July 24, 2019

Who's Fooling Who?

(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

"How is your Beloved better than others?" Song of Songs 5:9

Does not our Friend as far excel all other friends . . .
  as Heaven exceeds earth,
  as eternity exceeds time, 
  as the Creator surpasses His creatures?

See all the fullness of the Godhead--dwelling in One who is as meek and mild as a child. 
See His countenance beaming with ineffable glories--full of mingled majesty, condescension and love. 
Hear the soul-reviving invitations and gracious words which proceed from Hislips. 
See that hand in which dwells everlasting strength--swaying the scepter of universal empire over all creatures and all worlds.
See His arms expanded to receive and embrace returning sinners.
While His heart, a bottomless, shoreless ocean of benevolence--overflows with tenderness, compassion, and love.

Such, O sinner, is our Beloved--and such is our Friend.

Will you not then embrace Him as your Friend? If you can be persuaded to do this--you will find that half, nay, that the thousandth part has not been told to you!

All the excellency, glory and beauty which is found in men or angels, flows from Christ--as a drop of water from the ocean, or a ray of light from the sun.

If, then, you supremely love the creature--can you wonder that Christians should love the Creator! Can you wonder that those who behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, should be sweetly drawn to Him by the cords of love, and lose their fondness for created glories? All that you love and admire and wish for in creatures, and indeed infinitely more--they find in Him!

Do you wish for a friend possessed of power to protect you? 
Our Friend possesses all power in Heaven and earth, and is able to save even to the uttermost!

Do you wish for a wise friend? 
In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Do you wish for a tender, compassionate friend? 
Christ is tenderness and compassion itself.

Do you wish for a faithful, unchangeable friend? 
With Christ there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

His unchangeable love will ever prompt Him to make His people happy!

His unerring wisdom will point out the best means to promote their happiness!

His infinite power will enable Him to employ those means.

In all these respects, our Beloved is more than any other beloved!

Addition, Dr. Morris:

To even compare today's church members, pew warmers with Saints of old is like comparing my mothers wood-cooked stove to a microwave.

One of my friends' described it this way my brother sings so loud during worship service "Oh, how I love Jesus" but then, on the way home, in traffic, he goes into pagan rage, calling other drivers such ugly names.

No soldier ever won a battle fighting from an air conditioned foxhole.  Do today's church goers, sitting in the comfort of an air conditioned building, powdered and perfumed, dressed in their very best, listening to trained choir voices,  professional musicians, a preacher softly "cooing to the crowd, SO AFRAID he might run someone off , AFRAID that he might limit the offering AND UNAFRAID that many of these people will go to hell.  Dr. R.G. Lee, longtime pastor, Bellevue Baptist, before he died, (a congregation of thousands) said he wished he knew that ten percent of his membership would meet him in heaven. 

The road to hell is paved with religion.  Salvation comes through an intimate-personal relationship with Christ.  Much of this relationship comes through suffering.  When this writer looked at his mother and grandmothers the last time, before they were returned to the Good Earth, I knew that they experienced suffering.  Christianity is not complicated, very tough.  Ninety percent of all Christianity is just raw courage.  Do today's church members have the courage to suffer for Christ sake?

July 24, 2019

Cannibalizing the Future

Others, Lord, yes, others --

Let this my motto be;

Help me to live for others

That I may live like Thee.--  

Hymn- Others

In George Orwell’s 1947 book Animal Farm, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

God wanted this country boy, raised in impoverished Eastern North Carolina, dirt roads-no power, phone, or water lines destitute country school 13 in my graduating class with the ambition to work through 8 years of University education, paying every cent of his own way, to have a Doctor in front of his name and later Lieutenant Colonel.  

SUCH AN EQUITY:But, and many times in his word, we have these words”But God” wanted me to see the inequity of the world and I have traveled through every continent, both poles and seen poverty that bureaucrats, in all their liberal fantasies, can not imagine.  Even in this country, most millennial Americans do not realize that 9 million Americans died from starvation during the Great Depression.

Often, in a third world nation such as the Central African Republic where I was the first visitor to that nation since the Jean-Bedel Bokassa emperor (Bokassa declared himself emperor of his nation, I saw him ride up and down the street in a chariot pulled by horses and all the people had to kneel. I went to his fortress, outside of Banjol, surrounded by a moat, where he fed his political prisoners to crocodiles.) I was invited to the American Ambassador quarters inside a fence, the gate closing behind the vehicle where I was served tea by  a retired general who was the ambassador also there to meet me, a United Nations official. The thought occurred to me, “How much did they pay to get these jobs from Washington and do they know anything at all about what goes on outside the walls of this embassy”. To the uninitiated, everything is obscure and most of the seven being inhabitants of this Earth are unaware of what is going on...nor do they care, if it does not affect them who cares?

Twice, as a sightless traveler of the World (Dr. Morris has been around the world 8 times, passport stamped in 157 countries) I got lost from my guide. Once, in France I got on the wrong train, a train filled with school children on a fieldtrip. The conductor came through checking to make sure all the children had tickets I was attempting to speak French to him, to tell him I was lost. One of the smart French boys said “he is with us” so, I arrived in Paris, actually made my way out of the train station, actually found a taxi and made my way to the hotel where I thought I was staying. My guide and the hotel officials were in panic mode. I think they were ready to call out the French Army to find me. I said, “Surely a man who has traveled the world can move around France .

In New Delhi, India, a country I have traveled from Trichy in the North to Sri Lanka in the South , by train and otherwise( MArk twain said that India is the ultimate travel destination), the world’s most populated nation, poverty beyond comprehension, I was lost from my guide in New Delhi where streets are thronged night and day with every type humanity. I was panicked, all these lepparous people pulling at me, trying to steal my white cane. I kept walking and listening. Most people in India speak English because they were under British rule for so long but none seemed to speak English that day. FINALLY I heard a man speaking English “This ends our tour for the day I will see you back at the hotel tomorrow morning, be here at 8:00 sharp”. I thought this was a travel group there must be a hotel here and I made my way into the hotel. I went up to what I thought was a desk and I pleaded I am an American and I am lost, I must have help. A woman almost jumped at me and hugged me and said I will help you, do you have any idea where your hotel is. I said, I have my room key, she said, that is all I need that hotel is not far from here. She and one other person, one on either side, almost in tears, they were so captivated by my situation (a blind man lost in the murrace of the streets of New Delhi). Again, my guide and the hotel was panicked because I was lost.  

When all around you there is nothing but trouble, your only escape- help is looking up. To the sightless person, when you can see nothing around you your only “salvation” is upward. God so built this world, troubles and trials all around us- sickness, poverty, helplessness, our only way of escape is upward. This is the message of Christianity.  

Losing your temper must be a sin because it is so pleasurable. When I was a child, and when we were enjoying anything, in a home- school- workplace, I felt that we must be sinning if we were enjoying ourselves. There is more to life than hard-work, study, the fear of displeasing God in all actions, the righteousness of God in our lives should be our greatest joy...and there should be nothing but smiles on the face of every believer. After all, we have been born again...twice birthed, and only one time to die...the clinical death of a believer. The scripture tells us that the unbeliever is already dead...once birthed, twice dead. This is why I cannot believe that the Muslim has any joy at all in life...rules about everything. Five times praying each day with nose on ground. Laws about clothing, food-drink-every area of life. The real followers of Islam, those who are the real believers in Muhammad, those who really follow the Quran, are the radicals. The only reason Islamists have not conquered the world is because they so enjoy killing one another...the various groups shiites, the Sunni, Shia, Sufi,Salafist and Wahhabi they so enjoy killing one another and their entire religion if true believers based on killing other infidels who do not believe like them. So, Americans so intent on being politically correct, so intent on turning the other cheek, so intent on loving everyone:have opened our borders to these cultures and religions and soon, like this blind writer lost in the blender of unknown bodies around me we will be looking for the way out of the entitlements-hodge-podge that has enveloped our nation, erased our constitutional freedoms. Freedoms paid for at such a high price. God told us, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32.

Life is Tough, AND THEN, you die, AND THEN???

July 17, 2019

Life is Tough, AND THEN, you die, AND THEN???

                                     

...the anvil and the hammer to tear my soul;
the fire and the metal to mend my holes;
the blacksmith forging straight ahead;
to create this man before you instead;
the truth is my body is strong and pure;
seems the sculptor had given the cure;
but the sculpture is still an unfinished piece;
no eyes to see and no heart to beat;
to become the masterpiece I have to become;
the sculptor is myself and my hands must be strong;
cause self isn’t made by greater powers;
it must be forged in fire with an anvil and hammer.
https://allpoetry.com/poem/11760800-The-Anvil-and-The-Hammer-by-The-Marcellian

Often when you think your life is over, you may just be getting started. The anvil wears out many hammers. God is still on his throne in spite of the world, flesh, devil. Truth is truth whether anyone believes it or not.

I have been thinking much recently about those who simply refuse to believe in God. I have recently developed a painful/aggravating hernia on my abdomen (a bulge about the size of a large egg, my oncologist tells me that no surgeon is going to use a knife on me at my age and in my cancer condition). It brought on the thoughts of a family who lived near us and my talking with the oldest son in the family who, with his wife and 2 boys, lived in a house near his father's house. He had brought his wife to me as a patient. She attended church along with the boys but he never did, like his own father. Here was his excuse for not believing in God; I grew up seeing my father drive his car down to your church to take my mother who was a devout believer and then he would go back to pick her up. In my father's house, I had a younger brother (whom this writer remembers sitting in the sun on the front porch). He died at age 14, never having spoken a word, just a biological organism who was changed and fed by this dear woman. This older brother of this unbelieving father said, "the pastor of your church never went to our house the first time and never showed any interest in my mother's plight in caring for this totally invalid child and, the so-called Christian community showed little concern when our family's house burned down. How does a God of love permit such unloving acts and can this excuse my father's unbelief and consequently my own unbelief."

This son had a very painful hernia, which, as far as I know, he lived with his whole adult life, doing hard work. The thing aggravating him constantly and he, unable to come up with the funds to have anything done about it. On a farm, working in rain/heat/cold, with the insidious pain that irritates any protrusion, such as a hernia, one can easily understand why you could easily hold God responsible for problems which people from the beginning of time have endured and, why would one child of a perfectly normal loving mother, never speak, never enjoy anything that normal children would enjoy...just a burden and more important, everyone at that church saw her faithfulness in going to church; knew about her unbelieving husband and yet, no one, not even the pastor ever showed she or her family, Christan benevolence.

Dealing with suffering is a great teacher. Only a very small percentage of the population of the world never experience suffering, often used as an excuse for unbelief. Dr. Victor Frankel, himself a Jewish doctor prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, said it was only the inner man, the want for survival, that got you through this life. The prisoners in the concentration camp knew that all they had to do was run towards a gate and a guard from the guard tower would shoot them dead and their suffering would be over.

Once we know the 'why' of living then we can concentrate on the 'how' of living. Those who are disabled, those who understand inequities, know that God is ultimately in charge; it is just a matter of trusting Him. Blindness has been my greatest blessing because I am much closer to God now than when sighted BUT I have the mental ability to understand this. Who would have ever known Helen Keller if she had not overcome both blindness and muteness? When Hitler started his book burning her book was at the top of the list to be destroyed. The first people to be destroyed were the disabled/gypsies/hospitalized. God put the first man and woman He created in a perfect world, a perfect environment. He made only one provision in His dealing with mankind "don't touch that tree!". Man has always rebelled, and mankind has always paid the price.

How can anyone doubt God any more than you can doubt history or the world around you? We could easily use Pascal's wager instead of attempting to persuade the unsaved about the love of God. Pascal said "what do you have to lose by believing, if you believe and it is true you have inherited eternal life with God in His Glory. If it does not turn out to be true and you do not have a soul, your body just becomes fertilizer, what have you lost? You lived a life of beautiful absolutes. The absolutes of right and wrong, of loving one another, you win either way".

Christianity is not completed, just tough. Belief in God is a matter of the heart. He will draw you if He wants you and He is perfectly willing to accept you just as you are, willing to forgive every sin which you are willing to give up.

July 2019

Many Lines in the Water

            The human brain is the most complicated (complex) entity in the human universe. The only common area for human activity is dirt...the ground. From that dirt, God made man, and that is where our likeness ends. The great Atheist, Friedrich Nietzsche, who could play the piano, could never understand why he could not play as well as Brahms, or Schopin. Some are blessed with the "stroke" of an artist on canvas, some with the ability to manipulate numbers and understand chemical equations. There is no line between good and evil in the physical world; that is only found in the heart. There is no line between those who have talent and those who have none. Accomplishment is a matter of attitude. Only your lack of talent and brain-power, you never dealt with, you attempt to cram into your children.

            It is easier to cool down a radical, than to warm up a corpse. The time comes when you realize that life is too complex, that even the human brain cannot comprehend everything. In other words, "we cannot know it all." And, there is no sense building resentment towards those who have a genome of superior ability. There was only ONE Einstein, only ONE Edison. Much of our quandary of competition is self-imposed. The brain needs much rest.

            Until the early 1900's, when electricity became available to the common man, when artificial lights were installed, and human beings started staying up longer and longer...getting less sleep; minds were much more productive. Our ancestors went to bed/sleep at the end of daylight. They rose from their sleep at the (onset) beginning of daylight. In the bottomless ocean of technology, artificial lighting everywhere (some cities so bright that you can no longer see the stars), staying up watching trash on television (the average person spends 11 hours a day staring at a screen, computer, cell phone, television, etc); everyone, even children, aren't getting enough sleep...enough "brain-rest."

            In order to catch more fish, the modern-day fisherman puts out several lines. My entire life, I have always pursued several jobs at the same time. After the Military, even after I was unable to see, I still pursued monetary reimbursement from several sources...writing, preparing buildings for rental, studying stock market investments, writing AND the editing in professional journals. No one person can any longer live on one income, most men require several jobs, and the mother of the home must also work. This is what "progress" has brought to a Nation, which at one time, was proud to have the father leave home with a lunch box (heading to work, knowing he was providing livelihood for his entire family. His children were raised by their mother, not by a social, welfare, or other type system. Yet, we wonder why children do not adhere to the spiritual values taught to them in their home by concerned parents, who know that their soul is the most important thing in their child's body. If your children are lost to Satan's "thrills," addictions, sexual promiscuity, atheism; then you have lost everything....forever.  

            The next line to which Satan wants every man and woman attracted, using every type lure (drugs, immodesty, flagrant use of language, and just dire lust...trying to catch all in his trap), the fatalism of concupiscence; the attraction that has brought down men and women from biblical times to the present. It is in the genome/DNA of every human being...perhaps the most deadly of all the cardinal sins...pride, anger, greed, gluttony, etc. The next line which we draw from the water is that consuming attitude of competition, with its accouterments of popularity and prosperity. The bookshelves are full of wonderful stories, detailing success brought on by networking, right clubs, right golfing courses, right Colleges, country clubs, and even right churches. Our willingness to sin to benefit ourselves, in a world of unbelief, a world of "keeping up with the Joneses," a world of future ease and coveted retirement, is concupiscence.  

            Even though we have all looked down in the casket of persons, who used every area concupiscence's...working sales, and people to their advantage...idols of prosperity, they still left this world with empty hands. The only line left in the water to draw up and evaluate, a line on which we seldom have anything on the "hook," the knowledge that we only have one life to live, and that every day of that life, from birth to the time of maturity, we are either one day closer to Heaven, or one day closer to Hell. No atheist, no unbeliever, no radical of any religious or other sect, can offer you an escape after death.

July 2019

July 2019

Lunch Box

“Our uniqueness makes us special, makes perception valuable - but it can also make us lonely. This loneliness is different from being 'alone': You can be lonely even surrounded by people. The feeling I'm talking about stems from the sense that we can never fully share the truth of who we are. I experienced this acutely at an early age.”

What the eye does not see, the heart will not grieve over. IF there is one thing I have attempted in my long life, to get across to young men whom I come in contact… Employees, visitors, of those met on speaking engagements, it is my desire to express to them that they are one of a kind: only one person with your appearance, your voice, the iris flex in your eyes, your fingerprints, the only person who has ever lived and will ever live who has your unique abilities. “You are special, designed by God” (Psalm 139). “AND, you only have one life to live, God chose you for a special purpose.”

I am blessed to remember the day when the father was important in the home. He knew his importance, when he left home with his lunch box, he knew that he was leaving behind the most important thing God would ever bless him with, a family. And, his wife and children knew and recognized his importance. He was honored as the head of the house, with his own special place, not only in their hearts but in their physical surroundings. His family honored his place at the table, his place in the sitting room, his place in making decisions about the home and family. How many times did I hear these words, as a child, “Let’s ask daddy.” Have you ever considered what it does to a father, the head of the home, the man who struggles with a job, and the risks involved, to hear a wife and children talk about their wants. My mother would say, when we were wanting things we could not afford, “Money does not grow on trees,” and, we saw how hard our mother and father worked. How well I remember, my mother going into the feed store and buying, with my father, sacks of animal feed which came in floral prints so she could use feed sacks to sew her own dresses and be able to buy store-bought dresses for my sister. Most men of my day, only had one suit, one pair of Sunday shoes, and, he was usually buried in that suit. I have not forgotten the day I sat in the “family car” with my cousin as we took his wife to the cemetery… Following the hearse which was carrying her casket. He said, “Look at my shoes, I purchased these shoes the day before she and I were married. I have worn them every Sunday since, ushering and doing other things at the church, and now, 45 years later, I’m wearing them to her grave.” Of course, unlike today’s boys, he knew how to polish a pair of shoes.

I am blessed to remember the day when fathers wanted their sons to act like men: to know how to do things, even small repairs, to sit next to a man at church so that he can learn to sing in a low voice. Have you ever considered what it does to the father of a son to have him pursue a career in dressmaking, hairdressing. What it does to a father to see his own son feminize, I have yet to hear a father brag about his son being homosexual. There was a time when boys fled the sound of the word, “faggot”. In the day of the gay agenda-same sex marriage-don’t ask-don’t tell-if it feels good do it-fairness and feeling, the fact of being different or indifferent simply does not bother the average young person.

I am blessed to remember the day when weddings were significant. The bride and her friends knowing the thrill of beautiful dresses. The father of the bride, knowing of presenting to a real man, a real woman. Males knew their blessed place in the nuptials… A man acting like a man, showing the love and protection of the one with whom he would share his life. Someone told me that you could always tell if a man loved his wife… Just one short, yet remarkable test. Watch when he comes up to his wife and a group of her friends or sisters. His eyes will always go to his wife first, he will not even be aware of the other’s presence.  

We live in days of entitlements. Any woman can just ask for anything, and the government is there to supply her need. Why should she have a man around to make repairs, help make decisions, help raise children, help give her the gravitas desire by most normal couples. In this make-believe world of NOW (National Organization for Women) when, according to Gloria Steinem, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”, can we even begin to understand the embarrassment, sensitivity, confusion, in the minds of young children.

Every drug has its side effects, when you get a prescription, a new bottle of pills, there is usually several pages of information telling you why you should not use them. No drug has as many side effects as psychiatric drugs… Such as Prozac. I am convinced that bipolar drugs have more lasting effect and deterioration of the body than a heart attack or stroke. Nothing creates more anxiety in the hearts of men and women then confusion about sex… The rearing of children in a healthy sex indoctrination. The qualms and quivers of observing deviance in members of your own family or associates. God knew what he was doing when he made man and woman with their own strengths and weaknesses. Satan always pays off in counterfeit… Exploits every weakness.

July 2019

God Bless America, land that I love; stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam, God Bless America, my Home Sweet Home.

Come Holy Spirit. Americans do not even begin to comprehend their blessings in not only being Americans but living in a nation founded by Christians. It is easy to trust when things go well but Americans and Christians have learned to trust when things DO NOT go well; the fortitude represented by their flag and the Bible.

In my lifetime our spines were tingled hearing Kate Smith sing "God Bless America"...this overweight woman with such a marvelous voice. Have you ever considered the number of people in the world who have never known 1 day of happiness? When you are in these dictator ruled, empty religion, idol worshipping countries (and I have been in most of them) you realize not only the joy of salvation but the beauty of a democratic republic. The word of God is like a diamond mine in South Africa, facets of precious stones reflecting everything good; the ultimate determination of what is genuine. The American Constitution stands out far above and beyond any other form of government the mind of man has comprehended. This is the reason that citizens will break their back to pay taxes voluntarily, raise their children to defend their nation.

Like the equator, mankind operates on either side of an imaginary line. We really cannot read the minds of many who do not agree with us about our faith or our patriotism. We must cut slack; their experiences, what baggage they carry around. In the Muslim countries, they only know what they were taught...schoolhouse/courthouse/their own house, by their own parents. Both C.S. Lewis and Friedrich Nietzsche have told us that Satan's ultimate plan, to enforce the illusion of pseudo-sophistication...that there is always someone coming up with a new plan/method/philosophy for the benefit of man. Satan always pays off in counterfeit...ask those drown by Noah's flood. Stalin or Maos, communist, philosopher, Herod/Nero/Caesars, all efforts to control the minds of men.

Americans will not purchase a pearl at a great price for such an illusion. All the pseudo-sophisticates can offer us is that illusion. The politicians have forgotten that God is in control. The progressives, the indifferent, the modernists, offer us, drink and be merry, "if it feels good, do it", but when you leave the bright lights of "happy hour" and you go home to the darkness of your bedroom the thought always comes to you "is this really all there is to it"? Truth is truth whether anyone believes it or not. In the genus homo-sapiens, the brain cannot accept non-truths whether in advertising, whether from the novelist pen or the movie makers sick mind, God has already incorporated into mankind, a soul; an entity that makes men different from the other animal or plant life. 75% of all animal life on earth is insect life, no soul, no value system. Most pseudo-sophisticates are only appreciated by other pseudo-sophisticates. The real Christian, the real patriot, understands the real values of God and country. Even Jesus, on that cruel cross, said, "they know not what they do". The people chose a robber instead of Him and till this day, many still choose a low-life instead of a Holy life.

The 126,000 of our finest defenders of our American way of life, buried on foreign soil, the millions buried in Arlington and in small family graveyards across this nation, believed in truth and justice. I don't believe you would have ever convinced most of them that a plurality of Americans would stand by and see 59 million innocent babies killed in an abortion holocaust. Those babies deserve justice too. You would never have convinced our early forefathers that the word of God and everything seen in the mind of man would allow people of the same sex marriage, allowed to adopt children; the culture of death, culture of no borders with anything, killings of one another at schoolhouses and church houses. I was in Europe for the 25th Anniversary of Normandy, saw the American cemeteries there. I stood in the Philippines in Manila and saw the graves of the 18,000 buried there. It would be hard to convince these fallen heroes or even those of us who have survived that a nation that has climbed so far up the ladder of success on every plain (education institutions, healthcare facilities, industrial might) could drop so far in our moral and religious values. 

There were 2 things my parents talked about as long as they lived. One was that powerful hurricane called Hazel which struck and destroyed the eastern coast of NC in 1954. The other as the 4th of July picnic which was held every year in the schoolyard at the wonderful 2 room schoolhouse, still standing, across the fields from my grandparent's house. My great aunt was the teacher at that school and died of the flu epidemic in 1918. Her brother, Army officer, member of Theodore Roosevelt's inner circle, died in the Spanish-American war about that time. The entire community came together at the school grounds for a big picnic. Motor vehicles were almost unheard of at that time. Another great uncle would take a team of mules and wagon into town and buy a large block of ice. The only time, during the entire year, they could have ice tea, milkshakes, ice cream. Even in my childhood, power lines were unknown. We used kerosene lamps for light in the house, gas lights for light at the church (I can still see cousin Realmon, standing on a pew, lighting those gaslights). Not only did they have a picnic but they played ball all day. Politicians would come by to this community festival. Everyone came, landowners, tenants, black, white, your status made no difference, they were all Americans...most Christian Americans. There were no police officers in the hallway of the school, no pornography in the school, no sex activity between teachers and pupils and they did not want to live under religious laws such as the Jews of the Old Testament but rather the freedom of choice; to live and learn/sink or swim/according to their own hard work, faith and belief system. They were faithers, action based on belief, sustained by confidence. They had well-placed faith in the future of this nation.

"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country". Nathan Hale (6 June 1755 – 22 September 1776)

July 2019

The Story of the Fourth of July

The Declaration of Independence

We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.

But July 4, 1776 wasn't the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776).

It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775).

And it wasn't the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn't happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776).

So what did happen on July 4, 1776?

The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They'd been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes.

July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.

In contrast, we celebrate Constitution Day on September 17th of each year, the anniversary of the date the Constitution was signed, not the anniversary of the date it was approved. If we’d followed this same approach for the Declaration of Independence we’d being celebrating Independence Day on August 2nd of each year, the day the Declaration of Independence was signed!

How did the Fourth of July become a national holiday?

For the first 15 or 20 years after the Declaration was written, people didn’t celebrate it much on any date. It was too new and too much else was happening in the young nation. By the 1790s, a time of bitter partisan conflicts, the Declaration had become controversial. One party, the Democratic-Republicans, admired Jefferson and the Declaration. But the other party, the Federalists, thought the Declaration was too French and too anti-British, which went against their current policies.

By 1817, John Adams complained in a letter that America seemed uninterested in its past. But that would soon change.

After the War of 1812, the Federalist party began to come apart and the new parties of the 1820s and 1830s all considered themselves inheritors of Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. Printed copies of the Declaration began to circulate again, all with the date July 4, 1776, listed at the top. The deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on July 4, 1826, may even have helped to promote the idea of July 4 as an important date to be celebrated.

Celebrations of the Fourth of July became more common as the years went on and in 1870, almost a hundred years after the Declaration was written, Congress first declared July 4 to be a national holiday as part of a bill to officially recognize several holidays, including Christmas. Further legislation about national holidays, including July 4, was passed in 1939 and 1941.

Hit the Reset Button

Hit the Reset Button

There is such honor in work, honest labor. There is such honor in the lunch bucket, Jesus never called anyone was not working. Andrew and his brother, Peter were busy with their fishing nets, James and John, sons of Zebedee, were busy mending fishing nets (remember John was the youngest disciple called, probably 17, outlived all the others, and died at 85 on the island of Patmos). Matthew was a despised tax collector, but he was busy. Luke, physician (all physicians were slaves). Others, all working, all busy. This old, blind, disabled veteran has so little use for those who just spend their lives in slothfulness, “Lazy-Boy recliner” mind on holidays and vacations.

Go to any government facility, Saturdays or holidays, and see how many overpaid workers are on the job. Schoolteachers complain about low pay, but never mention their months off during the year…. Every holiday… Teacher “workdays.” Post office, you get a job through political pull, and then you are “fixed” for life.

I so pity people who do not have memories, who can not remember gifts their hard-working, saving parents made arrangements for Santa to bring them at Christmas. My first Santa gift of remembrance, a tricycle, it was not cheap, a very nice one. I saw my mother work all day long in the fields, hot sun, to make one dollar. I saw my father stand on his feet all day long cutting hair for ten cents a head. When you have these memories, when you pause and reflect, then you have a better outlook on your “pull”, your “draw”, your divine calling to live a life of responsibility and integrity.

The Christian life is not complicated, just tough. The early church knew suffering, and it grew. Polycarp was burned at the stake for his belief, and the church grew. My ancestors who landed from the good ship, Kent on the shores of New Jersey endured hard times and hard weather, but they endured because they had the knowledge of God and the leadership of a holy spirit into a land of freedom. The thousands of real men and women who have gave all they had to give, knew the joy of salvation and the promise of eternal life. Also, they knew the splendor of work, they enjoyed their accomplishments, they did not believe in a “bellhop” God, one they could just call on when in trouble. Theirs was a living-breathing-sanctifying relationship with Jesus.