“To Remember With Appreciation"

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

"To Remember With Appreciation"

   

     I recently spent the last few weeks apart from a dear friend whose company I have enjoyed nearly every day for fourteen years.

    

   I cut my finger doing yard work several Saturdays ago.  I won't reveal how this happened because you would immediately ask that your name be removed from our mailing list if I told you the story.  "That is unquestionably the dumbest human being on the planet, and I will not read anything else he writes lest his dimwitted simplemindedness lead me astray!"  You would be right, of course.  So, I'll keep to myself the details of my injury in hopes you will hang in there with us.  :):)  The upshot of this is that I could not play guitar for two weeks as the cut healed.  My finger still remains sensitive, but it has healed well enough to make playing possible.

   Back to my friend, a Taylor CE 310, purchased in 2005.  We estimate that this guitar has accompanied us in nearly 5,000 services, and likely 25,000 hymns and songs.  It possesses wonderful tone, stays in tune, plays easily, records well, and still looks pretty good despite having been bumped more times than I can remember.  We have transported the Taylor tens of thousands of miles from place to place, and all without even a hint of problem.  I consider it a friend, and one that I have greatly missed during the period I could not fret strings with my wounded finger.

   I share this with you to raise the point of how easy it is to take things for granted.  Indeed, one reason our Lord made us with the capacity for thanksgiving involves the fact that gratitude helps us to remember the gifts of God with the awareness of appreciation.  "I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Thy wonders of old" (Psalm 77:11).  Giving thanks in a conscious and specific manner greatly helps us to maintain an atmosphere of heart and mind whereby we realize how undeservedly blessed we are.  "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from Above" declared James (James 1:17).  Moreover, every good and perfect gift comes to us by way of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.  Were it not for His atoning work for us, God's righteousness would require that we receive His wrath rather than mercy.  "Without the shedding of blood is no remission (forgiveness)" - Hebrews 9:22.  Thus, our Father's giving graces us by way of Christ's dying.  His gifts, free to us, cost the Lord Jesus more than we will ever know.  This includes our next breath, and every blessing we will ever receive from His gracious heart and hand.  Gratitude and consciously expressed thanksgiving help us to not take such lovingkindness for granted.   "I will remember Thy works… Thy wonders."

   I am glad to be able to play the guitar again.  I hope this brief period away from the Taylor will help me to remember with wonder and appreciation not only my guitar, but all things so graciously given by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus.  I hope to not take His grace for granted, but rather to receive His grace with gratitude.  These past few weeks have reminded me of this privileged responsibility to remember with appreciation.

"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

(I Thessalonians 5:18)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Let us have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.

(Hebrews 12:28)

  

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"Willing To Touch"

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

"Willing To Touch"

    As we walked into the chapel of a retirement community to conduct a service, Jacob looked up at us from his prone position, lying on the floor.   "Come in and join us" I said, "you need to hear the sermon I am going to preach!"  Jacob complied, and joined us for the entire meeting.

    Yes, that is Jacob the cat, and yes, that is my hand stroking the nape of his neck.  A number of pets roam the halls of the particular retirement community I reference.  This leads to my story, or rather, my application of the surprising (to those who know me well) occurrence of my touching a cat.

   "And it came to pass, when He was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean" (Luke 5:12).

    A leper who had not felt a human touch since the onset of disease felt the Lord's hand.  How such contact must have thrilled the man by a grace no other would offer.  The departure of leprosy from his body then doubtless filled the man's heart with wonder.  First, Someone touched his heart with unexpected grace.  Then, Someone touched His body with a healing that restored his normalcy of life among the company of other people.  We can only imagine the wonder of both aspects of our Lord's redeeming work in the man's life.   "I cried unto the Lord with my voice, even unto God with my voice, and He gave ear unto me" (Psalm 77:1).

   Regarding Jacob the cat, I had planned to share a message about King David and Mephibosheth.  However, Jacob not only joined us in the meeting.  He also came up to me at a point in the service, clearly hoping I would acknowledge him with a stroke or two of my hand.  This presented a problem.  I am allergic to cats.  I have not touched one in decades.  However, the passage about the leper occurred to me as Jacob awaited my tactile acknowledgement.  Petting this sweet-natured cat would illustrate (in a much limited manner, of course) that which the Lord Jesus did for a man in great need.  So I reached down and stroked Jacob's head and neck for a moment.  I was sitting down at the moment, and he responded by jumping into my lap.  This took me aback, but then Jacob looked right into my eyes and said, "Thanks Preacher!   I'm looking forward to your sermon!" (well, I think that's what he said).

   I had no allergic reaction to the event except for the slightest congestion later in the day (which was likely due to the season more than the feline).  I shared the message about the Lord and the leper, emphasizing what it must have meant to the man that someone had touched him.  My main point involved the truth that we are all that leper.  Our Lord touched and healed our hearts diseased by sin when we believed in the Lord Jesus.   He was both able and willing to do for us that which only He could have done.  Moreover, in our walk with Him as believers, we sometimes require the forgiveness and cleansing that maintains our fellowship with God.  He is more than able and willing to do that also (I John 1:9).  Yes, Somebody will touch us when we require such grace and mercy, Somebody who so involved Himself with us that He became as one of us.  "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).

   I'll always remember Jacob attending our service, and even more, jumping into my lap after I touched him.  Far more importantly, I remember the Lord and the leper, and the opportunity afforded by Jacob to illustrate that which He does for all who come to Him with the humble, trusting affirmation, "Lord, if Thou will, Thou canst make me clean."  He does desire our purification, and He can maintain our hearts in cleansing as we walk with the One, the Somebody, willing to touch us.

"Our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people."

(Titus 2:13-14)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Let us have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.

(Hebrews 12:28)

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"Boast Or Trust?"

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

"Boast Or Trust?"

    The Solomon who often calls us to plan for the future in his Proverbs also mandates that we humbly recognize today as the only guaranteed time we have in our present earthly lives.  

    "Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth" (Psalm 27:1).

   Because our lives have transpired day by day to this point, we can easily succumb to the temptation that suggests we can be sure of tomorrow.  Solomon refers to such error in terms of boasting.   When either of us are tempted to worry about the future, my wife Frances and I challenge each other: "Oh, has the Lord appeared to you and assured you that you will still be on this planet tomorrow?"   The answer is always the same: "No, can't say that He has."  So, we find ourselves pressed into the present.  Will we live this day in a manner that glorifies the Lord Jesus, fulfills God's will, and furthers His eternal purpose in Christ?  Will we devote ourselves to others, as led and enabled by the Spirit of Christ?  Will we know the peace and joy He promises in the now, as opposed to fretting over a possible fate that may or may not lie ahead?  Will we "boast thyself of tomorrow" or trust God today?  

   If we could physically see and feel our spiritual enemies, we would likely perceive them as pushing us into tomorrow.  Again, a justifiable place for planning exists in our present lives (Proverbs 6:6-8).  However, no proper place exists in our hearts for fearing the future.  If our Heavenly Father grants tomorrow to us in this present earthly lifetime, He will be waiting for us when we arrive.  Moreover, He will be with us as we go.  He is and will always be everything we will ever need, and He will be so in a provision beyond our capacity to imagine.  "Exceeding, abundantly above" supplies the measure of such promise (Ephesians 3:20-21).  However, the assurance applies only to today in the sense of our access and experience.   "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25).  Pressed into the here and now by God's promise for the present day - this is the trust to which He calls us whereby we overcome boasting about an earthly tomorrow our Lord has not guaranteed will be ours to experience.  

"This is the day which the Lord hath made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it."

(Psalm 118:24)

"Go to now, ye that say, To day or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

(James 4:13-14)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Let us have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.

(Hebrews 12:28)

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