Flag Day

June 14 FLAG DAY

“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” Philippians 1:20

Some people have paid a great price for the freedom we so take for granted in the United States. Some people have paid a great price for embracing the salvation given freely by the Lord Jesus Christ. Today’s word is simply, UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO STAND FOR FREEDOM AND, IF NECESSARY, DEFEND IT UNTO DEATH, THE FORCES OF EVIL THAT WOULD DESTROY FREEDOM WILL STEAL IT FROM YOU.

To those who have paid a great price for freedom—political and spiritual—we salute you; we thank you. First, we thank our Savior for His “unspeakable gift,” II Corinthians 9:15, and we thank those brave ones who have given so much to preserve freedom.

Here are two examples of people enduring modern-day persecution:

A PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

United States Senator John S. McCain, a retired Navy captain and pilot, often refers to a fellow Vietnam War POW named Mike Christian. Here's a transcript of a speech in which he tells the story.

As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment, the NVA kept us in solitary confinement or two or three to a cell. In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a room. This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles from home.

One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian. Mike came from a small town near Selma, Alabama. He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a commission by going to Officer Training School. Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and captured in 1967.

Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country -- and our military -- provide for people who want to work and want to succeed. As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt.

Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important part of our day now, but I can assure you that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important and meaningful event.

One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically, and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it. That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, and for the benefit of all us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours. Then, they opened the door of the cell and threw him in. We cleaned him up as well as we could.

The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room. As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could. After the excitement died down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian. He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had received, making another American flag.

He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was to us to be able to pledge allegiance to our flag and our country.

So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must never forget the sacrifice and courage that thousands of Americans have made to build our nation and promote freedom around the world. You must remember our duty, our honor, and our country.

Egypt's Coptic Christians Flee to Georgia for Safety - Eurasianet

Increasingly under pressure in Egypt, the Copts, one of the world's oldest Christian communities, are starting to migrate to Georgia, a bastion of Orthodox Christianity in the South Caucasus. But the transition is not entirely a smooth one.

In Egypt, violent clashes between Copts and Muslims have been on the rise since the 2011 ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak, with many Christians reportedly preferring to leave than experience continuing harassment and discrimination. Earlier this month, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom announced that Egypt "is failing to meet international religious-freedom standards."

Copts, who classify themselves as an Orthodox Christian denomination, say that Georgia's strong Orthodox Christian heritage - Eastern Christianity took root here in the 4th century - motivated them to make the move. The country's relative proximity (Tbilisi is roughly a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Cairo) and reputation for relatively lax business and visa regulations also played a role.