A few days ago I was reading an article in our local newspaper written by one of my wife’s coworkers who attended last Friday’s presidential inauguration.  In the article he made a comment that jumped out at me and made me think.  He said that as he listened to the national anthem being sung at the close of the ceremony, he was particularly moved by the phrase “our flag was still there.”  Even with all “the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air” of the contention of last year’s campaigns, the controversy surrounding the incoming administration, and the protests of that day, the flag was still there.  In other words, the transfer of power was still what it should have been, and freedom was still ringing.  Love it.  But what really blessed me was the Biblical principle that came to mind.  In Psalm 60:4, King David wrote these words: “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.”  We as God’s children also have a banner, a flag, if you will.  It is the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and its power to save souls, forgive sins, change lives, and assure us of eternity in Heaven.  This truth is certainly experiencing its own rockets and bursting bombs in today’s society, but it waves on.  Skeptics deny it and liberals decry it, but it waves on.  Even some of God’s children suppress it through fear, apathy, laziness, or carnality, but it’s still there.  And it waves on.  Charles Spurgeon, commenting on this passage, said it this way: “To publish the gospel is a sacred duty, to be ashamed of it a deadly sin…so in the proclamation of the gospel we need feel no hesitancy, for as surely as God is true, He will give success to His own word.  For the truth’s sake, and because the true God is on our side, let us in these modern days of warfare emulate the warriors of Israel, and unfurl our banners to the breeze with confident joy.  Dark signs of present or coming ill must not dishearten us; if the Lord had meant to destroy us He would not have given us the gospel; the very fact that He has revealed himself in Christ Jesus involves the certainty of victory.”  So if you’re discouraged in the Lord’s work today, take heart.  Take a look, and you’ll see.  Our flag is still there!