Preface: My wife and I were having dinner with another Christian couple the other day....and my friend and I were talking in the garage. He had a large 82nd Airborne flag hanging on the wall. I spent my last six months in the army at Fort Bragg....as they were trying to find any place they could for our relatively small signals intelligence units to finish out their service after Vietnam. They changed the name of the fort in 2021. It's ironic....they apply oppressive restrictions....so that they can rename it....Fort Liberty. They can do those type of things. They can take down statues and melt down the metal....but they can't take away...."the memory of all that." When I think of Fort Bragg.....I think about its acclaimed history....and the 82nd....and Special Forces. The following was first posted in July....and I bring it back for Veterans Day:
"They Can't Take That Away From Me"
The song was written by George Gershwin....and first sung by Fred Astaire....to Ginger Rogers.....in the 1937 film......Shall We Dance. I had the song on an album by Pat Boone....but it was recorded by most of the top singers over the next few decades. I can't remember how the song fit into the film....and don't have enough interest to look it up....for it's not the music or the story line that stays with me....but rather the declarative statement.
I was listening to some medleys tonight....that's how this started....the service songs....the Air Force and the Marines....the Coast Guard....and the Army and the Navy. Anchors Away always does this to me....and I wasn't even in the Navy....but I had just watched too many movies as a kid....read too many history books....was in the army myself....visited many battlefields over the years....the most recent was Washington's stunning success in the Battle of Princeton in 1777....but the song itself came back to me tonight as my thoughts went back a few days to walking around Princeton University and Princeton Seminary....where....Ichabod....the glory of God had long departed from both....and history was either ignored or outright changed.
They....the Democrat Party today and everything that it represents....they can take away all kinds of things from the public square....love of country....the constitution....common sense....a man and a woman marriage....even the gospel of Jesus Christ. They can forbid this....or teach that....all they want....but they cannot take away the memory....nor squelch the truth of what happened....most importantly the glories of our Savior and His wonderful condescension to us in our merciful salvation. That was the song lyrics...."the way you wear your hat....the way you sip your tea....the memory of all that....no....no....(the song title)....They Can't Take That Away From Me."
We in evangelicalism tend to handle it this way....we shout over them. I'm not interested as much in who wins the day....because my hope is not in victories on this earth. We could win every social issue out there today....cleanse every library....and still be the very same people....toying with God....and thinking ourselves so deserving that He gave us victory....to resume living the way we were living before He permitted this punishment to begin with!
These battles can be lost....but knowing the truth cannot be lost. They cannot take away from me the sacrifices made....from either soldiers on a battlefield....or pioneers clearing homesteads on the frontier or the prairie. They can write about it differently....they can take over much of education....but they cannot take away our ability to raise our own children in the truth! They can change history books....or take away statues....but they cannot even dim the memory of church history....nor take the power away from the Word of God!
I wrote in a post a few years ago that....they can sing the Internationale all they want....and we can pray in the middle of a football field all that we want....but our hope is not in the results of an election. I remember the sacrifices made....not only defending freedom....but in the multitude of martyrs who are our primary heroes. They can no more take away the memory of a Martin Luther than they can a Thomas Jefferson.
The real battle today has not changed. We are a remnant. We were always a remnant whether it was in 1776 or 2016. We are in a war that has nothing to do with who the President of the United States might be. It is not the books in the school library as much as the books in our home. It is not only our congress that is weak....but our pulpits! They can take away prayer in school....but they cannot take away prayer! They can cloud the mind of my neighbor....but they cannot cloud my mind...and as these judgments continue....and increase in their severity....they can think that they are winning....but they are about to witness the coming of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! I can only praise God in that He had mercy upon the lowest of the low....that I can write these words....knowing full well that I have nothing over my neighbor....other than an inheritance....given to a prodigal....through an invitation....along with the desire to extend that same invitation to as many as God might permit....for the table is set and the victory is already won!
"The angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These are the true words of God' " Revelation 19:9
