Red Cannon Fire and a White Petticoat

By Brenda Black

Continental Army Private Joseph Martin recorded an interesting scene in his journal for June 28, 1778. Author Esther Pavao repeats his words in an article published by Revolutionary-War.net.

“A woman whose husband belonged to the artillery and who was then attached to a piece in the engagement, attended with her husband at the piece for the whole time. While in the act of reaching a cartridge and having one of her feet as far before the other as she could step, a cannon shot from the enemy passed directly between her legs without doing any other damage than carrying away all the lower part of her petticoat. Looking at it with apparent unconcern, she observed that it was lucky it did not pass a little higher, for in that case it might have carried away something else, and continued her occupation.”

Meet Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, better known in history books as "Molly Pitcher." She gained the title that late June day at the Battle of Monmouth where Mary Hays carried water from a spring to the thirsty soldiers under heavy fire from the British. All through the day, amid choking smoke, groaning troops and frightening battle, the private's young wife carried water in a pitcher back and forth to her husband and his fellow artillery gunners. When her husband collapsed from either heat stroke or injury and was carried off the battlefield, Mary Hays took his place at his cannon.

It was not uncommon for women to be near the heat of battle. Many wives of enlisted men joined a group of camp followers led by Martha Washington. They took care of the troops, washed clothes, made food, and helped care for the sick or injured soldiers. But Mary's bravery and composure with fire-hot cannons blazing, earned her a special thanks from General George Washington. And a hundred years later, a marker graces her grave, commemorating her exemplary service.

Young Mrs. Hays knew in her early 20's what it takes a lifetime for most to comprehend. Love, loyalty and a level head can keep you going when war rages all around. Mary surely loved the man she married to take such risks and to have been so frequently near him in battle that she knew how to operate his weapon. Her devotion to her husband mirrored that of her unfettered care for all of her patriot brothers. What an amazing young woman! Add to her qualities wit and wisdom so ingrained that not even a cannon ball could knock her off her game.

Though Mary was motivated by love, mobilized by loyalty and empowered with level-headed thinking, there had to be another big “L” present in that trench 235 years ago. The credit for Mary's petticoat junction with a cannon ball has to go to the Lord Himself! Together, I'd say that cool blue water, red hot determination and pure white God protection kept the military bride and a host of young patriots alive for another day.

This holiday weekend, when you hear the tummy-rumbling bang of fireworks, think back to a day when a young woman faced the enemy fearlessly and helped make it possible for you to enjoy such entertainment in freedom. Never forget how great the bravery of those who fought for liberty. Always remember that certain battles are worth the risk and to take arms for the cause of others is a noble task. And one more thing: Thank God for all your “near misses.” For most certainly, the Lord has spared you time and again from the fire of the enemy.

http://monmouthchapternjssar.org/Main-Molly-Pitcher.html

 “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” (Proverbs 29:25)

Loyalty, Stupidity, Mercy and Destiny

By Brenda Black

If Hollywood ever gets ahold of this story, they'll have a movie blockbuster. The plot pits once dear friends against one another in a struggle for power and fame, interlaced with noble loyalty and insanity. The hero waffles from righteous actions to foolish decisions, while the arch rival breaks his own kingdom's laws to call on a witch to conjure up the dead. There are battle scenes and village burnings, pillaging and kidnappings. Ultimately, an entire family is wiped out in one day with the head of the clan committing suicide.

Though it sounds like a modern day version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth or a hodge-podge of headlines from today's press, this story is an historic account of Saul, King of Israel, and David, the one who would take his seat on the throne. By chapter 26 in the book of 1 Samuel, Saul is in hot pursuit of his nemesis, David. But David is still denying any wrong doing and proving his loyalty genuine with clever acts of bravery as evidenced in verses 9-11 when David could have easily snuffed out his opponent.

“But David said to Abishai, 'Don't destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? As surely as the Lord lives,' he said, 'the Lord himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord's anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let's go.'”

David had the means and the opportunity. He had just cause, but he didn't take justice into his own hands. Though wronged, he chose to do right – not because Saul was so deserving of such grace, but David knew that Jehovah God is the author and finisher of life. Loyalty to His Lord kept David from sin. Next time someone stabs you in the back, think of this scene. Play it over in your mind and pray for God to help you walk away with clean hands.

So, how does one so noble in his actions, suddenly become so foolish? David was human. He stopped listening to God's wisdom and took his own advice. That was a big mistake. “But David thought to himself, 'One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines...” (1 Samuel 27:1) Famous last words before falling into the land of stupidity. David followed his inkling without seeking the Lord and it cost him his family, a city and the respect of his community. He lied his way throughout the land of the enemies of Israel and pledged allegiance to a pagan king. His band of faithful followers were pushed to the point of stoning him in grief and anger. What a mess the merciful David had gotten himself into!

At the same time, Saul was also caught up in a state of stupidity as he sought the counsel of a witch and asked her to beckon Samuel for advice from the dead! You can read about that in chapter 28. When trust in the Lord waivers, humans reveal how truly desperate and pathetic we are on our own. I'm not accusing. I'm confessing. As a fellow human to these men of old, how often I have followed the beat of my own foolish thoughts rather than practiced obedience to the counsel of the Living God. The results have been futile at best, disastrous at times.

Samuel, in his ghostly state, delivered the indictment to Saul: “'Why do you consult me now that the Lord has turned away from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done what he predicted through me. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors – to David. Because you did not obey the Lord...'” (1 Sam. 28:16-18a)

God was merciful toward David. He led him to the camp of the raiders who had kidnapped his family along with all those belonging to his army. In pure “I Am the Almighty” fashion, God used a sick and abused Egyptian slave as his instrument of victory for David's army. I wonder if David saw himself in that desperate man who was left to die in the desert. Did David piece together the miraculous work of a God who would use the “least of these” as a spy for His glory? I wonder if it dawned on him that slavery to sin is a deadly option.

Speaking of death – the angel there of vanquished all of Saul's family at the hands of the Philistines during battle, just as David had predicted. No man took “the anointed” one's life. In fact, he fell upon his own spear to finalize the critical wounds Philistine archers had inflicted upon him.

One man rose to take the thrown while the other one fell to the ground. Each reached their destiny. David would live many more years (read 2 Samuel and 1 Kings) to capture the praise of people and the blessings of God. But he never quite got over that human condition that also caused him to stumble on occasion. He was loyal at times, stupid at times, merciful at times. And God was always supremely in charge – just like He is in our lives.

copyright 2012 The Word's Out - Brenda Black

Trust is a Must

By Brenda Black

“In God We Trust” is not just a motto. It's a mindset. It's an action. Over 97% of the House thought voting on a resolution Tuesday reaffirming the statement as the official motto of the United States was important. But unless that motto becomes more than just words engraved on government buildings, their resolution is nothing but worthless lip service to a Holy God that deserves complete obedience and longs for sincere relationship. We better heed the words of God himself, recorded in Numbers 20:12. “But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 'Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.'”

Trust is defined as 1. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence. 2. confident expectation of something; hope. 3. confidence in …

TV host Brian Tracy says “The glue that holds all relationships together - including the relationship between the leader and the led is trust, and trust is based on integrity.”

Lip service or lives of service? Indifference or integrity? What will your motto be? And where will the United States be if we don't rely on the strength, ability and surety of God Almighty? We're toast without His blessing! Said another way, Rep. Trent Franks declared during the 35-minute floor debate over the motto that if the House doesn't believe in God, then “we should just let anarchy prevail because, after all, we are just worm food.”

Indeed we are made of dust and to dust we shall return, but in the mean time, we represent a King here on earth and our duties demand loyalty and love.

“The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates...Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lord you God, who is among you, is a jealous god and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. Do not test the Lord your God...Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. Do what is right and good in the Lord's sight, so that it may go well with you...The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.” (Deuteronomy 6 selected)

Though we are but a vapor, God has made us eternal. What we do in our breath of life matters forever. I'd rather go down on the side of the Lord than go down in history as one of His enemies. I don't want to be the generation that invited God's wrath on America! I don't want to be counted among the foolish and impetuous people that thumb their nose at a Holy God and tell Him, “We don't need you anymore; we can do this on our own.”

Praise the Lord, He works through remnants – sometimes they number 395. Sometimes they amount to only one. And I, as one, want to stand with those who will trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding. I will in all my ways acknowledge Him so that He will make my paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6). That's my motto and I'm sticking to it!

I will love the Lord with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my strength and with all my mind (Luke 10:27). That's my mindset and I'm thinking it!

In God I trust! That's my action and I'm living it!

True Test of Loyalty

True Test of Loyalty
By Brenda Black

One thing that ends a friendship the quickest in my book is disloyalty. My greatest hurdle to forgiveness is getting past broken trust. I pray about it and grapple with it and try to move past it. For me, it takes time and God's poignant conviction as the two ingredients that deliver freedom from the wound inflicted by a friend who stabbed me in the back or foolishly passed along what had been discretely shared with them in confidence. Don't lie to me and don't gossip about me behind my back. I can get along with about any personality, but it takes everything in my power and the Lord's supernatural strength to get me past broken trust.

I found a kindred spirit in the man of King David. I discovered his staunch adherence to forthright loyalty in 1 Chronicles 12. David has been banished from the presence of Saul and is holed up in a cave at Ziklag. He has only a small army of thirty chiefs, his “Mighty Men.” Make no mistake - his small troop of warriors was fit to serve.

“They were armed with bows and were able to shoot arrows or to sling stones right-handed or left-handed; they were kinsmen of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin.” (1 Chr. 12:2)

These men had proven their faithfulness time and again. They were strong supporters of David's right to the throne and three of them accomplished tremendous feats of selfless bravery in order to protect or accommodate their king.

These men were more than mighty, they were trustworthy. Safety in friendship is essential and familiarity breeds confidence, especially when life depends upon it. So when a new group of Gadite defects and more Benjamites search out David in his desert stronghold, he has every reason to question their intention in verses 8-17. “They were brave warriors, ready for battle and able to handle the shield and spear. Their faces were the faces of lions, and they were as swift as gazelles in the mountains...

“These Gadites were army commanders; the least was a match for a hundred, and the greatest for a thousand. It was they who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing all its banks, and they put to flight everyone living in the valleys, to the east and to the west.

“Other Benjamites and some men from Judah also came to David in his stronghold. David went out to meet them and said to them, 'If you have come to me in peace, to help me, I am ready to have you untie with me. But if you have come to betray me to my enemies when my hands are free from violence, may the God of our fathers see it and judge you.'”

Stop right there. David has a mere 30 men and he's faced with commanders and fierce fighters and he hesitates to take them into his confidence. Get real! In David's desperate circumstance, how could he pass up such offers? Because taking a deceiver into his camp was more deadly than fighting with a faithful remnant.

Not until they decried fierce loyalty were they accepted. “We are yours, O David! We are with you, O son of Jesse! Success, success to you, and success to those who help you, for your God will help you!” (vs. 18b)

That's what David was waiting to hear. Loyalty to both himself and to the God he served. Trustworthy friends are not in the relationship for only what they can get out of it. They are in the friendship to insure that the other achieves the best as well. Looking out for the interest of others should be a prerequisite for true friendships. More importantly, a common trust in the Lord God insures that the relationship is built on TRUTH!

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Cor. 13:7)

As for me, I often need reminding that love also “keeps no record of wrongs.”

It takes trust to build trust. It takes love to forgive when trusts are broken. It takes God to offer a Son sacrifice who would lay down His life. And it takes God to build an army that would lay down their lives for one another. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Begin and Finish Faithfully

By Brenda Black

Human error, grammatical oversight or divine intervention? You decide.

The U.S. Constitution includes in the presidential oath a specific statement in which the newly elected Commander in Chief is supposed to swear to "faithfully execute the office of president of the United States". But Chief Justice Roberts reordered the phrase, moving the adverb “faithfully” to the end. Mr. Obama detected the faux pax and hesitated. It's one of the drawbacks of being such a polished speaker. Rote memorized speeches leave little margin for error. One tiny word can throw the speaker and leave him stammering as was the case with Mr. Obama. He obviously had rehearsed the sequence of promises hundreds of times since November. Yet, when faith was misplaced, it left two powerful men at a loss for words.

Certainly, the million people moment would cause the nerves of even the most stoic of public figures to err. But I have to wonder if a higher power than the president or a chief justice addressed the crowd on Tuesday. The God of our nation, the creator of the world might have something to say about how the next president performs his duties. Based on the number of times that faithfully was mentioned and where it was positioned in the oath of the highest office in the world, leads me to believe, the Lord expects loyalty.

He blesses those who faithfully adhere to His plan and listen to His wisdom. “So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today – to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul – then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle , and you will eat and be satisfied.” (Deuteronomy 11:13-15)

I heard one seasoned farmer say recently, “No matter how bad times may get, people still gotta eat.” If we are going to get through these tough challenges, he believes we need to “faithfully” insure that America's agriculture remains viable and profitable. Invoking God's blessings is a great way to begin since 90% of farming is in His hands.

We need his provision and we need his indwelling to faithfully imitate his pattern of love and forgiveness if we expect God to bless these United States. “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:12)

The president included in his inaugural address more than once the words “new age”. He said the world is changing and America must change with it. But according to the Holy Scriptures, some things never change, like the Lord himself who is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End and is the same yesterday and forever. Remaining faithful to Jehovah God in every shift of politics and in every age is a great way to begin, to live and to finish.

“Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers...” (Dt. 11:16-21)

The Lord demands from us what He has already offered himself – an oath of loyalty. One tiny phrase that speaks volumes of hope and warning. In the case of a U.S. constitutional promise, our freedom to believe and worship begins and finishes with faith. Let us pray that our new president faithfully executes the office of president of the United States – full of faith."