By Steve Horn
ALEXANDRIA, La. – In 1928 one of our American submarines, S4, sank off the eastern coast on a dive after routine maintenance work. Divers made contact through Morse code. After initial exchange of how many on board, what is your condition etc., the divers received the message from those on board, “Is there any hope?” In the midst of the circumstances, what a penetrating question! Many are still asking that question today about America. Is there any hope?
I am confident that there is hope, and I am confident that we find our hope in God.
- Our hope is not in Washington but in Heaven.
- Our hope is not in the Constitution but at Calvary.
- Our hope is not in more laws or less laws or better laws, but in a strict observance of the law of laws—God’s Holy Word.
- Our hope is not in the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, or any forthcoming party; our hope is in repentance, revival, and a spiritual awakening.
Until we as believers understand these things, I’m afraid “There is no hope for America!”
But there is always hope.
I have heard before that our national anthem is among the most difficult songs to sing. Maybe that explains why we usually only sing one verse of The Star-Spangled Banner. Did you know that it has a second verse? Have you ever noticed that the first verse actually ends with a question?
What’s the question? “Oh, say, does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” We sing that line like it is a declaration, but it is a question. Noticing this line as a question, the second verse is the answer to the question.
Hear again the second verse:
Oh, thus be it ever when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and war’s desolation
Blessed with victory and peace may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us as a nation
Then conquer we must when our cause is just
And this be our motto, “In God Is Our Trust!”
When we do that then the Star-Spangled Banner
In triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Did you see what Francis Scott Key was saying? The only hope for America is for us to honor and acknowledge the one God over our nation!
Steve Horn is the Louisiana Baptist executive director.
