Monthly Archives: May 2015

Devotions

The Star Spangled Banner

IF, My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (II Chronicles 7:14)

People are challenging other people to put a Flag up in their yards.

Joe and I have always had a flag up at our home.

We believe in what it stands for and the price our soldiers paid in battle so we can have the Freedom to let Ole Glory wave high above our nation.

Please remember if you put a real flag up in your yard,  that at night it should always have a light shining on the flag.

Below is a little information about the The Star Spangled Banner the U.S. National Anthem in 1931, that was written about the American Flag, and the words to the complete song. You can also listen to the song.

The Star Spangled Banner
In 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote the poem, Defense of Fort McHenry. The poem was later put to the tune of (John Stafford Smith’s song) The Anacreontic Song, modified somewhat, and retitled The Star Spangled Banner. Congress proclaimed The Star Spangled Banner the U.S. National Anthem in 1931.

Inspired Cause Behind The Star Spangled Banner
It all started for Francis Scott Key when one of his real good affiliates – Doctor William Beanes – was taken by the British Navy as a prisoner of war after he was charged with aiding the authorities from the other side in the capture of British combatants. Aboard on a truce mission, Francis Scott Key was accompanied by John Stuart Skinner to head the expedition pertaining to an exchange of POWs i.e. Prisoners of War. As they sailed their way towards the British naval forces carrying a white truce flag, both Key & Skinner were hosted to dinner by Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane & Maj. Gen. Robert Ross. The four men had dinner and the two British officers talked about their war plans.

The Misfortune
Unfortunately, since Skinner & Key had heard the two British officers talking about their plans with regards to the attack they intended to launch on Baltimore, they were detained as captives till after the Baltimore skirmish. As the night grew darker and the thunder of the bombardment grew louder, Francis Scott Key had no way to find out what the outcome of the battle had been. As he woke up in the morning and his eyes witnessed the American flag soaring high in the air on top of the fort, he could not contain his happiness at the sight of American triumph and inked The Star Spangled Banner – referring to the American flag he saw – on the back side of a letter he found in his pocket.

OH, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro’ the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov’d homes and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Listen to The Star Spangled Banner.