What Does Your Favorite Hymn Say About You

Someone once told me "Every one has a story and that story is worth telling."  I do believe that.  

I also believe that those stories not only need to be told it is important that they be heard. Each of us has a unique life experience the majority of which will go with us to the grave. Our stories are just too detailed and intricate to be told between the covers of a book. They literally take a lifetime.

I am now in my seventies and living the last chapters of my life story. Most will never make it into print . . . after all, I have to live them first and that will get in the way of recording them for posterity.

Often it is the things that we pass over quickly because they are so "ordinary." People my age and those who were of my father and mother's generation often spoke of our favorite Bible verse, or our favorite place to visit. But no one ever asked, "Why is that your favorite hymn.

For example, my favorite hymn is Blessed Assurance. I have never asked myself why nor has anyone who has ever sang or arranged it for me asked why. I am confident there is a reason that of the thousands of hymns I choose (or perhaps it chose me) Blessed Assurance as my personal favorite. Perhaps I will say more about this down the road.  My point is simply that the choice of that hymn says something about me as a person.

I often reflect back on my Mom and Dad and the journey that brought them together and resulted my being here. It is a wonderful story.  Today while doing a little of that I remembered that my mother's favorite hymn was Face to Face and my father's was Follow Me.  I am sure those were not simply chosen from a list but in some way spoke to their individual hearts and lives.

Today I have spent some time thinking about my father and that song Follow Me. I wonder what there was about the song that it became a special . You have to understand that the song is all about struggle and acceptance. Listen to the song (See link above).  Check out the lyrics:

I traveled on a lonely road and no one seemed to care.
The burden on my weary back had bowed me to despair;
I oft complained to Jesus how folks were treating me,
And then I heard Him say so tenderly,
"My feet were also weary, upon the Calvary road;
The cross became so heavy, I fell beneath the load,
Be faithful weary pilgrim the morning I can see,
Just lift your cross and follow close to me."

"I work so hard for Jesus" I often boast and say
"I've sacrificed a lot of things to walk the narrow way,
I gave up fame and fortune, I'm worth a lot to Thee"
And then I hear Him gently say to me,
"I left the throne of glory and counted it but loss,
My hands were nailed in anger upon a cruel cross,
But now we'll make the journey with your hand safe in mine,
So lift your cross and follow close to me.

Oh Jesus if I die upon a foreign field someday,
'Twould be no more than love demands, no less could I repay,
"No greater love hath mortal man than for a friend to die"
These are the words He gently spoke to me,
"If just a cup of water I place within your hand
Then just a cup of water is all that I demand.
But if by death to living they can Thy glory see,
I'll take my cross and follow close to Thee.

As I reflect on his life as I knew it to be it seems this song was a perfect fit. He was born on a farm in Central Texas on December 21, 1911.  He spent his childhood watching the Great War unfold and finally come to an end only to be thrown into the Great Depression as he entered adulthood. At a young age he was introduced to alcohol by his youngest uncle (They were about the same age) and that began a struggle that would consume much of his life. That was followed by his own War experience in Europe during WWII.  

As the oldest son he had to accept family responsibilities that were beyond his years. He became the "fix it" guy for the family and the community. He was the last of the children to leave the farm and carried the weight of responsibility to not only fix the wagon but also the broken life.

He was required to chaperon his sisters on dates and keep an eye on his brothers.  He was a man from  whose lips I never heard a hard ugly word. He didn't swear and he didn't argue or fight. He was good almost to a fault.

He repaired his brothers and sisters cars and rarely charged them even the price of the parts. He did this despite of the fact that he knew what they said about him behind his back.  He was always there when they needed him.

Maybe one day I will try to tell his story as I know it but for now suffice it to say his favorite hymn pretty well sums up how he felt about his life. If you didn't really know him, live with him watch him closely every day as did I then just read the words of his favorite him and you'll get a pretty good idea of how he felt about himself.

What is your favorite hymn and what does it say about you?

What Really Happened to Glenn Miller?

I have been tootling around the Airborne Troop Carrier Facebook Group and for some reason I was reminded of a conversation I had many years ago with a fellow named Michael N. Ingrisano Jr.  Mike was a WWII veteran. He served with the 316th. Troop Carrier Group and the 37th. Squadron. My father was also a Troop Carrier guy having served in the 315th. Troop Carrier Group and the 34th Squadron. Mike and my father both participated in just about all the same operations. 

Mike, who was a NCO and radio operator was also a staunch defender of the Troop Carrier Pilots who dropped the Paratroopers on D-Day against the accusations, primarily from the 101st Airborne that they were either too high or too low and too fast when dropped. I used to correspond with Mike about those allegations and the part Stephen Ambrose played in perpetuating them. Ambrose promised a dozen times to correct the record but died without making those corrections.

Michael Ingrisano, Jr 

Mike was also helping me understand some of the symbols used on Dad’s sortie record. It was during those conversations that he voiced his skepticism about how Glenn Miller, the famous band leader, died during the war. I related to him that my Dad seemed equally skeptical and that he flew the band many times between London and Paris.

My Dad was a Crew Chief and Flight engineer in his official combat role but he was also an NCO pilot.  Dad flew the aircraft frequently in and around the Spanhoe area of England. Mostly as one would drive a customers car to “road test” to make sure it was ready for operations. He had more flight time than most of the pilots in his squadron. But I digress.

Major Glenn Miller was just 40 years old and near the height of his fame as leader of the Army Air Force band, when he disappeared on Dec. 15, 1944, though the United States military didn't announce the news until Dec. 24.At any rate recent revelations and documents (2019) around the death of Glenn Miller have brought the subject back to the forefront of my mind. 

Over the years several stories arose about Miller's death.  The four most prominent theories over the years were:

• Miller never boarded the plane, but was assassinated after Gen. Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower sent him on a secret mission one or two days earlier to negotiate a surrender from Nazi Germany. 
• He made it to Paris, where he died of a heart attack in a bordello.
• The small plane he was on was destroyed by bombs jettisoned from a phalanx of Allied bombers passing overhead on their way back from an aborted mission over Germany.
• The small plane went down due to icing.

Glenn Miller

I remember meeting with a group of WWII Troop Carrier pilots in Branson, Missouri at one of the last reunions of the 315th Troop Carrier Group. I learned the story of Gussie Perkins flying his C-47 through Tower Bridge.  His picture was in English history books for years. That was quiet a story. In fact, that was largely what these reunions were about . . . namely, keeping these men’s stories alive. I can only wish I had recorded them.  I suppose I was just too focused getting their memories of my Dad.

It wasn't long before a group I was sitting at that reunion turned their attention to the band leader Glenn Miller and in their words, "His supposed death in the English Channel." Not a man there believed the "official" story of how Miller died. They did think the assassination theory had merit but most felt he had probably died of something like cancer. One think was certain . . . . they didn't buy the "official" story. It seemed to me this might have been an ongoing conversation from one reunion to the next.

All my father ever said about the official report of Miller's death was, "Son don't believe everything in an "official" Army report. Keep in mind that with the Army it is all about a report not necessarily the truth. If the truth and needs of the Army coincide that was good but sometimes the truth was sacrificed to high command's needs. The need of the Army always trumps the truth. It is the report that matters" I think you get what he was implying. Whatever else he thought about the issue of “official” report on Miller’s death, well, it went with him to his grave. I think this has been illustrated by the story told in the movie, "The Last Full Measure."

I  knew that 34 TC Squadron of the 315 Group often flew the Miller Band and their instruments back and forth between England and Paris. My father, who was a member of that Squadron, had become friends with Broderick Crawford, the band's announcer for a short while during the war. Crawford later ended up in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.  But for a while he was in London.   He and Dad frequently did Pub Crawls together. My mother confirmed this friendship. She always complained that the one thing you could always count on with Broderick around was that by the end of the night everyone would be, in  her words, "Blind Drunk." It also explained why we HAD to watch the TV program Highway Patrol in which Crawford stared.

At any rate, because I knew of the connection I was curious as to what the men of the 315th TC Group thought happened to Miller. Oh, at first, they gave me the handful of the popular stories.  Finally it came to this:  They thought, looking back, that he might have had a heart attack or cancer. They said he rarely flew with the band but often would see them off.  They seemed to agree that he didn’t look well.  In fact, he seemed to them to have lost a lot of weight and just generally didn't look well.  The consensus was he got sick and died in London or perhaps Paris.

Type of Plane in which Miller supposedly died

Additionally, they claimed that the plane he supposedly was in when it crashed into the English Channel was sitting at an airfield in France where they frequently were (maybe Amiens France) more than a week after his "supposed" crash.

But the thing that really got my attention was when one of the pilots said, (This is all paraphrase) "All I can tell you is what I know for a fact. I know for a fact that John Morgan didn't die in any plane crash because I saw him in New York after the war. John Morgan was the pilot of Miller’s small plane and was supposedly killed in the same crash).

I recall someone, a guest like me, asking him how he knew it was John Morgan. He replied, "I met him  early in the war and we got on pretty good." Others confirmed that relationship. Sort of like my Dad and Broderick Crawford. . . . they were kind of war buddies or maybe drinking buddies or both. He said, "We talked for a few minutes and agreed to meet at some eating place for lunch the next day. He never showed and I never saw him again."

He went on to say when I called his name as I walked up to him he nearly "jumped out of his skin." "Looking back I think that's probably because he had changed his name and was surprised to hear someone call him by his birth name." 

These guys believed back then that Miller died of some sort of health issue and that the crash story was used to cover up that fact. At any rate that's the story those men told then and I have no reason to doubt them. It is interesting that Miller's own brother has recently acknowledge that Miller confided in him that his health was failing in 1944. Miller smoked heavily and newly found Glenn Miller diaries seem to confirm that.

Just a side note: I remember Mike Ingrisano and I talking about this. He related that while researching some archives he found in a mislabeled box a document tracer number for a classified document that related to the Miller death. He said when he went to try and get the document the clerk told him it was there but too late in the day to retrieve it but if he came back in the late morning it should be ready. When he returned he was told by a different clerk that the document was indeed there but that it could not be released as it was still classified. Mike, was as would be expected, a bit skeptical. I'm betting that document number is still in his papers.

Mike, an NCO and not a pilot himself, was a ferocious defender of the actions of WWII Troop Carrier Pilots and crews during the Normandy Invasion in 1944. I believe he about drove Stephen Ambrose nuts. Mike died in 2012 less than 1 month short of his 91st birthday.

Do I know the truth about Glenn Miller's death. The straight up answer is no! Do I believe the "official" Army account of Glenn  Miller's death? The answer again is a resounding NO!  

Here is what I think. I think somewhere in the files of the WWII military files sets the true story.  Here is what I think that story is:

Glenn Miller who was a major motivational tool of the U.S. Army. In fact his role was so important that Hitler had put a bounty on him.  Because we know that Miller was a heavy smoker I am certain he had cancer of some sort. I believe the men of the 34th TC SQ when they noticed over time the change in his health evidenced by loss of weight. His own brother confided as much. I have no reason to doubt the stories of the 315 TC GP veterans about seeing John Morgan in New York after the war.

Miller either died of natural causes and for reasons that we do not know because that information is still classified and the Army brass felt the need to manufacture a story that he somehow died in a war accident and that his body was never recovered from the English Channel.  Another possibility is that because of the progression of some illness Miller committed suicide. Now that would certainly because for a cover story.

I know, it makes no sense. What could possibly be gained by such a twisted tail of intrigue? I certainly don't know.  Perhaps the OSS was involved but why?   They were involved in all sorts of screwy operations that today seem a little odd even for that time.  Does it even matter?  Well, only if you want the story straight. The Army, and the government in general, is always hiding something when they concoct these kinds of stories. This one will, like the death of General Patton, never go away because the "official" stories just do not make sense in the context of their times.

Then again, maybe that fuel line freezing theory is correct. After all, that is what is in the final official government papers made public thus far.

What do you think happened?

Mary Did You Know That Your Baby Boy . . . .

Today's blog posting is long but the subject is of eternal importance. Read it through and then share our own thoughts on the subject.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5

"But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by His grace, was pleased."  Galatians 1:15

"Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be."  Luke 1:15

"Listen to me, O islands, and pay attention, O distant peoples: The LORD called me from the womb; from the body of my mother He named me."  Isaiah 49:1

What God says in His Word certainly has to inform the discussion around whether to allow a child to develop and be born and have a chance at life or to destroy that opportunity.

Since God clearly has intention for the unborn of which we are not privy then we do not have the right to make that choice without running the risk of going contrary to God's purposes.

However, going contrary to God's expressed purposes is not something with which we as a nation are unfamiliar. We seem to do it on a wide range of moral issues.

I have a rule of thumb when it comes to moral issues. It is this: What God prohibits He does not regulate and what God regulates he has not prohibited." A corollary to that rule is: "What God loves I should love and what God hates I should hate."

Proverbs state that there are seven things that the Lord hates and among them is "hands that shed innocent blood." One should only need to search the phrase "innocent blood” in Scripture to get a pretty good idea of how God feels about shedding of innocent blood and how he deals with those who do.

Unfortunately for us God is not interested in our opinion on these matters. The shedding of innocent blood is expressly prohibited and in no way regulated therefore it is spoken of as an abomination unto the Lord.

Ultimately, in these matters, for Christians it is a matter of will we obey man or will we obey God . . . will we adopt societies norms or will the standards God has established in scripture determine our choices.

Scripture is not complicated and does not need us to go through all sorts of intellectual gymnastics to understand its meaning. That is required only when we don't like its clear self-evident meaning. Scripture was written in vernacular Greek of the day so the man on the street could understand its meaning and the Scripture says, God hates the shedding of innocent blood and there are none among us more innocent that the unborn.

I will add here that another aspect of this that we often neglect is the fact that we do not fully understand the mind of God.  We do not know what His purposes for any of the unborn are nor do we know the means by which He brings his “called ones” into the world. I have a friend whose mother was a prostitute. She could have aborted him. Instead she took the high road. Gave birth and then put him up for adoption. He was adopted by Godly people became a Christian evangelist who was God’s tool to lead many into the kingdom of God. I myself was a candidate for abortion because of fear on the part of medical people for my mom’s life. Thankfully for me my mother believed in the sanctity of life and here I am. Preaching the gospel for 50 years. 

I wonder how many scientist, ministers, doctors etc. were never known because their pre-birth lives were literally “cut” short by the abortionist tools. I am so glad that Mary the single mother of Jesus didn’t opt for an abortion or our salvation would never have been provided.  My point is . . . . the inconvenient truth of an unwanted pregnancy may just be the source of a mighty blessing from God. If not that child then perhaps that child will become the parent of a great leader in some arena of life.

In response my view someone who claims the who abortion issue is not about the ”fetus” but the mother’s rights suggested that I look at Exodus 21:22-24 to get an idea of the relative importance God places on the pre-born. It reads, “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” (NIV)

So, I looked. In fact I looked pretty hard at Exodus 21:22 (NIV) and without a full blown exegesis of the chapter I must confess that I fail to find anything there that speaks to the issue of either a woman's right to choose or the unnatural ending of a pregnancy. What I did find is a ruling that should two men be fighting and the pregnant woman is struck  of one tries to interfere and by either of the combatants so that as a result of that blow she miscarriages then her husband can demand damages or in the case of a death he can demand the death.

The first question one is confronted with is when it speaks of serious injury and death is it speaking of the woman or the child. The short answer for me is that the primary focus is on the woman but given the concept of the “tree and its fruit” the unborn child would be considered the fruit of the tree. 

The significance is not that there is different values for the woman and her unborn child but that both held value for the husband. The injury or death of either as a result of such a blow would be considered something for which the husband could exact compensation in any amount he chose. The exception would be in the event of death and then the rule of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” would come into play and the offender could be executed.

I find absolutely nothing here that is applicable to a woman intentionally aborting an unborn child. That is simply not discussed in Scripture and with good reason.  Namely, such an act was incompressible. Evidence of the incomprehensibility of such an action is the fact that Joseph initially sought send Mary away and not to deliberately abort her child which in fact was not his.

What I do find is a clear indication that violation of the law carries with it price. Some of which are fixed and others that are negotiated settlements. I guess you'd say some are high crimes and some are misdemeanors; some are criminal and some are civil.  

Paul takes this up a notch from the actual physical acts and motives with which humans deal to the spiritual dimension of such actions.  Clearly when says that “the wages of sin is death” he ups the significance of these kinds of activities. This passage in Exodus is absolutely devastating for a sorceress and idolaters.  So much for Exodus 21:22.

As far as rights, be they human, men’s or women’s right to choose and decide the verdict is absolute and clear. Everyone has the right to choose or decide. In one sense our life is the result of the sum total of our choices. 

However, we all understand that having the right to “choose” does not justify the choice. I wouldn’t argue for a minute the right to choose. You see the right to choose comes with the responsibility for the consequences of that choice. It is the Biblical consequence that those who advocate for abortion dislike. Trust me, in nearly 50 years of ministry I have had many a woman sit across from me weeping bitter tears for child they aborted when just a young women.  It is like killing another person . . . you never forget and you always wonder what the result would have been if you had been older and wiser when you acted. 

That is why the pro-abortion folks want to refer to the forming child as an embryo, a fetus, a glob of bloody cells. The newspeak of our day wants to convert the terms describing the progression of development as separate from the child that is developing. That lunacy is why only the most hardened abortionist like the racist Margaret Sanger and Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, endorse abortion in the last weeks of gestation and beyond. No one among them seems to know when that process produces a person. Perhaps Genesis 1:24 is informative here: “And God said, 'Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds”

I'm sure if you think about it a while you can come up with a million examples of this principle. We all have the right to choose. Everyone always has. It is the consequences of our choices that have grated us. Some consequences may be good and others not so good; sometimes the consequences can be reverse and sometimes they are final. Abortion, like suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. It is like driving nails using a sledge hammer. 

Unfortunately for too many having the abortion does not eliminate the long term consequence unless somehow we sear our conscious  

However, when you are using your right to choose (decide) and that choice is going to effect another then the rights of that human must be weighted into the choice you make. As someone once said, "Your rights end at my nose."

MY Body, MY Choice Argument:

Now a word about whether or not the “Right to Choose” argument is even valid. It seems to me that the “My Body, My choice” argument was thrown out the window many years ago.

We decided as a society that the “My Body, My Choice” argument was not absolute.  For example:

1. If I want to commit suicide the government steps in and says that is not a right you have. Suicide is a crime against yourself and while not always prohibited it is heavily regulated in cases of terminal illnesses.

2. If you want to put harmful drugs in your body the government says you do not have the right to do so. The taking of drugs, both helpful and harmful, are heavily regulated and often failure to follow the regulation lands you in jail.

3. Let say you have decided to sell some of your body parts. Oops, Not a “My body, my choice” issue. The government steps in and says not allowed. You can donate but you cannot monetize. 

4. Even in the case of abortion under today’s standards the right is not absolute. It is highly regulated.

Let’s be honest for once about abortion. Abortion is an industry in which the single largest beneficiary of which is Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is the brain child of Margaret Sanger and avowed  a business established by a blatant racist. It, abortion has nothing to do with “My body, my choice.” It is more like an inconvenient truth. 

Here are the facts:

1. Only about 1 percent or less abortions are for women who are the victims of rape

2. Less than one half of one percent of abortions are for incest

3. Only 13% of abortions has to do with birth defects, or other health issues of infant or mother. These are virtually performed in hospitals not abortion clinics.

4. About 85% of all abortions are for convenience of some kind. Things like education, finances, embarrassment etc.

The Real Kicker: While it might be your choice it is not even your body that you are choosing to kill it is a new human life at some stage of its development all the way through actual birth.   “And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so.” Genesis 1:24

If you simply favor killing an unborn or new born child just be honest and state it plainly. Stop all the intellectual gyrations and word games. Stop twisting Scripture to establish abortion. Just admit that for some reason you believe birth control is inconvenient and/or self-discipline is so lacking and that abortion is a handy way to make up for stupid carelessness. 

Finally, what if someone has had an abortion. What does that do to their standing before God. It does the same thing that all sin does it separates them from God. But they need to know that while the “wages of sin is death” and the “soul that sins will certainly die.” s

Fortunately for us God is in the sin forgiving business and that upon repentance and faith He will “forgive their sin;” . . . "cleanse them from all unrighteousness;” and . . . . . “remember it against them no more.”  The woman in this case should then go forward with their life as though they had never sinned.  Remember the words of the Lord to Peter when the Spirit said to him, “do not call what I have cleansed unclean.”    How wonderful is the grace of God.

Wonderful Grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin; 
How shall my tongue describe it, here shall its praise begin? 
Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free; 
O the Wonderful Grace of Jesus reaches me!

Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching to all the lost, 
By it I have been pardoned, Saved to the uttermost; 
Chains have been torn asunder, Giving me liberty; 
For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching the most defiled, 
By its transforming power, Making him God’s dear child, 
Purchasing peace and heaven For all eternity— 
And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.
Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus, 

Deeper than the mighty rolling sea; 
Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain, 
All-sufficient grace for even me! 
Broader than the scope of my transgressions, 
Greater far than all my sin and shame; 
Oh, magnify the precious Name of Jesus, 
Praise His Name!