Focus"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"The Focus"  

    

 

     It could be suggested that the titles of every book of the Bible are actually subtitles.

    "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me" (John 5:39).

    The Lord Jesus Christ declared that the Scriptures, which comprised only the Old Testament at the time He spoke, and that certainly now include the New, all exist to bear witness to Him.  Thus, all the books the Bible could rightly bear the primary title, "The Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ."  We open the Book to behold the Savior, whether in doctrine, history, prophecy, promise, command, poetry, or personal accounts of God's relationship to humanity through Christ.  "They… testify of Me."

    Keeping this central truth in heart and mind as we read and study Scripture aligns our focus with "the eternal purpose which God purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).  We consider the Bible broadly, of course, responding to its various revelations in a similar manner as we ponder all recorded history and information.  What happened?  Why did it happen?  What does this mean?  What is the significance of events as they happened?  What are their significance for us?  What does this verse mean, and how does it align with all Scripture?  How might God be addressing me personally by this passage?  These and other questions guide our reading, study, and response to the wondrous gift of the the Bible, and the wondrous Gift it exists to glorify and reveal.  "The Scriptures… testify of Me."

    "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).

    In the light of the Scriptures, we see the Savior.  In the light of the Savior, we interpret the Scriptures.  The Lord Jesus dwells in every book, chapter, verse, sentence, word, and letter.  We will see only a small portion of the blessed revelation in this lifetime, but as we maintain the focus that enables us to "see light," our response to the living Word and the written Word grows our hearts, minds, and lives in God's grace and truth.  "The Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ" serves as perhaps the best main title for every book, preparing our hearts and minds to join our Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit in the Scriptural theme and focus that verse by verse bears witness to the Savior.

"Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

(Luke 24:26-27)

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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