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

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Orange Moon Thursday, July 30, 2026 "Which Is Greater?"

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

“Which Is Greater?”

Concurrent, but conflicting realities presently characterize the world in which we live.

“The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord” (Psalm 33:5).

“The whole world lieth in wickedness” (I John 5:19).

Which ts greater, God’s earth filling goodness, or the wickedness of the devil, the flesh, and the presently fallen earthly realm and system? Scripture plainly answers…

“Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world” (I John 4:4).

God and the reality of His presence, involvement, and working always transcend the activities of evil. This does not discount or minimize sin and its horrific consequences in the world, and in human hearts and lives. Nor is God responsible for the wrongs of devils and people. It does mean, however, that amid all, our Heavenly Father “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (James 1:13; Ephesians 1:11). How He does this, we do not know. That He does it is certain, the greatest confirmation being the cross of Calvary.

“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23).

Again, which? God or man, “determinate counsel” or “by wicked hands?” The same answer. Both. And the same measure, namely, the Lord’s working infinitely supersedes the evil of His creatures. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even more so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20-21). The worst evil and the greatest good concurrently happened at Calvary, the latter triumphing by the infinite measure of atonement for sin made possible through Christ’s death, and eternal life for all who believe springing forth from His resurrection (Romans 5:8-11).

The “Which is greater?” question will be with us throughout our earthly lifetime. We acknowledge the reality of evil, reprove it as Scripture commands, and seek to rectify it as opportunity allows (Ephesians 5:11; Galatians 6:1). Even more, however, we attune our hearts to the good that fills the earth, the greater good of God’s presence, involvement, and working He promises in all things. This applies to both our personal lives and our view of others and the world. Proper concern and action when possible will characterize our response to the reality of evil, along with much prayer. However, the primary current of our heart flows with the plainly stated Biblical affirmation of God’s promised goodness that fills the earth. Calvary and the empty tomb that followed ever tell us this, that the “greater is He” truth and reality must serve as that which fulfills the long ago promise of the prophet…

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.”

(Isaiah 26:3)

Weekly Memory Verse

The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give His life a ransom for many.

(Matthew 20:28)

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Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Orange Moon Wednesday, July 29, 2026 Songs In the Night"

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

“Songs In the Night"

"And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them” (Acts 16:22-25).

Certainly we understand the Apostle Paul and his ministry partner Silas praying. They had lost so much. Their freedom, their opportunity to minister, their relative comfort of life, and even the skin on their backs all burned in the fires of persecution. Believers prayerfully seek God and His help in such circumstances and conditions, asking for His deliverance and His grace to deliver, guide, comfort, and enable.

“Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and Thou shalt glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15).

But to sing? Why did our hurting brothers of old do that? First, we might acknowledge God’s command that music often accompany our approach to Him. “Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness” (Psalm 30:4). Being godly sons of God in Christ might well have motivated Paul and Silas to obey their Heavenly Father as a matter of diligent duty despite their loss and pain. We often do not feel our faith, nor does positive emotional and physical sensibilities always accompany our faithfulness. Perhaps our brethren of old simply determined to trust and obey God regardless of the daunting challenge they faced. “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live” (Psalm 104:33; emphasis added). If so, what an example Paul and Silas serve regarding our own difficulties, pains, sorrows, and losses.

However, I never read this account of “songs in the night” without considering that something else led to their sublime beauty of intent, regardless of how their content might have sounded (Job 35:10). I will always believe that God met Paul and Silas with some special imparting of grace in the prison that became a concert hall before walls crumbled to dust in the throes of an earthquake most certainly not of earthly origin (Acts 16:26). God’s promised “very present help in trouble” may well have become very obvious to His servants in a place where it might have seemed impossible to know and experience. How this happened, we do not know (Psalm 46:1). That it happened seems certain because any song of praise in such a place and condition must have been composed by the Holy Spirit on the pages of Paul and Silas’s hearts in such glory that they could not help but sing.

Do we believe that God can give songs in our night? Is He that present, that faithful, that powerful, that active, and that wondrous in grace and involvement in our hearts and lives? We must believe, first because it is true, and then because our faith and faithfulness sings as we trust our Lord and find Him to indeed be “a very present help in trouble.” The Spirit of God, that great and glorious Composer of songs in the night, will meet us in the unlikely concert halls of our challenges. And should our flesh wonder, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?," our hearts will answer, “How can we not?” (Psalm 137:4).

“Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.”

(Psalm 32:7)