Perpetual Decrees©

A Limerick A Day To Keep You On Your Way© 

The peace of July has a freeing delight.

Warmth and sunshine, let’s play, even into night.

Sand on the beach,

Oh shoreline teach,

Perpetual decrees of my Maker’s might.

Jeremiah 5:22 Living Bible (TLB)

²² have you no respect at all for me? the Lord God asks. How can it be that you don’t even tremble in my presence? I set the shorelines of the world by perpetual decrees, so that the oceans, though they toss and roar, can never pass those bounds. Isn’t such a God to be feared and worshiped?

JULY

July is was that kind of month.  As a teen it made me feel I could unwind.  Adulthood didn’t change it even though it meant a 40 hour work week and raising two daughters. There was something that always shifted in my thinking.  Beach. Fireworks. Warm night breezes.

It is amazing to watch the unfolding of childhood experiences shape your adult decisions.  My mother never drove on the highway out of fear. Couple that with my father’s introverted personality and sensitive skin burning badly without shade meant our trips to the beach were very special occasions. On those special occasions, my father had a system for packing all the gear in the trunk.  With seven kids you needed a system.  He was methodical in packing the food.  I still have a picture in my head of our huge red metal coca cola cooler and dad sitting underneath the tarp in the shade.  

My mother loved the beach. So did her five sisters. They were not afraid of the highway.  If not for them I don’t think my brothers and sisters would have as many great memories of summer beach excursions.  Thankfully I didn’t fear the highway and when it was time to take my children to the beach we visited a lot.  Summers are very short here in New England and trips to the beach were always fun.  Now my children grown with their kids do the same.  Except for the year 2020…

The year the fear swept over the world like Stephen King’s Fog.  Fear is the worst and best kind of warfare to control people.  America conquered the fear of tyranny from England in 1776.  And again with the war of 1812.  This Nation has always defined her love for liberty and freedom with brave men and women. Both wars proved we would not be conquered by Britain’s need to control. Let us rise again from tyranny.

Now in 2021, our present government administration has surely forgotten the reason The Constitution was written.  We are a country of liberty and freedom.  But to use that freedom for evil will eventually fail.  For the government to decide how you celebrate freedom is an act of tyranny.  To hide behind a political scheme for control by inflicting so much fear of death and sickness by the Wuhan Virus is an evil that will not go unpunished.  Never think for one minute a Holy God is not well aware of all things that happen on Earth.   Through constant propaganda from mainstream media, many have succumbed to believe if you are not covid vaccinated you are the enemy. But the enemy is fear. 

Back to July. I am remembering to unwind!  Yes,  Fireworks.  I only recall this one time being at the fireworks with my parents.  I think I was around 6. I remember there was some sort of pinwheel sparkler that lit up red, white, and blue and said July 4^th.  I felt cheated that my parents would not take us every year to see them.  Maybe it was because there were seven kids and it was more of a hassle to load us in the car.  Maybe back then it involved driving on the highway.  I just know it was a sad feeling not being able to go every year.  My friends would talk about seeing them with their families and just like the beach I told myself when I have a family I want to see them every July 4^th.  

I was so happy my neighbor did a wonderful display last year.  Imagine you live in America where hundreds can gather to protest but fireworks get cancelled.  This year though I witnessed people be reminded listening to the National Anthem play their love for freedom.  Freedom is not free, it is bought with blood.  Jesus also bought our freedom with his blood.  Jesus is no respecter of persons.  HE died for all.  In HIM we are one.  HE doesn’t see skin color, race, age, affluence, sex, residence, and whatever else man uses to divide people.   HE does see your heart.  Nothing is hidden from God.  Mark 4:22 (Amplified Bible)  22 tells us, “For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been kept secret, but that it would come to light [that is, things are hidden only temporarily, until the appropriate time comes for them to be known].” 

 When scripture says in Proverbs 9:10 (KJV), “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”, this fear is reverence.  That is the fear we all need.  That fear will bring true freedom. That fear comes over me when I witness the beauty and sound of fireworks because it reminds that America is the land of the free and the brave.  I decree America will always be free.

Pray this prayer with me.

Lord, help me understand what freedom is. Reveal all You did to buy my freedom from sin and eternal damnation.  Fill me with Your truth to love You, my country, and my fellowman.  In Jesus Name we ask.  Amen.

Written by Paula Ann Kochanek

All rights copyrighted. 

The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key (Sept. 14, 1814)

O 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 through the perilous fight

O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through 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 through 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 in 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 footstep’s 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 home and the war’s desolation!

Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land

Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it 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.