Blog Archives

FAMILY MATTERS

7/31/2016

n his book titled In the Eye of the Storm: A Day in the Life of Jesus (Word Publishing, 1991, pp. 97-98), Max Lucado relates the following:

Clovis Chappell, a minister from a century back, used to tell the story of two paddleboats. They left Memphis about the same time, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, sailors from one vessel made a few remarks about the snail's pace of the other. Words were exchanged. Challenges were made. And the race began. Competition became vicious as the two boats roared through the Deep South.

One boat began falling behind. Not enough fuel. There had been plenty of coal for the trip, but not enough for a race. As the boat dropped back, an enterprising young sailor took some of the ship's cargo and tossed it into the ovens. When the sailors saw that the supplies burned as well as the coal, they fueled their boat with the material they had been assigned to transport. They ended up winning the race, but burned their cargo.

God has entrusted cargo to us, too: children, spouses, friends. Our job is to do our part in seeing that this cargo reaches its destination. Yet when the program takes priority over people, people often suffer. How much cargo do we sacrifice in order to achieve the number one slot? How many people never reach the destination because of the aggressiveness of a competitive captain?

How right Dr. Chappell was! And how right Max Lucado was to include this story in his book! We live in a society where we are encouraged, pretty much from birth, to chase the so-called “American Dream”. We work hard and we hustle and we give it our very best in order to provide well for our respective households.

But if we are not careful, in the process, we can wind up sacrificing the very loved ones for whom we purport to work so hard in the first place. Under the strain, marriages can and often do suffer, as do relationships between parents and children, and between children themselves.

For these reasons, today’s families desperately need support. In our church, we have seen this need clearly; and we have felt led to take steps to meet it. Accordingly, we have just welcomed aboard a brand new Family Ministries Pastor, whose chief objective is to help equip men and women with opportunities and resources to be the Godly husband and wives, as well as parents, which they are called to be.

Inherent in this is the assisting of families in the creation of environments where children, youth and parents all grow together in their respective relationships with God and with one another. Needless to say, we are excited about the many wonderful opportunities this new ministry venture holds.

I hope that you, the reader, are blessed to be a part of a church where a similar priority has been placed upon families. But whether your church provides such a ministry resource or not, I hope you will see the need of pursuing Biblical counsel for your own family as a whole, and for yourself and the other members of your family as individuals, as each of you seeks to fulfill the God-given roles which have been assigned to you therein.

SOURCE: Available widely online as cited in numerous secondary works. Lucado's actual book can be found here: https://books.google.com/books?id=
qaw2y7dvjs4C&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=max+lucado+clovis+chappell+two+
paddle+boats&source=bl&ots=JvuvE4xxH9&sig=AA7mR6miMJCbeBnw58OE
SAcpV5c&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjW2KPAh5_OAhUBYyYKHQyqB2kQ6
AEILjAD#v=onepage&q=max%20lucado%20clovis%20chappell%20two%20p
addle%20boats&f=false.

R-E-L-I-E-F

7/28/2016

Some time ago, a major antacid product company employed an effective marketing campaign by asking the simple question: “How do you spell relief?” Their answer was to spell out the name of their product, a seven letter word starting with R. The snappy little jingle sort of stuck in one’s head, and likely led a great many people suffering from indigestion to purchase a “roll” of their acid reducing tablets to “aid” in the relief of heartburn.

I share this because, after nearly two weeks of oppressively high temperatures, with daily heat indices making one feel as if the thermometer was in triple digits, we are finally getting some relief. In comparison with 98 or 99 degrees compounded by high humidity, a mere 88 feels like fall. And to what do we owe this respite? Or should I say, “How do we spell relief?” The answer is a four letter word starting with R. And you spell it “R-A-I-N”! Storms aplenty are unfolding this day. And they are welcome.

Together, the stifling air and the parched earth cry out for relief. But added to and more than this is the resounding cry of so many human hearts for relief from the oppressive heat. The third chapter of the New Testament Book of Acts contains the following episode:

1One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

6Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

As might be expected, this gave Peter an opportunity to share with people just how powerful God is. He Who made us can also cure what ails us. He can give us physical relief as can no other. But God can do much more than this. He can cure a far more significant type of illness than mere physical – He can cure spiritual illness.

Thus, halfway through his message (in verses 19 and 20), Peter makes this statement:

19Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

Peter wanted them to know that God could cure every ill from which they suffered. And the most significant of these, the one with the biggest consequences, was sin-sickness.

Physical heartburn is one thing. But spiritual heart sickness is quite another. The former usually only causes one minor discomfort and inconvenience; the latter always has end-results far more consequential. The first produces suffering that is temporary; the latter that is eternal.

How, then, does one spell spiritual relief? The answer is a six letter word that starts with “R”. And it is spelled “R-E-P-E-N-T”! The specific word peter used in the original Koine (or common) Greek language was “metanoēsate”, a derivative of the verb “metanoeó”, which is itself a combination of two words: “metá”, meaning "to change after being with" and “noiéō”, meaning "to think". Properly, therefore, the words together mean "to think differently after" or “to have a change of mind after" or (literally), "think differently afterwards".

Scholars tell us that it was commonly employed as a military term in the ancient world, having to do with hearing and responding to a change to stop marching in one direction and then to march in another.

Thus, the promise of God’s Word is that if one will but repent of their sins, hear and respond to the Word of God, that He will forgive his or her sins (Greek: “ex-aleiph-thēnai” - literally “blot them out of a register book”), and then bring to him or her a time of “refreshing”. This latter word, in the original language, is “ana-psyxeōs”, which is a combination of the word for “again” with the word for “to cool off with air”.

This week, along with many others, I have experienced relief from physical distress (in the form of excessive heat) by again experiencing a time of refreshing (with the return of cooler air). And believe me, it feels great.

But as a follower of Jesus Christ, I have also experienced spiritual relief. I have known the oppressive burden of a sinful life. But I have also come to know the wonderful refreshment provided by God as a result of my repentance.

How about you today? Does your heart ache? Do you suffer from the oppressive effects of spiritual sickness? Then I can bear testimony to the fact that I know how you can find relief! “R-E-P-E-N-T”! I know by experience the power of God to forgive and to restore; and I wish for all, including you, my friend, the soothing relief I have come to know!

SOURCES: http://biblehub.com/text/acts/3 and http://biblehub.com/text/acts/3-20.htm.

SOAKING IN THE SON

7/25/2016

We had a phrase where I grew up: “It’s July hot in August!” Well, August will not arrive until the first of next week; but it is certainly July hot right now! As I write this, most of America is sitting under what has been termed a “heat dome”, suffering triple digit temperatures in days completely devoid of rain.

In fact, the National Weather Service produced the following heat map, which pretty much says it all. (I'm located in the pink!)

Of course, none of this is anything new. The old folks call this time of year “dog days”.   As a child, I was told it was because the dogs would simply lie around under porches (or anywhere else they could find shade), unwilling to expend even the smallest amount of energy in order to endure the heat.

The folks at Dictionary.com have another, more official, definition (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/dog-days):

1. the sultry part of the summer, supposed to occur during the period that Sirius, the Dog Star, rises at the same time as the sun: now often reckoned from July 3 to August 11.

2. a period marked by lethargy, inactivity, or indolence.

Note the secondary definition. It shows that most of us humans are little different than canines when it comes to dealing with oppressive heat!

I say "most of us" because this is not true for everyone. Some people actually like the heat!

One such person is Dr. Tony Evans, a gifted communicator of the gospel who resides in Dallas, Texas, where he serves as Senior Pastor to the over 9,500 member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. As you might imagine, living deep in the heart of Texas, he knows a little about dealing with heat, as he makes plain in the following illustration that he once shared…

A lot of people talk about how hot it is in Texas. The heat doesn’t really bother me, though, because everything is air-conditioned in Texas. Your car is air-conditioned. Your house is air-conditioned. Every building you go in is air-conditioned. So while you do sometimes have to be under the sun, and while you’re in it, it’s hot, most people here just don’t hang out in the sun.

Actually, I’m a hot-weather person. The hotter it is, the nicer it is for me. Where some people like air conditioners blasting in their cars, I prefer to roll down the windows. I’d rather have hot air than cold air-conditioning. It’s just my particular temperament, and I know something is wrong with me, but that’s just the way it is. I don’t mind hanging out in the sun.

That said, most people I know don’t want to hang out in the sun. They just want to pass through the sun. What a lot of people want to do with the s-u-n they want to do with the S-o-n. They just want to pass through. When you hang out in the sun, you’re going to sweat. Why?   Because you can’t be under that much power and it not affect you. If you hang out under the S-o-n, you’re also going to sweat. You’re going to sweat His commandments. You’re going to sweat pleasing Him. You’re going to sweat His Word because you can’t hang in His presence without Him rubbing off on you.

The way you know He’s rubbing off on you is that you begin to walk as He walks. You begin to pick up some of His habits. You begin to pick up some of His direction. You begin to pick up some of His influence.

Thank you, Dr. Evans, for this valuable insight. Between now and August 11, at the very least, I will likely be spending as little time as necessary in the s-u-n. But whenever I do, I will now reflect on how much time I actually spend in the S-o-n! Hopefully, I will be reminded to spend as much time as possible soaking up the influence of the latter!

Hopefully, you will as well.

SOURCE: Evans, Tony. Tony Evans' Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More Than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009.

An online edition is available here: https://books.google.com/books?id=O-d2JAlk9uMC&pg=PT8&lpg=PT8&dq=tony+evans+on+hanging+out+in+the+son&
source=bl&ots=zV3aHGGikW&sig=k7aAlY4rqXhDyz_XDMDA6UDx2Wo&hl=en&
sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSjJSX4I_OAhVD7SYKHXJECPAQ6AEIKjAC#v=onepage&
q=tony%20evans%20on%20hanging%20out%20in%20the%20son&f=false.

Dr. Evans’ own web site is:   http://tonyevans.org/. His materials are available there.

HOME AGAIN

7/22/2016

When my children were growing up, they had a book of nursery rhymes that they greatly enjoyed having read to them. One of those rhymes, "To Market, To Market", was read aloud so often that it was eventually burned into my memory bank. The lyrics are as follows:

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig.
Home again, home again, jiggety jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog.
Home again, home again, jiggety jog.
To market, to market, to buy a plum bun.
Home again, home again, market is done.

I found myself repeating this little ditty as I turned into our driveway after having been away on vacation. News flash! For better or for worse, the Jacksons are now “home again”.

To be sure, it was good to go home again. As many of you know, I am from another state than the one where we now live. What is more, most of my family now lives in yet another, or third, state. My wife and I thus spent time over the last several days, first going home to where I was raised, and then home to where my family now resides.

Going home can be a valuable endeavor. To begin with, it is good simply to get away. Doing so helps one to replenish in a multitude of ways. But going home has an additional benefit. It is always helpful to revisit old haunts because a few days amidst one’s old stomping grounds often renews an appreciation for his or her heritage. It is profitable to be reminded who one is and what all went into making him or her so.

But while the past is a good place for us to make an occasional visit, we should never choose to live there. For this reason, I have discovered that it is also good to come home again. After having lived in East Tennessee for over fifteen years now, my wife and I find that this place has truly become our home.

What is more, after having lived among the good people of East Tennessee for over a decade and a half, we find that they are as much our family as are our relatives who reside out of state.

This is true in a literal sense, as all three or our children found and married their spouses here. But it is also true in a spiritual sense, in that our church family has become our extended family. We have brothers and sisters in Christ aplenty here. And we also have surrogate grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and the like.

All of this reminds me that the day will come when all of my family - both literal and spiritual, whether close by or distant - will all make it home one day to yet another place. For the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is our Elder Brother (Hebrews 2:10-13); and that He has gone ahead of us and helped to prepare a place for us in our Heavenly Father’s house (John 14:1-6). All those who know Jesus are welcome into His family and His home.

These days, I find myself thinking more and more about that great homecoming day. As the hymn writer of old put it, "What a day, glorious day, that will be!"

Acclaimed singer B. J. Thomas once won a Grammy Award for his hit song titled "Home Where I Belong". I thought it fitting to conclude my thoughts this day with the lyrics:

They say that heavens pretty
And living here is too;
But if they said that I would
Have to choose between the two,

I'd go home, going home,
Where I belong.

And sometimes when I'm dreaming,
It comes as no surprise;
That if you look and see
The homesick feeling in my eyes,

I'm going home, going home,
Where I belong.

While I'm here I'll serve him gladly,
And sing him all my songs.
I'm here, but not for long.

And when I'm feeling lonely,
And when I'm feeling blue,
It's such a joy to know that
I am only passing through.

I'm headed home, going home,
Where I belong.

And one day I'll be sleeping
When death knocks on my door;
And I'll awake and find
That I'm not homesick anymore.

I'll be home, going home,
Where I belong!

I say again, what a day, glorious day, that will be!

RHYME SOURCE: To the best of my memory, the book was titled The Great Big Book of Mother Goose, or something to that effect. The actual lyrics can be found online here: http://www.mothergooseclub.com/videos/to-market-to-market-nursery-rhyme-mgcp/.
SCRIPTURE CITATIONS SOURCE: http://biblehub.com/niv/john/14.htm and http://biblehub.com/niv/hebrews/2.htm.
SOURCE FOR LYRICS TO THOMAS' "HOME WHERE I BELONG" LYRICS: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bjthomas/homewhereibelong.html.

MOVIN’ ON UP!

7/12/2016

Our family is beaming with pride this week for my nephew. He has finally come of age. Over the last two months, his life has changed in so many ways as he graduated college, got a job, and moved out of his parent's home. As if this were not enough, he is also getting married this coming Saturday. We are all so happy for him - especially for his impending marriage.

The reason? Like most every one of my blood relatives (and that includes me), he is clearly marrying above his head! His beautiful bride Morgan is a wonderfully mature young lady who exhibits a marvelous combination of charm, class and responsibility. Brady, my nephew, is indeed blessed to have her as a spouse.

To make certain he is aware of this, and to keep him humble, I thought I would post the following well known anecdote this day…

There's a charming story that Thomas Wheeler, CEO of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, tells on himself. He and his wife were driving along an interstate highway when he noticed that their car was low on gas. Wheeler got off the highway at the next exit and soon found a rundown gas station with just one gas pump. He asked the lone attendant to fill the tank and check the oil, then went for a little walk around the station to stretch his legs.

As he was returning to the car, he noticed that the attendant and his wife were engaged in an animated conversation. The conversation stopped as he paid the attendant. But as he was getting back into the car, he saw the attendant wave and heard him say, "It was great talking to you." As they drove out of the station, Wheeler asked his wife if she knew the man. She readily admitted she did. They had gone to high school together and had dated steadily for about a year.

"Boy, were you lucky that I came along," bragged Wheeler. "If you had married him, you'd be the wife of a gas station attendant instead of the wife of a chief executive officer."

"My dear," replied his wife, "if I had married him, he'd be the chief executive officer and you'd be the gas station attendant."

On a serious note, I remind my nephew of the words of Solomon, spoken by inspiration of the Lord so long ago (Proverbs 18:22, New Living Translation): “The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the LORD.”

Congratulations, Brady and Morgan! We love you!

STORY SOURCE: http://www.smalleymarriage.com/resources/stories.php?catI
D=35&resID=309. Story originally appeared in Bits and Pieces, January 9, 1992, pp. 3-4. It is most often cited in: Canfield, Jack and Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Couple’s Soul (Deerfield Beach, Fl.: Health communications, 1999), pp. 167-168.

STAYING SHARP

7/8/2016

Years ago, as a young pastor, I had to come to grips with a fundamental reality: during the month of July, attendance numbers at church will be down. The reason? Vacation season! Many people will simply miss church due to taking time off to relax and refresh. Admittedly, this can be a challenging time for churches, which depend upon volunteers to carry out most every component of their overall ministry.

And yet, through the years, I have come to understand and to appreciate why people take vacations. We all have the need, periodically, to get away. To rest, to relax, to refresh. Jesus Himself did so. He often went off alone to replenish both His body and His soul. As did others in the Bible, such as Elijah the Prophet.

To illustrate this today, I thought I would post an insightful story having to do with the importance of taking a little time off. It’s a tale of two men…

Two men were lumberjacks, but they were not just any lumberjacks… at one point in time, these two men were seen as the best two lumberjacks on earth. They were both of equal height and equal strength. Standing at 6 foot 8 inches, and weighing in at 280 pounds of pure muscle, they towered over most everyone they came across. You can picture them right? Wearing plaid, with large jaw bones, even larger beards, and workman’s boots that added 2 more inches to their already touring statures?

Well, one day, the two lumberjacks decided that sharing the title of both being the best lumberjacks on earth wasn’t enough. They wanted to determine who was the world’s greatest lumberjack. The whole world thought it would be the lumberjack who never took a second to rest. And yet, the whole world was wrong.

So they setup a head-to-head, toe-to-toe competition. The rules were simple. Each man gets one axe, and they each have 24 hours to chop job down as much lumber as possible. At noon, on a frosty November morning, they went at it.

One of the lumberjacks, in an incredible feat of stamina, strength, and perseverance, chopped without taking even a second’s break. He never wiped the sweat off his brow and never paused for a drink of water. Amazingly, he was so strong, that he never lost velocity on a swing and he was so skilled, that he never lost precision on a chop. He cut as fast, as hard, and as precisely as humanly possible for the entire 24-hour period. Amazingly, his strength was never compromised and never dwindled.

The second lumberjack, of equal strength and stamina, chopped at the exact same velocity, precision, and force, but instead of never taking a break, he would pause for 20 minutes every 2 hours. This means that within the 24 hour period, he had 2 hours when he didn’t even swing his axe.

Now, knowing that both men were of equal strength, had the exact same axe, that both never lost strength while chopping, and that both would strike the lumber at the same frequency, it seems obvious who should have won the challenge. The whole world thought it would be the lumberjack who never took even a second to rest. And yet, the whole world was wrong. Somehow, the lumberjack who took 20 minutes every two hours to not swing his axe was the winner.

How could this be possible? When the lumberjack who had taken 2 hours of breaks was approached and asked how he could have possibly won, he responded with a modest smile and said, “Sometimes you have to pause to sharpen your axe.”

If you a currently chopping with a dull axe, then you can likely see the significance of this story. More to the point, perhaps you can see the wisdom in taking some time off to sharpen your own axe. Wise old King Solomon did. In Ecclesiastes 10:10 (NLT), he stated: “Using a dull ax requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That's the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed.”

I would encourage you to follow his advice – both for your own sake and also for the sake of others. And if you hold a position of leadership or service in the house of God, then for the sake of His kingdom as well.

Trust me, everyone involved will benefit if you and I will only take some time off and then come back swinging with a noticeably sharper edge.

Happy vacation!

STORY SOURCE: Available widely on the internet in varying forms. See, for instance: http://unreasonable.is/what-the-worlds-greatest-lumberjack-can-teach-you-about-balance/.
SCRIPTURE SOURCE: http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/10-10.htm.

OUT OF THE BOX

7/5/2016

Like many of you, my family and I love getting together for Independence Day. Fun was had by all the Jacksons as we did our fair share of celebrating this past weekend. We gathered from far and wide as an extended family. And even though we had to spend part of our time dodging a few periodic downpours, it might be said that we out on the proverbial dog.

Indeed, we managed to get plenty of dogs grilled, as well as hamburgers. And along with that, a pan full of ribs got smoked to perfection! (Years ago, a fast food company propounded the question, "Where's the beef?" More recently, another fast food chain has boldly declared "We have the meat!" The modern day objections of a well intentioned if misguided minority of folks who eat only vegetables notwithstanding, we Jacksons remain "hardcore carnivores". For this reason, cousins Wendy and Arby are welcome at our place anytime!)

This mass of protein was, of course, accompanied by all the “fixins”. Potato salad, loaded "tator" skins, baked beans, corn on the cob, coleslaw, tomato slices, cucumber slices, cantaloupe slices… You name it, we pretty much had it. To say nothing of the vast array of deserts we spread around: among other things, cookies, cakes, and plenty of ice cream. And all this was topped off with gallons and gallons of sweet iced tea with lemon. Man, oh man! We would have made the Food Channel proud.

Along the way, we tasted something even better: fellowship. We reminisced, we wisecracked, and we laughed as we experienced the joy of being together. In fact, it is arguable that the companionship we enjoyed was more gratifying than the actual food. Most certainly, our souls received nurture as they rejoiced and bonded closer together as a family.

And then, as if all this were not enough, we topped the day off with our own little fireworks extravaganza. We "oohed" and "aahed" with the best of them as we took it all in. By the end of our time together, I was well satisfied with the day’s activities.

Or at least as much as one can be on a mere fifty dollars’ worth of fireworks! For some reason, whenever we were purchasing the fireworks, fifty dollars’ worth seemed like an awful lot. But when we got around to shooting them off, the exact opposite was true. In retrospect, the climax to the day was, shall we say, short and to the point.

As I have thought about this, I have been reminded about what my dad used to say every year on December 26th: “Nothing is ever as over as Christmas!” I suppose that the same true is true for most every holiday. Certainly it applies to Independence Day.

In no time at all, darkness descended upon us, signifying the end of this otherwise bright and beautiful July day. We took the instinctive queue, and the smoke had barely cleared before we were all scurrying around, gathering up chairs and dishes and leftovers and piling things into our vehicles for the trip back to our respective homes, and dare I say it, to our workaday routines.

Even worse, my suspicion is that, along with our leftover red, white, and blue napkins, paper plates, cups, and streamers, we will all be tempted to pack away much of our patriotism as well. And for too many of us, it will remain right there, neatly tucked away in some box in the back of the closet until we call it forth again for some future similarly festive occasion.

By contrast, we would all do well to heed the admonition of Thomas Jefferson, who famously said: “Patriotism is not a short and frenzied burst of emotion, but the long and steady dedication of a lifetime.” How right he was. And how right we would all be to make patriotism a way of life rather than the obligatory activity of a mere one or two days on the annual calendar.

Indeed, if this were the case, how much better a place might America herself be. For nothing better extols the rich history, culture, and ideals of a nation than the hearts and lives of her people!

So, my friends, as Independence Day comes to an end, feel free to box up the decorations. But not the spirit! Keep the latter out of the box and on display all year round, savoring the taste of it again and again as you revel in the blessings that come with being a part of the greatest nation in history!

SEEKING GREATNESS

7/1/2016

In 1831, a French sociologist and political theorist named Alexis de Tocqueville crossed the ocean to the United States in order to study its penitentiary system. When his visit was over, however, he had amassed an abundance of far broader observations about America.

Four years later in 1835, these were codified and published in a book titled Democracy in America, which was destined to become one of the most influential books of the nineteenth century.

According to the History Channel web site:

“With its trenchant observations on equality and individualism, Tocqueville’s work remains a valuable explanation of America to Europeans and of Americans to themselves… As ‘Democracy in America’ revealed … Tocqueville was impressed by much of what he saw in American life, admiring the stability of its economy and wondering at the popularity of its churches...”

Little wonder then that, nearly one hundred and twenty years later, in a speech given in Boston, Massachusetts on November 3, 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower famously quoted a short passage he ascribed via another author to this very book.

As this nation that I love prepares to celebrate her glorious independence, I thought it fitting to post that particular quotation here for your consideration.

"I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests - and it was not there. I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning - and it was not there. I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution - and it was not there.

Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!"

SOURCES:

De Tocqueville Facts: http://www.history.com/topics/alexis-de-tocqueville.

Eisenhower Quote: http://www.bartleby.com/73/829.html.