Orange Moon Monday, June 30, 2025 Philemon - Part 1 - "A Free Man"

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

(Over the next few days, we will consider the the Apostle Paul's epistle to Philemon, one of my favorite portions of Scripture, and one of its most Christ-exalting and revealing revelations of truth.)

"Philemon"

Part 1 - A Free Man  

    

 

    The Apostle Paul wrote his epistle to Philemon from prison, incarcerated by the Roman government under the authority of Caesar.  Paul, however, did not view himself as bound by human sovereignty.

    "Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellow laborer" (Philemon 1:1; emphasis added).

    The Apostle saw himself as imprisoned because and only because the providence of God had allowed such an injustice to occur.  He believed - rightly - that his bonds would serve as the means for the grace and truth of the Lord Jesus to be revealed and glorified.  Paul viewed himself as the Lord's detainee, bound in body, but not in spirit.  Indeed, at least four New Testament epistles have freely soared through the ages unto countless hearts, including in this day when millions will read the questionably termed "prison epistles" (Philemon, Ephesians, Galatians, and Colossians).  The Bible would be incomplete without these masterpieces of the Holy Spirit, inspired in the free heart of Paul regardless of how bereft he may have been of earthly liberty.

   "I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds, but the Word of God is not bound" (II Timothy 2:9).

    Every believer is "a prisoner of Jesus Christ."  This present life "incarcerates" us all in various ways as our Heavenly Father providentially works to reveal His glory in challenges that seem to hinder rather than benefit.  As we trust and submit to Him, however, the Holy Spirit works in us as He did in Paul.  "Prisons" become lighthouses of liberty wherein we are freed to discover our Lord in personal terms, and then communicate our findings to others.  We would never well know Him in this present life apart from the limitations He administers and allows that reveal to us and through us the only true freedom that exists (which has little or nothing to do with liberty as defined by the world).  

   "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall free indeed" (John 8:36).

   Presently - and always - the believer who best knows genuine freedom is likely one that would seem to be the most bound.  "Prisoners of Jesus Christ" may for all the world seem limited by circumstance or even cruelty.  They are, in earthly terms.  In terms of true and Heavenly reality, however, their spirits soar and their lives lead to freedom for others.  Paul's letter to Philemon confirms such providence twenty centuries after his writing, even as it doubtless liberated Philemon in his day to walk in the love of Christ.  A free man wrote the epistle, the freest man of his generation, and one in whom a prison served to reveal the only true liberty that exists for human hearts…

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

(John 8:32)

Weekly Memory Verse 

  "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory."

 (Hebrews 2:10).

  

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Orange Moon Friday, June 27, 2025 “The Intercessor”

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

"The Intercessor"  

    

 

    When tempted to discouragement, God calls born again believers to remember and affirm the One who never becomes discouraged, nor did He under the most severe of trials.

    "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds"(Hebrews 12:2-3).

    "He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).

    First, we remember that discouragement is a temptation.  The matter involves not merely our human weakness, but even more, the devilish enticement to look unto ourselves and our challenges rather than unto the Lord Jesus.  The Spirit of God and the Word of God ever beckon us to set the primary focus of our hearts on the Son of God.  He knew more temptation to be "wearied and faint" than we will ever experience, and overcame all.  Moreover, He is "set down at the right hand of God" in ongoing and active engagement for us. He makes intercession with the Father, who is Himself abundantly willing to be and do everything we require for our hearts to be kept in His peace.  What the Lord Jesus has done and is doing secures our hearts as we look unto Him as "the author and finisher of our faith."  Thereby we overcome our spiritual enemies' attempts to cast us down as we look up to see by faith the risen and interceding Christ as our hope and peace.

   "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (I John 5:4).

   When tempted to discouragement, we pray, and also seek fellow believers to join us.  What if, however, Someone else also intercedes for us, Someone who has faced and overcome every challenge, and who knows precisely how to make intercession for us in the present moment?  The remembrance of such grace cannot fail to provide encouragement needed for all who see the Lord Jesus at the Father's right hand, successfully fulfilling the ongoing ministry of intercession no less than He triumphed in His finished work of atonement.  It matters not the issue that would cast us down.  The Holy Spirit works to lift us up by leading us to remember the risen Lord Jesus and what He has done, is doing, and will do forevermore for those who have trusted Him.  "So great salvation" described the writer of Hebrews regarding such grace, provided by so great a Savior - the Author of our faith, the Finisher of our faith, and the One who in this present moment and forever will be found…

"To appear in the presence of God for us."

(Hebrews 9:24)

Weekly Memory Verse 

  "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory."

 (Hebrews 2:10).

  

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Orange Moon Thursday, June 26, 2025 "A Quiet Resurrection"

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

"A Quiet Resurrection"  

    

 

    The Apostle Paul prayed that the Ephesian believers would know "the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at his own right hand in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:19-20).

    Upon first consideration, we might think Paul sought spectacular displays of the power of God for his brethren.  However, we do well to remember that no human eyes actually saw the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.  Nor does Scripture record anything about the moment of our Savior's rising.  No mighty sound or sight is mentioned of what can be viewed as the greatest of all events in human history.  The Holy Spirit simply inspired the fact of the matter to be recorded in the Bible, along with our Lord's subsequent appearing to His followers and His spiritual presence imparted to all who have trusted Him since the day His tomb became the scene of His triumph.  "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).

    A quiet resurrection bears witness to the generally quiet manner in which the risen life of Christ manifests the power of God in our lives.  Of course, the Lord may part a Red Sea or stop the sun in its track when necessary.  Mighty as it is, however, the preponderance of His working will not be accompanied by overt displays of glory.  The risen Lord Jesus rather walks in His people as He did in most of His earthly lifetime.  Indeed, the living God "manifest in the flesh" lived in such muted and muffled glory  during the first thirty years of His life that when His ministry began, His own brothers did not know who He was (I Timothy 3:16; John 7:5).  The same mode and measure of His walk and working in us necessarily characterizes our present experience wherein we "walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7).

    Every act of faith and obedience by born again believers in the Lord Jesus requires the power of His risen life (Romans 8:10-11).  The grace of His resurrection teems within the spirits of His people, resulting in trillions upon trillions of moments throughout the history of the church when "the power of an endless life" has been manifested (Hebrews 7:16).  The glory most often shines in such quiet splendor that we see and recognize only a glimmer of its light and life.  The day will come for far greater and more overt revelations that the Lord Jesus is risen from the dead.  Presently, we rejoice when the truth that the tomb is empty becomes openly revealed to all with eyes to see.  We rejoice also when by faith we affirm that our Lord's risen life abounds at the right hand of God, in the hearts of His people, and in our lives as we expect that the power of His resurrection will most often be revealed in ways very much like the first moment when "He is risen" became the hope of the ages and of our hearts (Matthew 28:6).

"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."

(John 7:24)

Weekly Memory Verse 

  "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory."

 (Hebrews 2:10).

  

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