589. Bill & Judy's 1st July 4th Podcast - July 4, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:15] Before this country, this beautiful country that you've given us, we thank you, Lord, that you've led and guided our forefathers, and that you are still leading and guiding us today.

[00:00:37] We ask for wisdom. We ask for wisdom for our leaders, for all those in authority, Lord that they would look to you and that people around them would give them wise counsel too.

[00:00:48] Forgive us, Father, for our sins as a country help us, Lord, to be on the right path, to follow you, and to listen to your voice so that our country is strong. And we just thank you for that. In Jesus' name, Amen.

[00:01:04] Today we are in Proverb 4, this is verse 1. Here my children, the instruction of a Father, and give attention to no understanding. For I give you good doctrine, do not forsake my law. When I was my father's son, tender and the only one in the sight of my mother.

[00:01:26] He also taught me and said to me, let your heart retain my words, keep my commands and live. Get wisdom, get understanding, do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

[00:01:41] Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom, and in all you're getting, get understanding.

[00:01:57] Exalted, and she will promote you. She will bring you honor when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace. A crown of glory, she will deliver to you.

[00:02:11] Here my son and receive my sayings, and the years of your life will be many. I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in right paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hindered. And when you run, you will not stumble.

[00:02:28] Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go. Keep her for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of evil, avoid it. Do not travel on it, turn away from it and pass on.

[00:02:47] For they do not sleep unless they have done evil, and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

[00:03:00] But the path of the just is like the shining sun that shines ever brighter until the perfect day.

[00:03:09] The way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble. My son give attention to my words, in cline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart.

[00:03:27] For they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence for out of its spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you.

[00:03:45] Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left. Remove your foot from evil.

[00:04:04] This is one of my favorite proverbs. It is just awesome. There's so much meat in this, but if you would just share with the audience which verse that you've enjoyed today. Well, I think it's appropriate to talk about to read this particular chapter in Proverbs.

[00:04:23] Verse 7 says, wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom. Well we know that wisdom comes from above that comes from God.

[00:04:32] Our human wisdom is not enough. We can think for smart. We can think we can do things for ourselves, but true wisdom is from God and we need the Holy Spirit to guide us.

[00:04:42] We need guidance in wisdom in what to do, what to say, how to go about governing. We need all those things. So I think this says a very appropriate chapter to read for Fourth of July.

[00:04:54] You know, I'm going to add a little bit to what you just said and I'm actually going to reread verses five through nine because I predicate this entire podcast on wisdom.

[00:05:07] The importance of wisdom and using wisdom in your everyday life. So let me just read these verses again.

[00:05:15] And I'd like for you to meditate on the words as I speak them. Get wisdom. Get understanding. Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her and she will preserve you.

[00:05:31] Love her and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom and in all you're getting get understanding.

[00:05:44] Exult her and she will promote you. She will bring you honor when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory. She will deliver to you.

[00:06:00] So, on this tells me the benefits of having wisdom and if you incorporate it into your life, blessings will be upon each of us. What are your thoughts on that? Well, God honors that he honored Solomon because Solomon said, that's what he wanted not riches.

[00:06:20] He didn't care about that or long life even. He asked for wisdom and God was pleased with that. You know, he really was and Judy is making reference to first kings chapter three.

[00:06:35] And for anyone listening today, if you're not familiar with that story, may I invite you to read the third chapter of first kings? And God was speaking directly with Solomon. Solomon had just become king of Israel.

[00:06:52] He didn't know what he was doing and he told God that. He said, I am basically but a child. I need help in running this country. One of the great stories of the entire Bible. But, on today we are celebrating our country.

[00:07:08] And this is the year 2024. It has been 248 years since this country was founded. And it was founded on the Declaration of Independence. And on that day, 56 signers signed that document and I know it's always thought that all 56 people signed on the 4th of July.

[00:07:33] If you look it up, that did not happen. But one of the most familiar signatures we always see is John Hancock's for some reason. He wrote in great big letters and everybody wrote around him. I've always kind of enjoyed that. Your thoughts on that?

[00:07:51] Well, I think he was making a statement. I don't think it was just that he had big handwriting but I think he was a leader. And he wanted to make sure that they knew that he was for this Declaration of Independence. He was a very wealthy man.

[00:08:08] He was. So, what I'd like to do is take this opportunity and have you share a little bit about any remembrance that you had growing up about the 4th of July. Please share with the audience some of your fondest memories.

[00:08:24] It was always just a fun time mostly doing sparklers out in the driveway. We didn't live in the country. We lived in a neighborhood. So we didn't do big fireworks, but always those sparklers and that was fun for us growing up as kids.

[00:08:39] And then we would go watch a firework show somewhere and that was really fun. I think one of my biggest memories though and not sure it happened on the 4th of July, but it did happen around the 4th of July.

[00:08:53] Was my dad would take me to go here, the Tulsa Philharmonic in the Skylights concerts. And we would we would go to a stadium, a Skelleys Stadium and we would sit there and we would listen to beautiful patriotic music.

[00:09:13] I remember stars of stripes forever. That was really a fun one. Of course, your grandal flag too. So those are just few of my memories and that's why I just I've always grown up loving patriotic music and just remembering the times I spent with my dad going to those concerts.

[00:09:30] Well, thanks for sharing on that so neat. And whenever I think about the American flag, I can't help think about when that American flag basically was just raised. And I'm thinking about the War of 1812 and of course, Francis Scott Key was the author of the Star Spangled Banner.

[00:09:52] And he was in the boat and he had this revelation at night and all of these everything was being bombed around him. And as he did that, he wrote the lyrics of this song and some of you may not know but that song didn't become our national anthem.

[00:10:10] I don't believe until 1931. So it took over a hundred years for that literally to be named our national anthem, we're all used to it. We're used to singing it.

[00:10:22] But I don't know, I just sit there and think during the War of 1812 this was when the British actually burned down the original White House.

[00:10:32] And some people may not know that, but they went around and destroyed a great deal of the city of Washington DC at that time.

[00:10:41] And because of Andrew Jackson, our seventh president, that turned the tide and he took over the battle in New Orleans and he ended up winning that later. And on to Washington and actually the Americans basically had to defeat the British a second time.

[00:11:00] And a lot of people don't know all the details but we basically fought the British twice.

[00:11:08] So what I'd like to do next is to answer a question that some of you probably don't think about very often, but I looked on the internet to find out why is the national anthem.

[00:11:22] And I know that that really doesn't have anything to do with July 4th, but the national anthem is our national anthem. So why is it sung at sporting events? So anyway, I looked this up and this is the article that I found.

[00:11:45] The instantly recognizable song is played before thousands of sporting events every year. But just how did the star-spangled banner come to be a staple of sports in the first place? The answer it turns out has to do with World War I.

[00:12:04] Baseball fans in the late 19th century might have heard live military bands play the star-spangled banner at a game every so often. But the song, which hadn't yet been designated as the national anthem, wasn't really a common occurrence at sporting events.

[00:12:23] That began to change on September 5th, 1918 during game one of the world series between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs.

[00:12:34] It was an era when the red sox still had Babe Ruth and the phrase the last time the Cubs won the World Series wasn't yet a joke. In fact, the two teams had won six of the last 15 World Championship titles.

[00:12:51] Yet even though the event featured two teams at the top of their games, the crowd was somber that day writes ESPN the magazine. Since entering the great war a year and a half ago more than 100,000 US soldiers had died.

[00:13:10] Yesterday before the game, a bomb had exploded in Chicago. The city in which the game was held, killing four people and entering dozens more. In addition to US government had recently announced that it would begin drafting major league baseball players.

[00:13:29] All this sat heavy on the shoulders of both the players and the smaller than usual crowd of fans that day. But during the seventh inning stretch, the US Navy band began to play the star-spangled banner and something changed.

[00:13:47] As the song began, Red Sox in fielder Fred Thomas, who was in the Navy and had been granted furlough to play in the World Series immediately turned toward the American flag and gave it a military salute according to the Chicago Tribune.

[00:14:07] Other players turned to the flag with hands over hearts and they already standing crowd began to sing. At the song's conclusion, the previously quiet fans erupted in thunderous applause. At the time, the New York Times reported that it marked the highest point of the days in enthusiasm.

[00:14:29] The song would be played at each of the series remaining games to increasingly rapture response and patriotism played a part right from the start as the Red Sox gave free tickets to wounded veterans and honored them during the playing of the star-spangled banner before the start of the decision.

[00:14:51] The start of the decisive game six. So just a little bit of history for you, hopefully you enjoyed that.

[00:14:59] But honey, if you would, what I'd like for you to do is go ahead and just give a few of your thoughts as we celebrate this special day and if you would close this in prayer.

[00:15:11] Well, I think that this is a special day and I hope everyone spends some time with your family and just saying a prayer to God. Thanking him for living in this country, this hand of protection and pray for our country that we will use wisdom going forward to.

[00:15:31] Thank you for this day again. Thank you for your many blessings. Thank you for our country. And Lord, just as a stay, we spend with special family and friends. Bless everyone. Bless them with health, safety on this holiday.

[00:15:48] And that Lord, that they would recall you and what you have done to make this country what it is. And we just want to offer you thanks today and we bless your name in Jesus name. Amen. Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:16:07] The Lord, make us feel shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Friends, please join me again tomorrow as we close out the week with wisdom.