The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
“The Great Fact”
I recently watched a panel discussion of three notable and accomplished men speaking on a variety of subjects. Intelligent, witty, and literate, they offered interesting perspectives on a variety of subjects - save one, namely, the great fact.
“I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only” (Psalm 71:16).
The panel was not one of which I expected consideration of God and His truth. I have not heard that either of the three men profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It therefore did not surprise me that no mention of spiritual reality occurred. However, the omission did cause me to think in general terms of the vast blindness of humanity regarding the One who created and sustains our very being. Speaking to unbelieving Greek philosophers, the Apostle Paul alluded to the reality far nearer to every human being than we sometimes consider:
“They should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us, for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring” (Acts 17:27-28).
The greatest reality of creation is the presence of its Creator that saturates all things. The wicked completely ignore the reality. The most godly barely see the overarching, all encompassing, and nearer than the next breath fact of their existence. He abides in the closest proximity to all nevertheless, and actively so - “He giveth to all life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:25). God is indeed the great fact of all things. That unbelievers completely miss Him, and that believers “know nothing yet as we ought to know,” speaks to His infinite wonder and the human condition of spiritual cluelessness regarding truth and reality (I Corinthians 8:2).
I viewed the panel last night with sadness and pity as they spoke of things that seemed so significant, and perhaps are in their own limited way. However, they gave indication to having missed the essential reality of their life and being. Upon clearer consideration, I thought of myself in similar terms of culpability regarding my personal stake in the “ought to know” of God and His truth. I realize how barely I have touched the hem of our Lord’s garment after more than a half century of knowing Him. The infinite vastness of His being accounts for a portion of how little I have discovered. Inexcusably missed opportunity comprises the other cause of my ignorance. My stake in “ought to know” would condemn me, were it not for that which I have discovered, namely, a faithful, long-suffering, and merciful Lord who calls us all to arise from where we are and continue the journey into His light. As Moses discovered of such abiding mercy: “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6).
I recently heard what I am coming to believe was the wisest personal testimony I have ever heard from a believer. A noted and faithful preacher, after more than six decades of knowing and walking with the Lord, said this: “I feel like I know less now than I did when I started.” Amen, Brother. I will pray for the men mentioned who seemed ignorant of the great fact of their being and life. I will pray just as earnestly for myself, that the Lord will enlighten my ignorance, caused by both His infinite glory and my inexcusable neglect. Of this I am sure: He will reveal Himself in wondrous mercy to the men on the panel. May they respond. He will also reveal Himself to the man writing these words. May he respond.
“Call unto Me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.”
(Jeremiah 33:3)
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect (mature) be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you."
(Philippians 3:13-14)
Weekly Memory Verse
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
(I Timothy 3:16)
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