FLAG robert-linder-fcFEnjBmm14-unsplash “O LORD, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.”[1] LORD God, here we are again, boldly entering Your presence on behalf of our beloved America. This “shining city upon a hill,” as President Reagan called her in his January 11, 1989, farewell address, today is greatly dimmed. You, my LORD, know President Reagan took this phrase f

FLAG robert-linder-fcFEnjBmm14-unsplash Help us, LORD. Help us to hold on to the Democratic Republic of the United States of America—this land You gave us all those years ago. Help us to remember the former things: The wars that were fought, the men who died, first to make this country free, and then to keep it free and preserve our ONE Nation under God. We look to You for salvation—both physically and spiritually—for You are God, and there is no other.[1] There is none like

FLAG robert-linder-fcFEnjBmm14-unsplash Almost fifty years ago now, my daughter and I took part in America’s 200th Birthday with our church at the time, St. Jacob’s United Church of Christ. Lorrie was only eleven months old and not walking. So, when we marched in Salem, Ohio’s parade down State Street, you guessed it, I carried her the whole way. But at age 23, that wasn’t a problem for me. Lorrie and I sported matching 1776 dresses and bonnets I had made, which remain hang