Ensign: Remember Button Gwinnett?
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 10 July 2015
Probably not.
It's a safe bet though that most of us have seen Button Gwinnett's name, even though less than a hundred of his signatures are known to exist. Even if you live in Georgia (the U.S. state, not the former Soviet republic) where he came from, he's likely not as well known as some of his contemporaries. Let's see ... Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, they're all likely better known signers of the United States' Declaration of Independence. All fifty-six of the signers have pretty interesting stories to go with them regarding their lives before and after they signed that piece of parchment, but I don't have time to go into them here.
Nor is this meant to be a listing of which signers were "more Christian" than the others or "more Deist" (those are believers that God created the world, but then left us on our own); I have no idea, and I can let One better qualified than me discern that. The Declaration has existed more than two centuries -- here in the USA we just celebrated its two hundred thirty-ninth anniversary -- and nobody's thought, that I'm aware, of taking out some signers' names because they're not as well known as others. In some cases, it was even a matter of being in the right place at the right time; that is, their predecessors in office voted for independence from England, but they were out of office when it came time to actually sign the Declaration.
Many of us called to serve Christ our King can feel the same way. For every Paul there's a Barnabas (Acts 9:27), for every Peter there's an Andrew (think about it, who met Jesus first? see John 1:40), for every Ruth there's a Naomi (pretty much the whole book of Ruth), for every Moses there's an Aaron (see Exodus) even for every ... wait a second, there's only ONE Jesus, but even for Him there was John, the Baptist who prepared the way, whom God placed in just the right place at the right time who may not be as well-known, but the point is God Our Father Who art in heaven knows them. He knows you. He knows me.
And being in the Book of Record God has left for us, the Bible, they have a place that can never be taken away. Nearly two thousand years from when the final words were penned (Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, most often gets dated AD 96) there are enough of us still active and still preaching and still believing that if by some circumstance every copy of the Bible disappeared we could reconstruct it word for word. Not out of some slavish obedience to the law, but out of the love we have for He Who made it, Who made us! And you know, love can be and often is tough. But it makes us tougher -- check out the back of the book, we win!
By the way, what DID happen to Button Gwinnett? After he and two other representatives signed the Declaration, he headed back home to Georgia, became the second governor of that state, and lost out to a military rival for command of the state militia. (This was at a time when soldiers elected their superior officers, something Washington would later put a kibosh to. Not 100% successful, though.) He and the militia commander got in a fight over a failed mission, they fought a duel, and he died from having been shot. Gwinnett was forty-two years old.
I'm forty-three, so that's pretty sobering for me. But I'll give my sacred honor too.
David
P. S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages you too. If I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!
Thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in praise and prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even the ones we don't know we have! Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.
Thank You, Lord, for all of us in leadership and service here and abroad, as well as for opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray we all seek and have a blessed week. Amen.
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 10 July 2015
Probably not.
It's a safe bet though that most of us have seen Button Gwinnett's name, even though less than a hundred of his signatures are known to exist. Even if you live in Georgia (the U.S. state, not the former Soviet republic) where he came from, he's likely not as well known as some of his contemporaries. Let's see ... Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, they're all likely better known signers of the United States' Declaration of Independence. All fifty-six of the signers have pretty interesting stories to go with them regarding their lives before and after they signed that piece of parchment, but I don't have time to go into them here.
Nor is this meant to be a listing of which signers were "more Christian" than the others or "more Deist" (those are believers that God created the world, but then left us on our own); I have no idea, and I can let One better qualified than me discern that. The Declaration has existed more than two centuries -- here in the USA we just celebrated its two hundred thirty-ninth anniversary -- and nobody's thought, that I'm aware, of taking out some signers' names because they're not as well known as others. In some cases, it was even a matter of being in the right place at the right time; that is, their predecessors in office voted for independence from England, but they were out of office when it came time to actually sign the Declaration.
Many of us called to serve Christ our King can feel the same way. For every Paul there's a Barnabas (Acts 9:27), for every Peter there's an Andrew (think about it, who met Jesus first? see John 1:40), for every Ruth there's a Naomi (pretty much the whole book of Ruth), for every Moses there's an Aaron (see Exodus) even for every ... wait a second, there's only ONE Jesus, but even for Him there was John, the Baptist who prepared the way, whom God placed in just the right place at the right time who may not be as well-known, but the point is God Our Father Who art in heaven knows them. He knows you. He knows me.
And being in the Book of Record God has left for us, the Bible, they have a place that can never be taken away. Nearly two thousand years from when the final words were penned (Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, most often gets dated AD 96) there are enough of us still active and still preaching and still believing that if by some circumstance every copy of the Bible disappeared we could reconstruct it word for word. Not out of some slavish obedience to the law, but out of the love we have for He Who made it, Who made us! And you know, love can be and often is tough. But it makes us tougher -- check out the back of the book, we win!
By the way, what DID happen to Button Gwinnett? After he and two other representatives signed the Declaration, he headed back home to Georgia, became the second governor of that state, and lost out to a military rival for command of the state militia. (This was at a time when soldiers elected their superior officers, something Washington would later put a kibosh to. Not 100% successful, though.) He and the militia commander got in a fight over a failed mission, they fought a duel, and he died from having been shot. Gwinnett was forty-two years old.
I'm forty-three, so that's pretty sobering for me. But I'll give my sacred honor too.
David
P. S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages you too. If I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!
Thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in praise and prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even the ones we don't know we have! Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.
Thank You, Lord, for all of us in leadership and service here and abroad, as well as for opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray we all seek and have a blessed week. Amen.
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