America the Beautiful



One of the views from the Summit of Pikes Peak

 "I will meditate on the glorious splenor of Your majesty." ~ Psalm 145:5

The hymn "America the Beautiful" was written by Katherine Lee Bates after she climbed to the top of Pikes Peak, Colorado, in 1983.  She said, "All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse."  She was overwhelmed by the sights of vast, open skies, planted fields, and the majestic Rocky Mountains. These were what inspired her to write the following poem.

America the Beautiful



O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,

For purple mountains majesties above the fruited plain!

America! America! God shed His grace on thee,

And Crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet whose stern impassion'd stress

A thouroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness.

America! America! God mend thine every flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty thy law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd in liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life.

America! America! May God thy gold refine



Pikes Peak



Till all success be nobleness, and ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears.

America! America! God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

Thank You, Father, for the beauty of this land You have blessed us with.  May we do all we can to protect the beauty of America as well as the freedom we enjoy.

"A faithful man will abound with blessings" ~Proverbs 28:20

Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

I was visiting the Ellerslie website and saw that they had a few short films for people to view.  As soon as I finished watching this film I knew I wanted to share it with all of you!

May we always remember how much we owe Him and never be ashamed, but thankful for what He has done for us and proud to be sons and daughters of the King of kings and Lord of lords!

We are truly blessed to be chosen to be part of His family.  What will we do with that gift?

Waiting....

 

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried:

Quietly patiently, lovingly, God replied.

I plead and I wept for a clue to my fate

And the Master so gently said,

“Child, you must wait.”

“Wait? You say, wait!” my indignant reply,

“Lord I need answers, I need to know why!

Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heart?

By faith, I have asked, and I’m claiming Your Word.”

My future and all to which I can relate

Hangs in the balance, and YOU tell me WAIT?

I need a “Yes” or a go-ahead sign,

Or even a “No” to which I can resign.

And Lord, You promises that if we believe

We need but to ask, and we shall receive.

And Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:

“I’m weary of asking! I need a reply!”

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,

As my Master replied once again, “You must wait.”

So I slumped in my chair defeated and taught

And grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting …for what?”

He seemed, then, to kneel,

And His eyes wept with mine,

And tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.

I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run.

All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.

You would have what you want-

But you wouldn’t know Me.

You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint;

You’d not know the power I give to the faint

You’d not learn to see though the clouds of despair;

You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there;

You’d not know the joy of resting in Me;

When darkness and silence were all you could see.

You’d never experience that fullness of love

As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;

You’d know that I give and I save, for a start,

But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

The glow of My comfort late into the night,

The faith that I give when you walk without sight,

The depth that’s beyond getting just what you asked

Of an infinite God, who makes what you have last.

You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”

Yes, your dreams for your loved one

Overnight would come true,

But, Oh, the Loss! If I lost what I’m doing in you!

So, be silent, My child, and in time you will see

That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.

And though oft’ may My answers seem terribly late,

My most precious answer of all is still, “wait.”

Author Unknown

 

I read this on a fellow bloggers blog (http://theprovidenceofgod.blogspot.com/) and it spoke to my heart.  God is teaching me the lesson of patience and to wait on Him for direction and guidance.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did :]

 

God Bless!

"D-Day"

Today, June 6, 1944, was a monumental day in history.  The Allied invasion into France through Normandy took place at 6:30am.  (BST)

President Roosevelt read the following prayer, originally entitled "Let Our Hearts Be Stout." over radio to an anxious nation as Allied troops were invading Nazi-occupied Europe on D-Day, June 6, 1944:

"Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings.  Their road will be long and hard.  For the enemy is strong...Success may not come with rushing speed, but....we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph....

[Our men] fight to liberate.  They fight to let justice arise and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people.  They yearn bur for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.  Some will never return.  Embrace these, Father, receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.....

Thy will be done, Almighty God.  Amen."[1]

"The assault was conducted in two phases: an airborne assault landing of 24,000 British, American, Canadian and Free French airborne troops shortly after midnight, and an amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armoured divisions on the coast of France commencing at 6:30 AM. There were also decoy operations mounted under the codenames Operation Glimmer and Operation Taxable to distract the German forces from the real landing areas.
The operation was the largest amphibious invasion in world history, with over 160,000 troops landing on June 6, 1944. 195,700 Allied naval and merchant navy personnel in over 5,000 ships were involved. The invasion required the transport of soldiers and material from the United Kingdom by troop-laden aircraft and ships, the assault landings, air support, naval interdiction of the English Channel and naval fire-support. The landings took place along a 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword."[2]
 
As I looked for information on D-Day, I came across some interesting facts having to do with the invasion.

• It is estimated that nearly 2 million soldiers, sailors and airmen were involved in Operation Overlord, including U.S., British, and Canadians who were scheduled to fight after men on the ground secured a Normandy bridgehead.

• 195,000 naval personnel manned 6,939 naval vessels (including 1,200 warships and 15 hospital ships).
• About 17 million maps supported the mission. 
• The United States shipped 7 million tons of supplies (that translates into 14 billion pounds of material).
• Of those supplies, ammunition accounted for 448,000 tons.
• Air-support operations - often overlooked in the success of D-Day - sustained significant losses:

• Between the 1st of April and the 5th of June, 1944, the Allies flew 14,000 missions losing 12,000 airmen and 2,000 aircraft.

• 127 more planes were lost on D-Day.

• By the end of the Normandy campaign, 28,000 airmen were dead.

• There are 9,386 graves in the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer. Each grave faces west, toward America.

• 307 of those graves contain the remains of "unknown" soldiers.

• 1,557 names are listed in The Garden of the Missing for those who were never found.

• 4,868 British dead are buried in the Bayeux Cemetery.

• 1,837 British names are listed at Bayeux for those who were never found.

• There were 946 Canadian casualties in the Normandy campaign.

• 21,500 German dead are buried at LaCambe.

Five years before he died, General Eisenhower came back to Colleville-sur-Mer. It was the first, and only, time he made that journey after the war. Looking over Omaha Beach, he spoke from his heart:

. . . these men came here - British and our allies, and Americans - to storm these beaches for one purpose only, not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom. . . . Many thousands of men have died for such ideals as these. . . but these young boys. . . were cut off in their prime. . . I devoutly hope that we will never again have to see such scenes as these. I think and hope, and pray, that humanity will have learned. . . we must find some way . . . to gain an eternal peace for this world. (Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life, by Carlo D'Este, p. 705.)

Doug Phillips and Vision Forum Ministries is honoring our veterans in a very special way this year.  They are taking a group of men who fought on those beaches, with their families and a film crew, to honor those who lived and died in WWII.  They will be learning from these brave men the lessons that they had to learn.  Listening to their stories and thanking them for their service.  Treasuring the time that they have left with that generation of veterans that gave so much for their country & their families.  You can follow there journey with these veterans at the website A Final Farewell. 


As I close this post, I want us to remember what these brave men did for us; their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and on.  Many of those men never came back.  They gave their lives that we might live in a free country.  Not one under the regime of people like Hitler and the communist.  They saw what their country and what the men and women who had come before them had given them and they took the responsibility given to them.  The responsibility of protecting their nation, their families, the innocent and the American dream of liberty, freedom and justice.

They were not given an easy task.  God had those people born at a time where their loyalty to Him and their country may have cost them their lives and yet God knew exactly who He wanted there for specific purposes. 

God has placed us in this great nation, and we as the next generation are being handed the "baton."  Will we take the responsibility of keeping our nation "One Nation Under God"?  Will we fight for our families, friends, the innocent, our freedoms and liberties and the next generations to come?

With God's strength and His book to guide us as we walk the path He has chosen for us, we can truly "do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

1 Timothy 1:12 "I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,"

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

God Bless You All!


Footnotes:
1. In God We Still Trust Devotional
2. Wikipedia