Orange Moon Saturday, June 3, 2023 "HIs Delight"

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

"His Delight"    

                                  

    Among the reasons that most motivate born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to pray, the possibility of pleasing God's heart must surely be the most personal.

    "The prayer of the upright is His delight" (Proverbs 15:8).

    Can it possibly be that we possess the potential to "delight" the very heart of God by communing with Him?  It most certainly can, based on the authority of His Word.  Those who have come to Him through faith in the Lord Jesus mean so much and matter so much that "Let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice" applies to us, as affirmed by our Heavenly Father (Song of Solomon 2:14).  Humble and trusting prayers please Him, when offered in sincerity and according to His truth.  This we must believe, first because it is true, and then because to pray accordingly offers us the privilege of praying in response to God's love, and in the offering of our love to Him.  

   "I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live" (Psalm 116:1-2).

   God exists as the most personal of beings, meaning that communication flows within His triune being of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the very heart of who He is.  To speak and to commune constitutes a primary aspect of the very nature of God. "The Word was God" (John 1:1).   Originally created in His image, the human race exists for this heart to heart, mind to mind, and utterance to utterance glory of Divine reality.  "Men ought always to pray" (Psalm 18:1).  Through Christ, redemption from sin means return to the communion with God for which we exist.  Indeed, the Lord Jesus endured forsakenness by the Father and the Holy Spirit on the cross of Calvary, the only breach in the Divine fellowship that has ever been, or will ever be.  "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46).  He did so to end our spiritual and moral severance from God, making possible the fellowship that so pleases Him, and that so provides for us the very Life of our lives.  "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).

    Upon recovering from the heart-stilling and thrilling wonder that our Father so desires communication with us - to the degree of "delight" - surely our response must be the determination to personally please His heart by personally communing with Him, as led by His Spirit and by the truth of His Word.  The Psalmist realized this, and expressed the only response imaginable to the love and grace that beckons us to draw near to the heart of God…

"When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek."

(Psalm 27:8)

"As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness."

(Psalm 17:15)

Weekly Memory Verse

     If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 

(John 8:36)

   

    

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Orange Moon Friday, June 2, 2023 "Why?" Part 4 - The Preeminence

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

"Why?"    

Part 4 - The Preeminence                                           

 

    

   "He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence" (Colossians 1:18).

    Creation ever moves toward an order and dominion wherein the Lord Jesus Christ will be known for who He is, namely, the One who serves as the center and circumference of God's "eternal purpose" (Ephesians 3:11).  His preeminence serves as the reason for our Father's doings both now and forevermore, and the answer always to why He does what He does.

    Presently, the Lord Jesus can be known in the hearts and lives of born again believers as the preeminent One, albeit in limited measure.  "We see through a glass darkly" (I Corinthians 13:12).  Our view and experience of such truth pales in comparison to that realm in which the glory of the Lord Jesus will be clearly seen in all things.  We do see, however, in the bright light of God's Word, and also in the light of God's world as Christ's illumination "shineth in darkness" (John 1:5).  "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord" declared the Psalmist (Psalm 33:5).  This can only mean that the world is full of Christ, amid the calamity and chaos of the present earthly realm.  For those with eyes to see and hearts to believe, the Lord Jesus will be found awaiting us wherever we go, and journeying with us as we go.  "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16)

   The foundation in this life for knowing the preeminence of Christ as well as possible involves devotion to the Scriptural affirmation and teaching, and the expectation that our Father will reveal the glory of His Son along the pathways of life.  We must understand that everything God does commences, continues, and culminates in shining the brightest possible light on the Lord Jesus.  We plant this truth in our hearts as the root of our doctrine.  We then seek to be branches of the Vine, bearing leaves and fruit in our countenance, demeanor, attitude, words, and deeds for the glory of Christ.  "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" declared the Savior (John 14:9).  In like manner, our prayer, hope, and determination by the grace of God is those who see us will see the Son.  We exist for this as believers, created by our Father, and redeemed by Him to serve as lamps of the light of Christ, bearing no illumination of our own, but reflecting His.  "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord… Thou wilt light my candle" (Proverbs 20:27; Psalm 18:28).

   "To live is Christ" wrote the Apostle Paul to the Philippians (Philippians 1:21).  This doubtless means more than eternity will fully reveal to our hearts.  Of this we can be sure, however, both now and forevermore: we are only truly alive as the Spirit of the Lord Jesus lives in us.  And we only view life rightly as we devote ourselves to the preeminence God the Father forever reserves for His Son, and His Son alone.  Christ only, Christ always, Christ forever.  This ever and forever serves as the primary answer to why God does all that He does.  The river of life flows with this current, as directed by the wind of the Spirit.  May our Father grant much grace so we may flow with it.  

"Unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom."

(Hebrews 1:8)

Weekly Memory Verse

     If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 

(John 8:36)

   

    

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Orange Moon Thursday, June 1, 2023 "Why?" Part 3 - Raison D'Etre

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

"Why?"    

Part 3 - Raison D'Etre

                                            

 

    "His dear Son… by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him" (Colossians 1:13: 16).

   It says much regarding the darkly deceiving nature of sin that the human race exists by and for the Lord Jesus Christ, but even devoted believers find it greatly challenging to walk in the light of this most elemental reality of life and being.

   "To live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).

    A fallen world beckons to us with countless imposters masquerading as life, empowered by the great imposter himself, Satan, who continually beckons to us that good things are bad, bad things are good, deadly things are living, and living things are dead.  Most of all, the world and the devil seek to distract us from focusing our hearts on the One for whom they exist.  We must arise and stand against the darkness by considering the Apostle Paul's words above that "all things" exist by and for the Lord Jesus, and then make the matter as intensely personal as our hearts can determine.  "I exist by the Lord Jesus, and for Him.  He is the 'Why?' of my heart, life, and being." 

   The last sentence both thrills and troubles.  To exist for One so winsome and wondrous as Christ fills the heart with hope.  "In Thy presence is fullness of joy.  At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).  However, we also realize how little we really know of so glorious a reason for being, and how little, in real terms, we have responded to such grace and truth.  "If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (I Corinthians 8:2).  Personally, the truth we consider in this series of messages has been the central theme of my understanding for more than four decades, serving as the light and life of more joy than I can express.  As I type these words, however, my heart bows in shame for how minimal has been the response I could and should have expressed toward so wondrous a Lord, and so blessed a reason for being supplied only by Him, in Him, and through Him.

    From everlasting to everlasting, God the Father works according to "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).  Why?  This is why, the most fundamental answer to every inquiry our hearts can devise.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  Nothing else.  Devils, the world, and the flesh - including our own - rail against this, the Divine reason that governs the heart and hand of God in all things.  The Spirit of God and the Word of God counter by displaying the illumination that glimmers upon the Lord Jesus to reveal, as the French would say, His place as the raison d'etre of everything the Father has done, is doing, and forevermore will do.  The purpose is eternal.  The purpose is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  The purpose is our Father's.  The purpose directs the Holy Spirit's wind and current forevermore.  It must direct ours as well.

"Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."

(Ephesians 1:15-23)

Weekly Memory Verse

     If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 

(John 8:36)

   

    

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