All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. — Timothy 3:16,17

The answer from the young military members coming to our church was, “We don’t know the Old Testament.” What was the question? The question we asked was, “What can we do during the time you’re stationed here to get you to the next level of spiritual maturity?”

So we took a year to teach the Old Testament to these young people from the local bases. Dinner, then Bible study, every Saturday night. When they left—to Alaska, Korea, Iraq, in a submarine somewhere, and another leaving active duty to attend seminary—they had reached a new level of knowledge and understanding of God, as found in the Old Testament.

When a military service member, single or married, arrives at your church, you must know that they are there for a reason. . . . .and they are there for a season. God sent them to you for His purpose—to love them and build into them a greater love for God as revealed in His holy word. But they are only there for a period of time—and sometimes they will go directly from your fellowship to a combat tour overseas. What a great opportunity to teach, mentor, prepare, train, and encourage! If we, as an individual or a church (or chapel) don’t see that, we need to look more closely.

For all the wonderful things that we can do for and with military members today (there are many wonderful things which help ease burdens and express appreciation), the best we can offer is solid scriptural preaching and teaching—“especially regarding the sovereignty of God” (Captain Dale Parker, Regional Chaplain, U.S. Navy).

If you have seen the movie, “Black Hawk Down,” or have studied that battle in Mogadishu, you may have heard of Sgt. Jeff Struecker. Now an Army chaplain, Struecker’s story was recently included in a magazine published by Officers’ Christian Fellowship: “As part of an Army Ranger unit intent on saving fellow soldiers in the Black Hawk Down conflict, he called on past Bible studies to find peace. ‘Frankly, it was what got me back and forth through the city streets of Somalia,’ Struecker says about the Scriptures . . . . Struecker recounted Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, Paul’s thoughts about being apart from the body and present with the Lord, and a litany of Psalms while walking—and hiding—in the war-torn streets as gunfire and tragedy enveloped him around two downed Black Hawk helicopters.” The Bible study and Scripture memory disciplines he learned early in his Army career served him well, and now he equips others to do the same. He advises, “I encourage my guys to write verses of Scripture on the walls and the little wooden poles in their tents. I tell them, ‘Put a passage of Scripture up so that every time you come in here and see the graffiti you force yourself to memorize that verse.’” Struecker now regards this a primary mission . . . to impress on others the importance of the life-changing and peace-giving words in the Bible. (“Drawing on Scripture under Gunfire,” Command magazine of OCF, February 2010)

That was our same mission with our Saturday night students.  It was particularly exciting to point out to our group that Jesus is found throughout the Old Testament and not just in the New Testament.  Beyond the prophecies and theophanies, we see Jesus Christ as “the scarlet thread” throughout the Bible—a picture of His blood shed on the cross for the redemption of our sin. The best book-by-book description of Jesus in the Old Testament we have ever heard is by Dr. Stephen Davey of Colonial Baptist Church in Cary, North Carolina. His radio/teaching ministry is called “Wisdom for the Heart”. . .  and this transcript is from his Easter sermon (4/18/04) on Luke 24:13-35 entitled “The Road Back to Hope”:

“I imagined what I would have heard, had I been walking along from Jerusalem to Emmaus (with Jesus). I simply wrote down point after point as I traveled rapidly through the Old Testament scriptures, of the ways Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was truly pictured and prophesied in each book. Let me give them to you. In:

Genesis—He is the prophesied seed who will crush the serpent’s head; He is the brother betrayed by His kinsmen, whose betrayal will lead to their deliverance;

Exodus—He is the great “I AM”;He is the Passover Lamb whose blood protects His people from the angel of death and the wrath of God; He is manna from heaven and water from the rock;

Leviticus—He is the tabernacle of God among men;

Numbers—He is the great hope in whom all can safely put their trust; He is the great High Priest who will never fail;

Deuteronomy—He is the Lord our God; He is the city of refuge where criminals may run for protection;

Joshua—He is the champion over every enemy that stands in the way of God’s people;

Judges—He is the angel of God, empowering the weak and pursuing the wandering; He is the perfection of grace and patience toward His wandering people;

Ruth—He is the wealthy landowner who redeems His gentile bride from hopeless poverty; placing her in the family line of royalty; giving her the right to everything of His vast estate;

I and II Samuel—He is the name of the Lord, in whose strength young men of faith conquer enemies and slay giants;

Kings and Chronicles—He is the sovereign King behind and above all kingdoms, both pagan and God-fearing;

Ezra—He is the keeper of divine promise to Israel and the hand that liberates His people from bondage;

Nehemiah—He is the re-builder of broken lives and the restorer of broken fellowship;

Esther—He is behind the scenes, outsmarting the evil one and seeing that His remnant remain, whispering into the ear of a young queen that for such a time as this, she has been crowned.

Job—He is the majestic One who rides upon the wind and commands the lightning; He is the Lord of mystery who does not explain life, but reveals He is sovereign over all of life;

Psalms—He is the rock of refuge, the Shepherd of the sheep, the tower of shelter, the sweet honey of revelation, thirst-quenching water, a crucified Savior, and a sin forgiving Redeemer;

Proverbs—He is everlasting wisdom; divine counsel for those who accept His invitation to turn aside and listen;

Ecclesiastes—He is eternal satisfaction over every earthly desire; He is the One to be remembered in the days of our youth;

Song of Solomon—He is the Bridegroom who pursues His bride, stopping at nothing until she is safely in His arms;

Isaiah—He is Emmanuel, the suffering Savior, the One crushed for our iniquities and the coming Prince of Peace whose strong shoulder will one day bear the governments of the world;

Jeremiah—He is the branch of righteousness who brings justice and equity; He is the promised One who will write a new covenant on the hearts of His people;

Lamentations—He is the father who disciplines the sons He loves;

Ezekiel—He is resurrection power, breathing life into dry bones and bringing life from death; He is the faithful leader re-gathering His wandering flock;

Daniel—He is the stone, cut without hands, rejected by kingdoms, yet smiting the false image and filling the earth with His glory; He is the one whose Kingdom will not end;

Hosea—He is the faithful husband of the faithless wife;

Joel—He is the hope of His people, the strength of the children of Israel;

Amos—He is the wrath of God against oppressors; He is the promise of vineyards and gardens where His children will one day rest;

Obadiah—He ascends Mount Zion as the deliverer who judges the kingdoms of this world and inaugurates His own everlasting reign;

Jonah—He is the fulfillment of the sign that after three days and three nights, the Son of Man will come forth vindicating the righteousness of God and resurrection power;

Micah—He is the One who pardons our iniquities; who does not retain His anger forever; who delights in unchanging love; He is the one who treads our iniquities under His feet; who casts all our sins into the depths of the sea;

Nahum—He is slow to anger and great in power; of Him the mountains quake and the hills dissolve, yet He is a safe haven for all who hide in Him;

Habakkuk—He is radiant like sunlight; whose strength makes our feet like the hinds feet, and makes us walk on high places;

Zephaniah—He is the One who will gather those who grieve and those who are lame and those who are outcast; He is the One who will turn their shame and despair into everlasting praise;

Haggai—He is the victorious Lord of hosts who will shake the heavens and the earth as He overthrows the nations of this world; He is the One who will wear His chosen people as jewels around His omnipotent fingers;

Zechariah—He stands with His redeemed on the Mount of Olives; His holiness will be praised, even by the inscriptions on the bells of horses’ bridles as they gallop through the city of His glory—“Holy to the Lord” will be their praise for the Messiah;

Malachi—He is the divine Refiner, sitting over the smelting pot of His universe, purifying His chosen people as silver and gold; He is the great King, who does not change; and for all those who believe in Him, He will one day rise with healing in His wings!

Our students left our Saturday night study with a new-found knowledge of Scripture. And with that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, came a new-found basis for hope. That hope saw Jeff Struecker through combat in Somalia, and multiple deployments since, and is the same hope which will see you through anything you are facing today.

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. — Romans 15:4 

Work cited:

Davey, Dr. Stephen, “The Road Back to Hope: The Men Who Missed Easter,” Wisdom for the Heart, wisdomonline.org, sermon preached on 4/18/2004.

Newcomb, Tim, “Drawing On Scripture under Gunfire,” Command: Christian Perspectives on Life in the Military (Englewood, Colorado, Officer’s Christian Fellowship, Vol. 59, No. 1, pgs. 4 & 5).

Questions to Share:

1. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and speaks of the author’s love for God’s word. “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in Your word.” (Psalm 119:114) In what ways have you relied on Scripture to give you hope?

2. Pray for God to increase your love for Him by increasing your desire to read and understand the Bible.

But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ . . . .That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
—2 Corinthians 12:9, 10

People write books on God’s grace. Books about transforming grace, saving grace, all-sufficient grace, powerful grace. . . . .amazing grace. There are acrostics to try and define grace, like “God’s riches at Christ’s expense.” There are descriptions, like “Grace is getting what we don’t deserve while mercy is not getting what we do deserve.” Daily, God extends grace to me in unexpected ways—as I have strength to face new challenges, patience to withstand things that used to drive me crazy, extra hope to give me eternal perspective, opportunities to help others, and even grace to accept help when I need it.

But what about grace to face multiple deployments? Perhaps your marriage survived the first deployment. . . .barely. Then with the second deployment you were more prepared than the first, and took some steps to improve in communications and commitment. The third deployment came sooner than you expected and more frustration set in. Now you’re on what seems to be a never-ending course for more and more separation, loneliness, hard work under harsh conditions, and danger. . . . . what kind of grace will get you through those struggles? Let’s call it greater grace. Greater grace takes you from “I can’t do this anymore” to “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

I first studied “greater grace” with “ears to hear and eyes to see” when I read about Corrie ten Boom. Her heroic Christian family sheltered Jews from the Nazis in Holland during World War II. Their “Hiding Place,” as it was called, was a secret closet in their family home where the “guests” hid when enemy soldiers would come searching for them. It was when the family was suspected and then accused of hiding Jews that the ten Booms were taken to concentration camps in Germany as punishment. Corrie survived the atrocities, but most of her family did not. After being released unexpectedly in 1945, Corrie served others who were recovering from the wounds of war—eventually becoming an author and speaker who inspired many to persevere under impossible circumstances and forgive the unforgivable—with God’s grace.

It was the story of her father’s teaching about the timing of God’s grace which greatly impacted me years ago. I have never forgotten this teaching, and it has encouraged me time and time again. Instead of projecting the feeling of fear into the future, Casper ten Boom used an illustration that his children understood to convince them that God’s greater grace would be available to them when they needed it—and not before. As the story goes, one night Corrie expressed her fear of death to her father. “Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. ‘Corrie,’ he began gently,’ when you and I go to Amsterdam—when do I give you your ticket?’ I sniffed a few times, considering this. ‘Why, just before we get on the train.’ ‘Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things too. Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need—just in time.” The Hiding Place, p. 44

It really is a matter of trust in God—that He loves us and will give us the grace to endure when we need it. The grace for the fourth, fifth, sixth deployment will come—He promised. But it won’t come until we need it.

My favorite hymn to express this understanding is “He Giveth More Grace” found here on uTube. This hymn was written by a devout believer named Annie Johnson Flint (1866-1932). Orphaned at a young age, and then later adopted by a Christian couple in New Jersey, Annie had a gift for writing poetry. This gift would later be her whole means of support, for Annie was stricken with crippling arthritis in her late teens and spent most of her life as an invalid in extreme pain. Even if you do not know the sweet melody of this old hymn, read the words in order to grasp what Miss Flint was urging us to comprehend:

“He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater;
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase.
To added affliction He addeth His mercy;
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Chorus:
His love has no limit; His grace has no measure;
His pow’r has no boundary known unto men.
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!”

There is grace for the moment, for the hour, for the trial, for the deployment. There is the provision of love, comfort, forgiveness, wisdom, strength, patience, joy, contentment, peace. . . . .if we will trust God for what He promises and then be obedient to His guidance. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” — Hebrews 4:16

Work cited:

ten Boom, Corrie, The Hiding Place (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 1971)

Information on Annie Johnson Flint at blessedquietness.com

Questions to Share:

1. Thinking that you need to use today’s limited strength to fight tomorrow’s battles is a prescription for fear and discouragement. Scripture says, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.’” (Lamentations 3:21-24)

What can you trust God for that you are inclined to worry about?

2. When you look back at your life so far, how did God get you through past deployments? How can you trust Him to get you through future deployments?

“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” —Jeremiah 29:12,13

On the battlefields of the Civil War, one hundred and forty-seven years ago, the troops of the Army of Northern Virginia (Confederacy) experienced an event called for by their president, Jefferson Davis. On August 21, 1863, they observed a “day of prayer and fasting.” General Robert E. Lee issued this order in response to President Davis’ request:

“The President of the Confederate States has, in the name of the people, appointed the 21^st day of August as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer. A strict observance of the day is enjoined upon the officers and soldiers of this army. All military duties, except such as are absolutely necessary, will be suspended. . . . Soldiers! We have sinned against Almighty God. We have forgotten His signal mercies, and have cultivated a revengeful, haughty, and boastful spirit. We have not remembered that the defenders of a just cause should be pure in His eyes; that ‘our times are in His hands;’ and we have relied too much on our own arms for the achievement of our independence. God is our only refuge and our strength. Let us humble ourselves before Him. Let us confess our many sins, and beseech Him to give us a higher courage, a purer patriotism, and more determined will; that He will convert the hearts of our enemies,; that He will hasten the time when war, with its sorrows and sufferings, shall cease, and that He will give us a name and place among the nations of the earth.” Christ in the Camp, p. 56

Revivals were becoming more common in the camps of the Confederacy, so much so that when the War ended and the soldiers headed home (some with new-found faith), their spiritual fervency was instrumental in creating what we now call “the Bible Belt.” Christ in the Camp is a beautiful compilation of letters and reports from the field—chronicling what God brought about between chaplains, missionaries, and pastors and the soldiers and families whom they served during the Civil War. First published in 1887 by Chaplain J. William Jones, the book is over six hundred pages of actual accounts and correspondence which can only reinforce what was true then and now—our only hope is in Christ Jesus.

The introduction to the book is written by Chaplain J. C. Granberry, and includes this description of the military soldier:

“The martial imagery of which Paul (in the New Testament) was fond shows an analogy between the life of the soldier and the life of the saint. The centurion of Capernaum and the centurion of Cesarea were patterns of faith and of a devout spirit. The soldier’s habits of unquestioning obedience to orders, of trust in superior officers, and of freedom from anxiety about things for which he is not responsible, fit into the life of faith. . . . . I have nowhere witnessed more complete, symmetrical and beautiful examples of Christian character than in the army. . . Not recklessly, but with thoughtful and prayerful solemnity, they went into fierce battle; yet the peace of God which passeth all understanding kept their hearts against alarm. . . . To God be all the glory!” (p. 15-16)

The Northern counterpart to Christ in the Camp is the fascinating book entitled From the Flag to the Cross, published in 1872. Story after story of soldiers making decisions to follow Christ—both before battle and after battle, sometimes in the hospital and sometimes in prison—fills the pages of this book by Chaplain A. S. Billingsley. The book also tells of the contribution that the U.S. Christian Commission made to the spiritual life of the U.S. Army: “The efficiency and success of the Commission were wonderful. Beginning with eighteen members in 1861, before the close of the war it had engaged nearly five thousand delegates laboring for the temporal and spiritual wants of the men. Talking Christ to them, preaching to and praying for and with them, was the principal business of a great part of the delegates. In all, they preached to them over 58,000 sermons, and held with them over 77,000 prayer-meetings, and gave them 1,466,748 Bibles and parts of Bibles, 18,000,000 religious newspapers, 1,370,000 hymn-books, over 8,000,000 knapsack-books, and 39,000,000 pages of tracts, and wrote for them 92,000 letters. The total value of the whole amount contributed in four years was $6,291,107.68. With zealous hearts these noble brethren ‘went about doing good,’ relieving and comforting the officer, soldier, and sailor wherever they found them.’” (p. 333) Among the members of the U.S. Christian Commission, who served side-by-side with chaplains, was pastor and evangelist Dwight L. Moody.

I particularly enjoy the vignettes of interviews held by chaplains with soldiers in From the Flag to the Cross. One such visit between a hospital chaplain and a soldier yielded this exchange:

“While it has often been said by the thoughtless and careless, ‘We can’t live out religion in the army;’ and although it is often said by a certain class of professors, ‘the army is a hard place to be a Christian, and live it out,’ yet at our first interview with James H. Finney, 1^st N.Y. Engineers, we found him entertaining a very different view, and being fully conscious of the enjoyments and consolations of the Christian religion, he says, ‘It would be hard to live in the army without it.’ Opposed, as we are, by the combined powers of the world, the flesh, and the devil, life at best is a warfare from the cradle to the grave. And although the temptations are greater and the restraints weaker some places than others, yet, since God’s grace is sufficient at all times and under all circumstances to guide, guard, and sustain the believer, he can, if he will, at all times walk worthy of his vocation, and so live and act that his life will be an embodiment of the great doctrines of the cross of Christ. And it is impugning the wisdom, mercy, powers, and grace of God to say that he cannot.” (p. 139-140)

So we have begun with a call to prayer on the battlefield and ended with a call to faithfulness from a wounded soldier to his chaplain. Perhaps some things in military life have changed, but the charge given above from 2 Corinthians 12:9 will never change: “But He (the Lord) said to me (the apostle Paul), ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Are you feeling weak today? Remember that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” ( Hebrews 13:8)  He is the same Christ who ministered to soldiers in the Civil War, and He can minister to you today. Call to Him—He will answer. He loves you!

Jones, J. William, Christ in the Camp (Harrisonburg: Sprinkle Publications, 1986. Originally published by B. F. Johnson & Co. in 1887)

Billingsley, Amos S. From the Flag to the Cross (Birmingham: Solid Ground Christian Books, 2006. Originally published by New World Publishing Co. of Philadelphia in 1872)

Questions to Share:

1. Chaplain Granberry refers to Philippians 4:7. Look that up in a Bible, and then read verses 8 and 9 which follow. How does Paul say that the God of peace can be with you?

2. In what ways does studying what was demanded of soldiers in the past inspire you to fulfill your mission today?

We love because He first loved us. — I John 4:19

Brian’s writing on Joker One (July 29, 2010) motivated me—so I bought a copy of the inspiring book for myself.  In the next-to-last chapter I lingered as I read this part:

“I couldn’t in any way relate to wanting to stay in Ramadi. A good portion of the city’s residents hated us just for being American, and a smaller but still sizable chunk of them actively tried to kill us every day. Why would anyone want to risk his life to help these people? How could anyone love them? What does it really mean to love?

. . . . Now I think that I understand a bit more about what it means to truly love, because for my men, love was something much more than emotion. For them, love was expressed in the only currency that mattered in combat: action—a consistent pattern running throughout the large and the small, a pattern of sacrifice that reinforced the idea that we all cared more for the other than we did for ourselves  . . . .

(Love) meant patience when explaining something for the fifth time to a nineteen-year-old who just didn’t get it. It meant kindness when dealing with a Marine who had made an honest mistake while trying his hardest; mercy when deciding the appropriate punishment. It meant dispensing justice and then forgetting that it had been dispensed, punishing wrong and then wiping the slate clean.

Love was joy at the growth of my men, even when it diminished my own authority . . . . It was making myself less so that they might become more . . . .

Love told the honest truth when lying would have been much easier or would have made me look much better . . . . It confessed my mistakes and asked for forgiveness when I had wronged, and it moved past those mistakes when forgiveness had been granted.

Love hoped that things would be better someday, maybe in this life or maybe in the next, but it didn’t deny the reality of the pain and suffering that surrounded us day in and day out; it didn’t dishonestly rationalize them or explain them away. Love didn’t try to make sense of the senseless; it simply offered a light to run to.

But, like now, that light grew dim sometimes. So, sometimes, love meant just getting out of bed in the morning when everything inside screamed to rest, just for one day. Sometimes it meant simply putting one foot in front of the other on patrol. And sometimes it meant continuing the mission when you didn’t see any progress, meant protecting the defenseless, refraining from pulling the trigger, putting yourself at greater risk, doing what you knew to be right even though you didn’t really want to.

So that was how we loved those who hated us; blessed those who persecuted us; daily laid down our lives for our neighbors. No matter what we felt, we tried to demonstrate love through our daily actions. Now I understand more about what it means to truly love, and what it means to love your neighbor—how you can do it even when your neighbor literally tries to kill you.” (pp. 300-302)

Does that remind you of something? Do the words “patience,” “kindness,” “does not seek its own,” “rejoices with the truth” sound familiar to you in any way? It’s as if Donovan Campbell has written I Corinthians 13 for combat:

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” — I Corinthians 13:1-8

Just some food for thought—I’ll let you make the connections. Like Brian said of Joker One in last week’s posting, “It’s a love story.”

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” — I John 3:16

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. — I John 4:7,8

“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” — I John 4:9,10

“God is love.” — I John 4:16b

Work cited:

Campbell, Donovan, Joker One (New York: Random House Publishers, 2009)

Questions to Share:

1. Have you ever been a part of a unit (at home or away) which relied on each other to such a degree that you feel you are bonded for life? What did you learn from that experience about love?

2. How does knowing  love is from God make the difference in how we relate to one another? Pray that you will grow in love for your spouse so that you can “bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things.”

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD . . . . — Psalm 33:12

It’s a song, a famous song, but did you know that it really is a prayer? A prayer that we’ve all heard sung at athletic events, on the steps of the U.S. Capitol by our congressmen on September 11^th, at the reopening of the stock market the following Monday, at church services during war and peacetime, at Republican and Democratic national conventions, on radio and television programs, in movies, and at patriotic rallies throughout our country and on foreign shores. Its words burn in our hearts because the lyrics ring true. . . .and the musical score combined with those words bring goose-bumps each time we hear or sing this beautiful prayer.

I am speaking of “God Bless America,” written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and originally performed by the one-and-only Kate Smith in 1938. Irving Berlin wrote it for a camp show while serving in the Army in World War I stationed at Camp Upton on Long Island. The show’s producers decided not to use it in 1918, but twenty years later Berlin offered it as the answer to a request he received for a patriotic song which Kate Smith could sing to commemorate the anniversary of the Armistice ending World War I. It was an immediate sensation with her debut radio performance in 1938. . . . and has been a national favorite ever since.

Irving Berlin, born Israel Baline, was five years old when his family immigrated to the U.S. from Siberia in 1893. He had a great appreciation for his adopted homeland of America—his patriotism was authentic. After his military service in World War I Berlin went on to a successful career, known for composing such hits as “White Christmas,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” and “Cheek to Cheek.” When World War II began, Berlin considered it an honor to compose and perform patriotic songs for military stationed around the world (often close to battle zones). At war’s end, President Truman awarded Berlin the Medal of Merit for his courageous contribution to troop morale.

As you bravely serve our great country this 4^th of July. . . .both at home and deployed, we pause to consider these lyrics, beginning with the original spoken introduction, as a prayer lifted to remind us of our personal and national need for God:

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea
Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer:

God bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her and guide her
Thru the night with the light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam.
God Bless America, my home sweet home.
God Bless America, my home sweet home.

On this national holiday, thank you for your brave and sacrificial service to our dear country, which we love. Your duty is making an eternal difference in the lives of many, both at home and across the sea. May God bless you. May God bless America.

Work cited:

From en.wikipedia.org: Kate Smith, “God Bless America,” and Irving Berlin.

Larkin Spivey, Battlefields & Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from World War II (Chattanooga: God and Country Press, 2009), p. 216.

Questions to Share:

1. Take these lyrics and pray for our nation, especially during these times of war.

2. How has God blessed America? How can you pray for God to continue to bless America?

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing. — 2 Timothy 4:7,8

The speech known as “The Gettysburg Address” was the dedication ceremony message for the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, given by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863. Following a two-hour-long oration by the Honorable Edward Everett, Lincoln spoke ten sentences in less than three minutes which summarized and inspired—and gave us perhaps the greatest speech in American history:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that ‘all men are created equal.’

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

I know what that speech does to me—it speaks to my heart of everything real and good about America and its defense of freedom around the globe. What was true in 1863 reminds me of our nation’s purpose on the battlefield today.

But have you ever wondered how this particular visit to the battlefield affected President Lincoln? Coming just 4 ½ months after the Union army’s decisive defeat of the Confederate forces at the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln was so moved by the view of acres of soldiers’ graves that he gave his heart and life to Jesus Christ right there.

Later, when asked by a friend if he loved Jesus, Lincoln, after weeping, said: “When I left home to take this chair of State I requested my countrymen to pray for me; I was not then a Christian. When my son died, the severest trial of my life, I was not then a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg, and looked upon the graves of our dead heroes, who had fallen in defense of their country, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, indeed, I do love Jesus.”

This has certainly been a week of reflection as on Memorial Day we honored those who sacrificed so much. But in many ways, you are the ones we honor today—those who carry on the fight. You are the ones who fulfill Lincoln’s call to “here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Those words grip us. And God gripped Lincoln’s heart that day in November of 1963. According to accounts, it was at Gettysburg that Lincoln gave his heart and life to Jesus Christ.

My day was in 1980, in a little church in Oklahoma. In repentance and faith, has that day happened in your life?

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. — Romans 6:23

Work cited:

The Gettysburg Address is found at www.ourdocuments.gov

Tuley, Terry. Battlefields & Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from The Civil War (Chattanooga: Living Ink Books, 2006), p. 318.

Questions to Share:

1. What are your thoughts now that you read the words of the Gettysburg Address as a couple fighting in the current war?

2. Can you point to a day when you gave your heart and life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?  Perhaps today is that day!

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. — John 15:13

Time spent with chaplains is precious time. Recently we shared that precious time with a Navy chaplain who gave us a glimpse into his world of responsibility—which includes leading a chapel community, teaching Bible studies, completing administrative and training assignments (to name but a few of a myriad of tasks). . . .and being the notification officer and ministering chaplain to those in a wide circumference around his assigned duty station.

He gave me permission to share a story which he wrote in an article, “Journey of an American hero—Taking Kyle home.” I share it, in reverence, not in detail but in the spirit of this Memorial Day as we honor those who, along with their families and communities, have paid the ultimate price to obtain and secure our freedom.

Chaplain (Commander) Manuel A. Biadog Jr., USN, had the honor of observing and participating as the family and community of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, carried Pfc. Kyle J. Coutu to his final resting place at Exeter Veterans’ Cemetery on February 26, 2010. What I read about Pfc. Coutu in Chaplain Biadog’s account allowed me to picture an all-American boy turned man who served as a Marine with the 3^rd Battalion, 6^th Marine Regiment, 2^nd Marine Division, based out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. “Coutu has faithfully lived the highest core values of his Corps (Honor, Courage and commitment); his religious faith; and his country for which he fought and died. It is the trait of bravery and courage that Coutu lived each and every day in the Marine Corps. He never gave up believing in his family, friends, loved ones, fiancé, his fellow Marines and his homeland . . . .Coutu and 10 other Marines were killed in action during a major combat offensive against the Taliban in Helmand province, Afghanistan.”

Chaplain Biadog recounts: “What stands out vividly in my mind more than anything else and moved me to tears was when I saw countless citizens—young and old—military veterans, state and local police, fire-fighters, teenagers, children and many others lining the streets and highways waving large and small American flags. These patriotic Americans waved the flags and welcomed their hero home.”

On this particular Memorial Day, Chaplain Biadog reminds us that “we owe tremendous gratitude to all patriots and military veterans—past and present—who were willing to give their todays, in order that we might have our tomorrows. We will always have a continuing remembrance and deepest thanks of their service, along with their surviving families, for the ultimate sacrifices they have made. It will always cost the lives of the best and brightest people, like Coutu, for the price they paid for freedom and liberty. All gave some, some gave all. Coutu gave his all.”

The article ends with the words spoken by Pfc. Peter Lang, childhood schoolmate, fellow Marine, and best friend of Coutu, who escorted his remains home. Chaplain Biadog tells us: “As a final tribute . . . Lang memorized in his mind and heart the Marine Corps Prayer . . . and solemnly recited: ‘Almighty Father, whose command is over all and whose love never fails, make me aware of thy presence and obedient to thy will. Keep me true to my best self, guarding me against dishonesty in purpose and deed and helping me to live so that I can face my fellow Marines, my loved ones, and thee without shame or fear. Protect my family.

Give me the will to do the work of a Marine and to accept my share of responsibilities with vigor and enthusiasm. Grant me the courage to be proficient in my daily performance. Keep me loyal and faithful to my superiors and to the duties my country and the Marine Corps have entrusted to me. Help me to wear my uniform with dignity, and let it remind me daily of the traditions, which I must uphold.

If I am inclined to doubt, steady my faith; if I am tempted, make me strong to resist; if I should miss the mark, give me courage to try again.

Guide me with the light of truth and grant me wisdom by which I may understand the answer to my prayer. Amen.’”

God helping us, we shall never forget.

Work cited:

Commander Manuel A. Biadog, Jr., “Journey of an American Hero—Taking Kyle Home,” The Globe, Camp Lejeune, N.C., March 18, 2010, p. 10A.

Questions to Share:

1. On Memorial Day is there someone in particular whom you pause to remember? Share that with each other.

2. The words of the Marine Corps prayer are tender and powerful. Repeat that prayer for yourself and your spouse.

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. — Psalm 139:7-10

For me, the story of “Taps” is a local story because I live close to where it was composed. I could easily drive to Berkeley Plantation in Virginia, where there is a monument marking the “birthplace” of Taps. Tour guides will tell you that the haunting 24-note bugle call is actually a revision of a French call to signal to the troops the end of the day and “lights out.” The story goes like this:

“In of July of 1862, in the aftermath of the bloody Seven Days battles (Peninsular campaign), hard on the loss of 600 men and wounded himself, Union General Daniel Adams Butterfield called the brigade bugler to his tent. . . .Oliver Wilcox Norton, the bugler, tells the story, ‘. . . showing me some notes on a staff written in pencil on the back of an envelope (some accounts say that Butterfield hummed it to Norton), (he) asked me to sound them on my bugle. I did this several times, playing the music as written. He changed it somewhat, lengthening some notes and shortening others, but retaining the melody as he first gave it to me. After getting it to his satisfaction, he directed me to sound that call for Taps thereafter in place of the regulation call. The music was beautiful on that still summer night and was heard far beyond the limits of our Brigade. The next day I was visited by several buglers from neighboring Brigades, asking for copies of the music which I gladly furnished. The call was gradually taken up through the Army of the Potomac.’” From “History of Taps.”

Not long after Taps was composed, it was used for the first time at a military funeral. Union Captain John Tidball, commander of an artillery battery, had it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action (during the Peninsular Campaign) because the traditional three rifle volleys fired over the grave might have alerted the enemy nearby. This event is commemorated in a stained glass window at The Chapel of the Centurion, also nearby at Ft. Monroe.

Ten months after it was written, Taps was played at the funeral of Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson. By 1874 Taps was officially recognized by the U.S. Army and was required to be played at military funerals by 1891.

Taps is played throughout our nation on Memorial Day as it is traditionally sounded at funerals, wreath-laying, and memorial services. In order to honor those who died in service to our country, giving the ultimate sacrifice—Taps is played in remembrance of all of those who have insured our precious freedom. While we are hearing the strains perhaps you can also remember the words which are associated with the bugle call. While these lyrics are not “official,” the first verse is commonly sung with these words:

“Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake,
From the sky.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.”

God is nigh. The definition of “nigh” is “near in space, time, or relation.” The American College Dictionary, 1955.

God is near:

You are near, O LORD, and all Your commandments are truth. — Psalm 119:151

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. — Psalm 34:18

But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works. — Psalm 73:28

The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. — Psalm 145:18

Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. — Philippians 4:5

The last verse of Taps, traditionally, is similar to the first verse:

“Thanks and praise, For our days,
‘Neath the sun, ‘Neath the stars,
‘Neath the sky,
As we go, This we know,
God is nigh.”

Is there any doubt in your mind and heart that God is near, during deployment? Even during the lowly conditions of war in 1862, God was there. Jari A. Villanueva is a bugler and bugle historian, considered the country’s foremost authority on Taps. He wrote: “.. . it is hard to believe that Butterfield could have composed anything that July in the aftermath of the Seven Days battles which saw the Union Army of the Potomac mangled by Lee’s Army of Northern Virgina. Over twenty six thousand casualties were suffered on both sides. . . . In the midst of the heat, humidity, mud, mosquitoes, dysentery, typhoid and general wretchedness of camp life in that early July, it is hard to imagine being able to write anything.” From “24 Notes that Tap Deep Emotions”.

But write it (or revise it) he did, and Butterfield’s desire to honor his soldiers is forever the way that we seek to honor our brave soldiers.

The Scripture from Psalm 139 is a reminder of what we declare in the singing of Taps. With a lump in our throats and perhaps tears in our eyes, we remember this Memorial Day, with grateful hearts, those courageous patriots who have gone before us in battle. . . . and we remember that our God is faithful . . . . and near.

Questions to Share:

1. What thoughts come to your mind when you hear Taps?

2. On this Memorial Day, is there someone who served our country whom you could tell your spouse about as a way of honoring them?

Note:  Additional information on Taps is available at www.tapsbugler.com

I guess I thought that search and rescue had always been part of the U.S. Coast Guard.  Truth is I really did not know anything of the history of this great branch of service. That is until we announced to our Saturday night Bible study group that we would be taking a trip to the northeast, and one stop would be at Boston. A retired coast guardsman in our group said, “If you’re going to Boston, you must go to Hull!”

Well, like most people in our group, we had never heard of Hull. Nor had we heard of Joshua James, Point Allerton, or the Massachusetts Humane Society. Turns out our friend told us that if you want to know the history of Coast Guard search and rescue, you drive a short distance from Boston to Hull, Massachusetts—on that spit of land that juts out into the mouth of the Boston Harbor. Once you drive those thirty miles, you visit the Hull Lifesaving Museum which is housed in what was the old Point Allerton U.S. Life-Saving Station. There you hear the story of Joshua James, view some of his crew’s lifesaving equipment, and see the map of the many wrecks which occurred as sea captains tried to navigate the narrow waters leading into Boston Harbor—thus providing the obvious need for a highly committed team of lifesavers.

Joshua James, often credited with being the world’s greatest rescuer, was born in 1826, the ninth of twelve children born to a Hull family. When he was 10 years old his mother drowned in a shipwreck, close to the family’s pier. As the story is told, it was that event which spurred him on to ensure that no one else would suffer a similar fate. Thus began his career as a lifesaver, first as a volunteer with the Massachusetts Humane Society and later as the Keeper of the Point Allerton Life Saving Service Station (and three other Hull stations) in 1890. He held that position until he died in 1902. It was when the Life Saving Service merged with the existing Revenue Cutter Service, by an act of Congress in 1915, that the name of the U.S. Coast Guard was used to encompass both enforcement of maritime laws and saving lives at sea.

James and his crews are credited with saving over 600 lives from certain death, most during vicious storms. One of the most dramatic rescues occurred in the midst of what is referred to in that area as “The Great Storm of 1888.” Five schooners and a coal barge were anchored near Hull on November 25, 1888, but none were prepared for the pounding that was going to take place because of the hurricane winds and waves of the next 36 hours. Joshua James led five crews of 28 Hull lifesavers to rescue 29 lives in circumstances that James referred to as “miraculous.”

Joshua James suffered a heart attack on March 19, 1902, after a full morning of rescue training with his crew. At his funeral, the superintendent of the U.S. Life-Saving Service, Sumner Kimball, gave this tribute:

“Here and there may be found men in all walks of life who neither wonder or care how much or how little the world thinks of them. They pursue life’s pathway, doing their appointed tasks without ostentation, loving their work for the work’s sake, content to live and do in the present rather than look for the uncertain rewards of the future. To them notoriety, distinction, or even fame, acts neither as a spur nor a check to endeavor, yet they are really among the foremost of those who do the world’s work. Joshua James was one of these.”

As I read that description of James, I am reminded of the picture of self-less service which our military members perform every hour of every day. All over the world, our military is protecting, preserving, defending those in need in areas of great unrest and uncertainty.  You are our heroes!

And also in that picture, I see clearly the picture of Jesus Christ, our greatest and ultimate life-saver. Consider these Scriptures:

“Jesus said to him (Zacchaeus), ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.’” — Luke 19:9,10

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” — Romans 7:24

“For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” — Colossians 1:13

Do you need rescuing from the storms of life? Are you adrift, not knowing where the secure port is? Are you lost and in need of saving? Joshua James may have saved many lives off the coast of Massachusetts, but Jesus Christ is the Savior of all the world.  Call out to Him in your need! Jesus Christ will answer: “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” — Romans 10:13

Work cited:

Information gathered from pamphlets available at the Hull Lifesaving Museum, on-line U.S. Coast Guard history, and Wikipedia writing on Joshua James (which include Sumner Kimball’s eulogy comments).

Questions to Share:

1. What is the value of remembering those who have gone before us in service to our fellow man, and the sacrifices that they endured?

2. How would you like to be remembered by those who come after you?

This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world?  Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. — 1 John 5:4, 5

No doubt you associate March 17^th each year as St. Patrick’s Day, as I do. For as long as I can remember, the date set aside to celebrate St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, has been a day dedicated to the wearing of green, to decorating with leprechauns and shamrocks, and to holding parades in locations where many Irish have settled.

But little did I know that March 17^th is also a holiday because of a military victory. We’ll get back to St. Patrick—because that’s a very important story—but so is Evacuation Day. If I’ve done my homework right, Evacuation Day was the day in the Boston area when British General Sir William Howe led his troops onto their ships and left the city for Nova Scotia. The Continental Army, under the new command of General George Washington, strategically occupied Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston Harbor. Fortifications were built with artillery equipment captured at Fort Ticonderoga, and the British realized that their position within Boston was indefensible. Fearing a defeat similar to Bunker Hill, General Howe decided to evacuate, ending an 11 month siege of the city. Boston was never attacked again by the British, and this can be considered Washington’s first victory of the Revolutionary War. The password for the day in General Washington’s Continental Army encampment was “Saint Patrick,” and March 17^th was declared an official holiday for Suffolk County, Massachusetts in the early 1900s.

With the story of St. Patrick we find another victory, but of a different sort. His is the story of victory over bitterness, victory over the lies of a pagan culture, and, as Thomas Cahill in How the Irish Saved Civilization would even say, the victory over illiteracy and ignorance which would preserve writings so important to us today, including the Bible.

Patrick was a young man of sixteen years when kidnapped from his home in England around 400 A.D. and taken to Ireland. There he was sold to a chieftain who forced Patrick to tend his sheep. It was during this captivity that Patrick remembered his Christian upbringing, which he had formerly rejected. As he wrote in his Confessions, “I would pray constantly during the daylight hours” and “the love of God . . . surrounded me more and more.” His understanding and love for God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit grew during these lonely years of survival in the cold, rain, and snow. His writings do not show bitterness, however, because he used his time to grow in new love and faith. After six years as a slave-shepherd Patrick escaped and returned to his home in England, a changed man.

Feeling called to return to Ireland and proclaim the Gospel to the pagan and barbaric culture which he had left, Patrick began to study and prepare. Eventually he was ordained as a priest, and then a bishop. When he did return, he brought new hope to the land where he had been held captive, all because of his bold and faithful proclamation of Jesus Christ as Savior of the world. He even used the shamrock to explain the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He served in Ireland for 29 years, baptizing thousands and planting hundreds of churches. Besides individual lives redeemed, their new Christian faith gave the Irish people a revived love of learning—which then fostered literacy. The Irish monks were instrumental in copying books, including the Bible, which were in danger of being looted and destroyed during the final days of the Roman Empire as it crumbled.

This is a quick summary, no doubt, and there is much to appreciate in the legacy of St. Patrick. Although accounts of his biography differ in details, there seems to be little disagreement as to his passion to evangelize the people of Ireland because of his love for them and his love for our Lord. I am particularly inspired by his deep prayer life, and am touched by this writing called “The Breastplate,” attributed to St. Patrick:

“Christ be within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ inquired, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.”

March 17^th is a day to celebrate victory, whether Evacuation Day or St. Patrick’s Day. The ultimate victory is through Jesus Christ, and as Christians we celebrate His life in us every day of the year. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:56-58)

Resources:

Apostle to the Irish: The Real Saint Patrick by Charles Colson
Patricius: The True Story of St. Patrick by David Kithcart
Who Was the Real St. Patrick? by Deacon Keith A. Fournier
Saint Patrick from Wikipedia
Evacuation Day from Wikipedia
Service of the Scribes: How the Irish Saved Civilization, March 16, 1998 of Prison Fellowship

Questions to Share:

1. Why do you believe Patrick did not become a slave to “victim-hood” and refuse God’s call to return to Ireland as a missionary?

2. What lessons can you learn from St. Patrick regarding personal victory over unfair treatment?