"Stewards"

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

"Stewards"

    Human beings accomplish many remarkable things, all in some manner dependent on the Lord's provision of knowledge, motivation, determination, and action. Sometimes people realize and acknowledge God's involvement in their doings.  Often they do not.  Much joy and gratitude proceed from the former.  Much ignorance and pride characterize the latter.  

   "O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23).

   Achievement without acknowledgment of the God who "giveth to all life and breath and all things" belies our existence as stewards of His gifts (Acts 17:25).  Even the most disavowing atheist requires the provision of the Lord he rejects to maintain life and existence.  He literally uses the breath God gives to voice his unbelief and rebellion against reality.  This says much about the blindness of human pride, and even more about the Creator who made us with the capacity to receive and use His gifts, while either acknowledging or denying His existence.  "Without me ye can do nothing" declared the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples regarding the life of faith and faithfulness to which God calls us (John 15:5).  In a larger sense, the same holds true of all humanity, who cannot be or do without the "life and breath and all things" provided by the Creator and Sustainer of our existence.  Certainly this does not make the Lord responsible for sin (James 1:13).  It does, however, speak to the fact of how dependent we all are on the One in whom we "live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  Moreover, this fundamental reality of our existence directs all honor and glory for the good things of human achievement to the God whose Light we absorb and reflect, whether we know it or not.  "The true Light lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9).

   Stewards receive and utilize the provision of their master, whether skillfully or poorly.  The Lord's parable speaks to this truth (Matthew 25:15-30).  Thus, when we see human accomplishment of any kind, we may rightly affirm the steward's application of knowledge, wisdom, strength, and determination.  However, we overlook Reality if we fail to see the Unseen Heart and Hand that inspires, motivates, and empowers all truth, beauty, and goodness.  As His sons and daughters in Christ given eyes to see, let us behold the glory of God that glimmers in the accomplishments of humanity.  And let us trust Him to lead and enable our own stewardship so that "whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:31).

"Man's goings are of the Lord."

(Proverbs 20:24)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "Without Me ye can do nothing."

 (John 15:5).

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“In Him We Live and Move and Have Our Being"

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

"In Him We Live and Move and Have Our Being"

   

   We frequently reference Acts 17:28 in these messages, usually in passing.  Let us today pause along the way of such wonder and seek to catch a a brighter glimmer of the glory that shines from the Apostle Paul's declaration...

   "In Him we live and move and have our being."

   Our Lord pervades the entirety of our existence (Acts 17:28).  This is truth.  This is fact.  This is reality.  "Man's goings are of the Lord" (Proverbs 20:24).  Our awareness of such wonder, even among the most devout believers, does not begin to comprehend how much God saturates our lives.  I for one do not know what it means that we "live and move and have our being" in God.  I just know that we do.  I furthermore believe that we must establish this nearly incomprehensible verity as a belief, a conviction, and a growing certainty that our lives teem with the pointed and involved presence of the Creator and Sustainer of our being.  "Whither shall I flee from Thy Spirit?  Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence… Thou art there" (Psalm 139:7; 8).  

   Of such wonder, we can know some.  We can know more.  But we can never know all.  "We walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7).  Personally, I have pondered, considered, discussed, preached, and written about Acts 17:28 for nearly four decades.  I have been illuminated, encouraged, challenged, filled, thrilled, and fulfilled by its surpassing glory.  As I write these words, however, I feel like a blind man groping in near darkness.  After nearly forty years of craning my neck to gaze upon the summit of Paul's pronouncement, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have never seen anything more than the base of this infinite mountain of Reality.  I suspect it will always be this way, in this life for certain, and even in eternity we will forever grow in the awareness of how much our existence teems with the God of whom Solomon marveled, "The Heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee!" (I Kings 8:27).

   We do not have to understand God's Truth in order to be influenced and enlivened by it.  Indeed, whenever Acts 17:28 yet again drives me to my face in the awareness of blindness, I nevertheless arise in the knowledge of having been illuminated.  I may not understand in conceptual terms any more of what it means that "in Him we live and move and have our being."  But I do know that pondering and affirming the wonder does something to open my eyes a bit more to see, and my heart a bit more to love, trust, and worship.  That is most certainly enough, and perhaps understanding that some things of our Lord are nearly beyond understanding may serve as the brightest Light of all.

"The King of kings, and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting."

(I Timothy 6:15-16)

Weekly Memory Verse

  Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

(I Corinthians 10:31)

  

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"The Answer Came"

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

"The Answer Came"

   

   The Lord did something for me yesterday that was so obviously personal, so obviously gracious, and so obviously Him.  The details are not important, and you can be sure that if you knew them, would seem ordinary, mundane, and unspectacular to the degree you would wonder why I view them as I do.  Yesterday's Orange Moon devotional regarding the subject of using our understanding without leaning on it served a major role in the matter, which leads to today's consideration.

   "Therefore will I look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation.  My God will hear me" (Micah 7:7).

   When I write these messages, I tend to forget about them after sending them out.  Sometimes people will reference the day's subject, and I have to ask, "Uh, what was it about?"  That being said, there are messages written during these twenty years I do recall, and consider favorites.  Almost invariably, these are written when going through a trial or challenge.  Yesterday's message involved such a matter.  I spent a largely sleepless night perplexed about an ongoing challenge.  "What do I do about this, Lord?"  The question arose in my mind and proceeded from my heart over and over through the night.  I had almost reached a conclusion that would have been the wrong response.  But then, with the dawn, and with writing the devotional, the answer came.  "I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill" (Psalm 3:4).  That which had been vague and even undesired in my mind became clearly obvious, and attainable through the enabling of Christ.  I can't explain how it happened because I do not know.   I heard no voice, of course, and nothing obviously supernatural occurred.  I just knew that which I had not known before.  A path presented itself to my heart, and the confidence to walk upon it descended to direct my steps.  The decision I made proved to be the right one, leading to actions I know in my heart can only have resulted from the grace and guidance of our Lord.

   I will never forget the night, and even more, the dawn with its devotional message I seemed to have written for my own heart.  They all feel that way, but some far more than others.  Most importantly, I realized again that the challenges of our lives lead us to God and His Truth in ways we would never know without them.  Moreover, those challenges faced with the Lord Jesus enable us to minister His reality to others.  "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (II Corinthians 4:10).  I therefore hope the message proved helpful to you.  As for me, I discovered yet again the wonder of God's gracious presence, involvement, and working in our hearts and lives.  A long eternity stretches forth before us to praise and thank Him for such grace.  It won't be long enough, however, and I am more than certain that forever will not suffice in providing enough opportunity for me to remember with adoration and devotion a long night, but far more, a dawn when the answer came.

"I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel; my reins (inward being) also instruct me in the night season."

(Psalm 16:7)

"Order my steps in Thy Word."

(Psalm 119:133)

Weekly Memory Verse

  Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

(I Corinthians 10:31)

  

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