Orange Moon Thursday, October 3, 2024 "The Lamb Has Come"

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

"The Lamb Has Come"

    The cross of Calvary and the suffering death of the Lord Jesus Christ had to occur in physical space and time.  

   "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Galatians 4:4-5).

    In the eternal heart and mind of God, however, the Lord Jesus was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). Were this not the case, instantaneous and final judgment would have fallen on Adam and Eve immediately after they committed the first sin.  Instead, God acted in grace and mercy, based on the Lamb to come, just as for 2,000 years, He has acted in the glory that the Lamb has come.  

    The latter point most affects the hearts and lives of born again believers in the Lord Jesus.  Our doings matter much as we trust and submit to God for His glory and the fulfillment of His will in our lives.  However, our Heavenly Father's primary administrations and actions in our lives proceed from who Christ is and His doings on our behalf - "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).

   "He hath made us accepted in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:6).

   "He ever liveth to make intercession for us" (Hebrews 7:25).

   "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).

   The better we know our Lord's redemptive doings on our behalf, the better our own doings will align with the glory and will of God.  The Apostle Paul plainly stated this dynamic means of grace in his epistle to the Corinthians:

   "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).

   Paul calls believers to see ourselves in the light of Christ, just as our Father sees us.  "Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus" constitutes His primary view as "the Lord looketh on the heart."  Therein, "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts" (I Samuel 16:7; Galatians 4:6).  Our Father's first gaze upon every believer fixes upon His Son's abiding presence in our spirits.  This does not discount the totality of our being, and  the fact that we still live in earthly temples susceptible to temptation and sin. Nor does it guarantee a godly life in this present world.  The New Testament epistles are replete with people clearly identified as genuine believers, but who were not living accordingly (see I Corinthians; Galatians; Colossians; Hebrews).  However, it does mean that just as we became Christians by discovering and believing the work of Christ on our behalf for our new birth, we will more and more live as Christians as we discover His ongoing work regarding the life to which He calls us.  "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6).  

    Ever and always regarding freely imputed righteousness through Christ and the fruits thereof, the Lord Jesus serves as the heart of the matter, and the matter of the heart.  Who is He?  What has He done?  What is He doing?  What will He do forevermore on our behalf?  Growing awareness of so great a Savior results in growing capacity to see ourselves rightly in matters of both spirit and flesh, and to live accordingly.  Indeed, our Heavenly Father directs His primary focus on us through the lens of Christ.  The more we join Him in this wondrous view of grace, the more we will live in a manner that reflects the light in which God sees us, "the hope of glory" that the Lamb has come to the world - and to our hearts (Colossians 1:27).

"Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds."

(Hebrews 12:3)

Memory Verse

    Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves."

(Psalm 100:3).

       

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Orange Moon Wednesday, October 2, 2024 “The Incarnation and the Inspiration”

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

"The Incarnation and the Inspiration"

    The Holy Spirit overshadowed the womb of Mary to bring forth the Incarnation - the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He moved upon the writers of Scripture to bring forth the Inspiration - the written Word, the Bible (Luke 1:35; II Peter 1:21).  Thus, we can be sure the Spirit of God will motivate, guide, and empower us by both of His sublime masterpieces of grace and truth.  The Savior and the Scriptures - if asked what serves as the theme of our seeking to know and rightly relate to God, we can do no better than to affirm these gifts administered by the Holy Spirit to conceive the living and the written Word.

    We require the Holy Spirit's personal involvement in our hearts and lives to know the Lord Jesus personally.  He worked within us to draw us to Christ initially, and He works in us to enable fellowship with God through Christ as the power of the Christian life.  Believers serve as "the temple of the Holy Spirit" (I Corinthians 6:19).  We received His living presence as a free gift of grace when we believed, for the purpose of the Lord Jesus being known by us and known through us in our countenance, demeanor, attitudes, words, and deeds.  Rather than overshadowing us physically, as with Mary, He indwells us spiritually in a far greater presence and imparting of Christ to our hearts.  Thereby, we find the capacity to live in a measure of faith and faithfulness more enabling than imaginable - "exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20).  

   We also require the Spirit of God to lead us in our reading and response to the Bible.  We cannot begin to adequately comprehend the most simple truth of Scripture apart from its Author, who also serves as our Teacher.  "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26).  Regardless of how long we have known the Lord and pondered His Word, every exposure to Scripture requires the Holy Spirit's illumination if we are see the light of the living Word in the light of the written Word (Psalm 36:9).  This necessity must be planted within our hearts as an abiding conviction.  It is also wise to ask our Father to lead us by our Teacher, the Holy Spirit, every time we open the Book to search for its holy theme, the Lord Jesus.  "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 Holy Spirit does not draw attention to Himself, but rather to the Savior and the Scriptures (John 15:26;; I Corinthians 2:13).  He is to be loved and appreciated all the more for such selfless deference and devotion. A Being of wondrous light, wisdom, and power gave us both gifts so necessary to our salvation and the life forever lived thereafter.  Doubtless the Holy Spirit delighted to birth both the Incarnation and the Inspiration.  He will surely delight to lead us in ongoing discovery of both wonders of glory and grace.

"Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.

(John 16:13-14)

Memory Verse

    Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves."

(Psalm 100:3).

       

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Orange Moon Tuesday, October 1, 2024 "Life With An Atheist"

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

"Life With An Atheist"

    I live with an atheist.

    I do not refer to my wife Frances, of course, and certainly not to our beagle Ellie, godly creatures as they both are.  I rather reference my flesh, that is, the members and faculties I inherited from Adam in my original physical birth (and inhabited by what the Apostle Paul referred to as a "law of sin" - Romans 7:22).

    "The flesh lusteth against the spirit… in my flesh dwelleth no good thing" (Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:18).

    Left to itself, our earthly humanity, "fearfully and wonderfully made" as it is, does not flow with the current of God's grace and truth in the Lord Jesus (Psalm 139:14).  If we wonder as believers why we still find ourselves so susceptible to temptation, sin, and facing life as if God does not exist, the atheist with us provides the answer.  

    "So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin" (Romans 7:25).

    Thankfully, the Apostle Paul tells us that another part of us, the very heart of us - "I myself" - exists as an ardent theist - "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Romans 7:22).  Our spirits, united to the Spirit of Christ, flow with His current of faith in God's existence, presence, involvement, and working in all things.  This wondrous gift of grace forms within us the desire - delight - to glorify the Lord Jesus, perform God's will, and seek to be a blessing of Christ to others (Philippians 2:12).  Thus, the Christian life involves the spiritual theist we are, in conflict with the earthly temple - the fleshly atheist - in which we live.  

    Which is greater?  By an infinite measure, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" in our born again spiritual selves transcends "the law of sin" in our flesh (Romans 8:2).  However, we can live as if the reverse is true.  Through unbelief, we can allow the atheist to hold sway in our thinking, attitudes, words, actions, and relatings to God and people.  The Apostle Paul referenced this in his forthright rebuke of the Corinthians: "Ye… walk as men" (I Corinthians 3:3).  That is, the Corinthians lived as if they were nothing more than human, rather than human as indwelt and empowered by the divine.  They walked in a practical atheism, as it were, ignoring the presence of God in their innermost being by walking after the flesh that, left to itself, will always lead us to act as if our Lord does not exist.  "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die" (Romans 8:13).

    Any thought, emotion, or physical sensation that does not factor the presence of God as the very Life of our lives originates in the atheist with whom every believer lives.  The fleshly culprit will be with us until our Lord's return, or until we make our way with Him through the valley of the shadow of death (I Corinthians 15:51-54).  Far more importantly, the theist we are in Christ will be who and what we most deeply are for eternity.  He is so now, and the truest, deepest delight of every born again believer flows with the strong current of truth that "God is" (Hebrews 11:6).  We may or may not walk accordingly.  Nothing, however, changes the truth of the theist we are, or the atheist with whom we presently live.

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

(Romans 8:9-13)

Memory Verse

    Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves."

(Psalm 100:3).

       

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