A Little Behind

Well, I forgot about this blog being up here and well, I need to post something a little more often than what I have done so far. So for the time being, till I get an actual article to post this is it. Don't you love it.

July 2009 Post - Happy Independence Day!

Here we are just celebrating our countries 233rd birthday - "Happy Independence Day".

We as a nation have been blessed by God in so many ways. The freedoms we enjoy were hard fought for by our founding fathers at the founding of our nation and still today we seem to have to continue to "fight" to keep those freedoms that are so dear to us. I'm not discounting our Marines, Soldiers and Sailors who currently watch over and fight for us. Our current leadership seems to have forgotten Who gave us those freedoms we hold so dear -- God Himself. Calling our nation a "muslim nation", when our nation is far from that. It Is A Nation founded upon Christian values. I still call our nation a Christian nation because of this, even though we have gone far from being a Christian nation. There are those who would disagree with me, but that is okay because we are a free nation with the freedom to disagree respectfully.

Of course, you may be wondering, Isn't this a musicians website. To answer that -- Yes, A Patriotic and Christian Musician. I can say that because:

1. I am a citizen of this Great Nation, one born here in the USA with a real birth certificate to prove it.
2. I served my country as a Marine in the United States Marine Corps and since there aren't any ex-marines, that means I'm still a Marine.
   
3. I am a citizen of Heaven, adopted by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
4. I am serving God as a Music Director at a small Bible Believing Church

So how does this all tie together. I believe we should look at the hymns that have been written dealing with patriotism and God.

• National Anthem - "The Star Spangled Banner". Written by Francis Scott Key aboard a British military ship. In the second verse he writes, "Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!"
• "America, the Beautiful" - Written by Katharine Lee Bates while atop Pikes Peak, CO. Katherine references God as she writes, "America! America! God shed His grace on thee"; "God mend thine every flaw"; "May God thy gold refine", and again "God shed His grace on thee".
  
• "Battle Hymn of the Republic" - Written by Julia Ward Howe. Verse after verse refers to God and how He had his hand on this country from its start and how He was in control of the battles of the time.
• "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" - Written by Samuel F. Smith. The last verse discusses how our founding fathers put their trust in God and His role in the founding of our great nation. It also ends with "Great God, our King!" My how we have strayed so far from this.
• "God of Our Fathers" - Written by Daniel C. Roberts. The whole song talks about God and his leadership in the lives of our forefathers.
  

There are many other songs and hymns that discuss the founding of our nation and God's hand in that founding. But for now this should suffice.

Our nation as a whole needs to come back to God and needs to regain the patriotism it once had. Just a few years back, we had a tragedy that struck our nation and many people became very "patriotic" and very "religious" for a while. Now the tragedy of 9/11 has all but faded away and the patriotism and return to God has done the same. Maybe God is trying to tell us something by having the current administration in office.

We need Change, but not the current Change that is going on right now. Now is the time for Real Change - A Change back to God and a Change back to the Patriotism of our Founding Fathers. If our founding fathers had not wanted a change, we would not be a nation now. The big difference between their change and the current change is they trusted God for the change. They did not trust in themselves to change our fledgling nation as our current administration's philosophy is, they trusted in God to bring about the change needed to start our nation. That is the Change we need.

Just Getting Started

First Blog - Wow. As I figure out how this works I will post more.
Thank you.