Orange Moon Monday, February 6, 2023 "This Man"

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

    

              "This Man"

 

    "Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him" (Matthew 3:13).

    Every moment of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ shines with wonder, perhaps most importantly because He lived an earthly life.

    "Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh" (I Timothy 3:16).

   That the living, eternal, and infinite God became human should stop us in our tracks upon every remembrance.  That He became human and participated in a sinner's baptism should bring us to our knees in utter amazement, and even bewilderment.  The Lord of perfect holiness and righteousness, in order to identify with us, subjected Himself to a rite that made Him appear to be something other than what He was.  Certainly, John announced the Lord as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world rather than being a sinner Himself (John 1:29).  However, how many actually heard him say those words?  Proximity and dullness of understanding likely prohibited most from perceiving the Lord Jesus to be anything more than a sinner in need of repentance.  He would later be accused of such.  "This man is a sinner" (John 9:24).

   The baptism, of course, foreshadowed other days when the Lord Jesus would do things He knew would make Him appear to be less than the pristinely perfect spiritual and moral Being He is.  From fellowshipping with sinners, to plucking ears of corn on the Sabbath, to ultimately dying on a criminal's cross, our Savior lived in such a manner that to know Him as He is, we must heed His counsel: "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).  For all the world, the Lord Jesus often lived in a manner that made Him seem a part of the world's fallenness, especially to those who had no eyes to see that "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways" (Isaiah 55:8).

   This speaks to a humility and devotion to God the Father's will far beyond our understanding and imagination.  To be God, the second Person of the Trinity, and to become human?  Great indeed is the mystery!  To be God, but to appear as merely human in order to fulfill His Father's will and to redeem us from our sins?  Wondrous beyond mystery!  A manger, a sinner's baptism, a life lived in Divinity often obscured, and a cross that seemingly confirmed His ordinary humanness, all speak to our hearts of our blessed Savior's sublime character of a goodness for which no words exist to adequately convey.  Thus, we fall before Him to our knees, asking Him to look within our hearts to see the appreciation our lips cannot express.  In both Heaven and earth, there is no one like the Lord Jesus Christ, the God who became man, the man who remains God, and the glorious One who lived a life of quiet humility that all the more revealed His glory.

"Is not this the carpenter's son?  Is not His mother called Mary? And His brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?  Whence then hath this man all these things?"

(Matthew 13:55-56)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

(John 7:24)

 

    

   

  

    

     

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Orange Moon Sunday, February 5, 2023 "The Power of the Tongue"

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

    

              "The Power of the Tongue"

 

    "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers"(Ephesians 4:29).

   Long before the Apostle Paul warned against allowing destructive words to proceed from our mouths, the Psalmist knew his own need for God's grace in the vital matter:

    "Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips" (Psalm 141:3).

   We do well to join our brother of old in consistently seeking the Lord's leading and enabling of words that build up rather than tear down.  James spoke to this in the most graphic terms, declaring the natural state of our tongue to be "set on fire of hell" (James 3:6).  That is, left to itself, our capacity for words will result in smoke and ash rather than structure and beauty.  No believer is exempt from the possibility that can easily become an actuality.  Our spiritual enemies likely know this importance of words far better than do we ourselves, ever tempting us to speak with content, intent, and tone that tears down rather than edifies.  "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21).

   One called "the Word" created us.  He upholds all things, including ourselves, "by the word of His power."  We were created "in His own image," and through Christ, are being restored thereunto (John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:3; Genesis 1:27; Romans 8:28-29).  Thus, can anything be more important in our lives than than the words we think and the words we speak?  The Apostle's command, the Psalmist's request, and James' revelation that our tongue will serve as destructive fire apart from the leading and enabling of the Holy Spirit answer the question.  We must maintain ongoing communication with our Lord about our words.  Our tongues can and must bless with the light of Heaven rather than the fire of hell.  We will require the Father of Heaven to enable such grace, however, and our seeking of His power to "speak… the words of this life" rather than words of death and destruction (Acts 5:20).  Yes, "the power of the tongue" will enliven or kill, bless or burn in this day.  May our Lord lead us to bestow life and blessing, as the wise Psalmist yet again prayed...

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer."

(Psalm 19:14)

Weekly Memory Verses

   His greatness is unsearchable.

 (Psalm 145:3).  

   His understanding is infinite. 

(Psalm 147:5)

    

   

  

    

     

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Orange Moon Saturday, February 4, 2023 "The Life of Our Lives"

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

    

              "The Life of Our Lives"

 

    "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name?  And in Thy name have cast out devils?  And in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:22-23).

    "This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:40).

   Regarding salvation and the assurance of Heaven to come, to do the will of the Father is to see and believe on the Son.  The matter involves not doings, but rather life and death.  That is, apart from the Lord Jesus, human beings are spiritually dead.

    "If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins…. Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life" (John 8:24; 5:4).

    Those mentioned above who celebrated their "many wonderful works" were nevertheless "alienated from the life of God" (Ephesians 4:18).  They did not live in spiritual proximity to the One who "is our life" (Colossians 3:4).  Thus, the Lord Jesus declared them dead and most certainly inappropriate for future citizenship in a Heaven populated only by living beings, be it Divine, angelic, or human.  It matters not how many earthly works one does, important as they may be, a spiritually dead human being cannot enter and abide in an eternally living realm, alive in the vitality and animation of He who declared, "I am… the life" (John 14:6).

   As the old hymn exults, "Nothing in my hands I bring, only to Thy cross I cling."  We will, however, bring something - Someone - in our hearts when we appear in Heaven.  The living Christ who made us alive not because we worked for Him, but because we came to Him, will provide our entree and eternal access into a Heaven forever teeming with the life of God.  Thus, our determination to direct all glory to the only One worthy of it will lead us in praise and thanksgiving for the Christ who died for us, that He might live in us as the very Life of our lives.

Thou art the Life, the life of my life, 

the joy of my spirit. 

A Voice speaks by Your Word. 

I more and more hear it.

To live is Christ, it says, nothing else is,

I kneel to draw near it

to hear and respond, in the truth of Thy light,

the grace of Thy Spirit…

Thou art the Life, the Life of my life.

"He is thy life."

(Deuteronomy 30:20)

Weekly Memory Verses

   His greatness is unsearchable.

 (Psalm 145:3).  

   His understanding is infinite. 

(Psalm 147:5)

    

   

  

    

     

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