Orange Moon Saturday, August 30, 2025 "The Lamb Slain"

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

"The Lamb Slain"    

      

       Because born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ still sin in our present lifetime, we do well to understand God's perspective in the matter as well as possible.

    "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8).

    Before sin or sinners ever existed, God purposed the way of forgiveness and redemption through His beloved Son.  Every sin He has ever forgiven graces the repentant, trusting supplicant because "Christ died for our sins" (I Corinthians 15:3).  Before His advent, mercy flowed based on faith in a coming Savior and what He would do.  After Calvary, mercy flows based on faith in the Savior who has come and what He has done.  Thus, the sinner in need of salvation receives a gift purchased long before he existed.  The saint in need of restored fellowship with God also receives the gift of forgiveness and a cleansed consciousness that has awaited us from everlasting in the heart of the Heavenly Father who loves to pardon us far more than we love to be pardoned.  "He delighteth in mercy" (Micah 7:18).

   No one has ever had to drag forgiveness from the heart of God.  It rather bursts forth from the depths of His glorious being in the vast measure promised to the repentant: "He will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7).  Certainly, we must come in the way He has made through the Lord Jesus, and we must come with true repentance and "godly sorrow" (II Corinthians 7:10).  Whence comes such remorse?  Growing realization of "the Lamb slain" from everlasting in God's heart, who became the Lamb slain in space and time, most fosters both the faith and sorrow that accompanies forgiveness offered, and forgiveness received.  Long before the most wicked sinner ever existed, a way had been determined to make possible his redemption.  Long before the most wayward saint ever distrusted and disobeyed his Father, a way had been determined to make possible his restoration.  "There is forgiveness with Thee" (Psalm 130:4).

   Ever and always, in all things, God's abundant supply precedes our desperate need.  We first tell the unbeliever not that he is a sinner, but rather that there is a Savior of sinners.  Upon this basis, we proceed to inform the lost of how lost they actually are.  We direct the focus of the failing Christian not first to his unbelief and disobedience, but rather to Christ as his abiding intercessor, and to the truth that God does not impute sin to the account of believers (Hebrews 7:25; Romans 4:8).  Only in this wondrous illumination will the believer truly see his sin in the light of the Savior, resulting in genuine repentance that leads to restoration.  "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).

   "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."  We begin here in sharing the redeeming and restorative Gospel with unbelievers and with with each other.  Or we do not begin at all.  Long before our hearts so needy of a Savior existed, God's heart so filled with purpose to provide a Savior existed.  Forgiveness has always flowed with this current of mercy, the bloody current of the Lamb slain.  It always will, including this moment for that most wicked sinner, that most wayward saint, and for you and me if necessary.  Yes, mercy awaits at the throne of grace, as it has from everlasting in the Heart of grace.

"Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."

(Romans 5:20-21)

Weekly Memory Verse  

   The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

(Romans 8:2)

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Orange Moon Friday, August 29, 2025 “An Eye Toward Forever”

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

"An Eye Toward Forever"    

      

       "Safety is of the Lord" (Proverbs 21:31).

      The safety God promises and administers sometimes involves rescue from danger, and sometimes rescue in danger.

    "This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and rescued him out of all his troubles" (Psalm 34:6)

    "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (II Corinthians 12:8-9).

   Our Heavenly Father works in our temporal challenges with a primary focus on eternity.  This does not discount or minimize His present protection from dangers and difficulties.  We often experience rescue from our troubles as we look to our Lord.  Sometimes, however, He allows challenges to remain with us for purposes that reach far beyond this present life.  Had the Apostle Paul not experienced the abiding "thorn in the flesh" to keep him from pride for having received "the abundance of the revelations," would the New Testament epistles he wrote exist?  Not likely.  A proud apostle could not have served as God's primary voice and pen of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus.  How many have received eternal life through faith in Christ by the light that shines in Paul's writings?  How many believers have walked in the power of God's grace revealed in words that could not have been written without wounds?  Millions will read the Apostle's writings today because God worked with an eye and a heart that saw far beyond Paul's earthly lifetime.

     As He does in us.  The happenings of today in our lives matter much to our Heavenly Father.  However, He loves us far too much to always act according to the our perception of current need.  Today's matters matter for tomorrow and forevermore.  Thus, if thorns remain, we can be confident that we shall by and by better understand the eternal benefit of their lingering.  For now, we trust the perfect heart and mind of God, rejoicing by faith that He loves us enough to work primarily with forever in view.  Any good father would do so.  A perfect Father most certainly does.  Thereby He strengthens us when thorns linger as…

"We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

(II Corinthians 4:18)

Weekly Memory Verse  

   The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

(Romans 8:2)

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Orange Moon Thursday, August 28, 2025 "A Proper Fear"

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

"A Proper Fear"    

      

       All born again believers often pray with no overwhelming emotion or sensibility of the enormity of relating to an infinite God who created and sustains all things, and whose vastness of being means that "even the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee!" (II Chronicles 6:18).

    Sometimes, however, the thought occurs, the sense accompanies, and something beyond emotion arises within our hearts and minds.  Some call it awe, reverence, or even a proper Biblically-prescribed fear whereby we rightly realize our finite being in the light of our Lord's infinity, eternity, and transcendence.

    "Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him" (Psalm 33:8).

    Because the Lord Jesus Christ has drawn us so near to God in relationship, standing, and being "accepted in the Beloved," fear may seem a response left behind when we received the grace of God in the Savior.  The New Testament, however, often calls believers to "fear God" (Ephesians 1:6; I Peter 2:17).  We fear the fact He is love and that He loves us, a response that may seem counterintuitive upon initial consideration.  

    Consider, however, that Scripturally-defined love clearly reveals the administration of that which is best for loved ones.  This includes blessings of kindness and tender mercies beyond measure.  Surely, this is the primary disposition of our Father's heart, as the Lord Jesus declared to His disciples, "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).  However, in our present existence, divine love must also apply "chastening and scourging" to every believer, without which no believer would "continue in the faith" (Hebrews 12:6; Colossians 1:23).  Such discipline, no less the imparting of God's love to us than overt kindness, involves a thing to be feared, namely, we fear the love of God.  We matter so much to Him that He will not fail to administer pain, hardship, and challenge when and as necessary.  Anything less or else would be something God's character will not allow: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son" (Proverbs 13:24). 

   Believers can, should, and must bask in the light and warmth of the Father's favor, bestowed upon us by the suffering, forsakenness, and death of His beloved Son.  We "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory" in the wonder of such favor (I Peter 1:8).  However, the "can, should, and must" also applies to properly fearing our Father and His devoted inclination to always do that which is best for us.  Presently, this involves pain and difficulty because God does not hate us, but rather loves us in a dedication of affection that "passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).  Indeed, He loves us enough to hurt us when necessary, as any good father does.  

   "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" (Hebrews 12:5-7).

    The love of God is a marvel of kindly mercy, the glory of which we will never fully know.  The love of God also involves a dedication to our well being and best interests, the glory of which necessarily challenges us in this present existence.  If allowed to look back on this lifetime from our Heavenly vantage point, we will see that both tender mercies and the calling to "perfect holiness in the fear of God" no less revealed His loving devotion to us II Corinthians 7:1).

"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept Thy Word." 

(Psalm 119:67)

Weekly Memory Verse  

   The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

(Romans 8:2)

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