Orange Moon Thursday, June 5, 2025 "Factor the Fact"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

(Thanks to Tom, Herb, Jamey, and Wayne for inspiration on this one)

"Factor the Fact"  

    

 

     As friends and I considered yesterday's devotional regarding the many opportunities we have to consciously think in terms of God and His truth, we referenced a particular way to term the calling - "Factor the Fact" - that is, to be sure we are viewing the matters of life in terms of our Lord's presence, involvement, and working.  

    "I AM… He is… Thou art" (Exodus 3:14; Hebrews 11:6; I Chronicles 17:26).

    God is the great fact of all things.  Nothing would exist without Him.  Nothing would consist without Him.  "He giveth to all life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25).  As we view the events, occurrences, and happenings of creation, we have not seen them clearly until we have factored the Fact of His presence, involvement, and working.  "God… worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).

   This presents a great challenge to our hearts and minds.  If creation were as perfect as its Creator, we could easily comprehend God's ways and means.  This is presently not the case.  Our Heavenly Father works His purpose amid the sin and rebellion of angelic and human beings, along with the calamities caused thereby, in a manner that does not violate His spiritual and moral integrity.  He did not and does not cause sin, to the degree He won't even tempt to sin (James 1:13).  He cannot do so, based on the pristine purity of His character and way.  "As for God, His way is perfect" (II Samuel 22:31).  He works nevertheless in all things to fulfill His ultimate intentions in the Lord Jesus Christ, to the degree that the greatest of all evils, the torture and murder of His beloved Son, became the basis for salvation to all who receive Christ by faith.  Indeed, when considering our calling to factor the Fact, the cross of the Lord Jesus and its ensuing eternal glory serves as the greatest of all wonders regarding God's way and working.  The worst thing became the best thing for all who believe, preparing us for countless other opportunities to see God's heart and hand where we might least expect to find them.  "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 17:24).

    We ever seek to understand God and His ways as much as possible.  "With all thy getting, get understanding" (Proverb 4:7).  Factoring the Fact, however, often drives us to our knees in the realization that, as another friend often says, "God is God, and we ain't!"  Remembering Calvary and the mystery that amid its horrors of sin and utter depravity, our Lord made possible the redemption of our hearts by the breaking of His heart, helps us to recall that God's ways are "past finding out" (Romans 11:33).  Having factored the Fact in the moment of our new birth through Christ paved the path before us to be sure we remember and affirm God's presence, involvement, and working in all things, at all times.  How He does what He does we will never know.  That He does it is nevertheless absolutely certain.  Factor the Fact. 

"Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.  Amen."

(Romans 11:36)

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 Wednesday, June 4, 2025 “Opportunities To Think”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"Opportunities To Think"  

 

    

 

     Even the most godly believer in the Lord Jesus Christ does not always consciously think of God.  The human mind in its present state, even a mind guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit, does not possess the capacity to consider the countless things our earthly lives involve, while at the same time always directly pondering the Lord.  The prophet nevertheless calls us to a fixed spiritual focus:

    

    "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3).

   The Hebrew root word for "stayed" is samek, meaning to lean upon.  God calls believers to think in terms of faith, to rest our minds on Him amid the complexities of our present lives.  This does not require constant conscious thought, but rather a growing and more consistent availing ourselves of the many opportunities we have to think in terms of who God is, and what He has promised to do in our lives.  The Holy Spirit works in our hearts to remind, encourage, and challenge us to interpret our lives according to the text of Scripture, and the context of our Lord's abiding presence and working.  We seek to live in the atmosphere of faith, at it were, expecting many opportunities to "awake to righteousness" and "in all thy ways acknowledge Him" (I Corinthians 15:34; Proverbs 3:6).

    Might there be a matter of life in which we have not factored the fact and faithfulness of God, interpreting the issue as if He is not present and active?   If so, the opportunity lies at hand and in heart to think in terms of truth and reality.  Who is the Lord Jesus concerning the matter?  What has He already done regarding it?  What is He doing, and what does He promise to do as things proceed?  Awaking to His righteousness and choosing to think accordingly offers the path of peace as we seize blessed opportunities to live with the faithfulness of God as our guiding light and vibrant life.  We greatly glorify Him thereby, and also serve as emissaries of assurance to others as our thoughts lead to the countenance, demeanor, attitudes, words, and actions that bear witness to the peace of the Prince of peace.  

"To be spiritually minded is life and peace."

(Romans 8:6)

"Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things."

(Philippians 4:8)

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 Tuesday, June 3, 2025 “The Same Yesterday, and Today, and Forever”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"The Same Yesterday, and Today, and Forever"  

    

 

     If ever we have found our Savior to be faithful and true regarding all we need Him to be, we can anticipate the blessed discovery to continue in this day and in all to come.

    "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:5).

   Circumstance, conditions, and situations change.  Christ abides as the same always, in every contingency.  We may experience Him differently as blessings and challenges arise.  He nevertheless will be who He is, and do what He does in the same perfection of faithfulness we have known and will know as we affirm His continuity amid whatever change comes our way.  No truth more seals and secures our hearts, preparing us to trust the perfectly holy God who cannot be other than Himself, or act apart from the perfection of His character, nature, and way.  "It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning - great is Thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23).

   We can trust someone of such perpetual perfection.  We awaken to new compassions each day, that is, to administrations of the loving faithfulness of God perfectly tailored to whatever life may involve.  We do well to make the matter pertinent: what does this day hold according to our plans and expectations?  Whatever the answer, our Heavenly Father has determined from everlasting to be all we will need, and do whatever we require of His grace and working.  Moreover, any surprises that await us will arise in accordance with His perfect providence.  In holiness, God cannot fail to fulfill His eternal purpose in Christ for our benefit, and the blessing through us of those with whom we live our lives.  The only question is whether will open our eyes and hearts to see "the same yesterday and today and forever."  The challenge is great, but the opportunity shines in far greater magnitude and the possibility of knowing our Lord in whatever comes our way.  "I found Him whom my soul loveth" (Song of Solomon 3:4).

    "I will look for Him" declared the prophet, who would doubtless tell us that his search ended in discovering God and His abounding faithfulness (Isaiah 8:17).  As we shall, when remembering the Lord Jesus cannot be other than who He is, or fail to do what He does.  Our yesterdays remind us of this.  Today bears witness by the Spirit of God, the Word of God, and the faithfulness of God that envelops and fills our existence.  The future promises that such grace will never end, but only grow greater in our awareness and experience as amid the changes of life, our Lord is known as the abiding truth and reality - "the same yesterday, and today, and forever."

"I am the Lord.  I change not."

(Malachi 3:6)

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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