Orange Moon Tuesday, June 17, 2025 "From Victory"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"From Victory"  

    "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Galatians 2:21).

    The Lord Jesus Christ is not "dead in vain."   He is rather alive in victory.  We can live, however, as if the former rather than the latter is true.  In such times of unbelief, frustration awaits.

    "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain" (I Corinthians 15:17).

    The Apostle Paul declares that if the Lord Jesus had not been raised from the dead, our trust in God would be empty.  This is not and cannot be true as a matter of history.  Christ is actually and factually risen from the dead.  In terms of our story, however, we can think, speak, act, and relate as if the body of the Lord Jesus still lay in the gloom of death rather than its light and life of glorification.  We can forget or ignore the truth that the resurrection applies to every matter of our life and existence.  Thereby, we "neglect so great salvation," a tragedy indeed in the heart and life of any believer (Hebrews 2:3).  

    We trust a risen Savior whose risen life and vital presence apply to "all things" (Romans 8:32).   Nothing escapes the scope of His triumph.  Indeed, regarding any matter of concern, we do well to raise the question in our hearts and minds: is the Lord Jesus risen from the dead?  Does He occupy the throne of Heaven?  Does He "work all things after the counsel of His own will? (Ephesians 1:11).  Is He, as the risen Christ, faithful and able to do what He promises?  So long as the answers to these most vital inquiries of our lives remain affirmative (which they eternally will), our faith can unite in victory with the triumphant fact that the Lord Jesus is indeed risen from the dead.

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

    We can - and we all sometimes do - live as if the tomb our Lord's body once occupied remains occupied.  This can lead us to feel as frustrated  as if He had not been raised from the dead.  If, however, we remember and affirm the truth, we face our challenges with a completely different perspective and attitude.  We live in the light of the empty tomb, the occupied Heavenly throne, and the ever active Spirit of God's presence and working in all things.  We live from victory, the triumph of the risen Lord Jesus that affects and applies to everything.  From "most miserable" to "the joy of the Lord is your strength" - this is the gift of grace and the inheritance of all who trust the Savior alive from the dead for a long, long time, and who is so now, in this moment, regarding every matter of our lives and existence (Nehemiah 8:10).  

Sometimes it seems that the enemy of our soul wins

over and over and over again.

But if we could see the Truth much more clearly, my friend,

we'd see Christ's triumph over death, hell, and sin,

over and over and over again.

The Tomb is empty, the Throne above occupied.

For Christ is risen again, from death glorified.

So remember when hot, stinging tears fill your eyes,

the triumph He's shone so many times in our lives,

over and over and over again.

Forever draws nigh, we will be with Him there soon, my friend.

The trials of this life will be gone when we're with Him in Heaven.

Glories we'll see, majesty without end, 

that sing the glad hymn, Christ is risen again,

over and over and over again. 

"What is 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)

Weekly Memory Verse 

     "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."

(Galatians 4:7)

  

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Orange Moon Monday, June 16, 2025 "Our Father"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"Our Father"  

    The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples (and all believers through the ages) to pray unto "Our Father" (Matthew 6:9).  While the "our" refers to believers' relationship with each other, the even more wondrous gift of grace involves our familial bond with God.  

     "I ascend to My Father and your Father" (John 20:17).

     Christians are brothers and sisters with the "from everlasting" Son of God (Psalm 90:2).  Certainly, the Lord Jesus holds a distinctive being and place as God the Son which no other occupies.  It remains true, however, that His redeeming work on our behalf and subsequent presence in our hearts spiritually births believers into a relationship with God so near that angels desire to gaze upon such a wonder (I Peter 1:12).

    "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).

     From sinful rebels to sons and daughters of the Father, brothers and sisters with the Son, through the enlivening agency of the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence - this is the gift of relationship and freely granted grace to all who trust the Lord Jesus.  Family.  With God, and in Him.  Even a cursory consideration of "so great salvation" must stop our hearts and minds in their tracks when we reflect upon "God's unspeakable gift" (Hebrews 2:3; II Corinthians 9:15).  Moreover, when we consider the sacrifice and the cost that made possible the believer's privilege to pray "Our Father" with the Redeemer and His redeemed, the matter becomes utterly staggering in its magnitude of mercy…

    "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 Son became sin, that we might be born again into sonship and daughterhood with God.  The Lord Jesus prayed for such gift to be given (recorded in John 17), and then journeyed unto Mount Calvary and into the wrath of God to pay the terrible price that made possible the the glory of these "unsearchable riches" (Ephesians 3:8).  Presently, we give our awed, grateful thanks and seek to live in the wonder of such grace for the glory of God.  In eternity, we shall know such things much better than we presently consider as the marvel of our family bond with God will thrill us even more.  Never, however, will we fully discover "the hope of glory" made possible by the Lord Jesus, nor its inestimable cost.  ""O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" (Colossians 1:27; Romans 11:33)

    We won't think about this every time we pray, "Our Father."  We do well, however, to at times still our voices and hearts as we express ourselves in such familial terms with the eternal and infinite God.  As one once said, "From dust to glory, what a story!"  And what grace beyond all wonder, a grace we must seek to more and more access in order to more and more honor its price and the One who paid it.   "Our Father…."

"Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."

(Galatians 4:7)

"As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."

(John 1:12)

"Now are we the sons of God."
(I John 3:2)

Weekly Memory Verse 

     "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."

(Galatians 4:7)

  

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Orange Moon Saturday, June 14, 2025 "Paid In Full"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"Paid In Full"  

    

 

     Those who have received God's freely given grace in the Lord Jesus Christ do not owe Him anything.

    "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).

    By moral definition, a perfectly just God could not charge for the "free gift" that applies to "all things" (Romans 5:15).  Nor could He justly impose a debt beyond our ability to pay.  Of course, our natural tendency leads us to feel indebtedness to our Lord, and such a sensibility will be present in every believer when considering the cost and blessedness of our salvation.

    The truth remains, however, that the recipient of a free gift cannot be said to owe the benefactor thereof.  Herein lies a beautiful truth, namely, the motivation for relationship and service made possible by the grace of the Lord Jesus.  Rather than servile obligation, God makes possible in believers a life lived in genuine and loving devotion to Him.  We can live "heartily," as opposed to merely dutifully (Colossians 3:23).  In fact, God will be satisfied with nothing else, a truth confirmed by 1 Corinthians 13 wherein the Apostle Paul clearly reveals that why we do what we do matters every bit as much as what we do.  The "why" is love, the love of God motivating, guiding, and enabling us to "walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us" (Ephesians 5:2).  Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.    

   Do we serve God from servile obligation, or devoted love?  One of God's most severe chidings of Israel concerned her failure to relate to Him in genuine devotion: "Thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things" (Deuteronomy 28:46-47).  For born again believers who now live with the love of God lavishly resident within our hearts through the indwelling Holy Spirit, the truth even more applies (Romans 5:5).  Only loving devotion qualifies as the motivation acceptable to God for anything we do by Him, through Him, and for Him.  "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity (love), it profiteth me nothing" (I Corinthians 13:3).

   Certainly it seems as if we owe God everything.  Believers inevitably feel this.  However, He does not view the matter in the light of debt.  He sees His relationship to us through the "Paid In Full" of grace, that is, of loving favor freely bestowed upon us because of His wrath furiously executed upon the Lord Jesus for our redemption.  In such holy light of our debt fully paid by untold sorrow, suffering, forsakenness, and death, how could God ever relate to us in any motivation other than the grace purchased at Calvary?  Thus, as challenging a truth as it may be to understand and embrace, we owe God nothing for salvation and its eternal benefit of "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8).  Only in this most holy and solemn light will we ever truly know the love of God in a manner that fosters genuine sincerity and love for Him, made possible by the grace that cost our Lord everything so that we might serve Him in the only motivation acceptable to our Father…

"For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.  But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."

(Romans 4:3-5)

"Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."

(Ephesians 4:24)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   "Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness, He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous."

(Psalm 112:4)

  

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