Michael Card - The Basin and the Towel

I was reminded of this wonderful Michael Card song as I prepare for worship this Sunday. I searched for the sheet music online, and found it on YouTube. Good for my soul. So good.

Independence, Dependence, and One Nation Under God

I've been thinking, To what degree of influence should national holidays have on our worship? I posed the question on Bob Kauflin's Blog. It seemed to aggravate some people. I pretty much knew my answer before I asked the question, and Bob's answer was similar to mine. What was interesting was to see the emotions that got stirred when Bob said, not that we should ignore national holidays, but that we should instead, "...make the most of every opportunity to exalt the superior glory, wisdom, grace, and truth of our Savior and His glorious Gospel that provides our only hope of lasting freedom and joy."

Comments regarding the Pledge of Allegiance got me searching the web, and I found a couple of good histories of the Pledge: the first being an exhaustive one at Wikipedia, the second being Baer's "Short History of the Pledge of Allegiance", which is, well...short.

In a nutshell, in 1892 Francis Bellamy, a Baptist Socialist, wrote "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all" as a way to celebrate the arrival of Columbus 400 years earlier. President Benjamin Harrison incorporated it into the public schools for Columbus Day observances, with one change: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."

So that immigrants knew to which flag they were pledging allegiance, in 1923/4 the Pledge was changed to, "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."

In 1954, George MacPherson Docherty, Peter Marshall's successor at Washington's historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, preached a sermon called "A New Birth of Freedom", based on Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. President Eisenhower was worshipping there that morning, in the same pew that Lincoln sat many years ealier. Wikipedia says,

According to Docherty, what has made the United States both unique and strong was her sense of being the nation that Lincoln described: a nation "under God." Docherty took the opportunity to tell a story of a conversation with his children about the Pledge of Allegiance. Docherty was troubled by the fact that it did not include any reference to the deity. Without such reference, Docherty insisted that the Pledge could apply to just about any nation. He felt that the pledge should reflect the American spirit and way of life as defined by Lincoln.

Eisenhower immediately set into motion a bill to get introduced for changing the Pledge to say, "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."

Eisenhower's rationale for the change is clear in a letter he wrote later that year: These words [“under God”] will remind Americans that despite our great physical strength we must remain humble. They will help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to man, and upon which our way of life is founded.

Caught in the act! (This is really, umm, "foul")

These are pictures my dad took in his backyard yesterday.

A Guide to Confessing Sin

A Guide to Confessing Sin

I saw this, and thought it helpful. Not being a Roman catholic, some of the "sins" don't apply to me (10 commandments is enough, thank you very much!). But still, the "examination of conscience" is a very sobering thing to do, even if I choose to confess my sins directly to my Great High Priest, Jesus. At the same time, I recognize the benefit of have an earthly friend to confess my sins to.

Billy Graham's Integrity & Humility

Jim Wallace left a good post on his blog today regarding Dr. Graham.