Orange Moon Tuesday, February 25, 2025 "A Tranquil Heart"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"A Tranquil Heart"      

     

   Job knew the grace of God, as evident in the Lord's affirmation of His trusting servant:

    "And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect (complete) and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?" (Job 1:8).  

    Job nevertheless acknowledged after his suffering began that despite his integrity and sincerity, he lacked the knowledge of God that leads to deep and abiding peace of the heart:

    "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.  I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came" (Job 3:25-26).

   It is possible to trust the Lord for His grace in the Lord Jesus Christ that results in relationship with Him and a life that honors Him, while nevertheless requiring growth in God's grace and truth in Christ that results in abiding peace amid the temptations of life.  Like those to whom the book of Hebrews is written, we can "seem to come short" of God's rest in the Lord Jesus despite having entered into it (emphasis added).

    "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest" (Hebrews 4:1-3).

   The peace of Christ can be resident, but not realized in the believer's heart.  One reason for Job's trials involved God's determination to advance His servant into a walk with Himself that led not only to an exemplary life, but also a consistent and growing experience of His peace.  Job admitted that he had lacked this strength of spirit, while not knowing at the time that God had allowed his trials in order to lead him into a far greater and deeper knowledge of Himself.  This happened, as confirmed by Job's testimony after his severe trial concluded: "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee" (Job 42:5).

   The Lord Jesus died not only to establish the peace of redeeming relationship with God, but also the realized peace of His presence and promise: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3).  Our Heavenly Father will never be content with our simply knowing Him in the new birth, glorious as is such marvelous grace.  Remaining a babe in Christ whose heart is tossed about by turmoil is not optional in God's purpose for us.  "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat" (Hebrews 5:12).  Our Lord may thus administer and allow challenges in our lives that seem to  place us in great peril, while actually making possible our experience of His great peace.  "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept Thy Word" (Psalm 119:67).

    Presently, a tranquil heart in Christ must be known in the troubled haven of the fallen world in which we live.  The Apostle Paul confirms this provision of a peace in the Lord Jesus that makes no sense to natural understanding, but which brightly illuminates the hearts of those who believe that God can fill our hearts with His assurance in all things…

"Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

(Philippians 4:6-7)

Weekly Memory Verse

  Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.

(Ephesians 6:10)

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Orange Moon Monday, February 24, 2025 "When I Am Weak"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"When I Am Weak"      

     

   "When I am weak, then am I strong" (II Corinthians 12:10).

    In natural matters, when we are weak, we are weak.  When we are strong, we are strong.  Spiritually, however, the matter differs.  Since we live by the mandate, "Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might," our recognition of need best equips us to avail ourselves of the enabling whereby we walk with God and live for Him by living from Him (Ephesians 6:10).

    Weakness, rightly viewed, helps us to see our humanity as the temple created for God's vital presence.  "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am" (Psalm 39:4).  The Apostle Paul discovered this reality to the degree he confessed, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake" (II Corinthians 12:10). Paul did not "feel" pleasure in these difficulties that challenged him no less than they do every human soul and body.  He rather determined to "take pleasure" by realizing and affirming that anything that bears witness to God's supply and our need serves as friend rather than foe.  This involved faith for the Apostle, as it will for us when we choose to view our challenges as opportunities to live by a power far beyond ourselves, but which nevertheless dwells within us through the Spirit of Christ.  "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (II Corinthians 12:9).

    It feels good to feel strong.  Sometimes God's enabling results in such a sensibility as we live by His strength.  Quite often, however,  the sense of weakness must be present in order to remind and motivate us to trust our Lord for His promised power.  Such times will challenge us at the outset as the discomfort of weakness, in whatever form, causes us to feel deficient and jeopardized.  If, however, we have learned that God's strength "is made perfect in weakness," we see the opportunity that lies at hand, and in heart.  "Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress" (Psalm 4:1). 

     Never would we have come to Christ had not we discovered our inability to change our own hearts and lives.  Never will we walk with Christ if we do not discover that God administers and allows challenges that expose our frailty in order to enlighten "the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20).  "Christ, the power of God" is how Paul termed the gift he also declared to be "exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think" (I Corinthians 1:24).  Weak?  Absolutely.  "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).  Strong?  In Him?  Absolutely, even more…

"For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God."

(II Corinthians 13:4)

Weekly Memory Verse

  Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.

(Ephesians 6:10)

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Orange Moon Saturday, February 22, 2025 “I Am… He Is… You Are”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"I Am… He Is… You Are"      

     

     God's revelation of Himself begins with His personal affirmation, continues with the Bible's declaration, and must become personal in us by our communication.

    "I am the Lord" (Exodus 6:2).

    "He is the Lord" (Psalm 105:7).

    "Thou art the Lord" (Nehemiah 9:7).

    Our faith does not begin with us, but rather with its Subject and His eternal "from everlasting to everlasting" being (Psalm 90:2).  Were there no "I Am" to trust, we would have no one in whom to place our confidence and rest our hearts.  We would not even exist apart from our Lord, nor would we continue to exist if His "I Am" did not sustain our own "I am."  "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  Yes, when God revealed Himself as "I Am" to Moses, He unveiled to His servant the most fundamental and elemental reality of His own being - and no less, of Moses' own existence (Exodus 3:14).

   Scripture states as factual the personal affirmation of God's "I Am," proclaiming the matter in terms of doctrinal truth - "He is."  As beings with minds, we require this rational and intelligent proposition in order to exercise faith in the truth of God as well as His heart.  He calls us to love Him with "all thy mind" (Matthew 22:37).  This begins with the simple fact of God's existence.  "He that cometh to God must believe that He is" (Hebrews 11:6).  Indeed, the Bible opens with the assumption of the Lord's being - "in the beginning, God" - that must become our personal affirmation of the reasoned choice to believe the clear evidence of "He is" that abounds in all things (Genesis 1:1; Romans 1:20).

    Finally, our "You are" of the heart, directed to the "I Am" and "He is" of God begins and forever continues personal relationship with Him.  "With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness" (Romans 10:10).  Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have been drawn closer to the heart of God than we presently realize.  Our Savior prayed accordingly… 

    "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me" (John 17:23).  

   The Apostle Paul echoes the wonder.  "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).  We communicate to the Father our faith of "You are," being personal with One so infinitely and eternally glorious that it would seem impossible that we could know Him in such terms.  Yes, salvation begins with God's "I am" and the Bible's "He is" becoming our heart's "You are."  The blessings of salvation forever continue in living fellowship with our Lord as affirmation and declaration lead to communication.  Who does the "I Am" affirm Himself to be in this moment?  What does His Word proclaim that He is?  May we answer in the most personal terms as the voice of God and the Word of God lead to our confidence in the fact and faithfulness of God - "You are."

"Thou art the God of my salvation."

(Psalm 25:5)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

(Psalm 139:23-24)

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