Orange Moon Monday, October 27, 2025 "Autumn Speaks, Autumn Sings"

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

    

               "Autumn Speaks, Autumn Sings"

  

   

    Along the Gulf Coast of the United States where we live, the autumn season does not provide the array of hues and colors that people see in many other parts of our nation.  In colder climates, the season offers a fiery display of beauty that has inspired countless artists through the centuries.  None have ever matched God's virtuosity, however, nor will anyone ever paint on a canvas the glory He splashes on groves, forests, trees, and sometimes most vividly, a single leaf.  In our locality, we will see a smattering on our popcorn trees and the occasional maple some folks plant for ornamental purposes.  By and large, however, our evergreens will remain ever and green. 

    Autumn's beauty requires death to bring forth the blessed display.  Leaves must die in order to achieve their sublime hue.  Certainly, beauty graces trees when lively and green.   The new growth of a spring forest blesses us with its own expression of wonder.  The colors of fall, however, remain unmatched in their varied and vibrant gallery as the lack of chlorophyll and decreased light cause their death and fall.  This speaks of an even more beautiful glory made possible by loss, darkness, and thirst.

    "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?, that is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:45-46).    

    "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst" (John 19:28).

    The Lord Jesus Christ bore infinite glory in the eternal past (John 17:5).   He now abides in even greater glory, having lived, died, and been raised from death in order to save us from our sins.  Thereby, He became our Savior as well as our Creator.  God's holiness and justice required such a loss and such a fall for the Lord Jesus to be constituted as our hope and our redemption.  "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).   

   The trusting heart views the unsightly horror of the cross and sees our Lord's glorious heart in the most vivid display imaginable.  The beauty of God - His character and nature - never more brightly glimmered than on the cross of Calvary.  There, the Father smote His Son with undeserved wrath, that He might grace us with unmerited favor.  "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (I John 4:10).  Autumn speaks and sings to us of such glory, as falling leaves reflect the dying glory of a fallen Savior, and a risen Lord more beautiful than ever.

"He is altogether lovely."
(Song of Solomon 5:16) 

Weekly Memory Verse

   Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit."

(Titus 3:5)

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Orange Moon Saturday, October 25, 2025 "Expect God"

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

"Expect God"    

       

    "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope" (I Timothy 1:1).

    The Apostle Paul declares the Lord Jesus to be our confident expectation regarding the future, our hope.  Thereby, Paul declares that no matter what happens of blessing or challenge in time to come, our Savior awaits us there to be everything we need Him to be.  Our calling involves expectation.  Do we believe the Lord to be so present, involved, and able in our hearts and lives that no contingency will find our confidence in Him to have been ill advised?

    "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof" (Psalm 46:1-3).

    Our anticipation matters.  If we do not expect God to be who He is and do what He does, we may well miss much of happiness in His blessings, and of His "very present help in trouble."  Regarding the former, knowing that "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above" prepares us for the consistent thanksgiving that makes our blessings far more blessed (James 1:17).  Indeed, it is one thing to enjoy God's gifts.  It is another to enjoy them with conscious awareness of Him as their source and beneficence.  Consider at this time of year the wonder of autumn hues, chill in the air, and the blueness of the sky.  We can enjoy the gifts without remembering or affirming they are gifts.  Add thanksgiving to the blessings, however, based on our anticipation of faith regarding God's giving of all things, and moments of happiness become far greater moments of holiness.  

   Regarding our challenges, the Bible only speaks of our Lord's very present help in terms of troubles.  Do we expect Him to be especially awaiting us in trial, difficulty, loss, pain, and suffering?  Our experience of such compassionate grace has much to do with how we experience His very presence therein.  The hope of our hearts must be involve determined anticipation, based on knowing our Heavenly Father well enough to believe there wherever of challenge He may lead or allow us to go, He will go with us and will be there when we arrive.  "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" (Isaiah 43:2).

   In a Sunday school class of middle school boys I taught many years ago, I placed a poster on the wall that contained the words, "Expect God."  I asked the boys, "What do you think I mean by this?"

    Immediately, one responded, "You mean Jesus is coming again!" "That's a great answer," I said, "and you're right. But I'm actually thinking about a different expectation than that." No other answers were forthcoming, so I shared with them the affirmation of the Psalmist, "My soul, wait thou only upon God. For my expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5).

    I shared with the boys that if they believed in the Lord Jesus, their lives would be saturated with His presence and working in all things. "You will never live a moment in this life or the next in which your Lord is not its greatest fact and reality. You may not always see or understand what He is doing, and you may not always be immediately comfortable with how He works.  However, His glory, your good, and the good of those with whom you live will be the truth of your existence."  I concluded, "Yes gentlemen, expect God."

   Nearly five decades have not changed my conclusion, or my desire to "hope thou in God" (Psalm 42:5).  He indeed goes with us wherever we journey, and He will be there when we arrive.  This is our confident expectation of the future, our hope, based on our determined trust in the God who will be all we need Him to be, in all things.  "Expect God."

"The LORD will be the hope of His people."

(Joel 3:16)

Weekly Memory Verse  

      Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.

(Matthew 7:24)

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Orange Moon Friday, October 24, 2025 "The Getting"

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

"The Getting"    

       

    "With all thy getting, get understanding" declared Solomon (Proverbs 4:7).

    But as you do, realize how little you actually get, suggested the Apostle Paul:  "If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (I Corinthians 8:2).

    After a half century of reading and pondering the Scriptures, I grow more and more convinced of "nothing yet as I ought to know."  The primary reason for this does not involve my reading and response to God's Word (although I acknowledge far too much wasted time and opportunity).  The real issue involves the being, nature, character, and way of God.  All our "getting" involves the quest to know His infinite, eternal wonder, a quest that will never end in both time and eternity.  Regarding the latter, we will certainly know more in our Heavenly life than we do now.  What will we most understand?  How little we know.  By definition, the comprehension of a being such as the living and true God will forever thrill us with new discoveries and enhanced awareness of glories already known.  The more we know, the more we will realize how much more there is to know.  "His greatness is unsearchable" (Psalm 145:3).

    Consider perhaps the simplest statement in Scripture: "there  is one God" (I Timothy 2:5).  Do we consider ourselves to have full knowledge and understanding of this primary reality?  Hopefully, not.  Will we fully know the meaning when we enter God's direct presence?  Most assuredly, not.  Indeed, when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, he declared himself to be "undone" rather than done (Isiah 6:1;5).  It could not have been otherwise, nor will we find ourselves fully enlightened when we see the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory.  Certainly, we will know more than we knew.  Such knowledge, however, will profoundly humble us, even as it thrills us that forever will not suffice in fully revealing the glory of our God.  "Undone" indeed!

    Today offers the possibility to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Peter 3:18).  Let us ask our Heavenly Father for such progress, and for His leading and enabling to avail ourselves of the gifts He has given for our growth.  The Spirit of God, the Word of God, the church of God, the creation of God, the providence of God, the personal presence of God, and the desire of God to further our knowledge and understanding unite to fulfill the Psalmist's request: "Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me, for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day" (Psalm 25:5).  Let us not miss this, the opportunity of a lifetime and of this day to ask, to avail, and to be amazed by the God who now and forever beckons us to the "getting" for which He made us….

"Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."

(Jeremiah 33:3)

Weekly Memory Verse  

      Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.

(Matthew 7:24)

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Orange Moon Thursday, October 23, 2025 “More Blessed To Give”

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

"More Blessed To Give"    

       

    Knowing that God loves us personally bestows a blessing beyond all measure regarding His devotion to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Consider the Apostle John, who thrice referred to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" not because the Lord did not love His other followers, but because John was so amazed by the personal expression of devotion he experienced in Christ.

    "Now there was leaning on Jesus' chest one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved." (John 13:23).

   Another administration of God's love, however, even more reveals to us the wonder of His character and nature.  

    "The Lord Jesus said, It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:25).  

    "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).

     If the love of God known and enjoyed in our hearts left us with merely the awareness that "God loves me" - true and wondrous as this is - we would remain in selfishness and egotism.  If, however, we increasingly discover the truth that the Holy Spirit reveals the love of Christ in us to direct our devotion to God and others, we far more realize the nature and extent of His love.  He loves us best and most by conforming us to the image of the Lord Jesus, who certainly knew Himself to be the Father's "beloved Son" (Matthew 17:5).  However, the vast majority of our Savior's life and emphasis recorded in the Gospels reveals His focus on loving God and others as the purest joy of His heart.  Our Lord works in us to foster and nurture the same glorious experience of most discovering how much we are loved by how much we love.  Since love expresses its glory in giving - "For God so loved the world that He gave " - "more blessed to give than to receive" can be viewed as synonymous with more blessed to love than to be loved (John 3:16).

   Every believer experiences this truth as the Lord works in us to love others.  We often realize we wouldn't be doing what we do in devotion to God and people were it not for His love "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit."  As His selfless otherness passes through us, we behold the clearest and most vivid illumination of who the Lord Jesus is, and how blessed it is to "walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6).  The bells of our hearts most brightly ring in such moments as we discover the truth of  "more blessed to give than to receive."  God loves me?  We will marvel forevermore.  God's love can enable me to love Him and others?  We will marvel even more, realizing we best know His personal devotion to us by leading us to personally devote ourselves to others.

    God's love is for us, wondrous beyond all measure.  It comes to us in countless ways, too glorious to describe.  It flows through us, returning to Himself as infused with our particular personality, disposition, and experience, and then unto others our Father privileges us to love.  All three administrations - for, to, and through - transcend every possibility to fully know and appreciate.  The latter, however, the love of God directing our devotion to the Lord Jesus and others, most reveals to us "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).   It cannot be otherwise as God makes us like His Son, the wondrous One who "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).  Yes, we best know how much God loves us by how much He loves others through us, as He enables us to…

"Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and given Himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor."

(Ephesians 5:2)

Weekly Memory Verse  

      Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.

(Matthew 7:24)

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