Let's see...we watch The Middle...PBS Lawrence Welk shows (actually only I watch those), Monk DVDs and a movie here and there. Oh yeah, my wife watches 48 Hours while I try to type these posts a few feet away. It often results in a testy discourse at the end for I can't help but comment on the bias, unanswered questions...even unasked questions, and six or so jurors that always show up at the end for their fifteen minutes of fame. Anyway....I was typing tonight and watching Lawrence Welk. It was a show from the fifties and one of the regulars read a patriotic poem written by Walter Taylor Field (1861-1969.) Titled Flag Of The Free, I'd like to give you the last stanza here:
Flutter, dear flag, o'er the lands and seas!
Fling out your stars and your stripes to the breeze.
Righting all wrongs, dispelling all fear,
Guarding the land that we cherish so dear,
And the God of our fathers, abiding with thee,
Will bless you and trust you, O flag of the free!
It was a beacon on a hill, it's light telegraphing to those in peril that safety was here if one could only reach it. That light barely flickers today but that's of little concern, for few come here anymore for safety. Most come here not for freedom but for things that are free. The awe and wonder that so many must have felt as they stepped foot on Ellis Island is only a memory or a chapter in a history book or a documentary on PBS. If any hold to the opinion that America is a land of freedom and liberty and of opportunity they are greatly mistaken for our government has become a parasite sucking the lifeblood out of those freedoms and liberties, and we are now more a land of the opportunist.
Do you disagree with this? If you do then you are defending what once was, not what now is, and I have nearly seven years of posts here lamenting the fact that America indeed was that shining light on a hill but has collapsed under the weight of its own ignorance. Love for this country has permeated my thoughts since.....well, since I matured in my thinking many years ago as to what America was....to how much sacrifice was offered to keep her safe, to how much help we gave the rest of the world by our actions, our money and most of all the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.... to gold star mothers, to crippled veterans, to aged World War II and Korean War vets who proudly wear a service cap at patriotic rallies and to our military today who are part of a remnant....a large remnant.
It sprouted anew at mid-century with Billy Graham and then, sometime in the mid-60s this born again stuff expanded as evidenced by books from writers such as Charles Colson and interviews with Jimmy Carter. In 1982 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the Best Picture Oscar to Chariots Of Fire. This film blew me away. Eric Liddell towered above what I always thought a man should be. Couple this with a fine and humble human being, our president... Ronald Reagan, and something indeed was happening in America, but it would not last long.
I was listening to an old Imperials song (Praise The Lord) on my iPhone earlier. Trust me, Christians over 50 remember this group. It was so powerful... that overwhelming feeling of knowing and loving this Jesus Christ. It was a genuine revival of sorts over those few decades. We need this again today, only 1000 times over, and even then it would just be to plead for mercy upon our nation as this world implodes upon itself.
One last thing. That 'overwhelming feeling of knowing and loving Jesus Christ'....it never goes away. I didn't have to remember the feeling, only to remember the connection to the song and to those years. Benjamin Franklin wrote of Philadelphia in his Pennsylvania Gazette on June 12,1740 during the First Great Awakening "...no books are in request but those of piety and devotion; and instead of the idle songs and ballads, the people are every where entertaining themselves with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs."
We'll never go back to where we were, nor should we desire to, for even that Awakening was but a glimpse of God in His full majesty and glory! No, we need to be a country that looks to the fulfillment of all things, for surely the time must be near.
Flutter, dear flag, o'er the lands and seas!
Fling out your stars and your stripes to the breeze.
Righting all wrongs, dispelling all fear,
Guarding the land that we cherish so dear,
And the God of our fathers, abiding with thee,
Will bless you and trust you, O flag of the free!
It was a beacon on a hill, it's light telegraphing to those in peril that safety was here if one could only reach it. That light barely flickers today but that's of little concern, for few come here anymore for safety. Most come here not for freedom but for things that are free. The awe and wonder that so many must have felt as they stepped foot on Ellis Island is only a memory or a chapter in a history book or a documentary on PBS. If any hold to the opinion that America is a land of freedom and liberty and of opportunity they are greatly mistaken for our government has become a parasite sucking the lifeblood out of those freedoms and liberties, and we are now more a land of the opportunist.
Do you disagree with this? If you do then you are defending what once was, not what now is, and I have nearly seven years of posts here lamenting the fact that America indeed was that shining light on a hill but has collapsed under the weight of its own ignorance. Love for this country has permeated my thoughts since.....well, since I matured in my thinking many years ago as to what America was....to how much sacrifice was offered to keep her safe, to how much help we gave the rest of the world by our actions, our money and most of all the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.... to gold star mothers, to crippled veterans, to aged World War II and Korean War vets who proudly wear a service cap at patriotic rallies and to our military today who are part of a remnant....a large remnant.
It sprouted anew at mid-century with Billy Graham and then, sometime in the mid-60s this born again stuff expanded as evidenced by books from writers such as Charles Colson and interviews with Jimmy Carter. In 1982 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the Best Picture Oscar to Chariots Of Fire. This film blew me away. Eric Liddell towered above what I always thought a man should be. Couple this with a fine and humble human being, our president... Ronald Reagan, and something indeed was happening in America, but it would not last long.
I was listening to an old Imperials song (Praise The Lord) on my iPhone earlier. Trust me, Christians over 50 remember this group. It was so powerful... that overwhelming feeling of knowing and loving this Jesus Christ. It was a genuine revival of sorts over those few decades. We need this again today, only 1000 times over, and even then it would just be to plead for mercy upon our nation as this world implodes upon itself.
One last thing. That 'overwhelming feeling of knowing and loving Jesus Christ'....it never goes away. I didn't have to remember the feeling, only to remember the connection to the song and to those years. Benjamin Franklin wrote of Philadelphia in his Pennsylvania Gazette on June 12,1740 during the First Great Awakening "...no books are in request but those of piety and devotion; and instead of the idle songs and ballads, the people are every where entertaining themselves with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs."
We'll never go back to where we were, nor should we desire to, for even that Awakening was but a glimpse of God in His full majesty and glory! No, we need to be a country that looks to the fulfillment of all things, for surely the time must be near.
