Orange Moon Monday, December 4, 2023 "Right Where We Want Them!"

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

"Right Where We Want Them!"

  "Force cannot extinguish the flame of faith.  It rather serves as a purifying and sanctifying agent whereby God uses the attacks of the wicked to draw the righteous more devotedly unto Himself."

    

       Several years ago, a brief moment of concern gave way to remembrance and rejoicing as I read the headline, published just before Christmas:  "Christianity Nearly Extinct In Middle East."   

    

    "Not hardly."  The thought came to me as I recalled another "headline" of long ago that seemed to echo a similar notion…   

    "They crucified Him" (Matthew 27:35).

  Beginning with its Founder, the Christian faith has seemingly experienced the finality of death throughout her history.  The world, the devil, and the flesh put away the Lord Jesus Christ, only to find a blaze of the most intense glory igniting from the ashes of the cross.  They do the same to His church, only to find her shining forth in a glory that could not have arisen save in the throes of rejection and persecution.  Indeed, force cannot extinguish the flame of faith.  It rather serves as a purifying and sanctifying agent whereby God uses the attacks of the wicked to draw the righteous more devotedly unto Himself.  He then sends us forth to "shine as lights in the world," lights all the more brilliant because our enemies' attempts to douse Christ's grace and truth always result in dark nights that provide backdrop for the brightest moons (Philippians 2:15).   

    Certainly, public observance of Christianity may wane in the Middle East and in our culture also by the increasing attempts of the wicked to remove the Lord Jesus from open display and discourse.  What must God be doing when He allows evil to seemingly have sway?  The cross would tell He does His best work when He grants Satan the longest leash.  The worst thing that ever happened, the cruel and unjust murder of His Son, led to the redemption of all who believe that Christ's death led to His triumphant resurrection.  The same spiritual dynamic continues until this present hour as the brightest light shines in the blackest night.  Losses make a way for gains.  Sorrows pave within our hearts new pathways for Christ's joy.  Death serves to make possible the risen Christ coming forth from sad tombs redeemed by God to become glad temples of "newness of life" (Romans 6:4).   

     A Marine Corps sergeant radioed his commander upon finding his unit surrounded by overwhelming odds: "Sir, we've got them right where we want them!"   The Captain of our salvation reports the same from His throne of Heaven, whereupon He reigns after victory on an earthly cross resulted in a triumphant resurrection.  We must join Him, remembering that the appearance of "extinction" let to the glory of His exaltation.  Yes, God ever works to transform tombs into temples wherein Christ's newness of life shines forth in ways that could not be otherwise known.

Sometimes it seems that the enemy of our soul wins

over and over and over and over again.

But if we could see the Truth much more clearly, my friend,

we'd see Christ triumph over death, hell, and sin,

over and over and over and over again…

Over and over and over and over again.

The Tomb is empty, the Throne above occupied.

For Christ is risen again, from death glorified.

Oh remember when hot, stinging tears fill your eyes,

the triumph He's shone so many times in our lives,

over and over and over and over again…

Over and over and over and over again.

Forever draws nigh, we will be with Him there soon, my friend.

The trials of this life will be gone when we're with Him in Heaven.

Glories we'll see, majesty without end, 

that sing the glad hymn, Christ is risen again,

over and over and over and over again…

Over and over and over and over again.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?   Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."                                                                                                                                 (Romans 8:35-37)          

"Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord, He is God in Heaven above, and upon the earth beneath.  There is none else."
(Deuteronomy 4:39)

Weekly Memory Verse

    In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

(Romans 8:37)

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Orange Moon Saturday, December 2, 2023 "The Breath He Gives"

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

(Thanks to JB for inspiration on this one)

"The Breath He Gives"

  "Presently, the Lord allows the breath He gives to be used against Him in countless ways.  He works amid all to fulfill "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

    

   In order to deny or even curse the notion of God, the atheist must use the breath given by the Lord to express his denunciation.

     "He giveth to all life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25).

    As referenced in yesterday's message, our very existence comprises a gift that cost God greatly.  By creating all things, the Lord Jesus Christ became "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8).  Had there been no creation and no sin that ensued thereby, there would have been no cross necessary for the redemption of a fallen realm.  Thus, those who rail against God rage against the love that self-sacrificially made them and sustains them, and that is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9).  Moreover, for those who never respond to the grace and mercy of God's saving grace in Christ, even "the wrath to come" will cost the Creator: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Matthew 3:7; Ezekiel 33:11).

   Presently, the Lord allows the breath He gives to be used against Him in countless ways.  He works amid all to fulfill "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord," a determination that will not be thwarted by those who misuse His gifts (Ephesians 3:11).  In a generation of 24/7 availability of communication, much of which flows with the current of unbelief and rejection of the Giver of "every good gift and ever perfect gift," we do well to remember that the sinner must inhale the Lord's gracious bestowal in order to exhale his ungrateful denial (James 1:17).  Moreover, believers do well to use the breath He gives to us for more grateful expressions of praise, thanksgiving, and affirmation of the Creator who made all things in the foreshadowing of the Lamb, and of the cross on which He would become the sacrifice made necessary by creation.  

"Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD."

(Psalm 150:6)

"God the Lord, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein."

(Isaiah 42:5)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 

(I John 5:4)

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Orange Moon Friday, December 1, 2023 "The Cheerful Giver"

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

"The Cheerful Giver"

  "This may be the greatest of all God's cheerful giving, that at the highest cost to Himself, He made possible and actual in believers the joy He Himself knows in seeking the blessing of others."

    

   "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

    He would know, wouldn't He?

    "The son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).

    Our Savior lived "It is more blessed to give than to receive" even more than He said it.  Such sublime character and corresponding unselfishness of attitude, word, and deed proceeded from the nature of God, who "loveth a cheerful giver" because He is Himself the most cheerful of givers (II Corinthians 9:7).  "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" declared the Lord Jesus to His disciples, revealing the divine disposition of joy in selfless devotion to others (Luke 12:32).  God loves to give.  It is who He is in the deepest essence of His sublime being, and who we must know Him to be in order to relate to Him rightly and righteously through the Lord Jesus.  "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).

    We do well to think of this as we breathe our next breath.  Certainly, we are glad to receive it from the One who "giveth to all life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25).  God, however, is far gladder to have provided it.  "More blessed to give than to receive."  Perhaps the greatest confirmation of such goodness lies in the truth that our Lord gives at great sacrifice to Himself.  Had He never created all things that require His provision, He would not bear upon His hands, feet, and side the prints of nails and a spear suffered to redeem a fallen creation.  Our next breath  comes to us by the price of blood, of sorrow, of agony, of grief, of forsakenness, and of death.  God could not justly provide for us had He not made a way to be both "just and the justifier of Him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26).  Thus, we not only joyfully feel and express our gratitude when God gives.  We also solemnly remember the cost of gifts so freely and willingly given, but purchased by so a remittance far more expensive than we will ever know.  "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (I Peter 1:18-19).

   Wondrously, this disposition of sacrificial and cheerful giving now dwells in all who trust the Lord Jesus.  "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).  The love of God for us, that came to us, now lives within us, constituting our greatest joy not in receiving, but in giving.  We do not presently know or experience such grace in perfection.  We can still live selfishly if we walk after the flesh.  However, nothing changes our deepest and truest delight in sacrificial devotion to others, as effected in us by the Spirit of Christ.  "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). This may be the greatest of all God's cheerful giving, that at the highest cost to Himself, He made possible and actual in believers the joy He Himself knows in seeking the blessing of others.  Indeed, the heart of the kingdom God gave to His Son's disciples, and to all who believe, provided the King Himself to dwell not only among us, but also within us as the very Life of our lives.  Through such a gift, we may "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor" (Ephesians 5:2).  Yes, God loveth a cheerful giver because He is Himself the Cheerful Giver, so much so that He lives and works in us that we know His joy in devotion to others, at whatever cost…

 "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him… If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us…. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

(I John 4:9; 12; 16)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 

(I John 5:4)

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