It’s time once again for a quick word from my cousin (actually, he’s my wife’s cousin, but I’ve claimed him as mine, too. I’m cool like that.)

While watching a little TV on Sunday instead of going to church, I watched a Church in Atlanta honoring one of its senior pastors who had been retired many years. He was 92 at that time and I wondered why the Church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at that age.

After a warm welcome, introduction of this speaker, and as the applause quieted down he rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding gait to the podium. Without a note or written paper of any kind he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly he began to speak….

“When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson ever learned in my 50 odd years of preaching. I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heart break and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me… The only thing that would comfort was this verse………

‘Jesus loves me this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong,
We are weak but He is strong…..
Yes, Jesus loves me…
The Bible tells me so.'”

When he finished, the church was quiet. You actually could hear his foot steps as he shuffled back to his chair. I don’t believe I will ever forget it.

A pastor once stated, “I always noticed that it was the adults who chose the children’s hymn ‘Jesus Loves Me’ (for the children of course) during a hymn sing, and it was the adults who sang the loudest because I could see they knew it the best.”

Here is a new version just for us who have white hair or no hair at all. For those of us over middle age (or even those almost there) and all you others, check out the “Senior Version” of Jesus Loves Me:

JESUS LOVES ME

Jesus loves me, this I know,
Though my hair is white as snow
Though my sight is growing dim,
Still He bids me trust in Him.

(CHORUS)
YES, JESUS LOVES ME.. YES, JESUS LOVES ME..
YES, JESUS LOVES ME FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.

Though my steps are oh, so slow,
With my hand in His I’ll go
On through life, let come what may,
He’ll be there to lead the way.

(CHORUS)

When the nights are dark and long,
In my heart He puts a song.
Telling me in words so clear,
‘Have no fear, for I am near.’

(CHORUS)

When my work on earth is done,
And life’s victories have been won.
He will take me home above,
Then I’ll understand His love

(CHORUS)

I love Jesus, does He know?
Have I ever told Him so?
Jesus loves to hear me say,
That I love Him every day.

(CHORUS)

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, Time, Inc. is a bunch of weasels, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Back in the day (younger readers will refer to this era as “pre-history”) when Marines were Marines and Sailors were afraid to talk to them, yes, back when I served, there was a competition of sorts between the branches of the services. That is to say, each one was sure that the others were mere poseurs, wimps, wanna-bes and wash-outs. I served on several posts where there were multiple services (Presidio of Monterey, for one) and it was quite plain to the eye that the differences between the services were deeply ingrained and would never change. (although, given the choice, I would avail myself of the dining facilities of the Navy and the E-clubs of the Air Force as often as possible)

Something seems to have changed over the years. Looking back through several years of memories, it seems that more and more often whenever I come across a veteran, the difference in branch of service just got less and less important. Not less important to the individual, but less important than the fact that the individual had served this country.

I used to only want to talk to Marine vets. Oh, how many personal histories did I dismiss as “not important” because the speaker was not a Marine? I have learned through trial and trouble, time and temerity, that all service histories, taken together, are what makes up the fabric of the Armed Forces as a whole.

Now, I see every veteran as a brother or sister in arms, a comrade with whom I would share my last dollar or fire my last shot to protect. Marine, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, or any of the reserve components, have my undying respect and gratitude for their service.

Some might see this as a sign of weakness; other will recognize growth and maturity when they read this. I prefer to think of it as finally realizing that without any of the services, it would be pretty darned tough to have gotten as far as we did as a country.

Although I give my Navy friends grief, they know that I respect them for their service. The same goes for others I have contact with. I may kid and rib, but underneath it all is the basic love for the fellow fighter, the bond that is forged in service for a common goal. We all served this country, in a capacity we thought we were best suited for. The end result is the important thing – freedom still rings.

I’ve said all that to introduce what I’ve been trying to work into a post since I received it almost two and a half weeks ago. The writer is not a Marine (although I think he would have made a good one), and if he had tried to have this conversation with me while we were serving I would have dismissed it and him as irrelevant, since he wasn’t a Marine. A Navy veteran and friend of mine, Gawfer, popped the following piece to me during The O Word on July 11, 2008. I was going to write a post around it, and I have tried (and failed) to expound and expand on the basic idea in this bit of writing, and have gotten nowhere. The original words are the most powerful, and anything I could do to explain it would be an utter failure:

Whether the founders followed the Christian faith or not, they understood that Biblical values formed the basis of the not only the republic but English Law, and that the republic would be destroyed if the people’s knowledge of those values should ever be lost.

This brings me to the head of the spear, so to speak. Understanding that our constitution is man’s interpretation of God’s divine law, one must assume that at times the constitution will fall short of providing adequate solutions to humanistic transgressions. When this occurs, such as the recent ruling against capital punishment extending beyond murder, and the California Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn the vote of the people regarding gay marriage, the solution is not to interject one’s opinion or to seek a populous consensus as was done in both cases, but to go to the source of our constitution; divine law.

Because secularism has pervaded our society and our nation has become mostly agnostic, our appointed judges are ruling based on a popular opinion rather than using fundamental principles of interpretation. It is very clear that in both cases, the decisions would have been exactly opposite had they adhered to the basic truths and applied biblical principles to each case. Thankfully, we are still ‘One Nation, Under God’; but that is slowly slipping away.

So, there you have it. Time and age have taken the age off of the animosity between branches of service, but at the same time it has forged a stronger bond between like-minded people. As I mentioned in a comment, when BZ urged me to keep on keeping on, if we don’t all “keep on” there won’t be anything worth keeping.

I just re-read this entry, before posting it. I realize it’s a bit of a mind-bender, and it doesn’t really flow as cleanly as it should, but I’m going to leave it up. After all, it is Monday, and this is the result of several themes that have been roiling around in my head all weekend. Have fun keening the depths of my mind.

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, Time, Inc. is a bunch of weasels, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Be sure to stop over and listen to (and rate!) the archive of today’s The O Word.

Do you have red on today?

***(confidential note to all the members of the Armed Forces: thank you.)***

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, Time, Inc. is a bunch of weasels, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

WordPress wants me to update to version 2.6. Anyone out there done the update yet? Anything I should look out for?

Kathi and Tony went to Arlington for the first time, and they have a slide show up and running of the pictures that Tony took. Well worth the look-see. Kathi also gives a shout out for the Run for the Fallen, going on now.

Brother Johnny T. Helms expounds on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s insistence that islam be included in an interfaith council on religious tolerance with a link to an article explaining the exact opposite should happen on Our Sovereign Joy.

Akinoluna has an observation about death and leave in the Marine Corps.

Richard’s latest entry is on a mother and juvenile Red-bellied Woodpecker. Beautiful photography. Did I mention that Richard is responsible for some of the header photos on this blog?

GuyK is his usual, Charming self today – slow start, but then he gets up a head of steam…

Over on Blackfive is photographic proof of troops purposely mimicking the locals in Iraq. Scandalous, I say!

Samantha (aka Hana Matsushita) continues her love letter to/about/for the 24^th MEU in Afghanistan.

The Rogue has a few straight-talking words about Jamie Gorelick. (Don’t know the name? Do a little digging, and find out why Rogue believes she ought to be sitting in the cell next to the Enron folks…) Also check out his essay on Naval ships named after Commanders in Chief…

Texas Fred is his usual fun-loving, rose-colored glasses self today. His entry on raising award-winning pansies is excellent. (just kidding, Fred – don’t change a thing!)

A new addition to my blogroll, Andrew Tallman, is a local radio show host. His show is on 1360 KPXQ in Phoenix, Arizona from 5 to 7 pm daily.

Over on The Old Right Daily is Regular Ron’s viewpoint on the World Court’s declaration that the US should delay the execution of five Mexican nationals held in a Texas Jail. Good reading.

The cookie crumb express has information and a link regarding this year’s Milblogging Conference in Las Vegas.

Oddly enough, over on Take a Stand Against Liberals, Jenn points out the hypocrisy and goofiness of the left. Go figure.

SoCalOilMan’s company is being purchased. Will he have a job? Will he be moving soon? If he moves, will he tell his wife, who is in Montana for three months? Stay tuned…

Today we have BZ’s take on the economy. Be sure to scroll down and check out some pictures he found through his exhaustive research…

Gawfer has a few points on this season’s campaign.

Doug has news about the talks in Israel over on Political Pistachio.

Old Soldier’s latest entry is all wet.

Ablur points to an article that shows that all this cleaning up of the pollution and being green has actually lead to a warming trend… on Some Things Just Need To Be Said.

Third Wave Dave has a video posted that answers the question “How did we get to this point?” Good commentary by Judge Napolitano on how the government is breaking it’s own laws with the “not a bailout” of Fannie and Freddie.

Improv Everywhere pulled off a mirror stunt. Only in New York.

I couldn’t access American and Proud of It – I hope that’s not because of WordPress 2.6!

Greybeard has some “recycling” news on Pitchpull.

Amboy Times has news from the Philippines in regards to how appeasement is working out for them. Don’t forget to scroll down a bit so you can be pointed to Blogrolling. I do apologize if you didn’t get mentioned.

A quick side note – my bass guitar developed a nasty little buzz last night, just before service. I need to figure out what went wrong before I can use it again. Meantime, I used the church’s bass. I wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with it, as I started out on that one, but still…

Thank you for stopping by, In God We Trust, God bless you all, Time, Inc. is a bunch of weasels, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

I would like to extend a big “THANK YOU” to all who have communicated their support and encouragement. I will keep you posted.

I thought today would be a good day to urge you all to make a difference. Somewhere. Anywhere. I’ve got a few suggestions:

GiGi, from the DFW area, e-mailed this little tid-bit:

Let’s go POSTAL!!!! Payback is fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You may have heard in the news that a couple of Post Offices in Texas have been forced to take down small posters that say ‘IN GOD WE TRUST.’

The law, they say, is being violated.

Anyway, we heard proposed on a radio station show, that we should all write ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ on the back of all our mail. After all, that’s our National Motto, and it’s on all the money we use to buy stamps.

We think it’s a wonderful idea. We think it’s such a good idea that we think you should write it on the FRONT of the envelope, too!

We must take back our nation from all the people who think that anything that offends them should be removed. If you like this idea, please pass it on and DO IT. The idea of writing or stamping ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ on our envelopes sounds good to us. Some people are having stamps made, others are adding it to their e-mail signatures.

It’s been reported that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, we have a very hard time understanding why there’s such a mess about having ‘In God We Trust’ on our money and having God in the pledge of Allegiance. Could it be that WE just need to take action and tell the 14% to ‘sit down and shut up’?

This does not require you to do anything – but not doing anything is one reason why this country is in the mess we’re in now. Don’t sit back and let it happen anymore!

IN GOD WE TRUST

I’ve added it to my e-mail signature block. After that, head over to Free Rice to do two things – test and build your vocabulary skills, and build up grains of rice (20 for every correct word) to be sent to areas needing food staples. In most cases, the sponsoring partner will purchase the rice locally to where it is being provided, to offer a double benefit. (I spent five minutes on the site and sent 2500 grains out. My best level to date is 43 [out of 60], what’s yours?) Do not go there during work hours – it is rather addictive.

Third on the list is a little something from a friend of mine. Something to think about, when someone tries to tell you that this country was not founded on Christian values:

Whether the founders followed the Christian faith or not, they understood that Biblical values formed the basis of the not only the republic but English Law, and that the republic would be destroyed if the people’s knowledge of those values should ever be lost.

This brings me to the head of the spear, so to speak. Understanding that our constitution is man’s interpretation of God’s divine law, one must assume that at times the constitution will fall short of providing adequate solutions to humanistic transgressions. When this occurs, such as the recent ruling against capital punishment extending beyond murder, and the California Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn the vote of the people regarding gay marriage, the solution is not to interject one’s opinion or to seek a populous consensus as was done in both cases, but to go to the source of our constitution; divine law.

Because secularism has pervaded our society and our nation has become mostly agnostic, our appointed judges are ruling based on a popular opinion rather than using fundamental principles of interpretation. It is very clear that in both cases, the decisions would have been exactly opposite had they adhered to the basic truths and applied biblical principles to each case. Thankfully, we are still ‘One Nation, Under God’; but that is slowly slipping away.

Hope you all have a great couple of days. Remember I won’t be around tomorrow, since TMBWitW will be working from home and I will not have access to the computer. Unless, of course, one of you wants to send me a laptop, then I can be on line all the time…

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Time, Inc. is a bunch of weasels, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!