Orange Moon Wednesday, October 4, 2023 "The Lens of Christ"

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

"The Lens of Christ"

    

    "We seek to see others through the lens of the Lord Jesus Christ, the maker and sustainer of every human being."     

    

    

    We will find no Scriptural license to belittle or humiliate another human being.  Instead, the Apostle Peter calls us to an attitude, demeanor, and bestowal of respect toward all.

    "Honor all men" (I Peter 2:17).

    In a world of human beings who all, including ourselves, sometimes act shamefully and disrespectfully, Peter's mandate may seem counterintuitive.  Honor all?  How can we possibly respect those who make a mockery of integrity, decency, and a life lived in acknowledgment of God and His rightful calling to honor Him?

    We first do so by setting and maintaining our focus on Him as we view people.  We seek to see others through the lens of the Lord Jesus Christ, the maker and sustainer of every human being.  "In Him we live and move and have our being" declared the Apostle Paul to those who did not know the Lord (emphasis added).  God also gives "to all life and breath and all things."  The Lord Jesus gave His life for all, and our Heavenly Father would have all come to Him in repentance and faith (Acts 17:25; 28; I John 2:2; I Timothy 2:4).  These and many other aspects of truth grind and polish the lens of honor through which our Heavenly Father calls to see people.  Certainly, we do not ignore the realities of sin.  However, we heed God's calling to honor all by directing our focus to Him and His gracious and merciful view of people despite their - our - too frequent failures to act honorably.  "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20).

   "The Lord looketh on the heart" (I Samuel 16:7).  There He sees the Spirit of the Lord Jesus in those who believe.  There He desires to see the Spirit of the Lord Jesus in those who do not.  He does not overlook sin and its disgraces.  Nor does His redeeming heart and inclination mean that His wrath does not and will not fall upon unrighteousness and those who embrace it.  "The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Romans 1:18).  His first gaze, however, sees into the spiritual depths of human beings with a keen view toward His own handiwork regarding the humanity originally made in His own image.  We must join our Heavenly Father, honoring Him as we "honor all men" in obedience to Him, and seeing more clearly through the lens of Christ.  "To be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Romans 8:6).

   We do not compromise righteousness by such a view.  We rather confirm it.  Yes, when God made a human race with eternal intentions and purposes, He did not cast us aside when we rebelled against Him.  He rather worked, at the highest cost to Himself and in perfect devotion to His righteous integrity, to redeem us from the shame of our unbelief and disobedience.  This includes every one of us, including those we see who seem to have most deeply descended most deeply into darkness.  We do not honor the descent.  But we do honor the Lord who Himself descended more deeply into darkness than all others for purposes of redemption.  To "honor all" is to honor Him and His view of all.  Thereby, we will pray and witness and love with respect as we see through the lens ground and polished by grace, truth, righteousness, and mercy, that is, through the lens of Christ.

"And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God's high priest? Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people."

(Acts 23:2-5)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. 

(Matthew 6:33)

 

6977

 

  

    

     

Orange Moon Tuesday, October 3, 2023 "The God of All Comfort"

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

"The God of All Comfort"

    

    "Every temptation to fear must find us approaching our Lord with 'I will trust in Thee' flowing from our hearts, and sounding upon our lips."     

    

    

    Our beagle Ellie has a special gift, although she may not perceive it as such.

    Ellie is easily frightened by both sights and sounds.  When this happens, she looks for Frances or myself to comfort and reassure her, seeking to be held and spoken to in calm and encouraging tones.  We love this, of course, not that we want her to be scared, but that she looks to us when things trouble her.

       "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee" (Psalm 56:3).

 

    It rarely happens that I do not think of our Heavenly Father when seeking to comfort Ellie.  "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation" (II Corinthians 1:3-4).  Mainly, I realize how blessed He is when we come to Him for reassurance, far more than are we by receiving it.  Presently, life will bring its frights and insecurities to us.   We live in a fearful world, both in real and perceived dangers.  Our flesh reacts to portents of harm, a good thing in one sense because fearful reactions can serve as a a signal to avoid danger.  However, those fears that abide with us as paralyzing hindrances to our walk with the Lord in His peace must be overcome.  

   "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (II Timothy 1:7).

   Ellie illustrates what to do when life tempts us fear and insecurity.  Of course, we cannot physically approach our Lord for His comfort.  We can, however, draw near to Him in heart and in faith.  We can join the Psalmist in his affirmation above that times of being afraid offer the blessed opportunity of trusting the Lord Jesus Christ.  It matters not the nature or measure of the trial.  Be they many or few, real or perceived, every temptation to fear must find us approaching our Lord with "I will trust in Thee" flowing from our hearts, and sounding upon our lips.  We will find Him faithful and more than able to to secure our hearts in His peace.  Moreover, like Frances and I so love to reassure Ellie, our Father will love comforting us more than we love to be comforted.  How could this not be regarding "the God of all comfort?"

    In this moment, the Prince, the Prince of peace, offers us His heart of peace as our haven in times of temptation to worry, fret, and fear.  The Holy Spirit who came to dwell within our spirits when we believed is not a "spirit of fear."   Power, love, and a sound mind rather flow from His presence to our hearts.  Our role involves remembering and affirming the truth by coming to our Father for His promised assurance.  Our beagle Ellie serves as a great example to Frances and myself of one who knows where to go when afraid.  We love to comfort her, but as we will all find when coming to our Heavenly Father, not nearly so much as He loves to comfort us.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me… In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul."

(Psalm 23:4; 94:19) 

Weekly Memory Verse

    Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. 

(Matthew 6:33)

 

6976

 

  

    

     

Orange Moon Monday, October 2, 2023 "Enough"

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

"Enough"

    

    "Our hearts can - and must - make the choice to believe that if we found ourselves having lost all, but if the Lord Jesus remained, we would have lost nothing that fulfills the very essence of who we are."     

    

    

    Is He enough?  If we lost everything but the Lord Jesus Christ, would He be enough to fill and fulfill our hearts?

    The pages of Scripture, the witness of the Holy Spirit, the experiences and testimonies of saints through the ages, the trillions of answered prayers, and the living presence of God in this moment unite to tell us that He would be enough, and far more.

   "I am with you always… I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5).

   Of course, the norm of our lives involves both the Provider and His provisions.  "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).  God made us for Himself, and for the gifts He gives.  A complete experience of Him therefore involves His presence within our hearts, and His provisions for the entirety of our being.  The next breath of air we breathe, for example, comes to us from God.  He is not Himself that breath, which exists as moving molecules made by the Lord, but separate from Him.  However, He does come with the gift, as the Apostle Paul affirmed, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).  We therefore rightly rejoice in both the Giver and His gifts, seeking to emphasize the Former even as we appreciate the latter.  "We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done" (Psalm 78:4).

    What if, however, we found ourselves having lost all?  Would we find the Lord Jesus to be our all at the sad point of such extremity?  Would He be for us the peace of our hearts when no other other part of us could know the usual gifts of life?  Before answering this question, let us still ourselves and be honest regarding the great challenge it is to affirm the truth that Christ is enough to keep our hearts when all else has been lost.  "The flesh lusteth against the spirit" (Galatians 5:17).  Only deeply within our spirits, where the Spirit of Christ dwells, can we make the choice to believe our Lord abides forevermore as the sole and singular Life of our lives.  "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" declared Paul, a joy based on God Himself dwelling in the spiritual depths of Paul, revealing that He alone serves as the contentment and fulfillment of our hearts (Romans 7:22).

   The story of a young lady during the 19th century who progressively lost her limbs over the course of several years confirms this truth.  She lay in bed for the majority of her lifetime, unable to move about or do anything that most would consider necessary for happiness and fulfillment.  Early in the days of her calamity, however, she read the promise of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John: "He that believeth on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38).  The girl took her Lord at His word.  "I believe in You, Lord.  So I trust You will be what I need You to be for my heart, and to enable me to honor You in this bed upon which I will lie for the duration of my life.  And I ask you to work in me to bring forth life to others, even from this place of apparent languishing."

    Taken at His Word, the Lord Jesus took the young lady to places of glory, glory in her heart provided by the presence of His heart.  He filled her with His peace and joy, fulfilling the ancient promise, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because He trusted in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3).  He led her to ask a friend to devise an apparatus to be attached to her shoulder that could hold a calligrapher's pen.  He illuminated and strengthened her to learn how to move her body so as to write the most beautiful and Christ-filled letters.  He moved hundreds of people to visit the woman confined to an earthly bed in body, but liberated to soar in the Heavenlies in spirit, as borne by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus.  People who visited the woman came away amazed and encouraged by the scene of Strength made perfect in weakness, of Vibrancy bursting forth from stillness, of Life proceeding from the appearance of death, and of Rivers of living water flowing from the seemingly driest of parched lands.  

    Our blessed Lord is that present.  He is that faithful.  He is that enabling.  He is that wondrous.  He is that loving.  He is that fulfilling of hearts that choose to believe that, as my wife Frances says, "Having Him, we have all."  Our hearts can - and must - make the choice to believe that if we found ourselves having lost all, but if the Lord Jesus remained, we would have lost nothing that fulfills the very essence of who we are.  God forever reserves that role for Himself, and for whatever the days of this present life may bring to us.  Yes, He will be what we need Him to be in every condition, circumstance, or situation, and He will be so much more…

"Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places."

(Habakkuk 3:17-19)

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

(Romans 8:37-39)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. 

(Matthew 6:33)

 

6975