"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV
I just read this poem by Amy Carmichael and had to print it here today.........
BATTLE BURIAL
Where is his grave? Only the angels know,
who companied about him to the end.
What was his winding sheet? Ah, a very low
all heaven did stoop, and of its glory lend
a robe of light. Was ever funeral
Like battle burial, sweet, mystical?
But oh, to
the thoughts he thought, the words he would have said
had any listened! Wist thou not that night
to him was One who loved him? Comforted,
he communed with his Father; roar of gun
was hushed that God might listen to His son.
Did he regret the vanishing life that beat,
hurrying within him, fierce with mortal pain?
Nay, never never! Doth the corn of wheat
mourn that it fall into the ground in vain?
Oh, that thou couldst have seen his steadfast eyes
lighted and filled with joy of sacrifice!
How did he die? Somewhere a bugle blew,
and he was gone: I know not any more.
Only I was aware, as he passed through
the quiet borderland of air, a door
opened in Paradise. And musical
sweet welcome led him in to festival. (Z: I wonder who that boy in the image was and if he lived or died.....we can't know, but we care, don't we)
Independence Day has come to mean hamburgers and fireworks........the FOURTH OF JULY, which is fun and wonderful and so American, and who'd want to take away from that kind of celebration, after all?! My past 4th of July posts have been all about that celebration, but this year seems different to me, does it, you? No less happy to be in America, no less joyful to celebrate her independence, but I hope we all take the time today to remember all those who lost their lives, who still face death, for our independence, our safety, our sovereignty. I don't have to reiterate here what we're all fighting against these days.......from without and within. Please thank God every day for this country, ask for the ability to humble ourselves even as we stay strong and resolute, ask for forgiveness and wisdom, and thank Him for His assurance that we are in His hands even in these really difficult days in America.
Have a wonderful Independence Day! And GOD BLESS AMERICA.
z
72 comments:
That's a lovely poem but it's hard to believe it's by THE Amy Carmichael. I did find another Amy Carmichael online but I couldn't find that poem anywhere. Can you reference it?
It's quite nice and appropriate for the day in any case.
As of course is the quote from Lincoln. How right he is. We've forgotten God and we need to remember Him and confess our national sins.
Happy 4th to all. May it be the first day of the recovery of our poor sick sad nation.
Our forefathers begged for God's help. I believe they received it.
George Washington rode in so many battles. Everybody was gunning for him. He had two horses SHOT OUT from under him! If that is not divine providence, I don't know what it.
Honestly, I feel a certain sadness this Independence Day. I worry so much about the direction in which America is going now -- a direction contrary to the very principles upon which our nation was founded.
Of course, I do believe as the concluding statement here says:
Please thank God every day for this country, ask for the ability to humble ourselves even as we stay strong and resolute, ask for forgiveness and wisdom, and thank Him for His assurance that we are in His hands even in these really difficult days in America.
Today, Mr. AOW and I will attend a special patriotic service at one of our local churches. A huge number of followers of the one true God will be praying mightily for our nation, specifically, that our nation will turn to the Lord as our nation used to do.
Great post, God bless you Z and God bless the USA!
The call to repentance and confession of sin is a timeless one.
I've been thinking a lot about independence and why we cherish freedom so much. Many of us do not consider the spiritual reality that early American reflect, but I believe it looks something like...
Christ's work has set us free from the tyranny of sin and it's wages, death. We are not truly "independent" of Him, but are now able to freely and boldly approach God's throne as children instead of condemned criminals.
Those who fight and die to preserve America's freedom visually mirror a bit of the sacrifice Christ made to allow us to be free to return to our Maker with joyful thanksgiving. And, as with Christ's sacrifice, there are many today who do not understand or appreciate what we've been gifted.
Thankfulness of heart is an important ingredient in the "freedom" recipe.
Happy Independence Day.
Happy 4th to all of our friends.
Z … this is an exceptional post: thank you.
Many of us have not forgotten God; some have. Perhaps even, too many have. And there have always been those among us who believe in nothing at all —other than themselves. Even this is not a major problem. But I think that increasing numbers of people do not know God because their parents never made the introduction.
I do think Divine Providence created this great nation; I think Divine Providence guided us through the Civil War and other conflicts. The question is, however, will Divine Providence be there for us when we again need Him? And I think the answer to this question must be, “Not unless we believe in Divine Providence.” So in many ways, your post today is a loud call for all of us to open our eyes to God, and to one another. If we can do that, the God will ‘heal our land’.
My Great-great grandfather served as a sergeant in the Illinois Cavalry during the War of Northern Aggression; today he lays buried at McDonough, Illinois. I wish I knew more about him, but of course, most men didn’t maintain diaries back then. Perhaps one day I’ll know his thoughts. But I am as certain as I can be that men who have taken up the sword in defense of this land that God has blessed know better than most, how sweet freedom is; after all, they paid for it.
Faith, the poem is by Amy Carmichael, from a compilation of her poetry which I just received entitled MOUNTAIN BREEZES...Most of her books of poetry are no longer in print. This book has almost 500 pages of her poetry written over a span of 55 years, much of it written while she was in severe pain from a fall for the last 20 years of her life.
Opus, I love stories like that...and a hurricane put out the fires of D.C. when they rarely get hurricanes. love that one, too.
AOW, I'm glad you agree with my concluding statement...My posts (as you can see) are mostly me thinking out loud and I don't edit much but I worked a bit on that sentence. I hope the service is an excellent one and it's not too difficult to get Mr AOW there xx
Beth, thanks...to you, too.
H, thank God this Independence Day is not independence from Him for most of us!
Malcontent, thanks..same to you.
Mustang, thank you SO MUCH, I am so glad you liked this post. Our nation deserves a huge debt of gratitude to you, your great grandfather, and all the soldiers in our land. And, as Carmichael says in her poem, "a door opens in Paradise" for our soldiers.
July 4th, 1776 is when we declared our independence.
October 19th, 1781 is when we made it stick with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
We were not made free by sending King George III hate mail, and we were fighting for independence for over a year before sending that letter we call the Declaration of Independence. The combat of the Revolution itself began on April 19th, 1775.
We fought for six years to gain our independence.
Happy 4th and God Bless America. Off to a long weekend now! No computer, no internet, hence paradise.
Thank you for the reference, Z, I found it at Amazon and put it on my wish list. The only poetry of hers I'd seen was strictly devotional.
Again, happy 4th of July.
Beamish, thanks for that...the whole story is so rich in righteousness and resolve.
Frogburger, have a great, relaxing one.
Faith, MOUNTAIN BREEZES is absolutely wonderful, I'm glad you ordered it and know you'll like it very much.
Somebody posted the whole Declaration of Independence at another site this morning and I read it ALL the way through, possibly for the first time.
Made me wonder if we could declare independence from our current sovereign with a list of his offenses along these lines.
======================
On this date, July Fourth, in the Year of Our Lord One-Thousand Seven-Hundred and Seventy-Six, thirteen colonies, estranged from their Mother Land and abused by their Sovereign, came together to throw off the chains of tyranny. In creating this instrument of their rebellion, detailing the crimes of their Sovereign, they also set forth, for the first time in all of human history, the Rights of Liberty: to be equal of all men, to be free from the tyranny of despots, to pursue their own benefit as dictated by the liberty of their own conscience and to band together in enlightened self-governance. On that date the Torch of Liberty was first set aflame.
On this day we are reminded that these Rights of Liberty accrue not to one people, not to one nation, but to the benefit of all mankind, everywhere for all time to come.
Hear Ye, O Hear Ye, O Hear Ye.
Let ALL men attend the reading of this declaration.
--------------------------------
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
(to be continued due to word count length)
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
(to be continued)
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
***********************
Z, thank you for such a thoughtful and meaningful post. It is as mustang says, exceptional.
I too, believe in Divine Providence. How else could our forefathers have won our independence with all the odds they faced which were against them?
Divine Providence and faith. These are the things that see men through. Without them we are very small and alone in what can seem the darkest times.
Happy Independence Day to all here.
And thank you to those who sacrifice all, to keep us free, and thank God for all our blessings, in this great land we call home.
Pris
Beautiful post, Z, thank you. That Lincoln quote was in my church bulletin as well. :-)
May we never forget what today is REALLY about!
Happy Fourth of July everyone, greetings Madame Z from the Garden State were at this moment(3:02 pm) it's a sweltering 97 degrees! Hope you all have a great day. God Bless America. Johnnymac.
Hey J'Mac, Happy Fourth of July to you. How nice to see you here. I hope all is well with you.
Pris
Faith, thanks...I'm going to read that soon, very busy day today.
Karen, our pastor gave the quote from 2 Corinthians today in his sermon. I went to sit with our conservative Church council chairman during the sermon as Pastor mentioned how Moses is on the wooden Senate doors, etc...I went over and said "How fast did YOU think of liberals looking for sand paper?" he cracked up and said that was exactly the thought that went through his mind!
JM, nice to see you...good luck with the heat..it hasn't hit So Cal yet...but IT WILL!
Pris, thanks...I hoped it would be meaningful...we're in dire times...it was good to get that shot in the arm sermon this morning, with flags all over the church, etc. Good thing the PC police weren't in force. And, of course, no politics mentioned...just good ol' American Christian roots.
Jaywalking...the 4th of July. How dumb are Americans on this day?
See for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQ6XgXeNuY
Major
Major, I could only watch half.
An American woman who appears to be at least 35 doesn't know who we got our independence FROM and two people don't know who sewed the first American flag.
What are our teachers teaching our people?
I was afraid to watch more. MAN oh MAN.
As Mr. Z would say MENSCH!
HE knew all this stuff and he was raised and educated in Germany.
Beamish makes an excellent point:
We were not made free by sending King George III hate mail....We fought for six years to gain our independence.
Clearly, at that time, Americans were not into instant gratification.
and it's going to take more than our writing blogs and emails to get our country back, too, AOW and Beamish.
And if it weren't for the unorganized militias of Southern colonists (read: "backwoods rednecks") drawing British General Henry Clinton into a long siege of Charleston, South Carolina (and into guerilla warfare westward into the frontier) the British might have reconsolidated their forces sufficiently to crush the Revolution before France could deploy allied forces in America to bolster the numbers of George Washington's Continental Army.
The colonists of South Carolina were particularly patriotic and zealous about thr revolt against British rule. around 20 years before the revolution, they hung a particularly ruthless British appointed Governor, and responded to a British threat to send in troops to quell them with "Send as many men as you want, we have plenty of rope."
Where Washington and the Continental Army had to deal with harsh winter weather and colonists loyal to Britain (basically a civil war between American colonists), down South, the hatred of Britain and independent, pioneer spirit was near universal. Brtiain enticing African slave revolts in the southern colonies didn't help matters much, but one thing is for sure - even if Washington's army collapsed and the French never came, there were enough angry Southerners whom their very lives were dependent on their shooting skills for food from game hunting to make a British occupation bloody and inevitably to costly to maintain.
So, July 4th is a redneck holiday too :)
Yee-haw redcoat huntin' :)
The political / spiritual roots of the American Revolution actually go back to England and the peasant revolts of the 16th Century.
America is the fulfillment of a centuries old longing for liberty.
Hello Pris, sorry I've been out of touch, living in Obamaland has left me a bit...dispirited. Poor excuse though, these are ''times that try mens souls'' so maybe I should get back at blogging.. anyway I'm fine, hows by you? J'Mac.
Happy Independence Day to you, Z! Hopefully, things in this nation will improve.
Hey, Z!
I thought of you and your love for patriotic tunes when I saw this one.
Lincoln's words deserve even more sober reflection in our day. A true leader. I wish our current president had the perspicacity to recognize this reality and the moral courage to address it.
I bow my head in silent shame.
z - Happy 4th of July.
May God Bless Our Country.
J'Mac, I'm well thanks, but like you, dispirited. GEEEZ is a great place to be, with other patriots like yourself, so I hope you'll visit more often.
Pris
AOW, thanks so much...that film's a favorite and that scene is FABULOUS...Cagney was so talented it's unbelievable.
Deborah, it's terribly sad, isn't it,.
Johnny Mac, come back soon xx
Hi, Sue, thanks for coming by and I hope you had a very nice Fourth, too.
I had a fabulous time...took friends to my sister and her husband's and we were there for six hours in their backyard of talking, laughing and EATING! Great to drive home and see fireworks all over the city from the freeway!
Z, your post reminded me of this painting, which my wife ordered sometime back and is hanging on the wall in our living room today.
very cool, Mark....that painting says a LOT. thanks for linking to it. xx
The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president."
"The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince.
The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool.
It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”
thanks, pithy...ya, those sentiments were exactly on other blogs but I'm glad they're here now thanks, and thanks for putting them in quotes.
We can vote him out, we can't educate America's children to love this country as much as we were all raised to.... the love's been drummed out of them; no heroes because everybody plays GOTCHA! with EVERYONE who could be a hero; no facts about history are learned, no teaching America's exceptionalism...and, the seeming embracing of illegals in our country (how can kids see respect after knowing that?), slamming Christianity, and debt so big our kids'll never recover.
Obama's the least of our problems.
Oh, plus a state owned media, of course.
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