As we approach the celebration of our independence as a country I'll share another hymn story from the book, "Then Sings My Soul." God uses men and women in incredible ways, one of which is the writing of great songs that challenge and inspire us. As you celebrate your freedom this week take some time to reflect on some of the great patriotic songs written through the years.

              'My Country, 'Tis of Thee' is a patriotic hymn written by Samuel Francis Smith. He was a native of Boston, born there in October of 1808. After attending Boston Latin School, he enrolled in Harvard and then attended Andover Seminary. While in seminary he became fascinated by the work of a guy by the name of Adoniram Judson. This guy was America's first missionary and helped develop in Samuel a lifelong passion for world evangelism.     

            It was during his first year of seminary that hymn publisher, Lowell Mason, sought his help. Mason had a stack of German songs and materials needing translation. Having learned that Samuel was proficient in German, he recruited the young student to translate them. One February afternoon Samuel was in his room translating the materials. He was struck by the words of "Gott segne Sachsenland" ("God Bless our Saxon Land"), set to the tune we know as "America" (used in Great Britain for "God Save the Queen").       

            "I instantly felt the impulse to write a patriotic hymn of my own adapted to this tune," Samuel later said, "picking up a scrap of paper which lay near me, I wrote at once, probably within half an hour, the hymn, 'America' as it is now known."

             A friend, William Jenks, took a copy to the pastor of Boston's Park Street Congregational Church. There "America" was first sung by the Juvenile Choir at a Sunday School Rally on July 4, 1831. Samuel went on to become a powerful Baptist preacher, pastor, professor, hymnist, writer and missionary advocate. He lived to a ripe old age, staying active until the very end of his life.  Thank you Samuel Smith for sharing this wonderful song with the world. 

                It is hard to believe that we will soon find ourselves half way through 2014. Time flies when you are having fun! Life is very busy right now for many of us. Life around the church sure is...We've just finished Kid's Kamp, Black Gold Days is winding down, Vacation Bible School is here (like it starts tonight), Falls Creek youth camp is in 3 weeks, our mission team leaves in just over a month for Acapulco, our youth pastor search team is working diligently to follow God's direction to bring our next staff member on board, and the list could go on. In the midst of the busyness we must be careful to not lose sight of God and why we are doing what we are doing in the first place. If we lose focus the stuff we are busy with is just activity-- it fills our time, drains our energy and depletes our resources. When we realize what we are busy doing is God's business it is ministry-- we are giving our time, using our energy and investing our resources in Kingdom Work! So in the busyness--- understand why we are doing what we are doing--- we have a mission to fulfill!

                Let me encourage you to add one more thing to your already busy schedule.... exercise your right and responsibility and go to the polls on Tuesday. There are many key decisions before us when it comes to elected officials. My desire is not to tell you who to vote for but to encourage you to vote. Take some time before Tuesday and educate yourself on the candidates and where they stand on the issues and consider their convictions and biblical worldview.  Know what all is on the ballot and be prepared to exercise your right and responsibility! Don't be too busy to vote! God is still God, this is still One Nation Under God and this is Kingdom Work! Make it a point to get to the polls this Tuesday!

This illustration is from Chapter 8 of the book, The Man in the Mirror,  “Children: How to Avoid Regrets.”

The salmon nearly leaped onto their hooks!  That was a far cry from the day before when the four anglers couldn’t even seem to catch an old boot. Disappointed but not discouraged, they had climbed aboard their small seaplane and skimmed over the Alaskan mountains to a pristine, secluded bay where the fish were sure to bite.

They parked their aircraft and waded upstream, where the water teemed with ready-to-catch salmon.  Later that afternoon, when they returned to their camp, they were surprised to find the seaplane high and dry.  The tides fluctuated twenty-three feet in that particular bay, and the pontoons rested on a bed of gravel.  Since they couldn’t fly out till morning, they settled in for the night and enjoyed some of their catch for dinner, then slept in the plane.

In the morning the seaplane was adrift, so they promptly cranked the engine and started to take off.  Too late, they discovered one of the pontoons had been punctured and was filled with water.  The extra weight threw the plane into a circular pattern.  Within moments from liftoff the seaplane careened into the sea and capsized. 

Dr. Phil Littleford determined that everyone was alive, including his twelve-year-old son, Mark.  He suggested they pray, which the other two men quickly endorsed.  No safety equipment could be found on board—no life vests, no flares, nothing.  The plane gurgled and submerged into the blackness of the icy morning sea.  Fortunately, they all had waders which they inflated.  The frigid Alaskan water chilled their breath.

They all began to swim for shore, but the riptide countered every stroke.  The two men alongside Phil and Mark were strong swimmers and they both made shore, one just catching the tip of land as the tides pulled them out toward sea. Their two companions last saw Phil and Mark as a disappearing dot on the horizon, swept arm-in-arm out to sea.

The Coast Guard reported they probably lasted no more than an hour in the freezing waters—hypothermia would chill the body functions and they would go to sleep.  Mark with a smaller body mass, would fall asleep first in his father’s arms.  Phil could have made the shoreline, too, but that would have meant abandoning his son.  Their bodies were never found.

What father wouldn’t be willing to die for his son?  My question is different. If we are willing to go so far as to die for our children, why is it that we often don’t seem willing to live for them?

This Father's Day may we all make the choice to live for our children! Follow the Lord and lead a godly life in front of them. Let them see you living for the Lord! 

            A church attendee wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. 'I've gone for 30 years now,' he wrote, 'and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the preachers are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.'
            This started a real controversy in the 'Letters to the Editor' column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
            'I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this...They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!'
            Let us be thankful to God for our physical and our spiritual nourishment! May we not become complacent in our desire to grow in the Lord and hang out with other believers. May God find us faithful in all areas of our life, one of those being our church attendance (Hebrews 10:25).

        His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog(wet spongy ground). He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.
        The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life." "No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer.
        At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel(hut). "Is that your son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly. "I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of." And that he did.
        In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin. Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name, Winston Churchill.
        Someone once said: What goes around comes around. Long before that saying came around God said this in Proverbs 11:25, “A generous man will prosper; He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”  Would you look around and see whom you can refresh? Be alert to the opportunities God gives you to invest in others, only He knows the long-term results!

            With Breanna finishing up her second year of college at TCC and making plans to actually go off to college in Ada in the Fall and with Katlyn graduating from high school there has been a lot of reflection taking place in my life. It seems like just yesterday that they were born and adding so much joy to our lives. It seems like just the other day Vickie and I started dating. Anyway you get the picture...time passes quickly.

            Do you have a good memory? It seems for me that parts of my past are crystal clear and other parts are not so much so. With all sorts of memories flooding my mind these days and to keep from getting too emotional while writing this article I am going to jump back in my past to when Vickie and I were dating. She and I dated for just over 5 years before we were married and during that time (and since) we have shared a whole bunch of notes. One of the things that sticks out in my mind is how she signed her letters. She would always write, "Rember, I love you!" Now, You may think that I misspelled ‘remember,’ well I did, but I did it on purpose because that is the way she wrote it. And the funny thing is, I still remember it after 23 + years of marriage. I know to this day that she loves me, I still ‘rember.’

            Do you remember that this weekend is Memorial Day Weekend. The last Monday of May has been set aside as a day for us to remember those who have given their life in service to our country. For most, that means a day off of work and a long weekend. It seems today, many forget why they have the long weekend. Oh, I think they know it is because of Memorial Day, but they don’t even pause or slow down to remember the real reason behind the day off. As this Monday rolls around, let’s make sure we pause and thank God for the men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice, their life, so we can enjoy the freedoms we have. It is also a good time to remember those men and women who are putting their life on the line for us today in an effort to keep those freedoms.

            Just like I will always 'rember' that Vickie loves me let’s all make sure we ‘rember’ the reason for Memorial Day this year! 

                I think we would all agree, Mothers are special. Many have said that a mother's love is probably the closest example we have to God's love. Sacrifice is one of the characteristics of His love that we often see in that of a mom. Sacrificing her time and energy. Maybe even sacrifice to the point of daring to lay down her life for her children. To illustrate let me share with you a story about Solomon Rosenburg and his family that was recorded from accounts of WW 2 and the holocaust that took the lives of millions of people.
                Solomon Rosenberg, his wife, their 2 sons, his mother and his father were arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp. It was a labor camp and the rules were simple. "As long as you can do your work, you are permitted to live. When you become too weak to do your work, then you are exterminated."
                Rosenberg watched his mother and father marched off to their deaths and he just knew his youngest son, David, would be next because he had always been a frail child. Every evening Rosenberg came back into the barracks after his hours of labor & searched for the faces of his family. When he found them they would huddle together, embrace one another and thank God for another day of life.
                One day Rosenberg came back and didn’t see those familiar faces. He finally discovered his oldest son, Joshua, in a corner, huddled, weeping and praying. He said, "Josh, tell me it’s not true." Joshua turned and said, "It is true, poppa. Today David was not strong enough to do his work. So they came for him."
                "But where is your mother?" asked Mr. Rosenberg. "Oh poppa," he said, "When they came for David, he was afraid and he cried. Momma said, `There is nothing to be afraid of David,’ and she took his hand and went with him."
                What a picture of motherhood- doing whatever could be done to help, comfort and console her child even if it meant the ultimate sacrifice of her life. Thank you to all the moms who have shown us and/or continue to show us God's love in action! Thank you for walking with us through all of life's events- the good and the difficult! Thank you for being a living expression of God's love for all to see! Happy Mother's Day!