I know that we are no longer supposed to draw attention to or respect some of those great men that have gone on before us.  In today’s society some of them are no longer “politically correct.”  Ptui on that!  Let me draw your attention to some words penned by Robert E. Lee to a wife of one of his officers that was wounded in battle.

“I know that you will unite with me in thanks to Almighty God, who has so often sheltered him in the hour of danger, for his recent deliverance, and lift up your whole heart in praise to Him for sparing a life so dear to us, while enabling him to do his duty in the station in which He had placed him.  Ask him to join us in supplication that He may always cover him with the shadow of His almighty arm, and teach him that his only refuge is in Him, the greatness of whose mercy reacheth unto the heavens, and His truth unto the clouds.  As some good is always mixed with the evil in this world, you will now have him with you for a time and I shall look to you to cure him soon and send him back to me.”

In this letter we see many things, one of which is the fact that it is always God to Whom we need to turn in times of duress and sorrow.  In the midst of the battlefield, God is there.  He protects, delivers, or He may call us home.  In battle we may get wounded and become a casualty of the fray.  When we become a casualty, we can lie there and die, cause our loved ones pain and sorrow, or we can do as Terry Tuley writes, “We can either let our wounds destroy us or become a means to draw us closer to Christ.”
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“Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has been won. The skies no longer rain death — the seas bear only commerce men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight. The entire world is quietly at peace. The holy mission has been completed. And in reporting this to you, the people, I speak for the thousands of silent lips, forever stilled among the jungles and the beaches and in the deep waters of the Pacific which marked the way. I speak for the unnamed brave millions homeward bound to take up the challenge of that future which they did so much to salvage from the brink of disaster.
As I look back on the long, tortuous trail from those grim days of Bataan and Corregidor, when an entire world lived in fear, when democracy was on the defensive everywhere, when modern civilization trembled in the balance, I tank a merciful God that He has given us the faith, the courage and the power from which to mold victory. We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no turning back. We must go forward to preserve in peace what we won in war.
A new era is upon us. Even the lesson of victory itself brings with it profound concern, both for our future security and the survival of civilization. The destructiveness of the war potential, through progressive advances in scientific discovery, has in fact now reached a point which revises the traditional concepts of war.”

That was part of the words directed to the American people shortly after General MacArthur made the statement aboard the USS Missouri, “These proceedings are closed,” and thus bringing to an end the bloodiest conflict know to man.  Though my Dad would spend another year in the occupation of Japan, this marked the time when he would be able to come home.
We surely had a “Greatest Generation” who sacrificed, if nothing else, years of their lives for their country.  Truthfully, most of them sacrificed much more and some gave that ultimate sacrifice.  Never should we forget, never should we ever bring dishonor.

“I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.”
               –Isaiah 57:18 (KJV)

“Sometimes the first duty of a responsible man is a restatement of the obvious.”         –George Orwell

“Religion and good morals are the only valid foundation of public liberty and happiness.”          –Samuel Adams

What is happening?  There is so much confusion in America today.  People are disoriented regarding morality and immorality.  Weird is becoming the norm while absolutes do not exist.  People are even confused about gender.  My mercy…!
Throughout history armies have marched with a flag-bearer.  He was the one who stood in front, carried and guarded the honor of the flag.  In our history the flag bearer has been the President.  Has our flag been dropped or has it been thrown to the ground?  During battle, when the flag bearer went down immediately someone was there to pick up the flag.  Who is there now to pick up our flag?  We must ask ourselves the question, will I catch the falling flag?
I came across an article that I had filed several years ago written by Don Spradling, “Catch the falling flag.”  He raised the questions that are above.  Is our nation one that really believes “In God We Trust?  Do we now disregard our biblical tradition for being the guideposts of morality?  William Wishard states, “Dysfunction is now a style of life in America with its own music, media, dress code and philosophy?  Better reach out and catch the flag.
Read the following, “I believe in Jesus Christ as the great Helper, Comforter and Savior of humanity, and the Holy Bible as bearing to us the story of His mission, the rule of duty, the revelation of eternal life and also the conditions under which the attainments of life are possible.  No book contains more truths, or is more worthy of confidence than the Bible; none brings more joy to the sorrowing, more strength to the weak, or more stimulus to the nobly ambitious; none makes life sweeter, or death easier or less sad.”  This written by David Josiah Brewer, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  Imagine those words coming from the current court that has stamped its approval on so many immoral ideas.
The question is how did this happen and what do we do about it?  Spradling states, “The flag of character and personal integrity is challenged by the winds of relativism, syncretism, humanism and hedonism.  Character counts.  Our nation wasn’t built by celebrities, geniuses or the wealthy.  It was built by the people for the people, because they put their trust in God.  Some better reach out and catch the falling flag of character.
What about your home?  Is it a haven of rest, a place of joy, a home where memories are created to be enjoyed throughout one’s life?  Or is it one of chaos, disruption, and distraction?  Barna states, “I’ve concluded that within the next few years America will experience one of two outcomes:  either massive spiritual revival or total moral anarchy.”  This starts with the home.
Eventually we know that truth will prevail.  But what about right now?  In whom do you trust?
(taken from Pentecostal Evangel, June 27, 1999)

“Truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter… The Lord looked and was displeased.”           –Isaiah 59:14-16

Growing up I remember often that the clouds would roll down covering the mountains.  They were hidden from view and from a distance a person would never know they were there.  However, for sure those mountains were there; they were just obscured by the clouds.  There is an old song of the church that describes the mist and then what happens “When the Mists Have Rolled Away.”

“When the mists have rolled in splendor
From the beauty of the hills,
And the sunlight falls in gladness
On the river and the rills,
We recall our Father’s promise
In the rainbow of the spray:
We shall know each other better
When the mists have rolled away.”
–Annie H. Barker

There was one experience I shall never forget.  Annie and I were driving from Springfield, MO to her place.  At Zanesville, OH we hit some of the worst fog that I’ve ever encountered.  What was normally a three hour drive turned into close to nine.  I tried and get behind a semi and follow his red lights.  If that truck had turned off and into a warehouse I would have gone right in after it.

“Oft we tread the path before us
With a weary, burdened heart;
Oft we toil amid the shadows,
And our fields are far apart:
But the Savior’s ‘Come, ye blessed,’
All our labor will repay,
When we gather in the morning
Where the mists have rolled away.”

The same is often true of life itself.  There is often fog and mists along the trail.  Heaven seems obscured by the cares of this life; it is like Paul wrote that we look through a glass darkly.  One day, yes, one day the way will be completely clear.

“We shall come with joy and gladness,
We shall gather round the throne;
Face to face with those that love us,
We shall know as we are known:
And the song of our redemption
Shall resound thro’ endless day,
When the shadows have departed,
And the mists have rolled away.”

“We shall know as we are known
Nevermore to walk alone,
In the dawning of the morning
Of that bright and happy day,
We shall know each other better,
When the mists have rolled away.”

“We are a good and moral people, and we form a nation that is the hope of mankind–quite possibly, the last hope of mankind.”         –Eric L. Haney

“The earth for us is a place to live in, where we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smells, too, by Jove!–breathe dead hippo, so to speak, and not be contaminated.”         –Joseph Conrad

It smells rotten and it jerks my jaws!  Maybe it’s that poor, underprivileged prima donna of a quarterback.  I would wonder how much of his money has he given to help?  Has he been to Baton Rouge to help the people there?  I saw where Convoy of Hope was on the scene but haven’t seen a truck from BLM.  Rebel rousers don’t show up when there is work to be done, only when there is a means to cause strife and division.  Helping people is not part of their agenda and it stinks.
Is that a dead hippo I am beginning to smell, or is it the rotting soul of America?  What in the world are we doing when we allow a few to make policy for the many?  How can we continue to make the pretense of a Christian nation (oh, that’s right our pseudo-president said that we no longer are)?  How do we go on without being contaminated?  I think Kipling had it right when he said, “We’ve go to do what we can till after the war.”  The problem is that so many do not realize that we are in a war.  The war is raging and it seems few are fighting.  There is a war against the very foundations of morality in this country.  The nonsense should be stopped, but then maybe people are becoming immune to the smell of the massive corpse.
Remove the cross and the Bible and the foundation stones of the country have been removed.  The cross represents several things.  First, the suffering, sacrifice, and death of the Savior for the sins of mankind.  Remove the cross and hope is removed.  Mock the cross and the Savior and what is left?  Second, the cross leads to the tomb which states that the act is finished.  Jesus was removed from the cross, placed in a tomb, and rose again.  That brings up a third reason; it is a reminder of the hope that is ours.  One day those who died under that cross will again tread this earth with the Savior.  The cross is important because it represents sacrifice, not decay.  So many have sacrificed, some given their all for this nation.  They died for the fellow man; they died for the future of this country.
What really stinks is those who spout their mouths, spread lies, fill their pockets and spit on the sacrifice of those gone before.  We must keep fighting the war.  We must not become contaminated by the garbage that seems to surround us.

“How long, foolish one, will you love ignorance?  How long will you mockers enjoy mocking and you fools hate knowledge?”          –Proverbs 1:22 (HCSB)