Orange Moon Tuesday, December 6, 2022 "A Living Hope"

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

    

              "A Lively Hope"     

    

    "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (I Peter 1:3).

    God Himself fuels the expectation of born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We do not merely hope for the best as God's children, but rather serve as the temples in which the Holy Spirit works to constitute confidence in God as the prevailing attitude and atmosphere of our hearts.  The Apostle Peter affirms such grace as "a lively hope," made possible by the fact of our Savior's "resurrection from the dead."

   Of course, we play a role in the experience of such hope.  We must avail ourselves of the gifts God gives to fuel our confidence in His involved presence in our lives.  Certainly, this begins in the Scriptures, the beacon of hope that leads us to the Lord of hope.  "In His Word do I hope" (Psalm 130:5).  We also prayerfully trust our Heavenly Father to confirm and enhance our expectation of His working in our hearts to maintain our expectation that He awaits us along every pathway of our lives.  "My expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5).  Fellowship with others whose hope is in God also prays a powerful role of strengthening our confidence that our Lord will ever be all we need in every circumstance, condition, and situation.  "Exhort one another daily" (Hebrews 3:13).  

    We also seek to turn away from anything that fills our mind with fear rather than faith.  The Apostle John stated it simply: "Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good" (III John 1:11).  Anything that hinders our hope must be viewed as an evil that causes far more harm than we realize.  Anything that leads us to experience and embrace "the lively hope" provides a good more blessed than we can imagine.  We do well to seek our Lord's counsel regarding this following of the edifying good, and following not of the destructive evil, particularly in a generation that offers so much opportunity to travel one path or the other.  "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).

   The living God ever works in us to lead us in His living hope.  The Lord Jesus is risen from the dead.  He is present and active in our hearts and lives.  He promises to be all we will need in all things, and at all times.  Such "a lively hope" must lead us in peace, joy, assurance, and the enabling to walk in unselfish devotion to God and others.  Let us avail ourselves of the gifts our Father has bestowed to lead us in confident expectation.  In Him, our hope is a living thing, alive in the risen life of Christ and our spirits "risen with Him" (Colossians 2:12).

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit."

(Romans 15:13)

Weekly Memory Verse   

    But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy: and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple.

(Psalm 5:7)

  

     

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Orange Moon Monday, December 5, 2022 "In Thy Mercy and Thy Fear"

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

(for my paternal grandmother, who went to be with our Lord fifty one years ago today, and who helped me learn the proper fear of God)

    

              "In Thy Mercy and Thy Fear"     

  

    The Psalmist declares of the Lord, "There is forgiveness with thee, that Thou mayest be…"

     …Praised?  Thanked?  Worshipped?  Adored?  Loved?

    Although each of these responses would be more than appropriate, this is not how the statement concludes.

    "There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared" (Psalm 130:4).  

   Why would the contemplation of God's merciful willingness to forgive serve as cause for fearing Him?  The answer lies in that which makes possible God's bestowal of mercy.

    "Without shedding of blood is no remission (pardon)"  (Hebrews 9:22).

    "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13).

    According to His character and nature, God cannot and does not forgive as merely a decision, but rather as a judicial act of justice required, justice fulfilled, and justice administered.  Sin made necessary God's judgment and wrath - "the soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:20).  As the spotless Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled this mandate in His suffering and death on the cross of Calvary - "Christ died for our sins" (I Corinthians 15:3).  God then administers a just mercy to all who receive the Lord Jesus by faith - "just and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26).  All flows from His perfect character of love, and also from the righteousness of His way that must be fulfilled in everything He does - "The LORD is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works" (Psalm 145:17).

   Certainly, this constitutes a God to be praised, thanked, worshipped, adored, and loved.  He loves to forgive, as the prophet declared, "He delighteth in mercy" (Micah 7:18).  However, a proper fear must accompany our joy.  Our Lord accounts sin as so heinous it must be judged in the severest manner possible in order to make mercy possible.  The sinner will either bear his own sin and ultimately suffer its eternally dire consequences.  Or, he will avail himself of the mercy made possible by trusting the One who bore it for him.  One way or the other, sin will be judged to the degree that it will ultimately be banished from God's creation.  Thus, forgiveness, as made available and offered by a loving and righteous Lord, involves a solemnity so profound that prints of nails and the wound of a spear still mar His body to bear witness to both sublime mercy and its terrible cost (John 20:27).

   As the saying goes, in order to create, God had to speak.  But in order to redeem, He had to bleed.  We do well to remember and affirm our Heavenly Father's delight in mercy.  But we also do well to remember and affirm the fearful realities that made possible His forgiveness of sin.  The Psalmist got it right, of course.  The mercy that so rightly blesses our hearts with ponderings of grateful wonder must also still our hearts with the fear of God.

"But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy: and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple."

(Psalm 5:7)

Weekly Memory Verse   

    But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy: and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple.

(Psalm 5:7)

  

     

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Orange Moon Sunday, December 4, 2022 "Faith and Power"

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

    

              "Faith and Power"     

  

      Our neighborhood is serviced by two main electrical transformers, one servicing the northern section, and another, the southern.  Thus, at times, one part of the area will be powered, while the other is not.  Several nights ago, after bad weather, we came home to find our part of the neighborhood illuminated and powered, while our friends to the north sat in darkness (it often works the other way, I assure you).

   "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Romans 1:16).

    The power of God determines the quality of our Christian lives and walk with God.  Moreover, our faith in that power determines our experience thereof.

   "We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2).

   "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (Matthew 13:58).

    This being true, we do well to seek growing confidence in God and His promised leading and enabling.  We might do an analysis of our lives with Him, that is, asking Him to show us what we do that leads us to better know the trustworthiness of His heart and His promises, and what may hinder our faith therein.  Anything that benefits our confidence should be affirmed, maintained, and enhanced.  Anything that somehow discourages trust in the Lord Jesus Christ should be abandoned as the burden and harm it is.  "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).

   Again, note that we perform such analysis not by ourselves, but as led by the Holy Spirit in His work to confirm or correct us.  "Who can understand his errors?  Cleanse Thou me from secret faults" (Psalm 19:12).  Only the Lord sees our truest need for change, and only He can pinpoint in us that which enhance or hinders our faith in Him.  We play a role by choosing to be open to His ongoing work of conforming us to the image of the Lord Jesus whereby we increasingly trust Him and thus know the power of God in our hearts and lives.  "We shall live with Him by the power of God" (II Corinthians 13:4).

    I felt badly for our neighbors the other night.  However, we know our time will when the roles will be reversed.  Let us pray for  one another and for ourselves that we will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus that we will not spiritually sit in stillness and darkness because the power of God seems absent.  For the believer, our Lord's promised strength is never actually missing from our spirits.  However, through unbelief, it might as well be.  God made us to trust Him - "the just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17).  Thus, we will know His presence and power only as we believe His promises and submit to His will in the confidence He will lead and guide us.  Anything that confirms and enhances our faith therein must be embraced ever more firmly.  Anything that hinders must be cast aside.  May the Spirit of God lead us accordingly.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

(Psalm 139:23-24)

Weekly Memory Verse   

   "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth…. Be clothed with humility."

 (III John 1:4; I Peter 5:5)

  

  

     

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