The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"A True Love"
"Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity" (Ephesians 6:24).
What originates and perpetuates sincerity in the hearts of born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? How can our relationship, fellowship, and life with God be real within us, resulting in genuineness of motive and behavior?
God Himself provides the answer, that is, His grace and truth in the Lord Jesus provided through the Holy Spirit's working in us. As we seek His purifying of our thoughts, beliefs, and deeds, realizing that He alone can foster and further sincerity, we discover something real within us that could not possibly be of our own doing. We play a role in the matter, of course, trusting and submitting to our Heavenly Father in confidence of His faithful working, and humbling ourselves by acknowledging that if reality is to find its place in us, He alone will be its executor and enabler. As James declared, clean hands and pure hearts result only by drawing close to the Cleanser and Purifier:
"Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded" (James 4:8).
As always, and of extremely vital significance in the matter of motive, grace and truth and Christ must be realized as our sole source of sincerity. God must freely work in us through Christ, in accordance with the truth of His Word. We must believe in the promise of His ongoing involvement to reveal the genuineness of His love, which leads to the genuineness of our own. "We love Him because He first loved us" (I John 4:19). Indeed, upon every realization that our Father will be satisfied with nothing less than sincerity, we cast ourselves upon Him with gratitude for work already accomplished, and thanksgiving for His work ongoing.
In eternity, the glorified redeemed will love their God with a sincerity and purity known to be the fruit of His grace and truth in the Lord Jesus. It may, in fact, be that our capacity to genuinely love Him will be that for which are most grateful. He alone could have rescued the rebellious unto the reality of a true love received, and a true love returned. Presently, the work continues in its process of revealing the perfection of God's motives, which leads believers to "purify yourselves" by progressively discovering the pure and sincere devotion of One who has never needed, nor ever will need purification…
"But Thou art holy, Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel."
(Psalm 22:3)
"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)
"For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
(Hebrews 4:12)
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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