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The Stars and the Stripes

USA_on_Globe

It’s July 4th!

Go on… Celebrate! And enjoy the words below!

 

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro’ the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov’d homes and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!


Words from http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/starspangledbanner.html
Featured image from www.publicdomainpictures.net
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Holy Violence: A Reading from C H Spurgeon

Holy violence

“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of God suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” Matthew 11:12

Suggested Further Reading: Genesis 32:22-32

Frequently complaints are made and surprise expressed by individuals who have never found a blessing rest upon anything they have attempted to do in the service of God. “I have been a Sunday-school teacher for years,” says one, “and I have never seen any of my girls or boys converted.” No, and the reason most likely is, you have never been violent about it; you have never been compelled by the divine Spirit to make up your mind that converted they should be, and no stone shall be left unturned until they were. You have never been brought by the Spirit to such a passion, that you have said, “I cannot live unless God bless me; I cannot exist unless I see some of these children saved.” Then, falling on your knees in agony of prayer, and putting forth afterwards your trust with the same intensity towards heaven, you would never have been disappointed, “for the violent take it by force.” And you too, my brother in the gospel, you have marvelled and wondered why you have not seen souls regenerated. Did you ever expect it? Why, you preach like one who does not believe what he is saying. Those who believe in Christ, may say of you with kind partiality, “Our minister is a dear good man;” but the careless young men that attend your ministry say, “Does that man expect to make me believe that which he only utters as a dry story, and to convince me when I see him go through the service with all the dullness and monotony of dead routine?” Oh, my brethren, what we want today in the churches is violence; not violence against each other, but violence against death, and hell, against the hardness of other men’s hearts, and against the sleepiness of our own.

For meditation: Do you mean business with God or do you just go through the motions? It can make all the difference (2 Kings 4:31-35; Mark 9:28,29).

Sermon no. 252
15 May (1859)


 

365_Days_CHS_1_DS365 Days with C.H. Spurgeon, Vol. 1. A unique collection of 365 daily readings from sermons preached by Charles Haddon Spurgeon from his New Park Street Pulpit.

This series of daily readings makes use of Spurgeon’s sermons, edited, prepared and formatted for daily readings, by Terence Peter Crosby.

This book is published by Day One Publications, and is available here at a discounted price and with free shipping.

 


Thomas Watson: A Related Resource

9780979857935Consider the writing of Thomas Watson on a related theme.

Many today believe that the Christian life is rather easy to both obtain and live. But the Puritans saw it as warfare, as wrestling, as “holy violence,” to use their term. The Apostle Paul spoke of beating his own body into subjection. And this holy violence is to be brought not only against one’s self, but against Satan, the world, and heaven too. And in this confrontation, we must use the weapons God has given us—reading the Word, hearing the Word, prayer, meditation, self-examination, and the due observance of the Lord’s Day. The writings of Thomas Watson, replete with sound doctrine, practical wisdom, and heart-searching application, need no introduction to readers of the Puritans. His profound spirituality, terse style, gripping remarks, practical illustrations, and beauty of expression make him one of the most irresistible, quotable, and devotional of all the Puritans. Heaven Taken By Storm is a precious little volume of practical Christian living and is one of our favorites of Puritan titles.

You may purchase this book, shipping free, and at a generous discount, from Cheaper in Dozens.

 

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Jonathan Edwards, the Internet, UPS, and Air Travel

British Airways aircraft

Perceptive of the Future

Jonathan EdwardsJonathan Edwards (1703-58), described as one of America’s greatest thinkers ever, was gifted with a significant sense of what God would do in in future generations. I was reminded earlier in perusing the Preface to Iain H Murray’s Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (page xiii) of these words:

[Edwards] would not have been surprised had he known of the great advances of the kingdom of Christ in the two centuries which have followed his death. Few Christians have looked to the future with brighter hope than Edwards. He believed, for example, that the age of scientific discovery was only in its beginnings and that there would come new and ‘better contrivances for assisting one another through the whole earth by more expedite, easy, and safe communication between distant regions than now’. The vast distances separating the nations of the eighteenth century would disappear, ‘the distant extremes of the world shall shake hands together’, and this progress would be God-given towards the day when ‘the whole earth may be as one community, one body in Christ’.

Edwards did not speak directly of the specifics of what he imagined people would achieve. Yet I love to think that the things we enjoy today–ease of international travel, rapid communication by electronic means whether in text or VOIP, capability of making speedy financial transactions, and the transportation of items expeditiously around the globe–are in measure the fruit of his sanctified imagination.

Think About This…

• Do you utilize the power of the Internet for good?
• Do you use your resources efficiently and strategically for the advance of Christ’s kingdom?
• Are you on the lookout for new and effective means of harnessing the power of technology to live life more efficiently in the service of Him who lived and died and rose again for sinners?
• Suggest three ways in which your life has been significantly transformed by technology in the last two years.

 

Header image credit: Courtesy http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/22088

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