LET US NEVER DENY OUR GOD!

        Yesterday while watching my Rockies baseball team snatch yet another win from the jaws of defeat, I was glad to see they also televised fans singing ”God Bless America”. Had composer Irving Berlin known his little song would be so used today, he would have been proud and perhaps surprised.
        Berlin wrote this brief patriotic song in 1918 during World War I while serving in the Army at Camp Upton, New York. Writing it as part of a musical revue, the Broadway composer set it aside as being inappropriate with the rest of the music.
        Later, before World War II and during the rise of Adolf Hitler, Jewish composer Berlin felt it was time the nation heard his song. It was first sung publicly on November 11, 1938, by Kate Smith on her popular radio show. It became Smith’s signature song for the rest of her career.
        Part of its popularity rests in the fact that "God Bless America" is a prayer for God's blessing and peace for our nation. Few today know it includes words often spoken at the beginning which still have a message for us today:
        “While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
        Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free.
        Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
        As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.”
Then come the words we know almost as well as our National Anthem:
        “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.”
        God’s Word tells us, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for His inheritance.” (Psalm 33:12) Those words should prompt us never to neglect, deny or trivialize the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Creator of heaven and earth.
        Unwisely, Americans today are being shaped by policies that exclude God from public utterance. How foolish to do this! The blessings heaped upon the United States of America should prove He has chosen us for His inheritance, at least for now. But it is doubtful those blessings will continue if we choose a fatal path to remove and even ban the name of God among us.
        On this Memorial Day let us remember those who have given their lives in defense of our freedom. Let us give thanks to God for His blessings delivered by fallen heroes of the past. And last but not least, let us also renew our efforts to insure God is given the place of worship and honor He deserves. Then perhaps, it might continue to be said of us:

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”

Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com