"The Beautiful Heart"

"The Beautiful Heart"  

     No physical beauty surpasses the colors and hues of autumn.  Our dear Orange Moon friend Randy Reed, pastor and photographer, illustrates this truth by a glorious scene he viewed and photographed in his homeland of Michigan.

   God paints His foliage with the sublime during the fall, gracing dying leaves with pigments of His imagination and application that no other artist can possibly duplicate.  Several years ago, Frances and I hiked in the mountains of North Carolina during the peak of seasonal color.  To this day, I can find no words to describe the wonder we witnessed as every bend of the trail ushered us into increasingly vivid vistas that filled and thrilled our hearts.  I recall thinking on so many occasions during that hike, "Well, Lord, I don't see how You can top this."  But He could, and He did, the memory of which gives me yet another opportunity to bow head and heart in gratitude for the mountain gallery through which we walked in wonder.

   How interesting that dying leaves and foliage present such beauty to our hearts.  There can be only one reason.  Indeed, the beautiful death we see in autumn speaks to us of the most beautiful display of God's heart that will ever occur in either time or eternity.  "Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).  Amid the horror, shame, crime, agony, forsakenness, death, and ugliness of Mount Calvary, God opened to us the holy gallery that unveils who He most deeply is.  The cross displays a love, along with its expressions of grace and mercy, that sings to us of a Heart more beautiful than a trillion eternities would allow us to fully discover.  The Lord Jesus suffered and died for His enemies (Romans 5:10).  His precious blood flowed from wounds that all of our sins carved upon His blessed frame.  He bore the loneliness and forsakenness that should have enshrouded our hearts.  The Prince of life died, an aberration that should not have been possible, but which became actual as God the Father smote His beloved Son for our sakes.  Every leaf of autumn, graced with hues only God could imagine, mix, and splash upon the canvas of creation, speaks to us of Calvary and the beautiful Heart pierced so that the prayer of the Old Testament might be answered by the grace of the New…

"And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us."

(Psalm 90:17)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple" (Psalm 27:4)

    

    

     

    

"In the Fires"

"In the Fires"

   "Glorify ye the Lord in the fires" (Isaiah 24:15).

    Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ possess the capacity to honor God in all things and at all times, as led and enabled by the Holy Spirit.  In times of pleasant experiences, we acknowledge our Heavenly Father as the the Giver of "every good gift and every perfect gift" (James 1:17).  Thereby we give Him much glory in accordance with His gracious kindness and generosity.  "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).  Indeed, Scripture declares that "God loveth a cheerful giver" because He is Himself the most cheerful of givers (II Corinthians 9:7).   However, painful times - "the fires" - provide perhaps the greatest opportunity to glorify our Lord as we bear witness to the extent of His goodness and greatness in the midst of challenges that confront our emotional and physical sensibilities.

    It is one thing to trust and magnify the generous Hand of God.  It is another to trust and magnify the mysterious Way of God in times when His loving wisdom determines or allows difficulty.  Choices of faith and submission must be made that run counter to our fleshly perceptions and impulses.  The flesh that "lusteth against the spirit" would lead us to worry, complain, speak, and act in a manner that fails to "give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name" (Psalm 29:2).  The Holy Spirit works in us with far greater power to trust, praise, and act in faith.  However, such a response does not just happen.  We must believe that through Christ we can face adversity in a God-honoring manner.   We then determine to avail ourselves of the grace that transforms possibility into actuality.  Subsequently, fires in our lives brilliantly illuminate our testimony of God's presence, provision, and power to endure.

    It is not easy to "glorify ye the Lord in the fires."  By ourselves, it is not even possible.  However, through the Christ who so honored His Father on the cross, we can also bear witness to the God who is always more than we need Him to be in every circumstance, condition, and situation.  What a privileged opportunity and responsibility, and what joyful purpose awaits us as we honor our Lord in the fires that illuminate Him of whom the Psalmist declared…

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

(Psalm 46:1)

"Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counselors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

(Daniel 3:24-25)

Weekly Memory Verse(s)

    "Without Me, ye can do nothing… I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

(John 15:5; Philippians 4:13)

“Comfort, According To Thy Word”

"Comfort, According To Thy Word"

   Regardless of how far we grow in our walk with the Lord, sorrow will always feel like sorrow.  No less than the Lord Jesus Christ confirms this reality of our present earthly existence.

    "Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (Matthew 26:36-38).

    The Apostle Paul echoes the truth we consider, describing the Christian's experience of being "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing" (II Corinthians 6:10).  Spiritual maturity does not preclude emotional distress.  It does, however, call us to respond in a manner of faith and faithfulness rather than being overwhelmed.  What shall we do when life hurts us by loss, pain, difficulty, and even tragedy?  Obviously, we bring our heavy heart to the Lord in the confidence He can and will comfort us.  The Psalmist helps us here.

   "Let, I pray thee, Thy merciful kindness be for My comfort, according to Thy Word unto thy servant" (Psalm 119:76).

    Note the request for comfort, but consider also the context in which God's balm provides help: "according to Thy Word."  Certainly there may be times our Heavenly Father applies comfort simply as an answer to prayer.  However, many and perhaps most bestowals of such grace will result from His application of Scripture to our hearts and minds.  We may remember passages, or we may open our Bibles to find our Lord awaiting us as we avail ourselves of Truth that pointedly applies to the present distress.  Indeed, lingering sorrow, especially in the sense of our being controlled by it, may be the result of failure to seek God "according to Thy Word."  Again, the Psalmist illuminates, "This is my comfort in my affliction: for Thy Word hath quickened (enlivened) me" (Psalm 119:50).  

    David declared his Lord to be "a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).  The Spirit of God works in us to remind us of such grace, and to bring to our remembrance the countless assurances of the Word He inspired.  Indeed, a hurting heart best finds God's comfort in an open Bible.  Therein, our Lord's promises to assure us echo Paul's affirmation that we can know joy in the very midst of sorrow.  Only the Spirit and the Word can lead us there, to the overcoming wonder of God's gracious comfort in Christ.

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."

(II Corinthians 1:3-4)

Weekly Memory Verse(s)

    "Without Me, ye can do nothing… I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

(John 15:5; Philippians 4:13)