READING THE SCRIPTURES One of the best gloom chasers I
know of is... reading the scriptures. When we are disgruntled, down- hearted, or discouraged, the reading of the Scriptures lifts us up from the mire and gently places us down on solid ground. We especially enjoy these words of Paul which he wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians: "We are troubled on every side Yet not distressed, We are perplexed But not in despair, Persecuted But not forsaken, Cast down But not destroyed." (II Cor. 4:8) Today, we shall read the scriptures, and our spirits shall be uplifted. FOURTH OF JULY (1978) You may never visit Lexington
Where freedom's banner was unfurled Or see that trusty flintlock That fired the shot heard around the world Or visit Fort McHenry Near the town of Baltimore Where Sir Francis penned an anthem As he saw Old Glory soar Or travel down the Mighty Miss To the town of Cajun queens Where Andy Jackson stood his ground At the battle of New Orleans Or mosey down to South Caroline Where a bloody feud began That pitted brother against brother In Civil War throughout the land Or ever stand at Gettysburg Where so many fought and died And Lincoln spoke of unity From his conscience, deep inside Or stand on top of San Juan Hill Where Teddy grinned with pride And spoke of America's greatness To those Rough Riders by his side Or roam the woods of Argonne And hear liberty's bugle blow Where crosses rose like poppies In row after row after row Or feel the sands of Normandy And walk along its shore Where freedom made a landing In June of forty-four Or ever see Korea Where there's blood on every hill And many a mother's son Is gone and buried still Or ever fly to Vietnam That far flung distance land Where the odds were all against us But we dared to take a stand Now perhaps you will never visit These places we've spoken of But their legacy of courage Speaks of a land we dearly love A land whose beacons cast a light That shines from sea to sea A land I'm proud to boast about Its America, America for me PSALM 68:1,3,5,17,19,32,34Let God arise Let his enemies be scattered Let them also that hate him flee before him But let the righteous be glad Let them rejoice before God Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice A father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation The chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of angels The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits even the God of our salvation Selah Sing unto God ye kingdoms of the earth O, sing praised unto the Lord Selah Abscribe ye strength unto God His excellency is over Israel and his strength is in the clouds JUNE BUG "Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June." So wrote Al Berstein. Just as we began to write, we noticed right below our high intensity lamp... a June Bug. (At least we think it was a June Bug. Our bugology is not the greatest.) As we began writing, this shiny shelled friend of ours crawled up a stack of memo papers, meandered down the other side, stepped lively across our Thesaurus and finally disappeared over the side of our desk. Like most of us, June Bug appeared to be in a big hurry but did not seem to know where he wanted to go.We appreciate his short visit. He helped us to marvel at the immense variety of God's creatures. Hail and farewell, June Bug! |
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